"Seriously this place was made 10, 600 years ago? It's a whole lot better than how everyone advanced on Earth." Lance says as he looks up at the ceiling in amazement. Coran is talks adamantly as he escorts the whole Earth gang down the halls after given a little tour of the Castle.
"Really? That is fascinating. It does not take much time for a species to make their cultures." Coran strokes his mustache.
They already reached Shiro's room, but the man decided to stay with them. Coran passed by Hunk's room and the big guy decided to go lay down. Just as they were leaving Hunk's room they heard him yell. Everyone went inside, Shiro was ready to attack any unknown hostiles, until they saw Hunk hugging yellow pajamas. There were various sizes, some had multiple holes for various alien body types.
It's a comforting thought that Lance will be wearing soft pajamas after feeling the goods that Hunk found beside the bed.
"I can't believe you remembered that? Did you learn it from a documentary?" Pidge asks.
"Yeah like how the Australopithecus Africanis was one of the direct links between humans and apes." Keith adds and Pidge looks him over.
"Dude did you hear about that myth they tried to disprove against Bigfoot?"
"He is too real. So what if they can't find his remains? The Bigfoot community are hiding, or animals could have eaten the bones!"
Lance steps away from the two. They can feel out all they want over things that were proven by science. He thought Pidge would know that Bigfoot is not real.
"Well I learned about the evolution of humans, dated back millions of years and we first descended from some kind of ape. I learned about it in the flight school because I did not want to take chemistry." Lance says and the two Bigfoot enthusiasts tut at him. Like they are disappointed about not watching it in his free time.
'They can geek out together, part of being a team or something.' He thinks as he makes sure to go on the other side of Coran, trying to put as much distance between them. He cannot believe that Shiro is willing to be close to them, even asking questions about their shared obsession.
"So humans evolved from a different species. So you guys mutated into what you are today? That is a rarity on most planets." Coran muses.
"Yes, that is if you are going that route. Some people believe that they already existed as humans. They say that their god, or gods because there are various faiths in our world." Shiro explains and Coran tilts his head.
"Ah just like the Corgions and the Zerifnards different religious faiths. They admit that we all turn into cosmic dust, but one civilization on their home planet Heric believes that their souls stay to protect the motherland or they latch onto the closest zium even if they aren't family. Sort of like protection charms." Coran slams his fist into his palm.
"Uh yeah." Lance nods. He didn't even catch like half the weird words
"Then again there was another faction of faith that was introduced, I don't know if they made it h-and this is Number 5's room! Make sure to get some shut eye, can't look like a yulmet about to sleep. Temperamental folks they are." Pidge mutters something under his breath as he clenches his backpack strap. "Where was I? Hmmmmm." Coran twists his mustache.
Keith shrugs and Shiro laughs. The pilot rubs his neck, "I got lost with all the alien names."
"Well not everyone can recall every race, but one quintant I'll teach all of you some common aliens. Well, what was common." Coran frowns momentarily before snapping back to his previous happy disposition. "Here is young Keith's room."
"Thanks." Keith grunts out.
He walks into his room after nodding to Shiro, who smiles, and Lance feels a twinge of jealousy before squashing it. He'll have time to spend with the older male even if he has to fight for it from Keith. He bets he can beat Keith in a fist fight.
"Yeah I'd like to know more about the Corgens or whatever they are." He says, trying to ignore the two's exchange as he focuses on Coran. The poor guy remembered he is displaced in time again.
He hates it when people are sad, it's heartbreaking.
Coran immediately brightens, his mouth is stretched across his cheeks, and the crow's feet around his eyes are prominent. The older male ruffles his hair-just like his dad did-before gripping his shoulder and directing him down the hall.
He doesn't understand everything coming from Coran's mouth. Still he learns that some kind of plant called dormir is native to the Heric planet that has properties like helium. Ocean's words where lighter than breathable air that give the two natives a varga of being in the air. He may not know what a varga is, but the plant is some kind of helium like thing.
Coran directs Lance to his room, and to be honest he doesn't know what to do. He sort of awkwardly said that he'll see him tomorrow.
"Of course, have a good night cycle and don't let the zinkans nibble your ears."
"The what?" His eyes widen as he holds his ears.
"Oh Lance, it's a child's tale where we would pinch naughty children's ears."
"Oh. Well, don't let the bed bugs bite. That's uh a Earth expression. To have pleasant dreams." Lance ends it as Coran nods.
"Got it!" He turns dramatically on his heels before walking like a soldier down the hall. He did this for some time before walking normally.
Lance went through the door, which is apparently his room for his indefinite stay in the Castle. He pulls out his pajamas from the side, throwing the pairs that aren't his body shape.
He slips them on and looks at the armor he was carrying. He has to admit, he looks good in blue and white. He hangs the uniform and goes through his jean pockets. He takes out the ripped out calendar sheets of September 2323, August 2323, February 2324, and September 2324. He takes his phone out and turns on the power.
Lance is surprised by how many text messages he has and the amount of phone calls not to mention voice mails. He gulps and clenched his phone. He spits blue lion slippers, puts them on, and walks down the corridor to Hunk' s room.
Lance can feel his pores opening up and he clench his teeth. He is running now and he is in front of the door. His eyes are watering at this point and he tries to clear his mind. He puts his hand over the panel, which is by the door frame, and enters the dimly lit room.
Hunk was lying on his side, his back facing the door, and he looks drowsily at him. "What are you-are you okay?" Hunk asks and he notices the tears in his eyes.
"I Hunk, just." He begins before swallowing a lump in his throat. "Our family, they know we are gone."
Hunk sits up and Lance walks over to the side of his bed. He sits beside Hunk who puts his arm against his shoulder. Lance leans into the older teen and presses play from Hunk's mom.
"Henry Nicoli Garret where are you?! I've been calling you constantly and Lance better be there because the two of you are thick as thieves. Everyone set up posters because I know the two of you did not just run away. It was your dream, well Hunk's was to become an engineer for the fighter planes and become a gourmet chef. If the two of you are kidnapped, along with that poor boy, I will find you. If you two are passed out for a couple of days because of Lance deciding to drink," it was only one time that he got wasted and everyone holds it over you, "I will find both of you and discipline you until you two are in your thirties. Please answer. Lance your phone isn't dead or broken. If you can, turn on your location." Hunk's mom pleads, her voice breaking in the middle of her spiel. They can hear her crying, and a man's voice comforting her.
"Mom," Hunk whispers out, tears are streaming down his face.
Lance is already sniffling, Mrs. Garrett was always there for them whenever they got in a scrap when he didn't want to go to his mami.
He plays the voicemails from recent to not.
God they weren't ready for it. There were thirty-seven voicemails. His mami calling the most, saying "Mi hijo venir espalda casa" (my son come back home) and Melony left a message twice. First was a joke that he got kidnapped by a handsome dark stranger, and another that she told his parents-the whole family really-of his most recent message from her. Heck even the Garrison sent a threatening message, saying they should be in class or else they would track them.
The two of them have been listening to the voice mails for a long time, even going to his messages to read the long texts everyone sent. He would have loved to hear his family crying out for them to come home, threaten to beat him with a chancla, put him under house arrest, or contact the police to keep him under lock and key so everyone knows where he's at.
The two of them managed to get through all of the messages, even with some of them were in Spanish. He read those out loud to Hunk—he understands it more than reading it, despite the two of them raised in the same neighborhood since they were eight his parents enrolled him to a English dominant school—and the voice mails weren't even done yet.
The two of them took a selfie when his phone went to fifty-four percent. It was for their own benefit really, wanting to take a pic when the read the messages.
Tomorrow they are going to send a picture of them not crying, showing that they are okay, and alive. Maybe get Pidge in on the picture too, assuming that the message will be sent all the way out in space.
Lance turns off his phone to save what little power he has, and he turns to Hunk. Both of them have their cheeks stained with tear trails, and snot coming out of their nose.
"W-we su-ure are a m-mess," Hunk hiccups and Lance nods.
"S-sorry. Th-ought you'd w-want to," his voice breaks and he buries himself into Hunks chest.
He doesn't know how long they were like that, being cradled in Hunk's arms for who knows how long. He knows it's long enough to help calm him down, and he pulls away from the gentle teen's chest.
He wipes his nose on the sleeve of his pajamas and takes a deep breath. "Thanks." He doesn't bother to look up into his friend's chocolate eyes. He's exhausted. Despite listening to the voicemails, everyone is concerned about them, even Tia Alexandra said something about Hunk, and she's usually envious of his cooking expertise after being one-upped by him when he was eleven.
Hunk rubs his eyes with his sleeve, "I'm glad you came here to hear their voices. It was…nice."
Lance nods. "Yeah. I'm just going to go back. Make sure you sleep well." He says, looking up before hugging the larger teen.
Hunk's arms engulfs him, and too soon he leaves the hug. He trudges to the door and he looks back at his friend. "You might want to change into something different," he jokes.
"You too buddy."
The Blue Paladin leaves, and slowly walks toward his room. It's weird walking down these quiet halls where there is a low hum all around. The lights are dim, different from before, and he wonders if the Castle is like that because it's "night" in this place. It's strange, Pidge's room is next door and the guy didn't leave, so he guesses that they weren't loud with their bawling. Maybe the rooms are soundproof.
As Lance ponders, he goes into his room, and take out a different pair of pajamas. He's shirtless, already his dirty top on the floor, and he looks around his new room. He sees a door in the back, and he wonders what it leads to. He opens it, and he's excited that there is a bathroom. Even a cabnit beside the mirror, he opens it, and his eyes widen. Face cream and a face mask. Well, what he can assume is face cream, and a mask. He knows those familiar containers even though he can't read Altean.
This is the perfect pick me up after a feelings session. He heads to his bed, and puts on his new pajamas with more energy compared to going up the hall.
Today is a terrible day, Lance concludes as he nurses a headache. First, he slept through some kind of emergency alarm after going to sleep late. On the plus side his skin looks amazing, and his eyes weren't red. Hunk looked alright when he saw him, didn't have a headache, but still he should have talked to him one-on-one before they had to do the training exercises.
He failed like all of the training exercises, he refused to work with Keith with the electrical maze, and everything other one too, but too be fair the mind meld was more of Pidge's fault. Then Blue was complaining about getting her head stuck in sand. He did manage to clean his beautiful lion, but what grated on his nerves was Keith during that blind exercise. He really shouldn't have competed with him because he did hear Blue telling him to be careful just when they were getting too close to the ground. Did he listen? No, but the only good thing he learned from the exercise was that his bond with Blue is strong—obviously—enough that she can practically feed him information, and it is terrifying that Coran has some control on their helmet settings.
Seriously, the man could do anything with a whim; normally he is cool with Coran, but he went too far in that exercise. Sure the two of them bonded when Coran showed everyone to their new rooms, but he just found out how serious the eccentric Altean can be. Especially when they heard about the blind Lion test was successful after the paladins of old flew together in multiple missions. Shiro was the only one successful in the mission, and he should listen more to Blue if they are going to do more of that instead of goading Keith to be the first one to pull out.
'Take that Hunk, I can so admit I'm wrong,' he smugly thinks on the couch, 'not like I'd actually say that to someone who isn't my family or my bros.'
Everyone is down on the common deck, lounging on the couch—Hunk, Lance, Pidge, and Keith—or standing as the two aliens are tutting at them.
"You know, we should at least try to find some kind of common ground. Sort of like that exercise in the Garrison." Pidge says as his head is hanging off the seat and he moves his legs back and forth across the back of the couch.
"That still did not make us better at flying," Lance said from his spot by Hunk's side.
"Correction, that did not make you a better flier," Pidge smirks and Lance's eyebrow twitches.
He was about to yell at the younger male when his dark skinned friend squeezed his shoulder. A warning from Hunk, quietly reassuring him to not open his mouth, and the gesture was used with Cicero and Jose when they were edging into territory that Hunk innately knows will turn out disastrous if they open their mouths.
"What sort of exercise?" Allura asks as she walks to get closer to the humans, "We could try it out. See if your methods mesh well with your training."
"Oh I got it!" Lance jumps out from his place on the couch and touches the side of his paladin uniform. There is a small pocket dimension he found, and he takes his phone out of it. "We can take a group selfie!"
He doesn't know how long his phone is going to last, and if the day is going to go on with training exercises, then he better get a picture before the power runs out. He quickly blocks out the thought before his eyes could water. He isn't going to seem weak with Shiro around.
"I doubt a selfie wi-" Keith started when Allura interrupted him.
"What's a selfie?" She asks, walking from standing next to Shiro to get a better look at his phone.
Coran saunters close to Lance as he turns on the power then unlocks his phone. "What does this device do?"
"It's sort of a communication/photo/entertainment thing. Almost everyone on Earth has one." Lance cheerfully states as he sees the battery lower than the night before, and there are new messages, missed calls, and voicemails.
He might as well get this over with now, he has been waiting to do this, and he needs to show his family, Hunk's family, and Cicero that everyone is safe. He will everyone that he talks to on a semi-daily basis from the Garrison to the group message, and his friends parents. They deserve to know that they aren't in a ditch or kidnapped.
"Lance it isn't a bonding exercise." Shiro says as he walks near the couch.
"Sure it is. It's a bonding moment, and we're making memories." He says, he gives the leader his best puppy eyes, and looks over his shoulder to Hunk.
Hunk joins in on Lance's ploy since he's off the couch and is pouting. He even sees Coran mimicking the two of them.
"Come on, we can show Allura and Coran something from Earth too beside Pidge's laptop."
'Please please please please please say yes. I need to show them that we are save and that you exist.' He mentally pleads, his eyes water slightly.
Shiro sighs before nodding his head.
"YES!" Lance cheers and clasps Hunk's hands in his own.
Coran then takes each of their hands and lace them in his fingers. The two teens look at the older questioning. "What? Are we not celebrating a joyous occasion?" He unlaces his fingers from their own, "I'll just…yeah."
Coran's weirdness aside, Lance bounces back. "Okay everyone either sit on the couch in the middle or stand behind us. I'll take the picture."
Pidge gets up from his weird laying position and scoots to Keith who's in the middle. Hunk sits on Keith's other side and the temperamental pilot tries to get out of it. Hunk stops him by keeping him there. Shiro stands behind them on the couch. Allura is on Shiro's side, and Coran is on the other side of the princess. Lance leans a little across Hunk and turns his camera to the side. The mice even showed up, standing on Allura's shoulders, looking as cute as ever.
"Get closer everyone and smile." He orders as they do it with some grumbling.
"This is stupid." Keith mutters.
Lance would have said to Keith to shut up, instead he takes as many pictures as he can.
"Ok now silly faces."
"What do you mean by silly faces?" Coran and Allura inquires at the same time.
"Make your face look weird. Just make it look different from usual." Shiro helpfully comments.
Coran puts his hands on his cheeks and opens his mouth in horror. Allura looks confused before settling on something that looks like she smelled weird. Heck even the mice got in on it, the multi colored rodents manage to get on the four sitting teens heads and posing. Lance sticks out his tongue and closes an eye. Hunk puffs out his cheeks. Keith scowls. Pidge pulls his eyelids down and sticks out his tongue.
Lance lowers his hand and immediately starts making a message for his entire family—plus Hunk's family, and Cicero's while he's at it—as everyone is talking. He listens with half an ear as he makes sure his data is on. He then concentrates2 on selecting the photos—the ones he just took and the one he had with Hunk last night—and crafts a message about where they are.
He bites the inside of his cheek as he tries not to get too emotional with everyone around.
"About training exercises that should be Earth based," Pidge starts, "why don't we try the human knot?"
"No." Keith immediately shuts down the idea, "too uncomfortable. The last time that happened with five people it took us thirty minutes, a lot of sweating, and someone even farted."
"Maybe trust fall exercises?" Hunk suggests and someone tsks.
"Too easy. Unless you want to do it the Altean version?" Pidge counters and Keith hums in agreement.
Lance sticks out his tongue as he types out the final words.
"You can't substitute hard for Altean," Allura scolds.
"Think of it as a complement Allura," Shiro says, "considering our version is just falling backward. Usually it would be on higher platform, but we don't have that here."
"I could always whip something up. How high do you want it to be? My height or around the height half the Green Lion's forearm?"
Shiro was about to answer when Pidge snaps his fingers. "We could talk about that universal thing! Like if we met our soulmates or not."
"Soulmates? Like bond mates? Destined to be allies or enemies?" Coran asks.
"Yes, if soulmates are similar to bondmates maybe we can talk about it." Pidge shrugs as he stretches his arms.
Lance feels Hunk tense up beside him, and his finger hovers over the submit button.
"You want to talk about it later?" Lance whispers, leaning into Hunk's side.
"Why aren't you upset? Usually you are about this." Hunk lowly replies back.
"What?" Upset about what? Are they talking about how garlic knots are not the best thing in the entire universe or what? He will fight somebody, and the only food that comes close is abuela's and Hunk's cooking.
"Never mind."
Lance hums. He reads over his message.
Me: What up everyone? So me Hunk Pidge & Keith found Shiro. Pilot who crashed, 'member? Kidnapped by some evil aliens, Galra, nasty furry purple cat/bat humanoids who want to destroy the universe. So me being awesome found a robot lion, Blue, take pic later, and she is telepathic! She is the sweetest thing ever, and she took us to this castle and we found aliens. The white haired one is Allura, and she's a princess. I'll marry her one day or date her, whichever comes 1st and the one with orange is Coran. Dude's pretty cool, reminds me of Tio George but take it thirty notches when he's tipsy when he has his moments.. Everyone is fighting in the war against the evil aliens and apparently the Galra destroyed Allura and Coran's home 10 kya (long story). They were asleep for 10k until this handsome devil woke them up (well not really a long story but whatev). It's nice to see u guys care and send messages, but my phone's about to die. There are like no phone chargers in space, but so far we are safe for now. I'll ask P later if he can make a charger or something. No that's Hunk's field. Hunk says hi and we are each other's rocks here. We want to say we 3 u all. Ttyl latz hopefully.
A bit too long, but it summarizes everything that happened so far. Nothing too bad, and Lance hesitates to delete the part of the Galra, but someone needs to know about those awful aliens. Maybe their families can warn the Garrison as well, but he immediately shuts down the thought.
He adds the photo he took with Hunk and went down a space from his long message. He writes out, "Look at us goops, sobbing over ur messages."
The Garrison didn't even try to understand what happened to Shiro, instead they just put him to sleep as he tried to warn them about the danger Earth was in. That thought brings him to another. Is Earth still in danger? The Galra enslave every race, make some of them fight in the arena, and others work in their camps. Even though he and the rest of the team destroyed Sendak's fleet, when would another fleet come in the Milky Way Galaxy?
A hand slaps his forehead, and Lance yelps. He glares at Pidge, who is rubbing his hand, "Seriously, Lance you have a thick skull. We're doing a bonding moment now."
The brunet rubs his forehead, "Didn't mean you had to hit me."
"What can I say, I'm not waiting forever." Pidge shrugs.
"Pidge, apologize," Shiro orders as Lance hits the send button.
He glances at the screen and his heart jumps when he sees that the message is under process of being sent.
"I'm just saying it would have taken forever. Did you see this guy? During the rare times that he thinks it's like forever because he's so slow," Lance sputters indigently as Keith chuckles and Hunk laughs a bit as well, "and I'm not waiting."
"Is it a human thing to laugh at some criticism?" Coran asks as he looks over all the paladins.
"Sometimes. Most people take it to heart, and everyone else laughs or gasps. It's sort of like an insult." Hunk says as he wiggles his finger in Lance's side, causing the male to twitch. "Not that nice, but sometimes friends do it if their humor is twisted. Sorry Lance." The male apologizes
Lance aimlessly fights off Hunk's horrifying fingers. "I am sooo ecstatic that I'm the butt of the joke…hey, what are we doing?"
"Something that we shouldn't talk about because it's a waste of time," Keith says
"From what Coran said it seems that there are different types of soulmates used. It isn't just the human race having them but other extraterrestrial life." Pidge says as he gets lies in his previous position where he is lying on his back, and his feet are back on the seat of the couch.
He's going to be honest, he is not looking forward to this bonding exercise. He would have taken the invisible maze than this horrible topic. Heck, he'd rather watch his teammates' back on the highest difficulty while using the shields not to get hit buy those weird balls—being sucked into the hole where it was pitch black until Coran did something to bring them into the light—multiple times then deal with this conversation.
There is a reason why he stopped bragging to anyone in the Garrison about his words. Who was he kidding? Even his skin cleansing routine, fashion style, and hair styling for his younger cousins couldn't prepare him for Mr. Moody.
"Please Pidge, either put your feet to the ground or off to the side," Allura said as she leans over to tilt the Green Paladin's feet to the other side. "You call your bond mates your soulmates? Why? Do you find out who the other is by gazing into their eyes, feeling a sense of purpose or warmth? Do humans ignore it? I know most species use this type of bonding, but there are other types."
Shiro sits next to Allura and explains, "Well we have words on the forearm of our dominant hand. There are colors and our soulmate—bondmate for you—first words they spoke directly to us. The color and the way the words are written tells us about our soulmate's character before meeting them. When we do meet them, we either feel warmth or our arm tingling a little, kind of like a shock."
"So Earthlings can find out more about their bondmates even though they don't know if it's a kinship or enemy combatant." Coran muses.
"Soulmates are either platonic or romantic, not like your bondmates where it sounds like it's between platonic and adversary." Pidge says with his feet planted to the ground. "
'Why the crow would the universe want you to be destined to hate someone?' Lance thinks, puzzled over the fact that bondmates could be friendly or hateful. It sounds counter-productive, especially when it's compared to the human standard.
"Like how does it work?" Lance asks as he turns to the older male, hoping Coran could divulge information to them. "Is it different then getting words?"
"Words? Oh, I thought those were just symbols that all humans were born with." Coran says.
"Well for Alteans, we know if someone is our bondmate, or bondmates, when we lock eyes with someone. Our body becomes cold, but at the same time warm. This happens a few times until we realize that the person we were looking at is our bondmate, and it shows that we aren't coming down with a sickness." Allura explains before she tilts her head, "What do you humans do when you find out you have a bon-I mean soulmate? Can you have more than one like Alteans?"
Shiro decides to explain it to the aliens, "We receive words on our forearm. Those words are the first words that our soulmate tells us directly. Everyone get's a feel for their soulmate by the way the words look—slanted, bubbled, small etc.—and the colors of the word. The color that appears tells us about their personalities, something that is dominant throughout their life. When our soulmate says the words, our arms tingle a bit, some say it's like lighting but it's more like a short electrical current or a few needles going through your arm." Allura and Coran make a face, and Shiro's eyes widen. "It's not anything bad, some of us experience warmth from our words, and the stronger connection we have with our soulmate, like seeing them more often or having a bigger impact on our life, there's a intense feeling of either electricity or warmth. And when you meet your soulmate, the color on the words become less vibrant and that there is a grey or black outlining it."
"What?" Hunk and Lance look at each other. "Dude," Hunk says, "I did not even know this even when I'm friends with a hopeless romantic."
Unfortunately for Lance, he couldn't hit Hunk on the arm conspicuously enough with everyone in the room. Instead, he settles on pouting.
"I thought everyone knew that?" Pidge says, swinging his legs. "Oh, never mind."
"What do you mean, oh never mind?" Lance
"It's a recent discover that was backed by science. It should be coming out soon." Pidge frowns after he said that. The teen looks troubled for a second, before his face becomes impassive.
"Isn't that nice? Now can we move on to something else? How we eat certain foods and the like," Keith said as he picks at his fingernails.
"What is this about colors? Can you give me examples?" Allura says and she looks directly at Keith.
The Red Paladin shifts his eyes over to Shiro and the man scratches his cheek.
"Some of the meanings I kind of…forgot. It wasn't essential." Shiro slowly says and the man purses his lips as his body stands rigidly.
Fuck. No. This is getting into amnesia territory and it's horrible to see the strong pilot fold into himself. Lance clears his throat, successfully divagating almost everyone's attention onto him.
"I know them."
"Of course you do." Hunk says good-naturedly, and Lance huffs.
He smacks Hunk's upper arm. "Shoosh. Let the soulmate expert deal with this. Allura, you can call me the love expert," he winks at the princess and Allura grimaces. The colors are this: green, red, orange, yellow, blue, purple, white, and black. The purer the color is, the more dominant a trait within that spectrum is."
Lance explains as he gets up from the couch and paces in front of the team. "Starting with green, the color represents jealousy, going with the flow, or their dedication toward something. It's one of the most diverse colors out there, and there are other colors that are divergent as well. Red," Lance starts and lightly touches his arm, "is the color of passion, romance, or anger. Orange represents someone who is determined, happy, or distrustful toward others. Yellow shows that someone is intelligent, cautious, or empathetic. Blue represents someone's loyalty, them being super chill, or they're wise, kind of like me." Lance winks for good measure and Allura blanches. "Purple is ambition, dignity—others call it nobility—or being independent. It used to be the colors of Emperors back in the day. White is like green, it can represent someone being innocent, serious, or their sickliness. Black is…power, elegance, or simply mysterious. Black and white are the main ones that people have trouble with because depending on if you're going with the art or scientific route one could be the absence of color and the other filled with all of them. And that my friends, is the color spectrum of our soulmates. Crow I need water."
"I saw you touched your arm, is your soulmate red?" Allura asks and Lance mentally curses for the princess being so perceptive.
Before he could respond, Pidge speaks up. "Princess, most people don't ask about the color of someone's words or if they met their soulmate."
"Oh," Allura's eyes widen, "I am sorry Lance. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."
"No no no, it's cool." Lance waves his hands, trying to make Allura feel better. "But you kind of hit it on the head, my words are red and he's a passionate idiot."
"So you already met him. Why didn't you tell me?" Pidge whines, "I could have made fun of him."
"First of all, it was pretty recent when I met him in the Garrison." Sort of a lie. First year, a couple weeks into the semester. "Then we left, so I couldn't talk to him much. From what I've seen he's headstrong, willing to tackle any problems, and always seems to conquer his goals," Lance smiles wistfully as he imagines a younger Keith defeating cadets or acing a test. He sees Hunk grin, and he shut down his memory. "He was obnoxious though, and did I mention an idiot? Like seriously the guy is dense, doesn't notice the attention he got from everyone. Wait a minute, why do you care about soulmates anyway? He's nothing and you're always so Mr. Defensive about this kind of thing? You got some kind of secret?" Lance teases, attempting to draw the attention off of him.
He goes as far to sit back next to Hunk, and tries to sink into the couch. He mentally pleads for the couch to suck him in, or that he can flee to hide in Blue for two hours.
"You two stop. Lance, I'm happy you found your soulmate, and Pidge, some people aren't that comfortable talking about them." Shiro says, the voice of reason in the group, second to Hunk.
"It just seems like he would be someone open about it." Pidge shrugs and Lance's lip twitches downward before going into a smirk.
"What color are your words," he slyly asks, leaning over Hunk, getting close to Keith and Allura as he tries to get in Pidge's face.
Keith pushes him backwards and he sputters to the teen to leave him alone.
"You're in my space," Keith lowly gives his reason.
Lance was about to make a comment that they're in everyone's space when Pidge said, "Well I don't think you should know. It's not like it's a special thing."
"Oh come on! Allura Coran, don't you want to hear what colors we have. I mean, it's not like we are saying words or anything." He pleads, trying to get the others to join in. He adds, "It is part of the paladin bonding experience."
Lance has to use every trick in his arsenal to get everyone to spill the beans. He leans back to Hunk, trying not to be pushed back and almost falling on the floor again.
Coran gets in Pidge's face and gives him his puppy dog eyes look like he did previously with Shiro. Pidge's eyebrows raise up, he's upset before moving back into the couch to get into the couch. "Fine fine! Just get away from my face," Pidge grumbles as Coran follows his request. The brunet coughs, "So the color of my words is an indigo like color. I say the person is a mixture between a dark blue and purple."
"Mine was…a dark color." Shiro finally says. His eyebrows furrow, "I think it was a dark orange color, like amber."
Hunk rolls up his sleeve, and Lance's eyes widen. He knew that Hunk's yellow orange color, both colors are so light that it seemed to be seamless. His markings were in a different language the last time he saw them, and now he can recognizes the words.
'Holy crow Hunk's soulmate is an alien! I knew that pin prick was something!' Lance thinks before giving his friend a secret grin.
"Mine is like a light amber." Hunk said.
Everyone turns to Keith, the teen is gripping his right arm. The teen mutters, "Magenta. Though it change."
The paladins grew interested, and look at Keith, their eyes are imploring him to divulge the information about him meeting his soulmate. Coran is smugly grinning and Allura has an angelic grin that Lance couldn't help but stare at her than his rival.
"Actually Keith here happens to be Allura's bondmate." Coran says as he claps his hands.
"What?!" Everyone shouts. Lance puts his hand on Hunk's thigh, and leans close. Hunk does the same, but he goes past the imaginary line of Keith's personal space, where the teen holds his hand in front of him, pushing Hunk away. Shiro stopped stretching, and Pidge's glasses slides down his nose.
"You," Lance points his finger at Allura, "and him" he points to Keith, "are actually? What? How? When? Where? Why?"
"Remember when Keith stayed behind. Well we talked about being bondmates." Allura says, the woman chuckles awkwardly and the mice are squeaking on her shoulders.
The four mice imitate fighters, as if defending Allura if anyone questioned her statement. The scene would have been amusing if Lance wasn't currently in shock. He feels like he would fall down if he wasn't already sitting.
Allura. The most perfect girl, no woman, in the entire universe, is bondmates with Keith. Keith, his rival and unfortunate one-sided soulmate, has Allura as his soulmate. The only good thing that came from this is that there is not going to be any romantic relationship between the two of them. He still has a chance for Allura, and if he thinks about it, this is a good thing. Like Allura is the head honcho here, their commander while Shiro is their leader. Since her bond with Keith is platonic, it means that she's going to help him, possibly in the fighting department or strategizing. That would make Keith a well-rounded fighter—a better one—that widens the gap between them.
Still, it doesn't help that he feels sore about this even when he rationalized this whole thing. He feels his connection with Blue ease the soreness in his chest. He takes a deep breath before straightening up from a sudden thought, 'Wait, can they be romantic?'
"So hypothetically could you fall for your bondmate?" Lance asks and Pidge groans.
"Seriously Lance? That's what you ask? Not what her words were to him?"
"That shit is private, and we were all there technically when Allura said her words to him." Lance points at Keith, literally pointing his finger in his face, and Keith flicks his forehead. "Hey!"
"It's not a big deal. I don't understand the whole trend about being excited about your soulmate." Keith said, getting from the couch, "It's just a norm that should go out of society. It shouldn't' even be a thing to get excited about. Yes I met my soulmate, but that doesn't mean my life changed. Besides becoming Red's piolet and a Paladin of Voltron."
Lance opens his mouth, then closes it. On one hand he wants to adopt Keith's nonchalant attitude about this because he has the misfortune of being this stubborn ass's words on his arm. On the other, he always dreamed about his soulmate, helping out others in his matchmaking schemes, and tried researching with Hunk to find out what his words meant.
"Soulmates, bondmates, and whatever they are called everywhere else is important. It's the uniqueness we all have. Maybe some aliens don't think it's a big deal, that's cool. Just don't shove down your ideology onto us," Lance argues as he stands up, frowning at the raven haired male.
"I will once everyone stops shoving it down my throat. I thought in space it wouldn't matter much," Keith brissles, clenching his fists.
"Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. I don't understand why you hate it so much. I mean, you have Allura for crying out loud!" Lance throws up his arms, and Shiro intervenes in between the two.
"I think you two should cool down."
"I second that notion. Come on, everyone gets a bit testy when they don't have any grub in their stomachs. Come along." Coran said and he practically got everyone on the couch on their feet. He then went to Lance and touch his arm.
Lance capitulates, knowing that if he doesn't he's going to make the situation worse than it already is. He walks behind Hunk, Pidge, and Coran. He looks back to see Allura and Shiro talking to Keith. Allura doesn't look upset, but more like she's understanding whatever they are talking in hushed whispers.
He turns back around and rolls his shoulders. It will be fine, so what if Keith managed to snag Allura as a bondmate? He could still be her boyfriend after he woos the princess. He'll be fine with Shiro helping Keith out now, it seems to him that the two are only close because of Keith's short temper. He still has a chance to become buddies with his hero.
There is one thing that Lance regrets, that the team couldn't even bond over something simple as a common thing from Earth. How could they form Voltron if not everyone has a strong bond with their Lion, or is it they have to have a strong bond between paladins?
Whatever the answer is, he knows he screwed up. He shouldn't let his emotions get the best of him, everyone knows that his feelings tend to overwhelm him if they are strong.
Shay is determined and empathetic from the color I gave her.
Indigo for Pidge: ambitious and intelligent, leaning toward ambition though. (A girl/woman on Earth who is a fast talker, and is willing to take action. She happens to work with metal)
Dark orange: distrustful, Shiro's soulmate is a bit of an oddball. Hard to trust others, but once he does, he's there for you. It's dark because his soulmate leans toward the mysterious side in the way that he is unpredictable. Mysterious in the way you don't understand what he thinks even though his actions are different (It's Matt).
Allura's on Keith's arm is magenta: It's a mix of red, white, and purple. Allura is passionate for sure, everyone has seen it along with her anger in Season 2, but she is serious to most (though a goofball at times). The purple comes from her dignity that she was raised as a princess. She was molded to be a leader and I think magenta is an elegant color next to purple, so I thought it fit her, along with the social constricts.
Wohoo! Some character development! Besides being vain, breaking the ice, and a big softie, Lance learns that he is wrong even though he's still a bit self-absorbed (he's working on it). Looks like Keith's a good influence on him.
This took longer to get up because of finals—which I still have to do—and thinking up future chapters because I was literally out of them. I'm not going to update anything after this, I have to actually study.
This chapter is a rehash to the soulmate thing, and we learn more about Altean culture with their bondmate(s). Did you see me being a total boss, and making Lance say what he likes about Keith? I would have put like actual examples, but Lance wouldn't want to remember specific instances where Keith was cool (where he admired him and then felt jealous because he wanted to be like him).
I headcannon that Katie's mom is a community psychologist, and her main interest is the interpersonal relationships between people. What better way than studying the marks? The only reason why Katie even believes in it is because of her mom bringing in scientific proof. She was working on the study, and fun fact, it takes about a year for your study to be under peer review. Going with this, Shiro would have vague recollections of this, and the article hasn't been published yet. Shiro is close to the Holt family because of Sam, but also Matt is his soulmate.
This took too long because I really didn't want to include a cliché in my opinion—the soulmate talk—but then it sort of not really became a cliché but still is if you catch my drift. Unfortunately I'm going to rely on a cliché with Hunk, I wanted him to be soulmates with Rolo. Here me out, until I rewatched episode 5 (6?) I thought he became assertive, more active, in the war. He was like that because of Shay and seeing alien slavery, and after thinking about it, Rolo wasn't the short term platonic bond. (Note: being platonic doesn't mean you have to get along. They just help you fulfill a potential you have aka character development. This could be short term or long term.) With Hunk being Rolo's soulmate I thought it would make the guy less jaded toward everyone else, but the idea is up on the table if anyone wants it. You guys got to give cred to me if you do write about it.
On another note, the texts and voice mail was originally just something Lance was going to deal with, but then my brain's like, "Give Coran some screen time to build up the relations," and "why would Lance hide this from Hunk?"
