Every day is odd when you're a part-fish. There is no exception.
For example, you need to keep it a secret. That is rather hard when you have to consciously avoid touching anything liquid you see, or else the secret you've been working your whole life to protect is gone forever.
The first time Lance met Hunk, he was looking after his little sister, playing in a water park, while Hunk was looking after a little kid he was babysitting who also enjoyed playing at waterparks. Acacia, by this point, knew better than to hug Lance just as they stopped playing at a waterpark, but the little child Hunk had been babysitting, Lucille, did not. As most hyper children do when they see someone their guardian is very clearly getting along with, Lucy ran up to Lance and hugged the teen. So as to not cut off Acacia's fun, Lance dried off his legs with the white fluffy towel he'd brought for the little girl before the ten-second 'timer' ran out. Thankfully, he succeeded, and evaporated whatever he couldn't dry with the towel.
The first time he met Pidge and Keith, someone had started a food fight. A bowl of chili was thrown his way (odd because that day's lunch was sloppy joes), but he nonchalantly held a tray to block the red soup-like sludge, and Lance started paying more attention to the feud, especially when they threw drinks. People had exceptionally bad aim towards him after the chili fiasco. In return for the near transformation, he went to the people who started the food fight, Keith and Pidge themselves, and switched their shampoo with eggs and their conditioner with peanut butter, and the same with their dorm mates and anyone else they could have borrowed shampoo and conditioner from.
The first time he met Pidge personally, he suggested going out to town and bonding to begin a healthy relationship as a team. Pidge had refused, and any other bonding efforts were also rebuffed, until finally Hunk dragged the pale brown-haired boy (who Lance already figured out was a girl but continued to call her by male pronouns to respect her privacy and discretion) out by his feet to eat dinner with them at the local civilian diner. There, their waitress accidentally spilled his cup of water, causing him to retreat to the bathroom to dry off. It took ten minutes to replicate the stains without causing another transformation, but it apparently took just about as long to cry off clothes, so the two didn't worry about his prolonged absence. Plus, his food got there by then, and they started eating.
The first time he met Keith personally, the brunet started ranting about blue lions, and dragged them all out to see his findings from tangible evidence concerning the Fraunhofer line Hunk came up with that lined up with the rock surface. When he brushed his hand against the wall, the symbols glowed a bright blue, and Lance was immediately on alert, especially when the floor cracked and gave out from under the five voyagers, bringing them into an underground cave, where sat Blue in the same position she had been for thousands of years.
Lance had gone down a sort of waterfall to get to Blue, and unlike the others, stayed on his feet the whole time, despite gravity wanting his body to fall down and give in to the pressure. Still, it was difficult staying on his feet when the ground gave out, so he made a complicated flip (it was definitely easier in the water) and landed with a small splash in the water, quickly leaving the area in preparation for Hunk's humongous splash.
His attention then turned towards Blue.
A large, mechanical blue lion surrounded by a glowing blue barrier patterned with hexagons. Lance took a step closer as the others got up, ignoring his feat of gymnastics. "Is this it?" Pidge's breathless voice caught in the air. "Is this the Voltron?"
"It must be." Shiro's shocked voice rang clearer then Pidge's, but he was still flabbergasted from Blue's appearance.
The five approached Blue. Lance moved from side to side to make sure of something, while discreetly keeping the water on his pants away from his skin. "I feel like she's staring at me." Lance's voice called out, moving drastically from side to side. "Does anyone else fel that?"
"No." Keith shook his head and the sentiment was repeated across the other three.
"Well, that's weird. The eyes are totally following me." Lance stopped moving from side to side, getting closer and closer to Blue with each step, and the unwanted pressure slipped through his bones, making him cold.
Keith's hands pressed against the barrier. Ripples went across the hexagons, leaving the shapes less clear than before. "How does it open?" the hothead wondered, sliding his hands across the energy shield.
Well, he was the one who the eyes were following. He was more of an expert on this than Keith, at least, no matter how much time he was spending in the desert researching Blue. "Maybe you just gotta knock." Lance spoke coolly, rapping his right hand twice against the barrier. The shield pulsed with energy, sending more violent ripples across the barrier than Keith's touches. As Lance pulled back, a tower of energy followed him. The barrier glowed a blinding blue as the robot sitting in the circle glowed a bright and vibrant blue again, for the first time on eons.
Lance stepped back in shock as a gust of stale wind fell from around the mechanical lion. The penetration of his mental barriers came as somewhat of a shock to him, and for a split second, he was reminded of the moon's first connections to him. It was warm and cold at the same time, and felt like a tidal wave of water. Such a strange sensation, and so eerily similar to the moon.
Blue's eyes lit up yellow, and she lowered her mouth to take up the five.
"Did anyone else feel that?" Lance's voice sounded weak even to his own ears.
"VOLTRON IS A ROBOT!" Hunk cried. "A HUGE, GIANT, AWESOME ROBOT WITH AN EVEN COOLER SWORD MADE OUT OF FIRE!"
"And this thing's only one part of it!" Pidge continued as Lance walked up to Blue to enter in. "I wonder where the other parts are?"
The rest of the conversation fell blank to Lance. Soft purring entered his ears, filtering any other sound in his mind. Lance closed his eyes, and he suddenly saw himself, looking out at the rock wall. The four others were staring at him, and Lance had his eyes closed.
Memories rifled through his mind.
Five lions flying in formation, the warmth of their bond. Stripes of colour filled the sky. Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, Purple, the ribbons of colour dragging behind them to form an odd mismatched rainbow. The five tips converged to form a giant robot, just like the other four previously spoke of.
The moon over him in the sky, connected to the moon pool. The moon making the moon pool into a hot tub, robbing him of normalcy forever.
Moving from Spain to Newfoundland to be closer to the moon. He knew how difficult it was to leave the heat behind, and it took a lot of adjustment for the weather, and a lot of planning, and getting VISAs for everyone in order to legally move to Canada. Changes in healthcare system, changes in educational system, changes in social groups, changes in jobs, and more and more and more.
Meeting Tsuyoshi. Even Tsuyoshi had trouble pronouncing his name, so everyone called him either Yoshi or Hunk. Hunk later became his permanent nickname.
Applying to Galaxy Garrison together, and getting in together - on scholarships, no less (well, Lance had applied in Spanish)! Starting from zero, and quickly working his way to the top of his class.
Graduating to Fighter. Zero again, but this time in the advanced class with Hunk.
His first day as a Fighter pilot, given no time to catch up, failing miserably. Iverson yelled at him for that.
Two days later, here we are.
Lance exhaled shakily. "Guys, does anyone else feel a connection to Azul?"
"Azul?" Tsuyoshi asked. "Blue?"
Lance nodded and gulped. "Blue. She's blue, so her name is Blue. Just like Yellow is yellow, Green is green, Red is red, and Black is black."
"Lance, what are you talking about?" came Pidge's condescending voice.
Three big steps brought Lance closer to Blue. Blue's maw opened, revealing a ramp to inside her head. The bond suddenly lost all of the frigidity, leaving only calm waters, ever flowing and changing. The world almost held a blue tinge, like he was seeing everything through tinted glasses. "It's not dangerous. Azul is a ship, one of the Voltron Lions. She'll take you all to yours."
Hesitantly, the four others followed him, beginning an adventure that would go down in history as one of its most odd and poorly documented stories of all time.
Lance, from that point forwards, knew he had to keep his father's words close to heart, because living in a house where people knew he was a fish was bad enough, especially when Acacia or Alazne brought friends over for a sleepover, not to mention the time spent away from home (in hotels, in the Garrison bunkers, and especially the very public shower area at the Garrison (that was a pain to keep hidden. He eventually just went during lunchtime when everyone was actually eating, or skipped showers until he was so stinky that everyone stayed at least ten feet away from him)).
Now, it was a permanent sleepover. There was only one upside: they all had separate shower areas.
Sometimes, to help firm the bond, Lance slept in Blue. He dreams of swimming in the warm depths of the bond alongside Blue, both laughing and teasing one another. Lance would introduce her to the dolphins and the whales, and she would take him to the Antarctic and teach him about penguins and polar bears. Lance would wake up feeling well-rested, and the bond was much more solid.
Still, bonding with the rest of the team was a different matter. Lots of their training exercises included the invasion of the mind, and he purposefully kept his mind away from unwanted territory. He locked away all his memories of the moon, his tail, or his powers into a chest, guarded with so many mental barriers no one could get past.
"Lance, this isn't going to work if you don't take the time to reveal everything." Coran scolded.
So many flashes went by in such a small amount of time that it made everyone else dizzy. Lance stuffed those thoughts away in a box again when Hunk puked, feeling motion sick. "Sorry." Lance apologized. "I-I got a lot on my mind. I'd rather not be burden."
Not untrue. He didn't want to burden the team, nor Voltron, nor make Blue look for a new pilot. Still, the preoccupation was mostly towards Blue. Despite all the time (or lack thereof) spent together, Lance still didn't feel at all safe around anyone in this room or anywhere beyond the Castleship. Only with his family, and the moon. To be sure those rogue thoughts never escaped again, he locked up the box inside three other boxes, then sealed the last one with chains and locks. Anything else was fair game.
Looking out at the ocean, the feel of the dry sand between his toes, running around underneath the blazing sun with his siblings, every single one of them barefooted. Play at the park, reading his favorite novel, taking tests, sharing thoughts in pure Spanish, joy at learning English. He poked around in everyone else's heads, too. He already had a deep bond with Hunk, so he steered clear of Yellow's pilot and delved into Keith's, who he knew he needed to build a non-antagonistic relationship the most.
Keith's thoughts were mostly happy. He'd probably locked away his negative thoughts, too. A lot of his memories involved he and Shiro as children, like a camping trip that Keith had really enjoyed, playing and running along the shore of a beach, laughing and being kids. He remembered the orphanage, starving, freez-
Keith tossed his headband on the floor, severing the connection between him and Lance. Keith's furious eyes locked on Lance's dead ones. Lance lifted his hands to his head and slowly tore away the headband when he felt Hunk start to look around for the keys.
"Lance, stop rooting around in uncomfortable memories." Keith looked paler then before, like those memories haunted him.
"Sure thing." Lance's voice was squeaky. He knew the feeling of such an unwanted penetration. He was glad the headband wasn't on right then, because not even Hunk knew about SDOGFCTS, also known as DOG FACTS.
Lance heard a door opening and tensed, seeing the lab again. Needles poking at his eyes, water over his skin, dry drowning, and oh, god, make it stop! Gills on his chest, hand in his internal organs, screaming, pain bloodbloodbloodbloodbloodblOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOOD!
The doctor with the gas mask covering his face, drill at his skull, buzzing, buzzing, what was that buzzing? at his ear, shrills and repetitive beeping, why was there beeping, why was thERE BEEPING?! thumping, drumming heart, stress, a needle in his neck oh god, why was there a needle in his neck what had he done wrong now? Darkness, stresssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss, so much that his hair went grey. Fell out, grew back blue and white and unmanageable... Fins for ears, sensitive and picking up any sound anywhere within two miles headacheheadacheheadacheadacHEHEADACHE, Oh GOD, MAKE THE NOISE STOP!
All he could see was the damned scene, playing over and over again. Nothing prevented anything, this was a dream, he was still with DOG FACTS, it was horrible and painful, MAKE IT STOP!
Lance started to hyperventilate. Was this all really an illusion? He could feel the walls start to close in. Darkness, limited oxygen, trappedtrappedtrappedtrAPPEDTRAPPEDTRAPPED!
Purple sparks danced in front of his eyes and darkness filled his vision. What seemed like a few minutes passed, and his eyes snapped open again. He threw off the covers, sweat sleeking his skin.
He crawled to the bathroom and lifted himself to his feet by the edge of the sink, and the sight of himself made his breath catch in his throat. White hair, tinged blue at the tips. Scales covering his arms. Why? He wasn't covered in liquid... Sweat wasn't applicable, right? Or did any liquid, including bodily fluid apply now?
Kari L'Sara walked down the long halls of Central Command, a home reserved for high-ranking officials. The soft purple glow of the halls was ethereal. The programmed guards occasionally came across the Master Alchemist. Kari took inane pleasure in knowing she was superior to the machines. Only twice as the patrolled the halls did she come across an escaped prisoner, and killed them on the spot. Three times, she came across other living beings: Galra. Once, it was a pair of children playing tag, and Kari advised them not to run in the halls. They obeyed with small nods, and continued playing tag, this time walking to the designated gym of their living section. The second, it was the parents of those same children who were running after the boys to bring them home for dinner. She reminded them of the rules, too.
The third time, she came across a group of adults playing 'poker', whatever that was, for Nunvill (Haggar had poached the recipe from the Alteans). Hikari passed the room with a sneer on her face.
The shipwide comm came on. "Kari S'Lara, report to the throne room."
Hikari stepped into the wall, transporting to the throne room where Zarkon waited for her. Kari bowed to the overlord. "What may I do for you, my lord?"
"I have a job for you. Prepare the Hunters. We will create a device capable of tracking Energy Alchemists." Zarkon ordered.
"Yes, Lord Zarkon." Kari answered dutifully.
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-Sapphy Ink