A/N: Sorry this is a bit shorter than I'd prefer. I have work tomorrow and have to have an outline for my thesis proposal ready by Thursday. I haven't started... *hides*

Chapter summary: In which Coran coaxes Lance out of his room and Shiro accidentally sends him back to his room.


55: Iolite - releases discord

Coran hesitantly knocked on the door to the princess's room. He wasn't necessarily surprised when he didn't receive an immediate response. Allura was probably sleeping. She should be sleeping anyway. He knocked once more before opening the door and poking his head inside. He had standing permission to enter the royal siblings' rooms at any time though I rarely used that power unless it was important.

The room was dark, which was to be expected, but the princess's bed was empty. A soft squeak from a small jewelry box on the bedside table caught his attention. He smiled fondly when one of the mice that frequently rode on his princess's shoulders poked its head out of the jewelry box with a string of beads dangling from its head.

Chuckling, Coran stepped into the room and strolled over to the mouse, holding out his cupped hands for the mouse to climb into. The big green mouse crawled out of its makeshift bed and slid into Coran's hands, its fur tickling his skin.

"At least someone was doing what they were supposed to do," the advisor said wryly.

The green mouse squeaked and sat up as if asking Coran what he meant.

"Well, my little friend, Allura was supposed to be sleeping here too," Coran said, glancing at the empty bed as he walked back to the hallway. "You wouldn't happen to know where Allura is now, would you?"

The mouse squeaked and affirmative and pointed to the right. Coran's shoulders slumped. "I was afraid of that," he sighed. "How 'bout you and I got put our lady to bed, hmm?"

The mouse squeaked and settled comfortably in Coran's hands bringing a smile to the Altean's face. Coran should have known the princess would be with her father on the holodeck, but he had hoped she would be sleeping. She was still weak from the Balmeran energy exchange, no matter vehemently she wanted to deny it.

Allura wanted to be useful, not just a pretty figurehead. Coran could definitely understand that desire. He struggled with it often himself. He wasn't a paladin or the Sentinel or the Heir. But he was beginning to realize that he still served a purpose for the time. It had taken Shiro sitting with him for hours the other night to help see that.

He doubted Allura had experienced a similar eye-opening moment. She would soon, Coran had no doubt. Everyone in their little team would find their place and settle into it like an egg in a nest. Hopefully, after their visit to the Human's home world Earth, they would all have a better focus in their end goal. They had to defeat Zarkon, find Pidge's family from wherever the Galra had taken them, and free the enslaved worlds from the Galra Empire. Lofty goals to be sure, but Coran firmly believed it was possible. It would just take a while.

As he strode past the prince's room, he paused. He was in the middle of reaching for the access panel when the door hissed open revealing a very frazzled and exhausted looking prince.

"Lance," Coran gasped. "What in the world have you been doing? You look horrible."

Lance shot the advisor a weak glare. "Thank you for the compliment," he said dully. He pressed a hand to his temple, rubbing it gingerly. "I was napping."

"You're a very bad liar, your highness," Coran said, lifting an eyebrow.

Lance stiffened, his eyes widening. Then he huffed and straightened. "So I've been told," he mumbled. He noticed the mouse in Coran's hands and petted it with two of his fingers. A smile tugged at his lips upwards when the tiny creature squeaked and grabbed one of his fingers and held it still so it could nuzzle it. He turned his hand palm up so the mouse could climb up onto his hand.

"They certainly have a better attitude than their mistress," Lance said.

"You two fought again didn't you," Coran said with a heavy sigh. It wasn't a question and Lance didn't bother answering. "I worry about the both of you sometimes," Coran said, shaking his head and placing a hand on the young prince's shoulder. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Not unless you can reverse time," Lance said, refusing to meet the advisor's eyes. When he finally did, Coran grimaced and Lance saw it. "Do I really look that bad?" Lance asked hesitantly, stopping himself from touching his scar. Instead, he pressed his hand to the Mark on his neck.

"You look tired," Coran clarified. "Did you sleep at all?" Lance shrugged and Coran knew he hadn't. "Why not?" he asked. "You and Allura are both exhausted. The last few cycles have taken a lot out of youth. You'll run yourselves into the ground if you aren't careful."

Lance sighed. "I will tonight," he said.

"You'll rest now," Coran said firmly, crossing his arms and giving Lance his best parental glare.

The prince blinked in surprise. "You can't tell me what to do," Lance said without thinking.

"Maybe not," Coran agreed. "But what if I get Shiro to come tell you instead?"

Lance ducked. "You wouldn't dare."

"I'll be right back," Coran said, turning on his heel and strolling to the lift to find Shiro.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Lance said quickly. "I'll sleep just… I'm just hungry."

Coran glanced over his shoulder to see his prince's face flushed and his eye sparkling nervously. "Well, come along then," Coran said, nodding towards the lift. "We'll get something in your belly then put you to bed."

Lance grumbled but set the mouse on his shoulder and followed the advisor into the lift at the end of the hall. Coran worried for the boy, but food was a good enough reason to delay sleep for a little while at least. He just hoped Lance and Allura didn't meet up just yet. He had a feeling that would be disastrous given the siblings' current mental and emotional states.


Allura was in the cafeteria when they arrived and suddenly Lance wasn't too hungry anymore. But he knew Coran wouldn't let him just slip away now. Besides, even if he did sneak out, he wouldn't be able to hid anywhere for long. Especially with one of his sister's mice on his shoulder. Reluctantly, Lance settled in for an awkward meal.

At least Hunk was here too. But where were Pidge, Shiro, and Keith? As if on cue, Shiro strode into the mess hall and made a beeline for the food hose.

"Don't worry man," Hunk said, grabbing a plate and handing it to the black paladin. "I got you."

Shiro took the offered plate with a smile and held it patiently while Hunk squeezed a healthy dollop of the green Human-dubbed 'food goo' onto the dish. When Shiro waved, Hunk stopped the flow of goo and hung the hose back on its handle.

"Thanks," Shiro said politely, patting the yellow paladin's shoulder before walking to the table where Allura already sat eating her food.

Lance hesitated at the doorway watching Coran walk into the room first. The mouse on his shoulder was silent a well.

"Hello all," Coran said cheerfully. "How is everyone? Anything happen with Sendak Shiro?"

Shiro's expression darkened and he took a sip of nunvill. "No," he said, setting his cup down. "Nothing. He's there, I know he is. He just won't give in."

Coran sighed. "Well, I did warn you," he said. "That technology wasn't meant to be used on an unwilling participant. Don't be surprised if nothing happens today. Now, if nothing happens by tomorrow afternoon, I think we might have to call this a failure princess," he added to Allura.

"Maybe," the princess said, setting her spork down in the plate with a soft clatter. "But we have to try. We need the information. Anything at this point could be useful."

"Hi Lance," Hunk called when he noticed the prince standing awkwardly in the doorway. "You hungry?" Hunk held up his plate of food goo with a smile. "There's plenty if you want any."

Lance hesitated before stepping into the room.


Shiro saw what Hunk probably didn't. The way the princess stiffened at her brother's name, the way Lance deliberately avoided looking at his sister, the sad droop to Coran's shoulders… Something had happened between this morning and now that had caused tension between the siblings. From the looks of it, they'd had another fight.

When he had the chance, Shiro caught Coran's eye and lifted an eyebrow in a silent question. The advisor nodded reluctantly and Shiro winced. So there had been a fight of some sort. It was probably a bad one if Allura and Lance hadn't reconciled yet. If they reconcile soon, then things could get tense when the Galra eventually attacked and the team had to form Voltron.

"I'm going to open a wormhole to your world this evening so I'll need coordinates to jump to," Allura said, startling Shiro.

"What?" he asked intelligently.

"I'll need coordinates for a safe place to jump to," Allura repeated, furrowing her brow as she studied Shiro's expression. "For when we return to your home world tonight. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Oh," Shiro said. He leaned back in his chest and crossed his arms in thought. He clicked his tongue and considered the options. "If I could choose, I think it would probably be best if we flew in close to Jupiter or behind the moon. You'll have to ask Pidge but last I checked, we don't have any satellites orbiting Jupiter at the moment. The last one we had self-destructed in 2018 and we haven't launched any more to replace it yet."

"Juno, yeah," Hunk said, plopping down in the seat next to Shiro. Hunk stuffed a spork full of food goo in his mouth and said with his mouth full, "We still have a few satellites orbiting Jupiter's moons, but it shouldn't be too big of a deal. Oh! Or we could stop by Saturn. We could hide the Castle under the rings."

"That's a good idea," Shiro said. "I forgot about that." He crossed his arms and slid down in his seat so he could stretch out his legs and cross his ankles. "That could work. But there's still Saturn's moon Titan."

"Yeah," Hunk mumbled. "I bet NASA and JAXA are working on trying to get another manned crew out there."

"Out where?" Pidge said, walking into the mess hall followed closely by a sweaty looking Keith.

Shiro let his head loll over the back of the chair so he could see the green paladin upside down. "Oh, hey Pidge," he said, lifting his hand in a friendly wave. "Did you run Keith to exhaustion yet?"

Keith groaned and rolled his eyes, his ears twitching. "More like the training program glitched and tried to kill me," the red paladin said.

"What?" Shiro demanded, sitting upright and turning to look at his teammate correctly.

"Kill you?" Lance gasped, looking up from his plate in shock.

"It wasn't trying to kill him," Pidge groaned. "Keith's being dramatic."

"The gladiator program wouldn't stop when I ordered it to," Keith said, taking one of the two empty seats left at the table. "It wasn't using a basic training mode weapon either. It really hitting me."

"That's not supposed to happen," Allura said, surprised by the halfbreed's story. "Coran, could you look into that please?"

"Of course, princess," the advisor said.

"I'm telling you, Keith's probably just being dramatic," Pidge said, taking the last empty seat and digging in to her food goo. "I checked and double checked the systems responsible for the gladiator training program. There aren't any bugs that I could find."

"Just because you couldn't find them doesn't mean they aren't there," Hunk said.

The green paladin shot a glare at her friend. "Are you questioning my computer skills?" she asked dangerously.

"No one's perfect Pidge," Shiro said, stepping in before an argument could begin. Lord knew Team Voltron didn't need another fight right now. "You may be great at Earth computers, but no one's judging you with alien tech."

"Who're you calling 'alien?'" Lance muttered. "This isn't your spaceship, you know?"

"It's not yours either," Allura said suddenly and Lance tensed.

"Not the best word," Shiro said quickly, holding up a hand to forestall any further discussion. "Sorry. Look, all I'm saying that no one's perfect and no one's expecting perfection. Pidge," he said, looking the youngest paladin, "Coran's going to give the training program a once over. Lance," he looked at the ruffled prince, "I didn't mean 'alien' as an insult. It's a word I use out of habit and nothing else. I didn't mean to offend you. Allura," he said, looking at the princess, "can we talk?"

Allura looked at Shiro curiously, probably caught off guard by the request. Nevertheless, she nodded. "If you want," she said.

"I do," Shiro said, sliding his chair back and standing.

"Now?" Allura gasped.

"Yes," he said, waiting for the princess to stand and follow him. When they stood in the corner, hopefully out of earshot, Shiro asked the question that had been burning his curiosity since Lance and Coran had arrived. "What's going on between you and your brother?"

The princess stiffened, her eyes wide. "I don't know what you mean," she said, schooling her expression and clasping her hands in front of her.

"I'm not mad," Shiro said gently. "And I'm not judging or jumping to any conclusions. I only want to know what's going one with you two. You must have had some sort of disagreement and that's fine. But you can't let it interfere with the dynamics of the team."

"I'm well aware," Allura said calmly.

"I know you are," Shiro said, holding up his mechanical arm in a placating manner, "and I'm not trying to imply otherwise. But you need to be aware that we can't afford to be split right now."

"I know," the princess said. "It won't last. It never does."

"I believe it," Shiro said nodding. "But when we get back to Earth, we'll have to be careful not to blow our cover. Since I was last on Earth, we still hadn't officially made First Contact with a race from another planet. Unless that's your goal, in which case I'll stand behind you. But if it is your goal, then we have to be united now more than ever. There is no central government of Earth. It's a collection of over 200 sovereign nations that sometimes work together and sometimes don't."

"We have a history of fighting amongst ourselves," Shiro continued. "Piss enough of us off and we'll unite against a common enemy, but don't expect us to accept that you come in peace."

The princess narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "I'll think on your words," she said seriously. "I'll fly the Castle out behind the planet Saturn. Come with me and give me the coordinates. I'll make the jump now."

Shiro nodded. "Alright," he said. "Guys," he called back to the others in the mess hall, "change of plans. We're making the wormhole jump now. We'll try come out near Saturn's rings."

"We'll be home tonight?" Hunk gasped.

Shiro glanced at the princess then shook his head. "I need to fill Allura in on how the governing situation of Earth works," Shiro said.

"And you're a year behind," Pidge said. "So Hunk and I will help you out with that."

"We'll do that tomorrow," Shiro said nodding. "Right now, why don't all of you get some sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a big day."

"We're going home!" Hunk crowed, raising his fist up in in excitement. "Pidge, we're goin' home!"

Shiro noticed the way Lance's face twisted a second before the prince stood and stalked out of the mess hall.

"Lance?" Hunk called. "Lance, you okay?"

The black paladin sighed. He'd forgotten how hard this would probably be on the Alteans. He and his friends were going back home but Allura, Lance, and Coran had no home to ever go back to. He dropped his gaze turning back to Allura.

"Ready when you are," he said.

Allura nodded and turned to walk down the hallway. Shiro moved to follow, pausing when he noticed movement behind him. He glanced back and breathed a small sigh of relief when he saw Keith stand and follow after Lance. At the prince wouldn't be alone.