Disclaimer: I don't own VLD!

A/N: Because cryptids in space are fun? Lol, I don't know, I just wanted to write Lance trying to raise a Loch Ness Monster critter, and Pidge helping. The Plance here is pretty light, but yeah, still tagging it. 3 This is set some time in the future whenever the lion switch is over.

Can We Keep It?

Chapter 1

Crap.

Lance leaned in close, his nose almost brushing against the egg's shimmering surface. There was definitely a crack in the hard cyan and violet swirled shell that hadn't been there before.

"No fair, I was super careful," he said to himself as he sat down on the bed and pulled the egg into his lap. It was about a foot and a half long and almost as wide, so it was pretty hefty. It had also been completely perfect when he found it on the surface of a swamp planet earlier that morning.

Coran had sent him to Not-Dagobah so he could train with some of Blue's water-specific features, which translated to splashing through massive mud puddles for four hours. Honestly, the planet wasn't all swamp. A lot of the surface was actually covered in ginormous freshwater lakes, but all the land that edged those lakes was marshy and soggy. There were also some mountains that he could see in the distance but there were full of holes and looked like they would crumble if you tried to hike up them. Not exactly a vacation spot… But the one of the lakes came in handy for washing the mud off his precious blue girl.

Before heading back to the Castle, Lance hadn't been able to resist having Blue let him out on the surface of the planet. He was collecting a list of places he had been in the galaxy, so it only made sense to investigate his temporary training grounds. Plus, he was supposed to be there for five hours before the Castle was going to open another wormhole so he could leave, so yeah, he was stuck on the planet anyways.

Lance had wandered around for a while, trekking across the squishy island that Blue had dropped him on. He had been worried about Blue sinking, so he didn't go far from her, keeping close to make sure she didn't start getting sucked into the ground. He wasn't about to have an "Artax and the Swamp of Sadness" moment with his lion.

He had been squelching along the edge of the island when he stumbled into a nest the size of a decent above-ground pool. It was edged with nature debris and filled with damp reeds. There were ruined, half-destroyed eggs and bits of yolk that lent to the idea that some kind of egg-munching creature had gotten to the nest. He was about to head back to Blue when he noticed something bright shining behind a huge hand-shaped yellow leaf.

It wound up being one giant, whole egg that had somehow escaped being broken. Lance couldn't remember the last time he had eaten a real egg. Sure, at the Garrison they had fed them "eggs," but that powdery rehydrated gushy mess was totally fake. This egg was a breakfast blessing, and he knew just the person to give it to.

So that's how he had wound up stashing a huge alien egg in Blue and then toting it off to his room to hide it under his bed before going to lunch. After that, Shiro had wanted them to do team training in on the sparring deck, so it was already evening by the time Lance made it back to his room.

Gently, Lance traced his thumb along the crack, not wanting to break it further. He had been planning to present it to Hunk in the morning so it could be turned into scrambled perfection for the entire crew, but that crack meant they might have to have breakfast for dinner.

"I was going to put a bow on you and everything," Lance told the egg, disappointed that his gift was going to be less than flashy. But he knew that if he left it under his bed it would definitely go bad and that would be a waste of egg. What if it was bad already? Man, he should've just given it to Hunk the moment he got back. Hunk would've put it in a specially made egg container that would've kept it safe.

Sighing, Lance set the egg down on his mattress and tilted it back and forth, trying to judge the crack. If he gave it to Hunk now and it was actually spoiled, that would majorly suck since it would get the big guy's hopes up only to bring them crashing down. Maybe the best thing to do would be to trash it? But then again, maybe it was still good?

Bending down, Lance sniffed at the egg, seeing if he could catch a whiff of sulfur smell. A soft tapping sound made him pause, his eyes narrowing at the egg. Nah. Couldn't be. Straightening back up, he looked around the room, expecting the mice to come rolling out of the vent or someone to knock on the door harder. The tapping sound stared again, but it was fainter…at least until he sat back down and lifted the egg up to his face.

"You're kidding me."

Hesitantly, Lance tapped on the top of the egg. A quiet moment passed, then the tapping was echoed.

From the inside of the egg.

"Whoa, whoa, no, nope!" In a flash, Lance put the egg back on the mattress and jumped up, plastering himself against the opposite wall. He pointed an accusing finger at the egg. "Go back to being breakfast!"

He stayed against the wall and watched with wide blue eyes as the egg subtly rocked back and forth. Oh man, he was going to reamed out for bringing an unknown alien lifeform on board the ship. It was especially bad because he had no idea what was in that egg. It could be a carnivorous bird or a space snake or a T-Rex for all he knew. What had Coran told him about the animals from that planet? Wait, uh, he couldn't remember because he had literally been asleep during that part of the briefing. Whoops.

"Can we talk about this?" Lance said, still staying against the wall just in case that T-Rex option became a reality. He really needed to go tell someone about the alien he had brought on board, but what if he left then it hatched and escaped into the ship? What if it was a xenomorph kind of alien?

In response, the crack along the shell grew wider and a dark moss green foot popped through the shell. Lance's mouth formed into an "O" as the foot stretched, showing off lilac-colored webbing between each of its toes. Fingers? Toes…? He should've paid more attention in Biology.

Lance looked at the door as if someone was going to show up and discover his scrambled egg disaster or, alternately, rescue him from the alien. He was torn between watching it hatch and yelling for help. Of course, wasn't it more likely that it was harmless? And if it was harmless, couldn't he just sneak it back to Not-Dagobah using some sort of training-related excuse and save himself from getting in trouble?

Deciding to take his chances, he crept toward the egg, staring.

The paw retreated back into the shell, and Lance leaned down, peering into the hole it had made. He could make out some splotchy skin and the paw from earlier. "Are you giving up?"

Whatever was in the shell shifted, and the egg started to roll off the mattress. Yelping, Lance grabbed it and set it on the floor where there was no height-related danger.

The crack split wide, and the creature tumbled halfway out, scattering glimmering pieces of shell across the floor. Hesitantly, Lance got down on the floor and took a closer look at what was certainly not going to be breakfast.

Gooey and long-necked, it had a wedge-shaped head with six little nubs on top. It had its eyes closed, and it was panting. It stretched and slid the rest of the way out of the egg until the shell fell completely away, showing off its six legs, each ending with a webbed foot. Its skin looked sort of like frog skin, and it was mottled with dark moss green, bright yellow, and magenta. A tail was curled around its backside, ending in a fan-looking thingy.

As Lance gawked, it lifted its head and yawned before blinking slowly. It peered up at him with round, sleepy green eyes, its mouth popping open to reveal a gummy mouth. A tired little peeping noise squeaked out of it. "You're…you're kind of cute. Just don't eat me, okay?"

The creature flopped to the side, its head dropping onto Lance's hand before he could pull it away. For a moment, Lance was thinking it might bite him, but it just yawned again and snuggled into his wrist, which sealed the blue paladin's fate.

"Awww…"