Meta platonic x reader, my dudes. Wrote this for my friend's birthday and because I wanted a platonic X reader and could not find one. Should update once a week! gender neutral reader. Enjoy?
"Hey, you guys, what's that?" Lance's smooth, orotund voice asked over the lions comms.
The four paladins and three standbys looked out into the void of space through their lions eyes. It's been a few days since the Shiro and Lotor blow out and they've been stuck in their lions, flying from planet to planet each day to get some rest every night and do recon. At the moment, they were on patrol looking for any discrepancies. Lance was the first to spot it, between all the rubble of the dust-ridden planet. The planet had debris in orbit surrounding it, and the old rock looked so worn down that it could rival the planet Daibazaal, which was fully destroyed only a few days earlier.
The paladins struggled to see it at first, but they did and Pidge, the smallest and greenest of the group, gasped.
"It's a ship," Pidge noticed. Their voice left the paladins ears ringing. The green paladin had a habit of screaming into the comms, as if no one else could be able to hear them perfectly well otherwise.
"It's main frame is offline. Probably why we didn't get any emergency signal from it." Hunk, the yellow paladin, assessed from his hold.
"Do you think there's anyone inside?" asked Allura, the princess of a supposedly "long gone" race of Alteans and the destroyed planet of Altea. That is, if thousands of Alteans hadn't been found hidden in a forbidden section of the galaxy.
"Well, there wasn't any wrecked ship when we passed by here a few days ago," Krolia said from behind her son, Keith, the black paladin of Voltron. The jet black-haired kid assessed the shipwreck. He had a bad feeling. Or, rather, for some reason, he felt very unsure about approaching it.
"We should check it out!" Coran said from behind Allura in his naturally loud voice. He stroked his ginger mustache as he looked at the readings. "A high magnetic field was coming from the planet. It probably caused a disturbance in that there spaceship!"
"I'll check it out!" Lance announced, excitement in his voice. The seventeen year old Cuban boy was already out of his seat and heading toward the mouth of his lion, quickly turning and squeezing past Kaltenecker, the cow he, for some reason, kept all this time(probably for milkshakes).
"Lance, hold on!" Pidge called, but was, annoyingly, ignored.
Keith let out a exasperated sigh. "I'll go too. Hunk, come with. Everyone else stay here in case something happens."
"On my way." Hunk said as he got up and headed toward the mouth of his lion.
Krolia let Keith by and the young man hesitated only for a second to look at the white haired man on the ground by the entrance. He was sleeping, but his face was scrunched up, eyebrows upturned.
Shiro was having another nightmare.
Keith kept walking forward, passing the other black paladin, the last of the six.
The three paladins opened up the mouth of their lions and floated/hopped over to the crash site. The ship had a large hole where the engine was suppose to be, probably from where it was hit. One by one, Keith, Lance, and Hunk jumped inside.
The hallway they crawled into was dark and small and completely empty aside for the dust particles and small pieces of debris floating through the air. Either no one had been here for a long time, or the people that used to live in here needed to clean more. Lance used his bayard to shine a blue light around the narrow corridor. There was one door at the end where they all assumed was the cockpit. They headed there first.
"Is this place giving anyone else the creeps?" Hunk asked as he trotted along behind Keith and Lance. It was eerily silent. 'I guess there's nothing to really hear in space. Loud breathing probably wouldn't be any better, so there's that.'
Keith reached the door at the end of the hall and nodded at the others in warning. They nodded back, weapons at the ready, and Keith busted the door open.
It was, indeed, the cockpit, small and only fit for about two people. The debris floating through space could be seen clearly through the front screen, and right under it, right smack in the middle, laying back in a chair and barely breathing, if at all, was a human.
Keith rushed to them as the others struggled to fit in. Boxes and their contents, as well as wires, splayed the floor, blocking most of the accessible room. The person was passed out. Keith couldn't tell if they were a boy or a girl based on appearance, but that wasn't the most pressing issue at the moment. He grabbed their wrist and checked for a pulse.
...Weak. It's there, but severely slow.
"Are they ok?" Hunk asked as he finally reached Keith, Lance beside him.
"For now, but not for much longer.." Keith reported, trying to figure out their face. "We can't do anything in here-"
The person gasped awake, immediately breathing hard, eyes searching around the place. Keith was pushed back as the person awoke.
The person…was you.
All of us? All of you.
"Hey, Hey! Are you ok? Calm down!" Hunk put a hand on your shoulder. You recognized him as soon as you saw him. You could see him. You were in the story.
Are in the story, one of you corrected. Or maybe more than one? All of you? All of us?
Oh wait, are you still hyperventilating?
You calm down, at least, physically. Mentally, though, you're a wreck. Sort of. Some of you. Holy crap/fuck! holy crap/fuck! It's Hunk! Hunk from Voltron, your big buff baby! Or..or Hunk might not be one of your favorite characters. Some of you are thinking how is that even possible, what's wrong with you? And some of you are thinking he didn't get enough character development, he's kinda there, I don't care that much about him.
"Are you ok?" Hunk asked, thick brown eyebrows furrowed up in concern under his helmet.
"What's your name?" Keith asked from beside him. Ooooohhh it's emo boy! It's Texan emo boy!
"And are you single?" Lance asked, appearing from behind Hunk's right, his flirty smirk on and a hand under his chin.
"Lance!" Keith chastised.
Ohmygahohmygahohmygahhhhhh
You try to speak but all that comes out are squeaks. You try again, nothing. Fuck/chicken nuggets, you can't speak!
"Are you mute?" Keith asked, leaning in closer, hands on his hips.
Apparently. You couldn't say, so you put a hand on your throat and shake your head. Gosh, at least one of us is mute in real life, so it has to follow us here? Curious as to what you look like, seeing as you, at the moment, were more than one person(like a fusion! One of you thought), you looked down at your body to see nothing but a white glowing silhouette.
What..the...cheese and rice/hell?
"We need to get you out of here, can you walk?" Keith drew back your attention, not giving you enough time to process and then possibly promptly panic about your new look. They were acting normal, so obviously they weren't seeing what you were seeing.
Just now getting the question, or at least, all of you having gotten the question, you try to stand up. You succeed. Then you start walking. Then immediately trip, your knees giving out, legs asleep and prickling. Keith and Hunk are quick to help you up, Lance in front of you, arms held out and ready to catch your fall.
"Is anyone else here?" Lance asks.
Other than the hundreds of people in my head? Shouldn't be. You shake your head and blink.
.
And then you're on hard rock ground, surrounded by not just all the paladins of Voltron, but by Krolia and Coran.
Another what the fuck/ cheese and rice? What is the author doing? But also I don't see anything wrong with what just happened. Wow, I'm gonna be really indecisive aren't I? We, One of you correct. We are gonna be really indecisive.
"You're a human, right? Do you know how to write in English?" Keith is standing right in front of you, talking to you, as if what just happened didn't just happen. Maybe time only changed for you? Did you just time travel? Is that your power? A good many of you wouldn't have chosen that as your power in a universe like this, but this is cool...you guess?
He's handing you a tablet of paper and a pen. Beside him is a very tired and worn out looking Shiro with white hair. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Full white hair is so...different...on Shiro. He notices you looking and smiles softly, but it's so tired a smile that you feel awkward staring for long and have to look away. On Keith's other side is Pidge-omgmyfaveitspidgeyesssss- with their/her arms crossed, and beside her/them is Lance. To your direct right is Allura and Coran. Coran is leaning in and looking at you with intense interest, until you look at him directly and he straightens up and looks away, whistling like you didn't just see him ogling. Hunk is to your left, looking down at you with his bottom lip over his top and eyebrows arched up, waiting for a response. Then you finally notice the cow standing right beside him.
Kaltenecker! The cow moos, as if also impatient. For some reason, you're right smack in the middle of all the lions, on some grey planet that kinda looks like the place Lotor and Zarkon fought.
"Maybe she doesn't know English?" Lance said to Pidge, eyes squinted at you as he said it. Pidge elbowed him.
She? You thought. So I look like a girl? But instead of thinking on it any longer- how you got here, why you can't talk, whether you look like how all of you really look like- you grab the paper and pen and stare at the blank white paper.
I know English, Lance, You write.
"Oooh!" Hunk laughs at Lance's frozen expression.
"Would you tell us your name?" Allura walked up from beside you and knelt down, giving you a soft and welcoming expression through beautiful blue and purple eyes. She was wearing her paladin armor and her hair was pulled up in a bun. The white of her hair contrasted beautifully with the darkness of her skin.
You look down at the paper to write, then realize your problem.
What's our name?
Do I give them one of our many names? But I can't remember them! Oh shit/shiz, oh shit/shiz!
"Can you remember?" Allura asked, worry in her soft British-sounding voice.
You look at her and nod, then look back down at the paper. It would probably be a bad idea to use our real name, anyway, right? However this story goes. A part of me wouldn't use my real name anyway...right?
Come on, us! We got this! Just act normal. Or whatever counts for normal, here.
Ugh! Normal! Can't believe I just used that word to describe what I want to be.
Come on, self! Focus! You need to come up with a name! And a personality! And...and a past..maybe. Maybe I can pretend to be amnesiac. I mean, I kinda am already, in a way? I'm some kind of fusion of other readers of this fanfic. We don't all know each other.
This shouldn't be too hard. Just need to come up with a name.
A name...a name…
Oh! You mentally snap your fingers, then start to write down a word, a couple of words. When you finish, you show it to everyone.
"Raider? Your name is Raider?" Lance asked as everyone crowded in to get a good look. Seems like everyone was giving you space up until now for some reason.
"Or Reed. Well, nice to meet you, Reed." Hunk smiles from the left, Allura and Coran occupying your right.
You smile and nod back.
Reader, Raider? Get it? Read, Reed? Get it?
"And, if you don't mind me asking, what pronouns do you use?" Pidge asked, light brown eyes wide and almost ginger eyebrows arched in interest.
You and all the other readers took your time to think and come up with a decision. I mean, it only made sense, since you were legitimately a bunch of people in one body at the moment.
They/them, you wrote. It's like coming out all over again, you thought. ...if I ever did that?
.
Keith beelined for the other side of the hall, mildly irritated that he had to carry out such a task. The newbie needs to be woken up from their sleep, after all the traveling yesterday to the closest allying planet, bii boh bees or something, the human was given their own room and urged to get some rest. Space travel is exhausting for those who aren't used to it, and especially because they were in a crash with barely any oxygen for who knows how many hours.
Keith was still very suspicious of the reader. Where did they come from? Earth? And if so, how'd they get all the way over here? Keith and the others planned to get some answers as soon as possible, and it should be decidedly easy since Raider knew how to write in English.
Once he reached the room, he knocked twice and called your name. When you didn't answer, he tried again. Nothing. He opened the door and heard more than saw you there. It's not that you were snoring, per se, but you were breathing loudly and whistling. It was so completely dark in your temporary room that the only light came from the open door. The light only reached the bottom half of your bed, for it was carved into the wall and your body was comfortably covered in ruffled blankets, one arm hanging almost over the bed, the other under your head, and your ankles poking out under the blankets.
Keith studied you for a couple of seconds, eyebrows furrowed and a slight frown on his face. "Reed!" he called in a low voice.
"Wha-! Huh…?" You startled awake, head and arm lifting up off the pillow then lowering back down just as quick. You blinked a couple times, getting the drowsiness out of your eyes before realization hit you and you froze up.
"You can talk?"
"I can talk?" You and Keith said in unison. You looked up at him, surprised. Your voice was hoarse and cloudy, going in and out every other syllable.
After that revelation, Keith brings you to what looks to you like a living room, with circular couches carved into the floor. There everyone sat in their normal civilian clothes, aside from Allura. She wore her original royal dress, which feels like you haven't seen in ages. Nowadays she's always wearing her paladin armor.
As soon as you walked in, they all turned to look at you. It suddenly hit you how surreal this is- all the paladins of Voltron right in front of you. There's Lance, sitting with his legs wide apart and his arms on the back of the couch/floor, then Hunk, sitting right beside him, straight back, looking back at you, Pidge beside him, looking at you same as everyone else, as well as Shiro, whose arm is crossed over his stomach and practically asleep, as you can tell. He looks exhausted, and the white hair doesn't help. Beside him is Coran, Coran, the gorgeous man, his arms, like Lance, spread out behind him, and his legs crossed over each other. Next to him, finishing the circle, is Allura, both hands neatly in her lap and long white hair flowing down her shoulders. Here they were, all staring at you.
You were given new, clean clothes to wear, but you weren't all there when you put them on, and now that you had them on you couldn't see them. They were enveloped in a white light, just as the rest of your body, but that didn't mean the paladins couldn't see them.
You raised your hand and waved, "Hi," you greet confidently, or awkwardly, honestly with your voice as throaty as it was, it was probably as awkward as it could get.
"You can talk..!" Hunk rose an eyebrow and smiled kindly, like he was just as happy about you not being mute as you were.
"Yeah," you put a hand to your throat as you feel a cough coming on. "Sort of.." Your throat feels scratchy and tickles whenever you speak. Your glad you brought the notepad and pen just in case. Pidge's notepad and pen! You remember.
"That's good," Hunk turns to the others. "That's good, right? Now we can hear what she- I mean they, have to say."
Out of the corner of your eye you see Keith walk forward as Allura says, "Please, come, have a seat."
.
"So you like to be called Reed?" Allura asked.
Nod.
"Do you remember any of what happened before the crash?" Lance asked from beside you. You were sitting far enough that his wingspan didn't reach you. He was a olive skinned boy with a chin as sharp as a blade and eyes like a hawk's- must be why he's the sharpshooter of the group. He's wearing his trademarked moss green jacket and a blue shirt underneath, then some skinny jeans.
You shake your head at his question.
They're all staring at you, it's sorta nerve-wracking to some part of you. Guess social anxiety follows you to even animated universes.
"Do you remember Earth? Your parents? Did you go to the galaxy garrison?"
"I don't know…!" You say, looking at each of them. You note Krolia leaning against the far wall, away from everyone else. Keith moved between Shiro and Pidge. "I mean, I remember Earth, but not how I got here. I never went to the galaxy garrison." It's better to tell the truth at these points, some of you are probably thinking. Other's of you are saying why would you tell them that?! Idiot! "I just...woke up, in that ship, and saw you guys."
"Think space travel messed with their brain somehow?" Lance asked the others.
"Maybe you hit that rock too hard." Hunk said casually.
"Hunk!"
"What? It's just a thought!"
You laugh, and the mood in the room begins to lighten a little bit. "No, no, it was funny." You assure. "Not rolling on the floor, but it did its job."
The paladins and others really weren't sure what to do with you. Before they could continue plunging your mind, bii boh bi came through the entrance, spouting something casually. You had no idea what the little noodle was saying, but it was really cute in its own way.
.
"So, what are we gonna do about Reed?" Hunk's soft, low voice snapped Keith out of his thoughts. He had left soon after Raider had gone with Coran and bii boh bi, just to think for a little while. He stopped in the middle of the long corridor and turned around to look at Hunk who finally caught up to him.
"Why are you asking me?" Keith asked, a little glad to have a distraction.
"Because you're, like, the leader now? Aren't you? I mean, Shiro's still recovering and now that you're back from the Blade of Marmora-"
"I don't know," Keith interrupted. He crossed his arms and looked down towards the hallways corner, thinking. "There's more pressing issues than hi- them being here. I know that we need to get Raider to Earth as soon as possible, but we also need to know what we're going to do with the Alteans."
"Oh, yeah, you're right." Hunk said as if he forgot about that. Those Alteans are still on that planet in the middle of nowhere, with no leader to help them. Now that Lotor's gone, there is no one to take care of them. Romelle was taken back when they had to start traveling around the galaxy searching for rebel Galra troops. They also needed to stop any more Galra officials from taking over. So many things that had been solved with Lotor are now all back to being problems again. They can't go home just yet.
"We can't just leave them in alien care, no matter how much we trust our allies. They wouldn't be able to take being alone here, especially in their state. The problem is, we don't know how long it'll be till we can go home. The best choice here is to have them stay with us, no matter how much we're already struggling."
They've been sleeping on abandoned or ally planets these last couple days. There's barely space in the lions for everyone-Coran, Krolia, Kaltenecker, and all their things are already traveling with them.
"We'll find something out." Hunk assured and patted Keith's shoulder sympathetically.
"Yeah…" Keith trails, then a thought comes to his head. "Where did Coran take Reed anyway?"
.
Coran is a multitasker if there ever was one. After he took you away from the lounge room so the paladins could discuss between themselves about what to do with you, he and bii boh bi brought you to some study room with a desk set against a wall, filled with folders and scrolls and paper not just on top of the desk but on the floor around it. Apparently it was Coran's personal working room. You had no idea how that worked, you were on a completely different planet, one that the paladins didn't seem to visit that frequently, but apparently they had rooms set for everyone here. Apparently the castle for the little noodle things was practically a hotel for Voltron allies, in case of these types of emergencies or live conferences. At this point, everyone in the galaxy knows that Voltron is homeless, so their allies were more than willing to help them out by giving them a few rooms in there royal homes. Pretty nice.
As soon as Coran came in, bii boh bi smacked a large folder full of paper on his chest, said something in his cute little bii boh bi voice, to which Coran perfectly understood, and the noodle just walked out and left. Apparently the folder was a list of planets that were either abandoned that the Alteans could go to, or planets where allies were willing to commit a few thousand. Coran explained this to you as he went through books of the history of most of the offered planets and wrote down the most possible planets for the Alteans to move to. He was a busy body. He danced his way across the small room as you watched from the rolling chair he set you in next to a wall filled to the ceiling with books. He swung around and circled back to the desk, and he's very lean and flexible for a old man, but you guess that hair hasn't turned white for a reason, huh? His hair stays in perfect naturally greased back state as he begins talking about the planets he's known and hasn't when he was a kid, many of which he learned from his grandfather, great grandfather, and great great grandfather.
It goes on for a while. In the millennia that time has passed for him and Allura, there have been many new planets and species formed and created. He says he's in great need of learning history, despite it being almost three years since he's "woken up".
But then he suddenly stops, like he's realised something. "Oh gosh, I have just been going on and on about my family, haven't I? Knowing that you can't even remember your family!"
"Oh, no, it's ok." I like hearing you talk.
"No it's not!" He says, then glides over to you on his own two feet over the carpeted floor. He grabs your hands. "It's ok to talk about it. If you're ever feeling alone, all the paladins of Voltron, and me of course, will be with you. There's no need to worry."
You smile, honestly a little joyous. "Thank you, but really, I'm not worried. I trust you guys. I'm a huge fan of Voltron!" That should be alright to say, yeah? Yeah.
Luckily, Coran doesn't notice anything off about what you just said. He just smiles warmly, eyes closing, and hums.
.
Two weeks pass in the literal blink of an eye, and you find yourself sitting on your bed in a new room. This time skip crap is really disorienting. Your eyes clear up and you are staring ahead at a pearl white wall, the floor is marble and in tiles similar to the pattern of a school floor, and nothing looks like it's been touched aside from the bed your sitting on. The room is small, about three people could fit comfortably. The bed is right against the wall and looks like it was pulled out of it. It probably was. There was nothing outside of the bed in this room. You doubt that your hand couldn't reach the ceiling if you stood up, but you weren't exactly sure how tall you were anyway, because depending on where you stood, your height seemed to change. You felt taller than Keith by a long shot, but you were the same height as Lance at other times, even though the two were close in height.
Your attention got disrupted, once again, but this time by the door opening. Then Keith's head poked through the side of the door. His pink burn mark curving down his cheek bone grabbed your attention. Apparently some of you were told that that mark was from his Galra blood but turns out he was just fighting with Kuron.
"Hey…" He trailed awkwardly, still standing behind the door. "Can I come in?"
"You already have but sure."
"Sorry,"
"It's cool," you say as he slips in and closes the door behind him.
Keith is wearing his trademark faded-to-blue black shirt and skinny jeans, his belt and jacket nowhere to be seen. He glances around the empty room, then at your wrinkled white bedsheets on the relatively thin mattress where you sit. His face screws up.
"So, Raider," he starts, then sighs, not meeting your eyes and furrowing his brow somewhat agitatedly. "I'm sorry…"
You wait for him to continue.
"About all this. You weren't meant to be caught up in our mess, you just wanted to go home and we've been logging you around these past two weeks…" Keith frowned.
Your heart spikes. Oh no, what happened in the past 2 weeks?
"I'm sorry, but we don't have any idea how long it will take to get back to Earth."
You sigh in relief. So nothing big, then. That didn't bother you one bit. You could stop reading whenever you wanted. The whole point of reading this fanfiction was to feel like you were a part of the Voltron crew, or at least their super meta best friend.
"I kinda expected that," you said, looking down at your glowing feet. You couldn't even tell what you were wearing. You could be walking around naked and not even know about it! "I'm ok. But what about you?"
Keith's black, thick eyebrows shot up under his mass of jet black(emo) hair. "What?"
"You? How do you feel? You've been away from Earth a long time, haven't you?"
His eyes clouded over and he crossed his arms, looking across the room like some anime boy. Did you bring up bad memories?
"There's nothing for me back there, so no, I don't miss it." His boyish voice lowers, almost below a whisper.
There's a few more seconds of silence before you try again. "Can I suggest a trade?"
His dark purple eyes return to you. He raises an eyebrow, something you realize he does a lot.
"How about…" You scoot over atop the bed. "You tell me how you really feel," you pat the spot next to you. "and I'll tell you some things I figured out about me."
Oh, that glow in his eyes must mean he's interested!
And yeah, somehow, that worked. The author is probably bullshitting, but whatever. He sits down beside you, puts his hands in his lap, and looks at his feet silently. Like, really silently. You're not sure if he's thinking or waiting for you to talk.
After a few more seconds of strangely almost uncomfortable silence, he talks. "I don't want to be leader."
Oh shit/z, this again.
"I try, and try, but everything I do seems like anyone else could do it better. I don't want to be responsible for the others," his hands tighten in his lap, and his eyes squeeze shut. "Shiro, or Allura, would be so much better than me. But Shiro is barely himself, and Allura knows just as much as me about leading the team. Even now we don't know what we're doing. Between watching over the Galra, and getting the Alteans off planet, and you." His head lifts up, and he looks deep into your eyes. "We are all over the place."
You nod sympathetically. He looks a little uncomfortable again, then looks back down at his lap.
"And you?" He asks. Changing the topic, getting it off of him, a coping mechanism. "You've been hauled up in the lions, keeping to yourself these past two weeks."
So you didn't miss anything, then. You sigh and think of something to say, looking at the wall in front of you. "...I..have...no idea who I am." you glance at him for a second. He's looking down at the corner of his eye, before he turns to you. You look down at your lap. "I don't feel comfortable in my own body…" In real life, too, some of you think. "I know my name is Reader- I mean Raider. Or Reed. One of those." Your heart pounds at almost exposing your secret. "I know that I'm," you breathe in a huge breath."a huge fan of Voltron, somehow. Or I was, at some point," you add to sound genuine to this fake alter ego. "but, aside from that," you shrug. "Sometimes I think one thing and at the same time I'm thinking another, and it feels like ever since I met you guys I've been going in and out of reality." Wink wink. "I don't remember any practical things about myself. My favorite color-" blue, pink, red, yellow, black, orange, other variations of those colors, the fucking rainbow-"my parents names...if I even have parents!" Some do, some don't.
"I'm sorry," he whispers, looking at you pitifully.
You nod, not sure what to say. It's fine? But it's not fine for some of us. Thank you? Thanks for what? Listening?
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I lost my dad when I was still in middle school."
You laugh. "How would that make me feel better?" To your surprise he laughs too.
"Yeah, guess you're right." He chuckles and looks down at his lap again, a little grin on his face.
Bonus points to you for making him laugh.
"But hey," you reach a hand out to him, hover it over his shoulder until he says it's ok. "Seriously? Your feelings are valid, and you don't have to go through it alone. Your teammates are here for you. I've seen how much you all care for each other. If you all just work together, everything will work out. And I'm sure Shiro will get better soon."
You can't quite spot the look in his eyes when he stares at you. Something of disbelief...and of wonder? Maybe? Maybe your just getting your hopes up. After a few seconds of that look, though, Keith relaxes and nods.
You place your hand on his shoulder, and are disappointed to feel no warmth.
It is a fanfiction, after all.