Chapter 20: Grief(Lance's POV)
Lance holds still, letting Marinette make the finishing touches on his new outfit. He was honestly surprised when she found lots of Altean fabric stored away( which surprised him because Allura has only worn two outfits this whole time). Pidge and Hunk were out freeing a planet and Lance needed something to take his mind off of Shiro's death.
It plagues him, because he knows Voltron needs a leader, and he's not sure who could take Shiro's place. If Keith were still here, he would've challenged for leadership rights, and played the whole thing, pretending to be okay that Shiro is gone.
But Marinette doesn't remind him of Keith or their rivalry.
In fact Marinette has taken a place inside his heart, just like the rest of Team Voltron. And her designs are awesome. Lance has this cool blue jacket now, with a black t-shirt with the v-symbol on his paladin armor in light blue, making it pop. His pants are designed like the dark blue jeans he has already, but he doesn't care.
Because Marinette did an awesome job.
"Okay Lance, you're done." Marinette says.
Lance looks down, all of it fits perfectly. "Thank you! This is awesome!"
Marinette smiles, "Just wait till I finish your Altean style diplomacy clothes. And there is more than one casual outfit for each of you and me."
"Really? But you've already done so much!"
"Well you were complaining about wearing the same pair of clothes, so I thought I'd whip up some more, each with designs featuring voltron or something like that."
Lance smiles.
"Anyway, I need to get back to sewing. You can wear the outfit now. It should last, I sewed pretty strong seams."
Lance nods, a little disappointed he can't stay and watch, but he walks out of the room nonetheless.
As soon as he leaves, his mind hits him with a wave of grief, bringing tears to his eyes. How could Shiro leave them? Did he take most of Zarkon's attack? Is that why Shiro isn't here when they need a leader?
Lance's feet drag, as he walks, grief torn, to his room.
When the door slides close, he slumps against it. Wrapping his arms around his knees. Tears fall as he recounts all the good times he had with Shiro, before Shiro died, and left them without any idea about who should be leader.
Lance doesn't think he is up to the task of leading anyway, he's just the team's sharpshooter. Not the leader type. If anything, Allura and Marinette would be more fit to pilot Black and lead Voltron. Marinette has shown leadership skills and Allura's a princess.
But it would be too soon, Shiro only died a few days ago and Lance doesn't feel ready to support another leader after Shiro so soon.
Because Shiro was a good leader, he was really good. And now he's gone, with the team scrambling to pick themselves up and move on. Easy for Marientte to be already over Shiro's death, she barely knew him!
So she doesn't understand the pain he is in, losing his hero, his leader and friend.
Lance sits against the wall, until his body starts to feel stiff. He gets up, reluctantly and falls onto his bed. Crying himself to sleep.
Morning comes, and Lance gets out of bed, reluctantly. All he wants to do is mourn Shiro, but the others seem to be in go-go-go mode. When he makes it to the bridge Marinette is already there, wearing a red sweater, with a red lion embroidered on the shoulder.
Marinette pulls him aside, "You look terrible. Did you get enough sleep?" Lance nods, "Yeah, just sad." Her eyes look at him with understanding and she doesn't pry.
Which makes him a little shocked, normally people who ask what's wrong, listen and then say, 'You poor baby.' or 'Sorry for your loss.' It makes him happy and sad at the same time.
Allura strides in, "Hunk and Pidge successfully freed Planet Omar from the Galra and they joined our Coalition."
"Princess that makes three planets that have joined us since Zarkons defeat five days ago."
Allura nods, "Yes, as such a meeting will be taking place. Marinette I can trust you our outfits will be ready then?"
Marinette nods, "Of course, leave it to me!"
Lance sighs, so that means a hold on missions. Which means nothing to do to take his mind off of his feelings, which means more feeling sad. And he doesn't want to feel that way.
"The meeting is in five days. I will be practicing my speech and good manners and I suggest you do the same. We want to be presentable, and behaved. No emotional outbursts. Understand?"
Her blue eyes sweep the room and everyone nods in agreement. Oh great, learning manners. Lance already knows how to behave, in fact he's been quite good at concealing his real feelings.
So might as well see if he can hook up that game in his room. Pidge did say she could get it installed, but if he wants to take his mind off of Shiro and everything in general might as well do it himself.
It takes quite a while before he can figure out, on his own, just how to exactly get the system he and Pidge bought into the wall and to run on the Castle's power. And when Lace does, he turns on the system, and lets his worries and doubts fade away.
Author's Note: Remembrance day is soon. So I thought having Lance's POV about losing a friend to a war would help people prepare for remembrance day. So remember to have the two minutes of silence in the eleventh hour of the day to remember the fallen. And have a good night.