Almost a month later Keith was running to the other side of the ship. Hunk had called the main deck and asked if someone could come and take a look at some repairs he'd wanted to make. With everyone already busy, and Keith wanting to get out of that part of the ship, he was out the door before anyone could tell him about another boring meeting. It was insane the kind of crap that had to be discussed before actual work got done. And why did it have to be discussed? Because some idiot might have another idea and refuse to give any support in way of resources.
"Its too risky." They say.
"show us what you mean first."
Keith seethed as he stormed down the corridors, just thinking about all the bs that was bounced around those walls every single day. He was a straight forward individual and all this song and dance was really too much for him.
"What did you say?"
"I said," Lances lazy drawl sounded from around a nearby corner, "that you are the stupid one if you actually think I'll believe that. Its so obvious that you're lying that I actually feel sorry for you."
"You sure I'm lying?"
"yup, now get out of my way, I need to get these papers to the filing deck."
Keith heard Lance running off before he managed to get there. Peeking around the corner, Keith found a kid about their age staring after Lances retreating frame.
The black paladin did not like the look on the kids face.
"Hey."
Ryan jumped and when he saw Keith, he actually went a little pale.
"Sir," he saluted, and Keith waved at him to stop. He hated formality.
"What's going on?"
"Nothing, Sir," he said, "I was just on my way to the bay area and ran into McClain. I tried to tell him that his supervisor was asking for him to be on call since the trainees are doing flight drills today. He wanted McClain to be present."
"Why did Lance think you were lying?"
Ryan shrugged, "I have no idea, Sir. McClain often gets moody and disappears for hours at a time."
"And this upsets you?"
"Sir?" Ryan looked at him confused.
"You didn't look to happy that Lance passed you by," Keith said, not sure if he could trust this kid. Lance was not one to refuse to get behind the controls.
Ryan turned a little red, "I take my work seriously, Sir. McClain is always joking and is never serious about his work. He often just comes in and takes over without consulting the supervisors and when things break, he laughs about it. I guess I just have little patience with those that waste my – OH, not to speak badly of your friend or anything!"
Keith shook his head and decided he should go to the source first, "I'll talk to Lance, you get back to work."
"Yes, Sir," Ryan saluted and began to walk towards the bay area. Keith was oblivious to the smirk now playing across Pillons face.
()
"Sure this will work?"
"Why shouldn't it?"
"if we get caught-"
"Seriously, Hunk, all this time and you're still worried about getting detention?"
()
Cadet Hazzel was a lanky kid. In fact he was always underweight and fought to stay healthy enough to pursue his dreams of finishing the garrison.
One night he woke up and sighed as his gut complained at him. He'd had three helpings of dinner and two helpings of desert. Still, the doctor was adamant that he eat when he was hungry, no matter what. So he reached into his nightstand and pulled out a granola bar.
Scowling he dropped it and searched for the kind that wouldn't break his tired teeth or wake up his two roommates. Not finding one he grabbed the harder granola bar and left the room. That day they had done nothing but physical fitness and he was beat.
Reaching the communal corridor bathroom he ate his dry and crunchy granola bar and downed a glass of water. The whole process waking him up the rest of the way.
Grummbling to himself about how hard it was going to be to get back to sleep before he had to wake up for morning drills, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stick up.
Did the AC just kick in?
Was it called AC on a huge ship like this?
He continued back to his room when his ears picked up a slight shuffling sound. The cadet stopped and turned. There was nothing behind him in the dimly lit corridor. This area of the ship was always darkened so the cadets could get a regimented amount of sleep.
Swallowing hard he started toward his room again. Air, cold air blow gently against the back of his neck, lifting the hairs once more.
Barely keeping it together he looked behind him again.
Nothing.
Then the shuffling sound began again as he stood there. He slowly moved back as the light sound bounced off the metal walls like extra light cotton balls.
"Room, room, room," he muttered turned to walk quickly down the hall where he'd feel safe amongst his roommates snoring.
Again, the air blew against his neck, this time, in time with the shuffling sound.
Unable to help himself, he turned.
Barely visible was a smeared apperition in the middle of the hall.
Cadet Hazzel couldn't really remember what happened next. All he knew was that when the fear that had flooded him had receeded slightly, he was almost to Sickbay and his throat hurt.
()
The three friends booked it to Pidges lab. They hadn't expected the guy to scream that loud and- despite what Lance had said to Hunk earlier- they had no desire to get caught.
When they got to the lab they collapsed on the other side of the door, wheezing. Then, looking at each other, burst out laughing.
They were still laughing, crying with pure mirth, when Keith and Allura opened the door.
"Told you," Keith said, shaking his head.
"What are you three doing?!" Allura shouted, "what is going on?!"
They tried to speak, but couldn't through their fits of giggles and snorts of laughter. Hunk was grasping his middle as he wheezed and Pidge made a keening sound as she tried to gain back control. Lance was practically sobbing.
"Guys, that wasn't funny," Allura stressed, "that poor kid had a panic attack after that! He's with the night nurse right now!"
"He'll be fine," Lance said finally sill trying to control himself, "I'm sure of it."
"Yeah," Hunk said shaking his head, "I feel bad he's with the nurse, but he'll be fine."
"They shouldn't be talking about me haunting the place if they don't want it to happen," Pidge chuckled, "I find such satisfaction making peoples rumors a reality."
"Very satisfying," Lance nodded and Hunk also concurred.
"That's not the point," Keith sighed, "half the ship heard that scream and now more than just the cadets think the ship is haunted."
"aaaaand…thatssss…"
"…bad?"
"Yes," Keith and Allura said.
"Look," Allura said trying a new tactic, "all of us are in the spot light weather we like it or not. We need to be an example. What's going to happen if everyone finds out that it was you three picking on defenseless cadets? We have an image to uphold and we need that image if we're going to gain the support we need! The three of you need to march yourselves down there and apologize!"
"Fiiine," the three of them sighed. Maybe they had gone a little over bored. They should've just kept it at the level of what Hunk and Lance were doing with the cool air and spooky noises. Adding the "apparition" may have been the tipping point.
"Just a second, Lance," Keith said pulling Lance aside as the others left to head down to the nurses station.
"Yeah?" Lance asked.
"We really do mean it when we say you guys need to stop fooling around."
"Yeah," Lance chuckled, "Sorry. Pidge and I kinda started the idea and we got Hunk in on it-"
"No, I mean every day."
Lance frowned, "What do you mean?"
"I overheard you and Pillon the other day," Keith said and watched as Lance turned a little red and he gave a nervous laugh. Keiths eyes hurt. He'd been awake for the last 48 hours and held back the urge to wipe that grin off Lances face.
"Oh…yeah, about that…" Lance cleared his throat and starred at his shoes, "sorry…"
"you should believe what you're told."
Lance's head snapped up, eyes wide, "what?!"
"Everyone has to work, Lance, Shiro assigned you to where you would do the best work."
"Keith," Lance gave a weak laugh, "I don't think you heard the entire conversation."
"I heard enough of it," Keith sighed and shook his head, "And you should believe what Pillon says when he's just doing his job and relaying messages to you."
"O...oh?" Lance took a step back, "really? You really…think so?"
"Did you really think otherwise?" Keith asked almost incredulously, "we all have a job to do, Lance."
Lance just stared, wide eyed, mouth hanging open. Keith shook his head again and left. Did it really surprise Lance so much that they expected him to pull his weight?
()
"Lance!" Pidge ran up to him grinning, "It's been weeks! I think we should do another one, just one more, ya know?"
Lance shrugged, "I don't know, I don't think so."
Pidge frowned, "Oh come on! We won't amp the kids up any more, we'll just do little bumps and hisses. Common~"
"No, I really don't want to," Lance said shrugging, "I've got a lot of stuff to do."
"Like what?" she asked and Lance winced.
"Stuff, ok?" he snapped, "just...stuff."
He stormed off and left Pidge totally bewildered.
Later that day she ran into Hunk. They still chuckled about their little night of terror, but then Hunk asked the question Pidge had been thinking.
"You know what's the matter with Lance?"
"You think he's acting weird too? He just snapped at me!"
Hunk nodded, "He just glared at me and told me to go play with my toys…in a mean voice…"
Now Pidge knew it was serious. No one treated Hunk with more deference than Lance. Lance loved Hunks gadgets and would never be mean to the big teddy bear.
"What do you think is eating him?"
"No idea," Hunk said as Shiro entered the room.
"Oh good," he said, "Do you all know what's wrong with Lance?"
"No idea," they both said.
"What did he say to you?"
Shiro ran a hand through his hair, "he said to shove off and flipped me off! I Just asked him if he knew where Keith was. I've never seen him that angry before! What did I do?"
"Have you talked with Allura and Keith?"
"Yeah," Shiro shook his head, "Keith said he told Lance to be more serious about his work, but Keith is always telling Lance to be more serious. That's nothing new."
"No, its not," Pidge scowled. She wanted to go straight to Lance and bug him for the reason, but they had already wasted enough time. Their duties were calling and Hunk said he'd go see him that evening.
()
Lance began to make himself scarce. He did everything he could to keep himself busy in the hangers so he didn't have to go around asking if the others needed help.
Keith had made if clear that they didn't; not from him, anyway.
Lance was working in Hanger 4 when Iverson arrived with his class. They were doing practicals today, but because they did well on their exams the week before, Iverson had told them that they could tour the lions hanger.
"McClain!" Iverson called, "I need you a moment!"
"One moment!" Lance called back. He was holding up one of the carts so Carrie could work underneath it. The Jack didn't raise it high enough.
To Carrie Lance added, "take your time. Iverson can wait a few minutes. Just do it right so I don't have to do this again."
"I'm almost done," Carrie said and swore, "In fact there's nothing I can do. The line just split."
She inched her way out from under the cart before she stood. Lance slowly lowered the machine back onto the jack support.
"After Iverson is done with you, think you can come back and help me take this thing apart?"
"Your wish is my command," Lance said grinning at her. She rolled her eyes and hit his shoulder.
Lance chucked as he went to stand by Iverson. He saluted, more out of habit than anything, and wiped his hands on his oil cloth as he looked over the cadets. They looked about the same age as him even though he knew they were a good five years younger if not more.
It was amazing what a difference three years made.
"I told these cadets that you would take them on a tour of the Lions hanger," Iverson explained, "try not to make it more that fifteen minutes. We have a lot of ground to cover today."
"…wouldn't Hunk or Pidge be better suited for this?" Lance asked. He had no confidence in his ability to answer any of the kids questions should they have any.
"Everyone is wrapped up," Iverson said, "and only you seven have the code to get into that hanger."
"Where is Coran?"
"He's been MIA since we left Earth."
Lance felt cornered, but decided that a quick tour couldn't go too horribly wrong. He'd show them around then quickly get back to work.
"Right, everyone, follow me."
He lead them out of Hanger 4 and through the ship to the separate hanger for the lions. He punched in the code and then let his eyes be scanned. The doors opened, revealing a huge room as tall as the ship itself. The cadets sucked in their breath and looked wide eyed at everything.
The hanger was designed to be as large as each lion needed while their barriers were up. Needless to say this hanger was the largest in the ship. Lance started with the closest.
"This is the yellow lion," he said, "Hunks Lion is our tank in a fight since its armor is thinker and more durable than everyone elses. According to Allura, the paladin of the yellow lion is the care taker of the team, and let me tell you that without Hunk, we would've all starved. Corans cooking is NOT for consumption."
They observed the lion through its barrier. All the lions had their barriers up accept Red.
"Next we have the Green lion," Lance said walking toward it, "This is our stealth and intelligence. As you can see, she also holds our shield."
Lance let the ogle for a minute before moving on.
"This is the Blue lion," he patted the shield, "she's normal until you get her under water, then she'd make even the swiftest and most agile fish ashamed. The Blue lion is equipped with sonar and scanner capabilities that comes in handy when we needed to know what we were dealing with or when we needed to hit a large area at once."
"Weren't you the blue paladin at first?"
And so it begins, Lance thought with a sigh. Aloud he said, "yup. Blue here is what started our adventures."
"What is the attribute needed to pilot the blue lion?" one cadet asked, "you said the yellow lion was kindness, and the green was intelligence, so what about the blue?"
"Of course," Lance said turning around and posing, "the blue lion picks the better looking."
Not even a chuckle.
"I was kidding," Lance said and sighed, "never mind. Allura never told us what Blues attribute was. Now please hold all your questions until the end. I know you all are carrying note books, so just write them down if you think you're going to forget."
He walked up to the black lion and continued, "the black lion is the head of Voltron and our leader. Allura said it has to be someone we'd all follow without questions…but I question Keith all the time. So there goes that theory."
Still not even a smile from his audience.
"Mmm, tough crowed," he muttered walking up to his lion.
"Red here is my lion. As you can see, she doesn't have her barrier up because I'm here with you guys. If you were to come in on your own, she'd block you out just like all the others. Ren is the fastest and more impulsive than the others."
He patted Reds leg and then, shocked, lets his hand rest on her leg.
It was a like the area of his mind that Red occupied was no longer there. Normally, the lions were warm to the touch, no matter what, but Red was cold.
"Red?" Lance placed both hands on his lion and, there, he felt Red. But it was only a little. Like a twitching in his mind that he couldn't quite grasp.
"Red, what's wrong?"
The Cadets shifted uncomfortably. They understood that the lions were somewhat sentient, but it still made them uncomfortable to see someone talking to them like they could answer back.
"Wasn't this lion Keiths at first?"
"What?" Lance blinked, snapping back to his tour group, "Um, yeah, yeah, Red was Keiths. Then after the fight with Zarkon we needed to new leader. So Keith took over. That's when Red…well, Blue chose Allura and I was switched to Red. Allura said it was because I supported Keith as Leader…"
Was that it?
"Why don't you wear the red uniform then?" asked a cadet in the back, "I mean, you switched those weapon thingies."
"Bayards," Lance said, "they're called bayards, and blue looks good on me. Any other questions that you're dying to ask?"
()
"I know you're not asleep yet," Hunk said sitting on Lances bed. Lance was turned towards the wall and not speaking.
"Common, Lance, what's wrong? Is it Keith again?"
Lance pulled a face.
"no," he lied, "its nothing. I'm just a bit crabby lately. I think I'm just tired. Sorry I snapped at you today."
"Not just me," Hunk said, "everyones worried. Did you really flip Shiro off?"
"…yes…"
"That's not like you-"
"Oh, then what is like me?" Lance asked finally turning and facing his friend, "Everyone else seems to know SO much, so let me in on it."
Hunk thought for a moment. In fact he paused for so long that Lance was about to turn back around and tell him to leave.
"Lance McClain talks to me," Hunk said finally, "instead of yelling at me and telling me 'its nothing', he actually talks to me, ya know, cause we're friends."
Lance sighed. It really was hard to argue with Hunk.
"I am sorry, big guy," Lance grinned up at him, "but I really am just tired. I'll apologize to everyone tomorrow. Maybe we can all get together and have lunch or something next week, give you all time to free 30 minutes from your schedules. We've all not gotten together for a while."
"True," Hunk nodded, "I'll let the others know. And if there's anything else, you'll come talk to me…right?"
"Promise," Lance nodded, "Good night."