As a kid, Lance had always enjoyed watching Scooby Doo. He even had figurines of all the characters back home which his parents had gotten him over the years. The show made catching bad guys look so easy: you go to the place where something evil happened, you investigate, laugh at Scooby and Shaggy's shenanigans and then got to reveal the villain by pulling the mask off whatever costume he had chosen to scare the valiant crew. Every episode brought its fair share of entertainment and evil villains, but Lance's favorite part as a kid was always the evidence behind the conviction of the criminal.
Maybe this was why he was so into shows like Sherlock or Bones now. He may not be the best when it came to deductions, mostly because he could not focus on anything for a long enough time, but his instincts were usually right. And right now his instincts yelled that Keith was innocent. The revelation he had just given them was beyond anything Lance could have imagined. When he had started following Keith around the last week, he thought that maybe Keith had heard some weird noises Saturday night, or something along those lines. So when Keith said he had nearly witnessed a murder and thought he was the reason behind it, Lance had felt his hatred for the raven haired boy slightly melt away.
He may be an annoying and arrogant asshole, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have feelings. Lance had hugged him with compassion, only to be rejected as if he were nothing short of the plague itself. Once their little conversation about their future investigation was over and Keith had left the room, Lance collapsed on his bed and let out a loud grunt.
"Why does he have to be such a dick? I was just trying to be nice for once, and he just pushed me away. Sure I hate the guy, but that doesn't mean I should give him the cold shoulder if he starts crying." Hunk didn't reply, but in a way he didn't need to. Lance was thinking of how his mother would be proud of him for setting aside their differences for a while; but he couldn't help but feel like doing so had given the opportunity for Keith to strike twice as hard. Although he would never admit it to himself, part of his brain suggested that maybe the reason he felt so betrayed was that for once he realized that he maybe didn't really hate Keith. "Pfft, nonsense!" Lance replied to his own thoughts out loud. Hunk gave no sign that he cared since Lance had a terrible habit of talking to himself.
The brunet sat back up and stared at the clock. It was now 10:30 pm and he still had some things to do before going to bed. Grunting again, he moved to his desk and reluctantly got started on his work. He finished around midnight and immediately crashed in his bed. Hunk had fallen asleep an hour earlier because his classes started at 8:30 am the next day, which Lance didn't understand how it was possible to be awake enough at that time. Even if he woke up early his brain wasn't functional until at least 10 am. He turned around so as to face the ceiling. Hunk and he had decorated the room with various posters on the walls and objects on the shelves, but his favorite part had always been the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling. There were only a dozen of them and they didn't even glow that much due to the large amount of light coming from the useless curtains.
Nevertheless they always looked back at him when he stared up towards the heavens. Stars had always been a constant in his life. He had grown up seeing them from the roof of his family house in the country and was sad to barely see any of them with the city lights here. It had been Hunk's idea to get them when they had been looking for decorations, and Lance had immediately agreed. At night, when he wasn't able to sleep or needed comfort, he would look at them until his eyes closed on their own and his mind was transported to the land of dreams. They felt like home, though they looked radically different from the ones he could see from his house. Over the months he had given most of them the name of someone he cared about. His family was there, with his parents and his three siblings. Hunk had joined the group as well, being his best friend since high school. Pidge, Hunk's neighbor and another of Lance's high school friends, gave her name to the tiniest star. Shiro had become another one and Allura's name had been given to the one closest to his.
Thinking of the people who mattered in his life, Lance felt his eyelids get heavier and soon sleep got the best of him. He woke up the next morning to the sound of his alarm clock, the last images of his dreams swept away by the annoyance of having to wake up and go to class. He reluctantly got out of bed and started his morning routine by checking his phone.
Hunk: Hey, just crossed Shiro on campus and he agreed to meetup tomorrow for our little investigation. Ask Keith to come!
Lance: Hunk, you know I work tomorrow!
Hunk: Yeah, but you got off at 9 so let's just meet after that.
Lance: …
Lance: I guess.
Hunk: I thought you'd be more enthusiastic about this. You're the one who's obsessed with crime solving and mysteries after all.
Lance: I am psyched! How dare you question my love for solving murder!
Lance: I just woke up is all.
Hunk: Well you better hurry up if you want to make it to class on time.
Hunk was right; Lance had spent the last 20 minutes texting on his bed and had not even started getting dressed. Throwing his phone on his pillow, he rushed through his routine and got out of the door just in time.
His day was rather uneventful compared to yesterday. Keith didn't sit next to him, or anywhere close for that matter, in the one class they shared together. Ignoring the raven haired boy, Lance went through his day on auto pilot until his last class. Then he hurried to the coffee shop and worked until the end of his shift. While his parents had agreed to pay for the majority of his college tuition, he still wanted to pay for his rent and other things with his own money. So he had taken up a job as a barista in a coffee shop near campus; and truth be told, he really enjoyed it there.
His boss Emily was nice and his two rotating coworkers Josh and Kent were jokesters he truly appreciated. They had become a tight knit group over the last few months and Lance was glad it was the case as it made his job that much better. He never would have thought making coffee for strangers would make him that happy. He had struggled at first, mixing in the wrong ingredients or pushing the wrong buttons and ending up with messes everywhere in the work space. Eventually, he had learned the ropes of the business and was now one of the faster employees; though no one could be quicker than Kent after three cups of coffee.
His favorite part of the job, however, wasn't mixing in the coffee, or even getting yelled at by Emily for slacking off; it was the social aspect of it. Sure, he could just take the person's order and hand them the drink; but it always made his day a little better when he was able to strike a conversation with a costumer. Most were pretty short and full of small talk, but every once in a while he would see the costumer come again and they often got along well. He had made several friends that way, people he knew by name and could talk to during his work hours when there wasn't any costumer to serve. He got quite a reputation as a talkative person, and it honestly did not bother him.
That night, he worked an extra shift just because he had the time and slightly wanted to get his mind off Keith. The raven haired boy haunted his thoughts, and while Lance had rationalized his reaction yesterday, he still thought about what Keith had told them. Could he really have stopped Allura's demise if he had opened that door? Lance wasn't one to believe in destiny, but he had been raised by a religious family and he knew that if God wanted things a certain way, well the universe would always end up executing it. Maybe Keith was just blaming himself for no reason.
Lance was stirred from his thoughts by his phone vibrating in his pocket. Emily didn't like him to text during work, but there were almost no people in the shop since it was getting rather late. Hiding himself as best as he could from his boss's piercing glare, he opened his phone and looked at his messages.
Hunk: So, did you ask Keith to come tomorrow?
Lance: Not yet. I don't know if he wants to come, he seemed kind of weird about it yesterday.
Hunk: Invite him anyway; I'm sure he'll show up.
Lance: ….
Lance: Why don't you do it?
Hunk: I don't have his number.
Lance: I don't have it either. What made you think I would?
Hunk: Yeah but you have Wi-Fi because you're at work so just text him on Facebook.
Lance: You're at the dorms so you have Wi-Fi too.
Hunk: I'm not home actually.
Hunk: So you have to do it.
Lance: …
Lance: Fine, but I don't believe your excuse for one second.
Lance groaned but opened his messenger app nonetheless. Emily still hadn't spotted him so far and he had served a couple of late night costumers while texting Hunk.
Lance: Hunk wanted me to tell you we're regrouping with Shiro tomorrow night after my shift ends at 9 pm. He wanted me to invite you.
To his surprise, Keith replied within the next minute.
Keith: I can come, I guess.
Lance: Cool, see you there then.
Keith: Bye.
Wow he actually said he did not just end the conversation abruptly with no goodbye words for once. Lance was as surprised as he was confused. A warm feeling emerged in his gut and his first thought was that it must be the coffee he had been drinking to keep himself awake. It had to be that, there was no other thing that would cause his insides to weirdly feel like they were being cooked over an open fire.
Thankfully he was startled away from his thoughts as Emily appeared, looming over him with a reprimanding look on her face.
"Lance, I know it's late, but you could at least do your job if you want to get paid for your shift."
Lance nodded and sprang into action. He served a few more costumers and finished his shift an hour later. Hunk was, as he had thought, waiting for him in their room and he only managed a grunt before collapsing on his bed. It wasn't even that late, but he hadn't had much sleep last night and his job had a way of extracting any energy he might have had during the day. Within a few minutes, he was snoring loudly.
The next day went more or less the same way, but Lance couldn't ignore the knot that was slowly forming itself at the pit of his stomach. While he was ecstatic about finally solving a real mystery with his friends; he couldn't help but dread the moment they would all come together in his room. He already knew how Hunk felt about the whole thing and had recently learned more about Keith's attachment to it; but he was anxious about how Shiro would behave. It was his girlfriend after all, and they were treating a traumatic moment for him as little more than a means of entertainment.
Deep down he knew that Allura's passing had hurt and changed him as well, but he had never had the time to know her well enough to really feel like a piece of him went missing that day. Lance promised himself as he walked home from work that night that whatever happened between them, he would try his best to not hurt Shiro and to put him at ease. Shiro was his friend after all, and who was Lance to consider for even a short second behaving any other way than what his mother would have wanted.
When he opened the door to his room, Shiro was already talking to Hunk on the younger man's bed. They both stopped when they noticed Lance and Shiro stood up.
"Hey Lance, how was work?"
"Same as usual, I guess. I still smell like coffee though."
"You always do, even when you don't have work that day. I think it's just impregnated in your skin." Hunk said.
"Maybe." Lance put his bag down at his desk and sat on his bed, opposing the other two. "So did Hunk catch you up on what we're all doing here?"
"Yeah. I want to help. I don't know if this is good or not, but I want to know what happened. Allura deserves the truth." Shiro spoke in a monotone voice, as if trying to hold his emotions at bay. Lance felt the knot in his stomach spread to his lungs and he suddenly had trouble breathing. Sure Shiro told them he wanted this, but was he ready for the consequences? Looking at the determined look on Shiro's face, both resolute and slightly sad, Lance decided that Shiro was his own person and that if he wanted to do this, there was nothing Lance could do to talk him out of it.
Suddenly there was a shy knock on their door and Hunk rose up to get it.
"That would be Keith, if Lance kept his promise and invited him."
"I did, Hunk." Lance groaned. Hunk opened the door to reveal a tired looking Keith who was self-consciously rubbing his elbow.
"Come in, we were waiting for you." Keith followed Hunk inside and stood in between the two beds as Hunk sat down next to Shiro. He motioned for Keith to sit on Lance's bed and Keith slowly made his way to this spot. As they were seated, Lance was facing Hunk and had his back against the wall, while Keith was doing his best to avoid Shiro's eyes and was on the edge of the bed.
"So, I guess we all know why we're here tonight. We want to know the truth, and we will maybe get it."
"Maybe? You don't sound passionate enough, Hunk! We deserve to know what happened and we will do whatever it takes to discover the truth!" Lance interrupted. "Anyone have anything good they would like to share with the group?" Lance directed his gaze to the back of Keith's head, ignoring Hunk's disapproving look from across the room.
"What do we know so far? It happened during the night from Saturday to Sunday, and the police think it was after midnight if I'm correct. They interrogated everyone in the building in case anyone saw anything, but apparently no one did." Shiro recapitulated. "So why was it done here? Allura didn't live here."
"I think it's probably because they want to frame someone who does live here." Lance said, proud of his deduction. "Unless she just ended up being here because you asked her to come." Lance knew that he was probing Keith to blurt out his secret to Shiro, but the mullet boy held tight lips. Shiro, however, sighed deeply.
"I didn't ask her to come, so whoever did was her assassin." He pronounced the word painfully slow, as if it physically hurt to admit the truth to himself. "And I may have an idea of whom they're trying to frame." Lance jumped in his bed, startling Keith who almost fell to the ground. Both regained their composure as Shiro patiently waited for them to settle down. "I got a call from the police on Saturday. They wanted me to come to the station."
This time Lance only let a loud exclamation of surprise escape his lips while the others bore intrigued and confused looks. Shiro looked down at his interlocking hands and took a deep breath before continuing his narration.
"I don't know how much I can share with you guys, but the police seemed pretty certain I was a major suspect. They brought me in on Monday for questioning and they asked me again what I was doing that night. I told them the same thing I said the first time: I was studying for my upcoming exams and went to bed rather early. I wasn't expecting Allura and only texted her that morning to tell her I would be busy all week because of midterms. The last text I got from her was her reply to that." Shiro stopped, his broad shoulders drooping. The sight made Lance's heart clench, and he instantly wanted to help his friend but Hunk beat him to it.
"You don't have to say anything you don't want to. The last thing we need is for you to be uncomfortable."
"Thanks guys, but I want to share this with you. After all, if we ever want to get to the bottom of this we have to be on the same page." Shiro straightened his shoulders and cleared his throat. "So after I told my story to the police again, they said they had some new evidence that put me at the scene of the crime on that night. They even let it slip that I had become their primary suspect after I denied ever going out of my room that night."
"Why would they think you were there? What new evidence? Did they tell you?" Lance was now sitting at the edge of his bed, his elbow unconsciously brushing Keith as his gestures accompanied his speech.
"They wouldn't say. I have no idea how that could have gotten in their head. Maybe someone saw me outside that night, or lied that they did."
"Yeah, but they said it was 'new evidence', and wouldn't they have just called you last week if it had been that? Plus, I can argue that eye witness is not a valid argument against a person in court, I have psychology on my side!" Lance said.
"Maybe it wasn't a person; maybe it was something else that saw you." Hunk said, lost in thought. Suddenly a grin spread across his face as he yelled: "Cameras! There's video surveillance outside the dorms, maybe one of them caught you."
"But I wasn't there."
"You weren't, but the murderer was." Hunk glanced at Shiro, immediately scared of his choice of words. The older man didn't seem to be bothered by it however, so Hunk continued, "Somehow he found a way to hack the video surveillance or something to make it seem like you were outside. Better still, maybe he edited it so it looked like you were the assassin." Hunk instantly clamped a hand over his mouth although he knew it was already too late. Lance saw how mortified his friend was and looked over to Shiro before doing any stupid compassionate action he might regret (I'm not glaring at you, Keith, not at all.) His older friend was wincing but soon forced his face to return to a focused stare.
All Lance wanted to do was jump across the room and hug Shiro, but he was afraid it would come across as immature and childish. Fortunately, Hunk spoke through the growing awkward silence.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to put it so bluntly."
"It's okay. I hope you're right, because that gives us some hints at least. I don't know how we could get the feed from those cameras though."
"Leave that to me." Hunk said, taking his phone from his pocket and starting to text like a maniac. "Or rather, leave it to Pidge. She can hack into anything; I don't think those puny security cameras will be a problem for her."
"Who's Pidge?" For a second, Lance was startled by the sound of Keith's voice. The raven haired boy had been so silent Lance had almost forgotten he was in the room with them. Recovering from his strange surprise, Lance turned sideways to face his nemesis (yes he liked using that word; it made everything so much more dramatic.)
"Pidge is my and Hunk's friend from home. She joined our gang in high school and she lives next door to Hunk. She's still in high school, but I hope she comes here to study!"
"Why would Hunk think she would be able to hack into the cameras? If she's still in high school, what makes you think she has the necessary level of skill?" Lance wanted to punch Keith right there and then. How dare he insult one of his friends! Sure, he and Pidge hadn't gotten along much at first, but they were now really close and got into serious shenanigans and pranks whenever they were left to their own devices.
"Pidge is very talented when it comes to computers. When she was ten, she completely dismantled and rebuilt her family computer." Keith's mouth hung agape and Lance was glad Hunk's words had managed such a wonderful sight. "It was broken though, but eventually she got the hang of it enough to make it work again and even improved it. She's been hacking her gym report cards since the beginning of sophomore year, so I think she's more than qualified for the job. At least she could get much more done than any of us can." Hunk said while he continued texting. Lance was back to sitting against the wall and enjoyed the sight of putting Keith back in his place as if it were a birthday present. Finally, Hunk leaped from his bed and grabbed his computer.
"Pidge can do a Skype with us now, her parents are asleep." Hunk said, starting up his laptop. Lance glanced at his watch. It was already 10:30 pm and a week night, but he knew Pidge didn't need many hours of sleep to stay alive in class the next day.
"Isn't a bit late?" Shiro asked, obviously not having reached the same conclusion as Lance.
"Trust me, Pidge never goes to bed before midnight, she Skypes her brother at night too so it's totally fine." Hunk said, calling his friend. Soon a sound indicated the call was accepted and a voice Lance recognized as Pidge's filled the silence in the room.
"Hey Hunk, I'm glad you called."
"Hey Pigeon! Are you sure the parental units are sleeping?" Hunk asked.
"Yeah, I can hear Dad snore and I'm pretty sure he only goes to sleep after mom does. The coast is clear."
"Okay, I'm going to put you on Lance's bed. Hang on a sec." Hunk got up and did as he had said, forcing Keith and Lance to join the other two on Hunk's bed.
"Hey everyone!" chirped Pidge. "How's it going Lance? Got any super embarrassing dating stories to share with me today?" Battling the blush of his cheeks, Lance replied:
"Nope, sorry. But we do have a juicy current events tale to tell you."
"Aren't you going to introduce me to the other two guys in your room first? Or should I be worried one of them is your future boyfriend that I don't know about?" Lance felt his face become even more flushed, but he regained his cool nonetheless.
"Ha-ha, very funny Katie." Pidge winced at the mention of her birth name. "This is Shiro, our resident assistant since last year, and Keith, the resident emo kid."
"Watch it!" Keith replied.
"I assume Hunk put you up to date." Lance continued, ignoring Keith's last comment.
"I only said we needed her help for some hacking and she agreed." Hunk said.
"Well it's a little more complicated than that." Lance added, but Hunk shut him up and went through a quick explanation of the last two weeks' events. He had already told Pidge about the murder, but now that they knew more it took him 30 minutes to go through all their information. Lance interrupted every once in a while to showcase how crucial his help had been in the development of the case, earning questioning and slightly mocking looks from Pidge. Once Hunk was done, Shiro spoke.
"So you think you can hack into the video surveillance here?"
"Oh yes, definitely. But I will need to physically interact with their interface." As only Hunk seemed to have understood that sentence, Pidge clarified, "I need to come to your place to connect my laptop to the cameras there. I can't do this from my own house."
"That does make things more complicated." Shiro said.
"Wait, you could come visit us this weekend! It's Halloween, and it's not like you have plans that night!" Lance said.
"Why would you think that? I may have been invited to a party." Lance shot her a knowing glare and Pidge pushed her glasses up the brink of her nose, defeated. "You're right, I don't have anything. And Halloween isn't the same without you guys. I hear Matt is throwing some huge party and he wanted me to come; so I guess I can ask my parents."
"Maybe don't mention the party; you're way too young to be this close to alcohol." Hunk said.
"I'm 17, Hunk. I'm not exactly a child anymore."
"Sure, Pidge, sure. Tell that to your children when you have to order take-out every dinner because you can't cook." Lance said. "So, you in?"
"Heck yeah! We're going to be an awesome team of investigators!"
"Oh! We're going to need a name!" Lance jumped again on the bed, startling Keith and Shiro.
"Yeah, something cool like the Scooby Gang, but that reflects our personality." Pidge said.
"The Hint Hunters?" proposed Hunk.
"Nah, too obvious." Pidge said.
"The Mystery …. Something?" said Keith, trying to add to the conversation.
"No, it needs to be something that doesn't directly hint that we're investigating this case. Something to do with how we fit together as a team…" Pidge thought, a hand rubbing her chin. Suddenly she shrieked and everyone covered their ears. "I've got it! Hunk, Lance and I always watched that 80s show 'Voltron: Defender of the Universe' based on an anime in which there are five different color mechanical lions that come together to form this super huge awesome robot that basically defends the universe. I was the green lion, Hunk was the yellow and Lance was the blue one even though we said he should have been the red for a long time."
"Yeah, I've watched that as a kid. I always liked the red one the best." Keith said, his head burying in his shoulders as if to hide his slight embarrassment.
"Then I guess we can name the team Voltron and we'll each take a lion color. I'll be yellow, Lance can keep blue, Pidge is green, Keith has red, and I guess Shiro can be the black lion." Hunk said.
"I have no clue what you're talking about, but if you like it then okay, I guess." Shiro said. Lance turned in astonishment at his friend. How could he be older than him and not have watched that show! It was his childhood!
"We have to show it to you!" Lance practically yelled. "Right now!" He added.
"Not now, it's almost midnight Lance. Maybe another day." Shiro looked more tired than Lance had ever seen him in that moment and he realized that they should probably bring their little session to an end.
"So I'll ask my parents tomorrow and I'll text Hunk their answer, which will most likely be yes. I can come early Saturday morning; I'm only a few hours away. It was nice meeting all of you, fellow paladins, but it is way past my official bedtime and if my parents wake up and find me on Skype it will not help my case. See ya!" The call ended and the four boys were left in silence.
"Well, this was productive but I'm really tired. I'm going to hit the hay. Good night guys." Shiro left, leaving Keith behind like a stranded child. Keith stood up, looking around as if he meant to say something, but ended up just leaving, mumbling a "goodnight" as he closed the door.
"What a jerk!" Lance said, jumping on his bed as soon as Hunk has cleared the computer off it.
"He may not be your best friend, because that would be me, but you're going to have to learn to work with him if you actually want to do this."
"Yeah, yeah."
"I can't believe this is happening. I kind of started it as a joke, but it looks like we might really get somewhere."
Lance was about to fall asleep when he caught a strong whiff of the coffee smell on his body.
"Shit, I'm going to have to shower." He grabbed his towel and soap and headed for the bathroom. Thankfully no one was there; it was almost midnight after all. He quickly rubbed the scent off his body as best as he could and found Hunk already sleeping when he got back. Lance silently changed into his pajamas and slipped into bed. Facing the ceiling and the stars that populated it, he couldn't help but focus on the last three unnamed stars. He had met several people he considered his friends over the last few years, but none of them seemed important enough to have one of his few stars named after them. But part of him still hoped he would find space in his life for those three significant others.
