Send Down the Rain
"I miss rain, and splashing in puddles."
Lance loved water.
It was part of him. He was born by the ocean, the crashing of waves as steady and regular throughout his childhood as his own heartbeat. He had weathered many storms and hurricanes by his family's side. He'd seen some of the best of water (calm seas, bubbling streams, clear rivers, sunny days among the waves) and some of the worst (hurricanes, riptides, waves so huge that they threaten to crush whoever gets caught in them).
It had been no surprise to him that of all the elements he could be connected to as a Paladin of Voltron, his was water.
Rain, of course, was something that he loved as well.
It had surprised Rachel constantly, out of his whole family. After all, she'd been the one to teach him the ways of style, from clothes to hygiene to hair and make-up. One of her consistent complaints was rain ruining her hair and outfits when she was unprepared for it.
But Lance loved everything about it.
The breeze that preceded the rain and carried its incoming pressure. The gentle sounds that built up as rain began to fall, creating a soothing melody. The comforting tappings of the raindrops upon his hair and skin or the roof above his head. The scent after the rain passed, making everything smell brand new.
No matter where you went on Earth, there was always rain. Eventually, in one form or another. Even the vast deserts had rain, despite it being rare there.
So when Lance moved from Cuba to the Garrison, if he was patient enough, it would rain eventually.
Space… space was apparently different.
"So, you've never heard of rain?" Lance asked softly, folding his legs and leaning back against a chair as he sorted through wires, separating them by color and length.
Coran hummed thoughtfully as he looked through the various spare parts lying around. The two of them had spent the day trying to do inventory of the Castleship's supplies, swapping stories about their home planets as they did. "No, can't say that I have, before you mentioned it. Nor do I recall any planets I've visited having such a thing."
Lance's fingers slowed as he took in Coran's words. He kept his eyes down and his voice up. "Well, it's a large universe! Maybe I'll find a place to show you rain!"
Despite his attempt to keep his mood up, Coran must have noticed how he really felt.
"Too right, my boy! Though I'm fairly well traveled, I've only visited a small fraction of the universe!" He shot Lance a grin. "I can't wait to experience it!"
Lance returned the smile, even if it wasn't as wide as his usual grin. "Yeah…"
Surely, there must be somewhere in the universe where he could feel the rain without having to endanger his home…
1
The Castleship had two options when it came to getting clean.
There were sonic showers in some of the guest rooms, like something straight from Star Trek, where you stepped into them and miniature vibrations literally shook all of the dirt and germs off a person. Unsurprisingly, Pidge and Hunk seemed to adopt this way if only for the sheer novelty of it and the chance to take it apart.
Then there were actual showers.
Each bedroom had their own bathroom attached with a sink, a toilet, and a water shower, and the locker areas attached to the training rooms also had water showers. Either location was a boon after long days of fighting or training or diplomacy.
Naturally, the water showers were Lance's preference. He wasn't letting his skin get all dried out, even if the vibes seemed to have no downsides so far.
And that wasn't the only reason.
It wasn't the same.
There was no way it could be the same.
But…
Sometimes, Lance's skin itched.
It wasn't caused by anything physical. Lance kept himself clean and well-kept, probably the best out of all the Paladins. And the pods and Coran's expertise took care of any injuries or other results from alien encounters, though Lance had started taking first-aid lessons from Coran just in case the team didn't have either available.
No, sometimes, Lance just felt dry, like the parched earth in the deserts surrounding the Garrison.
It was a longing, deep in his bones, for the fall of rain.
But there was no rain in space.
The shower helped a bit though.
It was too regular, too consistent. The pressure was all wrong. It didn't have the right smell.
But it was water, falling and streaming over his skin. And it was better than nothing.
"Lance?" Someone pounded on the door to his bathroom. "Lance? You've been in there a while! Hunk said we won't eat dinner until you're at the table!"
Lance huffed a bit, even as he curled up even more under the water's flow. Only Keith would take that tone with him. "I'll - I'll be out in a minute." He silently cursed the way his voice shook.
He heard Keith hesitate outside the door. "Are…" Keith seemed to shuffle his feet. "Are you… okay?"
Lance shut his eyes. Keith, you awkward little emo. It was kind of endearing, Keith's worry clear in his tone, even if it was just as obvious that he didn't know how to touch this with a 49 ½ foot pole.
He slowly reached up and turned off the water. It had long since turned cold. "Yeah, I'm fine." He tried to sound cheerier than he felt. "I'll be there in five."
Keith waited a moment before huffing himself. "As if you could get ready in five minutes."
"I meant doboshes, but yeah, I can do it."
"Okay, if you say so," Keith finally left. "See you there."
"Yeah…" Lance stood with shaky legs and left the shower. "See you there."
He got dressed, ran his hand through his hair, and tried to ignore that while the itch was gone, his skin prickled still as if in warning.
At dinner, Lance pointedly ignored Keith's worried glances.
After all, he was fine. A little homesickness and longing never killed anyone.
2
"What's rain?" Allura frowned over her tablet.
Her question made Hunk look up in puzzlement. "You don't...know what rain is?" He asked, his brow furrowed.
"Altea didn't have rain. Most of their water sources were underground. They had enough water above ground for the occasional cloud, but it generally didn't gather enough to actually form rain." Lance recalled what Coran had told him about his home planet, but he didn't look up from his own tablet.
He and Keith almost accidentally proposed to someone on the last planet they defended because they hadn't had time to look over the planet's details before they were thrust into battle and then negotiations. Apparently, engaging in argumentative banter in front of a single person was a sign of trying to prove their intellect as a prospective partner. Since he had the time to learn about this new planet, he wasn't going to make that mistake again.
"Really?"
"Yeah." After finishing the paragraph he was on, Lance looked up. "In answer to your question, Princess, rain is a type of weather phenomenon where water vapor in the air condenses enough to become visible and then fall to the ground as water droplets."
"I wouldn't call rain a phenomenon." Pidge grumbled from where she had pulled apart her own tablet to modify it.
"Considering that we haven't come to a planet besides our own that has it, I would." Lance flatly replied, going back to his reading. "Why do you ask?"
"It's listed as one of the environmental factors of Testudinia. I'd never heard of it before, and it's listed as something to be cautious of." Allura tilted her head slightly, one of the mice running up her shoulder to peer at the tablet himself.
Pidge rolled her eyes and snorted. "It should be no problem for us. It's not like we're the Wicked Witch of the West."
"Wait, I thought you said Earth didn't have magic…"
"It's a fictional character." Hunk smiled to assuage Allura's confusion.
However, as he continued to explain, Lance found himself tuning them out as he scrolled down to the information regarding Testudinia's climate and ecosystems.
He bit his lip as he read over the intel.
He didn't want to get his hopes up, especially in the face of Allura's lack of knowledge of it. It wasn't surprising — after all, Coran, the walking encyclopedia of space knowledge, hadn't known about rain either — but it still hurt.
Rain was so essential to Earth, and to him personally, that it still made no sense that it wasn't as necessary to the rest of the universe.
Though it also didn't make sense that this planet would have rain in the first place.
Lance frowned.
Testudinia was a fairly arid planet, consisting of mostly deserts reminiscent of the American Southwest, mountains, some scruffy forests, and a few series of active volcanoes. Like Altea, it seemed like it would be hard for enough water to accumulate to form rain, and yet —
"Alright, team, here's the plan." Shiro interrupted his train of thought, and Lance sat up and did his best to pay attention.
There'd be plenty of time for answers later.
And once the battle was done, they certainly got their answers.
Dark clouds had been gathering in the sky in the aftermath of their battle. Lance had kept a careful eye on them, unable to ignore the flutterings of hope that were beginning to stir.
The translators had said that they had rain here. Even with the arid environment, Lance figured that it could still happen. Even the deserts on Earth had the occasional rainstorm, the world blooming in its wake.
Maybe I'll get to see rain again. Lance thought as he exited Blue and joined the other Paladins in greeting the delegation of Testudinia. And then I can show Coran and Allura how awesome it is!
"Thank you for your assistance in removing the Galran scourge." The negotiators moved slowly on all fours, but they still bowed their necks in respect.
Testudinians looked almost identical to tortoises, just a lot larger and with different colors and patterns on their shells than anything that naturally happened on Earth. It was more like the colorful patterns often found in Native art pieces for tortoises.
Shiro gave them a reassuring smile as the Castleship touched down, and Coran and Allura emerged. "It was an honor to help," he told them.
The leader of the Testudinian diplomats was the first to raise his head. "Still, we appreciate it. Now, come; there is much to discuss."
They slowly turned and headed back to the community hall where all gatherings and diplomacy took place. The team, along with Allura and Coran, followed at their pace.
"We will have to hurry." The leader continued, "The rain will soon be upon us."
"Sure, looks like it!" Lance bounced a bit with each step as he glanced up at the sky. He couldn't help the smile crossing his face. "Does it rain often?"
"It rains as it needs to." The answer didn't really tell Lance much, but he ignored it in favor of the confirmation that it was going to rain.
"We get rain on Earth, too, you know." Lance attempted to make conversation as they walked. "It doesn't seem like many other planets have it but—"
Lance got cut off as a smoking rock hit him on the head.
"Ah!" Luckily, neither he nor the others had taken off their helmets, but Lance still rubbed at the site of impact, having felt it even through the tough material. He stared down at the rock and then glanced around, trying to figure out where it had come from.
He wasn't the only one, as the others also stared at the rock. Keith actually growled and glared at their surroundings. "Who threw that?"
"No one," the leader calmly said.
Shiro frowned. "But—"
"The rains are upon us. We suggest covering yourselves." And with those words, all of the Testudian diplomats withdrew their heads into their shells, not even pausing for a step and continuing forward.
They all blinked. "What—?"
As a second rock and then a third fell before them, the meaning of their words hit Lance. "Aw, cheese!" He quickly summoned his shield and hoisted it over Allura and Coran's heads. Keith was right behind him and covered them as well.
As more rocks fell, Lance and the other Paladins were at least covered by their armor, but Coran and Allura didn't have such protection. And the only way to get to better shelter was to keep going.
"This is a bit more of the wrathful, Biblical kind of rain than what I was expecting!" Pidge shouted to be heard as she huddled underneath her shield.
"Same word, different meaning, I guess." Lance slumped a bit. He had thought…
Well, between alien cultures words were sure to get mixed up. But this was also nothing like he'd been expecting.
"Ooooo!" Lance shot a look over to Allura to see her eyes practically shining. "This is just like the blitzrig on Altea." She watched the plummeting, heated rocks with near awe.
Lance blinked. "Oh, yeah. You guys may not have had rain, but you had falling rocks, right?" He remembered Coran talking about that when they first discussed rain.
"Yes, yes we did." Nostalgia painted Coran's face as he carefully stepped over the debris from the storm and watched it through Lance and Keith's overlapping shields. "Not as razor-sharp as ours, but it's certainly close." He absentmindedly brushed at his mustache.
After a long moment staring at them, Lance took a deep breath and swallowed his disappointment. Instead, he couldn't help but smile sadly at Allura and Coran's happiness.
After all, who was he to begrudge someone else getting a welcome reminder of their home planet?
3
"Oh, hey," Pidge didn't even bother looking up from her tablet as she scrolled through the information on the latest planet they'd landed on. "Looks like they've got rain here. And it's actually water this time."
Part of Lance hated the way he immediately perked up at that. Like a dog catching sight of a tennis ball about to be thrown. "Really?" He tried to act nonchalant, glancing around the ballroom and quickly counting out the members of their group standing around to make sure everyone was accounted for.
"Yeah, it rains once a day like clockwork in this region, but all the residents make sure to get inside by that time in order to not get caught." She finally looked up and gestured at their hosts on this planet. "I can't blame them."
The Blopians were a gelatinous race, reminding Lance of the slime monsters that'd appear in family-friendly monster movies. He could only imagine that too much water would make them look like melting jello.
"Yeah…" He glanced out the windows before looking back at her. "So when does this happen?"
"Actually, we should be able to see it. The next cycle starts in about 15 doboshes."
A buzz began vibrating across his skin. Desire and hope were beginning to bloom, but Lance tried to tamp down on it. Don't get your hopes up. He told himself, though he knew that it was probably too late.
He took another look around the room to check on the others. "Do you think - ?"
"I'll cover for you." Pidge shot him a smile as she adjusted her glasses. "Just real quick, okay?"
Lance could barely contain himself. "Thanks, Pidgey." He gave her a quick side hug and ruffled her hair, chuckling at her indignant squawk.
And with that, he slipped out of the ballroom.
It didn't take long to get outside. Blopian architecture was pretty cool, with tall ceilings and multiple floors but not very big in terms of length, mostly due to being carved from the giant succulent-like plants that grew in abundance here. Lance pushed aside the flap of the final doorway and quickly glanced at the sky.
His heart skipped a beat at the darkening clouds above.
Soon, soon, soon, soon. He could barely contain the longing in his very core.
And then, a single drop of rain fell. Followed by another and another until it was sprinkling. Soon, it was a complete downpour.
Lance's eyes went wide. This is it! His heart leaped as he stepped away from the doorway, arms outstretched to greet the rain—
It burned!
He immediately jumped back with a yelp. He stared down, aghast at the perfectly circular holes dotting where the black bodysuit was exposed. The material that was meant to protect him from the vacuum of space had been burnt completely through.
Acid rain.
Lance's heart dropped somewhere down to his feet and his hands dropped with it.
It figured that he would finally find rain and it was too dangerous for him to actually touch it.
He stayed in the doorway, looking forlornly out at the rain. Then he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
At least it sounded right. With his eyes closed, he could simply imagine that he'd been forced indoors by his mom, only allowed to watch and listen to the rain as she chided him for getting wet.
As the acid rain began to let up, Lance finally returned to the ballroom.
He had to get these burns treated — really, he knew he should have done that right away — and he didn't have the right type of burn cream in his pouch. Hopefully, Coran would have some.
Pidge looked up once more when he slipped back in, a smile on her lips. "Hey, how was — what did you do?!" She grabbed his arm and stared at the holes in horror.
"Acid rain," Lance succinctly said. "Know where Coran is? He might have the right stuff to treat this."
Pidge just looked at him before her face crumpled a bit and she dragged him over to Coran.
After his burns were treated and he'd sat through Coran's mild scolding, Pidge leaned against his side.
"Sorry, should've checked the pH levels first." She mumbled, not looking at him.
Lance chuckled and ruffled her hair. She didn't protest it this time. "It's fine, Pidgey."
It was fine.
It was fine because Lance needed it to be.
4
When he and Hunk were warned to watch out for thunderstorms on Cumulo, Lance really, truly tried to curb his hopes. His dreams of feeling rain again had already been dashed so many times already, part of him had given up on finding rain before he managed to return to Earth.
Unfortunately, hopes tend to be pesky little persistent things.
At the Garrison, thunderstorms usually rolled in as a precursor to rainfall.
Where there's thunder, there's lightning, and when you had both there was a high chance of there being rain as well.
So Lance kept a careful eye on the sky as he and Hunk hopped to and fro on the floating islands that characterized Cumulo's planet.
"Everything all right, buddy?" Hunk asked, giving Lance a curious look.
"Yeah, I just don't feel like possibly getting struck by lightning." It wasn't the full answer, but it was true that part of it.
"Aw, yeah, me too." Hunk glanced at the churning clouds surrounding them.
It was sort of cool. Cumulo was essentially a gas planet that had pulled chunks of asteroids into its upper atmosphere that made them capable of supporting life. But it also meant that clouds were usually on the cusp of becoming fog or worse weather, and the conditions could change on a dime due to atmospheric changes.
This was also a planet where they had to constantly keep their helmets on as the shifting gasses of the planet proper could easily change and leave them with no oxygen to breathe at all.
"Let's just find one of these sacred stones and get out of here." Hunk turned back to their path, and Lance could see him slump as the islands had moved while they'd been walking. This wasn't the first time it'd happened and it was annoying each time.
Lance sighed and checked their map again. Once again, the team was having to jump through hoops in order to gain allies. You'd think that with these different planets coming to them for alliances that Voltron would have to be the ones to screen applicants, but it was always their team that had to fulfill one quest or another to prove their legitimacy according to each planet's traditions.
In this case, Lance and Hunk had been told to retrieve a sacred stone from the forbidden isles.
"Okay, I think our target is that island." Lance looked between the shape of their intended island on the map and the one he was pointing to, floating about two islands away. They certainly looked the same.
"Good. Let's get this over with." Hunk spared a glance for the clouds himself. "I can see what you were saying about the clouds."
The good news was that they managed to get to the island they needed and find one of the sacred stones, a beautiful geode that sparkled blue and green and all shades in between.
The bad news was that as they turned to go back the way they came, they were nearly blinded as lightning flashed and thunder crashed over them like a wave.
"Cheese-it!" Hunk jolted and clutched at Lance's arm, prompting Lance to wince at his grip.
The immediacy of the thunder was a sure sign of how close the lightning had been, and Lance did not want to leap through that. He knew from Pidge's taser that electricity could and would easily pass through their suits.
"Let's take shelter until it passes!" Lance shouted to be heard as lightning struck again, thunder right at its heels.
"Yeah!"
Lance looked around and spotted a cave, quickly tugging Hunk over to it.
As they ran under the cave's embrace, Lance finally relaxed. After all, being underground was the best place to be when lightning was about. Hunk let go of his arm and heaved a deep breath before leaning against the cave wall to watch lightning continue to strike the ground.
"Wow!" Hunk cautiously peered out at the spectacle. "Look at that! Isn't it cool?"
Lance watched too, but even he could tell…
There wouldn't be any rain.
A quick scan with his suit showed him that water wasn't even present in this part of the planet's clouds. This lightning and thunder were formed entirely from the friction of the different gases brushing against and agitating each other.
It was, quite literally, just a thunderstorm.
"Yeah," Lance forced a smile on his face, "it's neat."
He ignored the way Hunk frowned at his response, keeping his focus on watching the storm.
By the time the storm had passed and the two of them reunited with the rest of the team to present the sacred stone, Lance had firmly tucked his disappointment away where the team wouldn't notice it.
It was easy.
He was used to hiding these sorts of feelings by this point.
5
Herat was probably one of the most Earth-like planets that they had come to. A surprising number of planets were the same ecosystem for the most part, but this planet had multiple different environments and animals and people. They even had beaches that Lance hoped to check out once they'd taken care of the Galra base established there.
However, they still didn't have rain. Lance had noted that as he'd looked over the planet's stats while rushing to his Lion.
So it was very odd…
"—ance! Lance! Open your—"
Why could he feel rain falling onto his face?
"—so much blood… Shiro! We—"
It wasn't much, just a few sporadic drops here and there, like it was just beginning to break out.
But why was it warm?
"—get to the Lions!"
Lance became aware of how dark it was. His eyelids were heavier than Shiro's dumbbells, but he didn't even remember closing them.
And if it was really raining…
"Lance?"
Then he definitely wanted to see it.
With a slight groan, Lance managed to pry open his eyes. He blinked at the sudden light.
His head hurt.
"Lance!"
Everything was blurry, even after blinking, but above him there was a smudge of red.
"Kei…?" Lance tried to call out to him, but it was like something was blocking his throat. He coughed, and it felt wet.
"Don't talk, okay?" Keith's voice wavered in a way that Lance had never really heard before. "Just stay awake."
Keith was slowly coming into focus, and as his face became clearer, Lance could see that —
Oh.
It wasn't raining.
"Hey…" He wanted to reach up and brush the tears falling down Keith's face away, but he couldn't make his arms move. "S'kay…"
Lance wasn't sure what was wrong with him, but he knew everything would work out. It always had before.
Keith gave a wet snort. "Yeah, sure."
Everything was falling out of focus again, darkness encroaching on the edges of his vision.
Keith must have noticed something. "Hey, no! Stay awake! Shiro's on his way and —"
Lance wanted to stay awake. He really did.
But Keith's voice was already getting further away again, and Lance's eyes fluttered shut.
"No, Lance, no! Shiro! Shiro—"
No longer feeling the sprinkle of Keith's tears, it was like Lance was instead swallowed by the ocean's waves.
And he knew no more.
+1
Lance had felt it building all day.
He knew he was a bit distracted, glancing out the windows every now and then, but he could feel it in his gut. He watched as the clouds gathered and grew dark and heavy, and he could hardly contain his grin. He tapped his foot in barely restrained anticipation.
These might be the most important negotiations of his life, but he was so close to what he'd been longing for for so long.
The rain broke out practically minutes after they were done for the day.
Lance couldn't help it. He quickly took off his uniform jacket leaving himself in just his t-shirt, tossed it at Hunk, and ran outside to the courtyard.
Like the desert soil beneath his feet, Lance soaked up the rain as it fell upon him. A smile stretched across his face and he couldn't help but laugh as he jumped into one of the quickly forming puddles.
It was raining.
Good, old-fashioned Earth rain.
There was nothing in the universe like it, because Lance had certainly checked.
Slowly, the rest of the team gathered at the Garrison's entrance, staring at him.
Pidge's expression made it clear that she thought he was crazy. "You cannot be seriously dancing in the rain."
"I'm not dancing! I'm pretty sure I'm frolicking!" Lance shot back, hopping from puddle to puddle before giving a little spin to better feel the rain.
Shiro was now the one holding his uniform jacket. "Did you have to take off your jacket? You'll catch a cold like that." He frowned up at the clouds as if they were carrying cold germs by the bucket load.
"That's not why people get sick from the rain, and I wasn't about to ruin it!"
Hunk sighed, but out of everyone else, he was the one most used to his rain antics. "Got your fill yet? Come back inside."
"Nope!" His smile widened as a great idea came to him. Lance bounced over to the others. "Come join me!" He held his hands out to them.
"Uh-uh. I'm not joining your manic pixie dream girl BS." Pidge immediately turned him down.
"Lance…" Keith's expression was undeniably fond, but, sensing an incoming no, Lance couldn't help but flick some water in his face. The look he gave Lance was exactly like an offended cat's, and Lance just had to laugh at it.
Coran and Allura actually looked to be considering it though.
"Are you sure it's safe?" Allura asked.
"Yeah, it's not the acid kind and you don't seem to be allergic to water." Lance pointed out. He turned to Coran. "And I did promise to show you rain, didn't I?"
Coran's grin matched his own. "That you did, my boy!" And he was the first to leap out and join him.
Allura came next, giving a shriek of delight at the sensation of rain falling on her skin.
Hunk followed after, swinging Pidge up onto his shoulder as she yelped and dragging Shiro with him with a cheeky grin. Shiro sighed and submitted to his fate, but Lance could see his smile as he brushed his hair from his eyes.
Which left only one.
"C'mon, Keith," Lance smirked. "Scared of a little water?" He extended a hand towards him, like a gentleman offering a dance.
Keith rolled his eyes, but took his hand with a smile. "Not really."
"That's what I thought!" Lance laughed as he pulled him out into the rain. "No way the great Keith is scared of some rain!"
Keith slicked his now wet hair back and gave Lance a half-hearted glare as they joined their teammates in enjoying the rain. "Why do I put up with you again?"
"We both know why." Lance teased, spinning them around and laughing as Keith's foot slipped in rapidly forming mud. Keith just barely managed to prevent himself from falling, his legs spread apart to find his balance like a newborn colt.
Still, Keith huffed a laugh. "Yeah…" They shared a smile as Keith tugged Lance closer. "So, satisfied?" He gestured around them.
Lance looked over his teammates splashing in the puddles, taking in the downpour, and grinning all the while. He leaned onto Keith and felt the rain washing over him.
Deep down, that parched feeling that'd been present since leaving Earth was soothed.
It was finally raining.
"Yes." Lance couldn't keep the smile off his face. "I am."
AN: So, funny story, I actually started this last year about a week before Lance's birthday to celebrate the occasion. Figured I'd do one section each day and post it all on his birthday.
I wrote about two and a half sections before my motivation burned out and then I struggled pretty much all year trying to finish this. Luckily, spurred on by my writing for White Rose Week, I managed to find it in me to finish this in time for Lance's birthday this year! Also, in this story, assume that in this the Lion Swap never happened, they got to go back to Earth on their own terms without it getting conquered/destroyed, Lance got to reunite with his family already, and Keith and Lance got together at some point.
So happy birthday to my favorite Paladin, my beloved Blue Paladin, Lance!