Chapter 1:
Beeeep! Beeeeeep!
That was the ear-peircing whine that doubled as an alarm that woke Lance up from his precious beauty sleep. It was a little different than the usual Galra-attacker alarm that sounded suspiciously like an Earth police siren but the noise was an alarm all the same.
Lance let out a load groan. Just for once, could the Galra give us a break. As much as he wished they could get one, he knew it wasn't a possibility with Zarcon being power hungry and possessive of the Black Lion as he was. Like seriously what was the guy's problem?
The past few weeks, the attacks had been relentless and spanned out across the galaxy so none of them knew what to predict. Lance noticed that they were all sporting dark circles under their eyes, even his own and his facial routine was flawless. And worse of all his girlfriend Pigeon, as he liked to call her, wouldn't even try to sleep at all. He had made it a routine now to stop at her hangar when he was on his way to bed. The thing was that she pushed her body to the limit and he reminded her on a daily basis that she had only one, albeit tiny, body to her annoyance.
He smirked at the colorful vocabulary of words she'd use every time he said that as he rolled himself out of bed. He jumped around while putting on his under suit in a rush. Next his leg braces were somehow being pulled on at the same time as his arm braces. (He was just fabulous enough to make it work.) Once all his armour was on he started to make his way out of his room.
On his way out he glanced at his appearance and winced, he definitely didn't look good this morning. His normally luscious hair was sticking up at odd ends while his armour looked like they were put on by his five year old sister, Maria. He sighed again at his appearance, as well as ignoring the pang of homesickness, letting himself be vain for a single tick more before he jogged through familiar hallways to the Teleduv Room.
Shiro, as always, was there first, talking in hushed tones to Allura about something that sounded important. Lance spun on his chair as his eyes spied around the room for his 'rival'.
Being with Katie had really straightened him out. He didn't feel that he had to have a rival just to show he was worth being on the team. Pidgeon had made sure to engrain that fact into him, he thought with a smile. Her blushing and stammering to tell him that he was just as fine as he is, brought a large grin to his face.
Light footsteps sounded along the hallway and a second later someone walked in.
"Morning, sorry I'm late."
And there he was. With his mullet damp with sweat. It was obvious by the towel on shoulders that he'd been in the training room. Again. But what normally annoyed him just made him worry. Did Keith ever sleep at all?
Even Pigeon slept when she couldn't stay up a tick longer. And he'd find her doing so in the most random places. The most common being the vents. Yeah he still didn't understand how she'd get there.
Allura and Shiro didn't respond to Keith's hello so Lance took his chance to voice his thoughts. "Mullet, do you know what sleep is?"
Keith turned to him, his dark eyebrows ruffled in confusion. "What are you on about Lance?"
"Sleep." He stated as if it was obvious. "If you're not training with us then your doing it on your own. Keith I am being serious here, do you sleep anymore?"
He looked at Lance for a second, his amethyst eyes widening then huffing, "a few hours are enough."
"And that basically means four hours or less." Lance stated angrily.
"Why does it matter anyway?" Keith snapped, turning away.
"Because space family care for each other." Lance stated while fixing his leg braces the right way round.
Keith didn't say anything and didn't deny what Lance said. But Lance let it sink in for a moment, they all knew that Keith was used to being a lone wolf.
"Where's Pidgeon and Hunk anyway?" Lance wondered out loud when he thought a reasonable (so what if it was short) amount of time had passed.
"Shouldn't you know. You and Pidge are practically joined at the hip now." Keith muttered as he cleared the sweat from his hair with his towel.
"That's not true," Lance reddened. "We don't spend all day together.
"But you still spend most of it." Keith commented from underneath the cloth.
"Whatever Mullet." Lance waved the words away, "you're just jealous that you don't have a girlfriend because all girls are annoyed by your stupid Mullet hair."
"It's not stupid!" Keith turned around to argue, cheeks red.
"Then where's your girlfriend then?" Lance asked tauntingly.
"Why does it matter anyway if a have a girlfriend?" Keith deflected his eyes narrowing.
"Are you guys seriously arguing this early in the morning? It's not even breakfast yet." The person who walked in and accompanied the voice was Hunk.
"He started it." Keith responded.
"Did not!" Lance retorted.
"Calm down guys, it doesn't matter who started it, only what Allura and Shiro called us here for." Hunk diffused, rubbing his eyes of sleep.
"Hey..." Lance started after noticing something. "Why are you still in your pyjamas!?"
Keith and looked down at Hunk's attire too, "yeah, and for once I agree with Lance, why?"
Hunk nervously scratched the back of his head, "oh, you guys didn't know?"
"Does it look like we know?" Keith asked sarcastically, his arms folded.
"Know what?" If this was something Lance had lost sleep over he was not going to be happy.
"That different alarms are for different things," Hunk laughed more nervous than before at both of their darkening faces.
"You're saying-" started Lance jumping out of his seat.
"Does that mean I-" cut in Keith.
"I lost sleep-"
"Cut training time-"
"For a fake-"
"For not the Galra-"
"Alarm." They both synchronised.
Hunk stared at their faces, with a look similar to a deer caught in headlights, before saying, "it's not a big deal."
Hunk started running for the door when he saw the glint in Keith's eyes. "I'm innocent!"
"You come back here!" Keith shouted. His precious training time had been cut. Where he trained to become better. So no one could hurt his family just because he was not strong enough. It was important.
"What's going on?" The yawn came from Pidge as she shuffled into the room through the door Hunk was aiming for.
"Blame her, she's the one who set the sound for the alarms." Hunk protested as he changed direction and ran back around the console to avoid crashing into Pidge.
"What's up with you guys?" Pidge asked wobbling in her green onesie over to Lance, who was still frozen in a standing up position. She sat down on the chair her boyfriend had left (it was still warm) and yawned at all of their annoyed faces.
In the silence Shiro broke off his conversation with Allura to say, "It's OK guys it's not an Galra attack. We just need to talk to you all about something else."
Allura coughed slightly, announcing her presence, "yes it is of great importance."
Keith stopped inching closer towards Hunk and stood up straight to listen to the news.
The princess was smiling with her hands clasped in front of her that Lance had learnt to link to good news.
"Coran, Pidge and I have discovered a new section of the castle that King Alfor had hidden away, late last night."
Well at least that explained why Pidgeot was extra tired this morning, he thought.
Shiro carried on, "The thing inside will have a big impact on Voltron's power. And will help the way we take down Zarkon."
"But first would you like to see it?" The Princess asked, a large smile gracing her features.
The three other Paladins faces were blank.
"Am I the only one who's confused?" Hunk said with a frown.
"I am too." Lance agreed, with a wave of a hand.
"Well I'm not." Keith lied.
"I'll explain when we get there." Pidge yawned, pulling Lance towards the door.
"Alright! A bear hunt!" Lance exclaimed.
"We are not singing the song Lance." Hunk grumbled while following behind them. "Last time we sang 'We're Going On A Bear Hunt' Iverson gave us a weeks worth of detentions."
"It was worth it Hunk." Pidge added then moaned, "I would say 'hell yes!' to bear hunting but I'm feel like I can barely keep my eyes open never mind singing."
Allura cautiously entered the conversation and asked as they made their way down the hallway, "a bear? Paladins is it something I should worry about hunting?"
"It's just Lance being stupid." Keith commented.
"Excuse you grumpy pants, I'll have you know I am not stupid."
"Sure, I totally agree with you there." Keith sarcastically agreed.
"Guys I think it's a little to early for bickering." Shiro reminded at the tail of the group.
"He's still stupid." Keith mumbled.
"I'm going to be the bigger person here and pretend I didn't hear that."
Lance sing-songed.
They entered the lift at the end of the hallway, the Princess pressing a button that Lance swore wasn't there last time.
"We have discovered that the hydrolift can take us to the new hangar." The princess stated, the button rimming in purple.
He didn't have much time to think about it before Pidge decided to use him as a waking pillow and wrapped her arms around him and mumbled, "don't let me fall."
He smiled at her sleepy actions and replied with, "I won't."
But then the lift suddenly dropped before Hunk could ask a question on the mechanics and they all screamed except Shiro, Allura and Pidge.
Lifts weren't supposed to drop this far as well as this fast in a ship and Lance prayed for it to stop. It had to end at some point, right?
The lift finally came to a steady stop and Lance coughed addressing everyone, "just to say I definitely didn't scream guys, it was Keith."
"What the-hey! Get back here lance!"
But lance had already slipped out of the open door, sliding out of Pidgeon's grasp, not wanting to stay in the death box as he wisely named it in his head.
But he couldn't move far from it since the hallway he had entered was encased in darkness, with only the rays from the Altean version of an elevator lighting it.
" 'Lura is it supposed to be this dark? I know you said this'll help voltron and all but I don't see how a dark corridor will do that."
"Where are you even Lance, like man, I can't even see you anymore."
Lance could very well see Hunk poke his head around the open door of the lift but it was clear he couldn't see him.
"Lance you had a job you know," Pidge spoke up.
"Sorry, I quit," he said with as much flare as he could in a black corridor. "The working requirements say I have to be in that death box and that isn't happening right now.
Pidgeon snorted then whinnied. "Who am I going to go octo on now?"
"Do Shiro. It'd make someone jelly."
"If you don't stop! I-I-I've got a knife for a reason!"
"Oh, but I didn't even say your name Keith. This proves my point of you liking Shiro."
"You know what, who needs lights," Lance spotted his flaming cheeks even in the dark, as he moved to the lift opening. "Murder happens best in the dark-"
"If you would all just wait a tick I would motion the sensors with some of my quintessence."
It only took a moment for Allura to close her eyes and have the hall suddenly lit up by the bright blue lights that had lay dormant on the ceiling before.
Lance had to shield his eyes from the harsh light and positioned himself behind Shiro when Keith walked towards him but Pidgeon wasn't helping in poking him every two seconds.
"Pidgeon cut it out!"
Just because she'd linked arms with Shiro didn't mean he couldn't use Shiro's body too. Wait that sounded wrong in his head.
"No you quit your job and now Shiro is taking your place as Mr octopus."
He couldn't even argue with her about wanting to stay the alpha octo, when Keith had given up stalking him, happy with sending him a sliced neck mime and dark smile that promised later.
Once he had gotten used to the feeling of death on his shoulder, he tuned into what Allura was telling them.
"...my Father had an incomplete projects it seems and it lays just beyond this door."
Lance had noticed the door in the lull of his focus. It was a common blue found in the castle but it stood at a towering height. There were words carved into the door in gold in a language lost in time but that didn't stop him from trying to decipher it.
"Ouh luh hert lestre, yeah heh, this isn't easy."
The group's laughs filled the air at his sorry excuse at an attempt at speaking the foreign language.
"Lance I love you and all, but that is the most shittiest attempt at another language I have heard."
He heard Shiro choke at the profanity but he just winked at Pidgeon, disregarding nearly everything she'd said. "I love you too!"
She only had a chance to blush before Allura corrected him with a chuckle. "It's pronounced 'ut lux Illustre stelle te in domum suam' and it means 'may the light of the stars guide you home'."
He scratched his chin suspiciously as his eyes ran over the inscriptions again. "Hmm I'm still sure I said it right but whatever floats your boat 'Lura."
"Sure buddy." Hunk agreed with a smile before his eyes grew sparkly. "But how would you open the door though...? The way you turned the lights on was cool, of course, Allura but you know the door's really tall. Like taller than Shiro."
"Wait why am I being referenced for height?"
"Duh," Keith said flatly. "You're The Guy."
"How does that even...?"
"Because you're Shiro Takashi the famous pilot, with the chiselled jaw guys would kill for." Here Lance used his hand to slide across the sharp edge. "And just look at that those eyebrows that you keep majestic even with battles. Not to mention those stormy eyes you could get lost in." Now he clutched his heart saying, "if staring could kill I'd be six feet under... well actually we're not on Earth right now so just imagined I said something smart."
"I can't imagine you and smart in the same sentence." Keith drily stated.
However Lance raised an eyebrow, if he was going to die he was going to die in style. "How about I change what I said to if eye-fucking Shiro could kill, you would be six feet under?"
"LANCE!" The exclaims we're from everyone at that moment but in Lance's eyes he was going to die anyway.
He just blinked innocently. "Touchy subject?"
Pidge snorted at her boyfriend. "If I didn't know any better I'd think you were gay for Shiro, Lance."
"Yeah I'm suspicious of you too, buddy." Hunk hummed, glancing between his best friend and the blushing big shot. Was Lance hinting at something?
Keith finally having heaved in a deep breath, not wanting to have to have witnesses to a murder, huffed. "I wouldn't be surprised if you're projecting your feelings onto me."
Shiro didn't even want to register that the conversation was even happening so he like he did in the lift, stayed silent, hating his dark cheeks were plain to see on his pale skin.
Allura's tinkering laugh filled the space and everyone couldn't help but smile at her joyous face. "Paladins you are delightfully ridiculous sometimes."
"I'll take it as a compliment." Lance said with a grin, glad that he could say crazy things to this group of people and they still stood strong together. Basically the group of people overrode their impulses to kill... (well him) but that was good right?
"Right..." Shiro finally spoke up, ignoring all the grins thrown at him. "I think it would be wise that we carry on so you guys can see what we came here to show you in the first place."
Allura smiled as she walked up to the door to press her palm against the surface. "Yes I agree, let me open it for you all."
In the quiet as they watched the gold letters become lit with the blue that Lance believed Altea had trademarked.
Then he mused out loud, preparing his legs for a sprint. "Hmm Shiro be brushing off that Sheith conversation like Keith brushes off the DMs he gets from Shiro of his dic-"
"I swear to God, Lance!" Keith cut him of, raking a hand through the fringe of his mullet. "You know what you're not even worth my knife, I'm gonna use my bare hands on you."
Shiro was covering his burning face with his hand and muttered. "Lance if you die, I'm sorry to say I'm not going to help you. At this point I'm willing to help Keith."
"Yep people, that guy's my boyfriend." Pidgeon commented and it made him laugh even with his impending death.
"Guys look... the door is open! " Lance faked amazement with his pizzaz and fled through the towering door, not waiting to see if the rest of them would follow.
He wasn't gong to risk his treasured features being marred. (There was no way his face was going to be injured. His fans would cry, first of all.)
But then he saw it.
A purple lion.