a/n: suppp. mostly dialouge/fleshing out responses. also slight infodumping pronoun-age bc im trying to infodump more in stories/what device to use. Hint: this time is dialouge.
tw: slight dysphoric, questioning, misgendering a lil
At dinner, it was thankfully not silent. Lance was happy for that fact.
Coran was conversing with Allura. Her eyes kept drifting to Lance but not in a bad way, so Lance ignored that. Keith was silent as usual. Pidge was not at the table. No explanation.
Lance and Hunk were talking away in their own bubble of conversation, like it was the Garrison days; both were catching up on the short time Lance was away unexpectedly. The weird thing was Shiro wasn't present in the any of the conversations like he normally would be, he looked distant, it was unusual for him. He was stirring his food around and around, looking down at it.
"I hope I can change back." Lance shoved food into his mouth.
"It's your choice Lance." Hunk shrugged, "But you can experience the 'other side' for a while."
"Hopefully for not too long." Lance sighed, putting down his fork, chewing.
Lance swallowed and tried not to dwell. He was pulled out of his thoughts quickly before they surfaced.
"I...have a question Lance." Shiro piped up.
"Hm?" Lance asked, looking to Shiro.
He looked less distant, but instead bashful, nervous.
"Do you...have girl everything now?" Shiro scratched his neck, looking away.
Since Shiro was asking so nervously and genuinely Lance didn't crack a joke or make a remark of, "Why do you care what is in my pants?". Lance cleared his throat then shifted in his seat.
"Yeah. It's not my choice but I'll live with it for now." Lance nodded once, twice, "Oh well."
Lance shrugged.
"But you are still male Lance in your brain though your body is...very female? "
Another way to say it.
"Do you think differently?" Shiro pressed.
"Uh? Yeah." Lance ate more food, more uncomfortable.
He didn't know what to say. Was he thinking differently? He didn't think so. Only that his back hurt more and he got more anxiety. But the anxiety was probably normal. Not anyone can go through an inter-galactic surprise sex change and not have any doubts or thoughts.
"Oh- I'm sorry." Shiro noticed, "I have never- She- You- No."
He seemed to grow distant, tears in his eyes. Shiro looked really worried.
Hunk swept in, "Lance, he is fine with both pronouns. I think it is OK if you use she right now since it's easier."
Hunk looked to Lance and Lance nodded, "I don't think will last long so go for it. I don't even know myself. Remember I don't care what but I prefer 'He' if you can."
Lance smoothed down his hair. Not that he had much but it was a gesture he did when he was male too.
"I need to practice. I'm sorry Lance. I want to treat everyone equally. I'm having a hard time adjusting to this change." Shiro looked downtrodden.
A small sigh from Keith.
"He is still Lance." Keith said, "It's not that hard. It's easy and I don't see the big deal. It doesn't matter what sex Lance is since he is still annoying."
"Keith!" Lance smiled, Keith never changed, "You suck."
"You swallow." Keith shot back then stopped, said, "Wait is that sexist now?"
Lance laughed, loudly, "Yes. It is! I will be playing my sexist card."
Lance slapped the table with the imaginary card in question.
"Damn."
Keith gave a small smile they went back to his food, in his own world...Whatever Keith's world was. Hunk pressed his lips together at the off-track conversation. Allura was smiling at this and Coran was slightly shaking his head but smiling, nonetheless.
Hunk gave Shiro a smile, "Shiro my dude. Take your time. It's OK. We can't all be like Keith."
Shiro nodded slowly and Keith was chewing so he said instead gave Hunk a look and pointed his spoon at him a small huff of air from his nose.
Hunk laughed at Keith's gesture.
"Ok. I just never have had any friends...or come across this...I will try my best." Shiro nodded to himself.
"It is easy to understand." Allura said, "He is "A He" while presenting as a biological human she. He doesn't care if we use a third pronoun or she for now. That may change; it's easy to understand. I know humans can't shapeshift."
She scoffed lightly, rolling her eyes ever so slightly. Like: Who would believe that?
Lance turned a bright red.
Allura continued, "...the second I saw Lance in his new form, I didn't question it. I just knew it was a member that we trusted on Voltron."
"The third pronoun would be, "They" Hunk added to Allura.
"Yes." Allura said, "I don't know why some humans are hateful by different sexes or genders. There were many presentations across Altean culture, we embrace it. Any person is a valuable resource in our culture. So, it doesn't matter their presentation."
"So, you have experience." Shiro said.
Allura nodded as Coran next to her nodded too.
"I have none." Shiro sighed.
Allura nodded again in sympathy this time.
"Shiro, chill. It will take some time." Hunk said.
"It will be easy!" Coran chimed in.
"Okay enough about me!" Lance got in the middle of the conversation, "Let's talk about mission stuff. What's happening with Voltron these days?"
Lance said that in a joking fashion, but a week was a long time to be away. He could only get so much information from Hunk. Lance really needed to get on board with everything. He still felt uncomfortable. His lower back hurt, his stomach was hurting a lot, and he just felt...tired.
There was a deep down urge that it really wasn't all right.
"It" was obviously his body.
Maybe it was the stress of seeing the team.
Maybe it was the fact that Pidge wasn't at the table.
Lance hoped in the next few days everything would return to normal...whatever that was now.