Voltron - You, Me and the Glass between Us

Chapter 3! I can only apologise for now long this took me to post. I've been distracted by my other stories, particularly one that I'm close to finishing, as well as uni work. But, nevertheless, there is it and I'm happy to get things moving again.

Enjoy!

Keith liked to think he had a thick skin, that there were a few things that ever truly got to him; he'd barely batted an eyelid when he'd been kicked from the Garrison, he'd beaten the trials of Mamora (he'd nearly died to them as well, but that was irrelevant). Keith was tough, he knew that. But whoever had said that sticks and stones could break your bones, but words could never hurt you, had clearly never met Shiro.

'What were you thinking Keith?'

Keith's eyes remained glued to the floor, and he shrugged with his arms crossed. After Hunk, who'd pulled the short straw of 'Not It!', had made the rather humiliating comm call to Shiro, Keith had flown the pod into the nearest fuelling station on the highway to wait for the others. Hunk had tried to repair as much as the engine's damage as possible, but time hadn't been on his side, with only five minutes passing before the second pod touched down, and a very angry Shiro and Allura had stormed down the ramp.

'Tell me, what exactly made you think that it was appropriate to initiate a rally race with another craft?' Allura demanded, and Keith resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her. Sure, she was royalty, but she wasn't that much older than him. She had no right to scold him like a child, as if she were his mother. 'You have acted completely irresponsibly, endangering the lives of the other paladins—'

'Allura, I've got this. Why don't you get the others and start seeing if this place has what we need.' Shiro pacified, nodding to the fuelling station's building that looked more akin to a huge department store Keith had seen in the Space Mall. Over by the other pods, Keith could see that Pidge, Hunk and Lance were receiving a similar—though likely not as harsh—lecture from Coran.

Allura titled her chin up, 'Very well. Come find me after you are finished.'

Shiro nodded in response and waited for her to disappear through the store's sliding doors, with Coran ushering the others to follow after, before he turned back to Keith.

'That you did was reckless, and I'm disappointed in you Keith. I know that you're better than this,', Keith gulped around the fat lump in his throat and kept his head bowed, jumping when Shiro clapped a hand on his shoulder. When he looked up, Keith's stomach flipped when he saw the soft smile on the man's face.

'That being said, I'm glad that you're bonding with the others. You sounded like you were having fun.'

Keith felt his cheeks flush and sheepishly nodded.

Shiro smiled at him and opened his mouth to say more, when he noticed how Kolivan was marching for them, the Blade, Iaruk and Lotor following behind; the latter wearing a hooded cloak to disguise his identity.

'It is time for your rotation.' The leader of the Blade rumbled with a slight motion to the Galra prince, and Keith fought the impulse to square his jaw. Great. Just great.

'Right.' He said with a curt nod, and Kolivan returned it before he gestured for Shiro to follow him. Shiro gave him a slight wink before he turned after Kolivan and they left for the entrance of the department store.

The tension could have been sliced with a luxite blade as Keith and Lotor sized each other, violet eyes narrowed at yellow.

Lotor was the first to break the silence by loudly clearing his throat, 'Would it be acceptable to follow our companions example? I so rarely had the chance to visit such establishments outside of my exile.'

'Lead the way.', Keith disdained.

The department store had a deceivingly large interior contrary to it's exterior; with the many departments being separated by shelves of product. In the back right of the store over by the escalator, Keith could spy Shiro, Allura and Coran browsing through the racks of cloaks in the clothing section; poor Coran being reduced to Allura's packing maul, with his ginger head barely visible over the mountain of cloaks furs.

'As I understand it, you were the Black Paladin of Voltron.' Lotor spoke up as they walked.

'Red. I was the Red Paladin. Shiro is the Black Paladin.' He corrected.

'And pray tell, why is that?' Lotor pressed, and Keith scowled.

'You know why. Lance is the Red Paladin now.' He snapped, mentally cringing at how defensive it came out, and Lotor noticed as well, raising a fair brow at him.

'Do you resent him for taking your lion?'

'What?! No!' Keith retorted.

'It would be completely understandable to be. He did after all, steal your rightfully place.'

'Lance didn't take anything from me, okay? I gave up Red, I walked away. That was my choice!' Keith snarled as he turned on Lotor, lips pulled back over his teeth and fists shaking at his side.

Lotor's gaze was cool as he regarded him up and down, 'You gave up a Voltron Lion, your place, for Lance.', Keith's blood turned to lead at the knowing smirk that curled onto Lotor's lips; the same kind that a cat wore before they pounced on their cornered prey. 'You must truly care for him.'

His brain scrambled for an excuse to redirect the focus off his sunny, blue-eyed teammate, 'I care about all of them. I'd give my life for them.'

'I am well-aware.' Lotor tutted, and Keith felt as though he'd been struck, the memory of his almost-suicide paralysingly fresh in his mind.

When they rounded the corner in silence, Keith found his feet became heavier and heavier until he slowed to a stop in front of a stall, that when he raised his head to look at, made him smile. The colourful stall was stocked to the brim of The Voltron Show merchandise. There were flags, posters, and colossally over-the-top glow ups of the team in various poses.

Keith's heart did a somersault when his gaze fell on a pin-up of Lance dangling from a rope attached to Red, his long legs in the perfect splits. Blood rushed to his cheeks as a fresh wave of sinful fantasies involving an extremely flexible Lance, in his colour, in Red's cockpit flashed through his mind. Before it could go any further, Keith mentally slapped himself hard just as the stall's owner, a small squat alien with four arms, noticed his presence and totted over.

'Admiring the Red Paladin are we? Yes, yes, Lover-boy Lance is the most popular paladin after Shiro the hero.' The owner said, and Keith had never had to work so hard to not laugh.

'Yeah?' He smirked and stepped closer in curiosity when the owner bent down and set down a tray of colourful, paladin plushy dolls on the counter between them. The alien plucked up a Lance doll and handed it to Keith with a smile, the former-Red paladin stunned before he remembered his manners and pressed the right amount of GAC into the merchant's waiting hand.

'A pleasure doing business with you, young man.' The owner called to Keith after he nodded his thanks and moved away from the stall, cradling the doll in his palm before he absent-mindedly brought it up and pressed it to his lips.

The moment passed as quickly as it had came, and Keith's ear turned red when he realised how he must look. After a quick check to be sure no one had seen him, he carefully tucked his precious cargo into one of his pouches.

'There's time for that later,' He sighed to himself. The priority right now was to keep an eye—

Keith blinked before he spun on the spot with horror, mouth agape with a silent 'No.'

Where was Lotor?

Dark blue, foamy waves washing against soft white sands below a orange and pink sunset. Lance sighed as he traced his fingertips down the glossy surface of the postcard before replacing it back on the rack. He should have been prepared the sucker punch that was homesickness when he learnt that the department store had an Earth section, but that was the thing. Just because you anticipated the impact, didn't mean it hurt any less.

Lance moved away from the postcard rack to wander into an aisle that didn't make him want to cry: the electronics aisle. His feet came to a stop in front of the video game shelves, and Lance selected one whose box art jumped out at him. Despite it's eye-catching cover, the text was all in Galra, and Lance was busy scratching his head when the clerk popped up behind him out of nowhere.

'Are you gonna buy that?' He demanded, and in no way, did Lance release a shrill shriek, juggle, and almost drop the game. 'Well? Time's money, kid.'

'Uh,' Lance stuttered before he reached into his pocket and pulled out the small pocket change of GAC he had saved up. He held it out to the clerk. 'If this enough?'

'It'll have to be.' The alien huffed as he snatched the money and spun on his heel, marching back to his counter to count it out.

'What a weirdo,' Lance muttered to himself and cracked open the case, hoping against hope that there was some kind of translated manual on how to play. To his disappointment, there was none inside, only a small microchip that he picked up and squinted at.

'What the heck am I supposed to do with this?'

'Allow me to demonstrate?' A smooth-as-butter voice asked, and Lance swore his soul jumped out of his body for the second time that day as he spun to come face to face with prince Lotor; the man raising an perfect white eyebrow from under his hood as he held out his hand to Lance. 'May I?'

Don't be intimidated, don't be intimidated, Lance chanted to himself as he gawked at the alien, fixated on the sharp line of his jaw and cheekbones. You could cut yourself on those, he thought before he realised that Lotor was still waiting on his answer.

Not trusting himself to say something stupid about how begrudgingly attractive he found him, Lance handed over the chip, and his mouth fell open when Lotor tapped it twice to have it project a miniature version of the Castle's star-map.

'Woah!'

'Do you know what this is?' Lotor asked, and Lance shrugged.

'I mean—I thought it was a game, but it looks like it's a mini map.'

Lotor gave a low, rumbled chuckle, 'Actually, you are correct in both instances. This is a tactical battle simulator, akin to that of the simulations used to train tacticians and strategists in the Galra army.'

'Oh, like a strategy game?' Lance simplified and Lotor nodded before he read the line of text that circled the edge of the hologram.

'Yes, and one of high-calibre at that.'

Lance grinned, 'Ha! I managed to beat Final Fantasy Tactics with my eyes closed and one hand behind my back. How hard can it be?'

Lotor touched the chip again to dismiss the hologram and dropped it back into Lance's open palm, 'Fairly, unless you are fluent in Galra.'

'Oh…'

'I would be more than happy to translate for you. It will give me a front row seat to see how you fare against the challenges that have had my father's generals stumped for decapheebs.' Lotor offered and Lance's brows furrowed as he stared at the tiny chip in his hand.

'Is it seriously that hard?'

'You have no idea.' Lotor sighed, and Lance cracked a wicked grin at him.

'Does that mean there's levels on here that not even you have beat?' He asked, eyes twinkling with a competitive glint that grew when Lotor nodded, 'Alright! Yeah, I'm game. And hey, if I think you're deliberately telling me things wrong, I'll set Pidge on you. She bites and has little grabby hands.'

As though to speak of the devil, at the bottom of the aisle, Pidge jogged into view and waved when she spotted them. It was time to go.

'What do you mean he disappeared?'

'Look, one second he was there. The next, he hasn't. I didn't see what happened.'

'But, like—how? How can you lose the freaking prince of the Galra? Oh my god, what are we gonna do if Shiro finds out? I—I can't lie to space dad!'

'Hunk, quiet!' Keith hissed as he surged forward to smack his mouth over the Yellow Paladin's mouth, and peered around the side of the pod to sigh with relief that no one had heard them; Kolivan, Allura and Shiro continued to quietly converse with each other as Iaruk and Coran started up the pods' engines.

'Keith buddy, please don't ask me to lie to Shiro, I can't do that. I'm like a one of little pottery vases, I'm fragile to pressure!' Hunk whimpered when Keith took his hand away and fixed him with a look.

'Nothing is going to happen. Shiro isn't going to find out, just like how he's never going to find out that I got booted from the Garrison.'

Hunk gasped, 'You still haven't told him? Oh man, do me favour and shout a warning before that bomb drops. Pidge and Lance have told me horror stories about how he exploded at Slav.'

'No, no! He's not gonna find out, just like he's not gonna find out about this.' Keith exclaimed and turned too late when he saw Hunk's eyes turn to saucepans at what he saw behind him.

Oh no.

'Find out about what, Keith?' Shiro demanded, stood with his arms crossed as Keith pivoted to face him, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

'Uh, nothing. Nothing.' He mumbled, and felt his stomach drop into his feet when Shiro turned his 'Dad' look onto a trembling Hunk.

'Hunk, you wouldn't lie to me. What you were talking about?'

Hunk's face went red, and Keith was pretty sure he'd stopped breathing, almost as though he were scared that if he opened it his mouth to breath, he'd word-vomit the truth.

When his friend's face began to look more purple than red, Keith decided he had to step in before Hunk made himself pass out, 'Shiro, I—'

'Hey guys!' Lance's voice called out, and Keith's relief for the distraction soured instantly when he turned to see that it wasn't just Pidge approaching by Lance's side, but Lotor to. Realistically, he should been on his knees, grateful that Lotor hadn't decided to steal a pod and ditch them. But honestly, all Keith could seem to fixate on was the intimate familiarity that Lotor aired as he leant in to mutter in Lance's ear. A pinching flame curled up inside Keith's gut as whatever Lotor had said caused Lance to throw his head back with laughter.

'That should be you.' The green-eyed monster inside him growled, and Keith agreed with it.

Lance's smile widened when his blue gaze locked with Keith, and he quickened his pace, holding up what looked like a microchip, 'Keith! Aw man, you have gotta check out this game with me. It's some kinda Galra tactics sim. Pretty neat, right?'

'Uh—yeah, okay.' Keith said, and narrowed his eyes on Lotor as the prince cast a knowing smile over to them as he walked past and climbed up into the back of one of the pods. Lotor's boarding drew Shiro's attention, and he raised his voice for everyone's attention.

'Alright everyone, we still have about five vargas of flying ahead of us before we reach our destination, so let's waste no more time. Lance, Keith, you're with me, Kolivan and Lotor in pod one. Pidge, Hunk, Allura, you're with Coran and Iaruk. Let's move!'

More time with Lotor? This was not his day, Keith sighed to himself as he drug his feet up the ramp after Shiro, only to stumble and look over his shoulder to see Lance flash a smirk at him and wave his game.

Well, then again…it was five vargas of time with Lance in a cramped space, and how could that be so terrible?

Quite terrible, it turned out, when Lotor quizacking wouldn't shut up. Granted, Lance needed him to translate him the game's text, but that didn't mean it pissed Keith off any less. Beyond that, it wasn't like Lance needed his help. When he wasn't running his mouth, Lotor would just silently stare at Lance, with the same calculating, spine-crawling intensity that Keith had seen the Garrison's scientists stare at their experiments with.

The former Blue Paladin flew through the game's levels. Don't get him wrong, Keith always knew that he had a special talent for strategy, but watching him as he commanded fleets, legions of ships, micro-managing every single detail of his sprawling empire as though it nothing, was on a whole other level.

Lance asked Keith to pitch in occasionally when he wanted him to watch a certain galaxy so he could focus on a more demanding one; though Keith had barely held it together, with five of his planets staging an uprising, and well on their way to forming a united front until Lance stepped back in and wiped them out. In truth, Keith found it more fun to just watch Lance play the game, awed at his flexibility find work arounds to increasingly challenging opponents. A personal highlight had been when during one space battle level, Keith had pointed out a stray flyer hovering in a flanking position with his finger. Lance had worn that smirk made Keith's heart race as he had gently gripped Keith's wrist and guided his pointing finger to a heavy-duty battleship.

'Chill samurai. If that ship wants to go for the flank, then it's gotta fly into my bomber's range. I got it covered, but thanks.'

'No—no problem.' Keith muttered, and was thankful for the pod's low lighting; although it wasn't low enough to catch the shit-eating grin that Shiro shot him over his shoulder from the pilot's seat.

Eventually, Lance made it to the level that, supposedly, not even Lotor had managed to beat, and by this time, everyone in the pod was invested in Lance's progress, with Shiro and Kolivan agreeing when Lance had asked them to be his general. From the moment Lance had hit the start button, the scenario appeared as though it were already over; the game giving Lance one-hundred ships to go up against one-thousand of his enemies, no deaths.

Lance had shouted at them to get to their stations, and ordered them to use a planet's moon as cover against the bombardment, but even then…

'We cannot stay like this, those enemy bombers are destroying the moon by the second.' Lotor cried, his fingers dancing across his controls to tighten the formation on his side.

'Kolivan, any word from our distress beckon?' Lance asked, his voice muffled by his intertwined fingers rested over his mouth whilst his blue eyes darted between the enemy ships and his own.

Kolivan shook his head, 'No. We are on our own.'

'Okay. Okay, okay okay,' Lance muttered to himself, and his laser-focused gaze flickered from the enemy's advancing line over to Keith, 'Keith, talk to me about the planet under us.'

'Its an ice-planet, completely covered in the hardest permafrost in the universe. There's a network of cave tunnels that go deep into it's core.' Keith reported.

'Can our ships survive entering it's atmosphere?'

Keith brought up the blueprints of their ships and compared them to his scan's statistics, 'Just about.'

'Shiro, hows morale looking?'

'One-hundred percentage. Victory or death for their commander.' Shiro grinned and Lance gave a curt nod.

'Then I want all our ships to dive for those caves.' He announced and was meet with looks of hesitation.

'What's to stop them from shooting our ships as soon as they make for the dive?' Kolivan questioned.

'Lotor, you told me that those flyers used a heat-seeking tracking system, yeah?'

'Yes,' Lotor replied, and his yellow eyes widened when a light went off, 'Oh! But of course!'

Lance's confident kilowatt grin widened, and Keith could of stared at it forever, 'You picking up what I'm putting down?'

'Yes! On entry, our ships—'

'Will dramatically heat up the surrounding space and create a smoke cloud on their trackers.' Lance finished beaming.

'They won't be able to get a lock-on to any of our ships. Lance, that's genius!' Keith laughed, and temporarily stopped breathing when a lovely rose flushed Lance's features and he ducked his head.

'They'll be firing blind, but that's a lot better than our odds before.' Shiro remarked, bringing them back to the room.

'Never tell me the odds!' Lance exclaimed, and then gave a small giggle, 'Man, I've always wanted to say that.'

Even Kolivan sported a rare smile as he tapped his controls and manoeuvred his ships into a nose-dive for the planet. Lance's ships safely plunged into the tunnels that were too small for the enemy ships to follow, but things took a turn for the worst when the enemy's heavy-duty battleship began charging up it's ion cannon.

'Lance, what do we do now?' Shiro asked, and looked at Lance with disbelief when he merely leant back in his seat with his arms folded behind his head.

'Now, we wait.' He winked.

Keith didn't understand why he was so relaxed. Their entire fleet was about to be flown apart, Lance would lose all of his progress!

'Lance! We gotta retreat—try and get as many of our ships out before—'

'No! Nobody move anything, that's an order!' Lance barked, his eyes burning into Keith's with such fire that Keith had to switch to the star-map, watching with dread as the ion cannon finished charging. It was over.

'Well Lance, you had an admirable run—' Lotor began, only to cut off by Lance holding up a finger to him, the Cuban's stare intently locked on the ion cannon.

'It's not over yet.' He stated, and then the ion cannon fired. It cut through the atmosphere's clouds, a deadly streak of purple destruction, aimed straight down to cleave the planet in half, when the tables flipped.

Keith watched with a slack jaw as the ion's laser reflected off the planet's permafrost, as cleanly as a beam of light reflected off a mirror, and obliterated the very cannon it had been fired from. The result was like a mini sun, and it's explosion wiped the entirety of the enemy's fleet. When the colossal fireball eventually dispersed, Lance's ships came trickling out of the ice planet's tunnels, all accounted for. He hadn't lost a single one.

The star map flashed green, the words "Vrepit Sa" appeared before Lance, before the map vanished all together; the flashing red light on the simulation's microchip gave a final blip! and turned green, signifying it was complete. Everyone stared at it, still in awe of what just happened.

'Remarkable,' Lotor breathed, the only one who was not staring at the chip, but instead Lance, 'Absolutely remarkable.'

'You risked your entire fleet in that gambit. How did you know that the ion's charge would be reflected of the planet?' Kolivan asked intrigued, and Lance preened under the attention.

'I got the idea when Keith told me about the planet's surface being made of the hardest permafrost in the universe,' He revealed and ran his hand through his hair, 'Hey, seeing as no one's ever beaten that level, I guess I'm like, the greatest tactician in the universe now, huh mullet?'

'Yeah, yeah.' Keith smirked with a playful shove, and his chest felt swollen. Lance had proved himself to excel in strategy, beating something no one else ever had. The swell in Keith's chest was the same as the one he had felt that time when Lance had shot Lotor's general's throwing knife out of the air. It was one of overwhelming pride.

'I now see why you look at Lance so.' Lotor's voice cut through Keith's soft daydreams from gazing at Lance's sleeping face to make him scowl at the Galra. He was taking to get real sick of the purple bastard's persistent interest in his self-proclaimed rival.

'I don't know what you're talking about.' Keith bit back, and glanced to the front of the pod to have his guts twist when he saw Shiro stiffen whilst looking out of the window. Fantastic, now they had an audience. Lotor leant forward, resting his arms on his knees.

'Come now. Intelligent, skilled, strong, and beautiful? All are attractive qualities in a potential mate. You desire him—or at least, deeply care for him.'

Under his blanket, Lance shifted onto his side so that he was toward Keith rather than on his back, 'Keith…' He sighed in his sleep, the breathlessness of it causing heat to pool in Keith's stomach as he mumbled it again, 'where you…Keith…'

The corner of Lotor's lip curled upwards, 'And it appears he cares for you. Blade, what are your thoughts on this?'

'It is not our place to intrude.' Kolivan lowly rumbled, and Keith gritted it his teeth, knuckles white as he gripped onto the edge of his seat.

'There's nothing between us.' He hissed through clenched teeth.

'Oh? Open season is it then?' Lotor purred, and Keith would have lunged for the prince's throat had it not been for Shiro's intervention.

'That's enough. Lance is asleep, as should you be.'

'I'm fine.' Keith huffed with a fold of his arms, but Shiro wasn't backing down.

'You're been awake for nearly twenty-four hours Keith. Sleep.' The Black Paladin demanded.

Keith relented with a grunt and grabbed one of the duffel bags that contained the furred cloaks that Allura had brought from the store. He scooted up his bench and positioned his make-shift pillow so that both Lance and Lotor were within his line of sight. Unlike Lance, he opted against a blanket (it'd just restrict his movements), and unsheathed his knife for good measure as he fidgeted for a moderately comfortable position.

His gut screamed at him against the idea of sleeping and lowering his guard in front of Lotor. He and Lance would be vulnerable in the back; if Lotor wanted to smash their heads against the wall, Shiro and Kolivan would be too slow to stop him from the front—

Keith narrowed his eyes. Wasn't the bag with Lance's armour in it too close to Lotor's foot? With his strength, Lotor wouldn't even have to try if he wanted to blunder Keith with it, daze him before grabbing his knife and then slitting his—

'Keith!' Shiro barked a final time, and Keith robotically forced himself to relax, close his eyes and deepen his breaths, in and out, in and out. In and…..

When Lance awoke up, the pod was freezing. He sniffed, clinging to that soft, warm haze of sleep for a moment longer before he sat up. Kolivan was eerily alert as ever behind the wheel, and beside him, Shiro was reclined back in the co-pilot's chair, his expression pinched even in sleep, letting out the odd sleepy murmur.

Lotor had adopted a similar position, though rather than reclined, he slept rigidly upright with his arms folded; the only indiction that he was actually asleep was the slight tilted bow of his chin, closed eyes and the steady rise and fall of his torso. Lance can't help but think how much younger Lotor looked in sleep; perhaps young enough to be around their age. Lance's smile turned shy when his gaze fell on Keith.

The raven-haired teen was curled up tight in on himself like a cat, a line between his scrunched brows, and a lazy line of drool dribbling from the corner of his mouth to make for one of the most adorable sights Lance had ever seen. Oh, what he would have given for a camera right now.

'Paladin, are you awake?' Kolivan asked, and Lance folded up his blanket before carefully stepping between the many bags covering the pod's floor to crouch between the piloting seats. In front of them, Lance could see that they were approaching their destination; an small blue and white planet that was not unlike the ice planet in his game.

'That's where Lotor's safe house is?' He pointed to it and Kolivan nodded.

'Yes. I will be glad to have this mission done with.'

'Yeah, me to.' Lance agreed, and looked around the pod, briefly considering waking everyone up before dismissing the thought. No, let them sleep. They needed it while they could get it.

Keith jerked awake to a blast of sub-zero crisp air slapping him in the face. As he came to, blinking the fuzziness from his vision, he peered up at Shiro standing over him, suited up in his paladin armour under a billowing heavy cloak; behind him, blindingly brilliant white light poured in with the cutting wind.

The Black Paladin threw him the duffle bag he carried, and Keith wheezed under it's weight. Sitting it, he opened it and saw it was his Mamora armour inside along with a similar cloak to Shiro's, hemmed with white fur.

Shiro smiled, 'Welcome to Narnia.'