Lance cannot get used to space.
It wasn't because of the events that had transpired in the last two days, no, no, it was because he couldn't sleep in the room he was given alone. All his life he shared a room with a family member, whether they were his older brothers, sharing a room with his twin sister, or when he crashed his sisters' slumber parties, there was always room for him to sleep with anyone of them. He remembered his parents telling him a story of how as an infant he never liked to take naps during the day unless someone was there lying next to him, they had thought that it would pass, but it got worse. When he saw that he would be able to share a room with Hunk at the Garrison, he was ecstatic at the thought, the two had grown used to sleeping together during sleepovers and when they would share a tent together during camping trips. However, seeing as there was only one twin-sized bed per room sent a frown to his brows. He had heard his friend ask if he was going to be able to sleep comfortable like this, and Lance could only nod his head. As much as he wanted to tell him no, he couldn't, as it would result in him asking Hunk to share a room with him and having one of them sleep on the floor. He wasn't keen on the idea of ruining his precious sleep, especially when he had already missed a whole evening back on Earth, and having his friend sleeping on the floor seemed cruel. After what seemed like hours, the Paladin got up and headed immediately to Pidge's room, he had remembered that the boy had kept his backpack all throughout the trip to Arus, and he should have still had his headphones on him. Hopefully, Lance could ask him to let him borrow them for the night if he wasn't going to use them.
Six minutes after negotiating with Pidge, who had still not gone to bed, he got the headphones, promising the younger boy to return them to his room in the morning. He rummaged through his jacket in search of his phone; sliding it open, he looked for his music app and searched for a certain sound file. It wasn't a song, but a recording of his family singing together before he was off to the Garrison.
He remembered that day crystal clear, Nadia (age 2) and Sylvio (age 4) kept him busy with having him play around the house with them, his mamá was occupied in the kitchen cooking up his favorite food, pop-pop was going in and out of the house with his hands full of groceries. His older brother, Luis had to drive over to his wife's work to pick her up and bring her back to the house party, and Marco was in the office finishing off a test for his summer classes. While Rachel, his twin, and his papa Franciso drove to the airport to pick up Veronica, who would be taking Lance and Hunk to their first day at the Garrison the following day. This would be the first time in six months that his family would be whole ever since Veronica had to relocate to a Navy base in Georgia. When everyone had finally got home, the party was in full swing with dancing, singing, games, and the food his mamá had spent all day on was gone in a manner of what seemed like minutes, especially with the family of 12 in the same house. The new cadet silently got out his phone and recorded as he and his family sang to their favorite songs, and the last time his mamá would sing him a lullaby until he would see her again over vacation. Now, he didn't know when he would be able to see her. If he would be able to hear her actual voice instead of a recording of it. Be able to hear of the stories about him and his older siblings growing up told by pop-pop with terrible imitation of their voices. Luis's and Lisa's wedding anniversary. Nadia and Sylvio's next birthday. Marco graduating from University and Veronica getting promoted. He wouldn't be able to see if Rachel was liking her senior year or see if she was being flooded with homework. He didn't even know if he would see his grandparents by the time they got back to Earth. The thought of this scared him. It frightened him that his papa Leon's cancer could relapse and take him away before they saw each other. It frightened him that his mamá Cuca wouldn't be able to handle the stress of losing another family member after his uncle had disappeared 6 years ago. *
Lance knew these thoughts would get him nowhere, as he laid in bed trying to go to sleep; it was during these times he envied those who are able to sleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. He hated his inability to cope with being alone, or how to cope with being away from his family, but he knew that he wasn't the only one. Pidge needed to find his family, who were apparently Sam and Matt Holt, Shiro wanted to get back to his fiancée, Hunk had a family to get back to, and Keith, will Lance wasn't sure about him. However, he knew that they each had a family, and being involved in a war that no one asked to be a part of stopping them from doing just that.
These were the types of thoughts that always seemed to go through the teenager's mind when he was alone. Once everything was quiet, once there wasn't anything to be heard within his range of hearing, his mind would ponder over something terrifying when there was no sound to hide behind. He often wondered if others felt like this, do they go to bed thinking if they could have done something better during their day if they had made a different decision than the one that was already made. Would others often think of the future or the impact those decisions would have on others, did they think of the consequences that could affect them?
Lance would keep on asking questions like these all throughout the night before he was finally able to fall asleep. This is why he liked sleeping with other people, he would be able to talk to them and probably fall asleep in the process. He wouldn't have these thoughts.
He didn't want these thoughts.
.
.
.
Lance wasn't sure what time he had finally been able to sleep, but when he awoke the next morning, he felt like a pile of bricks were laying on top of him, pushing him down into the mattress not allowing him to get up or even move his arms. He laid in bed for a few minutes trying his best as humanly possible to move his hands to at least take off the headphones or remove the blanket. When he was finally able to take off the headphones he heard what appeared to be Coran's voice over the comms, something about the Galra being in the castle, which he wouldn't have doubted, if not for the horrible acting—he was sure Nadia could have done better, and she is only four. He took the horrible acting as his cue to finally push himself out of bed and to slip on the lion slippers Coran had given to each of them and a blue robe to cover himself with. He made his first stop be Pidge's room, after all, he had promised to return the headphones back in the morning, he noticed that the room seemed to be in more disarray than yesterday evening, he would only assume that the boy did not sleep either or at least had trouble in doing so. Lance made a mental note to check up on Pidge when he had the chance and at least nudge the boy to sleep in early so he can wake up and begin his day going back to the techy stuff he had been doing. Maybe he can also slip in that he wouldn't be able to help his family if was always tired, and yes, Lance knew that was a low blow, but the kid needed to sleep, Pidge was what, 15?
By the time he left the room, Coran was talking about Princess Allura missing her head, okay, now he was exaggerating the bit. All Lance could do was roll his eyes and chuckle a little at the antics of the Altean; he could only imagine what face the Princess was making. He really, really, wanted to see it, so he made his way, rather quickly, to the bridge in hope to catch the last glimpse of her expression. On the way there, he made sure to place a smile on his face, create a demeanor filled with confidence and stopped in the kitchen on his way to grab a cup of water, or what he assumed was water, to make it seem as if he had slept like a baby last night.**
Walking in, he yawned and gave them a good morning only to be met with the Princess telling him that she and Coran had been up all night to get the castle defenses armed and ready. This, apparently, included running drills, which they all failed, except for Shiro who already had his Paladin armor donned and looked ready for battle. He glanced at the other newly named paladins; each had their own tired expression written on their faces. The first he saw was Keith, who actually looked like he got some rest, he looked more tired the night they saved Shiro, and instead of looking exhausted from the whole ordeal of obtaining the Lions, the drop-out had the nerve to look rested? What? Pidge looked like he had been sleeping up against the wall, and knowing that there are prisoners who could possibly tell him where his family was, Lance wouldn't have put it past him to have slept in the healing chamber waiting for one to wake up. The bags on under his eyes made it looked like he aged within the past 24 hours, plus some, and with each of them running on little sleep he was surprised he didn't notice any on Shiro. His role model looked as if he didn't undergo being a Galran prisoner for over a year, except for the white tuff of hair from stress hanging over his forehead. While his facial features may not have risen any concerns, his eyes, on the other hand, looked as if they had been through hell. Veronica once told him that it would sometimes be impossible to pick out a soldier with PTSD just by seeing their facial features, it was the way they held themselves, composed but always ready for something to spring up at them. Shiro's stance was straight as if speaking with a higher-ranking officer, his hands twitched every now and then, and his fingers were tapping his palms almost like a Morse code. Lance wasn't sure if Shiro was doing that to remind him where he was or if it was subconsciously, he only hoped it helped the adult be at ease. Hunk, yeah, he never did great with lack of sleep, the poor guy was hunched over, it was hard to see that he was taller than his Cuban friend and everyone else in the room. Lance couldn't help but be concerned with his friend as he spoke about his confusion of processing the information that has happened to them since Monday night. He never did well with stress either for all the six years they had known each other, there always ended up being too much waterworks, cooking, and constant questions. If his friend did gain enough sleep, Lance was sure that Hunk would have been able to see behind Lance's façade, and right now he was glad the big guy didn't, he had enough to worry about, and Lance didn't want to concern him with his own problems.
When Hunk's rambling came to an end it was Allura who focused their attention on a map of the known universe. Shapes, of different galaxies, took shape in the room, the majority of them turning red with distress beacons being produced by the planets inhabiting them. As Lance glanced around, he couldn't help but notice how some of the shapes took the form of a triforce from the retro emZelda/em games that were produced long ago. The Altean swiped the holographic image to where the Milky Way galaxy was, not that far off from other Galran claimed galaxies, it sent a shiver down the teenager's spine to hear that a Galran attack could be inevitable for their planet. He grew even more concerned now that the Galra knew they were from Earth especially when the Blue Lion was found there. Lance could feel his fingernails digging into his left palm as he clenched his hand in his slouched stance. He quickly relaxed his hand in an effort to lessen the damage down to his palm before it got worse. He took a deep breath, hoping the others didn't hear, as the princess explained to them the importance of getting the hang of Voltron, and quickly. And while Lance agreed with her, he was concerned about how he was supposed to bond with three other individuals he has barely worked with before. He only hoped that the training they would be doing was enough for the five of them.
When Shiro agreed with her, he nudged the rest of the paladins to meet up in their Lions to begin their training for Voltron, Pidge was the one who spoke.
"Wait! I want to talk to the prisoners we rescued from the Galra ship."
As Lance thought, Pidge only had one thing in mind, and that was the information the prisoners could give him about his family. This made the Blue Paladin furrow his eyebrows in concern if the youngest could obtain the information that he needed what would he do with it? Would he urge the rest of them to help him find his family or would he ultimately make the decision to go out into the world and find them himself? If they were the only ones in the universe who could pilot the Lions, they wouldn't be able to form Voltron, and without Voltron, there would be no defeating Zarkon and freeing the universe from his tyrannical reign. Lance watched as Pidge's shoulders drooped as Coran explained to him that the prisoners were nowhere near waking up with their conditions. As the group began to disperse to respected chutes, he placed the cup he had been holding aside and placed a hand on the Green Paladin's shoulder before telling him that he had dropped the headphones in his room and walking away. The younger male gave him a grateful smile before walking off to the chute that led to the Green Lion.
As he descended to Blue's hanger, he was impressed by how the Altean technology helped him dress in his suit by morphing the black bodysuit to his body and the white and blue armor plates being attached to the suit, almost as if they were magnetitic. One of the mechanical hands made its way to take off his azabache, and he slapped a hand over it denying the mechanical hand to take it off of him. Ever since Lance could remember, he had never once taken it off, it was a present from his mamá Cuca on his twelfth birthday, telling him that the red bracelet and the medallion hanging off it would ward off all evil following him***, and while he didn't truly believe in superstition, the red bracelet, only held together with string, and the jet black gem, meant the world to him, especially now since it was one of the few things that tied him back to Earth and his family.
Jumping onto the zipline was something new to Lance, all the while he was moved forward, he hoped his hands had gotten a good grip on the handles. Ahead of him, a small door began to open, Lance only assumed that was where he was supposed to go and did a leap of faith into the opening to be met with a blue hoverbike that took him forward to another opening with an elevator leading up to Blue. While he was moving fast, Lance wondered if all this was really necessary just to get to the Lion hangers.
He would make sure to ask Coran later on.
Each of the Paladins exited from the castle towers and ended up waiting for Hunk on the bridge that was falling apart outside the castle. Lance let out a worrying question to rest of the team, wondering if Hunk could have possibly had trouble with piloting the Yellow Lion; it wouldn't be until later that evening that he would find out what happened to Hunk and would end up laughing all throughout the night keeping Hunk's secret all to himself for blackmail purposes, obviously.
Hunk joined not even two seconds later when he voiced his question and they began to follow Shiro's lead on forming the giant robot. If the team needed to form Voltron under a tight time frame, they had to know exactly how long it would be until they could form Voltron seamlessly without much thought going into it. So, Shiro, the great leader that he is, asked Pidge to set a simple stopwatch for them so they could time themselves during the time it took to form the mechanical giant. It wasn't until 20 excruciating seconds later—Lance counted—of flying in formation that the team moved onto the next idea to form Voltron, making a cheerleader pyramid. What the heck Keith? Lance felt embarrassed for the Lions having to go through with this, and he prayed to never have to go through it ever again. Ever again. He could feel Blue agree with him.
"Let's take a break," as soon as Shiro spoke that Allura intervened.
Once Lance heard her say "heat of battle" he should have kept his guard up, his gut was telling him this, Blue was telling him this, but did he listen and pay attention to them? No. And he paid the price as soon as the castle's particle barrier was set in place and the castle's defense system was activated. Meaning an onslaught of lasers being fired their way, the Cuban was convinced that the princess had set it on auto engage and left them there, just like that. He was certain that he saw a glimpse of a smile and heard a cheerful tone coming from her visual. Yes, Lance was 100% doomed here in space, and it wasn't because of the Galra empire, he was certain that Princess Allura would be the one to kill him before they even faced the Emperor. Lance would die at the age of 17, he could feel it in his gut during the moment he tried to make his way back to castle only to bounced off by the barrier. The team would continue trying to dodge laser after laser over the course of 30 minutes, sometimes, who was he kidding, always getting hit with one or three at the same time. If this exercise was supposed to help them, the only thing it did was help them with evasive maneuvers. Lance and Pidge were the first to notice that the barrier was flickering off and made an escape into the castle dodging the remaining laser beams directed to them followed by Hunk, Keith and lastly Shiro.
Let fear be his guide? Yeah right.
Flying into the hanger the teenager let out a much-needed breath before making his way outside of Blue, the poor girl looked even worse than yesterday, and Lance was starting to feel bad. He knew that piloting, as much as it was his passion, wasn't his strong suit, but all he could do was be patient and keep practicing with Blue until they became comfortable with each other. Halfway into the exercise, Lance had noticed that she was easing off the instructions and letting him take over the next course of action only helping him when she thought he needed it, and he greatly appreciated the thought and effort Blue made in making him feel comfortable. He said a small goodbye to her and walked out of the hanger, making his way toward the lounge area where Pidge and Hunk had already made themselves feel at home. Lance followed suit and sprawled over the couch, he heard someone sit by his feet and lifted his head a little to see that it was Keith. Lance shrugged and was beginning to doze off when the doors behind him slid open and Allura and Coran's voices begin to flood his ears.
Allura's ecstatic voice of them finally forming Voltron almost made Lance feel bad for flying in the castle as soon as the barrier went down. Almost. He still didn't agree with her method on how they should form Voltron. And he never wanted to do it again.
"No, we didn't," Lance glanced to see that it was Keith who spoke up for them. "The shooting stopped, and the particle barrier went down so we just flew in."
The way the Red Paladin shrugged off the ordeal nonchalantly, Allura's glare, and Coran's "oh no" expression, made the whole scenario feel like the time his mamá and Marco had a small disagreement and his pop-pop knew about what Marco did and forgot to tell mamá about it. Then Shiro came and ruined it. Either way, Coran was now his hero.
"I'm not going back to Earth until I find my family." Lance had to hand it to Pidge, once he set his mind on something, he was sure to accomplish it.
"There won't be an Earth without finding a way to fight Zarkon," responded Shiro to Hunk's comment on wanting to return back to Earth. And while Lance agreed with both of them, he didn't see a way how to either one.
"How are we even supposed to fight?" He questioned, sitting up to face Shiro. "We can't even form Voltron without coming up with ideas that don't make sense, Keith, and ideas that have us at the edge of our seats trying to maneuver ourselves into a good distance away to form Voltron."
"Well, I'm not surprised." began Coran. "The original Paladins fought hundreds of battles together, side-by-side. They were like a pack of yalmors linked at the ears."
Lance gave the male Altean a look of confusion before he laid back onto the soft cushion, "Yeah, that's definitely not us."
"During the last attack, your survival instincts forced you to work as a team, but that will only get you so far," he continued. "You'll have to become a real team to have any chance of forming Voltron and then beating Zarkon next time."
Lance didn't even know he spoke until he felt everyone's eyes on him, "And how, pray tell, are two childhood friends, a short genius, a Senior Officer, and a drop-out supposed to become un equipo anyways?"
"You could try working out on the training deck!" replied Coran. Lance could practically feel Hunk's worry towards him before questioning the news of a training deck.
Coran asked them to follow him as Allura continued on with running diagnostics on the castle. The walk to the training deck wasn't really a quiet one due to Hunk whispering to Lance, asking him if he was feeling alright. The concern Hunk had over his friend was cute, and Lance appreciated it. The only person the Cuban had ever told about his inability to sleep alone outside his family was Hunk. He understood Lance's need for this and didn't question it when he found out; instead, he embraced it and followed along with it. He would help him sleep by talking with him, telling him about anything really, and it always helped put his friend's thoughts at ease, enough for him to finally be able to sleep. Hunk then asked one final question, "Do you wanna talk before sleeping?"
Lance gladly agreed.
Entering into the training deck, Coran had them walk to the center of the room while he made his way through some side doors and into an observation deck. He quickly explained the first exercise in the form of protecting each team member's safety and relying on them to protect their own safety. Once five drones were set free and the shields—that are way too narrow to protect them—were brought out from their suits, the exercise began. The first to go was Pidge when Hunk made the decision to crouch down to evade the attacking drones instead of using the shield to protect himself. Then went Hunk as he was fired from behind and fell into a chute that appeared below his feet. If Lance thought the castle firing at them in their Lions was bad, being fired upon by drones was worse especially when he wasn't sure if the five of them could even work together. Seeing the Green and Yellow Paladins fail, the remaining three stepped backwards, standing back to back, protecting each other from the firing drones. Neither of the three Paladins spoke, too focused on what was in front of them to even utter a sound. The intensity of the speed the drones fired was increased each passing second, and before Lance could crouch to stop a short beam with his shield, it went in between his legs and hit Keith who had been crouched down. With no one behind him, Lance was the next to go falling in the chute and into a dimly lit room. He could hear the grunting of his fellow paladins and soon heard Shiro's joining them.
Exercise 1, fail.
Exercise 2 was to get through an invisible maze that only a partner, up in the observation deck, could see. Lance, being the hopeful person he was, hoped that Hunk was his partner when he heard the possibility of getting shocked. Then he heard Keith's voice, he was sure the Red Paladin volunteered himself for the role, and as soon as he hit a wall, Lance was 98% sure that Keith volunteered himself for the role. He already apologized to him for letting a drone hit him, he even apologized many more times than he really wanted to. However, Keith wanted to get back at him. Fine then, this meant war.
Exercise 2, fail.****
Their third exercise would be held in the air, with the Lions of course. Lance was confident in his bond with Blue and gladly expressed it to the rest of the group. And he did feel confident up until the moment Coran darkened his field of vision in a nose-dive. He could feel Blue nudge him, pushing him to open his mind for her, Lance was beginning to when he felt that Keith was next to him, and Lance wasn't the type of guy to not pay someone back for what they did, so he egged the other teenager on. Until the two found their Lions buried in the dunes, Red more so than Blue. Blue was not amused by their outcome.
Exercise 3, fail, except for Shiro. Go, Shiro!
Forming Voltron in their mind seemed easy enough for Lance so he placed the headband over his head following the Altean's instructions on what to think about. It was almost like meditating, finding the happiest moment in their life and making that their happy place, a place they can go back to if they need to regain themselves. With his eyes closed and an open mind, he could see what his other teammates were thinking of, Hunk's passion for food and the family kitchen; Keith's run-down shack in the desert; Pidge's girlfriend; and he saw Shiro and Junior Officer Warfeld in the Garrison's lounge area. It was here that Lance began to think of the times he and his family had spent their days in Cuba before needing to leave. The white grainy sand in between his toes, the way the water seemed to follow his every movement when they played in it, it felt peaceful, when suddenly it didn't. He could feel someone—Pidge—pushing further into his mind, further into that memory trying to see more of it when he felt a pounding headache begin to start up. Then his memory began to flicker, snippets of an unfamiliar scene came to him as soon as the Green paladin left, occupied with Hunk entering his mind.
A dark empty room filled his field of vision as they stopped sharing their memories for a moment. He shook his head, as they began the mind bonding a second time, he thought of his family once again, then he let go, forming Blue in his mind thinking of their bonds and creating Voltron, the connection was finally there when the searing headache began again and Pidge broke the bond. While Pidge was busy complaining over the exercise, Lance looked down and quickly took off the headband and placed it to his side. He put his head in his hands and took deep breaths hoping for the headache to subside, only for a final image to be shoved in the front of his mind, and feeling as if his azabache was burning his skin.
A formless figure covered from head to toe in a dark cloak, the only thing visible were five glowing yellow slits coming from where its face should be.
Exercise 4, semi-success with a headache.
Lance looked up as Coran handed out a pouch of the weird water, but not water, to each Paladin. He pushed aside the weird image, thinking it was only the fatigue finally getting to him, the none stop exercises did not do much to help in his case. He gave the man a grateful smile and moved closer to Hunk, leaning against him in an effort to relax his back from having to sit upright for the whole meditation. The Cuban glanced around, seeing how the team of five seemed to have built their own mini teams, he and Hunk—and Pidge, he guessed—and Shiro and Keith. It was almost as if they were forming one single team with two different ones.
Lance could finally feel his muscles begin to relax when it came Allura, asking why they were not training. The teenager understood her concern about finding a quick solution for them to form Voltron but with all these exercises and no time in between to rest, he wouldn't be surprised if his body and mind to wake up sore tomorrow. So, when she told them of the gladiator, Lance wanted to just get up and make a run for it, he could already tell that this would most definitely be giving him bruises and sore muscles.
Exercise 5 was a total beat down.
The bayard he and Hunk were using turned into long-range and mid-range weapons respectively. Pidge's strange grappling hook taser could be used to get out of quick situations instead of direct combat, especially when the kid had no idea how to use it correctly. Compared to Shiro and Keith who fought in sync together, the other three had no idea how to work together against the Altean technology or work as a team in the matter of fighting. That's why it was to no surprise that the three cadets were the first to be out. The gladiator had landed closer to Hunk and made its way toward him. Hunk fired off his mini canon sending a few blasts toward Keith who quickly brought up his shield, but he was pushed back by the force emitted from them. The gladiator dodged every blast that Hunk sprayed around the room, swung his polearm sending Hunk to his back and finishing him off with a taser at the end of the pole. In came Pidge trying to come up from behind seeing that the gladiator was busy with the Yellow Paladin, but it was almost as if it was waiting for him to approach. While the boy was able to block off a few of the hits, the taser at the end was what finally got him and sent him flying on top of Hunk. Seeing the two out of it, Lance quickly got hold of the gladiator's attention by firing at it, he only hoped that Shiro and Keith would intervene before he would be forced to get into close-ranged fighting. However, this was wishful thinking as he saw the two just stand there, almost as if processing what had just happened to the other two Paladins, and Lance had to admit the gladiator wasn't just strong, but fast. It had used its polearm to deflect the fire being sent his way to get closer to Lance and pushing him to the side, it was there that he heard footsteps coming up from behind, Keith on his right and Shiro on the left when his bayard was knocked away from him. As he watched as his weapon skidded across the room he was met with a hit to his head, and then another as it came back from fighting Keith until it tossed him into Keith's un-waiting arms. This whole exercise was exactly what Lance thought it was going to be. Them being beaten down by Altean technology.
It felt great.
He grumbled as he pushed himself off of the Red Paladin in time to see that Shiro was making his way toward the gladiator his arm beginning to glow that strange purple again. The headache from earlier Lance had felt he was sure that it was beginning again, and he wasn't sure if it was because of the two hits he received to the head or the energy emitting from Shiro's arm. He clutched his head, wanting—needing—for the pain to subside, and when it did, Shiro's arm had turned off and the man looked to be frozen in place. It didn't take long for Lance to think that Shiro was having a memory relapse. It was here that Lance was thankful for his sister to have told him what could occur to someone after experiencing a traumatic event, and how she urged him to read her mental health first aid book when she was done with it. He quickly made his way toward the Black Paladin once the gladiator was shut off, pushing away a concerned Keith urging him to be silent. Actually, he urged the whole room to be silent. Kneeling down next to him, he slowly made his way to help him up after asking him if it was okay for Lance to help him. The teenager took a deep breath as he reassured Shiro that while the pain he felt was real, he was not in danger. *****
"Shiro, listen to me," he began, feeling all eyes on him. "Listen to my voice, whatever you are seeing, you aren't there. The pain you are feeling is real Shiro, but it isn't being done to you now. You can feel my hand on you, Shiro, you can feel the ground of the training deck underneath you, the weight of your Paladin armor on you. This was nothing that you had when you were with the Galra, you are on Arus, in the Castle of Lions. Open your eyes, Shiro, look at what is in front of you, look at who is in front of you. Take all the time that you need to cool down Shiro, we'll be here waiting, right by your side."
Lance wasn't lying when he told Shiro that they would be waiting, he kneeled next to the man holding onto his shoulder and his other hand stopping the others from talking, and most importantly Allura to stop her from demanding more out of them. The look of concern that each person had was written all over, even Coran, who could only hear what was going on stayed silent from the other side of the comms. Within the ten minutes they stayed there waiting for Shiro to come back to them, Coran had made his way down to the group.
Seeing Shiro come back to them, the tension in the room seemed to lessen, if only a little, before the others could bombard the Senior Officer with questions, Lance stopped them and asked Shiro a short series of yes or no questions.
"Shiro, if you can't talk, just nod or shake your head, ok?" Shiro nodded.
"Ok," he began. "Do you know where you are?"
Shiro nodded.
"I want you to shake your head for Earth and nod for Arus." Shiro nodded again.
"Good, you're doing good Shiro. Do you think you are able to stand up?" This was the first one the Black Paladin shook his head, a no. "That's okay, take all the time you need to feel comfortable."
So, there they all sat, or stood in the Altean's and Keith's case, silently waiting for Shiro to take a deep breath and feel comfortable in his surroundings, this took another 10 minutes. Within those ten minutes, Lance thought of all possible situations that Shiro could find himself to relapse into a memory. If this kept happening, and no one else could help Shiro through this, Lance feared the worst for the adult. He needed help, professional help, not the novice level help Lance could provide after reading his sister's first aid in mental health and researching for more information on the internet. Shiro needed to speak with someone, and he had to do it now or else everything that he feels in the future would overwhelm him.
It was Coran who spoke first as Keith and Lance helped Shiro to his feet. Nudging them all toward the dining room telling them that it was time for all of them to take a much-needed break. Shiro thanked Lance on the way there telling him that he was glad the teenager was able to help him through his panic attack and for being patient with him throughout the long wait. Lance smiled and nodded at the pilot. Pidge was the one who asked him where he had learned how to deal with panic attacks.
"My big sister Veronica is a part of the Navy, she had to take a class for first aid in mental health and injuries since the unit she joined mostly partakes in the extraction of soldiers who are unable to escape through terrain or sky. Most of them ended up going through…difficult events, so they have to have basic knowledge on how to handle their trauma and injuries until they can see a professional. She ended up telling me and my twin all about this after hearing I wanted to get in the Garrison and Rachel in nursing. She gave us her old books and I just did extra research on them."
The boy looked up at Lance in awe, the expression he had written over his face reminded him of the way Sylvio would look at him when he would fire off his shots in the shooting range. He smiled back at him before telling him that he could teach him if he wanted to learn about it, to which Pidge agreed.
Exercise 5, fail.
.
.
.
Entering the dining room, the Blue Paladin could finally see why Coran had scurried off first, on the table, there was two big bowls of green goo two other bowls filled with, what looked like rectangular prism-shaped pink and green jelly. They all took a seat, with Keith and Lance walking Shiro to a chair closest to the head of the table. Followed by Hunk sitting next to him with Lance on his right followed by Keith and lastly Pidge at the foot of the table. They each served themselves a good portion of the food goo when Coran stopped them from eating by deciding that this was their last exercise of the day. Feeding each other. Like a pack of yalmors, whatever those were.
Lance could feel Hunk trying to simmer down, and Lance had to agree with his buddy, there was no way that nothing was going to stop him from eating. Except when Keith defiled his food goo. There they were, the five of them struggling to feed themselves while the Altean Princess sat there eating with Coran by her side, waiting on her.
Shiro, the tired man who had just gone through a panic attack, gave out an exhausted sigh. And Lance had to hand to him, after an attack like that, he wondered how Shiro wasn't physically or mentally exhausted and unstable from it. The guy just needed to rest, and he needed it now.
"Can't you just give us a break?" Shiro asked. "Everyone's been working really hard today."
Then Keith followed with an exclamation of his own, "Yeah! We're not some prisoners for you to toy with, like…like…"
"Like a bunch of toy prisoners!" Lance helped out. Keith thanked him, with some hesitation in his voice before he said his name.
"You do not yell at the Princess!" remarked Coran.
Then came Pidge with a sassy response of his own, "The Princess of what? We're the only ones out here and she's no princess of ours."
Out of nowhere, a flying food goo met Pidge's face, staining his glasses and slowly falling onto his paladin suit. Everyone looked to see that it was Allura who had thrown it using the spork in her hand to fling it straight into Pidge's face. Lance didn't know she had it in her to even do something like that, she was a princess after all, aren't they supposed to be taught what they can and cannot do. He was pretty sure she broke a rule in dining etiquette.
"Go loose Pidge!" the chaos that ensued after Keith said this was one that Lance was sure his mamá would ground him and his siblings if they ever decided to do this at her dinner table. Keith threw his plate still filled with goo toward her when Coran used the towel, he had in his hand to deflect the trajectory followed by using a ladle to land goo on each paladin's face. Hunk followed into the fight by stuffing his mouth with goo and bring his hand together to spray the two Alteans, in the process dragging Lance and Shiro close to him. He was able to hit them both, and the war soon resumed.
Lance wasn't sure how long the whole food fight lasted with him using Hunk as a shield and using his spork to hit Coran and Allura straight in the face every time they popped up from behind the chairs. He could hear everyone laughing and screaming along with him, he quickly glanced over to see how Shiro faring to see that the adult had finally loosened up a little to enjoy the moment. Being the veteran that he was, he was able to use his skills to get minimum amount goo on him and was able to use the plated in front of him as shields and tools to collect the goo to aim back at the Alteans. This whole entire scenario felt like home to the teenager and Lance could feel his worries dissolving away. It almost felt like a team.
As they came to a halt, Allura slumped herself into the chair behind her letting out a sigh. All the paladins looked at one another, laughing at each of their appearances, food goo everywhere.
"Enough!" exclaimed Allura from her seat head bent down. Lance was worried that she would begin to tell them that they were acting like children and not taking their situation seriously, only to be met with looking up at them with a smile on her face. That's when Lance knew that they finally did something right. The Cuban let out a smile and met Keith's eyes, and for some strange reason, he felt at peace, as if they had finally bonded. Probably not as close as Allura was hoping for, but there was a bond of comradery for a moment that lingered between the two.
Coran handed each a towel to get the food goo out of their hair and clean off their suits before they went to see if they could finally form Voltron after a morning of non-stop exercises.
Going outside, meeting up in their Lions, Lance could feel the same energy coming off of them from when they first formed Voltron. The moment of calm determination between the five of them coming together to form one being. The bond between them growing stronger as their Lions came together and intensified the energy he had first felt when meeting Blue. Lance felt whole for the first time since they last formed Voltron.
*So, the names papa Leon and mamá Cuca are what I call my grandparents, yeah.
**Notice how I didn't give him a facial mask from the beginning? I honestly don't think the castle will even have these things over the course of 10,000 years, it's honestly not really realistic to me. I kind of also want to get rid of the food goo, but they need sustenance, so I'll keep it in, that and I don't know if it has expiration dates for that kind of food. IDK.
***I have worn a red bracelet like this for over 10 years (I'm 21 guys, so yeah, I can see Lance wearing this for over six years without taking it off, plus, we kinda need 2 hands to take it off). I have known others who have worn them since a younger age, and because they are made out of string the sizes can just be accommodated for the wearer. I love being born into a Mexican family, with superstition and everything. (Yes, I believe in superstitions, with limitations on a few). I think in Cuba they would call this an azabache, if you are Cuban, correct me on this because I am not Cuban.
****For the maze exercise, I think Keith just looked at the map wrong. The map in front of Keith didn't show the whole thing, and if you notice, Lance's blue dot it doesn't show where he is facing. I think Keith thought Lance was facing the semi-circle in the maze, not one of the straight corners beside the dot, and that is why he told him to walk two steps forward and when he saw his mistake he just rolled with it just to mess with Lance. For this story, Keith just wanted to get back at Lance for not protecting him from the drone fire.
*****I took a Mental Health First Aid class for adults, so I have this book. It's really helpful. Panic attacks can last from 10 minutes up to an hour, it's different for everyone. I think I did Shiro's panic attack okay, I have never seen one in person, but I feel comfortable enough with it that it seems realistic.
Can we talk about how the Alteans use sporks? I don't think that gets enough attention in the series. I love it.
Spanish Translation(s):
Mamá = mom, mama, mami, mum, mother…
Un equipo = a team.
On FANFICTION only.
Comments:
Shirani Atsune: I think I answered to your comment on Ao3, anyways thanks for the comment, I greatly appreciate it. And again, sorry for it being so lengthy.
ILikeFoxes828 (Guest): Yeah, while I agree with the whole writing a bulk of chapters and posting them one by one, I can't really do that at the moment. I am still a university student, online, and I have to read a bunch of books and do all these assignments for them, plus final exams are about to come up and my last project for three classes are 5 paged essays with 6 to 7 scholarly articles needing to read. In addition, I have to help my sister with her schoolwork while my parents work; I just don't have the time to sit down and write more than one chapter per one or two weeks. Especially when I am re-watching the series to make sure everything flows with canon and with what I have planned with this new divergence. Sorry if this was really lengthy, but I just had to write my reasons why I can't do that for this "season 1." Anyways, thanks for the comment, I always appreciate them.
