Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/8030779.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Major_Character_Death, Rape/Non-Con,
      Underage
  Category:
      F/M, M/M, F/F
  Fandom:
      Voltron:_Legendary_Defender
  Relationship:
      Keith/Lance_(Voltron), Shiro/OC_(Voltron), Allura/OC_(Voltron), Hunk/OC_
      (Voltron)
  Character:
      Keith_(Voltron), Shiro_(Voltron), Pidge_(Voltron), Hunk_(Voltron), Lance_
      (Voltron), Allura_(Voltron), Coran_(Voltron), Witch_Haggar, Original
      Character, Matt_Holt, Sam_Holt, Keith_Kogane, Takashi_Shirogane, Lance
      McClain, katie_holt, Hunk_garrett, Pidge_|_Katie_Holt, Sendak_(Voltron),
      Ariela_I._Torres_(Voltron_OC), Nallely_(Voltron_OC), Sugey_(Voltron_OC),
      Original_Female_Character(s)_of_Color, Pidge_Gunderson, Original_Female
      Character, Original_Male_Character
  Additional Tags:
      Original_Character_-_Freeform, Post_Season_1, Universe_Alteration, UA,
      Aromantic_Asexual_Pidge_|_Katie_Holt, Bisexual_Lance_(Voltron), Implied/
      Referenced_Rape/Non-con, Slow_Burn, Hawaiian_Hunk_(Voltron), Female
      Pronouns_for_Pidge_|_Katie_Holt, Post-Traumatic_Stress_Disorder_-_PTSD,
      Panic_Attacks, Limerence, Alpha/Omega_Dynamics_for_Galra, Mutual_Pining,
      Minor_Character_Death, Polyamorous_relationship, Torture, Cuban_Lance_
      (Voltron), Korean_Keith_(Voltron), Argentinian_Original_Character_
      (Voltron), Japanese/Brazilian_Shiro_(Voltron), Homosexual_Keith_
      (Voltron), Homosexual_Original_Character_(Voltron), What_even_is_Allura's
      sexuality???, Transgender_Original_Character_(Voltron), Other_Additional
      Tags_to_Be_Added, so_much_cuddling_and_so_many_Hamilton_references, not
      that_I_think_you'll_complain, Pansexual_Original_Character_(Voltron),
      Blood_and_Gore, it_just_gets_darker_as_you_go_on, Underage_Drinking,
      Implied/Referenced_Underage_Drinking, Pack_Dynamics, Galra!Keith, abusive
      families, abusive_teachers, Spying, mentions_of_torture
  Series:
      Part 1 of When_the_lions_come
  Stats:
      Published: 2017-02-26 Chapters: 33/? Words: 208298
****** Homemade Dynamite ******
by TheNewBohemianQ
Summary
     The Voltron team miraculously gets together again, with Keith at the
     verge of death. This sets panic running through everyone's veins, and
     Shiro thinks that they should hide until the water settles and then
     attack. They're not powerful enough after all.
     But then Coran comes up with a useful piece of information: There's a
     sixth robot, for a sixth paladin.
     Turns out that the Earth is not that uninvolved with this
     intergalactic war as they all thought and that everyone lies a little
     bit more than they like to admit, and the crew of the Castle of Lions
     (that continues to grow bigger) find themselves wrapped in a business
     of lies and betrayal that started more than ten thousand years ago.
     Some people believe that history has been written already, and
     everything seems to be heading downhill. Does this mean that the crew
     will have a sudden boost and save everyone out of the blue? Or does
     this mean that the only way to go is crashing down as they cling to
     the walls of an abyss?
***** Before you go down into this hellhole. *****
Well, well, well...
Here's the deal. This novel used to be paused because I started rewriting it
from zero because my writing used to be so tacky back then, and I said "Huh,
until I don't finish cleaning my act up I won't publish". I cleaned my act, the
whole novel is already outlined, along with the second part of the series. The
only reason I'm not deleting the older chapters is because I might need them
for reference sometime.
This part of the series "When the lions come" is planned to have either 10 or
11 chapters (depending on how long chapter 8 ends up being and if I have to
split it up).
If you want extra content, or want to be notified when I upload, or you simply
want to chat or get in contact with me, you have my Tumblr, my Twitter and my
Instagram.
Tumblr: @thenewbohemianq
Twitter: @callmequims
Instagram: @mpatchfhq
Comments and kudos are HUGELY appreciated. If there are any questions you have
or want to submit some headcanon or theory or art or whatever, you can contact
me on my social media or in the comments. I try to answer as fast as I can.
Also, please remember that I'm Argentinian, so Spanish is my first language,
not English, and that this is a Universe Alteration so, despite it being in
based in the canon universe, it won't follow the canon strictly (basically I
can do whatever I want, it's my fanfiction after all).
Anyways, I hope you enjoy this :*
***** Introduction. *****
"With a blow, they rise oceans,
With a stump, they shatter the ground.
They will stand strong like a tree,
And burn worlds with a snap of their fingers.
Clap their hands once and they bend the skies.
Clap their hands twice and Death's companion will appear.
You better run from the crashing waves,
Better avoid the shaky soil.
Don't stop listening to the forest proclaiming your death softly,
Nor think a mere spark won't burn you alive.
Pay attention to the stars, and the electricity in the air,
Because they are the lionhearted and the panther-souled.
They are the paladins of Voltron, defenders of the universe,
And whoever stands in their way, better give themselves for dead."
***** I'm fired up and tired of the way that things have been. *****
Chapter Notes
     Okay, hello. So this is my first fanfic and it's in English (which is
     not my native language) so please be merciful. Anyway, any
     constructive critic you have you can leave it in the comment box.
     As two of the characters are Spanish speakers I'll leave the
     translations right next to their respective dialogues, and some of
     them might include notes explaining customs or idioms .
     Hope you like it!
The paladins of Voltron, mighty defenders of the universe, symbols of the
resistance...
Just kids.
Shiro found himself in a state of dissociation (as if that was something new),
barely aware of the stormy sea his mind was, making almost every feeling known
to the human being flower and prickle at his skin. But he couldn't avoid it. At
least not while looking at Keith, unconscious and fighting for his life inside
one of the cold healing pods.
They are just kids his mind repeated, and a low voice laughed, making his head
and shoulders sink slightly as he looked around, only finding Coran and Lance.
He knew Allura was sitting right behind him too, waiting patiently for Coran's
answer about Keith's state, but the man couldn't avoid feeling like she was
doing it more out of duty than actual concern or interest. Not like he could
call her out on that; it was only just a thought, and lately he didn't have any
good thoughts.
The one you had last night was a very good thought the low voice chuckled, and
Shiro grinded his teeth together.
He never had good thoughts lately, especially in the early morning, when he was
alone with himself in a dark, cold and empty bedroom, with the weight of
Keith's life hanging from a string on his shoulders. It was almost as bad as
when Lance had barely made it out alive of the internal damage he had suffered
from the explosion caused by Sendak's fake Rover.
I thought you'd like my little gift. An excuse for you to drop the act of the
rightful leader and go back to the pit where you belong.
"Shiro? Are you okay, dude?" Lance asked, his hands inches away from Shiro's
shoulder, almost as if he was afraid of touching him. Shiro didn't blame him;
he looked like a spring ready to snap, all muscles tense and eyes filled with
anger and, if you looked really carefully, fear, but then Lance noticed him
coming back to the world of the living and put his hand on his shoulder, a
characteristic comforting grip that he had seen him give Hunk many times after
a really hard battle.
"I'm just..." he started, words quickly dying on his mouth. How could he finish
that without worrying them? He was crumbling down, hesitating, desiring to back
away, to just leave. He didn't want to be anywhere anymore. I've had
hallucinations and heard Sendak's voice in my head ever since the crystal
incident, I haven't slept in five days, my stomach is killing me but there're
hours left before meal time and my practicaly-baby-brother is half dead because
of me. "I'm really nervous. And tired. That's all," he said instead,
"Keith will be okay, Shiro. Why don't you go sleep for a while? I won't leave
him, I promise," Lance said, smiling at him warmly. How could this guy be an
incredible egocentric doofus and this caring at the same time?
"I'll..." He wanted to stay, but he could feel their gazes pinning him down. If
he didn't "rest" they would worry. "I'll go nap for a while. Wake me up it
there are any changes." And with that said, he turned around and left the room,
the three people in there that were awake following him with worried eyes
anyways, but the two Alteans ended up shrugging it off to Shiro's usual shady-
ish behaviour, and Lance had his own troubled mind to distract himself with.
Actually, they all had.
Their state was pitiful, after all, so who wouldn't worry?
The Castle had been so damaged after the battle against Zarkon's main ship that
it had taken a whole week for Allura and Coran to semi-locate the green lion,
only managing because Pidge had built a satellite out of space garbage to
amplify her signal. Then, with her help, they put half of the systems up; found
Hunk and Lance. And, two days after that, they found Shiro trying to protect
himself and dying Keith from the beasts of the planet they had landed in. Keith
had an awful cut going from his back to his stomach, as if one of the beasts
had wanted to open him up with its claws, and Shiro was still clutching to the
wound Haggar had opened at his side.
The lions needed maintenance, the Castle needed maintenance, and they were a
paladin down.
Who wouldn't worry?
They didn't worry much when it happened to you Lance's mind spat out without
his consent, but he just kept staring at an uncertain point in the wall, trying
to not think. Busy much with their clock party. No one was waiting for you when
you woke up.
Shut it he mentally snarled to himself. It was like that episode from Naruto,
where he found his evil self in a waterfall. Only that Naruto had met him for
fifteen minutes and defeated him; Lance had had his for his whole life and
wasn't near punching him.
But why would they? You're just here because there's no other option. But
Keith? No, man. He's special. Should know it, after everyone left clear how
you're not worth even the dust from his shoes. Lance rubbed his face, palms
sweaty. I mean, look at you. You've been at this for a little while and you're
ready to fling yourself into space. It's incredible how little you can bear
without your mum or your little friend protecting you and making sure you don't
fuck up.
"You should go get some rest too, Lance. You look pale," Coran said, tapping
things into a pad as he looked at the information on Keith's pod's screen.
Judging by the little Altean Lance had managed to learn, nothing could be good.
The blood pressure was in red. Red couldn't mean anything good.
Besides, he had promised Shiro he'd stay, let him know if there were any
changes.
"I can't." Allura looked at him with a quirked eyebrow.
"I insist. I believe Hunk is already awake. He slept all night and you didn't.
I'll call him and tell him to stay. You go rest," he said, left hand stretching
towards the wall, opening up the communication system of the Castle. "Go."
****** . . . ******
Humans were weird. Allura decided that when she noticed that the new paladins
fought with actual hope of defeating the empire, not just causing some damage
and perishing while trying. Because, being realistic, that was their future.
And yes, she might had been a little bit egoistic saving all the data and
calculations about their probabilities to herself and Coran to keep their
spirits high, because that meant that she was taking them by the hand to a
future they thought bright, despite it being the darkest thing in the universe.
It was the same hope that had gotten her out of Zarkon's base, though. So,
despite the facts being so against them, maybe she had a little spark of
childish hope and naiveness shining somewhere deep inside her. It grew a little
bigger whenever she saw the paladins succeed at a mission, or get better at
something (like when she noticed Shiro had gotten a few hours of sleep, or Hunk
had improved his knowledge and handling of the tech in the Castle and Lions, or
Lance upped his way up the levels of training, slowly but persistently), but
then it all went down again. For every step they took forward, they took three
steps backwards. Or they were pushed backwards, to be more precise. Whenever
Shiro could get a few hours of sleep in him, for example, they would have a bad
battle that would leave him broken again, and it would crush Lance's spirit and
his performance would lower, and Hunk's fear would return.
Pidge's only real focus was finding her family, so her improvement wasn't good
in anything more than her comprehension of Altean technology and language
(second hand learning), and Keith seemed to be doing all of this because... It
was the only thing he had. There was no real eagerness to fight, just there
were no other options.
"I'm serious, Coran. If we want to stay in the game we need to find something.
Motivate them! Fill the Castle's vital crew positions! We will go down earlier
than expected if we keep going like this," she said, tapping her feet quickly
against the floor. She could feel her ealakie starting to itch because of her
low burning annoyance.
"I know, princess. But it is harder than we want it to be. We don't really know
who we can trust and who we can't. Half of our allies have already turned their
backs on us," he said. "I might have an idea, but I don't think it will be that
useful," he muttered, finally closing Keith's screen and deactivating his pad,
so he could sit down on the steps. "He's stable. Not improving, but stable."
"We should pray to Boquem and Tarraz for his life," Allura sighed, and Coran
bit his lip.
"Or Siquem and Raquia for them to carry him to the upper mountains," he
replied, shaking his head. "Keith possesses quite a quick healing gene, I don't
know where he got it from, but he has it. If he isn't getting any better now, I
don't think he'll ever make it out of that pod."
"You're saying that we should already start looking for a new red paladin?"
Allura asked, head snapping up. Oh, no. That only made things worse in so many
ways. The effect it would have on the team, the time it would take for them to
find a new red paladin (and maybe a whole new pack of paladins, if the old ones
refused to bond with the new one)...
"Humans are so delicate," Coran sighed, and Allura dropped her head on her
hands.
"Too delicate," she emphasized.
****** . . . ******
He hated his feet for always taking him there. It was the last place where he
would want to be.
The cell bay was always empty, a heavy reminder of who had been held there
months ago when all of this had just started, and of how that person now seemed
to reside on his own head, only tormenting him.
One of this days I will finally manage to push you over the edge and there will
be nothing else for you to do than fall Sendak laughed, and Shiro fell to his
knees. At least he knew that he would be alone here, unless Hunk was on one of
his unscheduled strolls through the Castle.
"It's cold," he groaned, curling up on himself against a wall, lip starting to
tremble.
That's your body becoming weaker. You're even worse than when you lived at the
cells of the arena. Sendak sighed pleased. I remember how you would babble
nonsense and grab onto anything as we dragged you anywhere, trying to avoid the
unavoidable.
"F-fuck you." Yep. He was definitely seeing double now. Curse him and his lack
of sleep.
For someone who is locked up in such a chaotic head, I'm having lots of fun,
you know? I've always enjoyed watching my prisoners spiralling down into
madness and desperately trying to cling to something.
Shiro's head lolled to a side and he bumped it against the wall, but he was
already passing out, so it couldn't have mattered less.
****** . . . ******
Hunk was a pretty nervous guy. But who could blame him? Someone had to be the
one to worry and actually get scared like a normal human person in a family of
two reckless and fearless people, just jumping from event to event, without
stopping to think and look around, actually realise the situation they are in.
He was proud to say that, lately, his nervousness hadn't decreased and less
disappeared, but it wasn't stopping him from doing things anymore. He was
really proud, although he had kind of been pushed into acting without taking
much time to think through the last three months. Overall ever since Shiro's
PTSD had finally taken over. Before, it would only visit from time to time, as
if evaluating if buying that house would be a good investment. But since the
poisoned crystal, not only it had bought the house, it had moved in and
remodelled.
Hunk was sure that that was the motive for him finding Shiro curled up in
hallways, screaming in what he thought was Portuguese, seeming caught in
memories of worse times.
The first times it had happened, the boy had walked away because of his fear,
and he had regretted it when he noticed how Shiro would appear with scratch
marks on his face after those attacks. He had done those to himself in the
midst of a flashback or hallucination (but Hunk didn't know they were
flashbacks or hallucinations at that time). It wasn't until Shiro confused him
with a Galran guard and attacked him, only to have Hunk pinning him down
against the floor and just holding him there until he came back to reality
(after what felt like hours), that Hunk realised what the man's actual problem
was.
He didn't feel proud about having asked Pidge to put a virus on Shiro's arm, to
get reading's through it and track him down whenever an attack was happening,
without his consent, but he knew that the man would do the classic "I'm fine"
and refuse, so...
That's the story of how Shiro thought that Hunk habituated to stroll around the
Castle and casually find him, every time he was suffering in a corner.
"What's that beeping sound?" Allura asked, eyes nailed on Hunk, as the boy
started to fetch through his pockets to find the small device he had made for
himself. It said "Shiro, cell bay".
"Uhm... I... Can I go? It'll be just a few minutes," he asked, already walking
towards the door. The princess frowned and opened her mouth to speak, but the
words died quickly on her mouth when Coran shook his head and indicated Hunk to
go with a twist of his wrist, allowing him to burst out of the room.
"Why doesn't he run that quickly during training?" Coran sighed.
The answer was because, during training, he had nothing to lose. Now, he could
lose Shiro. He had been so close to losing him a few times now that he wasn't
risking another one. He was not letting the incident in the propeller room
happening again.
He remembered barely being able to catch Shiro by the vest after he jumped and
started running faster.
Shiro woke up after thirty minutes, hearing prisoners screaming in pain,
begging for mercy in unknown languages and screeching in an inhuman way when it
wasn't granted. He could also hear the guards calmly walking outside, speaking
in a language that he thought had been invented to talk exclusively about death
and torture.
His heartbeat started picking up as he crawled towards the wall that was the
farest from the cell door, sticking himself to it, as if he could somehow melt
into it and avoid the guards taking him anywhere. To the arena, the druid's
laboratory or Sendak's "interrogation" room. Because they were going to take
him somewhere, they always did. He could never be left alone for too much.
The door opened and a soldier walked, heading towards him at a really fast
pace.
"Please, don't," he muttered, clutching his arms against his chest, making
himself as small as possible. The guard put a hand on his shoulder and her
swung his left hand to try hit his face, but he missed. "DON'T TOUCH ME!" he
screamed, trying to get away.
"Shiro, calm down, please," the guard said with firm but soft voice. He
frowned, feeling how he was pinned against the wall by the shoulders, instead
of getting dragged by the ankle. "You are safe."
"What?" he asked, eyes trying to find something in the guard's face. At least
where his face should be. The memory was becoming weaker.
"You're at the Castle of Lions. There are no Galra in here. It's just me,
Hunk," he said.
Shiro calmed down, swallowing hard around the knot on his throat, as he looked
around and noticed that yes, what he was seeing wasn't real. It was fuzzy and
non detailed, like a memory that was slowly being forgotten.
It still took a few minutes for it to go away and finally be able to see that
yes, he was at the Castle, with Hunk still gently pinning him against the wall
as he sang a song with low voice.
****** . . . ******
It wasn't until two days later that Keith woke up at midnight, when only Lance
and Shiro were awake, both because they couldn't sleep.
If you asked him, Lance wouldn't be able to answer why he always went to the
healing bay and pace around Keith's pod, just thinking, because he usually
couldn't stand being around the guy. He had this defensive attitude towards him
that didn't help one bit Lance's bad driven hate towards his persona; putting
them in a room was like mixing the chemicals for a bomb. And, even if Keith
wasn't there, he still made him feel bad. Or..., well, was indirectly guilty of
his suffering.
But there he was, looking at the boy's face through the glass, as thoughts
about everything that had been happening gushed in his mind. He wasn't really
there mentally, so when the pod opened and Keith stepped out of it with
trembling legs and fell on top of him, Lance was barely able to open his eyes
in surprise.
They both crushed into the floor, Keith's weight on top of him squeezing the
air out of his lungs as he clutched at the white fabric of the healing suit.
Keith rose his head for almost a full second to try to look around, but it fell
against Lance's neck. Despite having slept for a week and a half, he felt
extremely exhausted. He groaned, his body gladly soaking in the warmth from
underneath him, curling closer to get more, desperately.
"Dude," a voice said, and Keith slowly looked up to find Lance looking at him
with surprise. "You're awake," he then said, a smile cracking open as his arms
flew up to hug Keith tightly, making it hard to breathe and to think. "God, we
thought you were going to die. Shiro has been horrible," he muttered, as he
started to get up, pushing the red paladin with him too.
"Off," Keith mumbled, pushing himself away from Lance, not missing how his eyes
quickly filled with annoyance and a really soft hate.
"Whatever," he murmured, getting up and dusting off his clothes, looking down
at Keith. "I'm going to wake everyone up. Do you want to stay or come?" he
asked, not looking actually interested in the answer.
"I'll stay," the boy answered, eyes low as he tried to sit upright on the
floor. Lance was off almost immediately, murmuring a bitter "Whatever", and
Keith couldn't help but hate himself a little bit more. Because, seriously!
Lance had looked so genuinely excited about him being okay, and his pining-
grudge-holding-ass had shrugged him off as if he was something disgusting.
Yeah, Lance had talked a lot of shit about him in the past, but it was
different now.
It was just so hard to let de barriers down.
He was hunched all over himself and shivering thanks to the Castle's natural
low temperature by the time people started arriving.
Not surprisingly, the first one was Shiro. He came running through the door,
sprinting when he spotted Keith out of the pod and raising his head at the
sound of someone getting closer.
The boy's heart clenched awfully and a pit opened in his stomach when Shiro got
so close, fight or flight instincts doing their usual appearance, but he tried
to make them go away and just let the man have this moment. And he had to be
happy, because Keith was everything but a light weight, and Shiro was holding
him up in a crushing hug as if he weighted the same as a couple of grapes.
"I thought you were going to die on me," Shiro murmured, voice almost
emotionless, if it weren't for the shock, and Keith forced himself to relax
into the hug, soak in Shiro's little warmth and hummed in content.
"I'm okay," he answered, words slightly slurred as if he was still a little bit
asleep.
"I'm so glad you're fine," Pidge sighed, and then Hunk came in, grabbing both
him and Shiro into a bear hug that left him breathless. Keith watched as the
others slowly arrived, still dressed in their pyjamas and looking half asleep,
just like him.
"You must be starving," Allura said with a warm smile when she decided that it
had been enough of hugging time as she put a hand on his back. "Why don't we
all go to the dining room so that we can discuss our next move while Keith eats
something?" she asked, and Keith was going to agree to the idea, but he felt
Shiro tense around him and gulped.
"He just woke up from a coma that lasted more than a week and you already want
to discuss our next move?" Shiro asked, slowly letting go of the teen to look
at Allura, whose eyebrows rose in surprise.
"Yes. Time is something crucial, Shiro. If Keith is out of the healing pod then
he is completely fine, he doesn't need much more rest," she answered with calm
voice. Shiro sighed and licked his lips.
"I don't mean that. I mean that after our last move, we all almost died. Keith
only recovered a few minutes ago," he explained, talking slowly but with no
calm. Hunk threw a worried look at Lance, that was watching the exchange with a
frown. Then Pidge, and he managed to catch her eyes. She just shrugged at his
inquiring eyes. "I think we should step back, train instead of diving into
battle being totally unprepared for something this big," he finished, taking a
step back from Allura; it was maybe something unconscious, or to make a
statement.
"What?" the princess asked, eyes wide open. The words seemed to have the same
impact as a direct blow to the face.
"I'm sorry, Allura. I understand that we are responsible of the whole
universe's future, believe me, I think about it every night while trying to
sleep. But they are just kids, and I'm inexperienced. We've only been doing
this for three months and that's clearly not enough for us to face such a big
threat," he explained himself. Lance frowned at the "they're just kids",
feeling how the wound he had been trying to heal ever since the realisation
that he was now an actual soldier in an actual war, very far from home, had
sank on him.
"I'm not saying that we are going to attack Zarkon's base again! I'm just
saying that we have to carry on with our plan!" she striked back, recovering
the step that Shiro had taken.
"What plan, Allura? Tell me which one!" he snapped, smiling a little bit
disturbingly. "We don't have a plan! We don't have a plan, nor the force to win
any of this," he said, words slowly falling to whispers, as he rubbed his face.
Sendak was right, he was walking them to the edge.
"You are scared, and I completely understand, Shiro. But, still, you can't let
fear blind you. If we don't do this it will be the end of everything," Allura
said, putting a hand on his shoulder, but he shook it off, stepping back again.
"Maybe the problem is that you are not afraid. And I totally get why you
aren't; you have nothing to lose," he said, and Keith put a firm hand on
Shiro's shoulder, his eyes telling the man that had been a low punch and a
complete douche move, but he couldn't stop. "For what my family concerns I have
been dead for over a year. What about Lance's family? Or Hunk's? Pidge's mother
has already lost a husband and a son because of me! I'm not taking her daughter
away from her too," he said.
"Shiro, please stop," Pidge said, fists clenching at her sides.
"Pidge is right. You are not thinking this through," Keith said, tightening the
grip on Shiro's shoulder.
"We are powerless. Five robots piloted by clumsy humans against a whole empire
of killing machines. You want to keep fighting this war? Alright, but not with
me. I'm not taking them to the gallows." Allura's eyes opened even wider and
her mouth fell slightly open, her arms going limp.
Oh no. Here comes the wet anger she thought, biting her lower lip and pointing
her sight to the brightest light she could find to make the tears welling in
her eyes go away.
"I'm going back to Earth, and I'm taking them with me," Shiro said as he turned
around and started walking out of the room, stopping when he said, "Good luck
finding a new paladin."
Silence fell and Keith looked around, not liking what he saw. Not even one bit.
Pidge still had her fists clenched at her sides, crying silently without rising
her face. Hunk was stone-faced as if he was slowly processing what just had
happened. And Lance... Lance looked ruined. He was already walking out of the
room, slowly starting to trot because he clearly wanted to get out, get away,
covering his mouth with one hand as tears rolled down his face and over it.
"Is..." Allura started, making Keith turn towards her again. "Is he really
going to leave?"
Keith opened his mouth, but then closed it. He didn't have anything to say.
Nothing good, at least. He had only seen Shiro this sure about something when
he broke up with Lila because she didn't want him to go to Kerberos.
"I'll talk to him," Pidge said, still looking down, as she cleaned the tears
away with the sleeve of her jacket. "I'll make him snap out of it," and with
that she was gone too.
 Coran put a hand on Keith's shoulder.
"You should go to your room. Shower and get dressed. I'll prepare breakfast,"
he said, giving him a reassuring smile, and when Keith hesitated about leaving
he winked at him. "Don't worry, he probably just had a rough day. He won't
leave."
"What if it's not a rough day? What if he actually wants to leave because he
thinks we'll die and it'll be his fault?" he asked, voice so low that he
surprised himself, coughing the knot that he hadn't noticed forming in his
throat away.
"I will figure something out," Coran stated.
****** . . . ******
Shiro's room was naked. It always made Pidge feel awkward when she went in for
any reason. Your room always showed who you were, even in the smallest things.
Like Hunk's tiny Balmeran crystal hanging on top of his bunk, or Lance's
recently acquired face masks over his desk and the robe hanging on a wall, or
her mess of a room, covered in tech parts and notes. Even Keith had a tiny
collection of little rocks he picked up from the places they landed in. But
Shiro's didn't have anything. The only thing you could get out from it was that
Shiro was neat, judging by the way the bed sheets of his bed didn't have even
one wrinkle.
Pidge would have thought he didn't hear her come in when he didn't move a
muscle, but she knew that Shiro would hear even a pin drop in the hallway, by
the way his eyes would move at the softest sound. He just stayed there, head
resting on his arms, sitting in his desk chair.
"You didn't mean what you said to Allura," Pidge stated with monotone voice as
she sat down on Shiro's bunk. He slowly turned to look at her, and he looked
tired, old. Almost twice his age.
"I did, Pidge. You are fourteen, you don't have to be a soldier in a war we
didn't have anything to do," he said, slowly sitting straight.
"We have to do with it, Shiro. Even if we didn't cause it. If we don't fight,
Earth goes down like the rest of the planets. Our people are enslaved if we are
lucky, killed if we are not."
"Your mother..."
"My mother knew what I was getting myself into. She let me go and sneak into a
government facility even after they threatened to lock me up or worse. She let
me go and involve myself in a federal concealment issue, through highly illegal
methods," she said. "And she didn't lost my father and brother. Not yet."
"Pidge..."
"They are out there, Shiro. I know it. They are alive, and I won't go back home
until I find them and make sure they will be safe from the Galra for the rest
of their lives. If you go back to Earth, it won't be with me on the ship. That
I know for sure," she finished, making Shiro's jaw clench.
"We are not powerful enough. If we keep fighting we will all die. Allura might
not think it through because she doesn't have a family to go back to, but I do.
All of us do," he said, leaning towards Pidge. She didn't move a muscle.
"You are not giving Voltron the credit it deserves," she said, voice monotone
again.
"Yeah, right. The giant alien super-robot formed by smaller lion-robots," he
snorted.
Watch out, Shirogane Black said in his head with a warning tone. He rolled his
eyes.
"Yeah. Green didn't like that either," Pidge laughed, before leaning in too.
"This is why we need to stay and keep fighting, Shiro," she said, putting her
index finger on her temple. "We were able to connect with those smaller lion-
alien-robots. We are special, probably born to do this. If we don't, then who
will?" she asked.
"Anyone else that was born to do this," Shiro groaned leaning away. Pidge was
winning him in his own game.
"Do you really think you would be able without her? Black is a part of you,
Shiro, just like Green became a part of me from the moment I piloted her for
the first time. And without our bond? Every time we form Voltron it gets
stronger. I can feel through it."
"Going back home doesn't mean we can't be together anymore," he replied, voice
low.
"But we wouldn't be together like this. Not the ten of us." Shiro looked up,
and Pidge finally let her emotions slip into her face when she saw how broken
he looked. How fucked up, how tempted to throw everything down the drain, to
give it up.
"Listen, Pidge," he started, swallowing the knot on his throat, trying to get
his voice away from the breaking point. "I can't lose any of you. Your blood
would be in my hands."
"It will be in your hands if we die and you aren't there to protect us too,"
she deadpanned, internally cringing because... Damn, that was an ugly thing to
say for someone already suffering from a severe case of survivor's guilt.
"Please don't do this," Shiro fake-laughed, leaning back against his chair.
"I'm just saying the truth." Pidge got up and walked away without looking back,
trying to not show hesitation through seeing how deep her words had cut.
****** . . . ******
Lance, Shiro, Hunk and Pidge were missing in action, and Keith really missed
their perpetual bickering in that moment. It could drift away all the thoughts
racing through his mind with its slight annoyance and big fun. But no, he was
eating in silence with princess Allura, because Coran said he had to search for
something that might help their actual situation.
"If Shiro actually left..." Allura started, breaking the awkward silence that
had been there ever since Coran had left. Neither of them lifted their eyes
from their food. "Would you go with him?" she finished, biting her lip.
Keith took in a deep breath and let his spoon aside, joining his hands on his
lap as he thought.
"Shiro is like a big brother to me. He is literally the only family I have," he
started murmuring, and Allura's head seemed to hang lower. "But... Back on
Earth I have nothing, and Shiro would probably go back to his family in Brazil,
so I wouldn't be with him either if I stayed or left," he answered, swallowing
hard and trying not to think about it but doing it anyways.
Why would he go back? The only thing waiting for him on Earth was a crappy
shack and a bank account with inherited money from people that he barely
remembered. He would go from having an actual group of lookalike friends to
random hookups at the closest bar. He would go from having an actual mission in
life, a motive to stay, to be just an empty paper bag going with the flow.
Nowhere and no one to go to, nothing to do. He wouldn't go back if Shiro did,
no matter how much it would hurt not being with him. If he had survived his
"death" he could survive being apart from him.
"It's nice knowing that at least someone will be staying," Allura sighed with a
soft smile, and Keith looked at her, frowning.
"Someone? Who else do you think will live?" he asked, completely confused. The
princess looked at him with pitiful eyes.
"Everyone?" she said, looking as if she was about to cry. "Hunk hates being a
paladin. I can sense it. He's just too scared of everything. If Voltron is no
longer making her stay, Pidge will start looking for her family on her own, not
like we have helped her much with that." She finished the sentence with a
breathy laugh, her expression showing regret as she roughly rubbed her hands
together.
"What about Lance?" Keith asked, hating how his voice lowered and the urge to
inch closer. Allura looked at him with a confused frown before answering.
"Lance... He is miserable without his family. Coran told me about it, he misses
them a lot. And I know he is really compromised with the cause and that he
doesn't mind putting his life at stake for the right thing, but I'm worried
that his family might end up making him decide on returning," she explained,
blinking her surprise away when Keith's expression went blank.
"I didn't know about that," he whispered.
"Well, you two don't talk much. I know your relationship has improved a lot
ever since you arrived. After three months you managed to stop fighting over
idiocies. But you still haven't warmed up to the other, and Lance wouldn't talk
about this with someone who he..."
"Didn't like?"
"Didn't really knew," Allura corrected him, but the way her lips pressed into a
thin line told him how he had struck in the right place. And it hurt, just a
little bit. Maybe it was more the idea of Lance leaving that "being told" he
didn't like him, because the second one was kind of obvious.
"It's okay. Don't worry."
****** . . . ******
Lance loved Hunk's bedroom. It was the one that felt most like a home, with its
tiny alien plants resting on the desk or floor, the Balmeran crystal working as
a small star, the only light in the darkness of the room. It also smelt like
Hunk; of fruits and sun, maybe a little earthy now that he thought about it.
Being there helped Lance relax, even with Hunk's incredibly loud snoring. And
boy, he needed to relax and think about everything for a while now.
In Lance's family, they were all pretty similar. Even with the way they coped
with stuff.
There was never a big impact, it was more like... Like a knife slowly moving up
your spine, cutting a little bit deeper every millimetre it made. You only felt
it when it was already deep, the sting of the open wound not being strong
enough to make you look around and realise that you are spiralling down.
He hadn't really realised that he was fighting in an actual war until the night
after he woke up from the healing pod. He had almost died (the explosion of the
crystal had caused too much internal damage, and his outlook was anything but
good). That night he had been laying in bed, trying to fall asleep when he
realised that he had almost died. A few weeks ago he was about to go home for
summer holidays. Ariela was going to visit and they would go swimming at the
beach, and to the Santa Mónica pier to ride the roller coasters. They might
even fly to Cuba to visit the rest of his family.
Now, he didn't even know if he would see them or hear their voice ever again.
But an opportunity had presented. If Shiro actually returned, they would have
to find a new black paladin, so finding a new blue one wouldn't hurt them much,
right? He could go back, let them know that he was okay.
He could return home; the problem was if he could ever leave. Leave the Castle,
Blue and the team. Leave his best friend alone, fighting a war. Even if his
hero decided to abandon, did that mean that he could do it too?
****** . . . ******
"What could possibly help, Coran?" Shiro asked in a resigned sigh as they
walked into the control deck. The altean had called them and told them he would
expect them there, that he had something that could help.
"You said that we were powerless, that we didn't stand a chance against the
empire," the man said, as he opened a panel in the door wall, and a new door
appeared. "I think this can change your mind," he finished with a smile,
indicating them to walk with him. Pidge frowned as she entered the poorly
illuminated hallway. How many things about the Castle were there that she
didn't know?
The walk was long, and surprisingly, no one asked any questions. That was until
they reached the hangar Coran was leading them to.
"Jesus Christ," Lance murmured, as he took a few steps forward and put a hand
on the black energy field that shielded a black robot from them. Its yellow
eyes seemed to bore daggers on their foreheads, and Coran squinted at it as if
he knew about some darker intentions.
"The black panther," Allura said in an amazed whisper. They all turned to look
at her and came across such a mix of feelings they couldn't end up recognising
many. There was some strange fondness and spite at the same time.
"You knew about this?" Shiro asked, and she shook her head.
"I knew it used to exist, but I thought it had been destroyed after... After
its paladin's death," she answered, cutting herself halfway through and
lowering her gaze as if the memory was personally painful.
"This is part of Voltron? What does it form? The..." Lance started with a sly
smirk, but Shiro elbowed him with an unamused look and he shut up, pouting.
"This is not part of Voltron," Coran started. "It was built after the lions.
Voltron may be aggressive and destructive, but just like you, it doesn't put
winning over everything, over lives or damage caused to the places where you
fight. The panther does," he explained. "It was built when Voltron started
losing because it didn't match the Galra in their ruthlessness."
"Why didn't you tell us about it before?" Pidge demanded. Allura made a weird
sound, something that sounded between awkward and pained.
"The panther has a really volatile personality. On the wrong hands, it could be
something counterproductive. It's really hard to find someone that the panther
will allow them to pilot, and even harder to find someone enough strong minded
to overcome the panther's bloodlust and natural aggressiveness," she explained,
twisting her dress with her fingers and throwing wary looks at Shiro. "If we
can't find someone to pilot it... I'm afraid it'll just stay here, Coran."
"But we aren't limited to Alteans now Allura. There must be someone in our ally
planets that is capable," Coran insisted. When the princess didn't say
anything, he turned towards Shiro. "Would you wait for a while? Before leaving?
If we can't find the sixth paladin then you can go back home," he insisted, and
Shiro looked away, biting his cheek and awkwardly scraping his nape.
"I won't leave, even if you don't find the sixth paladin," he started, taking
in a deep breath and avoiding the gleeful looks that the two Alteans were
giving him. "I won't leave any of them behind," he said, pointing at the other
paladins, "And if that means I have to stay and die protecting them... I'll do
it."
"Great!" Allura exclaimed, clapping her hands together happily. "I do hope you
don't die, but you staying here is..."
"But, under the condition that we stay out of business until we find the new
paladin," Shiro interrupted her. Allura frowned and opened her mouth to reply,
but he kept going. "It will give us time to really stop and think what we are
doing, start sketching a strategy and recover from all the damage we've
suffered."
"It's a great idea," Coran said, already walking out of the hangar. "I'll start
letting our allies know that we'll be dropping by to run some tests."
****** . . . ******
"Hey, Coran, loosen up," Lance smiled at him, as he clapped his shoulder
friendly, but Coran just groaned, without taking his eyes away from the row of
Balmerans that were lazily trying to connect with a panther. It was a waste of
time. The most peaceful race trying to pilot the panther, a vicious monster as
he remembered, but it was all they had. Their list of allies had ran out
quickly.
"We're never going to get back on business like this," Coran said, sighing and
closing his eyes tiredly. "I'm thankful that Shiro decided on not leaving but
still... Things are not looking good for a new black paladin." He looked at
Lance. "At least now we don't have to look for a new blue paladin too," he
added, making Lance go read in the ears and lower his head in shame.
"I'm sorry, but is missing your family really a crime?" he asked. Then he
sighed. "I wouldn't leave you, not like this, but I'd be lying if I said I've
never thought about grabbing a pod and going home. Not like I'm that useful,
compared to the others." Coran slid a regretful arm across his shoulders.
"I'm not saying it is. I'm sorry. I just can't even think of letting go of my
favourite paladin, no matter how awesome his family is," he smiled to Lance,
whose face lit up so much it was ridiculous. Both because he heard that he was
someone's favourite and because he heard that his family was awesome, a thing
that was totally true.
"You should meet them when all of this is over. You would really like them,
especially my younger sister. She is really intelligent and would throw herself
over you for you to tell her about Altean culture... And then there's this
really old friend that's like another sibling to us... Would totally kill
someone to learn Altean, or any language really," he smiled, a little bit
nostalgically.
"Sounds like an amazing fella."
"You betcha. Ari's great; would totally be better than me in this whole paladin
thing, after years of going to kickboxing and learning to shoot with my dad..."
Lance started, face lowered, but then he went stiff, eyes opening widely as he
turned towards Coran. "Ari" he whispered, grabbing Coran by the arms. "We need
to go back to back to Earth, Coran. I know who might be able to pilot the
panther," he said with a giant smile.
****** . . . ******
Unknown: Ariela de la Torre?
Ariela: Who is this?
Unknown: I have information about your brother's disappearance.
Ariela: If this is some kind of joke I will find you and end you.
Unknown: Never been more serious. If you want more information you'll let me in
tomorrow. I'll be there by midday.
Ariela: How do you know where I live?
****** . . . ******
Hunk frowned at Lance when the guy just flipped the disposable phone off and
threw it on top of a tray filled with empty hamburger boxes and weird fries
holders thingies.
"Was the shadiness necessary? The police will be waiting for us when we arrive
there tomorrow!" he exclaimed, but Lance shrugged him off with a gesture of his
hand as he curled himself up in his new jacket.
"What did she say?" Shiro asked, words barely understandable, as he spoke with
a mouthful of hamburger. It was his third one, and Keith was following suit,
Pidge looking at both of them with disgust; they ate like hyenas.
"Agh, don't worry guys. Everything will go according to the plan," Lance said,
smiling at them. He hadn't stopped smiling ever since they had arrived Earth
the morning before. "How's your hamburger, Allura?" he asked the woman.
"She still hasn't tried it," Pidge murmured, taking the hamburger Allura had
hidden under the table and placing it on top of the trays, gaining an angry
look from the princess. "She's scared it will taste awful."
"I'm not," the princess pouted, crossing her arms on top of her chest.
"Then eat it," Pidge demanded. Allura took in a deep breath and, without
breaking eye contact, she unwrapped the hamburger and took a bite of it,
staining her face with the condiments that the hamburger had. She slowly
munched, and her eyes slowly started to light up and open in surprise.
"Is it good?" Shiro asked with a funny smile. Allura moaned loudly in answer,
as she swallowed and took another bite.
"That's not how I pictured I'd hear her moan for the first time," Lance said,
receiving a smack from Hunk midsentece and finishing it with little breath,
making Pidge snort. They all sighed in unison.
"I can't believe I'm back," Shiro murmured, looking around him with endearing
eyes, although he just saw the front of a McDonald's and an empty street. "This
was a good idea, Lance," he added, looking back at the boy.
"Of course it was! I only have good ideas," he replied, but the cocky attitude
didn't quite reach him, as he was too busy admiring the fact that they were
back on Earth. For really little, yes, but they were.
The original plan had been figure out where his sibling was, and make her get
on the ship as quickly as possible to get out from that solar system until they
were over with the war. But then Lance had proposed staying for a bit; they
weren't fighting anyways, and they all could use a break. Besides, Coran needed
to go some places to repair the ship, but Allura needed to rest too, so they
settled for using the backup energy she had stored on the ship for the man to
use wormholes to travel while they waited everything out on Earth.
Before actually going, Pidge had stocked all of them with fake IDs and multiple
credit cards, saying that she needed new pieces of equipment and clothes, and
that they could break the law a little bit if they were going to save the
universe. Shiro and Hunk had been against it at the beginning, but it was true
that the little accurate clothes they had managed to create with the Castle's
machinery were already starting to deteriorate.
They had booked three rooms on a motel in Cheviot Hills and gone shopping with
their fake credit cards. Pidge and Hunk had practically ran away to all the
tech houses they found, saying that they would meet them later at the motel, so
the rest just went on and shopped for clothes (and face products, in Lance's
case).
Allura had been wide-eyed and marvelled by everything, listening intently to
Lance's explanations and pulling him by the arm toward anything she found
interesting. She had also made herself a stash of human clothes, just because
she could and because she found them extremely cute and weird.
"They're quite revealing," she had said, while holding a burdeos velvet dress
against her figure, "But I guess it's normal since you don't have anyealakiesto
hide."
"I was wondering," Allura started, catching everyone's attention again. She was
playing with the braids Lance had made on her hair while they waited for the
guys to get their food. "Why do you think this sibling of yours will be able to
pilot the panther?"
All eyes turned to Lance and he lowered his gaze. Okay, this was something he
wasn't used to.
"Well..." he started, gulping as he scratched his neck awkwardly. "Ariela has
had a rough time, and she has changed a lot ever since my family met her. She's
really strong and has dealt with many horrible people. And by horrible I mean
extra horrible," he answered.
"I just hope you're right. I don't know if anyone has more ideas besides this
one," the princess sighed.
"Yeah," Lance said, licking his lips anxiously. "I hope I'm right too."
****** . . . ******
The next morning they loaded the pod with everything they had bought (which was
something really hard, since they had bought manythings), and set off with
their rented cars towards Lance's house.
The McClains were quite a numerous family, and with them lived Lance's father's
assistant and, from time to time, Ariela. So, it was only normal they had a
four-story house. The outside painting was French blue, with white decorations.
The garden was filled with colourful flowers and decorative stones here and
there.
"I see no movement," Shiro mumbled, as they walked through the stone path
towards the main door. "Is your family at home?"
"They should all be. Even my older siblings," Lance answered with a deep frown,
as he closed his hand around the knob and turned it, the door opening. Ariela
had left it unlocked. "I'll go in first, in case someone gets scared," he said,
and then walked inside the house.
It was all just like he remembered. The hall walls, painted with a bright
orange, were covered in family pictures, just like the living room ones. The
stairs were almost in front of him, a little bit to his left. The door to his
father's study room was closed, probably under lock, and from the kitchen
doorframe hung the curtain-like-thing Flynn and Annelise had made years ago
with small origami elephants and beads.
"Wow. It's a really nice house," Hunk murmured.
"This is your family?" Allura asked excitedly, as she took one of the pictures
from the wall and looked at it. It was from his parent's wedding. "Oh, look at
you! You were so small, Lance!" she cooed, and everyone went to peep at the
picture over her shoulder.
"Where are they?" Lance asked to himself, as he sneaked a peek inside the
kitchen and found it empty too, just like the living room. "I'm going to check
upstairs," he said, before practically rocketing up and leaving the rest of the
team alone.
"I'll go with him," Shiro announced, before chasing after the teen.
"How do they paint this small portraits so well?" Allura asked.
"They are photographs, not paintings," Hunk laughed.
"No. Photographs are only digital," she frowned.
"Not on Earth," Pidge sing-sang, as she followed Keith towards the living room.
It was huge, just like the rest of the house, filled with sofas, chairs and
coffee tables. One of the orange walls wasn't plain, having a beautiful scenery
of a beach during a sunset painted on it. There were plants on the corners and
flowers on top of the tables, even more pictures hanging from the walls and
resting on top of a white commode. They were graduation pictures.
"Jesus christ, Lance has like a bazillion brothers," Hunk breathed out.
"They're just eight, Hunk," Pidge laughed, as he picked up one of the pictures.
A pair of twins had "graduated" from daycare.
"They're clones!" Allura exclaimed.
The first floor was clear, and it was worrying Lance. In a family of twelve
people, times where there was no one at home were incredibly rare. But, now
that the thought about it, maybe Ariela had told the rest about the text and
they had decided to leave the house as a precaution.
Or, Ariela was the only one that had stayed and was waiting for them on her
bedroom with a gun, already aiming even though she could only see the leg of a
person.
Shiro saw her, quickly tugged Lance out of view and put himself in front of him
as a shield, making the girl immediately stand up which... wasn't really
intimidating. Not when she was barely five feet and coins, wearing a pastel
pink dress and pouting like a small child, making her face look even rounder.
"Give me the gun," Shiro said, holding his left hand towards her, but the woman
only gave a step back.
"Are you the guy that texted me?" she asked, and Shiro was going to answer, try
to explain everything, but Lance sneaked around him and came into view, making
the woman's eyes open immediately.
"It was me who texted you," Lance said, gulping as he gave a step closer to
her.
There are things in life that can shock you dearly, and Ariela had gone through
quite a few of them without being shocked, so she just thought that her brain
could take it all in. That was, at least, until her dead brother who had digged
her out of the mud appeared in front of her with his arms open and ready for a
hug.
"Lance?" the woman asked, as her eyes and mouth slowly started to open, tears
already welling in them as the boy nodded. He looked ready to cry too, and
although all she wanted to do was run to him and hug him, Ariela took a step
backwards when he got near. "This isn't real, is it?" she asked.
"Listen, Ari. I know I've been gone without giving an explanation, but I'm back
and ready to tell you everything," he said, now gesturing her to give him the
gun. When she shook her head and bit her lip, the first tears rolling down, he
insisted. "Ari..."
"You are dead, Lance. You can't be here," she said, voice slightly shaking. The
boy frowned.
"I'm dead?" he asked, and she nodded, face twisting into a pained expression.
Please stop. I don't want to see him. I want to wake up.
"You are not asleep, Ari. This is real. I am not dead. The person that told you
that lied," Lance said, finally getting closer when she tossed the gun on the
bed in favour of covering her face. Had she said that outloud?
"The whole family is at your funeral, Lance. Don't try to trick me," she
sobbed.
Lance's heart practically fell to the floor at the sound, and he quickly turned
to look at Shiro, who was frowning and a little bit confused.
"Do you think...?" he started, signaling the door with his jaw, and Shiro got
it immediately, clumsily stumbling out of the bedroom without taking his eyes
off of Ariela. That was the person Lance thought was going to pilot the
panther?
Lance slowly stepped closer, and when Ariela didn't even flinch at the sound
and the feeling of him near her, he wrapped his arms around her and let her
bury her head on his chest. She quickly returned the hug, and Lance felt how
she was trying to force herself to stop crying, how she would clench his t-
shirt and hold her breath for a while.
"You feel too real," she murmured after a few minutes, rubbing off her wet face
on Lance's clothes.
"That is because I am real," he said, brushing his fingers through her hair. "I
didn't die, Arie. I disappeared because I was literally abducted by aliens. In
fact, there is one of our living room right now," he finished, a little chuckle
making the woman look up at him, amber eyes shiny with tears.
"The Garrison... They said you had disappeared first, with a couple of friends,
and then that they found your bodies in the desert," she said, and Lance
mirrored her frown.
"Well, the Garrison has been hiding many things lately. The guy that just came
here with me? That was Takashi Shirogane," he replied, and Ariela's eyes shot
open.
"Your hero the astronaut? Hadn't he died in a crash in space?"
"That's what the Garrison told us, but the reality is that the whole crew was
kidnapped by an empire of mean aliens that are currently taking over the
universe. And that is actually the reason why I'm here."
****** . . . ******
Shiro had come from upstairs looking extremely confused, and when they asked he
said "I know that you can't judge a book by its cover, but this is just too
much" and gracelessly flopped down in one of the sofas.
A quarter of hour passed, and then another. That was when Hunk decided to turn
on the TV and introduce Allura to pop culture. She had been playing with the
cellphone Lance had gotten her until then, and the second the "weird box"
turned on, her eyes started glimmering again. It was really cute.
Lance didn't come down for almost two hours, but when he did, he had company.
Pidge then understood what Shiro had said. The woman in front of her was just
too cute. She looked tiny next to Lance, and no one wanted to even imagine what
she would look like next to Shiro, even less Hunk.
"Hello. Nice to meet you," she said, and Keith frowned, noticing the faintest
trail of British accent.
"Guys, this is..., my sister, Ariela. Ari, this is the crew," Lance said,
pointing at them. "Hunk, my best friend. Pidge, another friend. Keith, he used
to go to the Garrison with us. You already know Shiro. And, princess Allura,
from Altea." Shiro frowned.
"You already know me?" he asked, making the woman snap her eyes out of Allura.
A kind and cheesy smile appeared on her face.
"Lance wanted to go to the Garrison since he was eleven years old. You were
pretty famous around that time, so he was kind of obsessed with you," she said
bluntly, completely ignoring Lance's eyes widening in shame and the blush
creeping up his face. "He had this really big poster of you in his bedroom..."
then Lance elbowed her.
"¿Qué tocás, perro?" (What are you touching, dog?) she asked him, rubbing the
place he had hit and looking at him with ignited eyes. He stepped back but rose
his chin in challenge.
"Cerrá la bocaza, bofe. No le dije nada a nadie," (Close your big mouth, idiot.
I didn't tell anything to anyone) he chewed back. Everyone's eyes were darting
from one person to the other. The woman frowned at him.
"What language are they talking in that the Castle's device can't translate
it?" Allura asked, catching Ariela's attention again.
Unlike all of them, she hadn't understand a single word that had flowered from
the princess' mouth. The Castle's translating device only worked on you once
you had been scanned by the interface.
"It's Spanish," Shiro answered, squinting as he recognized the woman's accent,
trying to swallow down the ironic smile.
"Si, bofe. Ya me tienen re mal por ser inútil y jeboso, no quiero que me jodan
con esto también," (Yeah, idiot. They already give me the side eye because I'm
useless and a womanizer, so I don't want them to bother me with that too) Lance
answered, and Ariela seemed really mad at what he had just said, eyes opening
wide and leaning in closer with threatening aura.
"¿Qué me decís, boludo?¿Qué es eso de que sos inútil?" (What are you saying,
stupid? What is that about you being useless?) she asked.
"Ay, no sé para qué te vine a buscar, si sos un paritorio. Después de cuento,
nena." (I don't know why I came looking for you, if you are a delivery. I'll
tell you later, girl. TN: Saying that someone is a delivery is saying that they
are difficult, almost painful, and a bother). And after saying that, he cut her
off with a gesture of his hand. "I've already told her everything, but she
isn't quite convinced, so help me convince her."
"What?" Keith asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"I'm sorry, but you can't imagine how crazy it sounds when someone tells you
about it instead of outright seeing it," Ariela murmured. Lance threw a look at
Shiro and then at his arm, making the man bite his cheek and look at the floor,
as he slowly raised his arm.
"When I was with the... evil aliens... They put me this," he murmured,
activating the arm and letting it heat up and glow, making the woman open her
eyes in surprise again.
"What is that?" she asked, getting closer and reaching out to grasp it, but
Shiro quickly retreated.
"A prosthetic," Hunk said.
"A weapon," Shiro answered at the same time.
And that was the moment when he realized that he had been wrong. Indeed, he
couldn't judge a book by its cover. The second he let out those words, looking
at Ariela in the eye as if challenging her to come any closer, a wave of many
things crossed her eyes, making them feel heavier on him, almost piercing. It
was a mix of recognition, curiosity and harshness that left him baffled. He
remembered seeing something similar happen with Lance one time, the eyes that
always seemed to show shallow waters suddenly let you see something deeper and
scarier than the ocean.
She then backed away and licked her lips, looking at the floor.
"I don't know," she sighed.
"Listen, Ari. Sis, BFF, queen of hell, my número uno," Lance started, chuckling
nervously as he walked towards the woman and grabbed her by the arms, slightly
crunching to put himself to her eye level. "I have gotten myself into a war,
and although I would love to come back home with you and the rest of the family
I won't do it until it's all over. So you can either come with me, or stay
and... not know," he said, breathing out the lasts words, that put some tension
into the woman's shoulders.
The silence was deafening as the two siblings stared into each other's eyes,
measuring the other. It was like watching an actual fight, only a little bit
more painful, because there were no signs of who would win.
"I'll do it," Ariela said firmly after almost a minute. "But under a few
conditions."
***** Sometimes I wanna slap you in your whole face (whoa oh oh) *****
Chapter Notes
     Jesus. This is almost 14k. I'm sorry.
Ever since the Garrison had called to the McClain household to announce that
the body of their missing child had appeared (lifeless and roasted by an
asteroid that had fallen the night he escaped from the institution with a
couple of friends to go to the nearest city), things had... lost brightness.
The usual cheerfulness and party-like atmosphere had degraded into a silent
place for grieving. Music wasn't playing at all times like it used to, maybe
because Idania wanted to give physical form to he sudden silence of his son's
life. Game nights were cancelled, and if you woke up at night you could hear
one of the twins crying because they wanted to see their older brother.
Everyone had broken down into a collective pool of tears when one of
Dominique's children asked if uncle Lance would make it home for Christmas.
Ariela couldn't just leave without ending that.
It had been really hard to believe that Lance was there and completely alive,
but after putting him through an extensive interrogatory and certifying that
yes, that was Lance's heartbeat, she had finally believed in it, and it had
brought her an indescribable joy. Almost as if a colour she couldn't see any
more appeared again in her vision, or as if she suddenly recovered hearing. She
needed to take that to the rest of the family.
"You want us to do what?" Pidge asked, utterly surprised.
"I want you to write letters to your families and take a picture," Ariela
repeated calmly, as she kept handing pens and papers.
"I don't know if this is a good idea, Arie..." Lance started, but she cut him
short with a gesture of her hand.
"Loosing a beloved family member is like becoming blind, or loosing a limb,"
she started. "Even if you think that them knowing that you are in deadly danger
is worse than them thinking you are dead, you have to do it, because you are
incredibly wrong."
"But what if we actually die?" Keith asked, tossing his paper and pen into the
table, making Ariela glare at him.
"Then they will actually know what happened to you. You died fighting to defend
them, not in a crash that was your fault, not in a stupid teenager fit of
rebellion," she replied, without missing a beat.
"I don't know you, but I will gladly do this," Hunk said, as he sat down on a
sofa and started to scribble down.
Shiro sighed, looking at Allura.
"How much time do we have?" he asked, nervously fidgeting with the pen as he
thought about what he would say in his letters. Allura checked a blue device
she had in the pocket of her hoodie.
"At least half a varga," she said.
"That's ten hours. We have plenty of time," Lance said. "Ari, do you know where
mum keeps my spare glasses?"
"You wear glasses?" Keith asked, sounding kind of horrified and shocked.
"Yeah, he's always worn them," Hunk answered nonchalantly.
"I've been stuck with my contact lenses ever since we left Earth in Blue,"
Lance added, following the woman who was already walking towards the stairs.
"What could I do while you write your letters?" Allura asked, walking around
the living room.
"Why don't you read a book?" Hunk asked.
"The translator device only translates audio, not text," she murmured, opening
a magazine anyway and gasping as she found the fashion section. "The clothes
you wear are so pretty," she whispered, a hint of envy tinting her voice.
****** . . . ******
Hunk wrote four letters (each envelope as thing as his fingers), Shiro wrote
two, Pidge one, Keith none, and Lance wrote eleven letters (all of them really
long), and Ariela herself wrote five letters too, as a kind of twisted "see you
soon" to her family and friends.
"Do we have to take a picture?" Shiro asked, frowning. He had also noticed
Ariela taking pictures of them while writing the letters, and if he didn't like
being photographed before, he hated it now.
"I need proofs that you were really in here," she said, passing the cellphone
to Lance for a selfie (what a nice way to tell the world you are alive). "I
even recorded Lance speaking and left it on his mother's computer," she added.
"We're taking a picture?" Allura asked exitedly, as she ran to get in the
group, and then frowning at the cellphone Lance held on his hand. "Were is the
camera?" she asked.
"This is the camera," Lance murmured, kind of confused.
"No, cameras are huge," Allura kept pushing.
"Not on Earth," Hunk sing-sang.
"What is she saying?" Ariela asked, frustrated. "How do you understand her,
anyways?"
"We'll explain later. Now, everyone do the peace sign and smile!" Lance
exclaimed, and two seconds later he took the photo. Surprisingly everyone had
done what he had said, even Allura, that was side-eyeing Hunk's gesture with
confusion and imitating it with a squint.
"It's actually really pretty," Pidge murmured with a soft smile.
"Send it to me so I print it and leave it with the letters. I'll go call your
mother, and then we can go," Ariela said, taking a really deep and shaky breath
in as she took her cellphone from the coffee table, going upstairs again.
****** . . . ******
"Allura! What are you wearing?" Coran exclaimed when he caught a glimpse of the
princess. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a hoodie, with a pair of white
mid-calf boots, something pretty normal back on Earth.
"Oh, Coran! You have no idea how wonderful the Earth is! They have such pretty
clothes and a lot more of technology than we thought. LOOK!" she practically
screeched, showing the royal adviser her new cellphone. "It's called an eye
phone. Lance bought me this little pretty plastic that prevents it from
breaking if it falls down. We don't have this plastics, Coran, much less this
pretty! Do you see how it shines?"
"I see, princess," the man said. He looked shocked, as if he didn't now how to
take Allura being so obsessed over their planet, but he also looked incredibly
happy. He hadn't seen Allura so exited in a while.
"You can tell Coran about your adventure at Earth later, Allura. Now we should
show Ariela the panther," Shiro said and, surprisingly, he was smiling too.
"Oh, right. The new paladin! Where are they?" Coran asked, stepping aside from
Allura and inspecting the humans. Lance moved out of the way and let him see
Ariela, who was still looking around the control deck like a child on a museum.
Every little light would catch her eye, reflecting on the amber irises and
making them shine even more. "Oh, dear. She's tiny," Coran murmured, the
slightest movement of his lips hidden by his mustache.
Lance elbowed his sister, and the woman looked around a little bit startled.
"Hello! Nice to meet you. I'm Ariela," she said, smiling widely as she extender
her hand towards Coran. He took it and raised his eyebrows in surprise, smiling
a little bit.
"And I'm Coran. That's a nice grip you have there," he commented, before
retreating. "Well... Shall we go to the panther's hangar?" he asked, already
slowly stepping backwards.
"Yeah. After that we have to take all of the stuff we got to our bedrooms,"
Allura commented calmly, and Coran looked surprised yet again.
"You got stuff?"
****** . . . ******
The panther was hella intimidating. Ariela wanted to shrink under its gaze, the
piercing yellow eyes seeming to follow her with hate. She would later swear she
could hear a low grumbling sound, almost like a growl.
"That's the robot I'm supposed o pilot?" she asked, raising her chin instead of
hunching. Allura nodded.
"This robot doesn't form a part of Voltron, like I told you before. It's its
own entity, entirely," Allura said, calmly walking until she was next to Ariela
and putting a comforting hand on the woman's shoulder. "There is no pressure.
If you two don't match it's okay."
"I'll still stay even if I can't pilot it," Ariela announced, her eyes
flickering to Lance for a second. It sounded like a challenge, and when Allura
nor Coran said anything, she looked back at the panther. Then she took a deep
breath and started walking towards the robot, the black shield of energy
growing bigger and bigger.
Worried much, paladin? You know you are not enough, so don't even try she heard
a deep voice in her head say, her eyes shooting open in surprise and her pace
stuttering for a second, but she kept going.
"I'm going to do this anyways," she murmured, licking her lips -her mouth
suddenly felt too dry- as she reached the field. "I will still be around to
bother you, even if you don't open up, so you might as well do so and have a
little bit of fun with us on the battlefield." That sentence finished with a
half nervous half amused chuckle, as she slowly rose her hand to rest it on the
shield.
Everyone held their breaths, almost without noticing, as they waited for
something to happen. Ariela had closed her eyes, overly-conscious of the buzz
of the energy against her fingers, counting in her mind as the seconds passed.
When a whole minute went by, she opened her eyes and heard someone clear their
throat behind her. It set off a spark of anger in her.
"Why don't you do it?" she asked, her fingernails digging into the shield.
Excuse me? Do I have to respond to you? the same deep voice asked, but there
was a tremor there, a hesitation that seemed foreign. The tingling in the tips
of her fingers started to become stronger, as if the energy wanted to slip into
her, but there was something pulling it back.
"Let it happen," she chewed, pressing her other hand against the shield and
pushing. She didn't notice, but she was gritting her teeth.
No. I don't want to the voice groaned. It sounded breathless, as if it was
fighting her. And then...
It is her. Let her in another voice said, smooth and imperative.
The field suddenly went down, the energy concentrating on her hands and
bursting, electricity going up her arms and making her yelp as her feet pushed
her forward into the panther's zone.
"Ari!" she heard Lance exclaim, but her ears were buzzing.
Serve me well, paladin the second voice said.
Ariela stumbled down onto the floor, scratching her arms, trying to rid herself
of the itch the electricity had left behind and trying to calm herself down.
The buzzing that left her dizzy wasn't helping one bit to the panic slowly
building up on the bottom of her chest.
She was so focused on trying to breathe normally, that she didn't notice Lance
running towards her nor the panther activating itself.
A wave of raged thoughts washed into the woman's mind, as she felt a strange
pull in different parts of her body, almost as if there were small strings
attached to them. She could hear the panther screaming its angered thoughts
into her mind, but couldn't react. She didn't even flinch when the robot stood
up and slammed its feet next to her, only to advance and meet Lance halfway
towards her.
"LANCE, GET AWAY FROM IT!" Hunk screamed.
"ARIELA!"
The woman only reacted when the panther roared loudly and attacked Lance,
trying to claw him in half.
Suddenly, she was outmatching the panther in anger and standing up.
"STOP!" she screamed, practically roared, as she slammed her fist against one
of the back feet of the panther, making it suddenly freeze in shock. The room
filled instantly with tension as the robot slowly turned to face her, growling
lowly.
Who do you think you are to boss me around, puny girl? the panther asked in her
mind.
"Apparently I'm your pilot, and that means you have to obey me."
Why do you think I resisted so hard? it chuckled.
"Well, you didn't resist hard enough. So now you suck it up and stop being an
asshole!" she screamed, pointing at the floor, and quirking an eyebrow as the
panther huffed and sat down with a loud bang that was obviously on purpose.
"Oh, dear," Allura said, covering her mouth with her hands.
"Ari, are you okay?" Lance asked when he finally got to her.
"That bitch shocked me!" she complained, rubbing her arms and frowning, but
then Lance caught her in a tight hug.
"You did it," he said, excitement dyeing his voice and making the woman smile.
****** . . . ******
The McClain all assimilated things the same way. And, although her surname was
as different from theirs as her blood, Ariela was a McClain too. So, the
realization of her actual situation didn't hit her until she was still
unpacking at three in the morning Earth-time, something making her restless.
And now there she was, gripping her bathroom sink as she stared at her
reflection. Her face was already red and, although tears had stopped falling
down a few minutes ago, her lower lip was still trembling in a pout. The rest
of her body was shaking too, and her knuckles white from gripping the sides of
the sink too hard.
"Oh, God," she gasped out, eyes still nailed on the reflected ones.
This was the only bad thing that she couldn't get rid off from her times before
moving with her aunt Valeria to Cheviot Hills. She would always take her
reflection as another person, and that other person would always be the one to
tell her to keep her shit together, to keep moving or she would die, like
sharks.
"You have to do this just one more time," her reflection told her. Suddenly,
she was fifteen again, gripping the sink of the living room bathroom and trying
to calm herself down while Lance cried and screamed his lungs out on the next
room.
She took a deep breath, nailing her sight on her own pupils and focusing on the
patterns of the irises.
"One more time," she insisted, nodding. "One more."
****** . . . ******
"Good morning," Ariela sing-sang as she walked into the kitchen, still wearing
her pajamas and hair a mess. Lance acknowledged her with a gesture of his hand
while the other paladins, the only ones in the kitchen, murmured an answer.
"I see you looking around. No, there is no coffee. Yes, we have a replacement,
although it's not pretty," the boy told her, passing her a jar with a soupy and
green liquid in it, making Ariela's eyes go wide. That was when Lance noticed
that she had been crying more last night, but he kept his mouth shut.
"Give me a sip from yours to see what it tastes like," she asked, already
taking the mug form his hands and sipping from it, her face wrinkling into an
expression of disgust, similar of those when you made a baby eat a lemon. "This
is the most disgusting thing that I have tasted in my whole life and I'm
offended you tried to make me drink it."
"I know you can't function without coffee. I was just trying to save our
asses," Lance chuckled, passing his left arm through the woman's shoulders and
pulling her close. She rested her head against his chest. "You should still eat
something, though. Hunk is the one that knows his way around the kitchen, so
you'll have to ask him."
"Yeah, talking about having to eat something..." the woman started, noticing
how she could feel the boy's ribs against her hand. She turned to look Lance in
the eye, and he noticed he was in a for a bad lecture that would last a whole
week. "You've gotten a lot thinner. Not in the healthy way," she pointed out,
voice low as if she didn't want the rest to hear their conversation.
"I know. I'm not trying to evade that one. But, you'll see that being here is a
little bit stressful, and even Shiro's gotten thinner, and he eats like a
fucking pig," Lance murmured, hugging the woman closer, and when she frowned
thinking that it was a distraction, he said: "You have no idea how much I've
missed you."
"Is that an invitation to have a heart to heart talk?" she asked, sliding her
arms around his waist and hugging him tightly.
"When hasn't it been one?" Lance chuckled in response, his breath catching in
his throat and making Ariela's jaw tense. If Lance went and asked to have a
heart to heart talk, he was far from feeling just a little bit bad (meaning "I
have my life put together, but only thanks to my best friend forever: tape").
Keith squinted at the pair that was leaning against the counters, slightly
tapping Shiro in the arm, making the man pull his eyes away from his plate of
food goo.
"Those two are really touchy feely, aren't they?" he asked, and it took Shiro a
second to notice that he actually meant it, making the man snort and drop his
fork in the plate in favour of patting the teen in the back..
"Seriously? Are you surprised? I mean, it's Lance."
"Good morning, paladins," Allura greeted as she walked in, shocking them
slightly. Instead of having gone back to her Altean dress, she was wearing a
training outfit from Adidas, all flowers and pink.
"I told you it would look great on you!" Lance exclaimed with a smile, but when
Allura mistook the compliment with flirting and turned to talk to Keith, Lance
swept his tongue through his teeth and sighed, trying to let out the
frustration that had dripped on his mood.
"Wow. Rude," Ariela whispered. "Is this involved with the thing that's
bothering you?" she asked. Lance made a gesture that indicated that it was, but
maybe only slightly.
"Ariela," Allura called, making the woman look at the princess. "I was thinking
that you should train with me, at least until you catch up with the rest of the
team. Besides, you don't have to focus much on bonding as a team with the
paladins, as the panther fights alone," she finished explaining.
Swallowing hard, Ariela tried to push the panic of being alone for a lot of
time with someone completely new down her throat.
"Sure," she replied, smiling. "Sounds like a great idea."
****** . . . ******
"I didn't know that Allura trained," Hunk commented, as he switched to
stretching his other leg.
"Of course she does," Coran said with a smirk as he looked down on them, with
the aura of proud parent Pidge knew so well. "You should be thankful she
doesn't train with you. She would use you to clean the floor," he finished with
a chuckle.
"Seriously? But, wouldn't it be better for us to train together? I mean, she
could teach us," Keith said. Lance, surprisingly, stayed quiet, resting his
chin in the floor as he stretched forward, making Hunk huff. He knew Lance was
ridiculously flexible, but this was just showing off.
"The truth is that she hasn't been in a training deck ever since we woke up.
Between the two of us, we have only managed to update one tenth of the Castle's
information in these three months, so we've been kind of busy. And with me
training you, almost all the work has fell upon her," Coran told them, voice
dropping lower as if he feared Allura hearing him.
"You know you could ask us for help, right? It might even be good for us to
learn what this Castle has storaged," Pidge said, but she seemed to be chewing
the words, as if she didn't like saying them, or as if there was a second
meaning behind it.
"Don't worry. You have to make up five years of training, so there is no time
for you to worry about such things," the Altean smiled, and Pidge lowered her
gaze to the floor.
"Talking about training, I wonder how Ariela is doing. If Allura is so
tough..." Hunk said, and Lance shrugged him off with a proud smile.
"Ariela is ten times tougher. She'll be fine," he said.
****** . . . ******
"Mercy," the woman huffed out, punching the mat in which she was being pressed
down, and Allura let go of her killer grip, allowing her to finally breathe.
She could feel sweat pooling everywhere and muscles straining, ready to give
out, when she stood up. Allura was a fucking monster as a trainer, and Ariela
didn't have the courage to speak out against it because she had just seen the
woman lift at least thrice her wight, and she didn't want to make her mad.
"Lance had said that you were almost a professional in fighting styles. What
happened?" the princess asked, shedding the jacket of the training outfit and
putting her loose hair up in a bun. She was slightly panting, and it seemed
that she was about to break a sweat. Ariela, meanwhile, was wishing for the
reaper to collect her soul once and for all.
"I am. I've been kickboxing for eleven years now, and I even work as a
teacher," Ariela said, pants breaking her sentence in blocks. "You are just...
an alien. A ruthless alien."
"Oh, thank you," Allura replied, positively beaming. Then, the serious face
took over again. "I'll tell you what I've noticed. You use a fighting style
that relies a lot in strength and a size. You are strong, but for someone your
size anyways, and really small, so this fighting style won't help you much in
real life." The human looked back at her with a deep frown.
"You mean that you want me to learn a whole new fighting style from zero? You
know that that takes years, even months at the best, right?" she asked, trying
to reap the white tank-top that was sticking to her skin because of the sweat,
groaning in disgust.
"But now this is all you will be focusing on," Allura replied, standing up and
offering a hand to Ariela. "I don't know what you used to do back on Earth, but
I'm certain you were far from being a soldier, other things occupied your time
and mind. Living here and adapting to the routines will change your body and
mindset faster than you think," she explained.
"If you say so," Ariela said, sounding a little bit unsure but smiling anyways.
The princess beamed again.
"Perfect!" Allura exclaimed, before turning around and stretching her back
shoulders as she looked around, thinking of what to do next.
"I was majoring in psychology, by the way," Ariela said to break the silence
that was awkward for her. The princess looked back at her, utterly lost. "When
I was back on Earth. I was studying this thing we have that's called
psychology. I was about to finish my studies this year."
"Oh, so you were an erudite!" Allura exclaimed, completely amazed, and Ariela
blushed, shaking her head.
"Oh, no. It's pretty normal on Earth to spend years studying a certain subject.
That's how you have access to a job," she explained. "It's not like we spend
all of our lives studying."
"Uh, I get it. So, what is a psychology?" Allura asked, frowning at the floor.
"Um, well. It is the study of the human mind and how it functions," Ariela
explained, following the princess as she walked towards a wall.
"How the human mind functions?"
"Yeah. Like..., the effects that memories have on people, for example. Um,
mechanisms of learning, conditioning, emotions, the unconscious and the
dreams... Stuff like that," she explained.
"Oh. That sounds really interesting! You are basically studying the arimas of
the human beings!" the princess stated, as she opened a panel of sorts in the
wall and started putting things in; maybe some sort of code.
"I guess so, but I don't know what arimas are," she answered in a murmur.
"Oh... Well, it's a complicated concept, and Coran is much better at explaining
this kind of things than I am." She said, as she finally closed the panel and a
series of beeping sounds were heard. "Now, as you are really tired to do more
hand to hand training, we'll get started with the guns," Allura explained, as
she pointed with a lazy gesture of her hand at the compartment that had opened
before them, showing a whole armory storaged in the wall.
"Jesus Christ."
****** . . . ******
"Dude," Ariela started even before the door had opened completely. "Allura is a
fucking monster. She destroyed me."
"Glad to know you had a nice first day," Lance chuckled as the woman let
herself fall on top of him in his bed, rolling to lay next to him, looking at
the ceiling. He turned to look at her, locking eyes and reading his mind to
talk about all the things he wanted to talk.
"Ready to spill the beans, little brother?" she asked, gifting him a sweet
smile .
He rolled to his side, burying his face on her chest and enjoying the scent of
soap. It threw him back across years, to the time where he would wait for her
to arrive from the gym to talk about life until his mother came bursting in the
room, demanding them to go downstairs to eat something. It made him feel safe,
back at home, and maybe as if he was again an eleven-year-old whose biggest
problem was his feelings during his first kiss.
"Being honest? No," he replied after a few seconds, voice muffled by the
woman's t-shirt.
"Okay. Don't worry, you don't have to start. I'll just do a checking." Lance
shrank against her. "Have you been doing yoga?"
"No."
"Meditating?"
"No."
"Do you skip meals?"
"Nah, too hungry to do so."
"Are you sleeping well?"
"Kinda. Great if you compare me to Shiro or Pidge."
"I'm guessing you are not keeping your journal."
"I wish I had the time."
"From Natasha Romanoff to Bruce Banner, how bad are you taking this whole
deal?" Lance shot his head up and looked at Ariela in the eye with a smile
before answering:
"Tony Stark during Iron Man 3." The woman frowned at him, concern and anger
washing over her as she put a hand on his nape.
"Lance..." she started. He dropped his head against her again.
"I was just joking. I haven't had any panic attacks yet, I'm sleeping a solid
of four hours a night and I'm eating healthily," he said, his lips forming a
thin line because maybe he had lied a little bit in all of those statements.
There was a long silence, in which Ariela gave herself a few seconds to be
scared, the memory of Lance shutting down making her grind her teeth. But then
she took in a deep breath and took control over herself again.
"Lance. If you want to have a heart to hear talk, it needs to be honest," she
stated, voice low and serious, making the boy groan.
"I know, I know. It's just that I want to talk about other things," he replied.
"Like?"
"I don't know, like... How much I have missed all of you, and how I hadn't
really realized how much I needed you until I couldn't talk to you anymore?" he
said, shrugging to act nonchalant, but curling himself closer to Ariela once he
finished, feeling the tears prickling at his eyes.
"Oh, darling..." the woman started as she caressed his hair and scrapped at his
nape, making Lance sniff as he tried not to sob. "You've been feeling isolated?
Wasn't Hunk your best friend?"
"I know, it's just... We've only known each other for a year and coins, and we
haven't actually met outside the Garrison. He's still a great guy, but you know
how hard it is to tell someone about things like this when you don't know how
they'll react, and now is not the perfect time to just go and ramble about the
demons under my road with people I need to have a no-problem-relationship
with."
A long silence proceeded, in which they just focused on the other's breathing.
"I understand; it is a difficult situation indeed," she started. voice sounding
lower, as if she had a knot in her throat. "But you have me now. And we both
know that I can help you only if you let me."
"You know I want to let you help me... It's just hard."
"Don't worry. Talking to your big sis about your feelings is like riding a
bike, or picking up chicks... You never actually forget it," Ariela joked,
pushing his head slightly, making him chuckle. "But you have to retake yoga and
meditating, and your diary," she added.
"Oh, no," Lance groaned, and a hand sneaked under his chin to lift his face,
meeting Ariela's motherly eyes and resisting the urge to roll his.
"You know that it helps you to have time to think without anyone looking
around, and you love yoga. And when you write stuff down you can simply give it
to me to read, instead of having to go through the pain of choosing words in
the moment," she explained herself, using her slow and professional tone.
"Yeah, yeah. I never said I wouldn't do it. Just complaining because it means
getting up earlier," he mumbled. He nested his face on her chest again, and
another silence followed, but this time it was quickly filled with them humming
a song from Hercules, Lance starting it and Ariela picking up the beat without
batting an eyelash.
"We'll talk about all the stuff you actually wanted to talk labout ater? When
you write down everything?" she asked, once they were finished with the
humming.
"Ye..." Lance started, but then stopped when he heard the door sliding open.
They both rose their heads to find a surprised looking Keith under the
threshold of the door, squinting at them.
"We're about to have dinner. You're late," he said, before leaving, a trail of
his grumpiness practically visible behind him.
"Geez, edgelord," Ariela sighed. "Is everyone in this castle but Hunk and Coran
hella rude?" she asked, as Lance got up and pulled her out of the bed too.
"Nah. They're just like that with me."
****** . . . ******
Hunk had slowly but surely got used to Allura's silent presence. Ever since she
had started to just lounge at his lion’s hangar while he studied blueprints and
books, waiting in case he had a question as she updated the data of the Castle
with a small pad, it was something that didn't make him uneasy anymore. Still,
it was something new having her in the kitchen.
"Thank you for helping me with dinner tonight, princess," he said, shooting a
side smile at her, as he poured sauce over their replacement for mashed
potatoes.
"Oh, it's nothing, Hunk. I enjoy spending time with you," she said happily,
passing him another plate. "But I was wondering..." Oh, here it comes. "Has
Lance ever talked to you about Ariela?" The princess' voice sounded weird, as
if it was hiding many mixed feelings and doubts.
Hunk frowned, as he turned and leaned on the counter, crossing his eyes and
thinking.
"Well..." he started, recalling the many past-midnight conversations he had had
with Lance. "I think he talked about her, but he never actually said her name.
He just calls her the "little shit". And the stories were almost always about
pretty crazy situations, often involving alcohol," he said, finishing with an
awkward laugh, remembering this one story where they actually ran away from the
police.
"Oh..." was all Allura said, seeming even more puzzled now that she counted
with that information.
"Why do you ask?" Hunk poked, lolling his head to the side curiously, an
endearing gesture the princess had noticed some time ago.
"I was wondering..., why she is fit to pilot the panther. I talked with her
while we were training, and she seems to go beyond the simplicity of the
panther's bloodlust, its "just survive" mode. She even studies this difficult
thing called psychology were they study people's arimas," she explained
herself.
"Ariela is a psychologist?" Hunk asked, voice raising a little bit with
excitement, surprising Allura. His mind was already rushing with all the things
that having a psychologist on board meant.
She can help Shiro he thought. He could feel Gold purring happily on the back
of his mind, really content. He knew she was probably already passing the
information to Black.
"Yeah, I think so," Allura shrugged.
They silently returned to the duty of filling the plates with food, before she
left a plate on the counter and turned to look at him again, with another
question on her mind.
"Do you think she'll like me? Like... enough to be friends?" she asked after
taking in a deep and shaky breath, this time actually surprising Hunk. He
turned to her, frowning again, already stuttering even if he hadn't opened his
mouth yet.
"I-I don't really know. I don't know her. You should ask Lance about that.
Why?" Allura shrugged again.
"Back on Earth... Lance was acting surprisingly friendly and..., you know,
platonically. I would like to have a girl friend again, now that I have the
chance," she answered, eyes nailed on the top of the counter, making Hunk
smile.
"That's so sweet!" he squealed, making the princess turn to him scared and
shocked. "I'm sorry."
****** . . . ******
Dinner was silent, surprisingly. Although Keith was looking at Lance with his
usual "judging frown" (as Lance had decided to call it when he had to justify
why he was spontaneously picking up a fight with Keith) the other boy seemed
too busy to notice, as he talked in whispers with his sister.
"You were right, Shiro eats like a pig," the woman said, voice almost
unhearable, and Lance snorted. "He's still cute, though."
"Cute? Don't you want to say hot?" Lance asked, and his sister shrugged.
"I dunno. I think his cute with..., you know, his really slanted eyes and his
little white tuft," she said.
"But he could break us both in half. He is like..., really buff!"
"But he's also soft. He is boft. Like Hunk," Ariela sentenced, smiling cutely,
but then she dropped the smile and her eyebrows shot up. "Wanna know who's the
hot one?"
"Allura?"
"Motherfucking Allura," she nodded. Lance snorted. "No, seriously. You don't
know what it's like to be pinned down with a judo hold by that princess, dude.
Blood stopped rushing to my brain, if you know what I mean." Lance laughed out
loud, calling everyone's attention and making his sister blush. "Keep it on the
down low, you doufus!"
"So, Ariela... How was your first day at training?" Coran asked, trying to
contain his smile when he saw that Lance was still trying not to laugh.
"Good, I think. I still have a lot to learn, though," Ariela answered quickly,
her eyes shortly drifting to Allura and then taking a gulp of water.
"Tomorrow I'll start teaching her dizhitsu. Thought it would be a better
fitting fighting style for her. And I'm also taking her to the hangar, see if
the panther can behave for once," Allura told them, and Lance patted Ariela on
the back to show her his support.
"Wait a minute," Shiro said. He had just lifted his eyes from the food, having
finished his third plate, and had noticed something. "Where is Pidge?"
"I went looking for her, but couldn't find her," Keith said, shrugging.
"She might be tinkering inside her lion, so you didn't see her," Hunk said with
a smile. "Don't worry, Shiro. She'll still come by the kitchen to eat," he told
their leader, who seemed to relax a little bit, although he also looked
embarrassed.
"See?" Ariela said to Lance, back to whispering. "He's boft".
****** . . . ******
Coran was used to have good nights of sleep but, for some unknown reason, he
just couldn't seem to stop tossing around in his bed that night. He had tried
to put some ambiental sounds, drinking a special tea made out of the few Altean
flowers they had left, and he had also taken a cold bath, the chill almost
managing to relax him completely... almost.
After an hour and a half of trying, he had given up and just went up the
library to look for something to read.
It was pretty weird, he realized when he sat down in the dead quiet library, to
walk around the Castle alone. Ten thousand years back, you just couldn't be
alone unless you had your own private room, because there was people hanging
out or working at all times. It was painful, the silence a dreadful reminder of
how the crew of three thousand Alteans had lowered to two of them and six new
humans. Maybe that was why they didn't move from the rooms they strictly
needed.
Coran was rereading the same sentence for the tenth time when the door to the
library opened, revealing a tired figure walking over towards one of the
tables, opening a drawer, and taking out many things before sitting down and
starting to scribble down.
"Lance?" the Altean asked, once the figure extended their hand to turn on one
of the desk lights, and the head of the boy shot up, squinting at the point
from where the voice had come from.
"Coran? What are you doing up?" Lance asked, quickly standing up when the man
started walking towards him.
"I couldn't sleep, so I decided to read something. I should be asking you that,
anyways," he murmured, brushing his mustache as he examined the boy, just
noticing then what he was wearing. "Is that the undersuit of the armor?" he
asked.
Lance crossed his arms on top of his chest, as if he could avoid Coran
confirming that yes, it was the undersuit of the armor indeed. He also smelt
awful, like sweat and even hint of blood. Under great scrutiny, the Altean
could discover reddening bruises and even a small thread of blood running down
Lance's neck from behind his ears.
"I was just... Training casually. You know, doing some laps and lifting some
weights," Lance shrugged off.
"Don't lie to me, boy," Coran said. "You wouldn't wear the undersuit to
casually train, and you are pretty hurt for someone who was just lifting some
weights and running."
Silence fell, and Lance was ready to just breakdown crying. He wanted to slap
himself when he felt his lower lip quivering, wondering why being under Coran's
hard eyes made him want to curl up, sob, and then die. He didn't want him to
know, to look at him like this. Why couldn't he have this shameful secret?
Yeah, he was shit in everything, so he had to make an effort to catch up. At
least let him do that in peace.
A screen appeared in front of Coran. The tech in Lance's suit was picking up
abnormal heart rates for his actual level of mobility, and when the man's eyes
drifted towards him, Lance's breathing started to get shallow, slowly turning
into hyperventilation.
"Lance, hey, what's wrong?" Coran asked, stepping closer to the boy and putting
his hands on his shoulders.
"It's nothing... Just a little nervous thing humans do." The man frowned harder
as Lance suddenly stopped breathing for a few seconds, only to take a shaky
breath as he nervously ran his hands through his hair and tugged at it.
"I'm..., hah. I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm like this," the boy insisted,
fake chuckles cutting through the words.
"Lance, I'm afraid your little nervous thing is a nervous breakdown," Coran
said, tugging him towards one of the soft sofas and forcing him to sit down.
"Do you need something? Water? Maybe a cup of tea?"
"I'm..." Lance started, licking his lips as he tried to fish for the words.
What did he want? What did he need?
"It's okay if you just want to wait, boy. We can talk about this tomorrow. I
only want to know how much you've hurt yourself on the training deck," Coran
insisted, squeezing Lance's shoulder to ground him, making the blue paladin
blink at him, as if he were confused by the other's presence.
"Hurt?"
****** . . . ******
It was early. Too early for anyone but him to be awake at least. Shiro knew it
because ever since living in the Castle, no one had ever walked out of their
bedroom for at least another half an hour, those times being exceptional.
His head was clearer now that he had managed to pass out for five hours
straight, a dreamless sleep that made him feel emotionally weaker when he woke
up but still helped his sleep-deprived brain, and (supposedly) no one would
bother him, so he had made his bed and just laid down in it to think.
Okay. They had made it out of that awful situation. Keith had made it out
alive, the Castle was "almost" fully functional again, and they had an extra
paladin now. It was all good! Although he was still plummeting down.
Maybe I should just give you to Allura he told Black, half joking and half
actually considering the option.
Even if princess Allura has exceptional leader qualifications and is really
strong willed, I'm afraid she's not compatible with us the lioness replied,
making Shiro frown. Us? Worry not. I've been told by Yel..., Gold that her
pilot has an answer to your problems.
"Who? Hunk?" Shiro asked outloud, surprised. And then the door opened.
Speaking of the devil Black hummed.
"Shiro?" Hunk asked, giving a hesitating step into the room, voice low. "Are
you awake?" He gave another step closer.
"Don't worry, Hunk. I'm awake," Shiro said, shuffling to his side to look at
him better. "Why are you up so early?" he asked.
"I needed to talk to you, about something I know. And I thought you would
appreciate it if it was in private," Hunk quickly answered, firmly stepping in
front of Shiro, as if he was going to stand up for something Shiro would hate.
"Allura told me Ariela is a psychologist," he said, voice rushing out of his
mouth like it was some deep secret he needed to get out of his chest. Shiro
just looked around, wondering what to answer.
"Umm... Good for her..., I guess," was the option he decided on, making Hunk
sigh in frustration.
"Look, Shiro... I know that if it weren't because I've found you during some of
your..., attacks or whatever they are..., not even I would know about your
PTSD. I imagine how hard it must be to admit it to someone," Hunk started,
giving a step closer to the bed, as Shiro sat up.
"I don't have PTSD," Shiro contradicted, and the man would swear he had never
seen someone look so done with something as Hunk looked that moment.
"C'mon, man," was all the boy answered.
A long pause followed.
"Yeah, I might have a little bit of PTSD." Hunk groaned so loudly that Shiro
was afraid it would wake the others up. "I might have PTSD, but I'm still fine.
I don't need to talk about it with someone!"
Hunk turned to him, his eyes looking like they could melt a hole through steel.
"We both know that's not true, Shiro," he murmured. Both of them swallowed
hard, remembering what had happened at the propeller room from their different
points of view. "I'm not going to miraculously be around you every time
something bad happens to you, so I want to make the risk as small as possible,"
he explained himself, finally gaining the courage to go and sit next to Shiro
on the bed, patting him gently on the back. "I'm sure she is a nice woman, and
she won't mind helping you."
"The problem is not that I don't know her, Hunk. I don't want nor need to talk
about this with anyone. I've managed so far, and I'll continue to do so,” Shiro
talked back, his eyes nailed on his lap, not daring to look at Hunk. He was
able to see the boy’s hands curling into fists though.
“Okay. I’ll leave you alone for now,” he said in a whisper, quickly making his
way out of the room and leaving Shiro alone and in complete silence again.
Well Black started with her disappointed whine mother voice That could have
gone better.
****** . . . ******
Ariela’s presence in the castle didn’t really make a change in the time she had
been there. One week later, and they only saw her during meal time and casually
caught a glimpse of her on the hallways, or in Lance’s bedroom. Pidge barely
remembered how she sounded or looked, and them not seeing her didn’t help
Hunk’s statement of “She’s a nice gal, you’ll see”. Shiro had never been more
indifferent of someone in his life.
On the other hand, Allura seemed brighter and livelier. This being because she
finally had a motive to get her ass off of a chair and someone to talk with.
Turns out Ariela was into clothes and hair as much as she was, just like
fighting styles and weapons. They would be casually talking about how Allura
could do her hair to spice things up while the woman hit a perfect target with
an assault riffle she had started to practice with the day before.
Ariela’s company was refreshing for the princess and, although they mostly
talked about really shallow subjects, they sometimes went into much more deeper
things while resting after a hard training session, both laying on the floor
and looking at the ceiling, occasionally sipping from their water packs. This
deeper subjects were things like Allura’s past in Altea or the nature of a
human being.
“Ever since the guys started living here and actually talking with me...”
Allura started the afternoon of that space-Friday. She could feel Ariela’s
panting becoming softer until it finally stopped, as she tried to make an
effort to listen to the princess. “It sounds like you have many more emotions
than we do. Do you think it’s a physiological thing?”
A deep silence followed once she was done, and Allura turned to her side to
check if Ariela was okay after it became a really long one, only to discover
the woman looking at the ceiling with her thinking face on.
“I can’t really say something sure about this,” she started after a few
minutes. “It could be that, or it could be just differences in out languages.”
“Language?” Allura asked almost immediately, frowning. “The castle doesn’t
invent new words to translate just like that.”
Ariela chuckled, a soft sound that sounded like a soft rain falling over a
lake.
“I don’t mean it that way… You see, humans have a thing about trying to achieve
perfection, and that includes how we express our thoughts and feelings too.
There are many different words to refer to one range of emotions with the
slightest variations. Do you have something like that?” the woman asked,
turning to Allura with a slight frown, not being sure if she had made herself
clear.
“Well… Not officially, but I made up this thing… There’s anger, dry anger, and
wet anger.” Ariela frowned harder. “Well, there’s anger: when you want to punch
someone until their teeth fall out. Then there’s dry anger: when you just want
to kill that person and everyone’s family and watch them burn because you know
you wouldn’t care. And, the wet anger: when you want to cry because you feel
weak or small and that makes you angry,” she explained herself, and Ariela ahed
“Yeah, I get what you’re saying. Your anger would be being mad, the dry anger
would be actual anger, and the wet anger would be frustration.”
Another long silence. This time, it was Allura who broke it.
“Why so many words, though? Why that need of accuracy?” Ariela shrugged.
“We are not a species that can go on in life without making themselves heard
and understood. That’s why there are revolutions and civil wars. When something
makes the chemicals in out brains go crazy we need everyone to hear about it,
because we might go insane if we don’t.”
“Revolutions? As in more than one?” The tiny and cute people have made more
than one revolution? They actuallyfight? Allura thought, watching with wide
eyes as Ariela nodded.
“Every single human has a voice and wants to be heard, and those who don’t is
because resignation won them over,” she explained, and when her words weren’t
enough for Allura, she continued. “It feels like a fire, burning next to out
hearts, in the middle of rib cage. The more it burns, the more we want to speak
up for ourselves,” she finished, a hand on top of her chest demonstrating the
place she was speaking about to the princess.
Allura’s eyes went even wider, her right hand flying to that place too, as she
took in a shaky breath.
“I’ve felt that too! How come I didn’t know what it was?” she gasped out,
yanking a sweet smile out of Ariela, who shook her head.
“How come I ”know” what it is? There are questions that we can’t answer… I
still believe it has to do something with your language, though. I love how it
sounds, but I’ve heard you use the same word for many different things, so it
sounds quite limited,” Ariela answered.
“You actually pay attention to what I say? Like… Not the translation?”
“Of course! I love learning different languages! I’m already fluent at five
different Earth languages and I definitely want to learn more,” she answered,
smiling brightly.
Okay, that’s just too much Allura thought, wanting to scream because How could
that tiny adorable and wise bean be the matching pilot of a bloodthirsty
monster that shoots first and asks questions later? She had seen the panther in
action, and she had met its previous paladin. There were no connections with
Ariela at all, despite the similarities on their names.
She sighed.
“Wanna go to try and crack the panther again?” Allura asked, her voice sounding
muffled against the floor. Ariela made a cringy face.
“Honestly? No.”
“If the barrier went down it’s because you capable of being its pilot, Ariela.
Don’t let its thickheadedness put you down like that.” Now, Ariela sighed.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s just…, such a bother.”
Finally! Something we both agree on! the panther butted in, making its ever
present known. Ever since space-Tuesday, Ariela had been conscious of this kind
of buzzing on the back of her mind, and how she got second hand feelings and
thoughts from it. It was the area that was connected to the panther, always
watching her every move and sometimes making a comment or two to piss her off.
“Ha ha, really funny,” she scoffed.
****** . . . ******
No one saw Allura or Ariela until dinner had already begun.
They were all exhausted, almost as if something had been draining them from
their energy that day, so no one had really commented on it, at least until the
two women entered the dining room. Allura looked like she had just witnessed a
murder and Ariela was fuming.
“Stupid alien robot,” she huffed as she let herself fall down into the chair
that Lance had kept empty for her.
“I’m supposing that the encounter with the panther did not end well,” Coran
announced, and Allura just dropped her head on the table as a response. “That
bad, huh?”
“He literally sent me flying across the room when I said that he was a cocky
bastard. He literally just picked me up with his tail and fiuuuum! Fucking
flung me.” Lance snorted as he caught Shiro’s and Hunk’s horrified looks, and
Allura followed suit.
“That part was quite funny. You did call it a cocky bastard after all. But I
think the best was when it literally sat down giving you its back and refused
to acknowledge your existence,” she said, the leftover of her soft laughter
giving away the fact that, now that she wasn’t on danger, it had been fun.
“It’s like that moody cat that you left back at home to go to college and is
mad at you when you come back,” Ariela whispered, finally picking up her fork
and blindly putting food in her mouth, frowning at the unknown and confusing
flavor.
“Maybe I could give you some tips on how to deal with the panther. I knew its
previous pilot after all,” Coran said, and when Ariela met his eyes with
gleaming ones, he smiled. “We talk after dinner, how about that?” She nodded.
“What about you? How are you going with training?” Allura asked, and Keith rose
his eyebrows in surprise. Allura never asked about their training, at least not
to them.
“It was quite good!” Shiro exclaimed. “Hunk is getting better at aiming his
bayard, Pidge managed to pin Lance down, and Keith almost got me while
sparring,” he said with a small smile.
A short silence followed as everyone but Ariela continued in with their food.
“What about you, Lance?” she asked, gently nudging him on the side, noticing
how the boy tensed up the same instant it happened.
“I didn’t really did well today. I was feeling out of it,” he murmured, eyes
watching how his fork mixed the weird pasta-like-thing.
Okay, I don’t even know him but that is like…, a scarlet flag about someone
feeling bad about something, surprisingly, the panther said, making Ariela’s
eyebrows shoot up. He had never talked to her in such a comfortable and almost
friendly way.
I know. I’ve been trying to get him to tell me what’s wrong ever since I got
here, but Lance McClain here is a hard nut to crack she answered back, tried to
let the panther feel how open she was about talking with him; a startled and
foreign sensation flowed to her the second she did it, but the panther quickly
regained his composure.
Yeah. The previous blue paladin was like that too. Then it was radio silence.
“Does your lion talk to you?” Ariela asked in a whisper to Lance, ignoring how
Keith’s eyes flew towards her the second she turned to talk to him.
“Yeah, all the time. That’s how we bonded so much in so little time. Coran even
said that we seem to have a better relationship than she had with her previous
paladin,” he said, starting of neutrally but ending with a small and proud
smile.
“Wow, and that is a thing. Good for you, sunshine. But, why am I surprised? If
you’re great, of course the space cat would prefer you,” she praised him,
resting her head on his shoulder and loving it when Lance’s smile grew. Oh boy,
the things this idiots were loosing by being assholes.
There was another silence, this one not so awkward, but it was broken by an
awkward throat clearing.
“Em, I was thinking that tomorrow we could all spare a few minutes of our time
and go together to the common room,” Allura started, making everyone burrow
their frowns. “Today I realized that I have been making decisions all by myself
and that, as Shiro said a few weeks ago, we don’t actually have a plan. So, I
guessed that having a meeting and discussing out options would be the best.”
She cleared her throat one more time before picking up the cutlery she had left
on top of her food to avoid the surprised gazes.
“That sounds amazing,” Hunk said with a genuine smile.
****** . . . ******
“Thanks for helping me picking everything up, Ariela,” Coran said with a smile.
“Oh, it’s nothing. I used to do it every night back at home,” she answered,
hopping to sit on top of the counter and starting to dangle her legs, like an
anxious child. “So, you have tips about dealing with the panther?” she asked,
and the Altean felt an ugly itch spread through his elakie. He regretted lying
to her, but just a little bit.
“Actually, no. The panther is, indeed, a cocky bastard and I have no idea how
its previous paladin managed to deal with it, though she was much more
insistent than it and kind of scary too.” He took in a deep breath as he leaned
his weight against the island in the middle of the kitchen, crossing his arms
on top of his chest and letting the concern he had been feeling since the
previous night show on his face. “No, I lied to you because I needed to talk to
you without raising suspicion from our favourite paladin,” he said, his smile
mirroring the woman’s when the words “favourite paladin” left his mouth.
“I’m guessing you know much more about what Lance has been dealing with this
last…, almost four months,” she admitted, slowly nodding and stopping the
movement of her legs.
“We all know he has felt ridiculously homesick ever since the first night… And
I knew he had some kind of inferiority complex when it came to his teammates,
but I thought it was just a shallow business, nothing too serious.”
“Oh, god, I see where this is going.”
“Last night I couldn’t sleep and I found him on the library. He had just been
practising for two hours and pretended to study Altean. I don’t know where, but
he found a notebook and filled it with notes. I think he can already read and
comprehend basic texts, and that must take a lot of time to do on your own,”
Coran continued.
Ariela leant back and frowned, crossing her arms on top of her chest too.
“He had a nervous break down,” the man added, words coming out rapidly, and
Ariela tsked. “I’ve checked the training deck and the library door’s logs and
he has been working over night for almost two months now. There are nights I’m
not sure he slept at all.” A worried and tired sigh left his lips. “I’m
concerned about him, but I’m not sure how he would react if I faced him about
it. He probably would be more open to discuss it with you.”
Ariela rubbed her face.
“I knew he was lying to me when I did the checking, and I should have guessed
that he felt inferior. No one even acknowledges him or at least treats him
decently except from you and Hunk,” she muttered through her teeth, the words
feeling a little bit venomous. She jumped off of the counter in favour of
pacing in front of it, eyes on the floor.
“I noticed that too. I know that princess Allura has mixed feelings about Lance
because of his constant flirting. She has a rough story with wooers, you see,
part of being a princess and having almost everyone trying to get to your
crown.” Ariela grumbled something unintelligible. “I’m not saying that
justifies what she does,” he quickly added, and the woman shot him a side
smile.
“I know, it’s just… It angers me,” she admitted, turning to look at him. “I
really appreciate you telling me and worrying about him, Coran. I don’t really
know you, but you’re a great man,” she said then, smiling honestly.
“Lance reminds me of my best friend, so I guess my motives aren’t entirely
selfless, but I still almost love him like a son for who he is, not who he
reminds me of. He is also a great person, and I hate to see him so distressed.”
They shared a look that left it clear how much they both cared for Lance and,
with a nod, Coran wished her a good night and left.
****** . . . ******
Pidge hated feeling like crap for three consecutive days a month, but that was
the price to pay for not having a dick, and she was kind of glad she didn’t
have one as she watched Hunk and Lance throw food goo at each other. Keith and
Shiro kind of passed, but there would always be a moment where they would do
some flamboyantly stupid thing to remind Pidge that boys sucked.
And yes, maybe it was her fault for staying up so late to try put the last
ideas for her project together, and maybe it was her fault because she hadn’t
showered the day before, and maybe it was her fault because she had a serious
case of dehydration and the consequential nuisances that came with it for
someone on their period. But still, it was the guys fault for being so fucking
obnoxious and murderable during the mornings.
“Hey, Pidge, you look pale,” Shiro noticed when they were already starting to
stand up to go back to the training deck, having decided they had had a long
enough break, after stopping when Hunk’s stomach roared and Lance almost
fainted from exhaustion.
“I just don’t feel well. I think I might hit the healing pods for a few
minutes, just to see if it helps me,” she said, standing up with a hand over
her belly, whimpering hopelessly when Shiro stopped her with a hand on her
shoulder.
“Pidge, if you’re feeling unwell you should tell us. You don’t have to force
yourself through training,” Shiro insisted.
“It’s okay, Shiro. Just mild pain.”
“Yeah, Shiro. She’s alright,” Lance said, smiling softly and putting a hand on
Pidge’s shoulder, but he did it in a comforting and empathetic way. When the
girl turned to him frowning, he winked her an eye, as if saying I know what
this is; he had three sisters after all.
“No, Lance. You can’t encourage her to just train when she’s not feeling well!
What if she’s sick or overworking herself? We should take you to the
infirmary,” Shiro insisted, already tugging her towards the door, but Pidge
tiredly rolled her eyes and shoved his hand out of her shoulder.
“Unless there are painkillers specific enough to save me from period cramps but
not drug me I don’t think the ALIEN infirmary will help,” she calmly said,
although she could feel the same heat that was spreading through Shiro’s face
spread through hers.
“Tried to warn you, golden boy,” Lance mocked him, before patting Pidge in the
back. “Let’s go looking for Allura and Ariela. Ariela might have something, her
cramps are nasty, and maybe Alteans have periods too,” he said.
“Are you sure? I don’t want to bother them,” Pidge replied with a really low
voice. Pidge Gunderson (or Katie Holt, suit yourself), the green gremlin that
possessed no shame whatsoever, felt embarrassed about talking with someone
about her period. She was just so cute.
Lance was about to answer when Allura’s and Ariela’s heads popped into the
kitchen, both soaked in sweat and panting.
“The panther said you needed me,” she said, frowning and looking down at her
own words.
As an answer to everyone’s surprise, Green and Blue said at the same time to
their respective paladins I might have given her the call so you didn’t have to
go yourselves.
“Well, the panther was surprisingly helpful because we, indeed need you,” Lance
said, and patted Pidge on the back one more time.
“I was wondering-” she looked down and started fidgeting with her fingers- “If
you had any pain killers for cramps, by any chance.” Her voice became lower and
lower as she talked, making Ariela actually slightly lean forwards to listen.
“Oh, of course! My cramps are horrible, so I make sure I always carry at least
a box with me,” Ariela answered with a warm smile. “They’re in my bedroom.”
Pidge hurried to walk to her side.
“When you’re done go to the common room. I guess we should have the meeting now
that we’re all together,” Allura said. Ariela gave her a nod, turning to the
girl when she spoke.
“What do your cramps feel like?” Pidge asked her, and Ariela smiled brightly at
the question.
“As if a velociraptor was trying to claw its way out of my uterus. Yours?”
“They feel as if an elephant was stomping on my ovaries.”
“Neat.”
And with that they were gone. Allura eyed the paladins that were sitting down
with a quirked eyebrow, making them stand up quickly and follow her out of the
kitchen and through hallways, towards the common room.
“Was I hallucinating or Ariela just said that her cramps felt like a dinosaur
trying to claw her way out of her uterus and then said that Pidge’s cramps were
neat?” Hunk asked after a small silence, only filled with the sound of their
steps. He looked distressed™.
“Apparently, girls bond a lot over periods,” Shiro commented, looking back at
the three younger paladins from over his shoulder.
“What are periods?” Allura asked, tilting her head to a side. Lance recognized
that gesture from Hunk, and noticed that she didn’t use to do it before.
“Um… It’s a complicated thing,” Keith said, blushing.
“Every month the uterus prepares to have a baby, and when there’s no baby, it
angstly tears all the preparations it made and shoves them down. It’s painful
and there’s a lot of blood,” Lance summed up. Allura frowned, making a face of
disgust and incomprehension.
“Their bodies get ready to be pregnant every month? Without them telling them
so? That sucks!” she exclaimed as they reached the common room, almost running
to slump down on a sofa gracefully, despite being dressed in a training outfit
and sweating. “That sounds exhausting.”
“It is. My girlfriend wouldn’t move from the bed if it was a weekend,” Shiro
said, and Keith made a face that looked like he was gagging.
“My sister would watch Friends and cry while eating mint ice-cream,” Hunk
added.
“Flynn just goes out running for hours because she would punch someone if she
doesn’t, and Ariela eats everything that contains chocolate in the house and
watches conspiracy videos under fifty blankets,” Lance said with a smile.
“What?” Allura asked, all puzzled.
“Yeah, it’s a pretty awful thing. This one girl at my school ripped her
appendix during a test but didn’t say anything. When the teacher asked her why
she didn’t tell him she was feeling unwell, she said she had had worse cramps,”
Keith chimed it, making them all frown in fear.
“THAT GIRL RIPPED AN ORGAN! AND SHE SAID SHE HAD HAD WORSE?” Hunk would bet one
hundred dollars to Allura having paled when she heard that. “Now I know why
they chose you… Well, at least the girls,” she said, sweeping her last words
away with a dismissive gesture of her hand. Shiro looked at her with narrowed
eyes, and she seemed to catch herself. “And you survived one year as a Galra
prisoner.”
Pidge and Ariela crossed the door, and she turned towards them. “You have to go
through that every month?” she asked, all scandalized. The two female humans
shrugged, as Pidge popped a pill out of a tablet and went to fetch a glass of
water to swallow it down.
“Do you think I could keep one of those? Coran and I might be ably to copy
them, so that you don’t run out?” Hunk asked, and Ariela nodded, giving him two
pills.
Corn appeared through the door of the common room a minute later or so, as
Pidge was gulping down a good chug of water to push the huge pill down her
throat and the rest settled down in the sofas, Lance and Ariela quick to curl
around each other with a blanket which no one knew where they had gotten it
from.
“Okay, we’re all here,” Allura exclaimed, clapping her hands awkwardly, before
slowly sitting down in the middle of the circle that the crew had formed. “So,
we all know that we are much weaker than Zarkon’s empire, and that we don’t
have a plan… Any ideas?” she asked, looking around.
Pidge slowly rose her hand when she noticed that nobody wanted to start.
“I think we should spot abandoned colonies and war bases and look for any
abandoned data or technology that might be useful, instead of having to
infiltrate into dangerous bases without really knowing what we’re looking for,”
she proposed, and Allura smiled.
“Yes! It would help us get used to the layout of their buildings in case we
ever needed to escape from actual danger, we would know what to expect. The
problem with the info is the language though… Our text translator is not the
best...” Allura murmured the last part.
“Oh, don’t worry. I’ve been improving it,” Pidge shrugged off, before laying
back in her sofa, completely missing Allura’s surprised looks.
Another silence followed, until Lance cleared his throat, calling all attention
to him.
“If you are not going to say something serious...” Keith started, but Ariela
shushed him, to everyone’s surprise.
“He hasn’t even opened his mouth yet. You might want to chill a little bit,”
she told him, words clearly held back and calculated, letting him know how she
would have snapped if there were no consequences, but her harsh eyes quickly
sweetened when Lance slid an arm through her shoulders and pulled her closer.
“I was thinking that we should keep on the down low for a while, and focus on
mapping out planets that are still free from Galra control and seek alliances
with them. Even if they can’t come and fight with us, they can help other
planets defend themselves, or provide us with food, Intel, materials...” he
trailed off. He had been looking at Allura the whole time, but when she kept
silent his eyes fell to his left hand, playing with the hem of his t-shirt.
“Actually, that’s a marvellous idea,” Coran said cheerfully, gently nudging the
princess on the side, almost as if she needed a queue to speak.
“It really is, Lance. I’m…, kind of embarrassed I didn’t come up with it
myself,” she said, tucking a rebel lock of hair behind her ear. “I guess I was
too focused on the violent side of the war,” she admitted.
“Thank you,” Lance smiled at them for the compliment, and Ariela squeezed his
hand, making him turn and catch her eyes gleaming with pride.
“If we actually do that, we could stablish an allies network, giving them
contact with our other allies so they could also exchange resources between
themselves and even offer housing to those who lost their planet, or work as
recruiting site for independent rebels,” Hunk added, exitedly leaning forward.
Shiro chuckled.
“Jesus, guys. Leave some of the good ideas for the leader, okay? I need to look
good,” he joked, but it only made Hunk more excited, seeing him joking around
with them a little bit. The chuckles rose quickly between them, and died a
little bit hard.
The new silence broke with Allura sighing contently, tucking the same lock of
hair behind her ear again.
“I thought this wasn’t going to go so well for the first time we did it,” she
confessed, making Coran frown.
“It did go pretty well.”
“Yeah, why hadn’t we done this before?” Shiro asked, and now Allura looked
guiltily towards the floor, fists clenching on her lap.
“I admit that it had never crossed my mind the fact that you are actually part
of this too. I kept seeing you as…, tools,” she admitted with a pained sigh.
“But lately I’ve realized how very real and complex you are, and how you are my
equals, not my servants. Despite me being the one to think the plans, you
should still get a saying on this. After all, it’s you who are putting their
lives directly at stake all the time. Not me.”
Hunk was the first one to come out of the offended/surprised haze that the
princess’ confession had left the five former paladins in, and he immediately
smiled at her.
“It’s okay princess. You did well.”
****** . . . ******
It was hard enough to deal with your own anger. Now, imagine having to deal
with a wild bloodthirsty animal’s too. Ariela had a really good reason to be
just kicking that punching bag to dust, because two weeks had gone by since she
had turned into the paladin of the panther, and no progress had been made, she
would dare to say they had gone backwards. And, despite them hating each other,
the more time they spent together, the more this strange bond that kept them
connected became powerful. The panther’s being was like this unstoppable
fountain of… existance that was difficult to put apart from hers. Which anger
was whose? Who had had the sudden desire to sink teeth into tender flesh? Who
had laughed when Allura tripped with her own feet or accidentally hit herself
in the forehead with her staff? It was really hard to know.
The thing is that now she was twice as anger, anger squared, and she couldn’t
take it out on the panther itself so there she was, knuckles split open and
bleeding because she had been there for three hours now, hitting the thing with
her bare hand.
She roundhouse kicked the punching bag and noticed a yellow spot on the side
while turning, so the second she was on the ground, her eyes searched that
thing that hadn’t been there before, only to find an anxious looking Hunk.
“Hey,” he said, rubbing at his neck.
A few moments of silence followed, where Ariela tried to remember where she was
and which language she had to speak in, before she awkwardly raised her left
hand.
“Hey,” she replied.
More awkward silence.
“So...” Hunk started, balancing on the balls of his feet. “Allura said you had
a bad day with the panther, huh?” Ariela chuckled.
“Don’t even mention it,” she huffed out, as she dropped to pick up the towel
laying on the floor. Hunk let out a choked breath, and she looked at him with
worried eyes. “I meant it on the…, the friendly manner?”
Hunk stopped moving al together, not even breathing, and then he relaxed.
“Oh.”
Yeah, you should definitely never leave two people with social anxiety together
and alone.
“Were you looking for me for something in particular?” she asked. Hunk’s
eyebrows rose before he clapped his hands together and looked to the ceiling.
“Yeah, right. You skipped dinner, so I was wondering if you were hungry. I
saved you some,” he answered, pointing at the door, feeling himself relax as
Ariela slightly dropped her head to the side with a smile.
“Aww, that’s so cute,” she said, fingers starting to twist and untwist the
towel. “I’m sorry I didn’t have dinner with you… I just lost track of time,”
she said, looking at the floor.
“Don’t worry, it’s okay. It’s actually pretty normal for us to either skip
dinner or dine alone,” he said, motioning her to follow him with a gesture of
his head, and she immediately did. He saw how she turned with her mouth open to
ask something, but then didn't. “And yes, before you ask, Lance has skipped a
few meals before you got here.”
“I knew that asshole was lying to me,” she said with too much passion. They
walked in, somehow, a comfortable silence for a while. “Thanks for telling me.”
“You care about Lance, I care about Lance. We should stick together to care for
him, maybe even create a club,” Hunk joked, making her laugh.
“I don’t really know you, Hunk, but you seem the kind of person that has a
protection club for everyone they merely like,” she said, and Hunk’s ears got
red.
“Yeah, about that...”
****** . . . ******
Pidge woke up to an alarm blaring, her laptop falling from her knees, more
cramps and an aching neck.
“FUCK YOU!” she yelled at the ceiling as she quickly got up, already running
toward the door out of the room where she had decided to install her cave.
Once in the hallway she could hear more yelling; a confused Ariela asking what
was going on, a cranky Lance telling her to shut up, Shiro telling them to move
it and Keith just cursing out loud.
“We need you on the deck, paladins!” Allura announced through the comms, making
Pidge huff because how would they know if she didn’t tell them right?
By the time they all reached the control deck, the five needed paladins had
more or less woken up, and Ariela was still clinging to Lance’s shirt, probably
drooling on his shoulder. She only woke up when Allura palmed her on the back,
opening her mouth to speak.
“Paladins, a planet is being attacked, and we’re nearby. Suit up and go. Ariela
will stay with Coran and I to help us run the control deck,” the princess told
them, pushing Hunk towards the tubes that would take them directly to their
lions hangar.
Pidge started walking towards her own tube without even thinking it twice, but
a hand on her wrist stopped her.
“Wait,” Keith said, making them all turn. “I thought we had said we’d play it
cool, not jump into action all of the time.”
“Yes, we said that, but we didn’t search this, it’s just happening,” Lance
almost whispered, as if he wanted to keep the conversation private, fearing
Keith’s comment would reach the others.
“Yeah, Keith, he’s right. We’re not just gonna leave them alone when we could
help,” Hunk said, giving a step closer. Pidge yanked her hand away from Keith’s
grip, trying to make the statement that she was with her friends.
“The thing is that I don’t think we can actually help,” he said, sounding
breathless. Ariela frowned at him.
“What?”
“When we were practising two days ago we could barely form Voltron, and we
weren’t able to hold it together for more than five minutes, remember?
Everyone’s head was somewhere else. If we can’t form Voltron, how do you expect
to help?” he asked, looking around for an answer.
Shiro’s face slowly fell to the floor. Keith was right. It had been his fault;
he had been too tired to focus on anything else but the shadows he swore would
creep up on him while he was focusing on the screen in front of him. Even the
crappy bonding exercises with the team were difficult for him nowadays.
“We don’t need to form Voltron every time,” Lance quickly struck back.
“How big is the Galra troop?” Keith asked, turning to Allura and Coran, who
just stared back in return. “Would we be able to defeat them without forming
Voltron?”.
Coran looked at the floor.
“It’s pretty big. You wouldn’t be able to do it without Voltron,” he sighed
out. Allura looked at him as if he had betrayed her.
“See? We should stay,” Keith continued, pointing at the two aliens with an open
hand. Lance frowned and took a step forward.
“No. We should go out there and at least try to save them. The worst case we
end up returning without a win,” he stated, voice getting a little bit higher
every word, denoting that he was getting mad.
“No, Lance. Worst case one of us dies. It’s already happened more times than I
like,” Keith replied, taking a step forward too.
“Keith is right, Lance, we’re not in the right state to fight yet,” Shiro
butted in, making the blue paladin gape at him with something similar to
outrage. He then turned to his friends, and Pidge took in a sharp breath.
“I’m sorry, Lance, but he is actually right,” Hunk admitted lowly.
Oh, no. I see where this is going Gold sighed into his mind.
You might want to ease things a little bit, mine. Blue and Red are fighting.
Oh, yes the panther chuckled. This is going to get good.
“No! He’s not right! What happened, guys? You were willing to do this before he
stepped in our tails!”
“What are you saying?” Keith asked, getting closer.
“Guys,” Ariela said simply, slowly getting closer to the two paladins. Tension
was rising, and it was fast.
“I’m saying that they don’t always have to do what you say, it’s not like
you’re the leader of the team, even if you like acting like it,” Lance spat out
of gritted teeth.
“Do you have a problem with me, McClain?” Keith asked, chest puffing out and
Ariela rolled her eyes because this was just ridiculous. Testosterone.
“Can’t keep count, actually,” Lance hissed, finally getting into Keith’s space,
chests actually bumping with an awkward sound.
“Get off of me before I make you.”
“What? Am I making you uncomfortable?” Lance asked, shoving Keith backwards.
“Okay, Lance, that’s enough,” Ariela stated, reassuming her approach towards
them.
“Don’t fucking push me, man,” Keith complained, shoving Lance at his chest,
hard. The blue paladin stumbled backwards a few steps, looked up really angry,
and launched himself at the red paladin, fists in the air. There was a smacking
sound and a groan of pain, as Keith covered his right eye with his hand, before
jumping at Lance too.
There were screams, yelps, groans and grunts, the two teens hitting and kicking
as Ariela and Hunk tried to break the fight apart, as Pidge screamed at them to
stop and Shiro just…, stood there, dissociating a little bit. Lance got to
headbut Keith on the nose, making it bleed, and had painted his sking with red
lines all along his arms and neck. Keith, in return, had given Lance a bloody
lip and a few strikes on the head. Pissed, Lance punched him on the throat,
cutting off his breathing. Keith started gasping for air, eyes wild looking at
Lance and making Hunk actually back up in fear, before he leaped at Lance and
made him go down with a pained sound.
“STOP!” Hunk screamed, as Keith pinned Lance to the ground and started choking
him while the other boy kicked under him, nails digging on his face's skin
again as he tried to get the other paladin to let him go. Ariela ran to them,
trying to push Keith off, and actually kicking him on the back, but the man
only groaned, a deep spund that actually opened the mouth of her stomach in
fear. Lance was gasping with desperation now, weakly hitting at Keith's chest.
“LET HIM GO!” Ariela yelled, slapping Keith's neck hard. He actually turned to
her and snarled like a fucking animal, and Ariela responded like a fucking
animal too, droping to the floor and sinking her teeth into Keith's arm while
yanking at his hair. She was scared that not even that was going to make him
let Lance go, but by the time she was tasting blood on her mouth, Keith growled
again and let Lance's neck, who took in a desperate breath and scrambled away,
to push at Ariela and send her sliding through the floor. He was going to jump
to her but Shiro grabbed him by the back of his t-shirt and yanked him back.
Apparently, seeing their leader made Keith snap back to reality and realise
what he had just done, because his whole stance deflated and his lost their
feral energy.
“I’m going to kill you!” Lance muttered as he got up, ready to get the red
paladin again, but Ariela grabbed him by the hair and yanked him back just like
Shiro had done.
“YOU!” she started, voice dripping anger. Lance's eyes opened wide with
surprise and then fear. “WALK IT OFF!” she finished, pointing at the door, and
after a few seconds of communicating through looks, he turned around and
practically ran away, huffing curses under his breath.
“You just let him off the hook like that?” Keith asked half-heartedly, his
voice emotionless. He felt like a ragdooll, devoid of energy. On the other
hand, Ariela was only starting to fire up, because she turned to him and
grabbed him by the t-shirt, completely ignoring Shiro's command to let him go.
“You are no saint either. Ever since I got on this ship you’ve been nothing but
mean and condescending to Lance, so it was about time he snapped at your trashy
attitude,” she told him through gritted teeth.
“Ariela." Shiro's voice was a warning on its own, but the woman ignored him
again. She was breathing fast and her teet were showing, stained with Keith's
blood. She was openly challenging him, and he could either submit or fight
back, and a stupid part of his brain hated the former option.
“What happened? Did he need his girlfriend to defend him? Is he that weak?”
Keith spat out, and suddenly Ariela’s hand wasn’t gripping his t-shirt but his
neck, nails digging into his skin.
 “I just want you to know I’ve threatened people of death for less,” she
hissed, before pushing him away and letting go. And Keith wanted to laugh it
off, be really did… But the sight of the woman baring her teeth at him with his
own blood tainting them had kind of thrown him off.
***** Tell me your secrets and ask me your questions. Oh, let's go back to the
start *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Everything spun around him, and his vision was tunneling. Adrenaline and sleep
deprivation and almost being chocked to unconsciousness was a weird mix that he
didn't want to try ever again.
It wasn't his fault anyways; if Keith hadn't acted like a major jackass like he
always did they wouldn't have fought, but no, he had to boss everyone around,
he had to step in and say something... And of course, every time Keith spoke,
everyone listened to him. That lucky bastard.
Lance, please stop before you hurt yourself Blue insisted softly in his head
when he smashed his fist against a wall, pain surging up his hand. She always
spoke to him in a voice that was so like his mother's when he was frustrated,
and it always worked, but right now he couldn't focus on anything excepting his
own anger and exhaustion. He wanted to beat Keith up, but he also wanted to
curl up with Ariela and cry on her shoulder until he fell asleep.
“Fucking Keith… Bobo de mierda,” he murmured, walking furiously towards…
somewhere, until his legs gave out under him and he fell to the floor, hitting
his right cheek against it.
Lance, please, calm down Blue insisted, but she was slowly losing the calmness
in her voice.
Lance made a choked noise when he realized he suddenly couldn’t breathe.
“LANCE!” someone screamed behind him, but he could barely hear them over the
buzzing of his ears and the noises he was making. He couldn’t keep quiet,
whining, gasping and sobbing non-stop. That small part that was still rational
at the very end of his brain wanted to dig its own grave and die from
embarrassment, but he couldn’t help it, he was not on control of himself
anymore.
And then he felt a hand on his nape.
“Help me get him to his room,” a familiar voice said.
“Oh my God, Lance?”
“He’s okay, Shiro. He’ll be okay.”
“What’s wrong with him?!”
Lance’s vision was spotting, and although air was reaching his lungs, his blood
wasn’t picking up any oxygen. He immediately clung to something when someone
picked him up, an almost familiar warmth and indescriptable scent wrapping him.
He tried to tell them that he couldn't breathe, that his neck was burning.
“It’s okay, baby, it’s okay,” another voice was saying as they ran through
hallways. “You’re actually okay, you just have to clear your mind. Breathe with
me, si?" A door swished open and then he was let down in a bed, the person that
had been talking to him quickly crawling up to hug him tightly, placing his
head on the crook of their neck and lightly scratching his scalp as they sang a
lullaby. Lance clinged to them as soon as he could reach, needing to grasp
something or he would fall even deeper.
“What’s going on?”
“Shouldn’t we take him to a healing pod?”
“Unless healing pods help with panic attacks, then I don’t think so, Keith.”
“Arrorro mi niño, arrorro mi sol. Arrorro pedazo de mi corazón”.
“I don’t understand, why did he get like this?”
“Maybe because Keith acted like an asshole, or maybe because he amost FUCKING
CHOKED HIM!”
“Este nene lindo, se quiere dormir, y el pícaro sueño no quiere venir”
“Ariela?” Lance managed to rasp out, still gasping for air a little bit. His
vision was blurry, although it might be because of some tears now, but he could
make out the silhouette of the woman.
“Yes, darling?” she asked, hugging him closer.
“Make them go,” he told her, eyes digging in who he thought was Keith, before
hiding his face on the crook of her neck again. This scent actually was
familiar, just like her warmth and the shape of her body. Now that he could
slowly take it in, it was beginning to calm him.
“You already heard him. All of you, out. Now,” she said in her commanding
voice, and a few seconds later the door swished closed, leaving them in silence
only filled by Lance’s slowly normalizing breathing.
“Este nene lindo, que nació de noche, quiere que lo lleven a pasear en coche,”
she quickly began singing again.
With the comfort that she brought him and all of the exhaustion he had piled up
on his shoulders, he fell asleep almost immediately.
****** . . . ******
The common room was chaos, and Allura couldn't help but stare at Shiro,
expecting him to do something. She didn't have the slightest idea of what to
do, for never in her life had she seen such behavior in civilized species like
humans were. This..., pouncing at each other and the brawl had been so
animalistic that the princess had mistaken them for actual animals.
"I ALREADY SAID I WAS SORRY!" Keith exclaimed yet again, trying to get the
words to sink in Hunk, but Lance's best friend wasn't having it. Anger and a
protective instinct he didn't feel often was coursing through his veins and
feeding the fire on his chest. Plus, now that he saw Keith all banged up and
pressing a cotton ball to his nose, he didn't look that intimidating.
"YOU PUNCHED HIM AND THEN CHOKED HIM, KEITH! TELL ME IN WHICH UNIVERSE BEING
FUCKING SORRY EXCUSES YOU FROM THAT!" the yellow paladin replied, jabbing his
index finger in Keith's chest. "We know you like being edgy, a lone wolf,
etcetera, but this was just too much. Do you really think you can get away with
anything?"
"He jumped at me first!" Keith's voice climbed a pitch higher every time he had
to defend himself, and it was giving Allura a headache. "I reacted like that! I
couldn't think straight!"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Shiro screamed, stepping in between the two paladins. "Go to
separate corners of the room, or go to your bedrooms, I don't care. If you
don't stop fighting I'll actually lock you out," he added, words barely
understandable as he was chewing them.
Okay, Allura wanted Shiro to step in, but this was a little bit..., not useful
at all. Even Pidge seemed scared, curled up in a ball on one of the couches and
clutching one of the multiple pillows Lance had stolen from free bedrooms and
brought there for his matutine nap.
"Yelling will get us nowhere, Shiro. The best we can do is calm down and wait
for Lance and Ariela to come," Coran said, voice emotionless, as he put a hand
on the man's shoulder as a physical way to say Calm the fuck down or this won't
end well.
As if Coran's words had been her queue, the door swished open and Ariela
stepped in looking tired and ready to kill. Both of her shoulders were wet with
Lance's tears and there were also a few drops of Keith's blood staining the
pink sleeping shirt. The red paladin side-eyed her as he dropped down in one of
the couches, crossing his arms on top of his chest and deciding to ignore her.
"Where's Lance?" Pidge asked once the woman had sat down, legs crossed and arms
resting on the back of the sofa. She looked as if she was actively challenging
Keith.
"Lance is in his bedroom," she answered, calmly, already noticing how a few of
the crew members began to look confused.
"He isn't coming? We were going to discuss what the hell just happened," Shiro
asked, sitting down too.
"He isn't coming because he is too busy being unconscious. Turns out that
sleeping a maximum of four hours per night, fighting with a teammate, being
chocked, and then having a panic attack is really taxing for a teen," the woman
answered with irony, smiling crookedly.
"Sleeping four hours a night? But he's always sleeping in! Hunk has to go wake
him every morning," Allura said.
"Oh, yeah. About that..." Coran started, walking towards the couch where Ariela
was sitting and standing straight next to her. "Lance has been training on his
own every night for a month and a half now," the man told them, and a long
silence fell.
"What?" Hunk finally asked.
"He felt useless next to all of you, so he started training at night to improve
and be up to your level," Ariela answered, sighing. "He's also been learning
Altean, like, reading Altean," she added, and Allura's eyes shot open.
"Yes. He can already comprehend complex texts. As to the training, he’s been
straining himself a lot. I once found him injured and he was so exhausted he
hadn't even noticed," Coran continued.
"You said he feels useless?" Hunk asked.
"Well, can you really blame him? You guys never take him as part of the team,
his opinion doesn't matter, and you're always snapping at him." Ariela rubbed
her face. "He's been trying to get you to acknowledge him ever since I've come,
but all he gets is you guys in a bad mood," she finished, not looking at anyone
in particular.
"It's true," Pidge said (to everyone's surprise). "I know that we're all under
a lot of pressure and stress, but Lance seems to be the one that we take it out
on the most."
"He... His behavior is really taxing. He's always so filled with energy and...,
it is as if he sucked it from us," Allura tried to defend them.
"He doesn't take anything seriously either. We're fighting a war and it all
seems like a joke to him, so yeah, maybe he deserves a little bit of yelling,"
Keith butted in, and Shiro smacked him in the arm at the last part, noticing
how Ariela's face contorted in fury again.
"It is fascinating the way you talk about him as if you knew him. Well, or at
least tried to know him," the woman hissed, and Hunk made a gesture that caught
her attention and made her realize that losing it wasn't the way to fix this,
because she took in a deep breath to steady herself.
"Lance is a special person," Coran said, to fill the silence.
"He is a middle child of seven siblings, so yes, he requires a little bit more
attention that other people, but that's it. The only thing he really needs is
for you to let him know that you see him, that you at least care! Judging by
the way you barely talk about him it's almost as if he didn't exist."
"We don't..." Shiro started.
"The only times I've heard you directly address him have been when you were
scolding him for anything or telling him how he's doing something wrong. It's
never to congratulate him or help him," Ariela answered without missing a beat,
and she immediately regretted it. The way Shiro's face suddenly lost light let
her know that he was already sinking in guilt. Now that Hunk had told her how
he was doing, it was noticeable in every small gesture.
"But, we all know you'd never do it on purpose," Hunk jumped after her, jumping
from his seat to land next to their leader and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah, I'm sorry I..., put it like that," she apologized. "And..., you probably
didn’t realize, but Lance's jokes are never actually jokes, he's just trying to
make things seem better for everyone. Usually he's the one most aware of how
delicate a situation is."
"So he just jokes around to make us feel better and we just shoot him down all
the time?" Pidge asked. Ariela nodded. "This is just great."
"Don't get me wrong, I know that you're all under a lot of stress, and Lance is
as guilty as you are because he never spoke about anything with any of you.
It's just that..., he tends to bottle everything up, and it is easier to talk
it first with you. That and, he's not conscious right now but you are," the
woman finished that statement with a nervous chuckle.
"We should all talk to him, shouldn't we?" Allura asked.
"It would be the best, yes," Coran nodded with solemn air.
"I think that the real deal here that we should all talk about everything, at
least everything we can talk about," Ariela started, rubbing her palms
together. She seemed uncomfortable now. "I know that you don't know me, and it
is totally my fault because I haven't made myself available to you either, but
let me tell you... If you are going to be stuck with the same seven people
until you either win a war or die, the best thing is to have the best
relationship with them, and for that you have to trust them and talk about the
things that bother you."
Is it me or did she directly look at you when she said that? Black asked her
paladin, making him conclude that yes, Hunk had definitely talked with her
without telling him. Great, now he had to clean up a mess. Don't be mad, he is
taking care of you better than yourself after all she added with her angry mum
voice, and Shiro just ruffled on his seat.
"Do you know what? Today has been a crazy day, and we weren't going to get much
done anyways, so why don't we all take a break? No training, no studying no
nothing, just... Relax and set things clear," Allura proposed. She took a deep
breath and looked at Ariela. "Why don't you try to talk with the panther? The
rest will think of what we will tell Lance when he wakes up."
"I'll go think in my room," Pidge announced before running off.
****** . . . ******
When Lance woke up, he didn't remember anything, not even his name or where he
was. He only knew he would soon die of starvation and dehydration if he didn't
make a trip to the kitchen. But then, slowly, memories started to come back.
How are you feeling, baby? Blue asked with a soft voice, and that was when he
remembered everything. Fighting with Keith, punching him, Keith choking him,
Ariela being mad at him, and then breaking down crying and sobbing like a baby
in front of the whole team. If they didn't think he was useless before, they
would surely think that now.
"Can I curl up here and die?" Lance asked Blue as he made himself a human ball
and covered himself so that only his nose was not under the blanket.
Get Zarkon's filthy hands away from me and then we'll negotiate your death Blue
joked, and Lance closed his eyes to find himself sitting next to her at his
house.
He had discovered the way to alter the mindscape where they stopped being Lance
and Blue and started being them shortly after the wormhole incident. He had
been more than happy to have one place that only he and Blue could have and
share. Anyone could walk into her hangar, but no one could set foot into their
minds.
Also, Blue had... She appeared to him, he could see her this way, and she had
taken a liking to appearing human when she was with him. A tall, muscled, black
woman with the brightest smile ever, dressed in sport clothes and hair styled
in long blue dreadlocks that Lance would braid when they were just hanging out.
Right now, they were sitting in one of the couches of the living room facing
the sunset painted by his mother. There was a music playing from the kitchen,
probably some symphony that only Dominique could like.
"You are an amazing warrior, Lance. I just wish you'd believe me," she told
him, snaking an arm around his shoulders and resting her left hand on top of
his knee, cuddling next to him. She quickly rested her head on his shoulder. "I
know Keith doesn't mean to treat you like that. None of the paladins does. It's
just..."
"They're really stressed and I'm stressing," he interrupted her.
"They don't get you, darling." She caressed his cheek. "It's like the curse of
the blue paladin; you and I will always understand the rest, that's our job
after all, translating for them so that everyone can stay together. The
question is who translates for us," she murmured, making Lance frown.
"You lost me at the translation," he confessed, making Blue chuckle.
"We understand everyone, right? In our own, incomplete way, but we do." The
paladin nodded. "Well, we may understand everyone, but the rest doesn't, so we
have to help them understand. But if we are the only ones who can understand
the rest, who understands us?"
"Oh, yeah, I see where this is going," he murmured. "If we're the translators
then we have to translate for ourselves."
"Nice job there," she purred, hugging him closer. "You need to talk to them,
Lance. Apologize for being so hard to open yourself up to them and for punching
Keith, of course. Only you can speak for yourself, and if you don't do it,
things will end poorly."
"But what if I tell them what's going on and it is not such a big deal as I
thought, and they hate me even more?" he asked, turning to face her. "They
already think I'm a burden, I don't want them to despise me," he added.
"They don't think you are a burden and what you went through is a big deal,
baby. The only way to fix what others broke is talking about it, telling
everyone how you feel. Especially Keith and Shiro."
Lance?
Lance's eyes shot open. He was not at his house anymore, Blue was not there,
and he was not enjoying the warmth of his living room. He was curled up at his
bed with Shiro and Hunk staring at him like they would stare at a mad man.
"Who were you talking to, buddy?" Hunk asked him.
"Emm..." he cleared his throat, noticing how raspy his voice was. "I was
talking with Blue." He sat up, looking at them with still heavy eyelids. Shiro
let out a soft oh, before looking at the still open door. “Actually… I wanted
to talk to you too,” he added, kicking the covers away and looking at their
leader.
“Oh, no, no. You have to eat first, it’s almost four in the afternoon and you
haven’t taken a bite,” Hunk insisted. “You can talk with Shiro after you’ve
eaten.”
****** . . . ******
The leather book crashed against the wall with an ugly splat and then fell to
the floor as Pidge looked at it wanting blood… Or ink… Whatever it was books
would bleed if they were alive.
She had been working on this project for two months now, and she hadn't made a
single improvement. Hunk's hypothesis of how the communication system worked
had been quite helpful, but she needed facts, not beliefs.
“Fucking Alteans and fucking translator that only works on audio,” she said,
chewing her words as she went to pick up the book where she had been taking
notes.
The mice squeaked, and she turned to look at them. The four were in a cuddle
pile in the middle of the bundle her sweater was on top of a desk. They had
probably heard the commotion and decided to cheer on her, like they did every
time Pidge lost it.
“This is going to be harder than I thought, isn't it?” she asked no one in
specific, but the mice decided to answer, suddenly walking lazily out of her
sweater and going directly for a drawer in the desk she had settled down. “You
want me to open it?”
Another squeak indicated her that yes, that was what they wanted, so she opened
the drawer to find tons of blueprints. They seemed dusty, as if no one had used
them even before the Castle was attacked, but they were in good condition.
“Oh, now this is going somewhere,” she chuckled.
****** . . . ******
Humans are so complex was the panther's conclusion once Ariela finished telling
it what had happened that morning between Lance and Keith. I certainly recall
the previous red and blue paladin being rather passionate about the other, and
they did go at each other a lot but it wasn't in this way.
Ariela frowned, slowing down the rocking as she gripped her feet tighter. “In
which way was it?”
The panther chucked, rolling into its back.
Let's say it was really…, explicit
“Oh my God, the other paladins were fuck buddies?”
If you want to put it like that the panther said, purring as Ariela gasped. I
remember the red and blue lions talking about them all the time, they’d never
shut up. And after it said that, they both fell into a comfortable silence;
Ariela sitting on her designated corner next to the cleaning tools and the
panther lazily sprawled on the center of the hangar, probably beginning to
drift off.
It seemed to be in a good mood, so this was probably the best time to strike.
Ariela cleared her throat and tried to steady her heartbeat, ignoring the
anxiety that rose every time she had to start a vital conversation.
“See?” she asked without prompting, making the panther twist to look at her.
“We're bonding alright, you seem to like me enough to tell me stuff about your
past… Why won't you let me pilot you?”
The panther rolled back to its feet and stood, walking slowly and menacingly
towards her with a threatening growl coming from its mouth, but Ariela refused
to move or even blink.
I was not made to be piloted. The robot where I was trapped was made to be
piloted. I don't have to obey you. You can think that we're friends all you
want, but I'll still hate you because I'm here instead of home.
“Listen-” she took a deep breath “- I don't know how your life was before the
robot or how they got you in there, but the thing is that I don't care.”
The panther quirked its head. What did you just say?
“I don't care about your angsty past, just like you don't care about mine. All
I care about is being able to help my family and friends, to protect them,”
Ariela explained herself, slowly raising to her feet. “I will be here every
second until you finally stop being an ass and finally fight the war you were
meant to fight.”
You can stay here forever and rot with me.
“You rather have that instead of going out and fight? Sit here by yourself
instead of just being a part of something and move? Because that's pathetic,”
she exclaimed, voice climbing higher but getting drowned at the end by the
panther's roar.
MY OLD LIFE WAS RIPPED FROM ME BECAUSE SOMEONE ELSE'S MISTAKE!
“THEN STOP SULKING AND LIVE THIS NEW LIFE INSTEAD!”
They were face to face now, Ariela's nose almost touching the metal snout in
front of her and the growl that before was loud now was deafening.
Get out.
She took in a breath and balled her fists. “I won’t. Not until you at least
give me a reasonable motive to not let me pilot you. You let the previous
paladin!” she screamed.
And that’s when she felt it; in that part at the back of her brain where she
and the panther were connected, she felt something dark and mean slither in,
just in time as the panther sat down, its back facing Ariela.
I cared enough about your angsty past to check your memories. You are not
worthy of me, human. My previous paladin was nothing like you; she wouldn’t
have ran away screaming in any of the occasions you did. You are pitiful it
started, and although Ariela wasn’t exactly sure what it was referring to, she
had her suspicions. Those suspicious made her stomach suddenly drop to make her
feel nauseous.
“Stop,” she whispered.
Your life is pathetic. Rejected by your own clan? Unable to help those who took
you in when they shouldn’t have because they knew you were broken and useless?
In all the chances you were given, you took the wrong path.
“Stop talking.”
I don’t know why she thinks we’re compatible, and I don’t really care, because
I have nothing left in this miserable existence to fight for except my dignity,
and I certainly will not bet it on letting some weak and idiotic human who
knows nothing about fighting pilot me.
“Ariela, are you okay?”
The woman turned around to find princess Allura trotting towards her, worry
showing on her face. She had come in looking for Ariela and found her standing
totally tense, hyperventilating and completely white.
“Away,” was all she managed to say, losing her balance when Allura grabbed her
by the shoulder and stumbling to the side. “I want… Away,” she sobbed.
“What? What happened?” the princess asked, starting to become desperate as the
paladin failed to give her answers. “Can you walk?” Instead of answering,
Ariela fell to the floor when her knees gave out under her body. The woman
grabbed a fistful of her hair and started pulling as she sobbed. “Oh, dear.
You’re definitely awful,” Allura murmured, not quite knowing what to do except
taking her away, so she just…, picked her up and started running away from the
hangar, not quite sure of where to go.
****** . . . ******
Lance had been surprisingly quiet during his late lunch, barely aware of the
piercing looks both Hunk and Shiro were giving him; his mind was running wild,
trying to figure out the best way to apologize to Shiro for having snapped at
Keith that way, although that small part of himself that didn't hate Lance as
much as the rest of him did kept repeating that Shiro looked more worried about
his well being than mad about what he had done.
"Thanks for saving me a plate, Hunk," the blue paladin thanked as he set the
cutlery down. The dish didn't have even a tiny crumb left, and he downed his
third glass of water after saying those words. He definitely felt a little bit
better now.
"Don't thank me, Lance. It's the least I could do," Hunk told him with a warm
smile. "Well, I'll leave you alone so you can talk." And with that he left the
kitchen.
Shiro had sat down on one of the counters and watched him eat in silence the
whole time, arms crossed on top of his chest and quite tense, but now that they
were alone he gave the whole room a final scan before relaxing his shoulders,
joining his hands on his lap and biting his cheek as he thought of what he
should say.
"I wanted to apologize for my behaviour this morning. It wasn't okay to snap at
Keith like that," Lance blurted out, eyes nailing on the table in front of him
to avoid Shiro's probably-scowl.
He heard a long sigh, a tired one, and then a chair was being pulled next to
him for Shiro to sit down facing him. Lance slowly turned his face towards
their leader, discovering that he didn't look angry, but... Was that guilt?
"Ariela was really angry when she came back from your room," the man started.
"And she called us out on a few things that, now that we look at it, she was
completely right about."
Lance felt the blood drain from his face. "I'm so sorry she did that. Please
tell me she wasn't rude," he pleaded, and Shiro seemed to not know whether to
laugh or cry.
"Don't worry, Lance. Even if she had been rude I wouldn't be mad at you for
what she did." Lance shrugged.
"Only the aliens seem to like having her around, so I just thought that you'd
be mad at me for bringing her here, on top of the fact that she can’t even
pilot the panther."
"I'm not mad, so stop apologizing and listen to me for a few minutes, okay?"
Shiro told him, and it surprised him, but he nodded and willed his mouth shut.
"The thing is that she called us out on our behavior, how shitty we were being
to you. And she was totally right, we've been massive assholes."
There was a pause.
"Maybe a little bit,” Lance murmured.
Shiro threw him a look, but didn't argue with that. "The thing is that now
we're aware of that, so we will change the way we act with you, but I still
believe there's more to this problem." He leaned in after that, making Lance
feel as if he was being interrogated.
"There's more?" he asked with tiny voice, and Shiro nodded slowly.
"Hmh. We've been assholes to you, but I think that this problem kind of existed
before we even got ourselves into this universal-war thing." Lance bit his lip
and Shiro knew he had struck the nail on the head. "Would you like talking
about it with me?" he asked, and the blue paladin swallowed thickly.
"I don’t know, Shiro. It's not important," he said, trying to shrug off the
subject. He hadn't talked about this with anyone, not even Ariela. The only one
that new something had happened was Hunk, only because he had witnessed Lance
arriving to their dorm utterly destroyed.
"If it's bothering you, then it is important," Shiro deadpanned.
"Promise you won't get mad?"
"I promise."
"Okay." Lance took in a deep breath, held it in for a few seconds, and then let
it out, counting on his head. "Well, you are familiar with how you enter the
Garrison, right?" he asked Shiro with a laugh.
"You take internet courses and sit exams during your high school senior year
before entering. Yes, I'm familiar with it," he said calmly, crossing his legs
and leaning back for a long story.
"Yeah, well... I was awful at those. I'm not good at remembering specific
stuff, I can only go with concepts or explanations, and half of the combat
pilot protocol is unnecessarily hard slang and codes. I did good enough on the
simulator every time we went once a month, and asked good questions at the
seminars, but the tests... Man, I was awful."
Shiro's head shot up as if someone had hit him in the back.
"I remember! I gave a seminar you were at once," he exclaimed. "One of your
sisters had took you and was playing with her cellphone so Garrison called her
out and she just left," he said, suddenly recalling the whole situation. Man,
Lance had changed a lot in those two years that had gone by.
"Yeah, that was Ariela with long hair," Lance commented. "No one else wanted to
travel all the way to Arizona and she was on vacation, so she took me." Lance
smiled, remembering what had happened later in the hallways, but he shook the
memory away. "The thing is that when I got in the Garrison, everyone thought
that my father had bought the seat for me, because they knew how I did on the
exams, but not the rest."
"Oh, no."
"Oh, yes. During all of my first year all I would hear was how I didn't deserve
studying there from different teachers and some students that had barely made
the cut." He took another breath. "Then, in second year, Keith gets himself
kicked out and they ask me if I'd like to transfer to the combat pilot class. I
said yes, and it was a mistake."
"No it wasn't. You're a great fighter," Shiro cut him, tone completely serious.
Lance turned to him with surprise tainting his face. "You are."
"Well, the teachers didn't think that. My first year it was my dad buying my
place, the second was me being there only because Keith was stupid enough to
disrespect commander Garrison. And..." His hands were tingling as he recalled
just sitting there as Iverson lashed out at him. "It's not nice to not have
your accomplishments acknowledged by the rest for that long."
"I had no idea that they treated you like that," Shiro breathed out. Yes, there
was a really big quantity of assholish teachers at the Garrison (he didn't like
when people stared at him for too long, thinking that they would start laughing
about his eyes like Iverson used to do until his third year), but he certainly
hadn't been treated like crap.
"Not even Hunk knew. I mean, he knew something was up, but I never told him
what it was about. The thing is that I ended up hating Keith, or at least the
concept of him, because everyone would compare me to him and it was awful." He
swallowed again and grasped his hands to stop the shaking. "I know it's wrong
and that Keith doesn't deserve it, but then I met him and he was an asshole
too, so I can't help it."
"That's weird," Shiro hummed, making Lance turn to him yet again. "Keith told
me that he knew a Something McClain always talked shit about him back at the
Garrison, and when he met you he was sure you were that guy. That's why he
treated you like that. He also doesn't like people talking badly about him."
"I never talked badly about him. I just said that I didn't know why everyone
went crazy over him, multiple times. I did talk shit about the teachers all the
time, though," Lance rushed to answer, making Shiro laugh.
"Well, you were surrounded by eighteen-year-olds in need of some gossip while
you said that, so I guess it's more than probable that they twisted things
before they got to Keith."
Lance shrugged, sniffing a little bit. When had he started to cry? "I guess,"
he murmured.
A really long silence followed, in which Lance just tried to recompose himself,
thinking about happy things as he counted his breaths in and out and Shiro just
tried to remember more of Lance during the Garrison times. He had only been
active during their entrance year, because during first year he had been too
busy with the Kerberos mission and, although he had only given one seminar, he
had to be present in all of them. He did remember chit chat between teachers,
talking about how the immigrant son of a millionaire was going to try get in,
but they didn't think he'd be able to. He also remembered a few of the
questions Lance had asked, and they had honestly left him baffled; so many
bureaucratic questions and hypothetical situations about if they were to
encounter an alien civilization. He remembered one in particular: "With which
criteria would you measure your actions if you discovered a civilization? Has
the Garrison made a statement about if they would respect other forms of life?
And if they wouldn't, would you follow all of their orders?"
He also remembered Garrison calling off the seminary before he could even think
of an answer.
"I..." Lance started, snapping Shiro out of his memories. "I'm sorry I let
stupid people that are not even here interfere with the team. It's just that...
I can't get the thought that I don't deserve to be here and that you don't even
care out of my head," Lance said, a sob breaking the final sentence.
There was a silence that lasted the amount of time it took for the black
paladin’s brain to process that statement. "What?" Shiro's voice had been
almost a whisper, and he quickly sat up right, trying to look at the other
paladin, who was positively crying right now. "What would make you think that
we don't care about you?" he asked, putting what wanted to be a comforting hand
on Lance's back.
"I know it's just my stupid head telling me so, but..." he looked at Shiro,
debating with himself whether he should tell him or not. We've already started,
might as well finish it. "In general, no one listens to what I say, you're
always screaming at me and... When Keith was in the healing pod the world
stopped, but when I came out you were in a time measuring contest." The words
flowed out of his mouth like a cascade, and Shiro's heart dropped to the floor.
The memory of when Lance had taken that explosion... When he was the
responsible of taking him to the healing bay and got them captured instead,
having to watch how Lance was just tossed around while he was more than surely
bleeding internally. He remembered that minute the healing pod had calculated
the chances of survival, how he had thought of just killing himself because
Lance was going to die and he was the one to blame.
And now he was crying too.
"Lance... I was worried sick while you were on the healing pod," he started,
voice suddenly too low for his liking. "I couldn't stop thinking about how it
was my fault you were like that, how we were going to lose you."
"It was me the one who jumped in front of the explosion, Shiro. You didn't push
me in," Lance tried to reassure him.
"But I failed to protect you when the Galra came in." The sentence fell from
his lips as if it were a guillotine. "Everyone was really worried about you,
Lance. Hunk barely ate for the three days you were in, Pidge just rambled on
about how it was her fault you were not healing because she had preferred to
upgrade her lion than the healing pods... Coran kept saying that you had
sacrificed yourself for him and Keith... He thought it was his fault, because
he rushed away to help the Arusians and walked the rest of the team into a trap
instead of staying and saving us... We only stopped freaking out when we were
certain you would live, and it took its sweet time to happen." His skin was
itching now, and he fought the urge to start scratching his arm until it bled
with all he had. "We all care about you, Lance. And I'm sure the rest is also
sorry that we made you think the contrary."
"I'm sorry I'm so dependent on you guys," Lance answered, the shock from all
Shiro had just told him still on his face.
"It's okay."
"Can I hug you?" the blue paladin asked, already opening his arms slowly, and
Shiro just nodded. Suddenly he had a lap full of sobbing Lance, and he was
hugging him equally tight, trying not to listen to Black cooing in his mind.
"I promise I'll do my best to not make you feel all that stuff you just told
me," Shiro began, rubbing Lance's back slowly. "But you have to promise to talk
to us if you ever start feeling bad again, okay?"
"Who do you think you are? My mom? Ariela?" Lance joked and, for once, Shiro
just chuckled instead of getting mad, knowing why he did it. "I promise."
The man patted him on the back before breaking the hug and looking at him with
that Responsible Dad™ look.
“Listen. I know you just fought with Keith this morning, and that you have
never actually gotten along, so talking with him would probably be really hard…
But I think it’s the best you could do right now. You both thought the other
hated you, so coming clean about this will improve your relationship… A lot,”
he said, and Lance sighed.
“You really think he wants to talk to me?” he asked him, and Shiro made an
awkward face.
“He doesn’t, but he will listen if you ask him to.”
****** . . . ******
Allura turned around in a corner in the healing bay, relief drowning the
surprise that took her when she saw that one of the consulting rooms was
already being used, most certainly by Coran.
“Coran!” she called out. The man’s head popped from the door when she was
almost there, brow furrowing when he saw Ariela, still hyperventilating and
clutching to Allura’s dress, in her arms.
“What happened?” he asked, making them come in. The room was empty apart from
him, so he had probably just been working on cataloguing human biology, like he
liked to do with every new species they met.
Allura let the paladin down in the typical hospital bed, struggling to get the
woman to let go of her as she kept asking what was wrong.
“I don’t really know,” she finally decided to answer. “I went into the
panther’s hangar to tell her something and I found her like this.”
“She probably doing the same than Lance this morning. Humans seem to do it when
they are extremely upset. Maybe the panther said something to her that made her
feel bad,” Coran explained and Ariela pointed at him as she tried to hold her
breaths, so apparently that had been it. “I believe that you just have to
breathe, Ariela. Try to take deep breaths and then hold them.”
The woman gave her a thumb up with one hand and clutched Coran’s hand with the
other.
“Oh, that a strong grip you have there,” he joked, and Ariela tried to smile,
but she was too focused in normalizing her breathing.
“Do you think you could tell us what the panther said to make you this upset?”
Allura asked, leaning in and talking low, guessing that it was probably a
secret. Ariela cleared her throat before answering with raspy voice.
“No.”
The two Alteans exchanged a look. This wasn’t good. Definitely not good. Coran
mouthed “Cheer her up”.
“So… Ariela. I was actually looking for you to give you some good news,” she
said, frowning at the beginning but turning it into a smile when Ariela turned
to look at her with a frown. “Remember how I told you that the panther
paladin’s uniform had been burnt with its previous paladin?” Ariela nodded. “I
have the new uniform ready for whenever you want to use it. And I must say… It
is quiznacking great.”
****** . . . ******
It was hard to find Keith. Lance spent an hour or so wandering around the
Castle, hoping that he would run into the red paladin, when he hadn’t been able
to find him on his usual spots: training deck, his bedroom… Keith didn’t do
much, did he?
But then, as he turned in direction to the healing bay, he literally crashed
into him. He seemed to be running away from something, because they both went
flying to the floor and crashed painfully.
“Agh, crap,” Keith groaned as he crawled off Lance. “Oh, it’s you.” He didn’t
seem happy at all.
“Listen, I didn’t come here to pick up a fight,” he started.
“Must be my lucky day, because it seems like your favorite activity,” Keith
replied, sitting up on top of Lance thighs and looking down at him as he
crossed his arms on top of his chest. Lance's heart sank at the sight of
Keith's red eye and his swollen nose, eyes tracking the lines his nails had dug
with guilt.
“I’m gonna let it slide because I was an asshole this morning, but so were
you!” That seemed to take a little bit of edge off from the red paladin. “I
talked with Shiro, and we realized that there are a few misunderstandings
between us.”
Keith looked at him with a quirked eyebrow.
“You know how everyone in the Garrison is an asshole right?” he asked, and
Keith’s face softened considerably, as his arms fell from his chest.
“Yeah,” was all he managed to get out, remembering how he had been drowning
right in front of that people and they had only cared about his grades flailing
when his brother, only "actual" family, had died.
“Well, the short version is that they treated me like shit all the time because
I’m not eve worth the dust from your shoes and I ended up hating you for it,
instead of well directing my hatred and turning it into something productive.”
Lance finished the explanation with a smile, holding up his right hand. “We
began with our left foot, so I say that we just forget everything and start
from scratch. Hi, my name is Lance McClain,” he added, pushing his hand
forward.
“It’s not so easy to turn a bad relationship into water under the bridge,
Lance. You might not realize it but you hurt me too,” he said, gently pushing
Lance’s hand down to his chest.
“I know. We both must have hurt each other a lot without realizing, and I swear
we will sit down and talk about it the moment you get off me and I can get up,”
the blue paladin started, making Keith realize that he had been sitting in his
lap the whole time. He quickly scrambled to his feet, watching how Lance
gracefully got up in front of him. “But I would like to state that I am willing
to start over and do my best so that we can be friends.”
Keith let his eyes fall.
“The questions is… Are you?” Lance said, making him gulp.
Was he willing to forget all those dark and negative feelings Lance had made
him feel? The nameless guy he had fancied during his Garrison time, looking at
him when he passed by the hallway wishing he could just man up and talk to him,
had declared himself his rival and proceeded to make their relationship a tense
mess.
Come on, Keith Red murmured, mentally nudging him forward.
As an answer, Keith held his hand up and open for Lance to shake.
“Keith Kogane. Nice to meet you…”
“The name’s Lance,” he said with a smile that could have replaced the Sun.
****** . . . ******
There were a few knocks at her door, and Hunk and the woman frowned at the same
time. They surely weren’t expecting someone and were certain no one knew they
were here. Ariela and he had been extremely careful setting up false leads that
would take anyone with suspicions to Green’s hangar while sneaking tea and
sweets to the woman’s bedroom.
“Ariela? Are you there?” Shiro’s voice asked from the other side of the door.
The woman looked at the smuggled goods that were laying on top of a pretty
patterned blanket she had brought from Earth.
“What do we do?” she asked the yellow paladin in a whisper, who in response
just got up and dragged the whole blanket into the bathroom before running out
of it.
“Come in, Shiro,” Ariela said once Hunk was seated at the desk chair.
The door slid open and the team leader stepped in, squinting his eyes at Hunk
when he caught sight of him.
“I caught you red handed,” he murmured, and the boy understood why the man was
there.
“Please don’t be mad,” he pleaded, and that made Ariela understand.
“Oh, I know why you’re here now,” she said, standing up from the floor and
going to sit on top of the desk so that Shiro could take the bed. “Please,
sit,” she added, pointing at the made bed.
“Were you two gossiping about me?” he asked, his voice lacking the edge Hunk
had imagined it would have.
“Nope. We were gossiping about the panther,” the woman answered with an awkward
smile. Just as awkward as the silence that followed.
Shiro broke it by clearing his throat. “Listen, Ariela. I don’t know what Hunk
told you, but it’s not as bad as its seems,” he said, trying to sound as
confident as he wanted to feel. It didn’t work at all, because the woman only
seemed to worry further.
“Hunk only told me your story, Shiro, and that is more than enough,” she said,
joining both of her hands at her lap. “A year as prisoner of sadistic alien
beasts? I don’t know how you’re not climbing up the walls.” Her voice lowered
itself to almost a whisper at the last part.
“It’s because it’s not that bad. I’m fine.”
“Shiro,” Hunk said, and suddenly his nickname made the air heavier. “We both
know you’re not okay. Please let us help you,” he told him.
He was going to reassure them that he was indeed okay, but then his vision
flickered and he was not in Ariela’s bedroom anymore; he was in the arena,
covered in blood with the Galra soldiers cheering screams defeaning him and the
sight of Sendak walking towards him with an awful grin making him want to throw
up.
Are you really okay, Shiro? Black asked him, and then he saw her for the first
time. She appeared walking calmly next to him, seeming foreign to the chaotic
atmosphere. Dark skin, black shoulder-length hair and on reaching the fifties.
She was human.
Your memories keep coming back and you’re already at the breaking point, Shiro.
It is too much for you. She turned and eyed Sendak with disdain, who had gotten
considerably closer and was reaching out to grab him already. Do you think you
can deal with him alone again?.
“NO!” he screamed, shoving hard and jumping back, only to crash against the
wall of Ariela’s bed, as the other two paladins eyed him with horror. He had a
sheen of cold sweat over all of his body and his hands were trembling.
“It’s okay, you’re back,” Ariela said, getting down from the desk and oh-so-
slowly getting closer to him. “Was it a flashback?” she asked, when she finally
reached the bed, noticing that Shiro wasn’t making any attempt to get away.
“No. It was Black pushing her boundaries,” he answered in a growl, but judging
by the look in Ariela’s eyes she wasn’t buying it. He sighed.
“There wouldn’t be anything wrong with letting us help you, Shiro,” Hunk said,
leaning in closer.
“I don’t want your help, okay? I don’t need it! It’s not worth it,” he snapped,
crawling out of the bed and trying to go for the door, but Ariela got in his
way, a gentle hand on his shoulder.
“Why isn’t it worth it?” she asked. Her eyes had a glint he had seen before in
Lance; it meant that she had picked up on something useful or enlightening.
“Just drop it,” he breathed out, before walking around her and getting out of
the room.
She turned to look at Hunk. “So… That went well.”
****** . . . ******
Allura had talked with Coran for a long time, trying to come up with the right
strategy and words for Lance, and she had come out of the consulting room with
a really sketchy outline of something a five-year-old would call a plan, so she
could only help that Lance was in a good mood after waking up.
Thankfully, he was, weirdly enough.
She found Lance sitting in the common room, sharing a sofa with Keith and
passionately discussing something about asshole teachers and this one blonde
girl that used to sit behind Keith and apparently was a massive bitch. They
both had smiles plastered in their faces, Keith widely gesticulating with his
hands and Lance bouncing up and down on his seat from time to time.
“I’m glad to see you two made up,” she said, tone sincere, making the two
paladins turn towards her.
“Turns out there were many misunderstandings and we just needed to sit down and
talk,” Keith told her, a faint blush climbing up and smiling fading away a
little bit.
“Apparently, Keith used to think that I hated him and talked shit about him in
the Garrison because this one girl I refused to date got mad and talked shit
about me,” Lance explained, making Allura frown.
“Humans are too complex for my taste, you know?” she asked, sitting down in the
sofa in front of them and looking at Keith. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but do you
think I could talk alone with Lance for a while?” she asked him, and Keith just
nodded, got up and left, squeezing Lance’s shoulder on his way out and making
the teens face turn into one of surprise.
“Wow,” he said the instant the door slid shut.
“I’m really happy that you two worked things out,” Allura smiled at him. “I
would be even happier if we could do it too,” she added, lowering her face.
Lance nodded, sitting up straighter. “I know I used to flirt with you like… all
the time, and looking back on it, it was awful from me and I’m sorry, because
you clearly didn’t like it.” He took in a deep breath. “It’s just that flirting
is my way of breaking the ice, and I kept receiving this vibe of… hate from
you,” he chuckled.
Allura’s ears perked up at that, just like her face. “What? No. I don’t hate
you, Lance, of course I don’t,” she quickly said. “It’s just… I don’t have
exactly a good relationship with flirting,” she admitted with a groan.
“Why’s that?” Lance was frowning, utterly confused. For him and everyone he
knew, flirting was a quick way to know a possible partner and maybe friend, a
funny and carefree way to break the ice.
“Oh, well.” Allura grabbed her hair and started (awfully) braiding it. “You
know that in Altea you can marry into royalty, right? So, every guy I met would
start flirting with me ever since I turned… What would it be in human years?
Fifteen. No one ever did it because they were interested in me, they always did
it because they were interested in the crown,” she explained herself.
“Okay, that’s not nice,” Lance mumbled. “So, every time I flirted with you I
reminded you of that?” he asked, and the princess stopped.
“My moodiness at you was kind of an automatized response to the flirting. I
never considered that you could be flirting for other motive than wanting to
marry and become a prince.”
Lance laughed. “Lol. Listen, Allura. Don’t get me wrong, I would make an
amazing prince and you are amazing, but the last thought I ever had on my mind
while flirting with you was marrying for your crown. I mean, what the fuck?” he
was still laughing as he talked, making Allura smile.
“Thanks, Lance. I’m sorry I was so mean to you because of that. I also admit
that the joking around all the time kind of made me mad too. I know I take this
war too seriously because is the only thing there for me,” she breathed out,
getting surprised when Lance put one of his hands on top of hers.
“Now we’re here for you too, princess.” He shut up after that, staring at his
hand, now knowing if he should pull it away or leave it there. He decided on
the later when Allura gave him a small smile and put her other hand on top of
his. “You should spend more time with us. We might be a mess, but I’m sure you
would enjoy wiping the training deck with our bodies like Coran swore you could
do,” he chuckled, and Allura gave him an evil grin. “It won’t be hard beating
me though, I’m a complete mess.”
“Aww, don’t be so hard on yourself. I’m sure you just haven’t found your style.
Ever since I taught dizhitsu to Ariela she’s been fighting like a Southern
Warrior. She’s managed to defeat me a couple of times… Although I might have
let her…,” she added with a chuckle.
“Yeah, but you’re too busy teaching Ariela. I would only be an obstacle,” he
mumbled. Allura’s eyes opened wide.
“I’m sure Coran wouldn’t mind tutoring you on the afternoons. It would take a
little bit of your free time, but it would help you improve.” He smiled at her
and mouthed a thank you. “I could help you improve your Altean too. It would
also be good for me, because you could help me update the information of the
Castle.”
“Really?” Lance asked; he was beaming.
“Yeah! Why not? Plus, it will help us get closer, and I think we need to do
that.”
****** . . . ******
Doing secret projects in the Castle was a nightmare, a borderline impossible
mission, and Pidge hated herself for keeping trying. But hey, she had already
gotten to the point where spite was her fuel, and everyone knows that spite is
the best fuel.
Thank God she had the mice on her side. The little Altean rodents had sworn to
her that they wouldn’t tell Allura about what she was doing (with signs of
course). Besides, it wasn’t like she was doing something wrong, right? There
was no need for Allura to know about her moves if she was just trying to make
an improvement in the Castle.
“According to this blueprints, one of the main cable boxes is somewhere on the
healing bay,” she murmured through the pencil she had on her mouth, hearing
squeaks as an answer. “I hope this isn’t like that fiasco on the storage bay,”
she quickly added, remembering that whole week she had spent looking for that
damn cable box and she hadn’t been able to find it.
She was going to walk past the door of one of the many consulting rooms, but
then she heard a voice. She stopped walking, wondering why there was people
here, if there hadn’t been any injuries lately.
“It’s stopped spreading lately, but they surely aren’t going away,” Keith
moaned in frustration. Pidge frowned, deciding that yes, she had to listen to
this. “I don’t know what to do. Sometimes the get a little bigger.”
“I’ve run all the tests I could on the blood sample I took from you. It doesn’t
match any disease that we have registered on the Castle, and we have almost
every known disease in the known universe,” Coran answered, closing with a
tired sigh.
“What if it isn’t a disease? What if it’s something else?” Suddenly, Keith’s
voice was too close to the door.
Oh, crap. Pidge pushed herself away from the wall and sprinted into another of
the consulting rooms, her door closing just in time the other opened.
“I can’t imagine what it could be if it isn’t a disease, Keith, but I’ll try to
find out,” she heard Coran say, and then two sets of footsteps going in
separate ways.
“What the fuck was that?” she asked the mice, and they just shook their heads
as an answer.
****** . . . ******
Allura and he talked for almost two hours. The schedule planning talk had
turned into an Earth culture class after half an hour, and Lance at some point
had ended up braiding Allura’s hair while she talked about how she missed
Altea. She also mentioned that she had liked him a lot while they were at
Earth, he had seemed so at peace, and that she had wished they could be
friends. That statement ended up in Lance teaching her a secret handshake, a
quick flirting lesson, and the promise that he, Ariela and Allura would have a
slumber party someday soon.
Coran had walked in then, saying that meal time was nearing, and that if he
didn’t get Hunk in the kitchen, he would cook dinner himself.
So now Lance was in a quest of finding Hunk, the wellbeing of their stomachs at
stake.
And, oh boy, did he found him.
He entered the training deck only to find two paladins beating the crap of the
Gladiator. Hunk had half of his paladin suit on and would shoot his bayard
whenever he could, running away or smashing the Gladiator in the head when it
got too close. And the other paladin… He could only assume it was Ariela.
The whole suit was black. It seemed lighter and it obviously allowed more
movement. The helmet’s visor was down and it was completely black, adding even
more to the whole badass aura the suit gave off. Ariela’s bayard was black and
white staff, probably taller than her, but he just couldn’t tell because she
wouldn’t stay fucking still.
“Jesus Christ!” he exclaimed with an exited laugh after Hunk shot one of the
Gladiator’s arm off when Ariela distracted him by jumping over him and smashing
his head with the staff.
The two paladins made the mistake of turning to look at him in surprise, and
the robot made quick work of them now that they weren’t paying attention.
Ariela eneded up sprawled on top of Hunk, bayards far away from them and
deactivated.
“End training sequence,” Lance said with the clearest voice he could manage,
and the Gladiator went back to wherever it was kept and auto repaired. “You
guys were amazing! Which level was it?” he asked as he jogged over to the other
paladins and offered Ariela a hand to help her get up.
The visor went up to reveal Ariela’s flushed and sweaty face.
“That was only level four,” she groaned.
“But I’ve only reached level two! It was amazing!” Hunk laughed excited. “I’d
never trained so well with anyone!” he admitted.
“That’s because it’s a good combination, long and short-range fighters,” Lance
stated, once they were both up. “So, I talked with Shiro, Keith and Allura,” he
murmured.
“And? How did it go?” Ariela asked, starting to take the plaques of the armor
off.
“It went great with the three of them. I’ll give you the details later, but
it’s been amazing,” he admitted.
“I’m glad you feel better, buddy,” Hunk said, ruffling Lance’s hair.
“Yeah, me too,” he murmured.
“I knew you could do it, bro.” Lance nodded, sliding an arm through Ariela’s
shoulders and Hunk’s waist.
“The truth is that I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you two… and
Coran.” He sighed, ignoring the puzzled looks. “You’ve always been there for
me, even if I was being a jerk, and you called me out on my shit. I’m sorry I
never truly opened up to you even though I would trust you with my life,” he
finished, looking at both of them.
“Aww, Lancey Lance, that’s so cute,” Ariela whined. “Here comes the sweaty
hug!”
“Group hug! Group hug! Group hug!”
****** . . . ******
“Crew, could I have your attention for a minute?” Coran asked, as he got up.
The chatting ceased over the dining table as they all turned to look at him,
curious of the man’s solemn expression and the cup he was holding in his hand.
“Go ahead, Coran,” Allura motioned him, and he smiled at her.
“Today has been an important day for all of us. There is still a lot of work to
do, but we’re slowly coming together as a family instead of a group of people
put together by a cruel present,” he said. “There will be more obstacles ahead,
of course, but I’m sure we will overcome them together, just like we did
today.”
Ariela grabbed Lance’s hand on top of the table as he shot a smile to Shiro.
“The previous paladins… They had problems like this too. And despite being so
similar to them, you managed to solve them better than they did. That’s why I
think you will be able to put an end to the war they failed to stop. You just
got to keep coming together and trusting each other.” Coran finished, raising
his glass. “To the new paladins of Voltron,” he said with a smile.
Pidge stood up on her chair, holding a glass of purple juice.
“To the crew of the Castle of Lions!”
“Cheers!” they all exclaimed, before drinking.
****** . . . ******
If there was something a predator didn’t like, was being cornered and
overpowered, so the panther was quite in a bad mood when the five hunters
locked him in the middle of a circle in the mindscape, growls flowing from
their mouths as they circled him, muscles tense.
“You are unbelievable,” Blue muttered. “You know this paladin is as good as the
former, and yet you prefer to keep throwing tantrums instead of serving your
purpose!” She lashed at him, white teeth closing inches away from his face, and
he made a show of baring his.
“You know my motives.”
“Of course I know them,” Gold butted in, breaking the circle in favor of
walking into it to push him around. “You’re selfish and you don’t want to get
hurt again.”
“COWARD!” Red roared, slashing the ground with her claws.
“You must fight with us, panther!” Green exclaimed, childish insistence
staining her voice.
Black stopped her pacing and sat down in front of him, looking like a queen.
“Pay attention to me, panther…” she started, blinking slowly. “I know that
you’re afraid this paladin will just use you like the previous one to only
leave you with her open wounds reflected on you. But Ariela is not Heyra. She
is not as violent.”
He pounced at her, making her retreat.
“You haven’t seen inside her mind, Black. There’s darkness to that light
exterior of hers,” he spat through gritted teeth. “You can’t assure me she
won’t treat me like they used to treat us without knowing her.”
“Ariela would never do that!” Blue exclaimed outraged. “Lance knows her, and if
he says she is good the she is good.”
“Well, there are things that your pretty pilot doesn’t know, translator,” he
said in a mocking tone.
That’s enough a familiar voice boomed, making the six of them shut up
immediately. I have personally chosen her, panther. You can’t choose here, so
you better accept your rightful pilot or prepare to cease existing the second I
take over. Understood?”
Silence.
“Understood?” the voice repeated.
“Yes,” the panther whispered, lowering his head. “I understand.”
Chapter End Notes
     Hell, this one was HARD to write. I'm still not completely happy with
     the result, but whatever.
     Yes, Keith was running away from the healing bay because he didn't
     want Allura to see him there. I wonder why that is...
     Anywyas, I was listening to the song "Young blood" by Bea Miller
     while I thought of Coran giving that small speech.
     Hope you liked it. Don't forget to leave kudos and Comments ;)
***** Well you're a hot mess and I'm falling for you. *****
Chapter Summary
     Keith is so gay.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Keith wasn’t sure his brain had managed to process all the changes that had
taken place ever since his fight with Lance and the day they all spoke with him
for hours. This new reality felt weird for him, even though it ran as smoothly
as it could; it was almost as if he were watching everything from inside a
bubble. The subject had solidified the next morning, when Allura asked them all
to come and have breakfast together so that they could speak about all the
issues as a team. It was short, as they just repeated stuff they had said the
day before, but more light-heartedly this time. Coran had also told them that
he would be training privately with Lance while they trained their physical
ability to help him adjust, and Allura offered all of them free Altean classes.
Lance, Ariela and Pidge signed up, while the rest settled for having their
afternoons totally free.
Don’t get him wrong, that chat wasn’t magical. It didn’t come natural to them
noticing when Lance was joking to relieve tension and when it was actual
joking, but the Blue paladin learnt to cut short the joking and if he did drop
a pun or two, he backed them up with his actual opinion on the subject. He also
flirted less with Allura, but the times he did it as a reflex, she didn’t seem
to get pissed at him; now that she knew he did it because he felt awkward but
comfortable enough with her, it was endearing. She actually started flirting
back after a week, surprising all of them.
Aside from that, after that day, the panther had suddenly decided that Ariela
was worthy to pilot it. The woman said that the panther had sounded like he was
being held at gunpoint to do it, but it still let her. This brought suspicion,
but they all took it thankfully, they couldn’t be picky after all.
Allura, Lance, Shiro and Keith divided the chore of teaching the new paladin
the controls on the cockpit, just like they had done with the two non-pilots in
their time. And, surprisingly, Keith found out that she wasn’t that much of an
asshole as he used to think. At the beginning it was super awkward and they
would barely talk to each other, but then she started making sex jokes and he
started laughing at them. Before he knew it, she had invited him to one of the
weekly afternoon tea parties she held with Hunk just to gossip and get to know
each other. He helped them smuggle the goods to the woman’s bedroom (which was
amazingly decorated with fairy lights and small pots of plants and /so many
rocks/) and drank his tea in silence, letting the other two do the talking.
They never complained, and conformed with a nod or shake of his head when they
were asking for opinion. It was definitely nice.
After lunch they had a free period for them to do as they pleased before the
afternoon activities began. Pidge would always banish from this plane of
existence after training, and Shiro was usually found napping around Coran, who
talked to himself non-stop as he did random things in the castle. Allura had
taken up the habit of napping too, she just preferred to do it on her own
bedroom, and Hunk went into the kitchen to do God knows why, because he didn’t
cook all the time. Coran had put the training deck under lock for that period
of time, so Keith started hanging out with Lance and Ariela in the lounge so he
wouldn’t get bored.
That was when things started going downfall.
You couldn’t really blame him; if he already thought Lance was hot like the Sun
at the Garrison, imagine how he started feeling after getting to know the
calmer part of him. He knew he was gone and crushing hard when he realised that
he had spent forty minutes just watching Lance read with the most adorable
pouts, gasping from time to time.
He was so worried about this new problem (because crushing on straight-fuckboy
Lance was definitely not good), that he had almost completely forgotten about
the old one. That was, at least, until Coran came running to the lounge,
dragging the rest of the team behind him. He looked excited.
“Remember that through medical examination I put all of you through two weeks
ago?” he asked, pushing Pidge into the sofa and opening a hologram that showed
two different line graphs
/Oh, yeah/ Keith thought. /That medical examination you asked to cover up for
my little problem/.
“Please don’t tell me someone has cancer,” Hunk pleaded. Coran dismissed his
fears with a gesture of his hand, turning to point at the two graphs in the
screen.
“Don’t worry Hunk, these are nothing but good news.” The royal advisor took in
a deep breath and looked at all of them before starting. “I was comparing the
latest scans with the ones the ship got from you after different occasions and
I found out that your body has been changing… Quite rapidly.”
Six pairs of eyes stared at him with confusion.
“Are we going through some space puberty?” Lance asked, sounding genuinely
confused. Coran shook his head.
“No. They haven’t actually changed, but your rhythms have. The power of all
your body has been increased at least ten times. You heal faster, you learn
faster, you have much more empathic powers, you are stronger, faster and you
can storage so much more information in your brains than you used to be able
to!”
Hunk, Allura and Ariela quirked their heads to the side and stared at the man.
“So we’re turning into super humans, like Captain America?” the yellow paladin
asked, gaining a chuckle from his friends.
“I don’t know that Captain, but you could say that you’re turning into super
humans, yes!” he nodded excitedly.
“Wait.” Shiro didn’t like this, it was just too good to be true. Although,
yeah, he felt a little better and he was resting (not sleeping, he couldn’t
actually do more than nod off during his so called naps), he had been running
on only five nights of sleep for the last three days. “Our bodies are working a
lot faster and better, great. But how does it affect them?”
“That’s the best part! It isn’t affecting you in any negative way. You’re even
starting to age slower. Your cells are stronger and more durable. I wouldn’t be
surprised if you had tougher skin right now.”
An intense silence followed, as the six paladins focused on recalling things
that wouldn’t be normal for them before.
“I knew I had picked up on that fighting style way too easily! You said that it
took you three years to dominate the five styles of /acotera/, and I’ve been
learning for only a month and already dominated one?” Keith turned to look at
Lance. What the fuck did he said he had just learnt?
“It is true, but you have to think that I had absolutely no contact with this
fighting style, and it was also the opposite of what I was taught in the North.
It took at least two years of ridding me of those customs and taking in the
Western style. You, on the other hand, said that it was pretty much kung fu and
that you had practiced it for two years” Coran explained.
“Still pretty impressive, though,” Allura butted in, smiling at the blue
paladin. “Also, the three of you are already fluent in Altean, Hunk has the
same knowledge in Altean technology as me, and Keith has been getting better at
team training. This is great.”
“This…, does explain much,” Shiro commented, nodding in acceptance.
“I don’t know guys. Doesn’t it worry you? Not knowing why this is happening?”
Pidge asked, she looked at Hunk and then at Coran. “Couldn’t we spend some time
trying to figure out what is causing this improvement?” she asked.
Coran started caressing his moustache and Hunk cupped his chin. “Now that you
mention it, I’m worried about the effects that isolation from whatever is
causing these effects on us could have,” the paladin muttered. He turned to
Allura. “Do you think we could take a few days off? This is kind of an
important thing to figure out.”
“I’ve actually been thinking of taking one of this /weekends/ you talk about so
much. Taking that day off to talk about stuff and just relax really helped
improve your bond as a team and your health, so I thought about making it a
casual thing. Plus, you’re all lacking vitamin D, and that comes from a sun, if
I’m not wrong. We could stop at a planet, breathe some fresh air…”
Now she was being stared at by six pairs of confused eyes.
“Is she joking or…?” Lance whispered into Keith’s ear, clearly pretending to
tease Allura, but making the red paladin freeze on the spot when he felt the
hot breath against his skin. Oh, no, he was dead.
Allura frowned and squinted at Lance. “If you don’t want to that’s fine by me,”
she said, dropping her hands on her lap, causing a quick chorus of /No, no no/
that made her smile. “You can take the day off, I’ll find some nice place to
land the Castle.”
“I am going to throw the best slumber party of this century. Coran!” Lance
screamed, scaring the advisor. “Do we have alcohol?”
“I believe we have something similar to your alcohol, yes.” Lance’s face
transfigured into something evil.
“Lance, Pidge is still a minor,” Shiro murmured, but the girl snorted.
“If you think I have never gotten drunk before you’re incredibly gullible,” she
laughed.
“KATIE!” he exclaimed, face starting to redden.
“Oh, come on! I know you used to sneak out of the Garrison to smoke pot with
Matt sometimes,” she said nonchalantly.
“WHAT?” Lance screamed this time, as Ariela started to choke in laughter.
“Yeah, that’s true,” Keith smiled, calling Lance’s attention. That bright smile
startled him and compelled him to spill out more information. “He took me with
them when we were in first year. He starts crabing pineapple and starts to show
off how quickly he can calculate the force of gravity of any planet.” Lance
chuckled and pointed at Ariela.
“She can derive any function you give her but forgets how geometrical forms are
called. She once called a rectangle “Sponge Bob” while drunk,” he told him, and
Keith actually chuckled like Lance had before.
“If you’re done talking shit about us, we could start planning everything,”
Ariela said, arms crossed and pissed off at them.
****** ... ******
Pidge, Hunk and Coran ran away the second it was stated that yes, they were
going to take a weekend off and they could do as the pleased, the three of them
looking giddy to discover this miraculous thing that had improved their lives.
The other four crew members were left behind as a sacrifice to Lance, the God
of slumber parties.
Lance was a social butterfly all of his life, just like the rest of his family.
Friends and family gatherings weren’t something that was handled with little
care, and Lance had inherited his grandmother’s perfectionist eye for planning.
He had to do a stock checking, item recollecting and mapping of the grounds
before starting to do the schedule.
Shiro and Keith were quite surprised, while Ariela just did as Lance ordered,
giving him the information he asked for without batting an eyelash.
“Do you think it is really necessary for us to make a schedule for a slumber
party?” Shiro dared to ask, and Lance just lifted his head from the purple
notebook he had brought from his room to write everything into.
“You didn’t just ask that,” Ariela murmured with a chuckle.
“I’m sorry, Shiro. Do you want what could be out perfect bonding night to be
absolute boring trash or do you want to have the best fun you ever had in your
life?” Lance asked, sounding like an outraged cheerleader on a teen movie.
Keith leaned in to whisper: “Say number two” in his ear.
“Number two,” he nodded obediently. Lance gave an appreciative hum and turned
his eyes back to the notebook. Now that he didn’t have Lance’s murderous eyes
on him, Shiro allowed himself to yawn and stretch a little, catching Ariela’s
eyes.
“We should nap for a while, so that we’re well rested for tonight’s party.
Don’t you think so?” the woman asked, and Lance’s eyes glinted. “We could even
make a cuddle-pile.”
“YES! WE SHOULD DO THAT!” Lance screamed, excited.”I haven’t been in a cuddle-
pile since your birthday last year.” The boy turned to look at Shiro with
pleading eyes. “Can we? Please, please, pleaseeeeee.”
“Um...” Shiro gulped. Cuddling? With Lance, his sister and Keith?
“We should do it,” Keith butted in with monotonous voice, making the black
paladin frown. /The fuck? Keith wants to cuddle?/ he thought. The red paladin
turned to Shiro with intense eyes.
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt?”
Lance started jumping up and down, not looking like someone who wanted to nap.
“We have to get lots of blankets and pillows, and Ariela can bring her phone
and play one of her relaxing playlists!”
“Why is Lance so excited?” Allura asked with a frown. Apparently, she had
already landed the castle. Ariela got up and smiled at her.
“We’re all going to nap together in a cuddle-pit,” she explained, before
running to take Allura’s hand and drag her out of the lounge again. “First, we
have to raid empty bedrooms.”
****** ... ******
They raided the empty bedrooms so hard that the lounge’s floor was unseeable.
It was covered in pillows and soft blankets. Allura had showed them how to
summon the control panel in every room to dim the lights, and they had also
discovered that the castle could connect with Bluetooth, so they were all
currently laying down in the pillow-pit, listening to “Was there nothing?” by
Ásgeir. Shiro, who had been the one to resist the most, was snoring softly into
Keith’s ear. The man’s arms were worryingly tight around him, but he noticed
that Shiro didn’t even stir; he knew about their leader’s nightmares (had heard
a few of them coming back from the training room well into the morning), so he
was amazed by that and didn’t even try to remove Shiro’s arm.
Plus, he had a bigger problem to worry about. He was crushing on Lance? Lance,
who was currently sleeping with his chin tucked on top of his head and his left
hand tangled on his hair. He had started facing the other way, hugging Ariela
close to him and maybe purposefully leaving a small space between him and the
red paladin, but once he fell asleep, he started moving until they ended up
like this. Not that Keith was complaining though, that had been why he had
insisted Shiro on agreeing. If he did it alone the rest might suspect.
No, he was not complaining. He was just panicking. He had let himself crush in
Lance? Lance, the straight and flirty guy who had (who Keith was certain was)
his girlfriend on board? Because, come on, close family friend his balls, those
two were too close and comfortable with physical contact to be soul siblings.
And, god, was he jealous of her. Ariela was a great gal and all, but he wanted
to be the one to just walk in a room to sit into Lance’s lap and whisper into
his ear about God knows what. He couldn’t help but wonder what it’d be like to
have someone like that instead of some nameless guy shoving him against a wall
in a bar. Yes, he sucked with feelings, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have
them.
Lance hummed and squirmed a little bit, putting his left leg on top of Keith’s,
his foot trapped between Shiro’s and Keith’s legs. Keith let go of a long
breath.
Even if Ariela was just his soul sibling, there was still Allura. Lance didn’t
really know what they had talked about after he left, but suddenly they seemed
to love each other. The princess smiled at the blue boy more often and had even
started to flirt back? That was not fair.
Allura sneezed in the other end of the cuddle-pile, her mental breakdown
halting for a few seconds before her mind went back to spiralling down.
/ What the quiznack? What the quiznack? What the quiznack?/ she wondered, face
buried in between Ariela’s shoulder blades, the same shoulder blades she had
been staring at the day before while they trained. Well, she had been staring
at the woman’s whole back, watching how the muscles worked as she absently
lifted some weights.
It was really unlike her to ogle people, but women? It had never happened! I
mean, she had always blushed when girls complimented her and she had wanted to
hug that one Galerian princess until they both died, and the Girgkean first
lady had looked at her with eyes that had made her knees tremble that one time
they visited her planet in search of an alliance.
/Oh, no/. She might be... What had Ariela called it?
Gay.
****** ... ******
They all slept at least three hours before Lance woke up. He blushed and
laughed a little bit to finding the compromising position he and Keith had
ended in (legs tangled between legs, the shorter paladin with his face buried
in his chest and arms draped around his waist, Lance’s left hand tangled on
black –surprisingly- silky hair) and got up to get on with the planning.
Keith woke up shortly after because he felt cold, and found Lance dragging a
white board he had seen in the library, along with a fancy box filled with
colourful markers. He offered his help, so Lance asked him to go to find some
of those “alcoholic” drinks Coran had mentioned.
Shiro, still asleep and searching for warmth, ended up getting closer to the
girls, and Ariela woke up tightly sandwiched between the hot princess and the
hot paladin. One of Allura’s hands was actually on one of her boobs, and Shiro
was pressing her up against him as if she was a teddy bear and he was having a
nightmare. She might or might not smiled to herself and gone back to sleep.
Allura woke up to Keith and Lance arguing about something.
“YOU’VE NEVER BEEN TO A SLUMBER PARTY BEFORE?” Lance screamed, words followed
by a dramatic gasp when Keith indignantly shook his head and crossed his arms
on top of his chest defensively.
“It’s not like everyone was dying to invite me,” she heard the red paladin
mumble, and suddenly a shadow crossed Lance’s face. Allura frowned, feeling a
little thrown off by that darkness surrounding him, but Lance gulped once and
flashed Keith his signature smile.
“Well, then I have a lot to teach you.” With slow steps he got closer to where
Keith was sitting and dropped down next to him.
“That’s why I don’t know any of your stupid games,” the red paladin said, a
little bit lower and sounding ashamed, but Lance just shrugged and shimmied an
arm through Keith’s shoulders, slow enough for the other paladin to reject him.
Allura thought she might have heard an It’s okay Keith, you’ll have fun or
something similar, but she wasn’t quite sure.
“I was meaning to ask what a slumber party was,” she announced, voice rough
from sleep, as she combed her tousled hair with her fingers. Lance gasped
dramatically again.
“I have so much to teach you two!”
After that, Ariela woke up again. This time she was laying on her back, Shiro
on top of her and hugging her tightly again; there was no way she could move
from there without waking him up, so she just let her head fall in resignation
and started scratching his scalp absent mindedly, like she used to do to
Benjamin.
“So that is why you don’t want to let anyone put your hand in a bowl of water,”
Lance concluded, making Ariela look up. He was standing in front of a white
board where instructions about slumberpartying were written in both English and
Altean.
Keith made a worried huffing noise as he moved on his seat. “Why do I feel
Pidge will try to do that?”
“Because she is a prank-gremlin,” Ariela said from her spot, making them turn
to look at her. Allura had a little bit of colour on her cheeks and quickly
turned to stare at the front again. Lance smiled wickedly.
“Look at that, a talking pillow!” he exclaimed, making Keith chuckle. “How’s
your life as the mattress of a hot guy going?” he asked, making Keith frown and
then turn to look at him, but it went unnoticed by the blue paladin.
Ariela made a nonchalant gesture. “I’m definitely not complaining. Do you have
any idea of how big this guy’s pecs are?” she asked, sending the three of the
others into an ugly laughing fit, although Allura’s was awkward and Keith’s
more of a nervous “What the fuck?” laugh. “What time is it?” she asked, rubbing
her eyes.
“It’s almost time to take the bears out of the cave. We managed to make some
snacks, but we still need Hunk’s expertise because, apparently, Allura can’t be
trusted in a kitchen,” Lance informed her, making the princess blush harder.
“I just do what Hunk tells me, and I had never cooked in my life before, so
it’s not that surprising,” she defended herself.
****** ... ******
Shiro woke up incredibly slowly. First he heard muffled sounds; voices,
clincking and laughter. Then, he smelt the food. By the time he actually opened
his eyes he had been awake for a few minutes.
Everyone was sitting around him, picking snacks up from the plates that were
scattered through the sofas. Lance was slumped against Hunk as the yellow
paladin told a dramatic story about them sneaking out of the Garrison, Pidge
was sitting on her own with her knees held tightly to her chest and her chin
resting on them, Allura, Keith and Coran were all sitting together, listening
with attention and Ariela...
Ariela was lying under him, scratching his scalp slowly while looking at Hunk
with attention. Shiro actually had the right side of his face squished against
her chest. That was what made him shoot up, planking on top of the woman who
squeaked at the sudden movement before chuckling.
“Look who woke up! You’ve been out for seven hours, captain,” she informed him
straightening the wrinkles he had made on her t-shirt.
“Wha-... Why didn’t you wake me up?” he asked, voice rough and raspy. He was
incredibly thirsty and all his body felt heavy. /Seven hours/... He couldn’t
remember the last time he had slept so much (it had probably been a coma in the
healing pods).
“You looked so peaceful that we didn’t want to wake you! You are always tired,
and you deserve the rest, Shiro!” Coran answered cheerfully, incapable of
hiding the happiness he felt. Sleep Deprivation Shiro had just almost had a
full and healthy cycle of sleep.
“Of course we would have woken you eventually. Wouldn’t want you missing the
best slumber party ever,” Lance chuckled. An aura of giddiness surrounded him,
and he was slowly passing it to Hunk, who was already smiling wider than
normal.
Shiro grumbled as he sat up on the floor, watching a little flushed as Ariela
did the same and immediately went after one of the food plates. “I don’t even
want to imagine what you organized without supervision,” he mumbled before
thanking Pidge for the snacks she passed him.
“Pshh.” Lance made a gesture with his hand and smiled flirtatiously. “Of course
I didn’t do anything bad.”
****** . . . ******
Technically it wasn’t bad. Were they all wasted? Yes. Would they remember
everything from this night tomorrow morning? Probably not. But no one was
getting hurt and they were having a blast, so that meant this was going
perfectly.
At the beginning they went easy. A few games of “say it with mimics”, the
hangman and chatting about funny anecdotes had them entertained for a while.
The messy part had started with a game of Never Have I Ever, where not only was
Shiro classified as the most vanilla of the “sexually active” group, but he
learnt that Ariela lived a /really interesting life/ and Keith had apparently
lost his virginity while he was a prisoner. He was so going to give him shit
for not telling. After all, he had told him about Lila.
With that game, Ariela and Keith got drunk, Shiro and Lance tipsy and Pidge got
so drunk she ended up falling asleep, because someone (Hunk) kept targeting
her. Hunk then proceeded to start a game of truth or dare, where Coran and
Allura and felt like they could participate more, and that was when things
started getting a little bit out of control. But at the same time they had
learnt many things.
“Sweet, innocent Allura,” Ariela had started after the princess chose truth.
“Have you ever had sex with someone?”
A flushed and tipsy Allura had frowned, completely ignoring Coran’s
scrutinizing eyes and shook her head. “Of course not! Knowing someone out of
wedlock is extremely frowned upon in Altea!”
Then Coran had turned around and she had winked at Ariela and nodded before
sipping her glass.
Keith had dared Lance to do a split and proceeded to congratulate himself for
such brilliance as Lance dropped down on the floor flawlessly without braking
eye contact.
Hunk may or may not have started a sabotage club during high school, whose
target was the principal. Said club also may or may not have succeeded.
Ariela was dared to name all the geometrical figures, which had ended with
Shiro receiving a marker to the face for laughing so much.
Keith had just dared Lance to shoot an apple on top of someone’s head when
Hunk, the less wasted one, shot everything down and put some music on and
lowered the lights.
Coran said his goodbyes and went to sleep, carrying Pidge to her bedroom.
Then things got fuzzy for Shiro. He could recall seconds; Ariela and Lance
dancing together on top of the sofa, Hunk and Keith rapping to Eminem at the
top of their lungs, himself getting in a dancing competition with Ariela when a
Brazilian song came through the playlist. He isn’t really sure if he actually
danced with Lance, grabbing his waist and Lance’s hand on his hair or if he
dreamt it. Oh, and Ariela had taught Allura to dance, but the princess hadn’t
been able to do nothing apart from staring in awe when the paladin started to
twerk.
The next thing he knew is that he was waking up to Coran clapping his hands,
his head killing him and the light burning his retinas. He just hugged his
really warm pillow closer and nuzzled it.
“I can’t believe this is universe’s last hope,” Coran grumbled.
Allura had fallen asleep against one of the sofa’s, neck angled in a way that
let the royal advisor know it would hurt, a whole strand of hair on her mouth
and the rest sticking to her face. Lance was resting his head on her lap and
Allura seemed to have been caressing his hair before falling asleep because her
hands where still tangled on it. Shiro was literally on top of Lance and
hugging him tightly, head resting in the middle of the blue paladin’s back.
On top of other sofa, Keith was sleeping next to Ariela while his head rested
on her chest, snoring softly. The woman had her mouth open and looked like she
might have passed to a better life. She was actually wearing Hunk’s bandana
tied around her head.
Speaking about Hunk, he was nowhere to be seen.
“COME ON, EVERYONE, IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP!” the man yelled, and Allura
straightened her neck with an awkward snore-gasp sound. Keith mumbled something
annoyed and cuddled closer to the woman, slowly opening his eyes and looking
around like an angry cat.
“/¡Cinco minutos más!/” Ariela begged with a sob, and Lance yelled a /Por
favor/.
“Come on guys, you have to wake up, drink a lot of water and put some food on
you so that you can go back to sleep a little more before going to the beach,”
Hunk sing sang, appearing from the still open doors and with a response-less
gremlin tugging at his vest.
Shiro took his face out of Lance’s back to look at Hunk, who seemed as fresh as
a lettuce. “What the fuck, Hunk?” he asked, making Coran gasp. He had never
cursed in front of him.
“Hunk is hangover immune,” Lance informed with a grumble, turning around and
indicating Shiro to lie down again on top of his stomach. Shiro’s brain had the
consistency of a slushy, so he followed the instruction. He revelled on how
warm and soft Lance was before his brain noted that he was shirtless. Now that
he noticed, he was also shirtless... And Keith... Ariela was straight up on her
underwear, pink lacy bra with bright green undies.
“Is she still alive?” Keith mumbled, not getting away from the woman, while he
poked her cheek. Hunk walked towards her with determination and placed a plate
of something that looked like brownies in front of her face.
Without even opening her eyes, Ariela rose up from the dead, still cradling
Keith to her chest as if he were a baby, and tried to take a piece.
“Did you have fun?” Pidge asked with a small yawn. Shiro smiled, thinking how
much she sounded like a kitten.
“As far as I remember, we did,” Lance answered.
Allura groaned and rubbed her face. “I never want to drink with you guys
again,” she said, her voice sounding wrecked. Oh, right, Shiro could remember
her yelling /so much/ it almost gave him a new headache.
“Come on. It’s six o’clock, so you have time to become decent beings before
going to the place I selected for today’s outing,” Coran said, clapping his
hands together a couple times and making them all groan because it made their
head feel even worse.
Slowly but surely they all got up. To Shiro’s surprise, Keith walked behind
Ariela, hugging her waist while looking at the rest of them like a lazy cat.
The woman didn’t seem to mind, and in fact started talking to him in whispers.
They both shared a few chuckles and then Keith started blushing. When Lance
frowned at them, Keith hugged her tighter and hid his face on Ariela’s hair.
“Man, did we really sweat that much? I feel disgusting,” the blue paladin said,
feeling how sticky his skin was. Shiro flushed and avoided his gaze.
“Uhm, no, those were the body shots,” he mumbled. Allura groaned again.
“Oh good lord,” she mumbled before dragging herself out of the lounge.
****** . . . ******
Coran was merciful enough to grant them a really late lunch at 2 in the
afternoon, so after their water-abundant breakfast they had all gone to their
bedrooms to sleep the rest of their hangover off.
Lance had to shower before going to bed because he felt absolutely disgusting,
and he couldn’t avoid thinking about it as he did his night-time routine,
trying to trick his skin into thinking he had never stopped being responsible.
Shiro had said he was so sticky because of the body shots, but he had remains
of saliva and that sweet Altean alcohol mixed with the purple fruit in many...,
delicate areas. His neck, his sternum, his thighs, his navel... Yes, he hadn’t
gotten drunk in a long while but he didn’t think it would get so out of
control. And that wasn’t the only thought that ran wild through his mind. The
spit meant that people had taken body shots out of him, and he was certainly
sure that Ariela couldn’t be responsible for all of them. This meant that
Allura, Shiro or Keith (or all of them) had run their tongues through his skin
and he wasn’t able to remember. /And/, as if that wasn’t enough for his
troubled and horny mind, someone had /bit him/ in various places.
Ariela usually remembered everything the morning after, no matter how shitfaced
she was during the night, so maybe she could remember.
“Wait a second,” he said out loud as he was applying his facemask. “Did /I/
take a body shot out of someone?”
****** . . . ******
They took the yellow lion to the location that Coran had chosen, and the
silence was too awkward for Keith. He almost wished he couldn’t remember last
night.
Almost.
Keith always remembered the night before, and while being drunk he didn’t get
stupid... He got bolder, and he isn’t quite sure if that is better or worse.
That had been why, in a mix of boldness because of the alcohol and jealousy
because Lance was grabbing Ariela by the hips and they looked like a couple out
of Step Up, he had decided to make Lance jealous... Or at least make him admit
that she was his girlfriend so that that little ray of hope guarding his heart
could die.
So, putting all that he had learnt about seducing during that chaotic year, he
had gotten close to the dancing couple and stuck to the woman’s behind. Quickly
enough he had managed to take her away from Lance and now the two of them
looked like the couple out of Step Up, but instead of getting jealous the blue
paladin cheered on him for a while before going looking for a new dancing
partner.
Now instead of being almost grinding with his supposed girlfriend, Lance was
almost grinding with Keith’s brother. And the worst thing was that Shiro seemed
to be really into it... That fucker needed to spill out some things because no
straight dude™ would ever pull a guy against them and thrust their hips like /
that/, no matter how much alien alcohol was involved.
Because of that, Keith had decided to raise the stakes and said that it was
time for some body shots and licked the acidic juice of the weird fruit Allura
had brought from Ariela’s bellybutton, not swallowing his smirk when he pulled
away and met Lance’s confused eyes. Of course, his own plan had come back and
kicked him in the ass because now everyone wanted to do body shots. They ended
up all shirtless and competing over who was bolder.
Allura won when she licked the juice from between Ariela’s breasts, and him and
Ariela shared the second place; he had licked it from Lance’s navel (heavenly
moment, ten out of ten, would totally recommend) and had even bitten him a
little bit while Ariela had directly gone for Shiro’s lower back (he refused to
admit that it had practically been his left buttock).
Oh, he had had a hell of a time licking his crush’s skin last night (and having
his licked too), but now he couldn’t look the guy in the eyes without getting
as red as his lion.
“Are you okay?” Shiro asked him in a whisper when he noticed that he was
looking into the void with terrified eyes.
He nodded his head and pointed at Ariela. “I think she’s looking at me funny.”
The woman, wearing a magenta bikini and a red pashmina was kind of looking at
them from her sit next to Lance, but they couldn’t quite tell because of her
sunglasses.
“Yeah, I don’t think she’s actually awake,” Shiro said, waving his arm on her
direction. There was no response.
“Hmmh.” Keith bit the inside of his cheek. “Say, Shiro... How much do you
remember about last night?” he asked, and the man immediately blushed.
“Oh, God, I was so wasted. I think I started to talk portuguse.” Keith nodded
and he groaned. “Look, I don’t remember much. The dance competition, some of
the body shots, you going crazy with Hunk and Allura trying to twerk,” he said,
letting his hands fall in his thighs with a /flap/ in defeat.
“Do you remember dancing with Lance?” he asked without sugar coating it, and
Shiro blushed further, looking away.
“I thought I had dreamt that. Felt like a dream anyways, from how fuzzy the
memory is. But yeah, I kind of crossed the line there, didn’t I?”
Keith shook his head. “No, no. I was just asking because you seemed really into
it.” He turned to look at Shiro and was surprised to discover that he seemed
tense, a weird shadow having fallen upon his face. “You know that you can tell
me anything, right? Even more if it is about that kind of thing.”
Shiro shook his head. “Forget it, it’s nothing. I don’t like him or anything,
and I’m not into guys,” he said, remarking his last four words with a
punctuating gesture of his hands. “But talking about sexual stuff...” Shiro
squinted at him and Keith got confused. Maybe Shiro was going to ask him why he
had gone so much at Ariela last night, and he wasn’t sure he would be able to
explain that.
“What?” he said in a defensive tone.
“Nothing.” Shiro sighed and stopped squinting at him. “Just mad that you didn’t
tell your big brother that you had popped the cherry,” he mumbled under his
breath.
Shiro was half expecting Keith to go totally red and half expecting his voice
go really high and start stammering. He definitely didn’t expect his shoulders
go slack and his jaw tense, almost as if he was /ashamed/ and not just
embarrassed.
“It was nothing worth talking about,” he said before gulping. /Oh, no/ Shiro
thought.
“Keith, what happened?”
“WE’RE HERE!” Coran and Hunk exclaimed at the same time.
Those who were sleeping woke up scared with the screaming, and confusedly
followed the ones that had already gotten up to watch the scenery through the
yellow lion’s screen. Before them, a planet with a beautiful turquoise sky and
lilac foliage was speeding in front of them, as they neared a waterfall in a
clear of what looked like a rain forest. Colourful ricks covered the orange
ground, and a few yellow and blue birds were flying over the river basin.
“This is beautiful!” Allura exclaimed.
“We can have a diving contest!” Lance said, excitement flushing his cheeks.
“I’m not touching the water,” Ariela commented with a pissed off voice, making
Lance stare at her like she was the most awful person in the world. “Do you
even know how long it took me to straighten my hair with this hangover? Na-ah,
Lancey, I’m not getting my hair wet!”
Pidge scratched her chin while inspecting the paladin. “But your hair looks the
same than always,” she said, and Ariela blushed.
“That’s because she straightens it almost every day, and she has done
treatments to it. She has reeeeaaally curly hair actually,” Lance sneakered,
earning a punch to almost the throat by Ariela.
****** . . . ******
Keith was having a hard day. Not only did he have to deal with what had
happened last night (what he had done last night), but he also had sober Lance
shirtless now.
He definitely lost in the diving contest because he got distracted, but he
wasn’t going to admit that. Besides, Shiro also got pretty distracted; Allura
and Ariela were both sun bathing in their swimsuits, not too close to the shore
so that they wouldn’t get splashed. Even Keith, and he was like..., super gay,
had to admit that they looked gorgeous like that, even whit Allura’s weird
bodysuit-with-one-sleeve- pink swimsuit (similar to the one Shiro had borrowed,
except Shiro’s covered his entire fucking body, only leaving the feet and the
hands naked). But he also caught Shiro sneaking glances at Lance and Hunk while
they wrestled playfully on the shallow water.
“Are you sure there’s nothing you want to tell me?” Keith asked, hating how his
voice sounded a little deeper. That had been happening a lot lately, always
while he was around fucking McClain.
“Just leave it alone, okay?!” Shiro almost shouted, surprising his brother. His
face was absolutely red and he immediately turned around and away from their
playing teammates.
He let him be, because no one knew better than Keith how awful questioning your
sexuality was. Well, maybe Allura, now that he saw her blush and stutter while
Ariela braided her hair and sometimes leaned in to whisper in the princess’
ears. Maybe space made everyone seem hotter.
Maybe it was the sex abstinence. Yeah, he was definitely blaming his crush on
Lance to the forced chastity they had all been thrown into.
After a great deal of swimming and pranking each other, Coran called them to
shore and spread packets of water and plates with the leftover form last night.
They ate, calmly talking about the things Allura had seen while visiting Earth
and the things she wanted to see.
It was nice not talking about the war for a while. Keith hadn’t noticed how it
always seemed to be there, like another person, somehow managing to filter into
any of their conversations. But this time it was different, they just talked
about movies, Earth and Altean animals and curse words in each person’s native
language.
“It’s not fair, you all have a different native language than English!” Pidge
complained, after Lance’s and Ariela’s extremely long list of curse words.
“Don’t worry, Pidge!! Allura smiled. “Soon enough you will be fluent enough to
curse in Altean.”
Keith also got to show off his mad Korean skills, patting himself in the back
when he noticed Lance’s eyes glowing with excitement at the new language
discovered. Of course he had done the same when Shiro had spoken Japanese, but
that didn’t matter. And of course it came back to bite him in the ass when
Lance started speaking French.
“When did you learn Korean?” Ariela asked.
“When I was around ten. I asked my foster parents because I wanted to be closer
to my heritage and all that bullshit,” he answered, his voice starting to die
halfway. Ariela seemed to regret asking that question, and Lance quickly came
to rescue.
“I started learning French because it’s my mama’s favourite language!”
Shiro smiled. “Yeah, I also learnt Japanese because of my mom. Dad never really
showed any interest of me studying it but mama said that I had to be closer to
that side of the family.”
That caught Hunk’s and Ariela’s attention.
“Wait, wait, wait. Didn’t you learn Japanese because you are from Japan?” Hunk
asked. Shiro snorted.
“I’m not from Japan, guys,” was Shiro’s answer. Ariela’s eyes shot open.
“Well, I’m sorry, Takashi Shirogane. Please, do share where you are actually
from,” she said with a smile of excitement. Shiro licked his teeth without
breaking eye contact with her before answering.
“Brazil.”
It was as if a wet blanket had fallen on top of the conversation, and suddenly
Ariela and Shiro were in the middle of eye contact duel, and nobody but Lance
seemed to understand why.
“What’s going on?” Pidge asked at the same time that Ariela took a really deep
breath, her eyes shining with mischief.
“Please don’t,” Shiro said, but it was too late.
“/¡BRASIL, DECIME QUÉ SE SIENTEEEEEE, TENEEEER EN CAASAA A TU PAPAÁ!/” she
started singing, throwing her left arm around.
“Argentina and Brazil are like massive football rivals. Hell, they’re like
massive rivals about everything,” Lance explained with a chuckle, as he watched
Shiro get up and run away while covering his ears and Ariela get up and start
chasing him while singing a different song (/Brasilero, brasilero, qué amargado
se te veee/)
After the whole country-rivalry ordeal was done, they all settled for a nice
nap under the sun, enjoying the warmth that never turned into too much heat,
and they only got up when the sun started to set, because Pidge wanted one last
diving contest before it was too cold to get in the water again. And because
she was the one to organize the last jump, where all the initial paladins were
participating, she got to go first.
Hunk was waiting for her to resurge from the water before jumping himself, but
a few seconds went by and Pidge didn’t come to the surface, only the bubbles of
her breath.
“PIDGE!” he called, but the girl didn’t come through. His screaming called the
attention of the three that were left down on the shore, as they looked at him.
“PIDGE ISN’T COMING OUT OF THE WATER!”
Suddenly, something (or many things) bursted through the surface of the water
before going back in. Were those?
“Tentacles?” Lance asked, a little bit panicked.
“CORAN!” they heard Ariela scream, but the man was already running to jump in
the water. After grabbing a big knife from the Altean picnic basket, Ariela did
the same, leaving a panicked Allura alone on shore.
“We have to go down and help them,” Shiro said. “Don’t jump in the water, we’re
weaker there. We go down like we came up,” and after that he started his
descent, with the other three paladins following after him.
Allura was standing too close to the water when they got to her. She was
watching with worried eyes the slightly agitated surface of the water.
“Guys, they’re not coming out.”
“I’m going in,” Shiro said, igniting his arms. “Ready your bayards, just in
case.” He started trotting to the water, but something coming through it
stopped him.
Ariela, gasping and carrying an unconscious Pidge. She was grunting at the
effort of swimming to shore, with dead weight and tentacles trying to grab her
by the ankles. Shiro reassumed his running and met Ariela halfway.
“Take her,” the woman said breathlessly. She had cuts through her cheeks and
bruises around her throat. Before she could stand up on the debatably shallow
water, something yanked her back down.
“ARIE…!” Lance started screaming, but he was cut off but another thin coming
out of the water.
The monster looked like the unwanted child of Java the Hutt and a monster from
a tentacle porn anime, and it was grabbing Coran by the neck and trying to do
the same to Ariela. She was trying to slash the tentacles away with the kitchen
knife, but they would soon gain terrain.
“HUNK, LANCE! USE YOUR BAYARDS ON THE THING! KEITH, TAKE ALLURA AND PIDGE WITH
YOU!” Shiro screamed, trying to get them to react. They were all frozen. It was
not the same facing a giant monster inside of a destructive robot than by your
lonesome.
“CORAN!” the princess called, her voice desperate. The man was still conscious,
but barely.
Ariela was screaming at the creature as she slashed at it, and suddenly she let
out a pained shout when it gripped her too tight on the waist. “FUCK YOU!” she
said, before slamming the knife into the tentacle, thanking any God who was
listening that the slimy flesh was thick enough so that only the tiny tip of
the knife came through it to cut her own skin.
At the same time, Lance got a lucky shot at the tentacle grabbing Coran. The
creature let out an horrible shrieking sound and let go of both of their prey,
the two people falling with a splash to the water. Ariela got out of it alone
immediately, running to shore with a worrying limp, and Keith ran to get Coran
out of there before it got him again.
Shiro cut through a tentacle that got too close with his hand. “HUNK, USE YOUR
BAYARD TO DRIVE IT AWAY!” he ordered, and the yellow paladin (that had been
waiting to be sure he wouldn’t harm anyone) opened fire without holding back on
the creature.
They never knew if the thing retreated into the water or it simply died. They
were content enough when it suddenly sunk down, and they sure as hell weren’t
going to stay long enough to find out.
****** . . . ******
Pidge and Coran had woken up while they were still fighting the monster (thank
God) but Shiro had still pushed them into the healing pods just in case, so it
could at least run an analysis. Apparently they needed it, because fifteen
minutes had gone by and they still were in there.
“You should get in too,” he told Ariela while pointing at the leg she had
limped with, who was dissociating while looking at Pidge’s pod. The woman
turned to him a little confused while her brain processed the words. Just like
she had foreseen, her hair had already started to dry and therefore curl. Shiro
snickered at the thought that she looked more Brazilian than him.
“Oh, no, I’m okay. It just hurt in the moment.” She got up from her seat and
started jumping on said leg. “See?” She gave him a sweet smile and then sat
down again, her face going dark.
Shiro sighed. “At least let me check the cuts and bruises you got. We don’t
want them to get infected,” he said while shaking the small first aid kit he
was holding. The woman shrugged.
“If it makes you feel better.”
He sat down next to her and grabbed her left hand. It was all bloody from
scrapping at the bottom of the lake searching for the knife she had dropped
many times. She had told them that with an angry look, almost disappointed with
herself. He started applying sanitizer there and the woman barely took in a
deep breath.
He had moved up her arm, almost reaching her shoulder, when she spoke again.
“Do you think I’d make a good soldier?”
He halted, suddenly too conscious about how cold the wet gauze he was holding
felt. He frowned, getting back to work, before answering with another question.
“Why do you ask that?”
“Just answer the question.”
He chanced a look at her, but her eyes were still dug in Pidge’s pod. He had to
admit, though, that suddenly she looked older, far from early twenties she must
have been. She looked older and very tired.
“Well. I don’t know. I haven’t really seen you fight. But you did react pretty
quickly when shit went down,” he said, snorting a little at the end and making
her chuckle. A little win then.
“Yeah.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath when he move on to the
puncture wound she had on her waist. This one was deep. “My family, the /de la
Torre/, they come down from a military linage, you know?” He just shook his
head in silence and kept on working. “My father and his brother fought in the
Malvinas. I’ve seen what war does to people.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Shiro mumbled. He somehow felt he could relate. Maybe
he didn’t have familiars that had fought in an actual war, but he had seen one
succumb in his own battles just enough time to make it feel like a war, the
enemy being drugs and poverty instead of England.
Ariela turned to him and gave him a sad smile before looking at Pidge again.
“It’s okay. They’re still both alive. And I’ve learnt to accept that war is a
part of them, whether we like it or not.”
He couldn’t help biting his tongue before saying “But… Don’t you feel you would
do…, /give/ anything to make it go away? Erase that part of their lives as if
they had never happened?” Ariela lowered her head and he immediately regretted
opening his mouth. “I’m sorry…”
“No, it just… It hit too close to home, you know?” she said, turning to him
again. “I don’t want Lance… I don’t want any of you nor me to go through what
my family went. Hell… I don’t want the fucking bad people to go through what
we’re going. War is such a messy thing it doesn’t care where it’s claiming the
lives from. If there were anything I could do to just make it all stop…”
Shiro nodded, gently nudging her shoulder to make her turn her back to check
there. She did, head already hanging low, and he came across a patch of skin on
her small and freckle-covered back filled with thin and faded scars. “What
happened?” he asked.
“I went through a window when I was ten, running away from one of my cousins,”
she said with fake cheer.
Shiro just nodded and started to work through the cuts there.
****** . . . ******
The next day everyone tried harder to be cheerful. Pidge and Coran were okay
already, Ariela only had a few bruises and already closing cuts, and, hey! They
had had to fight a tentacle monster that had gone for the girls originally.
That deserved some anime jokes. Plus, Ariela had finally resigned her life to
Death that morning because her hair straightener had died on her so she had
arrived to breakfast with her hair just as curly as Riana, fluffy ringlets
framing her “Don’t say a word about this or I’ll slit your throat” face.
She looked like a really angry poodle. And even prettier, if you asked Allura;
it kind of added to her bad ass vibe.
“Seriously, kids. I’m going to blame yesterday’s disaster on the hangover. You
were pretty slow,” Coran mumbled while they laughed about last day’s events.
“Hey! I did great!” Ariela exclaimed in a high-pitched tone.
“Yeah, Coran. My trainee reacted better than yours. Maybe you’re getting a
little rusty as a trainer,” Allura teased with a sly smile, knowing the royal
advisor’s weak spot. He went red almost instantly.
“They were alcohol-dumb, Allura. Besides, do I need to remind you that it was
Hunk who killed the monster?” he attacked back.
“I know, I know. I was just saying that, in terms of fighting instinct, Ariela
was way ahead. Next thing we know, she’ll be beating Shiro.”
The black paladin chocked on his drink and let put an ugly snorting laugh
before coughing, and suddenly Ariela looked ready to murder. “What’s so funny,
Shiro? Thought of a joke you want to share with the rest?” she asked, the
consonants sounding too strong for anyone in her range of sight to feel
comfortable.
“No, no, it’s just…” Shiro pointed at her and then at himself, comparing their
sizes. “Not to insult you or anything, but you /are/ kind of tiny, Ariela.”
“Uhhhhh, he has a death wish,” Lance murmured, and if it weren’t because
Ariela’s eyes set on fire, the rest of the crew would have laughed.
“You’re saying that because I’m short I wouldn’t be able to beat you?” she
asked.
Shiro sensed her anger a little bit too late and started rubbing at his neck a
little uncomfortably. “Well, the odds aren’t exactly stacked on your favour. I
could literally pick you up and throw you across the room.”
“Fucking fight me.”
Silence fell.
“I’m sorry what?” Shiro asked.
“You heard me well enough, captain. Prove that you can beat me so easily.
Fight. Me.”
Hunk adjusted himself on his chair and Lance shrugged, mentally saying fuck it.
“If she gets to fight Shiro, I get to fight Shiro.” Their leader turned to him
with a surprised look that also had a bit of “what the hell did I do to you?”
vibe to it. Lance shrugged again. “I’ve haven’t practiced body combat with you
ever since I started training with Coran. I want to see what I’m capable of.”
“If everybody is going to fight, I also want to fight!” Pidge exclaimed.
“Yeah, me too!” Keith seconded.
“Guys, guys, I think you’re getting a little bit carried away,” Hunk started,
but he was cut off by Allura.
“What do you say, Coran? A crash sparring contest. Let’s see whose trainee is
the best.”
“Why stop at trainees? I haven’t reminded you of who’s the teacher in a long
while,” Coran said with a chill voice, and all the paladins went “uhhhhhh”.
“That’s /quiznacking/ it,” Allura mumbled.
****** . . . ******
Half an hour later, they were all standing on the training deck, body suits
zipped up and practice staffs on their hands. Coran was standing in front of
them with a little hologram of the contest fights.
“I selected the first opponents based on a matter of body strength. That’s why
the first round will be: Ariela vs. Pidge, Shiro vs. Hunk, Lance vs. Keith, and
Allura vs. me,” the man explained.
Hunk raised his hand. “Emm, you see, Coran, I didn’t tease anyone so I don’t
think I deserve to get my ass beat,” he said.
“Well too bad. We need you because we’d be an odd number without you. If you
don’t want to fight, let Shiro win,” Allura said, voice harsh. She seemed eager
to get on the training mat and fight Coran.
“What? No, I don’t want to just give up!” he complained.
“Then start thinking of a strategy. Pidge, Ariela, you’re up.”
That fight lasted less than forty seconds. In five simple moves, Ariela managed
to take Pidge’s staff from her hands and hold her down to the floor in a
wrestling hold. Shiro kind of regretted that Pidge went down so quickly; he had
missed his chance of actually seeing Ariela’s fighting style.
Next up, it was him and Hunk. And that was, surprisingly, a long fight. Shiro
had experience fighting enemies bigger than him, but he wasn’t counting on Hunk
also being considerably stronger than him. It appears that, under all that
fluff, there was quite a bit of muscle. He wasn’t also counting on the fact
that Hunk had been training with him and therefore knew his classic moves. The
yellow paladin knew what to expect, and was impressingly good at predicting and
blocking Shiro’s attacks. But he wasn’t as good when it came to attacking, so
eventually he tired out and Shiro found the perfect window to claim his
victory.
Now, Keith’s and Lance’s was definitely something special. Keith definitely was
not going down like Pidge, so everyone knew they would get to see what Lance
and Coran had been working on this last month or so. The result was a battle
that seemed to have no end, because they were both equals. Keith’s style was
more aggressive and raw; he depended on his strength too much. Lance, on the
other hand, wasn’t as strong, so he had to take every opportunity he saw, and
caught on quite quickly on how to use Keith’s own attacks to make him lose his
balance and get a clean strike. The red paladin was quite flustered when he
discovered that his plans of impressing Lance by winning him bright and breezy
had been foiled, and that may or may not have played its important plan in
Lance finally sweeping Keith off the floor and immediately leaping over him,
staff pressing against the red paladin’s throat as a smug grin grew on the blue
paladin’s face.
Everyone was shocked.
And then it was the turn of Allura’s and Coran’s fight. It looked like
something out of Clash of the Titans. They were both equally strong and equally
aggressive. It was a neat and simple, yet effective fighting style, a little
bit different from Lance’s. It was also ridiculously fast. They all struggled
to keep up with it, only the sounds of the staffs crashing and the effort
grunts the two of them were letting out giving them a clue of who was winning.
And, after what seemed ages, Coran managed to make Allura trip and put the tip
of his staff against her heart.
“I shock you and boom, you’re dead,” he said, barely containing his smile.
Allura seemed really pissed for a few seconds, but then a bright smile broke
through.
“I see you haven’t lost your touch,” she said, grabbing the hand he offered her
to get up. “Well, are you guys ready for round two?”
In response, Ariela walked to the mats while twirling her staff with expertise,
before turning to look at Shiro nonchalantly. “I don’t know. Are you ready?”
she asked him. Shiro snorted and stood in front of her.
“Ready? Go!” Hunk said. Now that he knew he wouldn’t be fighting any more, he
was quite giddy to see how things turned out.
Shiro charged first, pretending to go for the woman’s staff and going for her
feet at the last second. Ariela jumped without wasting a second and even landed
on top of Shiro’s staff, giving him a good strike on his metal arm, making him
groan at the impact.
He pulled up the staff, managing to lift it along Ariela, who smugly did a back
flip and landed on her feet with a smile, ready to block Shiro’s second strike
and slide under him to strike him on the back and try to trip him, but he
managed to move out of the way on the last second. She was too fast.
“Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have been so smug,” Shiro admitted, and Ariela laughed
at the air before making a combo of four strikes that Shiro managed to block.
He may have been used to fighting someone considerably bigger, but being on the
other side was something new.
His guard low, he left his staff horizontally, and Ariela took the chance to
hit it from under to take it off of his hands, but he was able not to lose his
grip and diverted the strike that was directed to his chest towards his
stomach. /Oh, if she wants to play dirty, dirty she’ll get/.
Grinning, he made a grab for the woman’s staff and pulled, yanking her towards
him. Ariela went crashing against him with a yelp and he shouldered her to the
floor. She fell without her staff and looked at him really angry while he
proudly held it on top of her.
“That was playing dirty!” she yelled, making Keith laugh on the side lines.
“The Galra don’t play nice,” he chuckled, and just when he thought she was
going to give up, Ariela’s eyes ignited and she kicked him on the right shin,
making him yell. “What the fuck?” She jumped at him and sent him crashing down
to the mats. When he jumped at his neck, he grabbed her and sent her flying
across the floor. They both got up quickly, and Shiro was barely able to block
the round house kick she directed straight to his face.
“Is she always like that?” Coran asked, and both Lance and Allura nodded.
“JESUS,” Shiro exclaimed when Ariela literally growled and went for his
stomach. By instinct he gripped the bun that she had done on top of her head
and accidentally destroyed it, curls falling down her face.
“Okay, that’s just a dick move,” she said when he held her from behind, arms
sticking to her body. She answered that move by stomping down on his foot, and
Shiro just let himself fall to the floor, dragging her down with him. Falling
on top of her, his weight was his best ally, and he just let her try to wiggle
out from under him for a few seconds until Coran declared he had won.
“Are you okay?” he asked after rolling off of her. Ariela just blew the strands
of hair sticking to her face off and held her chin high.
“You cheated. Bad. I’m not counting that as an official defeat.” And with that
she left the mats.”
“Hey! For the record, you did really well! I thought you had me for a second
there he said as he trotted behind her.
Coran patted Lance on the shoulder.
“Ready to be destroyed?” he asked his trainee, and Lance smirked.
“I wouldn’t be so confident old man,” he laughed.
Hunk gave the queue and they started circling each other, waiting for the other
to attack. Lance decided to go for it after a few seconds, noticing that Coran
wasn’t going to leave his defense. Their staffs struck and they crossed looks.
That was when it actually began. Coran changed fighting styles; the simple and
aggressive became the complicated and sneaky, but it was obvious to the sight
that Lance felt more comfortable with this style, almost as if Coran had just
started learning a choreography Lance had been practicing for years. Coran’s
superior strength didn’t play an important part in this type of fight.
Still, they were all a little surprised when Lance pinned Coran to a wall with
the tip of his staff pressed against his heart.
 “I shock you and boom, you’re dead,” he mocked, a giddy smile on his lips and
a flame lighting his eyes. He had defeated Keith and Coran? He felt like he
could take on Zarkon with a hand tied behind his back.
“Mhm,” Coran hummed, twirling his mustache with a happy smirk. “I’ve taught you
well.”
“Oh my God. What if Lance wins Shiro?” Hunk asked excitedly. Pidge snorted.
“Please, have you seen Shiro?”
“No, no,” Allura shut her up with a surprised but pleased expression. “He could
actually win.”
“AVANGE MY DEATH, LANCE!” Ariela screamed, throwing her fists up on the air.
/Fuck yeah, my paladin is going to destroy yours/ Blue said to Black, a bubble
of pride threatening to burst in her chest.
/Oh, come one. Even the panther’s paladin wasn’t able to defeat Shiro/ Black
replied with a calm tone, keeping the hot blood running through her to herself.
She wanted Shiro to win so desperately.
/Psh. He won because he’s a fucking cheat. Ariela could beat him fair and
square, and she will once she stoops down to his level/ the panther rumbled.
/What’s wrong, Black? Afraid that Lance might win over your mighty hero?/ Red
laughed. She was actually rooting for Lance, just like Keith, although her
paladin was trying to lie to himself saying that he wanted his brother to win.
Ignoring the fire that Allura looking so hung up on Lance and the beads of
sweat going down Lance’s neck were causing was a little bit difficult, but he
wanted to think he was managing so far.
“I think it’s only fair that we let Lance rest for a while. Shiro had a chance,
after all,” Coran said.
/Poor little thing, he needs a break/ Black cooed, making Blue growl.
/Shut up! You’re not letting me concentrate!/ Gold exclaimed.
As soon as Lance had come close to the rest of the crew, Ariela grabbed him and
dragged him away to start whispering about how to win Shiro. He’s not used to
close range battle without being able to use his arm was one of the things she
told him.
“So? Do you have any advice on taking Lance down?” Shiro asked Keith, while his
brother looked at the blue paladin toweling himself with a frown. “Keith?”
“So many advices,” he murmured, before shutting up again.
Shiro really couldn’t believe that Keith was like this. Did he really not care
that Shiro could clearly see how he was ogling Lance or did he not realize he
was ogling Lance in the first place?
“Are you ready, big guy?” Lance asked with a wicked grin on his face. Shiro
smiled and patted him on the shoulder, before walking next to him to the mats.
“Beat his ass, baby!” Ariela cheered, making Keith side-eye her. Seriously?
Baby?
“Ready. Go!” Hunk screamed, and Shiro jumped head first towards Lance. Who
moved away, but he wasn’t fast enough to strike him like he had done with
Keith, and Shiro didn’t lose his balance nearly as easily as the red paladin.
It was… a long fight. By the time it finished, both Lance and Shiro were
breathless, body complaining about what they were being put through. Their
brains were also tired, so measuring distances and strength was becoming an
issue. Shiro hadn’t meant to hurt Lance when he stroke, aiming for the head,
knowing that the boy would be able to block it because the move was slow.
And Lance blocked it.
It’s just that Shiro broke his staff in half with an awful cracking sound.
“What the fuck?” Hunk asked as Lance stared at the two pieces of metal, each in
one hand.
“Hmm, I guess they’re really old and rusty,” Coran said nonchalantly, ignoring
the fact that that blow could have killed Lance.
“It’s not safe to continue,” Allura announced, and Shiro immediately lost his
fighting stance, but Lance threw the halves of the staff out of the mats and
rose up his fists.
“I already came this far, not stopping now,” he said with the same wicked smile
he had had at the beginning, and Keith had to admit that that did turn him on.
Seeing Lance so riled up was making him want to eject himself into space… Well,
he wanted to do other things, but there was no way he could go and tell Lance /
that/.
“Lol, RIP Lance,” Pidge said when Shiro threw his own staff away and put his
fists up. Again, he was the first one to charge. Lance surprised him by just
diverting his arm instead of completely moving away, and he struck Shiro with
his open palm on his ear, making him go dizzy. Next thing he knew, he was being
struck on the neck, kicked on the back of the knee, and Lance was doing a move
that ended with him smacking Shiro’s body against the mat and holding him
there.
Silence fell and a pregnant pause settled in the room, the only sounds being
the labored breathings of the two paladins. Lance’s eyes were open wide in
shock and what he had just managed; he had been practicing that move with Coran
for what felt like ages and it only half worked half of the time.
Coran threw his fists in the air. “I TAUGHT HIM THAT!” he yelled, breaking the
silence as he ran to pick up Lance from the mats. The cheerings from Ariela,
Hunk and Allura began immediately after, while the rest of the crew remained on
a deadly silence, Pidge and Shiro because of the shock, Keith because other
things.
“Are you okay?” Lance asked Shiro when he saw the man wasn’t getting up, face
still shocked. Shiro met his eyes and suddenly a ridiculously wide smile spread
on his face.
“Are you kidding me? Lance, I’m great! You did amazing! How the hell did you do
that?” he asked in return, slowly starting to sit up.
/HE WON SO HARD I FEEL LIKE YOU OWE ME SOMETHING!/ Blue started yelling and
Black couldn’t avoid rolling her eyes, just like the panther.
/You’re all so noisy. You’re giving me a headache/ he complained, and Gold made
a rumbling sound that resembled laughter.
/Welcome to my world/.
Chapter End Notes
     -BRASIL DECIME QUÉ SE SIENTE TENER EN CASA A TU PAPÁ: Brazil, tell me
     how it feels to have your dad at home. (TN: Brazil and Argentina have
     a really big rivalry when it comes to football, and the Argentinian
     fans invented a song for the 2014 Worldcup. Everytime they see a
     Brazilian, they start to sing it. It's like a joke between countries)
     Link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IOGFENyGJM
     Well, so, what could I say to you? I've dissappeared for a long time
     now, don't worry, I've always been alive and "well". Many things
     happened; I finished highschool, got into my college of choice, found
     a spiritual path, etc etc. I also realized that I am really feedback
     driven, and the fact that the fic wasn't getting any new Kudos or
     Comments kind of made me abandon it.
     Today at six in the morning I went into my AO3 profile to check my
     bookmarks for a specific fic and found that I had 5 unread messages
     on my Inbox. All comments on this novel. I literally got up and
     started writing and editing. This chapter was only writen to the part
     where they're talking in the yellow lion, and I finished the rest
     today.
     I guess what I'm tryng to say is that feedback is super important,
     even if it is just a tiny theory of what's going to happen or comment
     of how certain part made you lenny face, it fills me with
     determination (like in Undertale), so please please pretty please
     comment.
      
     Kisses. <3
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
She would like to say that the last time she had fallen asleep while eating had
been when she was a little child, but no. It had been two weeks ago. She had
been studying for one of her midterms and a break to eat had seemed nice.
Ariela had woken up lying on her couch with a half-eaten sandwich spread all
over herself ten hours later.
They had been having lunch, after a few hours of practice. Yes, she had been
awake through all the night, and training mindlessly, but she still had some
spare energy somewhere inside herself. But, when she sat down and rested her
head on her hand she fell asleep immediately. Ari would later know she had
fallen directly into Lance's lap, making almost everyone think she had passed
out. Lance had calmly carried her to her bedroom and smiled when he heard her
complain about something being foul and that the referee had been paid.
She woke up at three a.m, jolting because she felt like she was falling. She
was actually falling from bed. Her left side crashed against the floor, making
her course and realize that she wasn't in the kitchen having lunch anymore.
"Ah, fuck," was all she said, as she got up, massaging her neck slightly.
"Lights on," she commanded, and the lights of her bedroom started turning on,
slowly so her eyes wouldn't hurt. She was wearing only the black body stocking,
pieces of armor gone. Lance probably had taken them off so she could sleep
well.
Ariela wrinkled her nose at the smell of her own sweat. She immediately grabbed
everything she needed and got into the small bathroom she had in her bedroom.
Ten minutes after she was getting out, in lilac leggings and a gray crop top,
barefoot and thinking if there would be any leftovers in the kitchen. She was
fucking starving. This whole paladin thing was messing with her sleeping and
eating schedule harder than university had. That was a whole new record.
She left her bedroom with a little jump in her step. She had sleep twice as she
was used to, so she felt pleased, a little confused, but still pleased. Then
she had had the most relaxing shower of her life, not having to worry about the
panther, as now they were something similar to friends.
The lights on the corridor were really tenuous but enough to see. Ariela was
walking in silent, enjoying the constant buzz the castle produced and letting
her mind focus on it and relax even more. But then she heard panting and
moaning.
The color flew to her cheeks and the woman felt herself tense. Did she really
have to catch someone masturbating on her..., third night in the damned space?
She counted the doors from her bedroom, trying to know who she wouldn't be able
to look in the eyes when she woke up, and she realized who it was at the same
time she heard the man inside the bedroom plead.
"Let me go, please." It sounded as if he was crying, voice cracked, and Ariela
immediately was reminded of Shiro telling her about his nightmares.
"Open door," she said, hoping it wasn't locked. It wasn't.
Shiros bedroom was pitch black, but a little of the corridor's light let her
see how neatly organized everything was, and how Shiro was trashing on his bed
uncontrollably as if he was trying to break free from something. His prosthetic
hand was lighting up, and the woman doubted if she should get near that.
"Eu, no llores. Te tenés que calmar, así te puedo despertar sin que me cortes
en pedacitos," Ariela sang, getting near slowly, her voice seeming to open a
patch inside the man's mind and calming him down a little bit. "Hey, Shiro,
wake up," she said, voice a little bit louder but still soft, and the man
opened his eyes.
They both moved instinctively. He got up from the bed and aimed to attack with
his prosthetic hand, and she evaded the attack and tackled him, making Shiro
fall face first to the floor.
"Oh, Jesus. I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" she asked, squatting down next to him
as he got up, rubbing his chin. "You were having a nightmare, and I guessed it
would be better to wake you up. I didn't imagine you would attack me, but still
I shouldn't have tackled you. I'm so sorry," she repeated, as Shiro stood up.
"I..." he started, voice hoarse and deep by the sleep, and Ariela's ears rose
up a little at the pleasant sound, making her bite her cheek. "Don't worry, I'd
rather smash my face against the floor that dream with... Whatever I was
dreaming," he said, smiling weakly at her, and Ariela noticed he was shaking.
"Hey, deep breaths," she said, grabbing his hands delicately and guiding them
in a motion that accompanied the breathing pattern she was setting. "In," she
said, and although Shiro seemed a little confused a the beginning, he obeyed.
"And out."
After five deep breaths, Shiro's shoulders relaxed and after ten his hands
stopped trembling.
"Thank you," he said, before opening his eyes. "It usually takes me a lot of
time for me to calm down". Ariela smiled, happy to help, throwing her head to
the side and closing her eyes. It reminded him of when he had first seen her,
surprised that was the person who would pilot the blood-thirsty-monster the
panther.
"You are welcome," she said, realizing that she had been tracing circles with
her thumb in Shiro's left hand, so she let go in that exact moment. "Are you
going to try to sleep? Because if you can't, you can always join me in the
kitchen" she said, after breathing in deeply.
Shiro looked at his unmade bed and scratched his nape while thinking.
"I should probably change," he said, with an awkward smile, signaling to his
black sleep pants and shirt. Does this guy only wear black? she thought as she
snorted.
"No one is awake to judge you, captain," she said, before getting out of the
bedroom, humming a lullaby she had just remembered, while she was debating
whether make breathing exercises or singing to Shiro.
****** *** ******
Shiro wasn't used to getting out of his bedroom in the middle of the night. It
might have been the fact he had lived many years in a place where, if you were
caught out of your bed after half past nine, you were punished. And, maybe out
of custom too, he never turned on the lights, despite being awake and
struggling with the remains of a nightmare.
It was weird to walk around the castle when everyone was fast asleep and it was
weirder being accompanied after having a nightmare. He felt safe, although at
the beginning he hadn't known if Ariela waking him up was something goo. He had
attacked her. Shiro was glad it had been her to wake him up and not Pidge. He
was sure she wouldn't react nearly as fast as the other woman. He liked the
warm feeling of just being with someone.
"Do you want to eat something?" Ariela asked, face inside the fridge, as she
looked for something to eat.
"No, I'll just drink some water," Shiro answered, as he grabbed a glass from
the shelving and opened the tap. Sometimes the castle seemed too much like a
normal human house, but then you looked out of the window and saw nothing but
stars and planets.
"More for me then," she said with a happy smile, taking out a plate the thing
they had eaten at dinner, prepared for Hunk. "Do you know how can I reheat
this?" she asked looking around with a frown, her earrings catching the light
and shining for a second.
"Gimme it," Shiro said, reaching out for the plate as he tried to remember how
Hunk did this.
Fifteen minutes after pushing every existent button and trying every command
they could imagine, Shiro stumbled upon something similar to a microwave.
Ariela was eating in silence, excepting for when she let out a soft moan when
she first savoured the food, and it was a peaceful moment. It was weird to be
so relaxed for him. He was either training or with the team or dealing with his
nightmares. The only person he could hang around with in perfect silence was
Pidge. She would sit somewhere trying to code stuff, and he would sit next to
her, acting like he understood what she was doing.
"So, Shiro... I'm getting bored and I know none of us is going to sleep,"
Ariela started, once she had finished eating. Shiro had watched as she had
gotten up and washed the dishes before she sat back again. "Can we talk about
something? Or play something?" she asked.
"Err..." he started, frowning. "So..., how's been life on Earth?" he asked,
wanting to facepalm himself when he saw a sharp bang of pain cross the woman's
eyes, but she smiled anyway.
"Well, I don't know how it was in the USA, but Argentina is pretty chill. My
life was basically crying over my university notes, going to work and clubbing
before all the..., Lance deal" she answered. "How old are you, Shiro?"
"I'm twenty-five, but I'm afraid I didn't have the same experience as you" ha
laughed.
"Being an astronaut must be really different than being a psychologist, I
imagine," she said.
"Well, I didn't really have experience with the working thing outside the
Garrison. And clubbing didn't exist. It was just random reunions with friends,
sometimes there was alcohol and there always was music" he told her.
"When we go back to Earth I'm going to take you to Museum, the biggest
nightclub in San Telmo" she promised, raising her thumbs when she said the
name.
"I don't know. I never felt attracted to the whole clubbing image" he said,
wrinkling his nose in mild disgust, making Ariela frown and throw her head to a
side.
"You don't need to get drunk if that's what you mean. I don't actually like
getting drunk myself, and you have a better time, laughing at the people that
are indeed drunk" she laughed, looking over his shoulder as if remembering
something. "But if dancing isn't your thing, I might just take you to a bar in
Defenza" she continued.
"Dancing is my thing," Shiro said, acting offended. Ariela snorted. "I'll show
you when we get back to Earth."
"I'm already looking forward to it."
****** *** ******
At some point in the night, they had moved to the common area and sat on the
sofas. Ariela had gone to look for her mobile, leaving Shiro alone and he
started feeling vulnerable the moment she walked out of the room, the warm
feeling in his stomach easy gone and replaced by a heavy cold.
Luckily, Ariela was back in less than ten minutes and sat by his side to show
him the pictures on her phone. She talked about her friends, Lance's family,
her coworkers. Shiro was astounded to the amazing pictures of different parts
of Buenos Aires, and he was itching to show her São Paulo somehow.
Then they had laid down on the couch and she had started playing music, asking
him to translate some Japanese songs, telling him that they were anime openings
and that she had forgotten what they meant.
Shiro was about to fall asleep, listening how Ariela lazily sang a French song,
but then Keith appeared in the common area, eyes widening in surprise at the
rare sight.
"Well, now there is someone to judge you, captain," Ariela joked, as Shiro
jumped up and almost run to his bedroom to change, remembering the conversation
he had heard in Keith's room, realizing he hadn't thought about how to talk
about it with him.
He had gotten too distracted.
****** *** ******
A week went by, and then two.
Although at the beginning it was weird for her having someone else on the team,
Pidge found herself getting used to Ariela's cheerful presence rather easily.
They had taken the custom of sitting together after dinner to just hang out at
the beginning (Pidge doing stuff on her computer and Ariela reading her
textbooks and taking notes) but, little by little, they had started to get
interested in each other's work. Pidge suddenly understand the things she read
on the woman's books when she casually glanced.
And then Ariela had asked what she was doing. Translating Galra data she had
answered. So the woman, being the language nerd she was, had begged Pidge to
let her check out her translation program. And, after a week and a half, she
could roughly translate Galra texts, although she didn't have the idea of how
the stuff she read was pronounced, so she made up noises on her head.
She had the same adaptable personality than Lance, Pidge soon realized. She
seemed to mold herself to the person she was with, being gentler with Hunk and
Shiro, more playful with Lance, serious with Keith and Allura, and a curious
little child with Coran and herself. She also seemed to pick up on everyone's
little things, like how Hunk seemed to forget which glass was his (so she took
the mistaken one out of his hand and replaced it with the real one while still
talking) or Keith's habit of mutter things to himself (while everyone asked him
what he had said, she just ignored it, knowing he was talking alone).
Pidge knew she had a gift to know others well and quickly, but the way she knew
Lance was just ridiculous. Watching them do something together was watching
them anticipating to the other's actions, working as the dinamic duo.
She felt a little bit jealous, thinking that she used to have that same
connection with her brother, but he was not with them. So she was going to get
him back.
****** *** ******
Keith was having an awful day.
He had been feeling awkward on his own skin, easier to anger, senses heightened
in and awful level, and there also was Ariela.
He liked her, a lot actually, it was like Lance two but without the snarky
comments towards him. The thing was how her brother blindly trusted her voice
while walking around the invisible labyrinth, not getting shocked even once and
not questioning her words in the slightest.
He refused to admit that hot feeling bubbling inside his stomach was jealousy.
"Keith," she called him, covering the microphone with her hand. "Have you been
paying attention to the way I talked?" she asked, looking at him in the eye
with no hesitation.
"Yes," he lied.
"Okay," and she was taking off the microphone. "I want you to direct Lance,
speaking like I did. Give simple orders and don't use a rough voice. He'll try
to exasperate you, but just keep pushing, okay?" she asked, giving him the
microphone.
Fuck the jealousy, he didn't want to do this. He was going to start arguing
with Lance and the only result would be the other getting shocked and hating
him more.
"Okay," he said instead, putting the microphone on his head. As if Lance had
felt it, he started speaking.
"Is someone in there? I'd like to get out of here today," he said, looking
around.
"Hear me out, Lance. You have to take three steps to the left" he said,
remarking the number and the direction, speaking slowly. He bit his cheek when
Lance made a cringy face.
"Keith? What are you doing? Where did Ariela go?" he asked, still not moving.
He wanted to snarl at his teammate to move, but instead he breathed slowly and
looked at the woman standing beside him. She mouthed the words 'I'm gone. Keep
pushing' before nodding and giving him a thumbs up.
"Shiro needed to talk about something with her, so they put me as your partner.
Listen, you have to move three steps to the left" he repeated.
Lance looked at the cabin, even though the glass reflected his image, and
sighed before doing as told. Keith felt the smile coming, and he gripped the
control panel tighter, looking at the map of the labyrinth, before telling
Lance how to move next.
A few minutes later he was out.
"I can't believe we did it," Lance laughed, and Ariela turned to look at Keith.
"Give me five," she said, raising her hand, and Keith high-fived her with a
smile. Lance appeared in the control room and frowned.
"Weren't you talking to Shiro?" he asked, eyes narrowing.
"I am. This image of me is just an illusion of your mind" she said, without
batting an eyelash, as she left the room, leaving the two of them alone. There
was an awkward silence for a while until Lance spoke.
"It's the first time we completed the labyrinth together," he said, and Keith
had to try to fight back the blush when he saw a little smile on the guy's
lips. The feeling of his gut starting twisting appeared as he tried to find the
right words.
"It wasn't that hard once you trusted me," he said, finally looking at the
other paladin with an awkward smile. Lance muttered a 'Yeah' as he scratched
his nape.
"I think the guys are hanging out in the common area. Are you coming with me?"
he asked, making Keith feel he was going to throw up his stomach.
"I think I'm going to take a shower first. I stink," he answered, and Lance
left the room with a wave of his hand.
****** *** ******
Half an hour later they were all playing a game while Coran prepared dinner.
Strangely, Allura had joined them, watching with joy how the team and Ariela
played "Say it with mimic", a game in which you had to choose a movie and act
either the movie or the words out, so the rest of the team could guess. Talking
was no allowed. As Ariela had been the one to teach them the game, she was the
judge and seemed to be particularly harsh on her brother, who was on the same
team than Keith.
It was a chaos.
No one saw it coming. Keith was arguing loudly with Pidge, who had accused him
of talking while trying to make Lance figure the movie 'Inception' out of his
bad acting. The rest was watching everything with amused smiles, excepting for
Lance, who had his head thrown back and eyes closed, groaning because this was
his motherfucking game, they couldn't be losing.
Still arguing with Pidge, Keith had started to blindly step back, and when the
back of his legs hit the sofa (apparently empty, because Lance had his legs
wide open like the gentleman he was) he started to slowly sit down.
Everyone went silent and Ariela's mouth turned into an 'O' as she watched how
and unsuspecting Kith sat down on her brother's crotch and part of his lap, and
the two of them went stiff. Lance slowly rose his head back up, meeting the
view of a Kith sitting on him, ears red and eyes wide open.
"Apa la papa, Lance. Parece que hoy la ponés," Ariela said, making everyone but
Lance confused, while he turned even redder.
Keith couldn't move. It was part horror and shame and part I am sitting on
Lance's crotch oh my god, heaven is real and so is hell. He was so gay in that
moment he could barely believe it was possible, but everything got a little bit
worse when Lance put a hand on his right hip.
"Em, Keith..." he started, swallowing hard, and gently pushing the other boy
out of him, jaw clenched and eyes unfocused.
"Se te llega a parar la pija y yo me entro a cagar de risa de una manera
indigna" Ariela said, again in Spanish, making everyone a little bit angry.
They wanted to know what the fuck was going on.
"Ya basta de tanta apretadera, boba. Si sigues molestando te vamos a dejar
haciendo botella en el país más cercano, bofe" Lance snapped, and Ariela looked
half offended half amused.
"A mi no me entrés a romper las bolas con tus amenasas, porque vos ladrás mucho
pero no mordés, papi" she said, standing up.
Before anyone could get over the fact that she had said 'Papi' (word everyone
in that ship knew meant 'Daddy' thanks to Lance's dirty mouth), the two Latins
were wrestling on the floor in the middle of the sofas.
Chapter End Notes
     -Eu, no llores. Te tenés que calmar, así te puedo despertar sin que
     me cortes en pedacitos: Hey, don't cry. You have to calm down so I
     can wake you up without you cutting me up in little pieces.
     -San Telmo is a really famous district in Buenos Aires, and there is
     a nightclub that is just huge, called Museum.
     -Apa la papa, Lance. Parece que hoy la ponés: Hey, hey, hey, Lance.
     It looks like tonight you're getting lucky
     -Se te llega a parar la pija y yo me entro a cagar de risa de una
     manera indigna: If you get a boner I will laugh my ass off withput
     dignity.
     -Ya basta de tanta apretadera, boba. Si sigues molestando te vamos a
     dejar haciendo botella en el país más cercano, bofe: Stop it with the
     misunderstandings, dumb. If you keep bothering we're gonna leave you
     in the nearest planet to get someone random to pick you up, idiot.
     -A mi no me entrés a romper las bolas con tus amenasas, porque vos
     ladrás mucho pero no mordés, papi: Don't start bothering me with your
     threats because you bark much but don't bite, daddy. (TN: In
     Argentina the words 'papá' or 'papi' -dad and daddy- are often used
     ironically, when you are trying to roast someone)
     Hey, sweethearts! Are you liking the fic so far? I hope so. If you
     have any idea, recomendation or anything to point out, please leave
     it in the comments. And don't forget to leave kudos if you're liking
     it!
     Kisses.
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
They had been wrestling for a few minutes before being separated by Hunk and
Shiro, the guy flinging the woman over his wide shoulder and the man holding
Lance by the arms. They had continued to yell at each other for a while, but
Lance shut up the moment Ariela started cursing in Italian, making everyone
turn to her with narrowed eyes. Was she serious?
"Sì, correre tra le braccia di papà, è piccolo bambino," she shouted finally,
stopping the slamming of her fists against Hunks back.
"I don't know what you just said, but I'm going to answer with fuck you," Lance
replied, a lot calmer than before, and Shiro let him go.
"Are you two going to stop the fighting now? I don't want someone getting
murdered in this ship," Shiro said, voice low and Ariela couldn't avoid
thinking of him as 'Space dad' once again.
"Don't worry Shiro, I wouldn't kill her. She might be an asshole, but she's
still my big sis," Lance answered, with a smile directed at the woman, who aww-
ed, the sound being an indicator to Hunk that he could already let her down as
Shiro snorted.
"I didn't picture Ariel being the dead body Lance," was all he said, before
starting walking towards the kitchen. "Coran must have finished by now, we
better get ready for dinner."
A second after that he was gone, and Lance and Ariela were laughing things off.
Allura admired how well they got along, even after having such an encounter,
even though she hadn't got a word out of it. Maybe she could ask them to teach
her to talk those weird languages they had spoken before.
****** *** ******
As they did after every fight, Ariela and Lance spent all the night together,
just talking and laughing about the ridiculous comebacks they both thought of
in the heat of the moment. After an hour or so, they were both fast asleep, and
the woman probably wouldn't have woken up if it wasn't because Lance was
having..., a dream.
She was awoken by Lance mumbling and knocking his hand against her face. He was
laying on his stomach, while she was laying on her side.
"Jesus, Lance, go back to sleep," she said, covering her face with her arm,
cursing internally. It would take her a few minutes before being able to go
back to sleep.
After a few minutes of endless moving from Lance (which Ariela thought was due
to him waking up and not being able to feel comfortable), the first sound
dripped from his mouth. It was a short groan. Ari rolled her eyes and just
turned around. A few seconds later it was a little whine and after that a moan.
She opened her eyes widely, as she turned around to catch a glimpse of her
brother lazily bucking his hips against the mattress.
"Keith," he moaned as he bit his lip and frowned, and she couldn't take it
anymore.
She started hitting the guy's back as if it was a drum, shouting his name
repeatedly (Lace, Lance, Lance, God!), not being able to believe what she had
just heard. The kid who Lance fought about anything was the object of his wet
dreams.
"Oh my Dios, Ariela, are you loca?" Lance asked, lifting his head from the
pillow with his eyes half open, languages mixing in the haze of sleep he was
still under.
"You were having a sex dream about Keith! You like Keith!" she whispered
accusingly, a little bit offended he hadn't told her about his little crush.
Although she had smelled something weird was there every time she mentioned
Keith, she had never thought it was a crush. Lance was actually really smooth
when it came to crushes and... Oh. He had ever crushed on a guy before.
"I wasn't," Lance replied immediately. Ariela got out of the bed and stood,
commanding the lights to turn on and looked at her brother, tapping her feet
against the floor impatiently.
"Lance, I heard you moaning his name while you were sleeping," she said,
looking at him dead in the eye.
"I was dreaming he died, give me a little rest," he lied, looking away with a
fake pout. Ari narrowed her eyes, not giving up.
"Let's ignore the fact that you were rutting against the mattress like a dog in
heat, if I move the sheet on your lap I will discover a boner, so you better
start spitting everything out, little bro," she said, making Lance's face turn
even redder. He let it drop in between his hands.
"I used to envy him a lot, but I started crushing on him a few weeks ago," he
confessed, and the woman clapped happily. "But I've treated him like shit, so
he probably hates me."
"Oh, no. He is actually really interested in getting close to you," Ariela
said, remembering the effort their teammate had put on directing Lance through
the maze that afternoon, and the little dorky smile that had appeared on his
lips when they actually made it.
"You read novels. You see love where there isn't, Ari. Besides, that dude is
probably the straightest I have ever met, you should have seen him with the
girls at the Garrison." Lance sounded gloomy and Ariela hated that.
"You don't know if he is straight. Maybe the girls were flirting with him and
he was just too polite to decline," she continued.
"Whatever. There's no way I can go and be like 'Hey, dude, do you like dick?'.
We are not that close."
"I'll get the information for you. I already ship this," Ariela said, standing
up and walking towards the door.
"Wait! You aren't actually going to ask him, right?" Lance asked, standing up
and letting the sheet fall, revealing a boner.
"Please, Lance. We might be family, but we both know I have much smoother...,
methods. No, I'm leaving you alone to resolve your little problem," she said,
before turning away again and finally walking to her room, giggling like a
teenager.
****** *** ******
The following day Allura announced that they were traveling towards a really
important planet they had to free from the Galra army and that they would reach
their destination in two days. It was a planet that had a really important
technic knowledge they could use for the Castle of Lions, and it would be great
to have them as allies.
The news set Shiro's nerves on edge.
Flashes of memories from when he was under Galra control or the times he had
fought them after being freed and felt the terror anyways came flying to his
mind as if he had opened a door he souldn't have opened.
Practices were tougher, so that made them get really into it. He was wrestling
against Keith, and the boy had snarled at him in such an inhuman way it had
triggered him. Images of Galra soldiers throwing themselves towards him, all
teeth and claws and violence, had flooded his mind. Keith had taken the chance
to pin him against the mats on the floor, but when he noticed that the man's
eyes were unfocused and that he was panting out of sheer horror, he had started
calling out for help.
The whole team went running towards them, but the one who took over the
situation was Ariela. She told Lance to go and get a glass of water, as she
pushed Keith away from Shiro slowly, and started talking in a soothing voice,
holding the man's hands when he almost scratched himself.
She asked Hunk to hold his legs when Shiro started kicking around, and then put
the man's face on her lap and started massaging his left hand slowly while she
held the right wrist, as she sang something in Portuguese.
Shiro came back to reality when she was singing the beginning of the chorus
(Sinto a batucada se aproximar. Estou ensaiado para te tocar), tears clouding
his eyes and unable to move his hands, breathing still raging and limbs still
feeling numb, but he was aware of where he was. He felt weak and vulnerable,
regret and fear boiling up his stomach when he realized he had had an attack in
front of the rest of the team.
When he made a pained face, Ariela asked everyone to leave the room for a
while, practically reading the man's mind. She had made him sit up and make
breathing exercises again, and she had massaged his wrist lightly while he
drank the water glass Lance had brought.
"It's okay," she had said, understanding staining her voice, as she helped him
up. "This probably the tension of having to confront the Galra paying off, but
don't let it accumulate. Remember that you can always come to any of us."
He had nodded and marched away, feeling his legs weak, wanting to slam his head
against one of the walls. He felt pathetic.
****** *** ******
They have us now, Voltron will do great the panther said, while it sat next to
a fidgeting Ariela.
Just like she did every time she was feeling anxious, she started imagining
everything that could go wrong. Esceneries of the paladins dying or being
captured, them failing the mission or destroying the planet in the process of
succeeding.
"Reassuring doesn't work with me. You have to distract me," she instructed,
playing with the little cube she had on her hand at the speed of light. She was
sitting on the floor, back against the door and fingers clicking the little
buttons of the cube Lance's father had given her for her last birthday. It was
a cube made for people who fidgeted like her; you could twist, click, skip,
roll, swirl... It was a blessing.
You are really different from my last paladin the panther sighed as if it was
tired of the woman. She perked her head up, looking at the robot's face while
she rolled her thumb over the little metal ball.
"How many paladins have you had before?" she asked, head tilting to a side in
curiosity.
Only one. She was a woman too, but she was more like that Keith boy.
Determination, temperance and hard work, always violent and making snarky
comments.
"Are you implying I don't work hard?" Ariela asked in a low tone, quirking an
eyebrow and looking unamused.
No. What I want to say is that she actually made it look like work. You make it
look as an enjoyable game of 'Who can stay alive the longest' the panther
answered, not missing a beat.
"Oh. Did you like her?" The air around the panther seemed to turn darker.
It was a different relationship than the one I have with you. You still piss me
off, and I still think you are just a stupid mortal, but you are a brave one,
and you understand me in more than one way. She treated me like a tool she
could use to hide her own desire for blood. That was the only thing we shared
it answered, and if it's face could actually express emotion, Ariela was sure
it would be frowning.
"Are you nervous, Ariela?" a voice asked from the entrance of the hangar, and
Ari started to stand up immediately when she recognized princess Allura's
voice.
She was in her nightgown, hair completely loose, white strands falling freely.
She was smiling, and with a gesture of her hand, she told Ariela to stay where
she was, as she walked towards her calmly. Once she reached her, she sat beside
her.
"It's my first mission tomorrow," Ariela said, biting her cheek and fidgeting
harder with the cube.
"The build up must be killing you. But don't worry, you seem to work really
weel under pressure," the princess complimented her, making the woman give her
an awkward smile. Being sat beside a pretty lady didn't help her nervousness.
Just as Lance, she was much weaker for the opposite sex.
"I'm afraid that I'll just get into the Voltron team's way," she confessed,
turning her face to look at Allura's wide blue eyes.
"You might not know this, for you have never been in such a battle, but you'll
find yourself knowing exactly what to do. The panther and its paladin are a
part of Voltron too. Just as the blue and yellow lion are the legs that support
the body, the panther is the floor. The last net Voltron has before falling
into the void," she explained to her, making Ariela's eyes drop slowly to the
floor.
"Do you think I'll let the bloodlust take the best of me?" she asked, but she
felt an unfamiliar poke in a part of her brain, somewhere she didn't know.
It was as if that poke let and aftertaste on the whole of her body. The part of
her brain was all about communication and energy and..., something she couldn't
quite put her finger on. The poke was the only thing she was certain of its
precedence. It was the panther.
I will try to control myself it said, in a solemn tone.
"Thank you," Ariela said, looking towards the robot.
"It looks like there's a strong bond between paladin and panther. That is
really good," Allura said, amused, as she started to her up. "You seem someone
that is really in control of herself, Ariela. You managed to escape the
bloodlust when it caught you out of guard, so it won't happen if you are aware
of it. Besides, being able to put the panther into its place and roar to it
isn't something minor," she continued, offering Ariela her hand to help her up.
She took it, noticing how smooth her skin was, and stood. "We should probably
go to sleep now. A long day awaits tomorrow."
****** *** ******
Shiro woke up screaming and tasting blood in his mouth.
His whole body was shaking and he couldn't control his breathing, no matter how
hard he tried to hold his breath in for five seconds, as Ariela had taught him.
The fact that he could feel the numbness rise through his thighs made him panic
even more, suddenly feeling like he was choking.
Every time he closed his eyes, images of his team being killed appeared as if
they were tattooed on the inner side of his eyelids. Hunk shot, Lance's lion
exploding with him in it as he tried to save him and a Galra ship caught him
unsuspecting, Keith impaled with a Galra lance, Pidge's head being crushed
under some soldier's foot, Allura trying to stand up to the commander as he
entered the Castle of Lions, Ariela surrounded by dozens of warriors and dying
on her knees.
Ariela.
He hated himself for being so weak, but it was the only thing he could think
of, knowing she could make the invisible rope around his neck go away with her
soothing voice and smooth touches. So he let himself stumble to his door and
open it, trying to control his breathing again.
As if she knew what was going on, the woman was passing through his door, a mix
of tiredness and happiness displaying on her face before she caught sight of
Shiro, panting and trembling against his doorframe.
"I..., had a..., nightmare," he managed to say, in between breaths, and she
immediately pushed him in back to his room, commanding the lights to turn on.
She was aiming for the bed, but Shiro's legs gave in when he felt a sharp pain
on his chest, making him panic even more, and he fell to the floor, Ariela
following him and kneeling in between his legs, as she grabbed his hands and
made him move them slowly in circular motions, trying to induce the rhythm of
the movements into his breathing.
She started singing Carnavalia shortly after, modulating every word with care
and humming the music when there were no lyrics.
It was heartbreaking feeling Shiro's trembling hands in her own and looked into
his eyes that showed just how scared he was. It reminded her of that time when
one of her professors had caught her having an attack in the bathroom. The
woman, being used to her cheerful and playful attitude, was astounded when she
saw her crying her eyes out at the sensation of her world falling upon her.
"There you go," she said slowly when Shiro's breathing finally became even.
"I'm so sorry," was the first thing he said, sighing and closing his eyes, the
same pained expression he had made the day before crossing his face.
"You are in all your right to feel bad, Shiro. You are human. You can't bottle
it up forever. How long have you been putting up with this? A year and month?"
she said, trying to make him accept the words.
"I'm the leader, I shouldn't be crying and breaking down all the time," he
replied, angry, letting his head drop. "I just don't know what has gotten into
me and it scares me," he admitted, voice sounding as if he was crying.
Ariela let go of his right hand, using her left to cup his face and make him
look up.
"Hey, don't worry. You just..., found another adult that gets in a way how you
feel, she said. "You think you have to look all stoic in front of the guys, and
Allura and Coran are somewhat your superiors. They have relied a task on you
and you want them to know you can do it."
"You are part of the team too," he said, still looking ashamed.
"Dejá de buscarle el pelo al huevo. I'm not a kid, and I'm not a superior. I
know what panicking feels like really well," she replied, face all serious.
"Now, you are going to get up and actually lay on the bed," she said, as she
started to get up, but Shiro's metal hand flew to her left wrist, the cold
metal almost humming against the really warm skin, and made her stop.
"Are you leaving?" Shiro asked, looking at her in the eye, jaw squared and
probably slapping himself from reacting in such a way.
"If you want me to go I'll go. If you want me to stay I'll stay," was her
answer, and Shiro chewed on his bottom lip. He mumbled a 'Please, stay' and
Ariela smiled reassuringly. "Do you mind me going to grab the mattress from my
bedroom?" she asked, and Shiro started to stand up with jelly legs.
"I'll go with you," he said.
Shiro could feel the shadows of the poorly lit corridor creeping on him as he
waited outside of Ariela's bedroom while she put on her pajamas. He was
nervously tapping his metal fingers against the door when it opened, letting
him see the woman in a light yellow sleeping top and orange shorts. Does she
only wear bright colors? he thought as he helped her take the mattress out of
its place and drag it to his bedroom.
They set it right next to Shiro's bed and settled to sleep.
"Sweet dreams, captain," Ariela said from the floor, as she felt her eyelids
get really heavy.
"Good night, Ariel," Shiro answered, and soon enough she was asleep.
He couldn't even think about sleeping, so he just lay down next to the edge of
his bed, watching how the woman's back slowly rose and fell with each breath,
as she was sleeping on her stomach. She would mutter incoherent phrases now and
then, and in a moment he saw her rubbing her face against the pillow as if she
was a cat.
He fell asleep listening to her complaining about those damned giant rabbits
with fallen ears that wanted to kill her, his hand dropping from the side of
the bed and falling upon hers.
****** *** ******
"Have you seen Shiro? We will get to the planet in a few hours and we need to
be more than ready," Allura said, getting into the kitchen where four of the
five members of Voltron were sleeping.
"I thought he was training like he usually does. Did you check the training
deck?" Keith answered, frowning, as he swallowed more of the weird thing Hunk
had prepared.
"It's empty," Allura said, letting her arms drop to her sides as if she had
given up. Lance spoke next, making Keith blush at the memory of what had
happened not long ago.
"Maybe he just stayed up till the early hours and now he's just sleeping," he
said, swinging his spoon around as he spoke. Did all Latins speak with their
hands so much? Pidge thought, remembering how Ariela had smacked Keith on the
face while talking.
"You are right. I'll go and check on his room," Allura said, already turning
towards the door.
****** *** ******
Shiro woke up to someone talking, and feeling his metal hand strangely warm. He
wanted to know, but he was just too comfortable to open his eyes. A few seconds
later he realized that who was speaking was Ariela, saying something in the
lines of 'Vení que te muestro quién es el llorón, conchudo', and that his hand
was warm because she was holding it.
He heard the door sliding open at the same time someone asked 'Shiro, are you
up?'.
Allura stepped in and he opened his eyes, realizing he had no good explanation
as to why the woman was sleeping in his bedroom and holding his hand.
"Oh, I'm glad you are both here. We are going to meet in fifteen to talk about
how we will be attacking the Galra at Menosfoir. See you in the control deck,"
she said with a friendly smile, not surprised, before walking away, closing the
door behind her.
Shiro groaned, dropping his face against his pillow again. He felt Ariela
moving, letting go of his hand, before she appeared in front of him, eyes still
closed, hair a mess and eyelashes stuck together.
"What time is it?" she asked in a croaky voice, as she dropped on her mattress
again and started stretching her muscles, looking like a cat when she stretched
her arms and back, sticking her stomach to her thighs and scratching the sheets
as she sat back up.
"Probably late if Allura came in looking for me," Shiro said, finally sitting
up too.
"Well, see you in fifteen. Do you mind if I leave the mattress here until after
the meeting?" she asked, as she stood up. Shiro shook his head while he rubbed
her face. "Bye bye, captain," she said, before going out of his room.
Chapter End Notes
     -Sì, correre tra le braccia di papà, è piccolo bambino: Yeah, run to
     daddy's arms, you little baby.
     -Dejá de buscarle el pelo al huevo: Stop looking for the hair in the
     egg (TN: This is a phrase really used in Argentina, that means, stop
     looking for problems and let it be).
     -Vení que te muestro quien es el llorón, conchudo: Come here and I'll
     show you who's the cry-baby, you little fucker.
     Hey! I had Ariela's aesthetic done :3
         * http://my-artsy-corner.tumblr.com/post/150703864392/ariela-i-
           torres-waking-up-to-the-sunlight-coming
     And if anyone was curious about her fidgeting cube, here it is! http:
     //procerperficio.tumblr.com/post/150416098252/actuallyadhd-self-
     diagnosed-hypochondriac
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Menosfoir was a wealthy planet. It had really good crops, a vast culture and
many erudites. Precious stones and metals abunded in that place, and it had no
good military. That was the reason they had such a strong alliance with the
neighbouring planet, Malteia, as they were incredible warriors, but needed
Menosfoir to survive because their environment was so rough hardly anything
could live in it, making population die from starvation and dehydration before
the alliance with the neighbouring planet started.
Once the Galra took down Malteia, the other planet was easy peasy. They were
exploding it as they had done with the Balmera and, although this one seemed to
have a bigger life span than the other, the planet would start crumbling in a
few decades if the taking without giving continued. The natives were slaves
that had to work the lands or help Zarkon's empire to develop new intelligence.
The team met in the control deck and went over a plan to smash the Galra forces
over and over, everyone discussing the kinds of weapons they would be
encountering and the easiest way to take them down. They would start with
taking down the land weapons, so they wouldn't have to worry about the
bloodiest fight being on the planet's surface, and then they would take care of
the air force using Voltron. And, although at the beginning two or three people
thought keeping the panther on its hangar until it was strictly necessary using
it was the best option, Ariela and the panther ended up being on the outlook
too, as the 'special tactic team'. Until her name was put on the table, all the
debate was like white noise to the woman, that was just starting to feel how
the reality of her situation sank into her skin.
"Are you ready to kick some Galra ass?" Lance asked, over the intercom, as
Ariela sat on her pilot seat and started checking on everything instinctively,
the panther's energy guiding her hands through buttons and levers and switches.
Although Keith and her brother had explained her more than the basics of
piloting, she felt that instinct and the panther commanded more than the 60% of
her actions.
"No," she deadpanned, as the panther grumbled pleased to the thought of a good
fight.
"Okay team, let's go," Shiro said, and everyone was out the Castle of Lions.
Ariela's skin was tickling all over, breathing starting to raise just as the
beating of her heart, but it was not fear, it was anxiety. She didn't know
which one was worse.
The silent buzz of the propellers calmed her a little bit, and the beautiful
sight of stars and other near planets around her left her breathless.
Reassuringly, Lance made his lion fly near the panther. Soon they passed the
planet's atmosphere, momentarily blinded by clouds, and she was amazed with a
beautiful sight. What seemed a giant tropical forest covered all the surface,
buildings raising above the trees, waterfalls creating rainbows everywhere, and
birds flying all around them. The sky they were flying on was blue, except for
some big clouds that casted shadows on the beautiful scenery.
The panther immediately marked all the Galra installations, and it sort of
turned into a game of who could destroy more before they were all over. She
failed miserably, as she could only blow up three installations that didn't
seem important, the Voltron team already used to the way Galra automatised
weapons worked and knowing how to destroy them. The noises of explosions
sometimes made her jump on her seat, and the panther would laugh on her mind.
There was no real rush, Ariela felt more challenged when fighting against Keith
or Shiro, to be honest, but then she felt something in the back of her brain
that made her violently pull the controllers and turn to the left, evading a
laser ray that was meant to blow her up.
"The ships are here!" Pidge shouted, as the panther turned around and saw how a
fleet of Galra small and big ships got near them. They were all different
shades of purple, and Ariela quirked an eyebrow as the ships soon enough
stopped paying attention to her and jumped onto the lions.
The discomfort of the panther immediately went away and it purred content.
It has been such a long time it thought, and Ariela could feel her mind fusing
with its even more. The panther's body turned into her body too, and she was
too aware of how sharp her claws were and how strong her jaws were, wanting to
hear the metal of the Galra ships crashing between her teeth.
"Let's make them regret being born," was all she said, before flying the
panther to the middle of the fleet and starting her individual attack, as the
lions formed Voltron.
She was sure it had startled them. The Galra didn't know about a sixth robot
that could fuck them up, so Ariela took that to her advantage and attacked when
the ships were too busy either evading or attacking Voltron. It was something
amazing to see in the front row, how the five lions linked up to form a giant
robot, but it didn't compare to the way she was feeling.
A weird thrill she had never felt was running through all her body, making her
shudder. She felt her skin too tight, and her body was a little bit lighter,
almost as if she was flooding out of her meat vessel. Her eyes seemed to catch
everything with more definition and there was no doubt when she decided what to
do.
She was smashing the panther against a small ship at the same time she lasered
one of the big ones when an audio from the main Galra ship was broadcasted to
them. The rush suddenly stopped running through her body and she felt drained.
Galra ships stopped their attack, just as Voltron did, retreating near the
surface, before being stopped by a small fleet.
"This wasn't part of the training," was all she said, as she watched how the
rest of the team was just as confused as she was in the panther's screen.
"Answer." It was Shiro's voice and he sounded really tense.
"Team Voltron. This is Captain Protor speaking. We advise you to give up, as we
have taken our slaves as hostages, and we will be killing one of them for every
minute you continue to put up a fight," a rough voice said, leaving all the
team frozen in mild panic.
The woman felt a wave of panic and anxiety rushing through her brain, but it
was quickly shut down by the panther, as it grumbled. She was going to
complain, tell it that she didn't like it when she controlled her brain, but it
was the right thing to do. She couldn't think clearly while panicking.
All she was certain of was that they could not give up.
"What are we going to do?" Hunk asked, making Ariela frown.
"Keep fighting," she answered, matter of factly.
"We can't let that people die, Ariel," Shiro said. "Allura, do you know where
they are keeping the hostages?" he asked.
"Yes. It is underground. The robots don't fit on the passage and it's protected
by at least five Galra soldiers, not counting their stupid robots that cannot
be scanned by our sensors," the princess said. A collective groan was heard,
making Ari more confused.
"There's no way they'll let Voltron get near that place," Keith groaned,
clearly furious. "And we can't dissolve, they'll get us."
How confident are you with your individual combat skills? the panther asked,
its voice revealing how seriously it was taking the whole deal, surprising the
woman, who started to think.
"Well, I've never fought against a Galra soldier before, but I managed to pin
Shiro down," was her answer, and the whole team turned their eyes to her face
on their screens.
"You almost pinned me down," Shiro said, but Ariela shushed him.
I could get you to the entrance and, as long as you don't go too far, keep
fighting on my own while you take down the soldiers and free the hostages the
panther said.
"You can actually fight without me?" Ariela asked.
"Who is she talking to?" Keith followed.
"Allura, can the panther act without its paladin?" the woman insisted, ignoring
the rest of the team.
"Well, the panther and the paladin are the only things they have, so they were
both designed to be able to at least resist without one another. As long as you
don't lose the bond with it, the panther is able to put up a fight," the
princess answered. "What are you two thinking about?"
"Okay, this is what we'll do. I will get in the tunnels where they are keeping
the prisoners in less than a minute and take down the Galra soldiers. Whatever
happens, don't dissolve Voltron and don't let them get you," Ariela said, as
she piloted the panther over the coordinates Allura was sending her.
"Oh hell no, young lady. This is your first mission, you are not going to face
something like that alone," Lance complained, making her put on a disgust face.
"Lance, I'm four years older than you," she replied, as she got in between the
trees and left the panther in the ground, next to the entrance of a cave. "Is
there something I can use to go faster?" she asked.
You'll get along with it pretty well, I hope the panther said, as she went out
of it and something that looked like a motorbike with no weels and a place to
put your hands in instead of a handle. Surprisingly, it was white.
Ariela slid her left leg over the seat and laid down on her stomach, putting
her arms on the holes and discovering she had to burry them to the elbows,
feeling something like a big ball she could turn. Her legs soon found their way
into some support place and she rolled the ball forward, the bike starting off
and going at full speed.
"¡Ay, la puta madre que me parió!" she screamed, noticing how sudden the drop
of the cave was, and hoping this thing didn't smash suddenly against the
ground. Gladly, it didn't.
"Forty seconds, Ariela," Hunk sang on the intercom, and she dared to speed up.
The cave was a blur around her, barely illuminated by the weird shine of her
bike's propellers.
"The Galra are in the next turn," Allura warned her, and the woman slowed down
to a stop, getting down from the motorbike with wobbly legs and walking towards
the entrance of a cavern, hearing voices talking in a different language. She
peeked her head into the cavern and saw thousands of native people from
Menosfoir (humanoid creatures, but with no hair or noses, reddish skin and big
green eyes), one of them on their knees with the cannon of a Galra gun against
the back of their head.
The Galra soldiers were chatting among themselves, barely paying attention to
the slaves around them, probably waiting for a message to execute the hostage
and grab another.
Her breathing caught in her throat when she saw them. They were freaking-tall-
furries, with batlike ears, their whole bodies purple. So that was why they had
an obsession with that colour.
S
She hid behind the rock wall again and started taking deep breaths, studying
her surroundings and thinking about the situation.
The cave was really humid around her, water drops falling from the ceiling and
creating a calming cacophony, and a strange tight sensation on her brain was
botherin her, as she thought of her next move. When she felt a flash of anger
and wildness in that tight part, she noticed it was the place that had fused
with the panther, making her feel how they were apart in the middle of the
battle, making her uncomfortable. It felt unnatural not being on the robot. The
light that came out of torches hanging from the rock ceiling made the shadows
dance, giving the whole place a movie like environment.
Ariela grabbed her bayard and thought of the weapon. Coran had explained to her
that, as the panther's paladin usually worked alone and couldn't have the
luxury of specializing in just one kind of weapon, her bayard had a variety of
weapons it could turn to. In that moment, she thought of something that could
be used to attack from a distance.
It turned into some sort of space pistol, and she weighted it in her hands.
"Fifteen seconds," Hunk warned, voice hurried, and Ariela lifted the pistol and
shot.
A small ray of energy came out flying and went through the neck of the Galra
that held the gun against the slave. His partner suffered the same destiny as
he turned around to attack whoever had shot. The menosforeans quickly began to
murmur and cover themselves, but didn't move in fear.
She was easily spotted by the other three, and Ariela turned her bayard into a
khopesh for her right hand, as she talked in the intercom.
"I just took down two of them, keep attacking. They are focusing on me now,"
she said to them and, almost immediately, Shiro's voice was heard shouting
instructions and warnings.
Ariela run towards the Galra that was nearest her and brandished her sword,
intercepting the enemy's arm and cutting it off, causing a yelp of pain before
going through the soldier's neck. She was grabbed from behind while the dead
body fell to the floor, and she stopped the peak of a spear going through her
stomach with the armour of her legs, before kicking the Galra soldier that was
holding her in the nuts.
He let her go with a groan, and she attacked the one in front of her, making
her sword go through his throat, growling at the effort she had to make to go
through bone.
Something punched Ariela in the right arm and she heard a crack before
screaming in intense pain. She could hear Lance's worried voice over her own
pants and grunts, as the only Galra soldier left came near her, pointing at her
with a gun.
"You put a decent fight, I must say. It's a pity I have to kill you, you would
have made a fine gladiator," the soldier said , with a smug grin, as the gun
loaded.
Ariela rolled to her left, picking up the bayard in the progress and turning it
into a khopesh for her left hand. She stood up, jumping before a ray of energy
could get her in the legs, and made the sword cut the Galra soldier's throat
open.
She felt as that time she had gone into some sort of trance when practicing
with the panther, barely concious of anything excepting the enemy, not even
concious of her own body. But when she knew the five soldiers were dead, she
started to slowly come back to reality, noticing she had been producing a low
grumbling sound somehow, and that the menosforeans were looking at her with
wide green eyes, not knowing if she was a friend or another enemy.
Her breathing was raged and her arm hurt like hell.
"Ariela, are you okay?" Shiro asked, for the ninth time, and she finally felt
the ability to speak come back to her body.
"I took the five down, broke my arm in the process. Probably going to need
someone to pick me up," she said, as she slowly sat down on the stone grown,
green eyes following her every move. "Greetings, people from Menosfoir," was
the first thing she said.
One of them took a step forward and stood in front of the whole, trying to look
intimidating, and putting himself between Ariela and the rest. They had several
tattoos (that clearly talked about war and bravery) covering his thin and long
body, he was only wearing something like bagged pants made out of a horrible
material.
"Are you here to kill us all, warrior?" they asked, and Ariela started to shake
her head furiously.
"No. We are here to free you. I'm with Voltron, a team that's standing up to
the Galra empire. Voltron is taking the whole fleet down at this exact moment,"
she answered, and smiled when almost every menosforean relaxed. "I'm Ariela, by
the way. Nice to meet you."
****** *** ******
Half an hour later, the whole team was running towards her with worried faces,
the sound of their steps rising through the quiet conversations the
menosforeans were having.
She had managed to make the hostages sit down and listen to the story of
Voltron, sometimes stopping because the pain was making her vision fill with
little black dots. She had broken her arm before, and it wasn't supposed to
hurt that bad.
Hunk was the one to pick her up, as Allura told him to take her to the healing
pods. The guy looked at her with a smile, before noticing her pupils had a
weird shape, but he decided it was just a trick of the light and shrugged it
off.
"Jesus christ. Adrenaline wearing off is not something good," she said, as she
rested her head against Hunk's chest and closed her eyes.
Lance was eyeing the Galra bodies lying on the ground. They were all dead and
surrounded by pools of dark blood. He frowned as he thought of the pastel woman
that had made that bloody mess and fought with a broken arm. He knew what she
was capable of, for he had seen her in violent situations many times, but she
had never pictured her as someone that would kill without hesitation.
Well. He had done it too, after all.
Shiro got near him as Allura spoke with her royalty tone to the menosforeans,
and put his Galra hand on his shoulder, before squeezing slightly.
"I have to tell you. I never imagined she could do something like this when I
saw her for the first time," he whispered, watching how blood still flowed
weakly from a completely open neck.
"That's why I was so certain when I told you," Lance said with a little smile.
He frowned, looking around. "Where is Keith?"
"He said he didn't feel too well and went to the Castle of Lions to rest,"
Shiro said. "We will probably be staying here for a few days, as the castle
reloads energy and Allura deals with all the diplomatic stuff, so everyone will
have time to recover," he continued.
"How long will she have to be in the pod?" Lance asked.
"I don't think more than a few hours. Don't worry."
****** *** ******
She felt really cold and sore and awful. The images of her killing the Galra
soldiers replayed themselves over and over again, making her feel her gut
twisting and her palms sweating. It was as if she was trapped in some sort of
swirl that only made her feel worse.
Ariela wanted to cry. She had killed five aliens and broken her arm. It was a
shitty day. Although a content rumbling on her brain kind of kept her from
shedding tears, as she slept on the healing pod.
When the doors opened and she stumbled out of the thing it was already dark
outside. She took a step forward and fell face first to the floor, as Lance had
decided to sleep directly in front of the healing pod, not thinking of how that
could make her fall when she got out.
There were a few seconds of mild chaos in between them, none of the two
paladins actually knowing what was going on because they had just woken up, but
knowing there was a slight pain in a part of their bodies and that someone had
yelped. Lance was the first one to react, getting out from under Ariela and
helping her up.
"I don't think I have ever wanted to kill you more than a few hours ago," was
the first thing he said, hugging her close and slightly swaying from side to
side.
"I know. But I saved the day, right?" she asked, smiling against her brother's
chest and closing her eyes, the warmth of Lance's body feeling nice against her
own cold one, that was slowly starting to recover its normal temperature.
"You should have a shower and change. The menosforeans invited us to stay for a
few days in their palace, now that they have taken it back," he told her,
parting away and looking at her once more. "Oh, by the way. You might want to
talk to your panther. It's not that something bad happened, but Blue noticed
him a little bit uneasy." Ariela frowned.
"He? Blue?" she asked, looking at Lance with narrowed eyes.
"Oh, yeah. You are not the only one with a super strong bond with their lion.
Blue is mine, and she told me that your panther is a dude and that he was
uneasy," he clarified.
"Okay then. I'll go get a shower and go to talk to it..., him," she replied as
she nodded, starting the walk to her room.
****** *** ******
The panther was pacing around his hangar, rumbling lowly. He stopped the second
he felt Ariela's presence get near and turned to look at the woman. She was
wearing a white summer dress with blue flowers, and her blue flower crown. The
panther purred when he notices she was safe and sound, getting near and
nuzzling the tip of his snout against her stomach with care.
The things that flowed to Ariela's mind were not words, but feelings. It was
something really animalistic, that could only be translated into repeating the
phrases 'Worried, I was so worried' and 'Safe and healthy' over and over, a
feeling of warmth and happiness spreading over her chest and stomach.
"Hey there. I didn't know you cared so much about me," she laughed, tiredly
rubbing the smooth metal.
Fighting together only strengthens our bond. I could feel your pain when you
got hurt he explained to her, looking at her with robotic eyes but she knew
that, if they were alive, they would be expressing seriousness and worry.
"Oh," was all she said, as she sat down on the floor and caressed the robot in
silence for a few minutes. "Lance told me that Blue told him that you were a
guy," she blurted, making the panther tilt his head to a side.
Yeah, I'm a male. So? he asked, confused. Ariela shrugged.
"I don't know. Just wanted to share the information I learnt with you," she
answered, looking around. "Do you have a name?" she questioned, looking at him
again.
Besides from panther, not that I know he answered.
"Can I give you a name?"
There was a pause.
I'll hear your ideas he answered, lying on the floor and resting his head in
between his legs. Ariela imitated him, resting her chin on her knees, as she
thought for a while, as the panther patiently looked at her, swishing his tail.
"There's a story in my planet, about a boy that grew up in the wild, surrounded
by animals. One of his friends was a panther called Bagheera," she said,
raising an eyebrow, asking to him with that gesture what he thought.
What does the name mean? he questioned, rolling to his side.
"It literally means black panther," she answered, smiling as the panther
purred.
Bagheera it is then he said, before sitting back up. What does your name mean?
"It depends. For some people it means 'brave' and for others, it means 'lion of
God'," she answered as she shrugged.
That's funny. You should be piloting one of the lions instead of me Bagheera
said.
"Nah, they're too vanilla for me," she answered laughing. "Are yo ready to go
down and be greeted like a hero?"
It will certainly be weird. It's the first time I won a fight without killing
innocent people.
"They were underground, so don't count this as a victory. But don't worry,
we'll work on it."
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Notes
     So, this chapter has a little of Keith and Ariela back story (and a
     little bit of Shariela). I hope you like it.
See the end of the chapter for more notes
Pidge didn't know how menosforeans...., managed.
In five hours they had already recovered the castle, established who would be
ruling now that they had regained control over their planet, they had already
started distributing everything the Galra had kept from them and probably more
things that the new king was discussing with Allura in that exact moment.
They had invited the paladins to spend a few days at the royal Castle of
Menosfoir, a giant structure that reminded the girl of a Maya temple, only that
bigger and over the jungle instead of in it. The bedrooms rarely had windows
and she soon started to feel claustrophobic. It wasn't the same looking out and
seeing void than not being able to look out at all. Besides, they had given
them all traditional menosforean clothes, and she was wearing a green long
dress.
"Knock, knock," a voice said from outside her bedroom, instead of actually
knocking.
"Come in," she said, as she got up from the bed and watched as Ariela entered
the grey stone bedroom decorated with several hangings and colourful rocks and
plants.
The woman was stunning. The maids had given her a black dress similar to hers,
only it had a keyhole neckline instead of her 'U' neckline, and it had
needlework in silver thread, while hers was golden. The dress hugged her waist
nicely, heightening her features and the way the skirt seemed to flow around
her and the cut on the right leg made her legs look spectacular.
Pidge hugged herself, suddenly really conscious of how square she looked in
practically the same dress.
"How are you doing?" Ariela asked as she sat beside her in the bed. She was
wearing another flower crown, one with white flowers.
"Good. How's your arm?" Pidge asked, trying to make her voice sound cheerful,
but she couldn't, and the woman noticed immediately.
"What's wrong?" She was looking at her with a slight frown, an expression that
meant 'You have to tell me if you want me to go away'.
"I just miss my clothes. I'm not used to wearing this kind of stuff," she
answered, trying to rest it importance with a gesture of her hand. Ariela
opened her eyes widely.
"Are you kidding? I mean, I understand you are not used to wearing this kind of
clothes, but you look gorgeous!" Ariela said, disbelief staining her voice as
she smiled brightly when Pidge blushed.
"You really think so?" she asked, hugging herself even tighter.
"Have you seen in front of a mirror?" was the woman's answer.
They sat in silence for a little longer, not knowing what to do.
"So..., how did you feel on your first mission?" the girl asked, finally
turning to the woman. She had a weird expression on her face, a mix of excited
and something else that didn't seem good.
"It was..., weird. I liked everything but the part of killing, although I know
it was completely necessary and I would do it again," she answered, starting to
play with the skirt of her dress. "I got here half an hour ago, and Lance
started questioning me about how I felt, and it wasn't because of my arm, you
know?"
"It can get hard sometimes," Pidge nodded.
The door opened widely and three heads peeked inside the bedroom in curiosity,
before the paladins started flooding the bedroom without asking, just advancing
and dropping on Pidge's bed as if she wouldn't kill them with no hesitation.
"How long do you think Allura will talk with that king-guy?" Hunk asked as he
dropped on his back, making the bed tremble and the rest of the team laughed.
Shiro, who was sitting with his back against the headboard, started talking,
when Ariela noticed someone being missing.
"Where's Keith?"
They all rose their heads, but it was Lance who cleared his throat and
answered.
"Coran sad he had been overworking himself, and he was feeling sick. They will
stay at the Castle of Lions while he recovers," he said, and his sister could
notice the worry in his eyes, as he scratched his stomach over the blue tunic
they had given him.
"It's weird... Keith never gets sick," Shiro said, crossing his arms over his
chest and frowning.
They all looked pretty down and unhappy by the fact that Keith was not there.
She had to tell him the next time she saw him.
"So... Shiro, I'm going to have to ask you to change. Black is kind of my
colour," Ariela said after a big and awkward silence she didn't know how to get
out of at the beginning.
Just as Hunk was wearing a yellow tunic and Lance a blue one, Shiro was wearing
one that was black. Just like hers, it had needlework along the (insert Lance's
awkward laugh here) v-line neck with silver thread.
"I'm starving. When do you think they'll give us dinner. They dine, right?"
Hunk started to ask, and a menosforean appeared on the door, to tell them they
would be having dinner and, if they were so kind to follow her, she would lead
them to where princess Allura was.
****** *** ******
While they walked, the woman had explained to them that as things were still a
little bit messy (Shiro thought she must have been joking) they wouldn't be
hosting the big banquet until the next night, so this nights would be
something..., pretty chill.
When the woman opened the door, they found a room that looked like a bar.
There were low tables and poufs everywhere, everything with bright colours and
there were servants with trays taking food and drinks to everyone in the room.
Allura was still speaking with the new king near the soft music, and the
paladins would have gotten near if it wasn't because someone suddenly had a
knife in Pidge's throat.
It was lighting fast. Two guns, one..., long-ass knife and one prosthetic arm
ready to kill pointing at the... What the hell was that?
Again, a humanoid creature, but this had cat-like ears. whiskers, a tail and
fur over some parts of its skin. Claws were out, ready to cut someone and the
teeth were showing in a muted growl.
"Let her go," Shiro said lowly, with a dangerous voice. Pidge looked at him
with surprised eyes, purple light lighting her face.
The music had stopped playing, and everyone was silently looking at the tall
alien with red hair and amber eyes and the paladins in dead silence. The king
started walking towards them, calling 'Anferum, leave them alone!'. Anferum
sniffed the air, looking at Lance with a frown. The king got near them and the
alien let go of Pidge but attacked Ariela.
She immediately retreated and deviated the knife with hers, before jumping and
avoiding being swept to the floor.
Just as it had happened with Keith, the place became a gladiator arena in
seconds, but this had nothing friendly in it, and although people wanted to
stop them, no one quite dared. Both fighters moved quite similarly, almost as
if they were doing some kind of antique dance that represented a battle instead
of actually dying. It reminded Shiro a little bit of capoeira.
"Can you please tell her to stop?" the king cried out suddenly, before jumping
over the man and knocking him over. It startled the woman a little bit, not
knowing what to do now that there was someone in the middle, but the second
Anferum pushed the king off of him with something similar to worry, she
prepared to attack again. Shiro followed the menosforeans example and grabbed
the woman's knife with his right hand, it turning into her bayard when she let
go of it.
"Why the hell did you attack me?" she immediately shouted once the man had
started to get up, tail swishing restlessly behind his body. His pupils were
slitted and he seemed pleased with god knows what.
"I need to discuss something with the king if you excuse me. I hope you enjoy
the party," he said while he reverenced, before grabbing the king's hand and
pulling him out t the room with much confidence.
Ariela whispered 'Oh no you didn't', but when she was about to follow them
Shiro grabbed the back of her dress and held her in place, laughing at the way
she tried to keep walking and her feet slid through the floor making a
shuffling sound.
"Do you know what just happened, princess?" she asked Allura once she got near,
finally accepting the fact that Shiro wouldn't let her go and break the damned
guy's face with her fists. The rest of the team had gathered around them too.
"I don't know. The king just told me who he is. He is the last Malteian alive,
or that's what we all think. Some escaped before Zarkon got them, but he sent
troops to finish them, so we have no idea if they actually survived," she
started, fidgeting with her Altean dress. They hadn't given her traditional
clothes. "He takes the king's life too seriously. Maybe he saw you as a
threat?" she asked, looking around.
Ariela smiled pleased, before smaking Shiro in the pec with a hand and Lance in
the shoulder with other, telling them with a smug grin "I am the threat, not
you".
"That guy gives me the creeps. I don't want him near you," Hunk growled,
surprisingly, as he set one of his hands in each of the latino's shoulders.
"Did you see how he looked at Lance? And the way he attacked you instead of
Shiro... I think he wants to hurt you two," he explained himself.
"Aww, Hunk. You're so sweet, but I don't think he deliberately wants to hurt
us," Ariela said, as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"I don't know, Ari. Last time had a bad feeling about someone he was right,"
Lance told the woman, jaw squaring while he looked towards the door the
Malteian and the menosforean king had used to disappear.
"I say we relax and just enjoy the evening. You deserve it, paladins. You've
fought well," Allura said, as she grabbed some glasses from a tray, with a
bright blue liquid that looked like neon lights.
"Cheers to the defenders of the universe," Pidge said, raising her glass, as
everyone imitated her, before drinking.
****** *** ******
Lance felt too dizzy to his comfort, and the second he started ranting to
Ariela about how he was worried about Keith and how he wanted to see him, he
had had the sudden realization that, whatever the delicious blue drink was, it
had effects similar to alcohol and that he should stay away from it.
He had gotten drunk before; Argentina's legal drinking age was eighteen and he
had come of age last summer. So while visiting Ariela in her hometown, they hit
a few clubs and he ended up getting drunk alongside with his big sis. She
explained to him that he was a crier and a cuddler, while she suddenly loved
everyone and her inhibitions just flew out of the window.
Before he accidentally confessed to someone he had a massive crush on his
teammate, he decided to head out, maybe even go to his bedroom. He stumbled
across the room, leaving Ariela, Shiro and Pidge ranting alone about conspiracy
theories while being drunk (yes, Pidge was fucking drunk) and got out, the door
closing behind him and almost killing the loud music of the party.
He saw the shadow getting near him and turned to face it, stumbling over his
own feet and almost falling in the process. A soft and pawed hand closed around
his wrist and pulled him towards the person, making him crash against a
tattooed chest.
"Who are you?" Anferum asked, a small squint in his eyes.
"I'm..., Lance. Paladin of the blue lion, and I'll kick your ass if you don't
let me go," he replied, words slippery and coming out with a big effort, before
he pulled his hand back, but it didn't give.
Anferum had it in an iron grip, and without saying a word, he pulled the wrist
closer to his nose and taking a deep breath, closing his eyes. Was that guy
scenting him?
"Your blood smells really appealing, Lance. Is the woman with short hair your
sister?" he asked, getting even nearer.
"Em, no from the blood. We're like, soul siblings," he answered, trying to shut
down the tickling sensation that started to spread over him as the guy got his
face near his neck, making drunk Lance almost quiver every time he felt a hot
puff of air against his skin.
"Are you sure you are not related?" Anferum asked, and his voice made Lance
finally retreat, feeling chills running down his spine.
"Well, we're both latin. That's the closest physical bond we have," he
answered, a little Lance on the back of his mind asking him why he was still
having a conversation with Mister Sniffer.
The alien looked at him with his bright eyes before turning and walking away.
"Is there a way of finishing a conversation with this guy?" Lance asked
himself, as he retook his way to his bedroom, a little less light-headed.
****** *** ******
Ariela lived near Brazil, had to Brazilian relatives and loved learning new
languages.
Somehow, she had never even thought about learning Portuguese, think that she
was regretting as she heard Shiro speak fluently about only he knows what,
having reverted to his native language the second the flush on his face grew to
his ears and neck.
He kept on licking his lips and pushing strands of hair back in the sexiest way
and Ariela was weak. She didn't count on this when she signed up for Galra-
fighting. No, the hot guys are only a plus she thought to herself, as she
tilted her head and hummed.
"E as danças, Jesus você deve ter visto aqueles," Shiro was saying, with a
glint in his dark eyes. He seemed to have a bright idea, as he grabbed both
Ariela's hands and pulled her closer. "Quando voltar para a Terra Vou levá-lo
para dançar Zamba. Eu aposto que você olharia surpreendente..." he started,
before going on and on, but Ariela just nodded and let the words wash through
her mind, feeling like she was being spoken in the language of sex because
JESUS CHRIST.
She grabbed his face, making him pout lips and stop talking, before bringing
his face really close to hers.
"Te quiero comer la boca. Agradecé que sos como mi jefe, porque si no mañana no
tenías labios," she told him. The fact that Shiro closed his eyes and almost
shivered while he hummed didn't help at all.
"Let's stop the sexual tension," Pidge said, before just letting herself fall
in between the paladins' faces, scaring them both and unleashing several
insults in five different languages.
Once the alcohol like thing started to wear off, Shiro was conscious of how
close Ariela was, head leaning on his shoulder and one of her hands over his
left, that was resting on her hips just like the other one, and the right one
on his nape, scratching slightly, sending shivers down his spine as they swung
slowly to the (what seemed like) jazz music.
He was also suddenly very aware of how menosforeans were looking at them with
judging eyes and frowns.
"I think we should sit down," he told her.
Ariela opened her eyes and he saw the way her pupils were slightly blown. The
blush of the alcohol was still there and her lips were really wet.
"I don't feel like moving," was her answer, as she turned around and settled
herself in Shiro's chest, sliding her right arm over his shoulder and to his
nape too.
"Don't make me carry you bride style," he said, and she laughed lowly. He was
able to feel it against his skin.
"That doesn't sound like a threat at all to me, captain," she said, eyes still
closed, and Shiro rolled his eyes, feeling all the eyes on them. He just picked
her up, lifting her feet a few centimetres from the floor, and walked towards
the couches, where he sat her and then sat beside her.
Now that he was so aware of himself and the woman again, the humour in Allura
and Hunk trying to control a drunk Pidge in the background was gone, and the
awkwardness of the silence between Ariela and him was heavier.
"So, Ariela... How's your family?" he asked, as he rubbed his sweaty palms
against the thighs of his white pants.
"I don't know. I haven't seen them in...," she started, before counting with
her fingers and raising them up once she had finished. "Seven years."
"What? Why?" Shiro frowned, the awkwardness slowly fading away.
"Oh. My parent's kicked me out when I told them I was bisexual, so I went to
live with my lesbian aunt in the USA," she answered.
"Really?" he asked, making the woman snort, while she shook her head.
"No. It's all a lie for you to pity me," she said, her eyebrows rising when she
spotted a servant carrying a tray with drinks towards them. She rose her hand,
but Shiro took it and
looked at the menosforean woman with a smile.
"Could you bring her some food, please?" he asked, murmuring a thank you when
the woman nodded.
"Party pooper," Ariela huffed, as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You are
not fun when you're sober. I should have taken my chance and made out with you
while you were still drunk," she complained, letting herself rest against his
side. Shiro rose his eyebrows, feeling the blush creep up his neck.
They fell in silence again, until the woman returned with a bowl of what looked
like grilled beef. Ariela ate it with pleasure, as she watched how Hunk carried
Pidge away from the room.
"How did you meet Keith?" she asked in a moment, surprising him.
"Oh, well... The house where I was staying while I was in my first year of the
Garrison also worked as a foster home. It was the house where Keith stayed the
most. After that, he struggled to get into the Garrison, and he managed to," he
answered, with a smile.
"So he is an orphan. I had my suppositions, you know? The way he takes care of
himself and how touch and love deprived he is..." she said.
"You think he is love and touch deprived?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"Yeah. You should see the way his eyes gleam when someone praises him, and the
way physical contact weirds him out but calls to him at the same time. I've
caught him staring when Lance and I cuddle in the sofas many times," she
explained herself.
"You two are too comfortable with physical tough," he laughed.
"I've cuddled and kissed all of my friends, hot stuff. Cuddling your brother is
like the 101 on how to sister," she said as if it was natural. "I just assumed
it was something all Latins had ease with."
"You seem to forget that part of my family was Japanese," he said, with a
smile.
"You know what I just noticed?" And away the conversation goes.
"What?"
"You are Takashi Shirogane," Ariela said, her eyes wide open as if she had just
discovered the cure to cancer. Shiro shrugged.
"Yeah, so?" he asked, and the woman turned slowly to him, before smiling
widely.
"That means I can call you Shishi."
Chapter End Notes
     -E as danças, Jesus você deve ter visto aqueles: And the dances,
     Jesus, you should have seen those...
     -Quando voltar para a Terra Vou levá-lo para dançar Zamba. Eu aposto
     que você olharia surpreendente: When we do back to Earth I'm taking
     you to dance Zamba. I bet you'll look amazing.
     -Te quiero comer la boca. Agradecé que sos como mi jefe, porque si no
     mañana no tenías labios: I want to kiss your face off. You should be
     glad you are somewhat my boss, because you wouldn't have lips
     tomorrow morning otherwise.
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Summary
     This chapter is a little bit longer than the rest, but I just felt I
     couldn't finish it where I originally planned to. I hope you like it.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Lance's door suddenly opened and Ariela walked in, in a dress that was really
similar to the one she had worn the night before, except this one was short,
white and with black decorations instead of silver.
"Dude, I got breakfast served to me on my bed. I feel like a fucking queen,"
she said to him with the brightest smile on her face. Hunk, that was already
dressed and sitting on Lance's bed laughed out loud, while Lance snorted, his
face still hidden on the inside of his new tunic while he was putting it on.
"We kind of saved their world, Ari. It's normal they treat us like this," Hunk
said, and her smile only turned brighter.
"I'm a warrior queen," she said, opening her arms.
"Of course you are, big sis," Lance said, as he sat alongside Hunk, and
suddenly remembered. "Hey, do you know who I talked to last night? Mister Hello
Kitty, and he scented me," he told them.
"What the fuck, man? Did you push him away?" Hunk asked, as Ariela still looked
into the void with a wrinkled nose, imagining what it would be like to have
Anferum the creep sniffing your body.
"No, I was too drunk and there was a mouth too close to my neck for me to be
able to react," he answered, making Ariela shot her eyes towards Hunk, muscles
tense and ears up. Lance made a gesture with his hand to dismiss the situation.
"I may have accidentally told him yesterday," was Lance's answer, and Hunk
shrugged.
"I already knew. I know a little bit of Spanish, and everyone can hear the
stuff you scream at Keith," Hunk said, and Ariela's ears were up again. Lance
like the kid that had been caught in a lie.
"He yells things at Keith? What?" she asked, with a curious smile.
"Yeah. He once told him something like: 'Corazón de arroz, la que me cuelga es
para vos'," Huk answered, and Ariela looked as if she had suddenly been punched
in the gut, air escaping her lungs and slowly falling to the floor. "I didn't
quite get what it means, but I know it's a pickup line."
"Believe me, handsome, you don't want to know what that means," Ariela told
him, as she sat beside Lance and slipped a hand through his shoulders. "So, can
I call Keith cuñado or it's off limits?"
"You will do whatever you want anyway," Lance groaned, face buried in between
his hands.
"Lance? I'm glad you're here. Have you seen... Oh. Hi, Ariela" Shiro was at the
door, wearing a white tunic like the rest of the guys. Ariela smiled widely and
opened her arms as if she was going to run towards the man and hug him.
"Shishi! Long time no see!" was what she said, making Shiro roll his eyes to
another dimension before saying what he was doing there.
"The king wants to see you two, but we can all go." The environment turned
tense with the man's words, and Lance and Ariela clearly started to feel
uncomfortable.
"Why would he want to see us?" she asked, already serious and getting up,
feeling panic rise through her body. Lance was still sitting on his bed, trying
to imagine a motive.
"Something that has to do with Anferum," was Shiro's answer.
****** *** ******
The king's office was wide and at the top of the castle. It was the only room
in the castle that had windows on every wall, a motive to books not being kept
there, and the office working as some sort of thinking and meeting hall. There
were paintings hanging on the walls and plants in between windows, and a huge
round table of wood was set in the middle. It had a story carved on it, but
Allura was too nervous to actually pay attention to it.
"How do you think they will take it?" the king asked her, worry filling his
face.
He was young, Allura thought. He would be in his twenties, and he was pretty
much inexperienced, but she somehow knew he would make a great leader. They way
he
worried about people just said it.
"I don't care, as long as she does what she must," Anferum answered. He had his
arms crossed over his chest and was giving his back to them, looking out of one
of the windows to the different edifications that rose from the selvatic forest
too. Anger bubbled up in the pit of her stomach.
"She doesn't owe you anything, warrior. And if you keep talking about her like
that, she will certainly not do anything to help you," Allura said, watching as
the steady pace of the swishing of Anferum's tail stopped and he tensed his
shoulders.
Steps and voices were heard, and five paladins appeared in the room, mumbling
between themselves.
Shiro knew something fishy was up the second he saw Allura's worried face and
noticed her fidgeting with her dress. No one said anything, and the long and
awkward silence made the king act, speaking with a soft voice.
"Lance. You told my bodyguard something yesterday, about you and the black
warrior being something similar," the king said, getting near them with a
gentle demeanour.
"Yes, we are Latins. That means we are from the same kind of human... Or
something like that," Lance explained, while nodding. Shiro also noticed how
his sister's fingers tangled with his almost immediately.
"Well, Anferum thinks that this..., Latins may have something to do with
Malteians," the king explained, and the bodyguard finally turned around.
"What?" Pidge asked, adjusting her glasses, confused.
"Many of my people escaped when we knew the Galra would come to destroy us. My
ancestor was given the coordinates of the place they would be going to, so that
if we were ever freed we would be able to reencounter, but I never minded
checking on them until yesterday," Anferum said, as he pressed a button on the
table.
A hologram screen appeared, and he wrote something on it. A picture of the
Earth was shown in blues and whites almost immediately. Ariela already knew
where this was going and where it would end, but she didn't want to see it.
"I can smell Malteain blood in you two, although it is slightly stronger in the
woman," he proceeded. "She also has de instincts of Malteian fight, and I can
you both have the adaptability signature of my species," he explained.
"That's not possible, we are human," Ariela said, voice steady and eyes
emotionless.
"Malteia is a really hostile environment, so the natives can basically
shapeshift to their needs. It's and adaptable race," the king started
explaining, as he got nearer Lance and Ariela. "We believe the ones that
escaped made it to your planet and mixed with the humans."
"Okay, we are a fifth alien. I get it. Why is it important?" Lance asked,
holding Ariela's hand tightly.
"Well, you could be the last of a species, along with me," Anferum answered.
"There's a way to prove it, and activate your malteian genes to give you our
abilities."
"That is if they have enough malteian blood in them. We could run some
tests..." Allura started but Anferum was shaking his head rapidly, eyes closed
and tail swishing with impatience.
"The smell of their blood is almost drowning. I'm certain they have what it
takes," he told everyone with a strong tone, making Hunk frown.
There was a silence, and everyone turned to the two Latins. Lance had his eyes
wide open, lips slightly parted, and his pupils were tiny. Hi looked from side
to side, almost in panic as he analized what he had just been said. Ariela,
meanwhile, wasn't moving a muscle. She had her jaw clenched and her eyes
fixated in a particular stone of the floor. Anferum moved towards them, but
Lance reacted.
"No way. I have a family and I wouldn't like to look like a damn furry when I
see them again, thank you," he said, breaking the silence and retreating when
the malteian tried to get near him to convince him, but Ariela stood in place.
"If we can shapeshift we can turn to humans again when we go to Earth," she
told him. And although it was a perfectly reasonable thing to say, her brother
didn't like it at all.
"¿Me estás jodiendo, Ari?" Lance asked her, truly scared.
"Think of it, Lance. We would be able to shapeshift! We can be as strong and as
agile as we want. Do you have any idea of how that would improve our chances in
battle?" she asked him, serious face and scared eyes.
Hunk frowned again when he heard Anferum purr in content.
"I don't care. I don't want to be some kind of half alien weirdo. If you want
to then go ahead, I'm not fucking stopping you," Lance said, letting go of her
hand and running downstairs, startling everyone.
Ariela gulped and her eyes started roaming over the room the moment Lance's
head disappeared. Shiro frowned when he noticed actual insecurity in her eyes
and the way she was looking for some support in one of them. He reached out to
put a hand on her shoulder, but her eye's met Allura's and the princess was
already speaking.
"I think the best we can do is give Ariela a little time to think about
everything," she said, using her royal tone.
"I don't think it would be wise to wait," Anferum growled.
"Well, bo-hoo. She needs to think, and your impatience is not rushing her,"
Hunk told the malteian, standing beside the woman and trying to use his six
feet two to intimidate the five feet eleven of the alien. Ariela actually
grabbed the bottom of Hunk's shirt and hung from it, hiding herself a little
bit behind him.
"Our servants can take you to meet the town, so you can clear your head and
meet the kingdom you saved. Besides, there's an amazing hot spring that you
should visit," the king said, putting a friendly hand on Ariela's shoulder, and
the woman whispered a thank you, as she turned to the stairs.
Just as they had arrived they were gone.
"I hope you are a hundred percent sure of this, Anferum," Allura told the
malteian, and he looked at her dead in the eye.
"Completely sure she will be able to make it."
****** *** ******
It was already five in the afternoon, and she was sliding a robe off her body
to just appear naked in front of Allura and Pidge, as she walked into the hot
water and let it swallow her until only her face was on the surface. She
wouldn't mind drowning there and dying.
They had gone to the menosforean market and discovered that they had only one
thing in common. They drank mate (or chimarrão, as Shiro called it), and the
moment the two Latins had spotted a package where they sold you a flask for the
water, the bombilla, the mate and the yerba, they had gone crazy and the
malteian had gifted a package each. Shiro and Ariela had proceeded to prepare
and pass the mate around in the group, as it was done in their countries.
They had all loved the strong flavour, specially Allura.
Now, they were at the hot springs, relaxing. Except for Ariela. Now that
silence left space on her mind, it was filled with the inner debate of what she
should do with this whole malteian thing.
It had scared her to no end, being something she didn't know how exactly was,
but it didn't seem that bad. She would gain shapeshifting, and that was a huge
pro. If her appearance changed she could always shapeshift into a normal human.
The only thing that ringed a bell in her mind was how Anferum had said that
they were the lasts of a species.
And, only to add to her concerns, Lance had been acting surly with her the
whole time, while they walked around stands of menosforean jewelry he had
actually made her trip, and although he usually did it to pick up a fake fight,
it almost seemed as if he wanted her to actually get hurt. She had just looked
at him with pained eyes and walked away.
"Do you have any idea on what to do?" Pidge asked her from a corner, hugging
her legs close to her chest. She felt really vulnerable. Allura, on the other
side, was comfortably sitting with her wet hair floating in the pool.
"I think I might say yes. There is no real con," Ariela confesed, calling
Allura's attention. "Would I have to stay in Malteia if I did whatever I had to
do to activate my genes?" she asked, and Allura shook her head.
"Besides there's no one to actually hold you back. Anferum is just one silly
guy, and you could take him down. He's awfully out of shape," Allura said,
shrugging, trying to make it not sound important. "It's a pity Lance refused so
strongly to it. It would have been an improvement for him," she added, sighing.
"I would be much more tranquil if I knew he wasn't just some tiny human that
can be crashed."
"Thanks," Pidge muttered.
"Sorry, Pidge, but you know what I mean," the princess replied.
"What would I have to do to activate my genes?" Ariela asked, calling Allura's
attention again.
"Anferum said something about a ritual of initiation. It seems that even the
native Malteians didn't quite develop the shapeshifting ability until they were
dropped on the outside of the planet. It is really hostile,s o their body would
adapt to survive," she explained. "I guess all you'd have to do is go to
Malteia and..., be there for a while," was her final answer.
"If I don't die in the process, I guess it's okay," Ariela sighed, before
sinking in the hot water again.
****** *** ******
Anferum wanted to go alone with her. Ariela refused and asked Lance to
accompany her, but he refused, saying that he wouldn't be a part of it with
gloomy eyes and refusing to actually look at his sister, before walking away.
Allura had to stay with the king, and Hunk and Pidge insisted on Shiro being
the one to go, as they secretly trusted neither Anferum nor themselves to
defend Ariela from the malteian warrior if something happened to her.
She had visited Bagheera and put her space suit inside him while explaining to
him the whole situation. The panther had listened quietly and told her to just
suck it up and do it, she could deal with that bratty little brother of hers
later. Shiro called her by the intercom and told her that they would be all
riding on the black lion, just as a precaution.
And now they were flying on Malteia's surface, in the black lion, that had
received the three of them with open arms, but a strong and leader-ish aura
still pressing into them, as if it wanted to be discreet about its power.
"Black doesn't know what to think about him," Shiro told Ariela in an
opportunity they both thought Anferum couldn't hear them. He was sat in the
pilot chair, looking with a serious face at the screen. He hadn't torn his eyes
from it from the second he had sat, although they had been chatting the whole
time. She leant in, resting part of her weight on the back of the chair,
leaving her head at the same level than Shiro's.
"Really?"
"Yeah. He says he feels something familiar in him, but there's still something
weird about him," Shiro explained in the name of his robot, gripping the levers
tightly, as they landed quietly in the grey sand dessert. Thunderstorm clouds
rolled in the sky and made them all want to hurry.
In seconds they were already outside, strong winds trying to push them to the
ground. Ariela's hands were sweating already, as Anferum explained to her she
would have to take her helmet off and let the environment crash with her. He
seemed to be okay, but he had told her that he had been exposed to the planet
when he was young, so he could shapeshift into a menosforean to protect the
royal family, like his family had been doing for generations.
"If I notice it is too much I'll take you back to the lion," Shiro told her
with a strong voice, that let her know he wouldn't listen to complaints. She
was glad, though. She somehow knew the air would be able to easily kill her if
she didn't have what it took.
"Are you ready, Ariela?" Anferum asked, and she took a deep breath, before
taking her hands to her helmet and taking it off, that air inside it making a
weird noise when it mixed with Malteia's air.
The first thing she noticed was that it smelt like sulfur. Then she felt the
sand hitting her face and making it itch violently.
The air quickly made its way into her body, making her dizzy and lightheaded.
She could stand something like a minute and a half before she let herself drop
to the hot sand, as thunder roared in the distance, and Anferum told her
supportive phrases she didn't quite catch, as she was too worried about the
oxygen not reaching her lungs. She was leaning on her arms trying to count her
breaths as she watched the sand swirl in front of the eyes, trying to avoid
thinking about the earthy and awful taste she had in her mouth.
The burning sensation started, and then her whole body ached and tingled,
making her feel like she was being burned alive inside-out and wanting to truly
die. She let out a muffled scream of pain through gritted teeth and felt tears
start to prickle at her eyes, that were burning. Shiro had started to get
nervous the moment the woman dropped to the ground, face pale and sweat already
running down her temples, but when she started screaming like they were
skinning her alive he started to panic, already running to put the helmet on
her again, but Anferum stopped him.
"Don't! The pain is necessary!" he told the paladin, ripping the helmet from
his hands and throwing it away.
Shiro bit his tongue and watched as Ariela kept on screaming from her place in
the ground, where she had laid in fetal position. Although the heat of the
planet, he was feeling a cold sweat drip down his back. He lost his shit a few
minutes later when she started to gasp as if someone was choking her, her whole
body rigid and skin paper white.
"Is it supposed to go this way?" he asked. Anferum nodded, but he didn't look
certain, but then he saw something black fall from the woman's mouth. The
paladin's eyes opened
widely. "Give me her helmet!" Shiro yelled, as the malteian ran through sand to
fetch it and he kneeled beside her.
Ariela's eyes were entirely white, and when he searched for her pulse on her
neck he noticed that her heartbeat was going too fast. His breath caught it his
throat as he lifted her head.
"Oh, god, she's dying," Shiro said, as he caught a glimpse of Anferum running
towards them with the black helmet on his hand.
Shiro picked her up and started going towards him, so they could make the
distance shorter, and the malteian put the helmet on her head the second he was
able to, but Ariela didn't get better, despite being able to breathe purified
air.
"We need to get her to the castle, right now," he said, tail stuck to his body
in panic, as they ran towards the black lion.
****** *** ******
Lance was locked in his bedroom, reading the notebook in front of him as if he
was studying for a final, trying to push the thoughts about Ariela going to
Malteia out of his mind.
A few days after she had arrived at the Castle of Lions, Lance had asked her
for a notebook and a pen. She had given him a spiral one, that had only three
pages with notes about Sigmund Freud written.
It had all started when he had struggled to remember the name of his youngest
brother (Colin) one day while talking to Hunk. The name seemed to escape his
mind and panic had raised through all of his body. He was slowly forgetting his
life on earth. So, when he saw the chance of remembering everything, he had
taken the notebook and written everything he knew. Names, dates, memories,
places, everything.
He thought about home whenever he had the chance, trying to avoid the sharp
pain in his chest because he missed everything so much. Before Ariela, the only
thing he had from Earth beside his clothes was himself and his friends.
His sister wanting to abandon her humanity just for the promise of strength
made him sick. Was she forgetting Earth and how important it was to them too?
He had tried to play with her, trying to make her trip, but she seemed to have
forgotten their little game too, because she had just walked away, making him
feel like garbage.
After Colin comes Chloé, his twin. She's two, and she loves when you sing
Disney duet songs and act them out in front of them. Her favourite is "I won't
say I'm in love", Ariela singing Meg's part and Lance and his older siblings
being the muses he told to himself, looking at the notes he had taken about his
little sister.
There were screaming and banging, making him shoot his head up and run to the
door. Hunk was there, breathing heavily.
"Something's wrong with Ariela," was all he said, before grabbing Lances's
wrist and pulling him through corridors. In a few seconds, the teen understood
what his friend meant and he started running as fast as he could, breath
hitching and panic rising through his throat.
Oh, please, let her be okay. If something bad happens to her I'll kill myself
he thought, as he caught eye of Shiro running like a mad man, carrying Ariela
bride style and a group of menosforeans following him with several things in
their hands, shouting instructions.
"ARIELA!" he screamed, and Shiro turned but didn't stop running. The woman
didn't react.
The menosforeans entered a room with a high white bed and told Shiro to lay her
there. They immediately started taking off her space suit, and Lance's eyes
opened widely the moment he caught sight of her veins being a sick-dark-grey
that made her look like a zombie.
She started to convulse, scaring everyone and making who seemed to be doctors
even more agitated. They told Shiro to hold her legs down, and suddenly Lance
was pinning her right hand, being able to see the thin layer of sweat that
covered her body and how a black thing was coming out of her mouth and nose.
"What is happening to her?" he asked, voice panicked and at the verge of tears,
but no one answered.
"Move!" a menosforean screamed at Hunk, before sinking a needle with a clear
and transparent liquid on her jugular.
Ariela slowly stopped shaking, her eyelids finally covering her white eyes, and
started breathing, really raged and choked, but breathing.
"I'm afraid we need you out of the room, paladins," a menosforean dressed in
white stated, pulling Lance apart from his sister, making him react rather
violently, pushing her away and returning to her side.
"I want to be here!" he screamed, but then he was being pulled away by Shiro.
"ARIELA! NO!¡DÉJENME VERLA!" he shouted, as the man took him out of the bedroom
and pinned him against the wall, telling him to calm down over and over again.
Lance just sobbed.
"I want to know what's wrong."
****** *** ******
"You told us you were certain she had enough blood to survive."
The paladins and princess Allura entered the king's office, just to catch him
yelling at the malteian, who seemed to be in the middle of a breakdown.
Hunk had to hold Lance down. HPidge was keeping his bayard, but the teen had no
problem on launching to the guy that had made his sister be like that. The man
that had put her in danger.
"I thought it was enough," Aferum answered in a whisper to the king, eyes stuck
to his head and tail hugging his waist.
"How do I know you're not lying again?" the king muttered through gritted
teeth. "You knew it wasn't enough, but you were so desperate you tried anyways.
You didn't care for her life as long as you had someone who you could mate
with," he continued, and he knew he was right the moment he saw how Anferum's
eyes sunk low. "I can't believe you."
"You were going to leave. The best I could do was save my species if I wasn't
going to be with someone I loved," the malteian answered, making the king's
shoulders tense. "I'm sorry, Feer."
"I told you we would figure it out," he said to Anferum, before turning to the
paladins, that were watching everything, not quite knowing how to react.
"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Lance shouted, as squirmed out of Hunk's grip and ran
for it, but Allura caught him from the hood and held him back.
"You told us our paladin was perfectly safe," Allura recriminated, pointing at
the malteian with an accusatory finger and looking like she was about to start
a blood bath.
"I'm sorry. I trusted in my bodyguard too much, but I'm sure she will make it
alive. If she's made it this far, there is not something she can't overcome,"
the king said, raising his hands as if that would make them calm down.
"What happened to her?" Lance asked, voice hoarse from screaming and crying.
"The air poisoned multiple parts of her body. It enhanced her genes and started
the change, but she wouldn't have survived. We will be able to clean her body
from all the toxins and she will be perfectly fine," the king rushed to answer.
"She didn't look perfectly fine," Shiro answered harshly, making Anferum
squirm.
"We know. It's just the venom isn't nice to the body, but well make it go away.
Menosforeans have experience with this kind of stuff, she'll be okay in a
couple of days."
"She better is, or we'll have a problem," Hunk stated, crossing his arms over
his chest.
****** *** ******
The only thing Ariela was aware of was that she couldn't move. Something held
her down in the few lucid minutes she had from time to time, before falling
back into the darkness. She wanted to speak, call for her, but her throat was
ridiculously dry and nothing but a mere croak sound would come out. At least
the burn and ache were over.
She didn't have a dream, not once, but there was a moment when she stopped
thrashing around and actually started to rest while unconscious, feeling like
her head was a little bit clearer every time she woke up.
And, one day, she finally felt like she was in control of her own body.
She woke up because of a smell. It was a mix of soap, spices and summer that
made her body relax and her mind feel at ease. She had never smelled that thing
before in her life, but her mind seemed to recognise it easily because she
spoke even before opening her eyes.
"Lance," she called, slowly opening her eyelids, as her ears caught the sound
of clothes ruffling and breathing and..., a heartbeat picking up?
"She's awake," Lance announced, and she finally was able to focus her eyesight,
catching a glimpse of bloodshot and tired blue eyes before Lance closed them
and hugged her, making her groan at the way her body still hurt. The smell
became even stronger, at it mixed with several more, making her head swim in
unknown and kind of animalistic feelings she hadn't known before.
"How are you feeling?" Pidge asked, voice high, as someone pushed a glass of
water against her lips.
She drank, closing her eyes and enjoying the feeling of cool water running down
her throat with a hum.
"Weird," she answered, once the glass was pulled away from her.
"You'll feel like that until you get used to your new self," Shiro told her,
and Ariela frowned.
"What?" Everyone exchanged awkward glances.
"While you were out your body changed. You aren't like Anferum, but you are
kind of halfway there," Hunk explained.
"So I actually had malteian blood," she breathed, before dropping her head,
letting Lance's arms hold it. "Oh, god. I must look awful."
Chapter End Notes
     -Corazón de arroz, la que me cuelga es para vos: Heart of rice, the
     thing that hangs between my legs is for you (T.N: This is a pickup
     line really common in Argentina, and many people use it as a joke all
     the time because of how gross it is)
     -Cuñado: Brother in law.
     -¡DÉJENME VERLA!: LET ME SEE HER!
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Summary
     Okay, so in this chapter we finally reveal what was wrong with Keith,
     and is basically a chapter that will allow me to explain the whole
     deal later and to present better the relationships that are being
     born :3
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Ariela was fucking huge.
The three days she had been completely unconscious and suffering alone in one
of the infirmary's beds, surrounded by menosforeans doctors and tied down so
they could avoid her hurting herself while no one was looking, she had changed.
Not as much as she would have if she had had more Malteian blood, but it was
enough to make Lance feel angry.
For starters, she had suddenly grown at least four inches, and she now reached
to his ear, when in the past she barely made it to his neck. Her body was
leaner too, the little pudginess she had on her stomach going away, but stretch
marks were every-fucking-where, making her groan constantly while she
discovered the white lightning like marks over her body. It had been like a
three-day-puberty, her whole body growing non-stop, including her hair, that
went from the almost undercut to shoulder length.
Her ears were pointy now too, not as much as an Altean, but they had an elf air
and they moved a lot more now. Her pupils were slitted, and her iris had gone
from slight amber to straight up gold, almost shining in the dark. Her nose
wasn't straight anymore, the tip quirked a little bit upwards, and her
eyelashes were really bushy. Her skin was tanner too, and she seemed to move
with a certain grace that hadn't been there before. Her nails were longer and
stronger too.
"I don't know how to express how sorry I am," Anferum said again, without
looking at Ariela in the eye.
They hadn't had the banquet, and Allura made clear the would be coming back to
finally celebrate sometime in the future, as they said goodbye to everyone.
Anferum had explained to Ariela that she wouldn't be able to actually
shapeshift, but her arima was totally adaptable now.
"Do you have any idea of what arima is?" Lance asked, as each of them went into
their robot, speaking over a private conversation.
"No idea. I'll ask Coran when I meet him. Did you visit Keith while he was
sick?" she replied, as she started to turn on the propellers. The panther was
purring, sending warm feelings to her mind, and she surprised herself purring
back, understanding the meaning of each feeling in a non-human way.
"I tried. We all tried. But he wouldn't open the door for us. Shiro was worried
sick about you both," Lance answered, and the in group conversation started the
second Ariela said:
"Every day I'm more convinced that he is like our Space Dad," causing Shiro to
shut his mouth and completely forget about what he was going to say. Pidge
busted in laughter and Ariela blushed, feeling the embarrassment of being
caught talking about their leader creeping up her neck, as she just sent the
panther flying towards the sky without waiting for orders.
****** *** ******
Keith was suffering, both physically and mentally. He felt every fibre of his
being on fire, and he had never felt so much like killing himself like in those
last days. It was so easy, walking unseen to the disposal chambers, pressing a
button and waiting. He would suffocate into the airless void that space was,
and no one would have to deal with a dead body.
"Keith?" a voice asked for the eleventh time that day.
Shiro had passed his bedroom at least seven times since they had returned from
Menosfor, trying to get Keith to unlock his door and take the tray of food he
had on his hands, but it was no avail. Then Lance had gone by three or five
times, telling him to get better soon, he was missing their daily argues.
"What?" he groaned, shifting on his bed, as he grasped his stomach. It felt
like something was cutting his way to the surface.
"It's Ariela. I just wanted to check on you. Do you need anything?" she asked,
and she sounded truly worried. A sharp pain went through Keith's legs, making
him muffle a scream on the pillow, but the woman took the silence in as
something different. "You know you can rely on us, don't you, sweetheart?" she
asked him, the cute nickname making Keith feel both awfully guilty and terribly
tempted to run to the door and open.
"I'm okay," he said instead.
"Roger. If you need anything, my room is right in front of yours," the woman
told him, surprising him with the lack of insistence that Shiro had had, before
shuffling away. Keith could actually smell how she left and that wanted to make
him just pass away.
****** *** ******
Two days passed, and Keith didn't leave his room.
Shiro and Lance were both on edge, and although everyone was used to the second
taking things out in practice, it was a shock to all the team when Shiro just
kicked Lance on the side and sent him flying towards one of the grey mats that
covered the wall.
They were fighting on one of the corners, while Pidge and Ariela practised on
the other, Hunk smashing the punching bag like it was a Garla face. Lance had
hit Shiro in the jaw, making the man (that was distracted thinking about
Keith's state and was caught out of guard by the violent attack, being carried
away to the arena for a few seconds) snap. He had jumped and round-house kicked
Lance on the waist, making the teen yelp and smash his body against one of the
mats and fall to the ground.
He was still realising what he had done when a weight smashed against his nape,
throwing him to the ground and pressing him there. Suddenly, there was a knife
nailed on one of the mats, millimetres away from his ear, and Ariela was
hissing and growling at the other. He had turned his eyes to look at her and
the sight of white bared fangs and golden slitted eyes had scared the crap out
of him, but she had quickly realised he was frightened, because she had
suddenly relaxed and crawled at an amazing speed towards her brother, that had
already sat on the floor and was massaging his neck.
"Are you okay, Lance?", she asked him, pulling long bangs away from her face as
she kneeled beside him, and started to lift his shirt. The area where Shiro had
kicked was completely red.
"Yeah," he answered. Shiro got up and quickly walked towards them, but the
woman turned and adopted a defence position, that made her look like an actual
feline protecting one of its own, hissing at the man and tensing her lips to
show her fangs again, hands wide open to show her nails (or claws).
"I'm sorry, I just... I don't know what happened to me," Shiro said, raising
his hands as to calm the woman, and it seemed to work because the hissing
stopped and she relaxed a little bit.
"I think you should take a break to clear your head, man," Hunk told him, as he
clamped one of his big hands on his right shoulder.
"You should cool down too, Lance. Shiro is already starting to bruise," Pidge
added, signalling Shiro's reddening jaw, as Ariela helped the teen up, looking
at his as if he was an invalid suddenly recovered.
"I'm sorry too, Shiro. My mind was..., not here," Lance told, looking down to
hide a blush, and Ariela laughed.
"Yeah. Estaba en la habitación de tu amor." The only thing Shiro was able to
get was something about a bedroom and love, and he frowned at the way Lance's
blush deepened and he smacked the woman in the arm.
"What are all of you doing? You should be training?" Coran's voice cut through
their silence, and Shiro turned to him, targeting the Altean.
"What is happening with Keith?" he asked, and Pidge raised an eyebrow when she
noticed how he was using his leader voice on the other man, crossing his arms
over his chest and raising his chin.
"He is suffering from the common flu. He should be okay in a few day," Coran
said, and Ariela squinted her eyes. The body language was clearly defying
Shiro, it wasn't relaxed or open at all. "Now go back to training."
He was lying, and they all had noticed that.
"Pidge, can I talk with you after training?" Shiro asked, and she nodded,
before walking back with Ariela to their mat section.
"Are you sure, Shiro? I want to know what is wrong with Keith too, but this is
a little too much," she said, as she cut through wiring, trying to unlock the
red paladin's bedroom's door so that their worried leader could go in.
"It has been a whole week, Pidge, and he hasn't left his room not once. Keith
has taken exams with a forty degree fever and once tried to run with a sprained
ankle. He wouldn't be out of combat because of the damned flu," the man
answered, furiously tapping his left foot against the floor, looking at the
door as if that would make it open up.
"You knew him well, huh?" Pidge said, voice low as her focus was drifting away
from the conversation and pouring completely on the wiring. She almost had it.
"He's my best friend," Shiro confessed, and the door opened, with Pidge
shouting 'AHA'.
The place smelled to confinement and everything had turned into a mess. Things
that looked like books and pillows had been shredded and were lying destroyed
on the floor, making a path to Keith's bed, where he slept calmly, covering all
his body with a sheet.
"Keith?" Shiro called, as he got near and sat on the bed.
The mattress dipping at the weight of the man woke him up, and before his brain
could do it too and tell him to stop, he had turned around and uncovered his
face, to see what the fuck Shiro wanted. He had been sleeping thrice as much
this last week, so he was a little confused. He was also still feverish and his
whole body ached, but it was nothing compared to the first days.
"What do you want, Shiro?" he asked, voice hoarse, as he rubbed his face.
The man didn't answer. He was too occupied processing the shock. Keith looked
at Shiro's shocked face with confusion, until he realised what was going on,
feeling his new ears flattening against his skull and his hair rise as the
smell of fear and anger filled his nose.
Shiro grabbed him and threw him out of the bed, against the wall, before
lighting his arms and attacking again. Keith moved instinctively, evading only
as he didn't want to hate Shiro and make him hate him more, trying not to pay
attention to Pidge screaming bloody murder and trying to stop the man.
"WHO ARE YOU? WHAT DID YOU DO TO KEITH?" Shiro screamed at him, pupils almost
inexistent as the panic made them shrink. His sight would unfocus sometimes,
and his attacks were sloppy, easy to guess and evade.
"SHIRO, STOP!" Pidge screamed, grabbing Shiro's human hand and pulling him
behind, but he shook her away. The girl got out of the bedroom, screaming for
help, as Keith followed, wanting to escape.
Pidge appeared panting and crying on the dining room door, interrupting their
silence.
Ariela and Lance had already showered and changed, both ready to go to sleep in
their pyjamas, but Hunk still had his training clothes on.
"Shiro is attacking Keith," she had said, tear-filled eyes wide open, and the
first to get up was Lance, but soon enough they were all following her towards
the control deck, where screaming and struggling could be heard.
When they arrived, Shiro was choking Keith, the younger pinned against a wall
and desperately clawing at the man's hands so he would set him free. Hunk
reacted first, running with a battle cry towards Shiro and tackling the shit
out of him, pinning him to the ground with his Olympic force, making the man
start to scream as Keith dropped to the ground, panting and shaking.
"LET ME GO! DON'T TOUCH ME!" Shiro screamed as everyone got near Keith. Ariela
was surprised to see he had cat-like ears, his skin was now purple and he also
had claws.
"Lance, take Keith away from here and take care of him," she commanded, as her
brother picked Keith up and fled from the room, panicked eyes letting her know
he was just as scared and confused by the situation.
"A little help here would be nice!" Hunk exclaimed when one of Shiro's hands
broke free from his grip and tried to punch him.
The woman run and slid next to the man, grabbing his hand, and tangling their
fingers together, before she started to speak, trying to ignore Shiro's tears
streaming down fastly from his eyes, and the fast rant he had gone into,
telling them not to hurt him, that he was only doing his job.
His head was swimming in a mix of Galra-time memories and the present, flashes
of sensations slowly calming him down. His hand felt warm and a sweet voice was
speaking and he could sometimes see Ariela's lips (the only thing from her face
that hadn't changed since Malteia) moving and smiling awkwardly. But he could
also feel that his legs were numb, he was unable to move or breathe properly.
Ariela ordered Hunk to move the second Shiro started to repeat Ar, eu preciso
de ar over and over again, moving his head from side to side as if that was
going to help him. The second Hunk's weight was off of him, Shiro took a deep
breath that made his lungs hurt, and started to relax.
He was still crying and mumbling things that Ariela wasn't able to understand,
and it took half an hour to completely make his panic attack go away because he
never calmed down.
The moment his eyes finally focused and stayed focused on the woman's face, he
had looked at her in pain and made a distress noise, that made Ariela's animal
instincts (now taking an important part of her brain, since she had changed)
kick in and tell her to protect him. She could smell the stress around him, a
slight change in Shiro's normal scent (salt, metal and jasmines)
"Shiro, everything's okay," Hunk told him, not knowing if he should hold his
head down, now that he had started to slightly bang it against the floor while
repeating that Keith was gone and sobbing like he was a little child.
"I'm a mess," he laughed, hysteria kicking in, and he tried to hid his face in
Ariela's arms.
"Do you want to go to your bedroom?" she asked, voice soft, barely a whisper,
and he nodded slightly.
****** *** ******
"My throat hurts," Keith said, first words being spoken with really hoarse
voice, as Lance looked at his bedroom's door. Someone had messed with the
wiring, and it wouldn't lock.
"Listen, I'm taking you to my bedroom so that we can lock you in, just in case
Shiro goes coo coo again," Lance told the red paladin, that was resting his
whole weight on him and panting slightly, making him bite his lips.
His gut was twisted and he felt as if his emotions had suddenly all jumped off
of his body, except for the need to take care of Keith and make him feel safe.
Somehow, the ears and the purple skin weren't weirding him out, as he carried
Keith to his own bedroom and laid him on the bed, while he commanded the door
to close and lock.
"What happened, Keith?" he asked the boy, as he sat next to him on the bed.
Keith continued to pant for a while, making Lance conscious of the flush in his
cheeks and check for a fever, that was definitely there. He immediately started
to cover Keith with his blankets, while he thought about leaving him alone to
look for a wet cloth to put on the guy's forehead.
"Somehow I..., have Galra genes. I'm like a hybrid," he said, breaking the
silence and surprising Lance.
"Okay. Listen, I'm going to look for something to down your temperature. When I
leave, lock the door and unlock it when I come back," he told him, while he
started to stand up, but Keith's hot hand closed around his arm and he pulled
him down, almost making Lance fall over his stomach.
"Don't leave me, Lance. Please. I don't feel okay," he said, and suddenly tears
were starting to prickle at his eyes, as he sobbed slightly, surprising Lance.
He was shocked, not quite knowing what to do at the beginning, but after a few
seconds, he decided on lying down with Keith, covering them both with the
sheets and a blanket.
"You're so cold," Keith mumbled, as he turned to face him and closed his eyes,
fingertips slightly touching Lance's. "You won't leave me if I fall asleep,
right?" he asked, making Lance finally decide to slide his arm around Keith's
waist and push him flush to his chest, settling his head over Keith's, trying
to control his ragged breathing.
"I won't. Now rest, mullet boy," he told him, and Lance couldn't fight back the
smile that spread over his face when Keith nuzzled his neck and accommodated
himself to fit Lance better and be even closer to him.
****** *** ******
Ariela thought Shiro would cry until he fell asleep, which would have been
great because that would have given them the time to actually know what was
going on and figure something out before he woke up.
At the beginning they had just sat on the bed, Shiro's ear pressed against her
chest (Ariela had chuckled when she noticed he was counting her heartbeats in
whispers, as he cried in silence), but when they both started to feel too
exhausted to actually sit, they just dropped on the bed, and she let Shiro hug
her close and keep listening to her heartbeat, as she drew invisible figures on
his back and nape.
The strength of his grip had slowly started to give in, and his face had
started to weight more against her chest. So, when tears finally stopped
falling on her and Shiro's breathing became even and deep, she thought he had
fallen asleep, but when she started to move away he weakly held her against
him.
"I'm scared," Shiro told her, voice weak. "Something happened to Keith, and I
almost killed him, and I feel so tired," he explained himself, slowly lifting
his head to look at the woman in the eyes. He reminded him of thirteen-year-old
Lance, after a breakdown, or his little sister Donelle during a tornado.
Or herself in the mirror. Scared eyes that were looking for someone that would
understand them and take care of them until they actually felt like dealing
with life again.
"It will be okay, Shiro," she told him, smiling weakly at the sad eyes. "Do you
want me to stay with you tonight?" she asked him, and he bit his cheek and
looked down before whispering a small yes.
"But, stay stay," he said, looking like a toddler even more.
"I'll be here with you all the time, but we should at least get under the
covers."
Shiro gulped and started to struggle to get up. He surely was feeling weak as
hell, after a hard day of training and such a breakdown, she wouldn't be able
to even speak if she were in his situation. But they eventually made it, and
Shiro didn't let go of her hand for a second, while she pulled the sheets and
blankets, that had wrinkled under their weight, and when they got into bed
again.
She pulled the blankets and covered them both. They were lying face to face,
and Shiro started to move near her, before stopping himself.
"I hurt three of my friends today. First Lance, then Pidge and then Keith," he
told her, looking scared again, and she cupped his face with her right hand,
smiling tiredly.
"You were agitated and scared," she told him, before concluding with: "I know
you won't hurt me."
Shiro looked at her for a few seconds, not quite knowing if she was being
honest, but then he nodded and pulled her closer again, making her bury her
face in his chest and
hugging her tightly for a few seconds, before loosening his grip.
She felt as if she was wrapped in a hot and amazing-smelling blanket.
"I won't hurt you," he said, and she knew he was saying that to himself. "I'll
protect you. All of you."
****** *** ******
When Lance woke up, Keith didn't have a fever anymore. They had separated, and
he found out that his teammate had stolen every fucking cover there was in his
bed and had rolled himself up in a human burrito. He was trembling, teeth
making a constant crackling noise that made him nervous. When Lance held out a
hand to touch Keith, he noticed he was really cold.
"Oh my dog," he said out loud, as he thought if he could change the room's
temperature or if he had to ask Allura to change the whole ship's temperature.
"Lance..., I'm cold," Keith told him, eyes still closed, letting him know he
was awake.
"I'll tell Allura to up the temperature," he told him, but Keith shook his head
as if it was the worse idea ever.
"Don't leave me," he repeated, finally opening his eyes. They were still
purple, but the pupils were so dilated that it was barely a colourful ring
around black.
"You'll freeze to death, Keith," Lance told him. He was dying to cuddle the ish
out of that guy, hugging him close and make him feel better, but he knew that
now Keith wasn't feeling that bad, maybe because Shiro hadn't just tried to
kill him, he would be mad.
"Just come here, you jerk," Keith told him through gritted teeth, as he opened
his blanket-burrito, and Lance opened his eyes widely.
"Only if you don't kill me afterwards," he said, already getting near Keith and
hugging him, as he covered both of them with the blankets and started to search
for a position where they were both comfortable.
They ended up face to chest, legs tangled and hugging each other.
Keith's head was swimming in the sensations his new heightened sense provided
him. he could feel Lance's heartbeat as if it was his own, his heat was the
most pleasurable thing he had met, sinking slowly into his bones, warming him
up. His smell enveloped him and made him hum slightly, feeling like he was
home. He wanted to feel Lance even more that he was already doing, and his
drugged like head didn't think it was a bad idea at all.
Lance's heartbeat fastened and his eyes opened widely when Keith's hands
slipped through his shirt and slid across his naked back, nails slightly
scrapping. The red paladin hummed again, contentedly, and he nuzzled Lance's
chest, while the other boy just prayed not to get a boner against Keith's
thigh.
"You're warm, and you smell really good," Keith confessed, voice muffled
against Lance's chest, and he felt like he was about to cry.
"Err, thank you," he said, not knowing how to react.
A few minutes passed, Keith squirming against him from time to time and the
trembling slowly fading away until it disappeared, and Lance was going to ask
what the fuck was all this cuddling and making him horny, but Keith had already
fallen asleep.
****** *** ******
Shiro woke up to his nose buried in hair and feeling warm and rested.
His brain restarted slowly as if it was an old computer, and it took him a
while to put all the pieces together and realise that he was cuddling Ariela.
Her back was pushed against his chest, and he was the one holding her close
with his left arm. His right arm had slipped through space there was between
her neck and the mattress, and their fingers were tangled together, Ariela
holding their hands against her left collarbone.
She was still asleep; he could tell by the slow breathing and heartbeat, thing
he didn't share. His heartbeat had started to run and his breathing had caught
in his throat the moment he realised what the situation was.
What the fuck is going on? Did we sleep together? he was thinking, looking from
side to side, trying to remember what had happened the night before.
The memory of Keith's face and struggling while he choked him, having him
pinned against the wall, came to his life as if it was the flash of a camera,
making him gasp and jolt up, waking Ariela, that sat confused, looking from
side to side, murmuring things in Spanish, before realising where she was.
"Shiro?" she asked when she noticed how he was clutching the blankets, knuckles
white. "Hey, what's wrong?" she asked, frowning, as she put her hands on his
shoulders.
"I attacked Keith. He looked like a Galra," he breathed out, barely noticing
how the woman started to massage his shoulders, trying to make him relax.
"Yes, that happened last night, but Keith is okay. Lance checked on him, he was
perfectly fine," she lied smoothly, as she rested her forehead in between
Shiro's shoulder blades, and kept on massaging.
"What happened to him? Oh, god, I feel horrible," he groaned, burying his face
between his hands again, and Ariela slid her arms around his waist to hug him
tightly.
"Don't beat yourself for it Shiro. His looks triggered you, and the important
thing is that no one was hurt," she said. Well, Keith was kind of hurt, but we
are not going to tell him that she thought, raising an eyebrow.
"Do you think I can see him?" Shiro asked, turning to look at her, making her
sit up straight and look at him in the eyes. She chewed on her bottom lip,
while she thought.
"I think the best thing is for you to not see him until this whole deal is
settled down. Having your mind used to the idea might make the transition to
whatever is happening easier," she explained to him, jaw tensing when Shiro's
eyes dropped. "But you can still talk to him."
Chapter End Notes
     -En la habitación de tu amor: In your love's bedroom.
     -Ar, eu preciso de ar: Air, I need air. (T.N: When Shiro speaks
     Portuguese or when the siblings speak Spanish, they usually can catch
     the main idea of what the other is saying, as their languages share
     many similar words. Ar and Aire for example, and preciso means need
     in both Portuguese and Spanish)
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Notes
     More bonding. Shiro deals with Garla!Keith and Ariela has to deal
     with panicked!Shiro again.
See the end of the chapter for more notes
Keith wanted to kill himself when he finally woke up, body temperature normal
and the only thing left from his suffering was a slight headache that he barely
noticed, too panicked thinking about how Lance was pressing him flush against
his body, nose buried in between his ears and arms around his waist. He hadn't
moved, not even one inch, as he didn't want to wake Lance up. His palms had
started to sweat against the warm skin of his teammate's back.
There was a knock at the door and Lance jolted awake, raising his head in
confusion but not letting go of Keith, who had his ears perked up, expectant
about both Lance's actions and who was at the door. He could smell Shiro's
scent and recognise it clearly, alongside with one that seemed a little bit
familiar too, but he couldn't quite place.
"Lance, is Keith there with you?" Ariela asked, and Keith oh-ed at the
realisation. The smell (stormy air, water with sugar and campfire) was hers,
and he wanted to slap himself for not thinking of it. It was like the time he
had smelt oil, vanilla and earth and he hadn't realised it was Hunk.
"Uhm, yeah. Why?" Lance asked, still not letting go of the red paladin. It was
Shiro who answered.
"I was wondering if I could talk to him. I promise I won't attack again, but if
he doesn't want to it's..., okay," he explained himself, stuttering a little
bit at the end, making Keith's heart drop.
Against his wishes, he parted from Lance, standing up with slightly wobbly
legs. He could see the blue paladin looking at him with worried blue eyes, but
he spoke anyway.
"Open door," he commanded, and the panels slid open to reveal Shiro tapping his
fingers anxiously against Ariela's shoulder, who gave Keith a weak smile,
before putting her hand on Shiro's back and gently pushing him into the room.
The man was blindfolded. It had been Ariela's idea, so he would be able to talk
to Keith without seeing him and his appearance triggering him, making him go
into a feral state and attack him. Of course not being able to see anything
made him awfully nervous, but there was something on the way Ariela guided him
slowly and never let go of him that made him feel protected.
"Keith?" he asked, trying to look around and find the teen. Well, trying to
guess where he was.
"I'm right here," he replied to the call, voice slightly raspy from the choking
the night before, and Shiro's gut twisted the second he heard that, knowing he
was the responsible for that. He wanted to face Keith, but instead he let his
face fall.
"I'm really sorry for what I did to you. There was no reason for me to attack
you and you were feeling sick...," Shiro started, a strange sensation in his
chest make it hard for him to speak, but Keith cut him short.
"I understand, Shiro. My..., looks made you remember bad things. I would have
probably reacted just like you if I were in your shoes. Don't beat yourself
over it," he told him, and Ariela's hurt shrank when she saw how Keith reached
out slightly for Shiro, but he stopped himself, giving a step back. "Does...,
not looking at me help you?"
He remembered how Shiro hadn't thought of him as his friend that just looked
different, but as the enemy disguised and trying to trick him. It had hurt a
lot, being looked at with such disgust and fear by one of the people you loved
the most, but he didn't want to say anything about it. Shiro probably already
hated himself enough.
"I swear it was only the shock. I'm not..., repulsed by you Keith, and I'll
work on it to be able to be with you just as I used to. Okay? I won't stop
looking at you, it's just until I can wrap my mind around it," the man
answered, and there was a little hope in Keith's eyes. Shiro gave a step
forward, hesitantly, after reaching out for Ariela's hand and pulling her
with him.
The woman looked at his brother and mouthed the question 'Hug?' in Spanish.
Lance gave her a thumbs up, and she stood on her tiptoes to whisper in Shiro's
ear.
"You should hug him. Do you feel comfortable with that?" she asked, and
separated from him, watching how Shiro thought for two seconds before nodding.
She smiled and guided him towards Keith, winking him an eye when the red
paladin looked at her in confusion. Shiro opened blindly his arms and Keith
looked at Lance, who indicated him with a gesture of his head to go for it.
Slowly, really slowly, Keith got near Shiro and slid his arms around him,
flinching slightly at the way the man's muscles tensed for a moment, before
relaxing and hugging him back. Keith's face ended up buried in Shiro's shoulder
and he tightened his arms around the man when he started to rub his back.
Ariela and Lance shared a knowing look, while smiling, as the other two hugged
it out.
The door was still opened, so Allura walked in without announcing herself and
opened her mouth to ask what was happening when the Latin brothers turned to
her and put a finger on their lips, indicating her to stay quiet. She nodded
slightly, and waited patiently by the door until Shiro and Keith finally parted
from their hug. Keith looked a little bit better, smiling a slightly, and his
ears rose when he saw Allura standing at the door.
"I didn't want to interrupt," Allura said, and Shiro turned fastly, arm
lighting up but he didn't attack. Ariela put a hand on his shoulder as if it
was the most natural thing between them, and Shiro relaxed, both because of the
reassuring touch and because he had registered Allura's voice.
"We came up with this idea until I get used to the whole deal," Shiro
explained, blindly signaling the make-shift blindfold (it was a black cloth
Ariela used as a belt when she wore a dress that was too loose on the waist),
as he faced the way Allura's voice had come from.
"It's a great idea. I was looking for you to have a meeting, everyone, so we
can come clean about everything that has been happening. Keith still doesn't
know anything about Menosfor," Allura explained herself.
"Yeah, why is Ariela suddenly taller than me? I was happy being the third
smallest member instead of the second," Keith complained, crossing his arms
over his chest.
"Turns out you are not the only half-alien weirdo in this Castle, mister," she
chuckled, raising her hand to high-five him. Keith frowned and, with a lot of
doubt, he complied.
****** *** ******
Keith hadn't been hugged so much since... Well, he couldn't actually remember
the last time he had been hugged five times in less than three minutes (all
crashing hugs with a
lot of emotion that left him breathless, three of them given by Hunk). He and
Lance had gone ahead, Shiro telling them to do so so he could go to the dining
room without the blindfold.
"You had us really worried, man. Pidge missed you during training," Hunk told,
signalling the girl, who smiled at him awkwardly. They usually were training
partners, as they were the ones with most similar size. Then Ariela had come
and changed stuff, Lance turning into his partner, but now that she had grown
four inches out of nowhere, things would probably go back to usual.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I was so scared of how you would react
that I thought I would actually be able to hide it from you..., somehow. I
didn't think of how it would make it all worse," he said, just for when Shiro,
Allura and Ariela walked through the door.
He had the blindfold on again, but he walked alone, fumbling his way to one of
the chairs, and Lance laughed at the way Ariela circled him, worriedly making
sure he didn't crash against something or someone, or even tripped.
"That's the chair," she told him when Shiro gripped the back of it, and he
slowly sat down. The woman relaxed, and let herself drop into the chair next to
Lance.
"Okay, lets talk about everything," Coran stated, as everyone sat down. All the
eyes flew to Keith, and he resisted the urge to fidget with all his might. It
was something strange for him, being the centre of attention usually wouldn't
make him so nervous, but there was a little annoying voice in the back of his
head telling him that if he didn't use the right words they would kick him out
of Voltron.
"Umm... When we invaded the Galra space station I fought against a... weird
Galra witch," he started, with everyone looking at him really focused.
"A druid," Shiro nodded, his face resting on his hand, and facing the way Keith
was sitting.
"Yeah, one of those, and I got drenched in quintessence modified to be Galra
fuel. My hand had little purple dots from before when the druid attacked me,
but when the quintessence touched me they went away," Keith continued, and he
frowned at Allura's worried face. "What?"
"Nothing. It's just you were lucky you weren't touched by raw quintessence,"
she said, sighing. The eyes turned to her and when she noticed that no one
except for Coran understood what she meant, she started to explain herself.
"Quintessence is a really powerful element, and really few races can interact
with it without their arima's getting reduced to ash," she said.
"Anferum mentioned something about my arima too. What is that?" Ariela asked.
"Oh, you don't know what it is?" Coran asked. They all shook their heads.
"Hmph. How to explain it?" he asked himself, fumbling with his moustache as he
thought.
"I think the best way to describe it is... It's as if you mixed someone's soul,
energy, body and mind. It's a living being's essence," she explained, and Coran
squinted his eyes. "Raw quintessence can erase most being's arima's, excepting
for those that have a strong connection to magic, like Alteans."
"Or Galran druids," Shiro finished off, and everyone turned around to look at
Keith again.
"Okay. So, we get back to the castle, bada-bing bada-bang, a few days pass and
I notice the purple stains are back and they're bigger," he says, making Lance
smile at the bada-bing bada-bang thing. "It started to spread all over my skin,
slowly, but it was still scary. I also started to feel really easy to anger and
more violent."
"So he came to me for answers. I run some tests on his blood, but I couldn't
understand what the results meant, or I didn't want to understand," the royal
adviser confessed, dropping his gaze. "Keith's human DNA is mixed with Galra
DNA. But it hadn's been always so much. As the stains advanced, the Galra DNA
became stronger on his blood."
"I think it has something to do with the druid attack. Maybe something in her
magic put Galra genes in me," Keith said, looking around.
"I don't know Keith. There are chances that those genes have always been
there," Ariela said, frowning.
"Why would you think that?" Pidge asked.
"Remember how Anferum said that he thought he was the last malteian alive
because the Galra have gone after the ones that had escaped? All I'm saying is,
if the malteian were able to make it to Earth, why wouldn't the Galra?" Ariela
explained.
"Who's Anferum?" Keith asked.
They all proceeded to tell him and Coran everything that had happened in
Menosfor. How Lance and Ariela had discovered they had alien genes but only she
had decided to activate them and it had all gone a little bit wrong because of
the idiot of Anferum.
"That is actually a good theory," Hunk mumbled, arms crossed over his chest and
eyes closed as he thought about the chances. "But malteiaans were able to mix
with the actual humans. Galra can't do that, right?"
"Maybe they can and we just don't know it, or they figured a way out," Allura
said, grabbing her chin.
A silence followed, while everyone just thought about the options of Galra
having been on Earth before Shiro lead them to it, and Keith noticed how he
started to fidget, trying to look around, nervous.
"Everyone's still there, right?" he asked in a moment, reaching out to touch
someone, and Ariela smiled and grabbed his hand, having to lean on the table
because of the distance. He held her hand strongly and seemed a little bit more
at ease.
"So... Can I stay or I have to leave?" Keith asked, not being able to bear with
the doubt anymore. They all turned their attention to him again, looking purely
confused.
"What do you mean by leaving, Keith?" Allura asked while Ariela turned to
Lance. He had tensed and almost jumped in his seat when he had listened to
Keith say that.
"I'm half Galra. I'm half enemy. Shiro can't even look at me, even less the
planets that have been under their rule. My lion probably won't respond to me
anyway, and I'm sure having me on the team makes you a little uncomfortable
already," he said, looking depressed. Ariela realised he thought that was the
truth, and he was saying it aloud just to make himself come around the fact it
was true.
"Keith, this is just temporary. I've already told you," Shiro said, but he
sounded a little discouraged.
"We'll work on it," Ariela stated, gripping Shiro's hand stronger. "And you
don't make us uncomfortable. At least not me or Lance. And our allies will have
to decide whether they have a half Galra protecting them or not protection at
all," she finished, and Keith's eyes shined with renewed hope, but it went away
quickly.
"What about my lion?" he asked, gulping. "If she doesn't want me I'm useless."
"Keith," Lance said, voice stained with seriousness that surprised everyone.
"The fact that your body has changed doesn't mean the rest of you did. You
haven't turned into a merciless monster, in fact, you seem more concerned for
everyone now than you used to do. No one here is actually rejecting you," he
told the red paladin, putting an awkward hand on his shoulder.
"No one except for yourself," Pidge corrected him, looking at them through her
thick glasses. Keith's jaw clenched and he turned his face away.
"I don't want this," he said, hands closing into fists and voice drenched in
frustration. "I'm the enemy."
"You look like the enemy; a thing that, if you think about it, is really
useful," Hunk corrected him.
"Once Shiro is calmer around you everything will go back to normal, you'll
see," Ariela assured him, reaching behind Lance to scratch slightly behind his
ears. "I'll help you two work with it, and in a few day's you'll be back to
being the emo-little-shit you were when I met you," she finished, and Keith
snorted.
"I'm not actually emo, you know?" Keith asked, and Ariela's friendly smile went
away, eyebrow quirking in a face that asked 'Seriously?'
"Don't make me sing Welcome to the black parade, kid," was all she said, and
Keith groaned, resting his head on the table, making Lance laugh.
"Is that song about the marching band that you were obsessed with?" he asked
his sister, and she nodded.
"Why are we talking about My Chemical Romance?" Shiro asked, looking around.
"Because Keith is still going through his emo -fingerless-gloves phase," Pidge
answered.
"I thought you were trying to cheer me up," Keith exclaimed, sitting straight
again.
"Yeah, but roasting you sure is fun," Lance smiled.
"You shut it, Lance. I was a witness of your Daddy Yankee phase," Ariela said.
Lance tried to play it off, acting like he didn't know what the woman was
talking about, but then she started singing: ¡A ella le gusta la gasolina!
"You are Hamilton trash!" Lance screamed, in panic, trying to make her shut up,
but she snorted.
"Who in our family isn't Hamilton trash, Lance?" she asked him, but he was too
busy smiling because she had said 'our family'.
"You're right."
"I'm sorry, but I lost track of the conversation when we started talking about
something called emo," Allura announced, raising her hand as if she was in a
classroom.
"Oh, diddly duck, I hadn't realised their lack of human culture," Ariela said,
turning to everyone with bright eyes. "I can turn them into meme trash like
me!"
"NO! NO MORE MEMES!" Shiro fakely screamed.
Keith had relaxed in his chair, smiling at the turn the conversation had taken.
He had been really scared that they were going to kick him out, maybe return
him to Earth or even leave him in the nearest habitated planet. For one second,
he had even considered the option they might hand him to the Galra, but they
were too good people to do that.
No, instead of acting like actual adults, the adults were arguing about how
memes were a right he (Shiro) couldn't take away from anyone.
****** *** ******
"How are you feeling?" Shiro asked Keith, as he sat down in front of the man.
They were in the training room. They had all already eaten, so they had all the
place to themselves, and Shiro had immediately gone to sit down on the mats
when he had gone into the room, blindfolding himself, as Ariela had gone to
look for something before starting.
"I'm..., great," Keith said, cringing.
He scared himself when his reflection appeared in the mirror, and all this
heightened senses thing made him more than uncomfortable. For fuck's sake, he
could smell what people felt. His new ears were extremely uncomfortable when he
had tried his paladin helmet on and his skin felt strange. The only thing
keeping him from actually hating himself as much as he had before the rest of
the team knowing was their support.
"Your throat is okay, then," Shiro asked, taking a deep breath, shoulders still
tense. Keith touched the little scar that was left on his neck, because of the
burn of Shiro's Galra tech arm.
"If it makes you feel better, I got to cuddle Lance thanks to you," Keith said,
licking his lips.
Shiro's head perked up, the hint of a smile appearing, and Keith was convinced
that if he could see his eyes, they would be gleaming. Of course, Shiro knew
about his feelings for the blue paladin, they were almost brothers, and he had
caught Keith staring at Lance's back and ass many times for any excuse to be
valid.
"Really? How?" he asked, leaning in, and Keith smiled.
"I was a little bit out of my mind when it happened anyway. He took me to his
bedroom because my lock was broken and he let me sleep in his bed but I asked
him to stay with me, and he did. God, Shiro, it was amazing," Keith ranted but
stopped immediately when he heard steps and smelt burnt wood and storm.
"And?" Shiro asked, but Keith pinched him in the knee slightly before shushing
him. The man frowned and was going to ask what the hell was happening, but
Ariela sat down next to them, carrying a flask with hot water and something
weird Keith had never seen before.
"I guessed we would be here for a while, so I went to prepare some mate," she
explained.
"Chimarrão" Shiro sing sand, and Ariela looked at him with faked disgust.
"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, darling," she said as she poured the hot water
inside the mate, taking the tube for sipping between her lips and sucking, a
weird sound coming out of the mate. She drank a little more, before pouring
more water. She gently grabbed Shiro's wrist and opened his hand with her
fingers, before putting the mate in his hand.
He drank it and hummed, surprised.
"You didn't use sugar," he commented, once he had finished.
"I'm willing to sacrifice myself only for today," she answered, before turning
to look at Keith. "Okay, so I was thinking that you should just, re-bond," she
started, looking at the red paladin in the eye as she explained herself. "Shiro
knows the past you like the back of his hand, I have guessed, and your
appearance changing made him believe you had changed. So, the best thing you
can do is show him you didn't. We'll also slowly make him used to your new form
without him looking at you," she finished, as Shiro bumped her arm with the
mate blindly. She poured more water and offered it to Keith.
"No, thank you," she said, shaking his head. She nodded and sipped.
"So, I suggest you two start talking about the past when you met and all that.
If you want I can go, but I'll stay close..., just in case."
"I don't have trouble with you staying," Shiro said, smiling kindly.
"Then I guess I don't either," Keith said.
"Well, I won't interrupt you," she said, before lying down on her stomach,
still sipping from the mate. She took her mobile out of her pocket, connected
the earphones and started playing music.
"Remember the day we met?" Shiro asked, fidgeting slightly.
It was a weird experience. She could see how both paladin's expressions
changed, and she could smell their emotions too, recognising them thanks to
some animalistic instinct that had awoken along with her genes, but she never
knew what they were actually talking about. She knew Keith felt really sad most
of the times, and she closed her eyes and let her sense of smell be the only
thing to advert her if there was tension building when she saw how tears
started to form in his eyes.
She would pass Shiro the mate from time to time, and she decided to spend this
time doing nothing imagining them before this whole alien thing started. Keith
at the Garrison, studying in a bunk bed or participating in a classroom, or
even piloting something. Shiro happily sat around his family and friends,
chatting away as the mate and food went around like it was usual in meetings.
She felt Keith's slightly warm hand getting near her before he actually touched
her, and she opened her eyes, looking straight into his, smelling a little bit
of fear that quickly went away. It must have been the surprise. She pulled her
headphones off.
"And, are you feeling comfortable, Shiro?" she asked the man, looking at him.
"Yes," he nodded, solemnly. Ariela turned to Keith and signalled his ears,
mouthing 'Can I?' and he frowned before nodding hesitantly.
The woman grabbed Shiro's hands, and he blindly let her guide them towards
Keith's head. The red paladin's breath got stuck in his lungs when he realised
what she was trying to do, and the man's hitched the second calloused and
metallic fingers felt soft furr.
"Do you want to go on?" Ariela asked hi, noticing the change in his breathing,
but he nodded. "Just take your time, feel them and think about how this is the
same person you were talking to before. No differences," she told him, slowly
letting go of his hands.
Keith stopped breathing, literally, not moving a millimetre while Shiro's
fingers slowly felt his ears, before caressing them slightly and scratching.
Keith's tension didn't go away.
"I...," Shiro started, licking his lips and taking a deep breath. "I think I'm
ready to see him."
"Are you sure?" Keith asked, still not moving, and Shiro moved his hands away
from him, to slowly undo the blindfold.
Ariela watched closely, paying attention to the way the air shifted, how smells
changed, how muscles moved under skin, everything that could tell her if
something was going to happen and let her stop it.
Shiro took the blindfold off, breathing already superficial, and he swallowed
hard before slowly starting to open his eyes. Keith closed his, not wanting to
see how the man would react at his sight, and that was the first mistake.
The black paladin searched for the indigo irises and he didn't find them, eyes
fastly scanning Keith, only being able to focus on the colour of the skin, the
ears and the claws. The air slowly started to fill with fear and Keith
retreated, eyes still closed, moving too fast and scaring Shiro off.
The man jumped to his feet and stared at his friend with wide eyes, wanting to
do something about the threat but stopping himself, because he had been talking
with this gut earlier, and it was still the Keith he knew. But the itch to
attack was growing stronger, as Keith stood up and got near him, trying to calm
him down.
Ariela saw the arm starting to light up and pushed away, putting herself in
between the two paladins. The teen thought she would try to calm the man down,
be gentle with him, but her whole body language indicated defiance towards the
man, protecting Keith.
Shiro gulped, suddenly focused only in the slitted pupils and the slow growl.
"No," the woman said with a firm tone. "He's a friend, not an enemy."
Keith expected him to stop, suddenly recover from the panic like he always
seemed to do when he was with her, but his muscles only tensed and he closed
his eyes, trying to control his breathing.
"Why don't you calm him down?" Keith asked, getting near the woman's back.
"I won't always be around. He has to learn that you are not someone he can
attack and it will be okay," she said, remarking every word. "Because you are
not the enemy."
Shiro's whole body was shaking, and Keith could smell the distress. He also
noticed how Ariela's right hand was occupied by her bayard, not activated, but
probably prepared for it.
"Move," Shiro told the woman, opening his eyes. His pupils were extremely
dilated, and he seemed mildly out of his mind. Keith didn't blame him, he was
conditioned to attack every Galra he saw.
"I won't, so if you want to get to him you'll have to get me out of the way
because this is not right," she repeated, starting to actually growl, a low
rumble coming from her chest, as she showed him her teeth.
"I have to."
"No, you don't."
Shiro whined, and dropped to his knees grabbing his head with force and
groaning. Keith felt a tug in his stomach, he needed to help Shiro to feel
better. Ariela noticed that this was not going somewhere good too because she
spoke to him without taking her eyes off the man.
"I think we should leave it here for today," she said. "I'll circle him, you
stay behind me the whole time."
"I'm capable of defending myself," Keith said, still obliging, as she started
to slowly move around Shiro, who was still struggling on the floor.
"I know, but I also know you wouldn't be able to hurt him. Now go," she told
him. Shiro got up suddenly, advancing towards them with a scowl on his face,
nostrils flared, and Ariela actually threw his hand at him, almost letting her
claws cut through skin, and hissed in a way that made her sound like a cat.
"Go," she insisted.
Keith turned around and sprinted, before hearing steps and struggling. When he
looked over his shoulder he saw Shiro chasing him, but Ariela run fastly and
jump at his back, making him fall to start wrestling on the floor.
"Let me go!" was the last thing he heard, as he closed the training room door
behind him.
Chapter End Notes
     ¡A ella le gusta la gasolina!: She likes fuel! (T.N: Daddy Yankee is
     a reggaeton singer really popular in all Latinoamerica, and if this
     song is one of his most famous, as they used to play it every time
     when it came out. It's like the dark past of every latin, and we
     sometimes sing it with nostalgy and shame XD)
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Wrestling with Shiro was hell, and there were moments when she actually feared
he would hurt her, but she kept going, pinning his hands to the floor, trying
to immobilise him with her body, and talking him out of the state he was in.
The smell in the room didn't help her control herself to not hurt Shiro too;
everything screamed danger, threat and defence.
She didn't know how much time they were fighting, rolling around the training
room floor, crashing into things and trying to pin each other down. She was
glad that, after a few tries, he stopped trying to get rid of her to go after
Keith and just started thinking of her as the danger he had to eliminate.
They were both exhausted, standing a few feet apart from the other and panting,
both in fighting stance and waiting for the other to move. Shiro's arm
deactivated and he let himself drop to his knees, closing his eyes and rubbing
his face with his hands.
"Did I hurt you?" was the first thing he asked, as he just laid down on the
floor. "Please tell me I didn't."
"You didn't. But you tried to go after Keith again," she answered, slowly
relaxing, walking towards him and sitting next to the man, looking at him with
tired eyes, as her breathing evened out.
"This won't work. I'm just too damaged to be around him," Shiro practically
sobbed, and Ariela wanted to scowl him, tell him how they would make it all out
of the situation they were in as a team, but she started to rub circles on his
back instead. "He is kind of my little brother, you know? Not being able to
look at him is just killing me," he explained himself.
"You will make it happen. It's just that you were expecting for a simple chat
to erase a whole year of abuse," she answered, as she laid down next to him on
her back, looking at the worried grey eyes.
"I feel like just lying here for days and dying," Shiro admitted after a long
but not awkward silence, turning to his side and facing the woman. She snorted.
"Oh, god. Do I know that feeling," she said, but the man didn't seem to be
cheering up, so she sighed. "Listen. I went through some stuff a few years ago,
and I thought I would never be able to recover from it, but I did. Sometimes
memories come back, yes, but I learnt to deal with them," she told him,
swallowing hard. Shiro frowned and stayed quiet for a few seconds.
"Lance told me something had happened to you a few years ago. Can I ask what it
was?" He spoke slowly, almost as if he didn't want to scare her off and end up
without an answer.
"It's not that important," she tried to evade.
"The more we know each other the better," Shiro said with a smile, and she
squinted her eyes, before sighing again.
"When I was sixteen a guy tried to rape me," she said, fastly. Shiro's jaw
clenched and he sat up fastly, not having expected that. "He didn't get far. I
broke his arm when he was trying to unhook my bra," she finished.
"Why?" Shiro asked, breathily.
"Because men are pigs? I don't know. He was drunk, but he still was big and
scary. He took advantage of me being shocked at the beginning, but I snapped
out of it and saved myself," she answered, shrugging.
"That's why you reacted so badly when the panther tried to control your body.
It reminded you of that. And that is also why you didn't feel comfortable with
me touching you after it," Shiro mumbled, more to himself than to Ariela, as
the pieces slowly fell into place.
"I was terrified of you that day. You were big and could easily pin me down.
That was I wouldn't let you get near me," she smiled, and Shiro slid back,
giving her space.
"Do I scare you now? I didn't know. I'm sorry, I won't get that near if it
makes you uncomfortable," he started to rant, and Ariela smelt how he started
to feel distressed again.
She knew what touch starvation was, and she also knew what it felt like to
finally find someone who you could just hug, or hold their hand or even cuddle.
Physical contact was a great way of bonding and it made you feel safe and at
home. Lance had taught her all of that by hanging out when they had first met;
he had rested his head on her lap with confidence, or randomly hugged her and
picked her up. She understood why Shiro was starting to get nervous at the idea
of having to let that go.
"You don't, Shiro, it's okay," she started, getting up and near him. He still
seemed unsure. "It was just because I had been triggered, I don't like anyone
getting near me after stuff like that, but you don't scare me now. In fact, now
I'm like five feet seven I feel like a goddess that could smash you," she
joked, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Okay. But if you ever feel uncomfortable you have to tell me, understood?" he
asked her, and she smiled.
"Loud and clear."
Another comfortable silence followed her answer, but this one turned out to be
longer. She let herself lay on the floor again, slowly becoming aware of her
own body and how tired and damaged it felt. Some spots ached with the familiar
numb pain of being slightly hit, and others were a little bit stronger, like
where Shiro had accidentally kneeled her inner thigh, or when their foreheads
had bumped together.
"Who was the guy?" Shiro asked, breaking the silence, and making her notice she
had closed her eyes.
"Um... It was one of Lance's older brother's friends, at his birthday party,"
she answered, without bothering opening her eyes. She felt clothes shifting,
and Shiro's warmth suddenly felt really close to her body.
"How's Lance family? Is it big?", Shiro asked, wanting to change the subject
and forget about what the woman had just told him.
"You have no idea, mate. He has three older siblings and three younger. Then
there're the cousins, the sibling's partners, the aunts and uncles, and the
really close friends, like me," she answered.
Shiro looked at her with a small smile. Her everything had changed the second
he had asked about Lance's family, and she was smiling so purely it was
something amazing. He had never seen her that happy ever.
"Do you think someone will scowl me for sleeping here?" she asked, getting her
head comfortable between her arms.
"Would you be able to sleep here? On the floor?" he asked, frowning.
"I can sleep anywhere," was the answer.
"I can take you to your bedroom if you want. I really owe you," he said,
starting to get up, and a smug grin appeared on the woman's lips, as she held
her arms out for Shiro to pick her up.
"I was expecting you to make the offer," she told him, as he slid one of his
arms through her back and the other through the back of her knees. She
immediately got comfortable against his chest and, before actually making out
of the room, she was fast asleep, slightly purring.
****** *** ******
It was breakfast time, and there was some sort of tense air in between most of
the paladins. Hunk would look at Keith from time to time, looking like a
worried friend, and Keith and Lance seemed to be avoiding each other, somewhat
letting everyone know that it was the bad type of uncomfortable. Ariela had
expected that something good and romantic had "accidentally" happened, but
nope; Lance's aura screamed regret and sadness.
Almost two months of Ariela helping Shiro and Keith and saving a few planets to
make allies had passed, and everyone knew that spirits were slowly falling
apart, and although everyone knew why that was happening, no one dared discuss
it. Because it was Keith; the sudden change into a Galra had not only affected
Shiro. Although Allura and Coran had shown themsleves to be fully supportive
with the whole business, everyone could notice how their exchanges with Keith
had changed; there were fewer and they were really tense. Hunk had even heard
themm discussing if they could still trust Keith, if it wouldn't be more
convinient to just find another paladin and return Keith back to Earth. Lance
had actually fully supported Keith at the beginning. He didn't have a dark past
with the Galra, just a dark future, and he was absolutely sure that Keith knew
just as much as them about this whole changing species thing. He had tried to
talk to the guy; their bond wasn't really tight, but maybe Keith would
appreciate Lance talking to him. After all, he knew what being different and
being treated weirdly because of that meant. Allo? A cinnamon roll kid with
Cuban accent and Latin surname migrating to the USA was a really delicate
subject, over all if the cinnamon roll's classmates were children of racist
pigs. The point is that Keith didn't react well to Lance saying that he kind of
knew how he felt, and Lance would have hated him for treating him the way he
treated him, but being in love with the guy and the look of utter dispair in
his face had dulled the anger.
The good news in this whole mess were that Shiro was now able to see Keith
without getting swallowed by a vortex of bad memories and instinct to protect
himself, but (on the other side) he didn't act with ease around Keith. This
made the younger one really nervous, a thing that showed itself at how training
got more rage-filled and the frequency he picked up fights with Lance.
Knowing that Keith was going through a really rough time, but not being able to
do nothing but argue and physically fight with him was making the blue paladin
a little depressed, along with his homesickness violently growing stronger, as
his sister's eleventh birthday neared and he wasn't there to celebrate with
her.
This made him stick to Ariela like a lost puppy, not letting her alone even one
second during their spare time. Ariela loved being around her brother, but
there was a limit to how much time she could spend around people without taking
a break, so she slowly began to get affected too.
Hunk was worried about everyone, and Pidge felt nervous because of the
crippling air in between everyone, causing her to start spending less time with
them, like at that exact moment, as she was nowhere to be seen.
"Good morning," Allura greeted, as she got in the kitchen, watching how the
paladins had breakfast in silence. "We have our next mission already," she
said, sitting down in one of the chairs.
"What is it?" Hunk asked voice filled with fake excitement, trying to spread it
to his teammates. It didn't quite work.
"There was a call from a planet, Grigk. They are known for having really good
warriors and, before Alteans, where the one's standing up against the Galra.
They have turned neutral since the last time I heard from them, but they are
interested in making an alliance with us," she explained. "We'll be travelling
there."
"What are the grigkeans like?" Shiro asked, and Lance noticed the dark circles
under his tired eyes for the first time.
"Well. They are quite similar to humans, but their culture is a little bit...,
agh," Allura said, making a face of disgust. Ariela's eyebrows rose as the rest
of the team frowned. "They are incredibly egocentric and selfish. Specially the
men," she explained herself, disgust only growing.
Hunk was going to comment something, but suddenly all the lights started
turning on and off, and music filled the air, coming from little speakers that
were installed on the roof of every room in the Castle.
I know that we are upside down, so hold your tongue and hear me out. I know
that we were made to break so what? I don't mind.
"What the quiznack is going on?" Coran screamed from some room near the
kitchen, and then the lights and the music definitely went out. Silence filled
the environment, no one saying a word because of the shock, and a few seconds
later, the light's were on again.
Worried and weirded out looks were exchanged in between the paladin's sitting
at the table and Allura.
"Do you think it's the contaminated crystal again?" Keith asked, breaking the
silence.
"What contaminated crystal?" Ariela inquired, looking at everyone's faces.
"Don't worry, Coran probably already is in the control deck checking on
everything. He'll tell us if there's something wrong with the Castle," Allura
answered, slowly hunching over the table and letting her body rest on it. She
looked miserable, and seeing her like that sank on the paladin's bones as if it
was a freezing cold wanting to kill them.
Lance spoke after a few minutes of silence.
"How would the crystal know Zed's songs?"
****** *** ******
"Hunk," Keith called from his bedroom door. The teen turned towards his
teammate, immediately picking up the signs of sadness and discomfort on Keith's
surroundings and standing up.
If there was something about him that he had been proud of his whole life, was
his ability to know who was feeling down and how he put energy into helping
them. So, when he had found Keith lying on the training deck's floor crying
last night, Hunk had activated all his anti-sadness weapons and went to check
on what was wrong.
The decision had gone away when he smelt burnt flesh and looked down at Keith.
He was pulling at his hair while he cried, not aware of or completely ignoring
a wound in his stomach. It had the shape of the gladiator's weapon, and Hunk
just knew that Keith was trying to fight his worries away, without the right
equipment and probably setting the gladiator in one of the highest levels,
without worrying about the fact that he could get seriously hurt.
"Hey, buddy. What's wrong?" he asked, as he signalled him to get closer, before
commanding the door to close.
"I...," Keith started, but he stopped himself, before signalling the bed where
he had been sitting. "Can I hang out?" he asked, and Hunk smiled warmly at him,
knowing that pushing Keith around wouldn't work to know what was wrong.
"Of course. I wasn't doing anything important anyway," he says, marking the
page of the book he had been reading, before closing it.
"What is it?" Keith asked, as he sat on the bed and took off his boots.
"A novel. Ariela lent it to me when I noticed that the textbook she had given
me was in Spanish," Hunk told him, reminding how she had explained that the
language barrier was something really blurry for her, and that she crossed it
all the time, just as many of her friends, so she didn't have the fact that
most people in that Castle didn't fluently speak Spanish and that she hadn't
remembered that the book was in that language either.
"Oh, that's really nice of her," Kieth muttered, as he got on the bed, curling
into himself, and resting his back against the wall, chin pressed against his
knees. "Shiro really seems to like her," he added, after a while of silence.
"She knows how to deal with his PTSD like a professional, so he relies a lot on
her. And she's an adult, so he doesn't think of her as someone he has to take
care of," Hunk said, already sensing where this was going.
"I know. It's just... I'm an awful person," Keith said, groaning as he hid his
face in between his legs.
"No, you are not. Your best friend has distanced from you and you're feeling
bad about it. That's not being an awful person, that's being human," he told
him, getting near Keith slowly.
"Shiro's like a brother to me. I hate that he's away because my damned fault,
so I'm trying to throw it upon someone else. That's what makes me an awful
person," he explained, and Hunk slid his arm around his shoulders to catch him
in a strong side hug.
"Keith, we are all going through a lot, but especially you. Jesus christ, you
even sort of changed species! You haven't found the right way to cope with it
yet," he tried to convince him, but Keith only sank deeper into himself.
"I'm fucking everything up. I always screw up in practice's, Shiro can't bear
being near me, my relationship with Lance is even worse that it used to be,"
the red paladin continued, as tears started streaming down his face, and he hid
his face in Hunk's shoulder. "You should find someone else to pilot red,
someone that doesn't harm the team."
"You don't harm the team. It's just that we have been in space for almost two
months, without seeing our families, and we are tense. It'll start to rub off
as we get more comfortable with each other," Hunk replied, plain hugging Keith.
There was a silence that lasted several minutes, only filled with Keith
sniffing and sometimes sobbing before he managed to stop crying, but he still
held tight to Hunk.
"You still refuse to go to the healing pods?" Hunk asked, breaking the silence,
referring to the wound on Keith's stomach. The boy nodded, before taking his
face off of his shoulder, looking at him with bloodshot eyes, decorated with
dark circles. He was a mess.
"I don't want it to go away. It's the only thing that actually feels real," he
answered. The pain, numbed by something Hunk had given hm from the infirmary
after patching him up when he had refused to go to the healing pods, was
working as an anchor, preventing him from totally dissociate from the real
world.
****** *** ******
When the door opened and the room filled with the dull light from the hallway,
Shiro's eyes were still filled with tears and his hands were still shaking. He
had managed to calm himself down on his bedroom, but he was still feeling
scared and tereibly alone, and Ariela had told him to come to her if he ever
felt like he needed to be with someone.
He got near the bed and stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed that she was
sleeping peacefully, arms tucked under the pillow and laying on her right side,
neck exposed and face relaxed, making her look completely vulnerable.
He didn't want to wake her up, but the ache in his chest was insisting strongly
in doing so. Shiro looked towards the door, trying to force himself out and
back to his own room, but instead he just sat next to the bed, as he tried to
convince his agitated mind that he wasn't alone and that it could go back to
sleep.
Although the soft breathing of the sleeping woman gave him a feeling of ease
that he was slowly becoming addicted to, every time he blinked the image of his
dreams was there to make him panic again. Keith in a Galra uniform, claws and
mouth stained with blood as the team laid dead around him, Shiro being the only
one alive to hear the animalistic growling coming from his chest.
He fell asleep after fifteen minutes of sitting in the poorly lit bedroom,
listening to Ariela's breathing, and he dreamt the same thing, only that he
didn't wake up so early, and made it to the part where Keith turned and walked
towards him, to start killing him in a slow and painful way.
Shiro jolted awake, noticing how his head had dropped to his knees because of
the intense neck pain, when Keith clawed at his face, almost cutting one of his
eyes off. Aaaaand it was all back; the panic making his body feel numb, the
shallow breathing, the tears, the pain in his chest...
"Shiro?" a voice asked behind him, and he turned to face a still-half-asleep
Ariela, that was looking at him with a deep frown and confused eyes, before
noticing his teary eyes, and starting to sit on her bed. "Hey, what's wrong?
Come 'ere," she said, opening the covers and signalling him to get near.
The man stood up with wobbly legs and crawled into the bed, hugging the woman
close to him and trying to focus on the floral smell that her hair had, and her
heartbeat against his chest and her breathing.
"Deep breaths. For me, okay?" she asked him, as she started to rub circles on
his back with one hand and scratched his nape with the other.
They moved slowly, as they tried to be more comfortable and Shiro searched to
be able to hear the calm and lazy heartbeat, and before any of them noticed,
she was sitting on his lap, hugging him tightly, as he rested his ear against
her chest and counted each heartbeat out loud.
Shiro managed to calm down by 213.
"Are you feeling better now?" Ariela asked him, as she slightly made him sway
from one side to another, the slow rhythm helping him to distract his mind.
"I dreamt Keith killed us all," he said instead of answering, and Ariela's
swaying stopped, as she swallowed hard.
"You know he would never do that, Shiro. He might look different, but he's
still Keith," she told him, speaking in almost a whisper before she bit her
lip. If the red paladin ever knew that his best friend had dreamt of him
murdering them he would feel like shit for life.
"I know, and I hate myself for even thinking of it, but I couldn't help it. It
scares me that he might change in the future because of this whole thing, and
I'm not able to do anything. Even if I could actually get near him, I wouldn't
know what to do," he replied, and Ariela made him look at her with a hand on
his chin.
"Everything will be okay, Shiro. Did you hear me?" she answered, looking at him
with big golden eyes, filled with something that he couldn't place, but made
him feel safe.
"Everything will be okay," he repeated, and the woman smiled approvingly at
him, as she made him lay down in the bed next to her.
"I don't care if you don't actually sleep, but at least try to, okay?" she told
him, as she let go of him, and laid facing him. Shiro wanted to slap himself
for asking something as he was going to ask, but he did it anyways, knowing it
helped him sleep.
"Can we cuddle?" he asked, expecting a frown from Ariela, but she nodded almost
instantly.
"Do you prefer little or big spoon?" she asked him, with a warm and sleepy
smile.
"I'm always big spoon," was his answer, and she closed her eyes.
"I didn't ask you that. I asked you which one you preferred," she said as if
she was talking to a little kid, making Shiro bite his cheek and think.
Although he really liked hugging Ariela, he gave amazing hugs.
"Can I be the little spoon?" he asked, looking at the woman's eyes somewhat
shyly. She laughed and nodded. He turned around and she snaked her arms around
him, pressing her face against his shoulder blades and tangling their legs.
"Good night, Shiro," she told him, already sounding sleepy,
"G'night," he replied, focusing his sight in a pile of books that was against
the wall facing him.
****** *** ******
I've had a little chat with the black lion Bagheera said the moment she walked
in the hangar, dressed in pink leggings and a grey t-shirt. A mug filled with
something Hunk had prepared that morning was in her hand and a book in the
other. It had become a custom for her, just sitting in the chair in the
panther's cockpit and read or listen to music, enjoying the feeling of their
mental connection buzzing in her brain.
"And what did he tell you?" she asked, as she walked towards the panther's open
mouth.
He told me that both his and Red's paladins are feeling really bad lately, but
that Keith boy doesn't count with the luxury of your person to calm him down he
answered, and Ariela could feel the eyebrow rising in her mind, as she plopped
down on the pilot chair, without opening her book and sipping from her mug.
"What? Are you jealous?" she asked with a teasing and cool tone, but curiosity
picking at her brain at the thought of what had been Black's exact words, as
she remembered how she and Shiro had cuddled last night.
I am nothing but curious. You two seem to be close in a peculiar kind of way,
not like you are with Blue's paladin. Are you trying to lure the man? he asked,
and Ariela frowned.
"Lure him? What are you talking about?" she responded, truly confused at the
panther's words. She felt him get confused and he thought for a few seconds
before answering.
You know, trying to attract him and turn him into your mate. That's what
females do, lure males the panther explained himself, making Ariela gag.
"No! I'm not trying to lure him!" she exclaimed, staring with indignation at
the panther's roof. "I mean... Yeah, Shiro's really hot and an amazing guy, but
I'm just trying to help him through this whole deal," she expatiated, and the
panther chuckled.
You would totally mate him if he wanted, though he said, making blood rush
towards Ariela's face and ears. If the panther had been a person, she would
have thrown the book at him, but it was useless making her favourite novel slam
against the metal wall.
"There are times I really hate you," she mumbled.
Don't worry, I know you would mate with the princess too if she wanted.
"What the hell, Bagheera?" she screamed, throwing her arms up to the roof.
You have really vivid dreams, I must tell you. And I don't think the black
paladin would be that dominant just as I think the princess wouldn't let you
manhandle her he went on, and the blush extended to her neck and chest as she
got up from the chair and walked towards the exit.
"This is it, I'm not talking about my wet dreams with you. Have a good day,
sir," she screamed at the panther, as she stepped out of it, not noticing Lance
standing there until it was too late.
"Oh yes. You know about my dreams with Keith, now you're telling me about
yours," her brother said, with a bright smile on his lips. Ariela just walked
past him, growling loudly and making him retreat, before looking for a peaceful
place to read in.
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Fast and furious steps could be heard from his bedroom, as he paced around the
little space he had, trying to keep himself awake by not letting his body rest.
Keith was actively trying to ignore the ache in his body and the way his
eyelids wanted to fall shut.
He hadn't slept in two days, and no matter how much weird dark-green-liquid-
that-Ariela-was addicted-to he drank, the tiredness was getting the best of
him. His pacing slowly came to a stop, then he dropped on the floor, and then
he fell asleep. It was the same nightmare over and over again: he killed the
whole team, his mind deaf to their pleas and their futile attempts of making
him snap out of the Galran feral state he had gone into, as he slashed and bit
throats open.
Hunk was always the fastest to die, and Lance was the hardest. Somehow, his
throat being sliced open by Keith didn't take away his ability to continue
speaking, so he would start recriminating to Keith everything, telling him how
much he hated him and how worthless he was, how he shouldn't have trusted him
ever. And then the light in his eyes died, just as him in Keith's arms, and
although he wanted to clutch to his body and cry, beg Lance to come back and
don't leave him alone, his dream self will drop the dead weight to the floor
and turn towards Shiro with a bloody smile, body shivering in excitement as he
noticed the terrified look in the man's eyes and the tears streaming down of
them.
He woke up with a yelp when he made four deep cuts in Shiro's face, the dark
environment making him panic slightly before the lights slowly started to turn
on again to allow him see he was safe in his bedroom, not in a pool of his
friend's blood. Despite knowing that it had all been a dream (the dream that he
had been having ever since he had turned into a half Galra) he started crying,
drowning in desperation. The same intense ache he had been feeling in his chest
every time he didn't feel well made its guest appearance and Keith sobbed
louder.
It had taken him his sweet time to finally decipher what that ache meant, and
it had been Red who had given him the answer. It was the longing for the pack's
support.
You are now a member of a pack, Keith. You share a profound bond with the rest
of the paladins, similar and even stronger to a family's. Now your animal
instincts are stronger, and they tell you to reach for your pack when you feel
bad the lion had explained to him, as they both scrambled through each other's
mind during their scheduled bonding time.
He felt weak and pathetic, standing out and walking out to the hallway,
actually thinking of waking someone up to accompany him, but he was oh so tired
and broken that he didn't believe he could carry on much longer like this, and
they would be arriving at a potential ally planet the next afternoon, so he
needed to be mildly okay.
Naturally, Shiro was out of limits, so he walked towards Hunk's bedroom. Ever
since he had found him after his fight with Lance in the training room, he had
become something like his moral support, always there for him if he needed him,
and with this new pack-connection thing going on, Keith had been needing him a
lot. But, when he reached the door, it was locked. His heart shrank in his
chest, his mind immediately and unwillingly taking the locked door as a
rejection instead of what it truly was (a simple locked door).
He then walked with slow steps and still sobbing, the ache growing stronger,
towards Pidge's bedroom, and the door was opened, but the girl was nowhere to
be seen. He normally would have taken his sweet time to register the mess
(sticky notes covering the walls, notebooks and pieces of technology scattered
everywhere), but every time he didn't find someone he felt a little bit worse,
and he didn't have enough energy to explore the girls bedroom, so he kept going
on his search for someone.
His next option was Ariela. He didn't feel that comfortable with the woman, but
she was higher on the list than Lance, and it wasn't that she didn't like her,
it was just that he didn't really know her, and the jealousy because of Shiro
was always there. He walked to the room and the door was unlocked too, but when
he opened it, he saw that she was already with someone. She was lying on her
back, and Shiro on his stomach, head and part of his shoulder resting on the
woman's chest. She had a hand tangled in his hair and was mumbling something
about those fucking hipsters.
If his heart had shrunk when he had found Hunk's door closed, it had
disappeared when he was them like that. He stepped out of the room, fast as the
flash, and stood in the poorly lit hallway, feeling the tears falling down his
face and his lower lip trembling, as he sank in himself, not wanting to admit
that he had only one person on his list, as he had horribly screamed at him and
broken the little bit of relationship they had.
He walked towards Lance's room as slowly as he could, trying to postpone the
moment, but once he was in front of the door, he just went for it. He opened
it, immediately spotting the sleeping teen on the bed, sprawled on it,
listening to music in Pidge's headphones and eyes covered with a blue eye mask.
With a command the door closed behind him, Keith feeling a little bit more
comfortable about waking Lance up if he couldn't see the rejection in his face,
and neared the bed, pinching Lance's chest with his index finger, trying to
wake him up.
Lance jolted awake, removing the headphones and sending them flying towards the
mattress with a flick of his wrist. He removed his eye mask, barely able to
make up Keith's figure in the darkness, and frowned.
"What? Did you feel like screaming at someone in the middle of the night?" he
asked, turning around and giving his back to the teen, making Keith feel
miserable, his ears sticking to his skull in shame and hands fidgeting with the
sheets.
"Lance," he started, voice broken, and the blue paladin's eyes opened widely
when he recognised the crack on his teammate's voice, turning around fastly and
commanding the lights to slowly turn on. The dim light let him see red eyes,
dark circles under them and tracks of tears running down Keith's pained face.
"Hey, I'm sorry, buddy, I didn't mean it. What's wrong?" he asked, sitting up
on the bed, as Keith cleaned his face with the back of his hands, looking like
a little kid.
"I had a nightmare," he started, in between hiccups, and Lance stared at him
with worried eyes. The red paladin tried to explain what the nightmare had been
about, but tears pooled in his eyes and he sobbed louder, Lance immediately
reaching out for him and pulling him in for a hug. "I'm so sorry, Lance. I
didn't mean to treat you like that, I'm horrible," he started saying, to repeat
himself over and over again.
Lance panicked, not knowing how to stop this river of bad emotions Keith was
feeling. He resolved by taking the same approach he would with his little
siblings, tucking Keith with his body and rubbing his back, as he whispered
comforting phrases to the teen's ear. And, luckily, Keith stopped sobbing after
a few minutes, turning into a crying ball of warmth sitting on top of him,
still crying in silence.
"I'm sorry I woke you up, but I keep having the same nightmare over and over
again and I couldn't sleep," Keith said, after minutes of silence, as Lance
kept rubbing his back.
"Don't worry, it's okay," he said, as he slowly pushed Keith apart from him.
"You can sleep with me if you want, okay? Just don't cry anymore," he said,
before doubtingly biting his lip and adding: "I don't like seeing you like
this."
Keith's ears perked up and his purple eyes opened widely, surprised, before he
relaxed and slowly nodded, starting to lay down on the bed, without taking his
eyes off of Lance. The blue paladin covered them both with the blankets, and
laid down next to him, to tuck Keith against him yet again, resting his chin
between fluffy ears and soft hair, as the other teen just relaxed against his
body and enjoyed the calming scent and the warmth.
****** *** ******
None of them noticed where the situation was going until it had already
happened.
Shiro was having a nightmare in which Keith was captured and brainwashed by
Haggar, and they forced him to sit down and watch how Zarkon tortured him,
cutting through pale naked skin with a serrated knife, making Keith tremble and
pant in pain, as he wasn't allowed to scream. The man struggled against the
killer grip of the soldiers holding him down, until he managed to break free
and run towards the emperor, punching him strongly in the stomach.
Ariela woke up to distressed sounds and a too strong grip on her right
shoulder, causing a lightning-like pain to shoot down it. She had barely opened
her eyes to see Shiro still asleep but moving on top of her, when he rose his
arm and lowered it, the fist connecting with her stomach.
She let out a short scream, as he sat up gasping, breathing suddenly turned
something hard, and the grip in her shoulder vanished, as Shiro woke up and sat
up in front of her, confused and worried, as he watched how the woman slightly
wheezed, clutching the sheets with white knuckles.
"What...?" he started to ask, but then he looked to his side and noticed his
Galra arm activated, pieces slowly falling into place, and Ariela put a hand on
his shoulder.
"I'm okay, don't worry," she said, voice sounding strained and breath laboured,
and he backed away from her touch as if his mere contact could hurt her. He got
out of the bed, taking a few steps back, raising his hands in sign of regret.
"I'm really sorry, Ariela. I didn't...," he started, breath hitching before he
groaned and turned to run off into the hallway.
By the time she made it to his door, Shiro had already locked himself up in his
bedroom, and she could hear him sob from time to time. Although she insisted
for at least fifteen minutes, the man refused to listen to her and didn't open
the door, so she gave up and walked to her bedroom.
****** *** ******
Lance had to admit that is bayard being a big ass and heavy gun had its perks,
as he lifted Ariela from the floor and threw her across the mats with just a
little bit of difficulty. His whole body had started to become more muscular
since he had been put under the ruthless training schedule Allura had made
them, going from plain stomach to a four pack harder than his sister's, strong
legs and even stronger arms, that were put under more exercise as he had to
carry the heavy gun around.
Ariela rolled around on the floor and immediately got up in one swift-Natasha-
Romanoff-like movement, putting her body in fighting stance again, as she
quickly lifted her shirt to sweep the sweat of her skin.
Lance's smug grin went away when he noticed the huge darkening bruise on the
woman's stomach and started to walk towards her. Ariela picked his brother's
tension at the second, and lowered her fists and frowned at him.
"What's wrong?" she asked him, but when his fingers closed at the hem of her
white t-shirt and he lifted, she jolted away,¡. "What the crap, Lance?" she
asked him, crossing her arms over her chest. Pidge and Keith stopped practising
on their mat area to look at them.
"What happened?" he asked, signalling the place where he had seen the gigantic
bruise, and Ariela's ears dropped a little, frown disappearing as she relaxed
her posture a little, shooting a doubtful look towards the place where Shiro
and Hunk were still practising their hand to hand.
"It was a small incident, it's nothing serious. Don't worry," she told him,
looking at him in the eye, noticing how the pair stopped their fight and turned
to look towards them.
Shiro had avoided her the whole morning, barely greeting her when they had
crashed in the kitchen, before running off to the training deck, where Coran
had found him beating the crap out of the gladiator.
"Later?" Lance asked, knowing when his sister didn't want to speak about
something in front of certain people.
"Later," she nodded, before sweeping the floor with her legs and sending Lance
crashing to the mats, pinning him down with her body.
****** *** ******
Grigk was an exact (to alien standards) replica of Earth, and they all felt so
sick, watching through the wide picture window in the control deck as the
Castle of Lions descended into an already prepared surface, where lots of
grigkeans where waiting for them. It was a valley in the middle of a city that
was a mix of rustic and technological paradise.
Grigkeans were tall as fuck, all around six feet six inches, with strong and
muscled bodies, even the women. They had dark brown skin and jet black hair,
but deep magenta eyes. The women wore fancy dresses and jewels, while the men
wore long tunics with bright colours.
The welcoming pretended to be warm, but it wasn't, and the paladins felt more
than uncomfortable as they greeted the grigkeans authorities and followed them
to the government house (because Grigk was ruled by a massive democracy).
Ariela was the one that didn't notice the whole thing, as she was too busy
worrying about how Shiro had locked down and seemed to avoid her as much as
possible. Yes, the punch had hurt and she had a massive bruise that was already
turning purple, just like the finger shaped marks on her shoulder, but she
wasn't mad at him and she wanted to talk to the man, but he kept avoiding her.
"You'll see, princess Allura, that there are certain conditions for us to form
an alliance with you," Zover, the president of that godawful planet, said,
making Ariela look up from the table they had all sat around, and pay a little
attention.
In fact, it had been the shift in the atmosphere and the smell that had shaken
her out of her thoughts. The air was tense suddenly, filled with the smell of
challenge and..., something else that she wasn't able to recognise.
"Like what?" Allura asked, seeming completely relaxed on her chair, as she
looked at the grigkean dressed in a green tunic.
"Well, it's just one in fact. There's a certain..., tribe that formed hundreds
of years ago. It's a group of women that don't like being controlled, so they
ran off to the forest and live there like..., savages. We have tried everything
to make them come back, but it was to no avail," he answered.
"What would you want us to do?" Allura asked coldly. Everything in her body
language screamed she would rather be somewhere else, no matter how important
it was for them to have allies, overall a planet that had been able to resist
ten thousand years of Galra empire.
"You would have to go and convince them of coming back to the city," he
answered, with a (fake) warm smile, as he leant into the black and thin table.
"But I'm afraid the men would have to stay behind, as they only accept women in
their territories," he added.
"Why is it so important to you that they come back to the city?" Allura asked,
not having a single dumb hair and immediately noticing that there was something
fishy behind all this. But Zover didn't seem intimidated, as he shrugged.
"They have settled down in a territory that has been proved to be vital to the
development of new technology, as a certain material can only be found there.
As long as they are there, be can't reach it," he explained, friendliness and
warmth gone from his eyes.
Allura seemed to think it twice, as she slowly tapped her trimmed nails against
the black wood. She shot a look to Coran, and Ariela was certain that they were
having a telepathic conversation, debating whether this alliance was worth the
trouble or not. Coran blinked once and Allura turned towards Zover.
"Is it the same if we manage them to move from the area you need to be
cleared?" she asked, and her body language gave away the fact that she wouldn't
accept the deal if the answer was no.
"Exactly the same," the president answered, with a wide smile that looked too
much like the Jokers for any of the paladins of the Alteans to fully trust him.
"Then we'll do it. Meanwhile, you could help our paladins out with the
maintenance of the Castle," Allura said, already standing up, the paladins and
the royal advisor following her example. "Is there something we need to know
before going to meet this tribe?" she asked, as she started to walk away.
"They are pretty tough, I must warn you," was all Zover answered, before
dismissing them with a gesture of his hand.
****** *** ******
"Shiro," Ariela barged into his room, not bothering to knock or announce
herself, as she walked towards the man with fast steps, making him retreat at
the same speed, trying to maintain the distance between them, but the woman
didn't stop and his back ended hitting a wall. "We need to talk," she said,
once she was in front of him, hand on her left hip and face serious.
"I'm really sorry, you have no idea how much I regret what happened, and I can
assure you it won't happen again. I'm totally okay if you don't want to get
near me anymore," he said, fastly, sticking his body to the wall, feeling small
under her gaze. Her eyebrows knitted together.
"Does it look like I don't want to be near you?" she asked, signaling the
little space there was between them. "No, Shiro. You got it wrong. I'm not
scared of you, nor mad at you. I understand what you did and why. You were
having a horrible nightmare and your body reacted, you didn't want to hurt me.
I know you'd never want to," she told him, putting a hand on his shoulder as
she looked at him with soft golden eyes.
"It's still wrong," he said, swallowing hard.
"Once I kicked Lance's older brother and broke his rib while sleep walking, and
we're still friends," Ariela deadpanned, and Shiro's surprised expression made
her smile. "Are we good?" she asked, and he nodded. "Will you stop avoiding
me?" he nodded again. "Perfect," and then she was hugging him.
She had slipped her arms across his waist and tightened them around him, as
Shiro slowly came to the realisation that everything was, in fact, okay and
that he could still count on her when he wasn't feeling well. He returned the
hug, pressing the woman against him and burying his face on her hair, lazily
tied in a half up half down hairstyle.
"I will be gone for a few days," she started. "So if you have any problem
sleeping or anything you can go to the guys, okay? I'm not the only teammate
that cares about you," she finished, separating her face from his body to look
at him in the eyes. "Understood?" Shiro smiled awkwardly.
"Loud and clear."
****** *** ******
Bagheera was happy that he could actually go in this mission with Ariela, not
having to be left behind like it had happened in Menosfor, but he tried really
hard to not let that line of thought slip towards the woman's mind. It was
unavoidable, though, and she chuckled at the happiness the opportunity brought
the panther.
"What is it?" Allura asked, with a smile on her face.
"Nothing, just the panther being himself," she answered, taking her eyes off of
the main screen for a second to look at the princess, before putting them "on
the road" again. There were a few more minutes of silence between them, making
Ariela slightly uncomfortable and start to wonder why Allura had refused to
ride with Pidge on the green lion.
"So, Ariela," the princess started, before clearing her throat, as if she had
read the woman's thought and she was about to answer the question. "I've been
wanting to talk with you about Shiro for some time."
"Oh, yeah? Shoot," she said, as she focused on making the panther raise
slightly to avoid a chain of mountains.
"Well. We have known that he was traumatised by the events of the last year
since we captured a Galra commander and kept him captive on the ship, but none
of us actually knew or had the nerve to talk with him about it," she started,
making Ariela curious. "I wanted to thank you. I've noticed that he breaks down
more often lately, but he is beginning to slowly get closer to the team.
Bottling his feelings would have made him impossible to put together once he
definitely broke," the princess finished, and Ariela shot her a wide smile.
"I'm happy to help. Although I must tell you, if it hadn't been because Hunk
asked me to check on him, we probably wouldn't be here right now. He really
worries about the whole team," she explained to Allura, remembering her second
night on the Castle.
"Guys? I have eyes on the tribe, and they do not look happy," Pidge said over
the intercom.
The panther tugged at Ariela's mind and she let the bond tighten, their minds
fusing and his eyes becoming hers, just in time to see tonnes of arrows lit on
fire flying towards them. She pulled the levers and stepped on the treadle,
making the panther shoot upwards.
"How are we going to make it down there without them killing us?" Ariela asked
as she started circling over the valley where a small town had been built out
of everything they could get from the forest.
"We can't communicate with them through technology, as they have none," Pidge
warned.
"Just land on the entry of the town. I think they will wait if we don't
attack," Allura said, and the two paladins nodded, before slowly descending in
the borders of the town.
Ariela could see, through the panther's eyes, how tiny people ran towards the
place they would be landing at an extraordinary speed. She slowly was able to
recognise more and more details. They were all women, as Zover had explained,
all dressing differently and armed with bows, arrows and knives.
"We're lucky Lance wasn't allowed here," Pidge joked, as she slowly let the
green lion come in contact with the ground, and turned it off. Ariela did the
same thing, activating the force field just in case, and they waited in
silence.
A small battalion formed in front of the robots, the first line kneeling in one
leg on the ground, arrows pointed towards them, waiting for an order. A woman
in a dark brown one-piece made a gesture of her hand and the archers downed
their bows.
"This is our queue. Pidge, we have to go outside," Allura said, as she started
walking towards the entrance.
"You know what to do in case stuff goes down, right?" Ariela asked, as she
stood up and prepared her bayard.
Protect the princess, don't kill civilians if possible. I've got this Bagheera
said, and the woman ran after Allura.
The small town was surrounded by ridiculously tall trees, mountains on the back
and a river on the front, forest to the sides. The houses were generally small,
made out of dark wood and decorated with rocks and precious stones.
"We come in peace!" Allura exclaimed as she stepped out of the panther, with
Ariela behind her. Her bayard had turned to a spear and her shield was
activated, waiting for someone to do something. Her mind was laughing at the
fact that she had actually heard an alien say that.
The same woman that had commanded the archers to put down their bows stepped to
the front.
"Who are you and what are your intentions with my people?" she asked, and her
voice was similar to the one Allura used when she had to discuss diplomatic
stuff with important people.
"I'm Allura, princess of Altea, and this are the paladins of Voltron," she
said, as she started to step closer. When she noticed that no one made sign of
moving, she told Ariela to put the force field down so they could talk to them
without a barrier in between.
The black and the green energy fields were down, and the warriors visibly
relaxed when they noticed that the three strangers were women.
"We are here because we want to discuss the opportunity of an alliance with
your people," Allura kept saying, as she slowly neared the woman that seemed to
be in charge.
There was an exchange of looks, and Ariela noticed they were measuring each
other, but Allura seemed to meet the woman's expectations because she smiled
warmly and reached out to shake Allura's hand.
"We had never seen female warriors out of our town," the woman said, the smile
growing bigger when Ariela lowered her bayard and let her shield vanish. A few
more women crowded around them, curiously looking at Allura's ears and even
tugging at the paladin's uniforms. "I'm Ilayi, leader of this town, and she is
my eldest daughter, Nallely, my second in command," Ilayi said, signalling one
of the warriors that had neared them with a gesture of her hand.
The woman stood straight when she heard her name, and got closer to the
paladins, making Ariela's eyes go wide. In front of her, there was a six feet
two Amazonian goddess, looking at her with lilac eyes that didn't share the
softness of the colour. She had her black hair shaved on one side of her head,
taking it all go to the other. She was wearing a red top and brown leather
pants and Ariela was so gay.
"Hello," Allura said with a smile, and the woman next to her swallowed hard as
Nallely got nearer. "As I said before, I'm Allura. The paladin of the black
panther is Ariela, and the paladin of the green lion is Pidge," she explained
signalling each one with a gesture of her hand.
"Why are you so tiny?" a bald warrior asked, lifting Pidge up as if she was a
toddler, and she immediately started kicking around.
"I might be short but I can still kick your ass!" she exclaimed, red with
anger.
"Pidge!" Allura called, but Ilayi just laughed it off.
"I like her," the woman muttered, as she indicated the warrior to put the girl
down.
"Why are you interested in making an alliance with us?" Nallely asked, and
Ariela had to hold herself back from purring at the smooth and strong voice.
"We are fighting the Galra empire, and we should get all the help that we can
get," Allura asked, omitting the part the included them having to move from
their actual territory so the people they hated could explote it.
"Those damned Galra," Nallely snarled, and it gave Ariela chills. "They have
tried to invade Grigk at least five times in the past year, but they never
managed, luckily," she told them.
"I shall talk with you about this alliance offer. Meanwhile, why don't you and
your sister show the paladins the town? After all, if they want to actually
form an alliance, they will be staying here for a few days at least," Ilayi
said, and Ariela exchanged a look with Allura.
"We should let the guys know we won't be going back for a while," she told the
princess.
"I'll let them know," Pidge nodded, ignoring the fuss that was slowly starting
to build up between the warriors. Suddenly, a little (in grigkeans standards)
girl with short black hair and wearing a green dress emerged from the crowd.
"Who are you?" she asked, looking down to Pidge.
"This is my youngest, Sugey," Ilayi said, smiling at the girl. "Sugey, they are
our guests. You and your sister will be showing them around, okay?" The girl
nodded.
"Why is she so small, mommy?" Sugey asked, signalling Pidge, that was about to
lose her shit, making Ariela laugh out loud.
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
The town was definitely bigger once you were in it, and Ariela had been so
wrong about the buildings being small (they had to feet in the Amazonian
goddesses, of course), but she wasn't paying much attention anyways; Nallely
was walking her around, explaining the function of the main building and
adjusting data about their culture, but the woman was just lost in the
grigkean's voice and her predator like moves. Pidge was the one taking mental
notes of everything, and Ariela told herself she would ask the girl when they
were alone about the main data.
"May I ask a question?" Pidge asked, as they walked past a nursery, where
grigkean teens were taking care of cute little (not so little) babies.
"You may," Nallely answered, tangling her fingers together and looking at the
smaller paladin with patient lilac eyes.
"If there are no men allowed here, how do you have children?" Pidge asked, and
Ariela's ears perked, as she mentally slapped herself for not thinking about
that. Sugey was the one that answered, twirling around in her green dress and
making her ponytails spin around with her.
"There's a way a female can get pregnant with another female, but it only
results in female babies. It involves collecting eggs from one and putting them
through a process that makes them able to fertilise the other one," she
explained.
"I have another question!" Ariela exclaimed, making the eyes fly to her. She
shifted her helmet from one hand to the other. "Are you all lesbians?" Both
Nallely and Sugey frowned deeply, looking at the woman as if she was speaking
in another language.
"What is a lesbian?" Sugey asked, curiosity making her eyes shine, and Ariela
was too tempted to answer "Me multiplied by two", but she choked it back.
"Oh, well. On Earth, the planet we come from," she started, signalling herself
and Pidge. "We call lesbians to the women that like women instead of men," she
explained, biting her cheek, as Nallely tilted her head and nodded in
understanding.
"I get it. Well, we are mostly lesbians, but some of us like men and they leave
the town to go back to the capital," she answered, eyes losing a little bit of
the curious shine they had before as if she had remembered something. Sugey
stepped in front of her sister, looking at the two paladins in turns.
"Are you lesbians?" she asked, and Pidge swallowed hard.
"Well, I'm like a half lesbian. I like both women and men," Ariela asked,
smiling, as she looked to Pidge, but Sugey frowned.
"Is that possible? Can you like more than one type of person?" she kept asking,
and Ariela concluded that, although she looked like a fifteen-year-old, she was
nine tops.
"Well, yeah. You can like anyone you want," she answered.
"Okay, that's enough talking about this subject. We still have to show our
guests the donnybrook," Nallely said, cutting her sister when she was going to
ask a question, with a harsh tone, before resuming her walk.
Sugey pouted but obeyed her sister, and Ariela and Pidge followed them behind,
exchanging suspectful looks.
The donnybrook was in the forest, and it made Ariela feel like she was at home.
The different tents, perfectly aligned on the ground, made corridors where the
grigkeans walked, checking the different products that were sold in them,
chatting with the sellers. It was too much like San Telmo's donnybrook, and it
made Ariela's heart hurt a little bit.
"So, how does your economy work?" she asked to Nallely, as she looked around in
a tent with different handmade jewelry pieces that looked just amazing.
"It's just barter. Our founder didn't want money to corrupt our lifestyle, and
the truth is that we don't have that hard of a time to get things to exchange,
so everyone is pretty happy with the system," she explained, as she looked at
an ankle bracelet made out of silver. "Precious stones are something really
common here, so it's the handiwork the thing that makes this stuff not being
free."
"Oh, nice. I'd like to get some things for my friends. What could I exchange?"
Ariela asked as she eyed some colourful necklaces.
"Well, you don't seem to have nothing on you. We can exchange everything, in
fact. Clothes, food, furniture, but what is most valuable is thing's that come
from an animal. Bones and skin."
Ariela cursed under her breath, as she had none of that, just as Allura walked
in the tent with gloomy aura. The paladin immediately tensed and got near the
princess, sensing that something hadn't gone quite right in her negotiation.
"What happened?" she asked Allura, once they were both away from Nallely, who
eyed them carefully.
"I talked to Ilayi. The second she knew we had male paladins and that we had
passed through the capital before coming here he stopped trusting me," Allura
informed her.
"Really?" Ariela asked, and Allura shushed her.
"That's not the worst. She said that she wouldn't negotiate anything with me
until we had gone through some sort of tests," the princess finishes, and the
woman sighed as she rolled her eyes to another dimension.
"Are we going to keep this going?" Ariela asked. "Something gives me the
feeling they won't be willing to move, us going through the tests or not," she
added, and Allura bit her lower lip, as she debated with herself.
"Ugh, I wished Coran was here right now. I don't know, but I think we should
try anyways. We don't have somewhere else to be, and grigkeans are powerful;
having them as our allies would be a total win."
"We should look for Pidge and talk to Ilayi about this tests so that we can
make the best decision," Ariela mumbled, and as if she had felt her named being
spoken, Pidge angrily screamed in the distance.
"I'M NOT SMALL NOR CUTE! I'M POWERFUL AND I WILL BEAT YOU IF YOU KEEP CALLING
ME THAT WEIRD NICKNAME!" She emerged from a tent a few feet away, with Sugey
following closely behind.
"But you're just as small and fluffy as a hassicky!" the girl exclaimed
throwing her arms to the sky in bliss, with a bright smile on her lips.
"Whatever option we choose, we'll have to keep track of Pidge so that she
doesn't kill someone while we're here," Allura laughed, as the girl walked
towards them with angry steps.
"What in the hell is a hassicky?" Ariela asked, and Nallely answered, having
popped out from nowhere.
"It's a pink fluffy forest creature. They're really cute; my sister loves
them," she said, smiling softly, and Ariela's heart skipped a beat.
"I might want to stay and face the tests," she whispered to Allura.
"Now I can believe you're related to Lance," was the woman's answer, as she
started to explain the whole situation to Pidge.
"There are three trials that the women who want to join the warriors have to go
through. You'll have to pass them all to win my trust," Ilayi explained. They
were at her house, surprisingly.
It was one of the biggest buildings in the town, made out of clear wood and
clay bricks. There barely was furniture in the room they were sitting, but the
floor was covered in soft and colourful pelts of different animals, making it
soft and comfortable to sit on it. Sugey had been sent to her room at the back
of their house, and Nallely and Ilayi were sitting in front of the two paladins
and the princess.
"What are they?" Pidge asked.
"One is a values test, the other is a wrestling test, and the other is a
stamina test," Nallely explained. "We can't explain you the procedure of the
first, as it always changes, but the other two we can."
"In the wrestling, each of you will be facing a different warrior; the first to
pin the other down to the floor ten seconds wins. In the third, you'll have to
escape the oviti jaws; and, as no one is as strong as him to face it, the only
answer is to run from it," Ilayi answered.
"What is the percentage of death chance?" Ariela asked jokingly, but her heart
stopped when Nallely looked at her seriously and answered.
"Forty-five percent," without batting and eyelash.
"Oh, god. Isn't it too dangerous? I mean, Pidge is part of Voltron, and you are
the only one capable of properly flying the Castle of Lions," the woman said,
looking at her partners, and they frowned at her.
"You are part of Voltron too, Ariela," Allura said.
"Besides, we have gone in missions with higher percentages than that, and we
counted with the guys' recklessness. Being us, how could we fail?" Pidge asked,
shrugging, and Ilayi chuckled.
"Every time she speaks she makes me like her more," she admitted, before
looking at the three of them separately. "So, paladins of Voltron, are you in?"
Ariela was going to ask Allura if they could take their time to discuss the
options, but the princess was already answering before she could finish turning
towards her.
"Of course."
****** *** ******
There was not a single one of them that wasn't massively uncomfortable and
unnerved, while they stayed at the castle. Hunk's sixth instinct had kicked in
again, telling him that they should keep an eye on the grigkeans, as there just
was something wrong about them. Coran, wise as ever, shared his opinion,
letting Hunk know that grigkeans were known for being compulsive liars from the
age ten.
Shiro's heart had sunk in his chest when he had spoken with his teammates in
the black lion. He expected them to fix everything in a day and be back (his
unconscious expected that, at least) and when Allura explained to him that they
would be out for at least three days, he had realised that it meant three days
without Ariela. The last night he had been without her hadn't gone really well.
Keith was already losing his mind, as every corner of the government house they
were going to stay in he turned, there were guards following him with
untrusting eyes. His Galra appearance had caused quite a fuss over the
civilians, and only Zover had smiled at him and looked him in the eyes, but not
even the professional liar was able to hide the disgust in his eyes. He wanted
to beat the crap out of every single grigkean he found on the hallways.
The only one that was mildly okay was Lance. He was so worried about the girls
that he didn't notice the tense environment around them.
Those three days would be the longest in their lives.
****** *** ******
Allura was used to sleep in a huge and soft bed, full of cushions and blankets,
so there was something weird about sleeping in pelts on the floor, but there
was something about the thing that she quite liked. It was a new experience,
and there was something about sleeping next to Pidge and Ariela that made her
feel like she was a six-year-old again, faking to be asleep as Coran passed
through her room to make sure she was sleeping. The light coming from the fire
(nights in Girgk were cold) made the shadows dance, giving the whole place a
fairy tale like air.
"You're still awake, princess," a voice said, making Allura hide under the
pelts that worked as covers, ashamed that he had been caught looking at her
paladins with a warm smile.
She came out from her hiding spot, a blush creeping up her cheeks as she
realised her childish behaviour, looking at Nallely with wide blue eyes.
"I am. Sleep doesn't seem able to find me," she smiled, as she sat in her
place, and the grigkean took it as an invitation to get near her, walking as
close as she could and sitting down on her heels, arms resting on her knees.
Nallely had changed to a plain white nightdress, and had her hair up in a
ponytail, letting Allura notice both sides of her head were shaved. It gave her
a wild air that she liked a lot, made her actually powerful. That was not her
situation, as her fluffy white her only made her look like a weakling that
couldn't be taken seriously. The princess had seen those thoughts behind
Zover's magenta eyes, while he spoke about alliances.
"She has some ugly bruises," Nallely pointed out.
Ariela was lying on her back, a leg over Pidge's stomach (which would have made
the girl mad the next morning, if it wasn't because she had her hand on the
woman's neck), and the borrowed marvel t-shirt that was too big for her lifted
and sliding down her shoulders, allowing them all to see an ugly bruise on her
stomach and the finger marks on her shoulders that were turning purple.
Allura had eavesdropped on Ariela's conversation with Lance about what had
happened the other night with Shiro, and she had been extremely grateful for
the patience she was showing to the black paladin.
"Did a man do that to her? Becuase the marks are too big to be yours," Nallely
kept asking, as a little spark of anger started on her lilac eyes.
"Yes, it was one of our teammates, but it's not what you think," Allura hurried
to answer.
"She doesn't look like the type that would let a guy step over her," the
grigkean said, eyes still on Ariela's bruises, before turning towards Allura.
"What is it then?" The altean looked away before answering.
"He was held prisoner by the Galra for a long time, and he has sequels. Before
she arrived he barely slept due to his nightmares, but she somehow manages to
calm him down and make him sleep. Last night he had an awful nightmare and
unwillingly punched her in his sleep," Allura explained, noticing how Nallely
awkwardly shifted in the place where she had sat in front of the two paladins.
"I still don't like it. Why would she put herself in danger for him?" she
asked, frowning. Allura chuckled.
"Humans are quite..., selfless sometimes. She is all in for helping others and
neglecting herself," she explained, as she pulled a lock of dark brown hair
away from Ariela's face, and the woman wrinkled her nose.
"Well, she looks like the type. A pure sapphire," Nallely said, tilting her
head.
"A sapphire?" Allura asked, looking at the woman with a slight frown.
"My people identify personality to precious stones. Sapphires are the stones of
communication, intuition, peace, happiness, comprehension and preach," she
calmly explained.
"Oh. What stone am I?" Allura asked excitedly, and Nallely fixated her sight on
the wooden floor.
"A ruby. It is the protector against bad things and bad luck," she answered,
and if it wasn't because of the bad lighting, Allura would have caught the
blush creeping on her cheeks.
An extended silence followed and all the princess could do to not feel
uncomfortable was put her attention on the crippling of the flames. She
wondered if Nallely would go back to sleep sometime, but as the woman didn't
give a sign of doing so, she opted to revive the conversation.
"Why did you separate from the rest of Grigk?" she asked, and Nallely's lilac
eyes turned to her, bright with something she didn't recognise.
"We didn't. Our tribe was formed hundreds of years ago. But we know it was
because men were mistreating their women a lot, and our right to be a member of
the army had been ripped from us. Many didn't mind, but those who worked as
soldiers were mad with anger. And the same-sex couples were prohibited also,"
she told Allura, eyes sad at the thought.
"Same-sex couples were something normal?" she asked. It certainly wasn't in
Altea.
"Yes. As we are capable of reproduction no matter what, you could be with
whoever you wanted, but the popular belief that there should be a woman and a
man in every couple to keep it balanced in every aspect was born in that time.
When the new director was chosen, he changed everything in favour of those
beliefs, and ruined many lives," Nallely answered. "That was one of the main
reasons my people came here."
"That sound's horrible," Allura consented.
"What is it like? Altea?" Nallely asked, and Allura knew it was normal to ask
in return about her native planet, but that didn't avoid the sharp pain in her
heart and the tears prickling at her eyes.
"The Galra destroyed it ten thousand years ago, so it's nothing more than ash
right now, but it used to be beautiful. The sights, the festivals, the Castle
was always open to the town's people to visit and there were parties all the
time," Allura started, a lone tear running down her cheek.
"I'm sorry for your loss," the woman told, sounding uncomfortable.
"Don't worry. But there's nothing I can do about it and it kind of works as
motivation to bring the Galra empire down as soon as possible. I don't want
other planets to suffer the same fate that mine did," she replied, giving
Nallely a broken smile.
"You are strong, princess Allura. I really like that," she said, returning the
smile.
"Thank you. I really like you too," Allura replied, and Nallely lowered her
face again, before standing up.
"I should go back to my bedroom and let you sleep. Your first trial is tomorrow
and mum will kill me if she knows I kept you awake," she said, before nodding
respectfully towards the woman. "Good night, princess," she said before she
started walking away.
"You can call me just Allura, you know?" she laughed, and Nallely stopped,
before turning towards her.
"Good night, Allura, then."
"Sweet dreams, Nallely," she nodded, watching the woman go, before lying down
on the pelts again and closing her eyes, suddenly feeling more tired and
willing to sleep than before.
****** *** ******
Ariela had been blindfolded a few times before (the context wasn't necessary to
explain), but she had been with people she trusted, knowing that with a simple
word coming out off her mouth everything would immediately stop and she could
quit at any moment. She really understood Shiro's nervousness now.
This, she thought as she was guided by a grigkean warrior through the forest,
was nothing like that. First, she was in danger, that was something sure, as
they had had to stop three times because one of the warriors had spotted a wild
and dangerous animal in the foliage. Second, the only people she truly trusted
there were blindfolded too, so she felt unsafe. And third, someone had told her
that there were spiders in that forest, and that had made her more terrified
than the trial itself had.
"We have arrived. Don't take your blindfold off yet," Ilayi said, and Ariela
gulped hard. "We will leave you alone and you'll have to find your way back to
the town alone. You'll have to wait a whole minute before tacking your
blindfold off," she continued, but Pidge cut her off.
"Will you know if we take them off before?" she asked, and Ariela knew she was
raising her hand as if she was in a classroom.
"We will let you figure that answer out," a warrior they didn't know answered
in a smug tone, making the others chuckle.
"Silence," Ilayi said, and it was dead quiet. "As I said, you'll have to wait a
minute to remove the blindfolds, and you'll have one hour to make it back to
the town."
Before Ariela could ask how they would know an hour had passed, the warrior
that had guided her was whispering a "Good luck" full of sentiment and she was
gone.
"Hello?" Pidge asked, and no one answered.
"Okay, so we should wait for sixty ticks, right?" Allura asked, before counting
in whispers.
"What the fudge is a tick?" Ariela asked.
"It's the Altean word for seconds," Pidge answered.
They waited in silence for Allura to finish counting, and once she did, they
removed their blindfolds. The three of them had been given traditional training
clothes and weapons. The three of them were in brown leather pants, and shirts
made of a strong black material. Each one had two knives and that was it.
"Okay. So, where should we walk towards to?" Ariela asked, looking around and
everything seeming the exact same thing to her. She felt as if she was floating
in the middle of the ocean, disorientated and with no way to know where to
swim.
"Well, you were the last one, so you are the one that's closer to the place we
came from," Pidge deduced, signalling the space behind the panther's pilot. "I
think we should just walk in a straight line in that direction," she finished.
"I'm not going to deny that this idea is the only one we've got, so I say we
give it a chance," Allura said, shrugging, and they all turned around and
started walking.
They walked for what felt like hours to the paladins, but Allura informed them
that it had just been fifteen minutes, advancing through the humid, foggy and
cold environment of the forest, evading roots, bushes and low branches like a
minor obstacle, until they heard it.
Pidge was barely able to see her own feet when they hear a distant howl,
followed by many others.
"What was that?" she asked, immediately turning around. Ariela retreated and
put herself in between her and the path they had already walked, sniffing the
air and her ears moving slightly towards the direction of the sound.
"I don't know what it is exactly, but it sounds like a pack of something big
and it smells like acid," she informed, giving a step back. "Whatever they are
they're fast, so I suggest we start running like now," she added, before
grabbing Pidges hand and fucking starting to sprint, following the direction
they had set themselves.
They run for three minutes before the fog got too dense to be able to see what
was in front of them, the sound of the animals getting closer every second
passing, just as Pidge's heart hammered faster against her chest.
She crashed against something, and Ariela accidentally let go of her hand.
There was screaming and calling out for each other, but Pidge set off running
again when she realised it was to no avail to keep searching for her teammate.
The girl run like her life depended on it (and, to her, it did) noticing glad
how the fog started to dissipate as she neared the limit of the forest. She
could see the valley meters in front of her, but there was a howl close to her,
and then a scream.
"PIDGE!" a voice filled with pain shouted, making her stop in her tracks and
turn around.
"ALLURA?" she asked, watching in between the dense fog that was behind her.
"PIDGE! PLEASE HELP ME! THEY'RE COMING AND MY FEET GOT TANGLED IN SOMETHING!"
Allura was practically crying in desperation, and Keith didn't even shoot a
look over her shoulder to look at the valley, before jumping into the fog
again.
"WHERE ARE YOU, ALLURA?" she called out, as she advanced as slowly as she could
to not stumble upon anything at to pay attention to the woman's voice.
"I'M HERE, PIDGE! PLEASE HURRY!" the princess responded, and Pidge advanced
faster, more certain of the woman's position. Then she heard howls and growls,
followed by a scream that tore through her ears.
"ALLURA!" she shouted, before picking up the running pace again, noticing how
the fog was starting to dissipate too, the animal noises becoming louder and
scarier, but she forced herself to run even faster.
She jumped over a tree root and crashed against a body, making the person back
away a little at the impact, but they were able to catch themselves before
actually falling to the ground.
"What the...?" Pidge asked, looking up and recognising the bald warrior that
had picked her up the day before and asked why she was so tiny.
"Congrats, paladin. You made it through the first trial," the woman smiled at
her brightly.
"What? Where's Allura?"
"I don't really know, but I can assure you she's fine," the warrior smiled.
"C'mon, let's get you to the village," she said, slamming a strong hand on
Pidge's back and almost tipping her over.
When they made it to the village, Ariela and Allura were already waiting there,
the princess looking proud of herself and the woman fidgeting, as she tried to
look into the forest, probably looking for Pidge.
"Why are they taking so long?" she asked.
"I'm right here!" Pidge exclaimed, before running towards them again. "Allura,
I heard you calling for me!" she said to the princess, and she smiled.
"It was the test, Pidge, seeing if we would go back to save our partners or
not," Allura explained to her, Nallely smiling proudly behind her.
"Which you could have done in other way because I almost nail a knife in your
head," Ariela added, pointing a finger in Ilayis direction, making the woman
laugh nervously.
"I didn't know you could throw knives. It's a really rare ability here," she
justified herself, and Ariela turned to Pidge, putting her hands on the girl's
shoulders and looking for any sign of damage.
"It scared the crap out of me when I heard you scream," Ariela said, and Pidge
frowned.
"I didn't scream." Ariela copied her frown.
"It was your exact same voice," she said before they both turned towards the
grigkeans.
"We can imitate voices to the perfection," Nallely explained, using Sugey's
voice, and the three teammates opened their eyes widely.
"Wow."
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
The trial had taken them just an hour, and when they thought they could relax,
the foreign trio was told that, as the next day they would have to fight a
warrior each, they should at least try to get a little bit accustomed to the
way grigkeans fought instead of resting from the little nothing that had been
the first trial.
And that's how they met the arena, accompanied by Nalleny, Erandi (the bald
warrior) and Yaretzi (a cutie-pie they had just met, with waist long hair being
held back by a messy half up half down bun and a sweet smile always on her
face). It was near the mountains, a place where they had dug a plain floor and
grades on the ground.
"Alto laburo le pusieron a este lugar," Ariela said, after whistling, and
everyone frowned, not knowing what she had said, as she lowered the grades and
stepped into the arena, already feeling like someone was going to pop up from
nowhere and fight her to death.
"We can fight among ourselves at the beginning, for you to have a look before
practising," Yaretzi said, with her smile still present, behind Ariela. The
woman turned to her, wondering how the fuck she had made it down so fast.
"That would be really nice. Thank you," Allura said, as Nallely helped her down
the last step, being it taller than the rest (although the princess didn't need
it, and it seemed like the grigkean warrior knew).
Erandi was suddenly crushing her body against Yaretzi, making her fall
violently to the ground with a gasp. The bald woman laughed out loud, and her
opponent's smile faded away, to give place to an angered grimace. She put all
of her weight in her forearms and kicked the other woman in the stomach, breath
escaping her lungs as she fell on her ass.
It turned into a mud-fight, those that appeared in cliché teenagers movie. They
played dirty, and there were really few times where there was space in between
them. It didn't look much like fighting, but wrestling. The trio immediately
noticed that they weren't good at evading, and took mental note of it, to use
to their favour the nex day.
Surprisingly, Yaretzi won. Ariela would have bet all of her money on Erandi,
but she ended up pinned under the other woman's weight, face pressed against
the earth as Yaretzi shook with laughter, listening to the muffled curses
coming from her opponent.
"Yare, it's over, let her go," Nallely sighed, and the aforementioned rolled
off Erandi, still laughing lowly, and helped her stand up. "Good. As Yaretzi is
our lightest weight she'll be PIdge's oponent. Who should get the heaviest?"
Ariela was going to give a step forward, but Allura raised a hand slowly, as if
it wasn't that big of a deal. The human raised her eyebrows, analysing the
woman's body again, and reasuring herself that there was not much muscle there.
"She lifted Shiro in the air and threw him across the air twelve feet," Pidge
said, noticing Airela's disbilief.
"You did? Shiro's a fudging machine!" Ariela exclaimed, looking at the princess
with wide eyes. Allura shrugged.
"Then the princess gets Erandi. Ariela, you with me," Nallely said, signlaing a
place of the arena and started her walk towards there.
Depending on the tactic, the fights were pretty unbalanced, at least in between
humans and grigkeans. When the warriors caught Pidge or Ariela, they would
beaten to practical death unless they managed (somehow) to escape. Now, if they
didn't manage to hold them down, the punches and kicks would come from
everywhere, and the grigkeans would be lucky to evade them. Ariela was sighind
in her mind, thinking how big of a waste it was having those bodies and not
teaching them more agile fight styles.
Ariela managed to pin down Nallely by the second round. Pidge struggled, and
she wasn't able to pin Yaretzi down in none of the five rounds they alll
faught.
Allura won every damned time, as she counted with the same strength and similar
size to the other species and the fighting knowledge from Altea. Her oponent
had muttered it had been beginners luck after the first time her back had been
pressed against the ground, but by the third she was already waring a frown and
thin lips on her face, making it hard for Allura to choke back the grin she
wanted to stretch her lips into.
They had lunch, they rested, practised five more rounds, ate dinner, stayed in
the nursery helping the teens take care of the babies as all the adult
grigkeans attended a weekly meeting they had to go over..., stuff and gone to
sleep.
Ariela's body was aching all over, and she hadn't noticed how much she had
goten used to the healing pods until she needed them and they weren't there. It
hurt to just lay down on the pelts Ilayi and Sugey had set for them in the
living room of their house. The mere thought of having to go over the fight
again the next day made her want to sob, taking her sleep away.
The whole town was dead quiet, the only sound was the crippling of the fire and
her teammates breathing, along with their heartbeats. Allura's was slow and
steady, but Pidge's was a little bit fast, her scent giving away the fact that
she was feeling anxious. Ariela thought she was having some kind of bad dream
when she cursed and furiously shifted around.
"Hey, Pidge. Is everything okay?" the woman asked, and the girl lifted her eyes
to hers, face getting a little bit pale.
"Ariela, you're awake," she gasped, making the woman look at her with narrowed
eyes. What was that little person hiding? "I'm okay. Don't worry."
"Is it tomorrow's trial? Because if it's that, then we'll figure something out,
don't worry," Ariela assured her, and Pidge bit her cheek, looking down to the
wooden floor.
"It isn't that what worries me," she whispered, a blush creeping on her cheeks.
"Then what is it?" she asked, making Pidge look around nervously to check that
there was no one listening to their conversation, as she debated with herself
whether she should spit it out or keep her mouth shut.
"How old were you when you knew you were bi?" she asked, biting her lip and
fidgeting with the bright blue pelt that covered her body. Ariela's eyebrows
rose up in surprise, but she started to recall the age she had been when she
had figured out (really scared about it and hating it) her sexuality.
"I was in between thirteen and fourteen," she answered slowly a few seconds
later. Pidge's eyes seemed to sink. "Why is that important?"
"I..." Pidge started, before taking a deep and shaky breath to calm her nervous
tone down. "I'm fourteen and I have never had the hots for anyone. And I'm in
an age where I'm supposed to be horny all the time, but I just don't find
anyone attractive," she spoke quickly as if she was afraid someone was going to
catch her midsentence. Her eyebrows knitted at the woman's wide eyes in
surprise.
"Wait, what?" she asked, trying not to scream, and Pidge hunched. "You're
fourteen?" Ariela asked in a whisper as if it was illegal to be that age, and
the girl looked at her with a frown.
"Yeah, didn't you know?"
"No," Ariela shook her head violently. "I thought you were Lance's age, as he
had told me you were his partner at the Garrison. Oh, my god, you are
fourteen!" she replied, making Pidge frown even harder.
"Didn't Lance tell you why I'm here?" she asked.
"I think it's evident Lance didn't feel like telling me more than half of the
story," Ariela said through gritted teeth angrily. "Next time I see him I'll
have his ass, " she started, before gasping and covering her mouth. "I'm
sorry." Pidge snorted.
"Dude, it's okay. I curse more than you do," she said. "But, going back to what
I was saying..." Ariela's eyes focused on her face again and she smiled.
"Yeah, right. So?" she asked.
"Well, isn't it weird? Could it be there's something wrong with my body?" she
inquired, and Ariela wrinkled her nose as if the idea had a bad smell.
"Nah, man. You might just be asexual or demisexual," she said, before shrugging
it off.
"What?"
"Asexual means that you don't experiment sexual attraction at all, and
demisexual means that you can experience sexual attraction only if you have a
really strong bond with a person," the woman calmly explained to her.
"And..., is it bad?" Pidge asked, gripping the pelt tightly.
"No, it's just a sexuality. Just like I'm bi or, I don't know, Shiro is
straight... I think," Ariela answered quickly, not wanting the girl to stick
with that thought.
"Oh. Okay. And..., can it be that I have never fallen in love but I'm not a
sociopath?"
"Pidge, honey, listen. You are really pretty and smart, so you must have really
high standards for someone that is your age," the woman started, with a soft
smile, putting a hand on the girl's arm. "And if you don't find anyone to fall
in love with it's normal. Now, if time goes by and you don't ever fall in love,
it's okay too. There are other types of love out there to enjoy."
"Yeah, it sounds lovely but what if I die alone? What if I decide to have
children when I'm older and I can't because I'm like this?" she kept asking,
and there were a few tears welling in her eyes as she spoke. Ariela's face
turned serious.
"Pidge, as long as we are alive, you won't die alone, I can promise you that.
And there's also your family. Beside's if you want to have children, there's
this magic thing called adoption or even insemination," she replied, looking at
the girl's eyes.
"You promise?"
Ariela wanted to kill herself for not noticing how young Pidge was, but then
she remembered how the girl had never let herself be mildly vulnerable in front
of anyone, always acting like an immature grown up with her unlimited sass and
salty personality. The scared look in the girl's eyes reminded her both of her
and Lance when they were her age: having made a new discovery about themselves,
regretting it and hating themselves for the way they were. Was there something
wrong with them? Why couldn't they be normal? But it was the fear, overall. Not
knowing how people would take it, how many of the ones you loved would turn
their back on you, if there were going to be new limits in your life just
because of who you liked or didn't like. It was the uncertainty of something
new and kind of rejected by the society.
"I pinky promise," Ariela said, letting her hand go of Pidge's arm and holding
her pinky finger out for her. And although the woman expected her to roll her
eyes until there was nothing more than white, Pidge smiled and took her hand
out from her pelt cocoon, tangling it with hers.
"You have to give me your other pinky because you're ambidextrous," Pidge
deadpanned, and Ariela laughed.
"Does this mean that you will cut both of my pinkies off if I don't keep my
promise?" she asked, as she held the other one out.
"You will be dead before me if you don't keep your promise, so it isn't like
you are going to need them," the girl chuckled, before sniffing slightly.
"Then I promise again."
****** *** ******
They were waiting for their food to arrive, sitting uncomfortably at the
kitchen's table with the staff. No one spoke nor tried to actually start a
conversation. The four male paladins and the royal adviser were in complete
silence, some of them fidgeting with their hands hidden under the table, as
they watched how the food started to arrive.
A grigkean sat beside Keith received his food, the smell invading the paladin's
nostrils and making him hum. He hated this people to death, yes, but their food
was delicious and he was starving as if he hadn't eaten in days. Lately, he had
been eating more than usual.
And then their food arrived, and the smell of it reached his nose too, smelling
something different coming from the mashed something that was the side of some
animal's meat.
He grabbed Coran's hand, stopping the man from taking a fork with meat and the
thing that didn't smell good to his mouth, and calling everybody's attention.
He sniffed a little bit, paying close attention to the smell, noticing how it
was something sweet that made him relax a little bit. He took the tiniest bit
of the thing in his fork and licked a little bit, his sensitive tongue
tingling.
"Keith, what's wrong?" Shiro asked, looking at him with a deep frown.
"I need to talk to all of you, now," he said, standing up and leaving the
kitchen, his teammates hurried steps following close behind him. The door
closed behind Hunk, but he was still able to hear how curious grigkean voices
started speaking quietly in between them.
"What happened?" Lance asked, copying Shiro's frown, as he crossed his arms
over his chest.
"I think they put something in our food," Keith told them in a whisper, and all
of their eyes opened widely.
"What?" Hunk asked, but he spoke again before Keith could repeat himself. "How
did you notice?"
"It smelt different than the other's food, and when I tasted a little bit it
made my tongue tingle, so I think is some kind of morphine," he answered,
looking around to catch everyone's reaction.
"But why would they want to drug us?" Shiro asked.
"Maybe they just wanted to drug Keith. Maybe they don't trust him because he's
half Galra," Hunk answered, and Keith was going to feel bad about the comment
when he noticed how the technician's voice made it look like that was something
absurd and outrageous.
"I don't think it's worth taking the risk. I don't know why they would want to
drug us all, but it definitely sounds like something grigkeans would do," Coran
mumbled, gripping his chin as he thought about the situation.
"Then what should we do? Escape?" Lance asked, but the adviser shook his head.
"No, we might be overreacting, and the alliance with this people is really
important. Besides, Pidge, Ariela and Allura are still with the tribe. I say we
excuse ourselves, say that we are not hungry and go back to out bedrooms," he
said.
"We better keep an eye open, just in case," Shiro said, taking his weight off
the wall he had been leaning in. "I definitely don't trust this people."
****** *** ******
They were woken up and given breakfast and some time to digest it before the
fight. As their bodies hurt like hell from the day before, Ilayi had given them
something that was like a transparent gel to put on the areas it hurt.
Miraculously, the pain was away the moment the thing touched their skin.
"What if I don't make it?" Pidge asked, stopping her pacing around the house.
"Hm?" Allura asked, sitting straight and looking at the girl.
"Yesterday I wasn't even close to beating Yaretzi. What makes you think it'll
be different today? Will I have to re-do the whole thing or I just end up
eliminated forever? If I do, will they let you keep going or all our plans are
thrown into the trash because of me?" she started asking, and Ariela wondered
if she always started panicking like this before something important.
"Don't worry, Pidge. I'm sure they'll take into account the fact that you are
like three-fourths of their height and that you don't have even half their
strength," Allura said, with a warm smile, but Pidge just blinked at her.
"What she means is that you don't have good chances of winning, but you are
going to do it anyways and they'll probably really value your courage at the
time of making a decision," Ariela said, feeling like she had to do something
to cheer the girl up.
"You think so?" Pidge asked. Allura nodded.
"We do," she said, her smile growing bigger.
"Are you ready, paladins?" Sugey asked, sticking her head into the living room.
Beat the glory out of them, kiddo Bagheera said in her mind, making the woman
smile.
When they arrived, the grades of the arena where already filled with the women
of the tribe, sometimes roaring at the speech Ilayi was giving about bravery
and skill and allies and stuff Ariela didn't quite catch over the screams, the
nerves and the chatter of the grigkean teens that were painting their faces
with war paintings.
"Now we greet princess Allura, from Altea, paladin of Voltron and pilot of the
green lion, Pidge Holt from Earth, and paladin and pilot of the black panther,
from Malteia," Ilayi screamed, signalling to the place they were standing.
Ariela looked at her teammates with wide eyes.
"I'm not from Malteia. Why did she say I'm malteian?" she asked.
"Oh, we're sorry. we just assumed you were because the princess told us about
your malteian blood," one of the teens said.
"We were really excited to know that there were still malteians out there.
They're one of the best warrior races of the universe, after the Galra and the
Grigkeans," the other added.
"So you better kick Nallely's ass, got it?" Pidge told the woman, making her
laugh.
The trio parted, each of them walking towards they pre-assigned opponent and
greeting them, waiting for Ilayi to give the signal to start. Said signal was a
"Good luck", and after it was said, the grigkeans jumped towards them.
It was just like the day before, but Ariela noticed that Nallely was fighting
in a more aggressive way, even aiming to break bones or completely knock the
other out with her punches, making the human get a little bit scared, but she
still managed to evade and land punches herself, managing to bring Nallely to
the ground, but having to separate from her before the woman tried to choke her
with her thighs.
The public watched in silence, excepting for some spontaneous exclamations when
someone did an amazing move, not wanting to distract the fighters from their
activity. And Ariela was really glad because the adrenaline was slowly starting
to affect her performance, not in a bad or good way, just making it different.
Midway through the fight, she started relying more on her other senses, sight
just becoming just one more, as she heard the woman's heartbeat and started to
recognise subtle patterns that gave off what might be her next attack, just as
her smell. She felt Nallely's muscles start to tremble under her grip once she
managed to grab her, before being shaken away, letting her know that the woman
was starting to get tired. And also, that part of her that had awoken with her
genes, was starting to take over her mind bit by bit, making her own attacks
more animalistic, the permanent growl she made when she practised appearing and
unconsciously showing her fangs at her opponent, just as her claws.
Allura was the first one to win the fight, after fifteen minutes of wrestling.
Five minutes later, when exhaustion was starting to show, Ariela had just
separated from Nallely (who had almost won the fight, but the other woman had
managed to squirm from her grip at the last second) when she heard Pidge cry
out in pain, making her attention drive towards her.
She saw the green paladin lying on the ground, gripping her ankle as she
huffed, trying not to cry because of the pain. Yaretzi looked at her without
moving a muscle, chest heaving, as she didn't know if she should keep going or
stop. The grigkean shot a look to her leader, and when the woman nodded, she
gulped and started advancing towards Pidge.
"What? No! She probably sprained her ankle!" Ariela screamed, looking at Ilayi,
just as Nallely's heartbeat got too near and she evaded the woman's body
crushing int hers just by millimetres. "Allura, do something!" she shouted, as
she focused her attention in her opponent again, decided on winning this and
going to check on Pidge.
There was screaming and Erandi suddenly appeared flying towards them, falling
in front of Nallely and making her fall face to the floor. Ariela took the
chance, ignoring the bald warrior getting up and running off as she threw her
body over the woman's and effectively catching her in a position that pinned
her to the ground, without no option of moving. It was staying still or having
Ariela break her arm. Jesus, was she familiar with that movement she thought,
as she held Nallely down to the floor, with a leg over the woman's neck and the
other over her chest, as she held her arm tightly and waited for any movement
that gave her an excuse to raise her hips and break the arm.
The countdown started on the grades, and the second the women shouted "zero",
Ariela let go of Nallely, and run towards where she had last seen Pidge. And
she was still there, only Allura was dealing (read: struggling) with both
Yaretzi and Erandi.
"Are you okay, Pidge?" she asked the second she was on her knees beside the
crying girl.
"Yeah, I just sprained my ankle really bad. Yare pushed me and I gave a wrong
step," she explained.
"Okay, don't worry. We've got this for you," Ariela nodded, before standing up
again and going to back up Allura.
They ended up winning over the grigkeans, as Allura held Erandi back, Ariela
pinned Yaretzi. There was screaming, booing, clapping and steps running towards
them. Suddenly, Ilayi's furious face was resting over Ariela's, who was still
lying on the ground, panting and wishing she would just pass out.
"Who ever said you could help your friend with her opponent?" the woman asked
her through gritted teeth.
"She sprained her ankle! As if being small and weaker wasn't enough, now she
couldn't move!" Ariela exclaimed, making the grigkean raise her eyebrows.
"In a real fight she would have perished," the woman spat, but it was Allura
who answered.
"No, because in a real fight we would still be by her side. And, believe me, if
you had given my paladin a weapon, your warrior wouldn't be alive," the
princess told the leader, as she picked Pidge up bridal style, using her royal
tone.
There was a silent duel, the two of them looking into the others eyes with
fierce, trying to intimidate the other and make them back down. Allura won
again.
"Fine. We'll count it as if you've passed it, but you will have a lot of
trouble tomorrow, running from the oviti," Ilayi said, and with that, she was
gone, leaving them in the arena, with their opponents getting near.
"Don't worry. We all know she respects the decision you made, it's just that
she can't believe you dared to defy her rules," Yaretzi smiled at them sweetly.
"Whatever," Allura breathed out, before starting to walk. "Let's get you
checked up," she said to Pidge.
Chapter End Notes
     Alto laburo le pusieron a este lugar: They worked really hard in this
     place.
     I can't believe I've already published the fifteenth chapter! I'm so
     excited with this fic all I do in my free time is write it, haha.
     For those who are curious, the movement Ariela does to pin Nallely
     down is in this video, by the minute 3:30, I think.
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B1H5-F50c4
     Don't forget to leave kudos if you're liking it :D
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
"What are we going to do?" As if they weren't thinking about that already,
Pidge asked, eyes fixated on the floor while Sugey made the bandage on her
ankle. Just as Ariela had supposed, she had sprained it and probably a grade
three, so Pidge wouldn't be able to step with her right foot until they got her
into a healing pod for a few ours. But that wasn't going to happen until they
went back to the Castle of Lions, thing that would happen after they completed
the third trial, which involved running from some sort of killer animal.
Running.
"I can carry you on my back. It will make our moves clumsier and slower, but
it's not impossible," Allura said, from the place she was sitting on the low
step that separated the living room from the entrance of the house, rubbing her
face. She was really tired and her body hurt all over.
"I got you an image of the oviti," Nallely announced, before even appearing
from behind the wall, as she came back from her book. In her hands, she was
carrying a huge book, thick and bound in red leather, opened to a specific
page. She had several bandages over her body too, on the places Ariela had
scratched and bitten to get away from her grip.
She passed the book to Allura, and Ariela got up from the place she was sitting
on the floor to look. Her eyes met a really detailed drawing of a creature that
looked like a hellhound, only it had sharp bones in its loin, red eyes and
didn't have fur.
"We have three of this locked down and trained to attack the person we want,
they're the ones we use for the third trial. We used to have four, but he
reached the warrior and she managed to kill it before it killed her," Nallely
answered.
"Did she have to re-do the trial?" Pidge asked, and Nallely shook her head
slowly.
"No, she won, but the chances of winning against and oviti are one in fifty. We
are fast and good climbers, so not many have died doing the trial," she
explained. "Don't let this get into your head. If you can run, run. There's no
way you're winning a fight against it, especially if you have a weak point."
"What's our weak point?" Allura asked, and the grigkean's eyes slowly turned to
Pidge.
"We got it, I'm the weak point. Fuck off," the girl said, letting her head drop
in her hands, at the same time Sugey got up from the floor, having finished her
duty.
"I don't know if we would actually need to get close to it to kill it," Ariela
mumbled really low, only Nallely and Allura managed to hear her. "How good are
this thing's reflexes?"
"Good. Not enough to evade an arrow, but you're only allowed to carry a knife
each," Nallely answered, and Ariela turned to her with a half grin on her
mouth.
Adrian was Lance's second brother. He was twenty-four, so when Ariela was
sixteen, he was eighteen. There had been this massive party at the McClain's
house, family and friends invited, and (surprisingly) there was alcohol "for
the adults". Nick, a friend of Adrian, had gone up to the bedrooms, where
Ariela had been looking for Adrian's gift in the guest's room and... Well. He
was strong (baseball team's star) and she was shocked, so he moved on pretty
fast, but the second Ariela's brain caught up with the situation, she took
advantage of the drunk guy's poor stability and had broken his arm. There was a
lot of screaming and crying, and although she had thought Adrian and his
parents would be mad at her, they had to hold the birthday boy back from
beating the life out of his friend for touching his little sister.
Adrian felt awful after that, thinking the girl would hate him because he had
invited that fiasco of a person, but she had explained that he had had nothing
to do with it. But, as he still felt guilty, he insisted in taking self-defense
lessons with her. They signed up, and from there they went to judo, and from
there she went to kickboxing classes, but they still practised together from
time to time.
When the girl started enjoying fighting a lot and took up a like towards
everything that was weapons and fighting techniques, Alec (Lance's father)
taught her how to shoot a gun and Idania (Lance's mother) had taught her how to
throw knives, something that her father had taught her when she still lived in
Cuba while being a teenager, just for fun. Endless afternoons had been spent in
the McClain's backyard, shooting down tins with Lance, or taking them down
knives with Idania, in a match in which the winner got away from doing the
washing up.
To sum up, Ariela had quite of a good aim.
"I just walked by the cage to check the oviti out and I almost shat my pants,"
Pidge announced, making Ariela snort, as she took her eyes out of Yaretzi for a
second to look at the girl clinging to Erandi's back, who had offered herself
to carry her around so Pidge didn't go into an energyy accumulation state and
made everything blow up. "How's practise going?"
As an answer, Ariela turned, aimed and threw the knife with all of her might.
It went through the wood tray Yaretzi had been swinging, burying to the hilt,
but not quite in the centre.
"I just can't seem to get the centre," the woman complained, groaning, as she
balanced another knife between her fingers.
"You get the middle or not, I don't think the oviti will survive having fifteen
centimetres of this bad boy buried it it's skull," Sugey said, popping from
thin air, and handing Ariela a knife that made the woman's jaw drop.
The handle was made out of some thick wood she couldn't recognise, it probably
didn't exist on Earth, and the blade was made out from some kind of precious
stone that let light go through its light-blue-almost-white surface and gave an
amber halo.
"It's beautiful," the woman said, feeling the weight of the weapon in her hand
and testing its balance. It was perfect.
"I made it out of crystal river gem and severa wood. I was going to give it to
Nallely on her birthday, but she's been really mean to me lately and she
doesn't deserve it. Besides, I discovered mum is already going to give her one
made out of marble, and I can't compete with that," the girl explained as if it
was nothing, making Ariela's jaw drop even lower.
"You're giving it to me?" she asked Sugey, and she made a face that looked too
much like Pidge's.
"No, I'm asking you to give it to the oviti for me when you see him."
"Heh, she picked that up from me," Pidge exclaimed proudly, still clinging to
Erandi's back. "Throw it! Throw it! Throw it!" she started to chant, and almost
everyone followed. Yaretzi looked at Ariela with a grin and started to swing
the tray again.
The woman breathed deeply before aiming and throwing the knife. It buried to
the hilt too, a few centimetres closer to the centre.
"That knife is amazing, Sugey. How did you make it?" she asked, as Yare pulled
the knife out of its place, making a weird sound because of the serrated blade.
The girl just shrugged at the question.
"Paladins, the trial will start in ten minutes. Nallely, would you show them
where they have to go?" an unknown grigkean stated, and the warrior nodded,
before looking at the trio.
"Are you ready?"
"To the place where the ugly dog is, my official carrier," Pidge said with a
general like tone, and Erandi laughed, before starting the walk to the place
where they had come from a few minutes ago.
The oviti had an ashy grey skin that segregated some kind of transparent slime
that stank already for normal noses, but it was making Ariela want to cut her
nose off with the knife Sugey had given her. It growled at them and barked,
sounding like it came from another dimension, making the woman's hair stand and
hiss at the dog, showing it her fangs. It only made it bark louder.
"You'll have fifteen minutes of advantage, then we will let the oviti go. You
have to make it to that valley uphill, where the rest of the warriors will be
waiting. Once you're there, you're safe," the unknown grigkean explained to
them, as Erandi passed Pidge to Allura.
"Good luck," Nallely wished them.
"Run."
Ariela had never wished to be Usain Bolt harder in her life, not even when she
was running from some guys that had tried to mug her in Constitusión a few
months earlier, almost getting run over because she was paying more attention
to how close the muggers were instead of the street lights.
She knew that if it wasn't because she had to carry Pidge, Allura would be
faster than her, but in that moment they were running side by side, the girl on
the princess' back warning them about obstacles and looking over her shoulder
to check on the oviti, although they hadn't run for more than five minutes. But
once the fifteen minutes headstart were over and the animal was let loose, all
hell broke free.
They noticed the animal was finally running after them because it let a long
and loud howl that sounded too much to those the actual hounds gave before
starting to chase a prey while hunting. The steps of the two women became
faster, just as their heartbeats, while they hoped there wouldn't be a future
in which they would have to confront the oviti.
Of course, their wishes weren't heard.
The first one to notice the animal was too near was Ariela, the smell of
putrefaction and dead reaching her nose and making her gag. Then Allura heard
the creature's steps and they decided to stop, as it would catch up on then
sooner or later, and recover their breath before the fight that was about to
come. Allura sat Pidge in the highest branch she could reach, and the girl
handed her knife to Ariela, as she prepared to make the so needed throw.
The creature appeared jumping to avoid tree roots and let out a howl when it
spotted the two women standing still, waiting for it.
"If I miss, we'll have to manage," Ariela said, as she felt that breathing was
something difficult all of a sudden while taking the first knife behind her
head and correcting her posture. Once the animal was close enough, she aimed
and threw, crying out like a tennist because of the effort and the pressure.
The knife flew without spinning or turning and it nailed the creature in the
chest, burying in its flesh to the hilt. The ovini whimpered, stopping dead in
its tracks to retreat, and Ariela took her chance to make a second throw, using
Sugey's knife this time. She draw back her arm, aimed, threw and watched. She
had aimed for the eye, but the animal moved and the knife sank between its
eyes, the dead body dropping to the ground with a weird sound, and Ariela felt
her whole body tingle in some unpleasant feeling. She felt even worse than when
she had killed the Galra soldiers.
"You did it," Pidge gasped, and the women turn to look at her, hugging to the
tree tightly and eyes wide open.
"I did it," Ariela nodded, eyes wide open and feeling like she was about to
throw up, both because of the smell and what she had just done. She put herself
together and walked towards the dead animal to retrieve the knife, and though
she struggled, she finally managed to pull the crystal river from the animal's
skull.
"We should take it with us," Allura said nonchalantly, making the two paladins
look at her like she had just admitted that she had killed Coran.
"What? Are you crazy?" Pidge asked.
"It's good for their economy. They might even make weapons out of it, and we
could get some things," she said.
"Whatever you want, princess, but I'm carrying Pidge. I prefer my brain melting
than touching this," she said, and the girl shouted a "Hey" from the branch she
was still sitting on, while Ariela walked towards her and held her arms out to
catch her.
****** *** ******
The grigkean warriors outside of the trio that had practised with them were
really surprised when they appeared with a dead oviti, saying they had taken it
with them so that they could trade it in the market. Ilayi said that, as they
had killed it, they were in all the right, and that they would be having a
party to celebrate they had passed all the trials before, and that they would
discuss alliance the next day.
Nallely and Erandi helped them to skin the oviti and clean the bones to sell
them, and then the trio walked to the market, to trade, having divided the
stuff that they could barter in three equal parts.
Allura got a lot of spices, condiments, fruits and vegetables, saying that she
didn't need anything and that it was something they would all enjoy. Pidge
bought herself a few knives and books, that were really expensive, along with a
few pieces of clothing. Ariela bought jewelry, looking for simple necklaces
that matched the paladin's colours and buying one each, a few potted plants and
flowers and clothes.
"Look what I got you!" she sing sang, as she walked to the cockpit in the
panther, swinging a long black leather necklace, decorated with a silver tag
that (if Yaretzi hadn't lied to her) wild in Grigk language. She hung it on the
two levers and looked at it proudly.
Thank you. I must assume you did better than well in your last trial Bagheera
said, in a calm tone.
"I nailed that dogs head with a fancy knife," she answered, taking Sugey's
knife out of a black leather sheath she had bought. She could hang it on her
Voltron uniform, which was great.
Great. When will we go back to the other paladins? he asked, and Ariela's
shoulders tensed, as she frowned.
"Tomorrow afternoon I believe. Why? You don't feel comfortable here=" she
asked, sitting in the pilot's chair.
It's not that. I love this place, but I have a bad feeling... My connection
with the lions tells me that their paladins don't feel comfortable at the
Capital. I'd like to take them out of there as soon as possible he answered, as
he let a low growling sound come out of his chest, showing that he was actually
worried.
"Aww, look at you, bonding with the team and everything," Ariela laughed.
"Don't worry, we'll be back before we can imagine it," she told him, as she
caressed the armrest of the chair.
****** *** ******
The celebration of their victory was a bonfire in the centre of the town, music
and more alcohol. Pidge knew this time that she shouldn't drink, as this drink
actually gave off a strong smell (not like in Menosfor), and ended up falling
asleep on Allura's lap, while the princess chatted away with Ilayi.
Meanwhile, Ariela got a little drunk. Not wasted, to the point where she just
started screaming and laughing like a damned hyena, but little by little,
dancing become easier, practically grinding with Nallely, and the idea of just
kissing the woman's mouth off seemed a little bit better than it used to.
Allura decided they should go back to sleep around two in the morning, and
Nallely said she would accompany her, as someone needed to make sure that drunk
Ariela didn't get lost while chatting alone, thinking they were listening to
her, and other had to carry Pidge.
Nallely entered the house with Ariela laughing and clinging to her arm, as she
laughed lowly because she was feeling dizzy and for her drunk self, it was
funny. The fire was already lit, letting them know that Ilayi and Sugey were
already home, and Allura said (after leaving Pidge in the pelts) she would talk
to Ilayi for a moment, before leaving. Nallely watched her go, and when she
disappeared after a door, she turned to tell Ariela that she should probably go
to sleep, but the woman stood on her tiptoes and gave her a quick peck on the
lips, blushing madly and backing away after a small second.
"Oh," the grigkean said, a blush creeping on her cheeks too, and Ariela looked
at the floor.
"I'm sorry I didn't ask it's just...," she started, before licking her lips and
lowering her voice to a whisper. "I'm drunk, but Pidge can't know because she's
a minor." And then she was laughing. "You're really beautiful. Can I give you
another kiss?" she asked then, and Nallely blushed harder.
"I'm sorry but... I don't err..., like you like that," she said, and panic rose
when she saw how Ariela's eyes turned sad all of a sudden and the woman pouted,
making the twenty-two years she was drift away and give place to the looks of a
seven-year-old that had been severely lectured.
"You don't think I'm pretty?" she asked, voice slightly cracked. The grigkean's
eyes opened widely, thinking of how she wasn't meant to deal with this kind of
stuff. She would rather fight Ariela again than have this conversation with
her.
"No, no, no. You are really pretty and you fight really good and you dance...
God, you dance really well. I'm just interested in someone else," Nallely said,
putting her hands on the woman's shoulders, and when she said the last
sentence, Ariela's head shot up, eyes gleaming with curiosity, all of the
sadness going away, face bright with curiosity.
"Who do you like?" she asked, with a bright smile. Nallely looked away and
Ariela gasped. "You like Allura!" she exclaimed, and Nallely shushed her.
"Yes, but you don't have to shout it so that the whole village hears it," the
grigkean said through gritted teeth, ad Ariela put a finger to her lips and
shushed herself.
"Oh, I really ship it. You know what we are going to do? I'll pretend to have
fallen asleep, and you'll make a move on her when she arrives? Got and get her
tiger," she told Nallely, not giving a chance to speak back, before slightly
slapping her arm, turning and stumbling her way to the pelts where she slept.
Nallely had settled for waiting until she fell asleep to run away to her
bedroom and avoid Allura, but Ariela seemed more awake than she had ever seen
her, and the princess appeared sighing through the hallway before Ariela even
blinked.
"Your mum is already fast asleep, so I guess we'll have to wait until
tomorrow," she announced, before standing in front of the other woman, who was
still blushing. "Are you okay? You look feverish," she asked and Ariela's face
became something that couldn't be explained but expressed pure happiness and
expectancy.
"I'm alright. I just drank a few glasses of..., whatever and I'm blushing
because of it," the woman answered, and her eyes shot to Ariela giving her a
thumbs up from the floor, before returning to Allura's deep and big blue eyes.
"Oh. I should have guessed so," the princess nodded, and after she stopped
talking an uncomfortable silence fell between them.
"So, I'll see you in the morning?" Nallely asked after gulping and Allura
nodded.
"Oh, c'mon. That was the most pathetic attempt to flirt I've seen in my life!"
Ariela exclaimed, and both women turned to her (Allura completely confused and
Nallely on the verge of becoming a murderer) but even drunk the human thought
quickly. "Lance, I did not raise you to be like this," she kept on, with her
eyes closed, before giving off a little snore.
"Ah, yes. She talks a lot in her sleep. Lance is her brother," Allura explained
with a warm smile, and it was physically painful to hold back the relieved sigh
Nallely wanted to let out. "Well, I'll see you in the morning."
****** *** ******
Ariela woke up with a slight headache, a dry mouth and furious screams coming
from somewhere, making her groan and hide under the pelts, trying to muffle the
screaming and go back to sleep.
"Ari, wake up," Pidge told her while shaking her, and that was when the woman
recognised that the people screaming where Ilayi and Allura. She opened her
eyes and sat up, getting dizzy from the lack of blood in her brain.
"What happened?" she asked, looking at Pidge. She was already dressed, but her
hair was a mess and her sleepy eyes were still there.
"I think we'll have to go soon. Allura went to talk to Ilayi and she isn't
taking the deal really well," she explained, and Ariela noticed she was still
dressed in the clothes she had worn the night before.
"Oh god, we've gone through all that for nothing," Ariela said, as she stood up
and tied her hair in a tinybun at the speed of light, listening carefully to
the argument going on on the back of the house. "Man, it doesn't sound good,"
she said before a door was bursted open and Allura came out from a bedroom,
fast steps and choking back tears, as Ilayi screamed "I want you out of my
village right now!"
****** *** ******
They arrived at the government house when it the sky was already getting dark.
Although they had left the village when it was still early, Allura was so
frustrated she felt like punching stuff, so instead of directly going to the
capital, they stopped in a forest and watched as Allura practically cut down
trees with her fists and kicks, crying in anger. She called it the wet anger.
"I should have known they wouldn't accept. I was so stupid..." she would mutter
from time to time, and the paladins knew better than trying to comfort her. In
situations like this, the best was let it all out before talking about it.
She went on in this feral rage for a few hours, and then they managed to calm
her down and take her to the green lion, make a bandage on her bleeding hands
and just talk about how the conversation with Ilayi had been. The worry of how
the boys were going to react when they knew that there would be no alliance had
them all a little bit worried, so they just sat for a while, thinking of how
they could have made it work (there was no way, the problem between the village
and the rest of Grigk escaped their hands).
The thing was that they were already prepared to face the rest of the paladins
and Coran when they arrived. So, when they finally got to the Capital and
discovered that they had gone out (some sort of expedition to a chain of
mountains with a guide) they felt a little bit worse. In silence, they ate what
the girgkeans gave to them and went to bed.
The princess was alone in the wide bedroom, and as it was already late at
night, the only light was one of the two wide moons shining in the sky. Allura
was lying on the, compared to her own, harsh bed on her back, when a hand was
pressed against her mouth and she opened her eyes, ready to attack whoever it
was that was there with her, meeting lilac worried eyes. Nallely shushed her
quiet, before helping her up.
"We have to hide, quick," she whispered to the princess, as she made her get
into a little wardrobe. She obliged, questions accumulating on her brain, and
Nallely closed the door after them.
"What is going on?" she asked the woman, but she shushed her again. Then, the
door of the bedroom opened.
"Where's the other altean?" a male voice asked.
"Agh, crap. Zover is not going to like this. We have to look for her and take
her with the rest, or he won't call Zarkon," another replied. Allura's eyes
opened widely, and Nallely nodded, understanding her surprise. "Tell the others
that we need to organise a search party." And after that, they were gone.
"What?" Allura asked a few seconds after she heard the door of the bedroom
close, and Nallely opened the one from the wardrobe.
"I started to suspect that they had something going on when you said why we had
to move. I know Grigk really well, and our territory doesn't count with any
material that only exists there. They sent you to my village because they
wanted you to separate from the men. The less, the easier to get," she
explained, as she walked towards the open window. Allura then noticed a creeper
plant on the wall and something that looked like a horse waiting in the ground
a few floors down.
"Why would they want to get us?" she asked, as she climbed out the window,
holding to the plant tightly.
"Zover probably realised that the Galra are getting stronger and that we don't
stand a chance against them, but we are enemies. Without a sign of good will,
they wouldn't trust them. What better sign that handing in the paladins of
Voltron and the two only alteans left?" Nallely explained.
"And you came her all alone to help us?" she asked, as they climbed down. There
were a few seconds of silence before she answered.
"I know you are really good people, and I hate the Galra and this government as
much as you do. I want to help you fight. If you would take me like a soldier,
I would feel honoured," she answered, and though her eyes were serious, a blush
was creeping on her cheeks.
"Of course. We need all the help that we can get," Allura nodded.
****** *** ******
Keith had woken up in the worst possible way. He had been cuddling with Lance
(after two nights without sleep and nightmares he had gone to his teammate for
help again) when someone had ripped him apart from the other boy and held him
down, as someone sank a needle in his neck and put something on his system that
didn't allow him to move properly.
Now he was perfectly awake, the drug they had given him had worn off hours ago,
but he was chained to a wall. Hunk was there, completely tied up just like
Lance, and Shiro had some weird collar around his neck. They would later learn
that it shocked him every time he moved.
Coran had been there too, tied up, but he had managed to break his bounds and
tried to escape. The guards had reduced him and taken him out of the wide cell
they had thrown them all into.
Keith had some good insults to shout to those idiots, but he had a muzzle
preventing him from it. The rest of the team was just gagged with cloths,
probably because they didn't have his same sharp teeth.
The cell was wide, and the only lights were the ones from the torches on the
guard hallways and the little silver rays of moonlight coming in from a tiny
opening near the roof so that they wouldn't die of suffocation. They were
pretty quiet, after trying to break loose and struggling for hours, but
everything went to shit when five guys entered the cell, carrying Ariela and
Pidge. They were both tied up, and Ariela had a muzzle too, but Pidge was only
gagged.
"Find the princess as soon as possible. I want to call Zarkon tonight," Zover
said, as one of the guards dropped Pidge near Shiro and other dropped Ariela in
the centre of the room. The girl seemed to be unconscious, but Ariela wasn't.
Lance's and Shiro's eyes widened, the first one starting to struggle and scream
when he noticed his sister's soft crying, trying to move, but only managing to
move her head to the side and rest it against the stone floor. They had drugged
her too.
"The five paladins of Voltron and..., someone else," the guard that had been
keeping an eye on them said while kneeling down next to the woman and grabbing
her chin with harsh fingers. "She's not that bad, for a human," he added.
"You can do whatever you want with her. I think I'll do the same with the
princess once we found her. Someone has to show that little bratty bitch where
her place is," Zover said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Take her now. She
might not be important, but Zarkon might not let us keep her," he added, and
Lance's screams became louder, as he struggled against the ropes that burnt his
skin. "Enjoy yourself," the president said, before walking out of the cell.
The guard almost immediately lowered his face to start nipping at Ariela's
neck, and she sobbed loudly, tears streaming down her face, making Lance's
vision get red with anger and Shiro's whole body shake in the urgency of going
and helping her. Hunk had started to pull against his restraints too, and
Keith's chains were straining. The same place where the weird feeling of
longing for his pack had appeared (something that felt like a void) was now
burning with angered fire. His head was drowning in an animalistic thought of
"No one touches my pack", repeating it over and over again, as he tried to
break free.
"I hope you like being watched, bitch," the guard said, eyeing Keith, and the
woman sobbed louder.
It was a torture. Having to sit back and watch how that guy made his way with
his crying and vulnerable sister was making all of his body pulse in anger, but
no matter how much he pulled and squirmed there was no getting out of the
binding. Lance was too focused on digging daggers into the guard's nape as he
took Ariela's pants off to notice that Hunk had managed to snap the ropes on
his wrists split, and was quickly undoing the ones binding his legs.
The guard was lowering his face towards Ariela's inner thighs when a strong leg
kicked him on the head and knocked him out, at the same time it sent him flying
against a wall.
"Are you okay, Ariela?" he asked, as he started to untie the woman, and she
shook her head, sobbing loudly and shaking. She couldn't move a lot yet, but
she managed to lift her arms and reach out for Lance, making him ache to get
closer to her. "I got it," Hunk mumble, before leaving her and running to untie
Lance.
He had the ropes still tangled around his body when he set off running and
picked Ariela up, hugging her close against his chest and feeling with a void
in his chest how she cried desperately.
"It's alright, sis. He's gone now," he told her, as he undid the muzzle around
her mouth. The second it was out she started calling out for him as if she was
stuck in middle of a nightmare. "I'm here with you," he assured her. Shiro
appeared, Hunk having taken the weird collar off of him, but Ariela buried her
face in Lance's chest after giving him a look.
"It's okay. He won't hurt you. He's Shiro, a softie," Lance said, before
mouthing the man to hold her up.
"Lance..., don't...," she said, while he passed her body to Shiro, reaching out
weakly for him, pushing against Shiro's chest trying to get away from him, but
he held her still.
"It's okay. I'm not leaving, I'm just going to check on Keith," Lance told her,
and left the woman pouting behind him. She tried to walk away from Shiro, but
her legs gave out and she would have fallen to the floor if he hadn't caught
her. She started to cry again, burying her face on his chest.
"Hey, não há necessidade de chorar, gatinha. Você está segura comigo," the man
told her with strangled and hoarse voice as he caressed her hair, and Ariela
lifted her face to look at him in the eye, and she seemed a little more
composed.
"What happened to your voice?" she asked him, speaking lowly and slowly as if
talking required too much work.
"They put something on my neck and it hurt, but I'm okay now," he answered, and
she pouted again. "Why are you crying now?"
"I don't like you getting hurt. I want to kick their plain asses," she
murmured, before hugging him. "He tried to rape me..., Takashi," she said, and
the man's head shot up when he heard his name being pronounced like that.
Ariela couldn't remember what his nickname was at the moment, but she
remembered his name so that would have to do.
"But he couldn't. Hunk was there and he stopped it. It won't happen again, I
promise," he told her.
Chapter End Notes
     Hey, não há necessidade de chorar, gatinha. Você está segura comigo:
     Hey, there's no need to cry, kitten. You're safe with me.
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Lance was so surprised. When Hunk managed to unchain Keith, the boy had marched
towards Shiro and Ariela without taking his eyes away from them, growling lowly
and threateningly, passing Lance as if he didn't exist and making him feel a
little bit bad about it. The only thing in the red paladin's was the smell of
fear, distress and anguish, as he heard a pack member crying, the need to hold
the woman close, protect her and comfort her was making his body ache.
Shiro tensed slightly when he heard Keith getting near, but he forced himself
to relax. Ariela, on the other side, unburied her head from Shiro's hug and
looked at Keith with wide and innocent golden eyes. Silence fell between them,
and Keith's low grumbling slowly fell to a stop, seeming like they were having
a telepathic conversation, and then Ariela was struggling out of Shiro's arms
to let herself crash into Keith's, purring loudly and closing her eyes, as he
hugged her tightly.
"What the fuck?" Lance whispered, not wanting to even move as if it might break
the atmosphere that had built. He could see how the black paladin seemed really
nervous and uneasy, fidgeting with the hem of his vest, as he looked at the
pair with..., sad eyes.
"Guys, I'm all in on this comforting-Ariela thing, but we have to find Allura
and Coran and get the hell out of here," Hunk said, as he picked up Pidge from
the floor and flung her on his shoulder as if she was a potato bag.
"Hunk's right. Can you walk, Ariela?" Shiro asked, getting near the woman, and
everyone was surprised when Keith growled at him slightly, but she shook her
head slowly. "I can carry you."
"No." Surprisingly, it was Hunk again. "I'll carry her and Lance will carry
Pidge. You and Keith are the two best at hand to hand combat, so we will be
needing you able to fight. But before going out of here, we need to figure out
a plan," he said. "We have to find our bayards, Coran, Allura and figure out a
way of getting the panther and the green lion on the Castle with their pilots
disabled."
"Hunk is right. No podemos salir caminando por el pasillo como si nada. Nos
harían pija," Ariela nodded, speaking faster, but switching languages in the
middle of her train of thought. "Podríamos escondernos hasta que Pidge y yo
estemos mejor, y ahí manejamos los robots. ¿Cuánto tarda esta porquería en
irse?" she kept talking, and Lance got near her. Keith didn't growl at him when
the man pulled her away from him and sat her on the stone floor.
"Depende. Con migo tardó un buen rato, pero con Keith no. Es como si su
organizmo quisiera sacarle la droga a la cañona," he explained to her, as he
sat beside her and rubbed his temples. He looked at his team before speaking.
"I say we wait at least an hour 'til the drug's effect wears off on her. We
chain the guard, and, If more come with Allura, we take them down. There aren't
many options," Lance said.
"I agree with Lance. Waiting for a little bit is the best thing we can do,"
Keith said, surprising everyone yet again.
"Lance..." Ariela called him while tugging at his shirt.
Ariela rarely got like this. Usually, when something bad happened or she was
feeling depressed, she would completely shut down, distancing herself from
everyone until she thought she was composed enough to not be vulnerable in
front of someone. The situations where she had directly relied on someone after
a bad event where few, and the ones where she had relied on Lance could be
counted on the fingers of one hand, as he wasn't usually at the woman's reach.
But still, he perfectly knew that he had to cuddle her and talk non-stop, which
was kind of his thing.
So he just held Ariela in a side hug, while rubbing circles on her arm with his
thumb, as he talked about all the stuff they had done when they were younger:
getting drunk and lost in a corn maze, rehearsing with the whole family when
Lance applied to play Burr when the local theater wanted to present Hamilton,
jumping in the swimming pool with their clothes on in New Year, hiding
chocolate eggs for the little ones on Easter, practicing choreographies made by
Flynn, playing the guitar and singing on Christmas Eve. She would listen with a
smile and closed eyes, humming along the anecdotes.
In the time the two Latins spoke in low voices (Keith watching from a polite
distance but still paying attention to what they were saying, though he
couldn't make a single word out), Hunk and Shiro had chained the guard to the
wall, the first one panicking when he noticed the massive bruise on the man's
face already forming and the stream of blood coming out from an open wound. But
the older had put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"You did the right thing, Hunk. There's no reason to feel bad about it," he had
said, making the yellow paladin smile softly.
"I just panicked. I wanted to take him off of her and..." he looked at Shiro
doubtingly before talking again. "I wanted to hurt him, Shiro. I had never
wanted to hurt someone so bad in my entire life," he confessed, burying his
face in his hands, and Shiro squeezed his shoulder.
"It was instinct. A teammate was being molested and you reacted," Shiro kept
saying.
An hour and a half had passed. The guard didn't wake up nor did others get near
their cell. Keith found the keys to the door on the guard's belt and the drug
wore off enough for Ariela to be able to talk normally and walk like a normal
person, but her balance wasn't good enough to fight yet. Pidge had woken up,
but all he could do was whine and move her head from side to side.
"Okay. We have to find Coran, our bayards, Allura and then go back to our
lions. I think that, by the time we have done all of that, Pidge will be able
to clumsily fly the green lion," Shiro said, nodding.
Keith opened his mouth to say something, but the sound of the heavy door of the
cell made them stand suddenly, Shiro's arm lighting up, and put their bodies on
a fighting stance, as Ariela moved to hide Pidge from sight. But then she saw a
tall man with orange hair and an also tall girl wearing a red one-piece,
smiling brightly as she held a narrow knife made out of bone in her hand.
"Coran!" Lance said happily, as he ran to hug the man, who received him with
open arms.
"Sugey! What are you doing in here?" she asked, as she started to get up
slowly, the girl walking towards her with a bright smile.
"I followed Nallely here, and I figured out I might help as well," she
answered, and she looked around. Her lilac eyes spotted the collar Shiro had
been wearing, and they turned sad and angry at the same time, hands clenching
and lips tightening. "I hope I didn't come late. I saw what that man was doing
to you, but I couldn't do more than cutting his ropes," she said, still looking
at the collar, until she pointed at Hunk.
They all looked at him, and he looked at the place he had been lying when he
was tied up. The shine of another narrow knife made out of metal caught his eye
and the pieces fell into place.
"That's the reason I suddenly was able to cut them. Because I didn't cut them,"
he exclaimed. Ariela turned to the girl, frowning and curious.
"You know how to throw knives?" she asked her, and Sugey smiled brightly.
"I learnt from looking at you."
Ariela was going to ask how in hell that was possible (she had taken her sweet
months to learn how to actually throw a knife decently) but Coran cleared his
throat.
"I think we should get going. The lady says she knows where your bayards are,
and that Allura is safe with her sister," the royal adviser said. Lance ran to
pick Pidge up, Sugey's eyes acquiring a shade of worry and sadness when she saw
the girl, and they all walked out of the door.
"Where are all the guards?" Keith asked, metal knife (he had picked it up at
the chance f having a weapon) in hand, as they walked through poorly lit
hallways.
"They are all looking for the princess and Nallely," Sugey answered, as she
peaked into a corridor and told them it was safe.
"What are you and Nallely doing here?" Ariela asked.
"She wasn't happy that mum made you leave, and she spent an hour thinking about
it. Then she realised that there was something wrong with the reason the
president had given you to go and assumed you were all in danger. She told mum
we should come and look for you, but she didn't care that you're the universe's
last hope. Long story short? They argued and mum kicked her out. I followed her
because I wanted to help," she explained.
"Does..., your mum know you're here?" Pidge asked with a hoarse voice, and
Sugey's eyes seemed to light up when she noticed she was fine.
"No, but I wrote her a letter before leaving," was her answer, before she
signalled them to stop. "That's the room where they keep your bayards, but it's
guarded and I can't take him down." Shiro advanced, arm lighting up.
"I've got this," he said with a voice that sent chills running down Ariela's
spine.
****** ¨¨¨¨ ******
Allura hadn't had a bodyguard in her life. It didn't matter that she was the
princess of a planet at war, as she was always inside the safe walls of the
Castle of Lions. This being said, it was completely natural for her to be a
little surprised and not knowing how to feel when she had Nallely fervently
protecting her all the time at all costs, as she had always fought for herself.
The princess had told the woman that she could protect herself, and Nallely had
simply smiled and responded "I know, but if one of us is to stay behind, it has
to be me" and Allura's heart had just stopped at the way the woman had smiled,
as if talking about sacrificing herself for people she barely knew had the same
meaning like talking about the weather.
They had looked for the team, and actually made it to the cell where they had
heard guards saying they were, but they found it open and empty, excepting for
a beating guard, sleeping chained to a wall.
"Oh, god. I hope they're fine," Allura said.
"I'm sure they are. What worries me is that they don't know the castle, nor
grigkeans. It's like jumping into a fight naked and unarmed," Nallely said, as
she grabbed Allura's hand and pulled her out of the cell, bodies stuck to the
wall, as they advanced silently.
There were sounds of struggle and they jumped towards them as if it was about
hungry predators jumping over a weak prey.
The second they turned in a corridor and found almost all of the team crouching
behind a wall, watching as Shiro hid a knocked out guard inside of a room,
Allura's whole body felt lighter and she sighed, accelerating her running
towards the group.
"Guys!" she called them in a whisper and seven surprised heads turned towards
her, one completely surprising her. Nallely stopped running for a second,
before going even faster than the princess.
"Sugey! What the fuck are you doing here?" she asked her sister, and Allura
didn't miss the way the girl flinched, looking like a little girl that heard
her mum screaming her name after a smashing sound, knowing that they had messed
up and that they would regret it.
"I followed you here," the girl answered in a low voice as if she was scared.
The only light in that corridor was moonshine coming through the window, but
Allura was 95% sure that she was blushing and fidgeting.
"You have to go back to mum!" Nallely told her through gritted teeth, and her
sister's face seemed to acquire some hardness that wasn't there before.
"I don't want to hide in the village like them, I want to go and fight like
you!" she told her, and the whole team wanted to aww, but they knew that if
they didn't want Nallely beating them up they shouldn't.
"I'm twenty-six, you're nine. Do you see the difference?" the older asked, and
Ariela's eyes opened up like plates when she heard the youngest's age.
"And? I can throw knives and you can't," Sugey answered, and Nallely's eyes
turned to Ariela.
"I want to make clear that I had absolutely nothing to do with it and I don't
deserve dying, as I am a young and beautiful person who has a whole life ahead
of her," the woman said, making her brother smile, and Nallely turned to her
sister again.
"I don't care what you can or can't do. The second we get them safe I' taking
you to the village," she said, and Sugey was so outraged there were no words to
describe it.
"I've got them!" Shiro exclaimed, waving the bayards in his hands as if they
were flags, his eyes immediately catching Allura's white hair and widening.
"Allura! This is great! We're going to make it out of here in a blink!"
Lance and Ariela looked at each other in panic.
"¡Tocate la teta izquierda!" he shouted, as he drove his hand to his crotch
balancing Pidge's weight with his body for a few seconds.
"¡Tocate el huevo izquierdo!" he shouted at the same time, as she grabbed her
left boob.
The whole team looked at them with narrow eyes, not knowing what was going on
between them and kind of not wanting to know. Hunk was opening his mouth to say
that they should just keep moving, but another voice was the one they heard.
"THE PRISONERS ARE GONE! LOCK EVERYTHING DOWN!"
"I WANT THEM KNEELING BEFORE MY FEET!" a second voice shouted, and they all
panicked as they recognised it as Zover's. The one getting the most panicked
look was Sugey.
"We have to move, now," Nallely said, before grabbing Allura's hand again and
leading the way down the corridor, opposite direction from where the voices had
come.
The team followed them undoubtingly, as Shiro passed them their bayards and
kept Pidge's. Ariela was slowly becoming more aware of her body, balance
reintegrating to her moves and her brain focused enough to make a spear out of
her bayard.
"Where are your lions?" Nallely asked.
"They're in the house's yard," Keith answered, ears twitching and moving to the
direction he heard several people running from. With a hand on the back of the
person that was in front of him, he told them to hurry.
"We need to start the Castle before they reach it or we'll be dead," Coran
said, making Allura groan.
"But there's no way we're getting there before the guards if we have to go and
get the lions first. They are probably already sending people there!" the
princess complained, and Nallely looked over her shoulder.
"Are you the captain?" she asked Coran, and Allura's face went blank.
"I am the captain," she answered, and Ariela wanted to laugh at the way the
woman's tone screamed the phrase 'Bitch, what the fuck?'. And Nallely wanted to
act surprised, but instead she kept thinking.
"I can take the princess on my felare to the Castle so she can get everything
going as you get your lions ready," she explained.
"Excuse me, but what the fuck is a flare?" Lance asked, as they turned in a
corridor and suddenly face two guards. Before anyone could yelp, they were
already turning around and running in the opposite direction, not paying
attention to the shouts of "Stop right there" coming from the guard's mouths.
"It's a really fast animal that we use for transportation," Sugey answered
calmly, before turning to her sister. "I'll take them to the yard, you can take
the princess to the Castle," she said, and when Nallely's lips formed a line,
the girl's voice turned serious. "I can do this, sister,," she said slowly as
if she was explaining something difficult.
The older grigkean faced the way they were going, noticing that if they wanted
to get out of the house they had to keep going, while the paladins would have
to turn. She faced her sister again.
"I trust you, Sugey. Good luck."
The girl nodded, her face moe serious than it had ever been, before telling the
rest of the group they had to turn in the corridor. A few steps later they were
gone, and Nallely was already feeling the sickness settling on her stomach, but
a hand gripped her's tighter, and Allura looked at her with soft eyes.
"She will be okay. My paladins will protect her," the princess told her.
Nallely nodded as she gulped and fastened their pace.
****** ¨¨ ******
Ariela had half of her mind absently turning on the panther's switches and
buttons, as she got ready in the pilot's chair and lifted the levers, pressing
the treadle and making the robot start ascending from the floor, sending a few
angry guards flying backwards with the strength of the propellers, with an
amazed Sugey clutching to her right arm and watching everything with wide and
curious eyes.
"Pidge, how are you doing?" she asked over the intercom, as she watched how the
green lion slowly started to rise.
"I'm..., kind of fine," the girl answered, and they both could see how focused
she was on keeping control of the lion, as Coran (who had been assigned as her
companion) looked at her every movement, ready to take control of the situation
(or at least do what he could) if it was too much for the girl.
"Okay, paladins. Allura has already started the Castle, so we'll have to fly
around it until we can get the lions on the hangar," Shiro said, as they all
flew towards the Castle of Lions, already rising towards the sky.
"Wait! We need to leave Sugey with her family," Ariela said, but the curious
eyes of the young girl turned angry.
"I'm coming with you whether you like it or not. I'm not sitting back and
watching as some prick's take over the universe," she told the woman.
"You're nine years old, for sun's sake," Allura muttered through gritted teeth,
as she tilted the panther and evaded missiles that a little ship chasing them
had shot. "Since when do they have spaceships?" she asked.
"I'M USEFUL!" Sugey screamed, making the woman look at her with doubting eyes.
She bit her lip as she thought. "There is no time for you to leave me there, so
you either drop me here and let them take me as a prisoner or you take me with
you and let me deal with my sister's shit," she kept pushing.
"Just let her come, Ariela! You let me do it!" Lance exclaimed over the
intercom, and Ariela groaned so loudly it scared some.
"Okay, but you will take responsibility," she said.
Can I take that ship-shit down? It is starting to piss me off Bagheera asked,
making himself present in the woman's mind, while she turned to evade another
shot.
"Do it or I'll do it myself," she said, and the panther's tail aimed and shot a
blue ray of energy, making the little ship explode.
"Ariela!" Shiro exclaimed, and she rolled her eyes.
"As if they didn't deserve it," she muttered, almost feeling like she was
talking back to her father.
****** ¨¨¨¨ ******
They all headed to the healing pods the second they were on the ship, Nallely
and Sugey being left alone in the common area to talk their problems out, or
maybe fight them out, who knows? Coran was left in the control deck too. They
had jumped in a wormhole the second they were far from the grigkean ships, but
they still wanted to be alert, in case the Galran magically knew where they
were..., again.
The first one to wake up was Hunk. Then Keith and Lance, Allura and Ariela. It
seemed that the collar around Shiro's neck had damaged him more than they had
thought, because he didn't wake up much more before Pidge, and she had a
sprained ankle.
Allura offered the two grigkeans using the healing ponds, but they both
declined; Sugey because she wasn't harmed and Nallely because she didn't trust
those things (she had been acting really awkward around so much technology,
making them smile when she had trouble opening doors).
"Do you think she will ever forgive me?" Sugey asked in a tiny voice, as Ariela
helped her to put sheets on the bed of the bedroom he had been given. It was
next to the woman's, in front of her sister's.
Ariela turned to the girl and looked at her, taking a few seconds to realise
she was crying in silence, a little pout on her lips reminding her that that
girl was barely nine-years-old. She imitated the pout, as she got near the girl
and hugged her.
"Don't cry, darling. I'm sure she has already forgiven you," she told the girl
(that reached her nose, Ariela wanted to cry. She had grown four inches and she
was still tiny), as she hugged her back, sniffing slightly.
"You think so?" she asked, and Ariela nodded, despite Sugey wasn't able to see
her.
"I know so. I'm an older sister too, and I know that Nallely just wants you
safe. That's what I want for my younger siblings too," she answered, parting
from the girl, looking into the lilac innocent eyes.
"Who's your sibling?" Sugey asked, wiping her tears away with her forearm.
"Did you see the brown-haired and skinny guy?" The girl nodded. "Well, he's
Lance and he's my brother. We're not actually blood-related, but I'm part of
his family anyways," she explained.
"He's cute," Sugey said, with a little smile, and Airela's eyebrows shot
upwards.
"I thought you were a lesbian."
"I'm nine, I don't have idea of what I want," the girl answered simply, making
the woman laugh out loud. "Do you think the princess will let me decorate this
bedroom? It feels so..., cold," she said, changing subjects.
"It is officially yours, now that you're here, so yeah. I've decorated mine
already," she smiled.
****** ¨¨¨¨ ******
"Lance?"
He was sitting on his bed, already ready to sleep, when the door slid open and
let him see Keith on his pyjamas (a black t-shirt and grey sweatpants), ears
stuck to his head as he neared the bed doubtingly. Lance patted the mattress
next to him, and the boy walked towards the bed happily, crawling on the bed
and lying next to him. Before the blue paladin could even lay down, Keith was
already hugging his waist.
"I was so scared I woke up," he said, making Lance's heart rate speed up and a
little blush spread on his cheeks, as he lay down and pulled the covers over
the both of them, before returning Keith's hug.
"Don't worry, we're okay now," Lance said, eyes closed, as he remembered seeing
how hands pulled Keith to the other side of the rough bed and pinned him down
so that someone could inject him the drug. He had started to whine immediately,
the sound muffled once they put the muzzle on his mouth, making Lance's heart
shrink at the treatment his crush (yeah, darling, keep telling yourself that
he's just your crush) received. Although he wasn't treated much differently.
"They didn't hesitate on betraying us, those pieces of shit," Keith kept going,
and Lance noticed how he tightened his arms around his waist, pulling him even
closer, flush against his chest. His teammate usually was gentler while
cuddling, letting Lance be the one to pick the position and pull him in, just
leaning against the taller teen's chest and resting, but that night he was a
little bit uneasy, not wanting to let go of him. Lance could barely hear him
when Keith whispered: "I thought the were going to take you away from me."
Of course, he just meant that as a friend and cuddle partner. Lance was the
person Keith went to when he had nightmares, it was totally understandable for
him to feel bad about not being able to count on him anymore! It was as if he
suddenly locked Ariela up somewhere and let Shiro alone to battle with his
demons while he slept.
"They didn't, and I'm here now, so relax and sleep, Keith," Lance told him,
voice vibrating against Keith's chest as he spoke, and he actually relaxed a
little bit at the sound of the blue paladin's voice, thinking about how it was
being muffled by his hug and not by a cloth working as a gag.
****** ¨¨¨¨¨ ******
Ariela was a little bit restless in her bedroom, alone as everyone was already
sleeping (at least that was what she thought), so she had gone to the panther's
hangar as if it was as normal as going on a walk to clear her mind. It had the
same effect on her, if not better, sitting calmly in the pilot's chair in the
cockpit, the purring of the panther turning it into a massage chair.
They had discovered it one time while practising, the ability to project images
on the other's mind, and Ariela had immediately proceeded to tell Bagheera
everything about Earth, accompanied with amazing high-quality images from her
memories. In return, the panther had shown her images of the jungles of Altea.
Scenes of the panther hunting or even coming across a pack of lions one time he
had gotten too far from home while exploring, or just wandering around had made
her so relaxed and feel so at home it was strange.
In that moment she was reliving her last birthday party with her friends. It
had been last year, an asado in one of her friend's rooftops. Everyone was
laughing and singing and telling anecdotes, some of the oldest friends talking
about primary school and how they were one of the most rioters groups of that
school's history.
"Ariela?" a voice called, and she opened her eyes, sitting straight on the
chair, as the panther stopped his purring and stood, looking at the person that
had come into the hangar and shaken them out of their haze.
"Hey, Shiro. I'll be out in a sec," she said, standing up, avoiding the little
feeling of jealousy and irritation coming from the panther's mind, as she
laughed lowly.
The man looked paler and weaker that he had looked when she had left him in the
capital, and there were really dark circles under his eyes, making his dark-
grey eyes look even more tired than they already looked, as he fidgeted
slightly with the hem of his black pyjama's shirt.
"What's up?" she asked him with a smile, and Shiro bit his cheek. She then was
sure he was going to ask her for something, as he always acted like he was
acting wrongly when he did, all nervous and looking around as if he didn't want
anyone knowing that he was asking for a favour.
"Not much," he actually answered, laughing awkwardly and making Ariela smile.
"Actually, I was wondering if we could..., sleep..." he started, before looking
at the woman and then down again. "I know last time I hurt you but... I have
only slept a few hours this three days and my head is about to explode," he
told her.
"Of course, Shiro. Don't worry, it's okay for you to ask me, and I really hope
some day you'll just brush it off," she said, lifting her shirt and signalling
her stomach. "See? No bruise, it's gone," she told him, before tangling her
right arm with his left. "Let's go to sleep." She waved the panther goodbye and
they started walking.
The way to the bedroom was silent, and Ariela smiled when she noticed that the
man aimed to her bedroom instead of his. They got in, laid down and turned the
lights off. Shiro covered them with the blankets and pulled Ariela closer,
resting his head against the woman's chest and letting her rest her chin on
his, as she scraped his scalp, enjoying the now familiar weight of the man's
arms around her waist.
"How were the nightmares while I was gone?" she asked.
"Just like when you left, but I didn't have anyone to calm me down," he
answered, voice already sleepy.
"Takashi Shirogane," she started, like an angry mother, making that weird
feeling return to Shiro's gut again when she said his full name. "What did I
tell you just before leaving?" He rolled his eyes.
"That I could ask the others for help," he answered, pressing his face against
her. "But I couldn't bring myself to do it. If it wasn't because you got me
addicted to this I wouldn't even reach out for you," he answered, and she
sighed. A comfortable silence followed then.
"I got you addicted to what?" Ariela asked, breaking said silence, and Shiro
bit his cheek before answering.
"The sound of a heartbeat, or the feeling or it. The extra warmth," he started,
and he filled his lungs with air before just admitting what he kind of wanted
to admit. "You somehow manage to make me feel protected," he laughed nervously.
Ariela smiled at his answer.
"It's because your not alone, Shiro, not because I have magical powers." Then a
question surged on her mind. "Did you have a cell partner when you were a
prisoner?" Shiro frowned at the question, focusing on remembering.
"At the beginning I did, but when they decided I would be a gladiator they put
me on solitary," he answered, and Ariela pressed against him harder.
"How much time did you have a partner?"
"I don't know. Time is not a thing when you are there. It could have been days
or weeks, even hours," was his response. Ariela's gut twisted, imagining a
desperate and sad Shiro sitting alone in a dark cell, afraid and weak.
She pressed a kiss on his temple, the man's body tensing before relaxing even
more.
"Sleep," she ordered him with a smooth voice.
"Thanks."
Chapter End Notes
     -No podemos salir caminando por el pasillo como si nada. Nos harían
     pija: We can't just go out walking like it was nothing. They would
     beat the shit out of us.
     -Podríamos escondernos hasta que Pidge y yo estemos mejor, y ahí
     manejamos los robots. ¿Cuánto tarda esta porquería en irse?: We could
     hide until Pidge and I are better, and then we can drive the robots.
     How long does it take this crap to wear off?
     -Depende. Con migo tardó un buen rato, pero con Keith no. Es como si
     su organizmo quisiera sacarle la droga a la cañona: It depends. It
     took a while with me, but not with Keith. It was as if his organism
     wanted to kick it out.
     -¡Tocate la teta izquierda!: Touch your left boob!
     -¡Tocate el huevo izquierdo!: Touch your left ball (testicle)! (T.N:
     In Argentina it is believed that if someone says something will go
     well, they challenge destiny and now the most probable thing is for
     the situation to go down. This is called mufa. To avoid mufar
     something, the women have to touch their left boob and the guys their
     left testicle. It is a variant of knocking on wood)
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Allura walked into the kitchen still half asleep, wearing her nightgown and her
feet sliding across the floor, instead of actually rising and stepping over and
over. She always got up early in the morning, and she never was quite ready,
but she used to get dressed before going out of her bedroom; it was one of the
most common things finding Shiro running, or training or just having breakfast,
dark circles under his eyes and a weak smile, letting the woman know that he
hadn't slept. But, ever since he had started to sleep with Ariela, he got up at
the same time than the rest of the team, so she had two hours or so for
herself, walking around the castle, checking on everything in the control deck
and even training.
So, when she walked into the kitchen and found Nallely sitting stiffly in one
of the chairs, looking around, she was a little bit surprised. Her hazy mind
hadn't allowed her to remember there were new people in the castle, and that
(at least the oldest) was an early bird.
"Princess," Nallely said while she stood up the second she saw Allura coming
through the door. The woman brushed it off with a gesture of her hand.
"You can call me Allura, Nallely. Overall when I'm far from looking like a
princess," she smiled, as she walked towards the pantry.
She was really happy that they had stored the stuff they had bought at the
grigkean donnybrook at the panther and green lion, otherwise, they would have
had to leave all behind at the government house, a thing that Allura would have
regretted a lot, as the food she had bought was delicious.
"You still look like a princess to me," Nallely said, and if it wasn't because
of her serious tone, Allura would have taken that as one of those cheesy
compliments Lance used to make all the time. Speaking of which, he hadn't
flirted with the grigkeans, at least not when she was around to see it. That
was weird.
"Oh, well. Now we are going to be really close, you'll discover that the
Castle's crew is like a family, so Allura will be fine even if I am a
princess," she said, as she took a few fruits out of the pantry, a plate a and
a knife. "Would you like something?"
"I'll have what you have," Nallely answered, still standing, as Allura left the
stuff she had picked up at the table.
"I have to thank you for rescuing us yesterday. You certainly didn't have to,
and you put your life in danger, and we better not talk about you standing up
to your mother," Allura said, sitting down and Nallely copied her.
"There's no need to thank me. My mother was being obstinate, not thinking about
how an alliance would have been the best thing. After all, you and your
paladins are the universe's last hope," the grigkean answered, picking up a
knife and starting peeling a perfectly round purple fruit. "I'm still really
worried about my sister, though. Sugey is really intelligent and skilled for
her age, but she is too impulsive and innocent too. Will she be safe here?" she
asked, biting her lip.
"She will stay at the Castle, she won't go out and fight with the paladins.
Yesterday was exceptional, although she helped a lot," Allura started, before
realising something and frowning. "How did you two know the government so well
if you had never been to the capital?" she asked, and Nallely lowered her head,
eyes darkening.
"You can't tell anybody if I tell you," the woman told her and Allura nodded.
"I had been there before because I had to go looking for Sugey." The princess
frowned harder.
"What?" Nallely looked away.
"My mother... A woman came in from the capital many years ago and she fell for
her. She's my other mum and Sugey's, the difference is that she never met her,"
she started, looking at the table and leaving the fruit already completely
peeled at the table. "My mother discovered she was the president's wife and she
was there to get information. She kicked her out when Sugey was a year old."
"Why would they do that? What information did they think you had?" Allura
asked, and Nallely shrugged before going on.
"My sister always insisted that she wanted to know her other mother, and two
years ago she escaped one night and went to the capital to look for her. The
guards found her and they didn't care she was just a child."
"Oh my god," Allura gasped, hiding her face between her hands, already
imagining what had happened. Nallely's voice was so filled with rage it
couldn't be anything minor.
"They had her in the same cell where they kept your paladins, with a..., collar
in her neck. It gave her an electric shock every time she moved too much. She
was crying a lot and I didn't know how to take it off..." Allura grabbed the
woman's hand from across the table when she heard that she was starting to cry.
"I had never felt so desperate in my life, Allura," she finished.
"How did you take her back? Why were you alone?" the princess kept asking,
gripping her hand strongly.
"I just lifted her and took her with me, the collar still on. Our other mother
found us and she took it off, but she started screaming at me to never come
back. I told Sugey that I didn't know that woman," she kept going. "Mum had
thought that she had just escaped to the capital because she didn't want to
leave in the village anymore, so she just locked herself in her bedroom and did
nothing. She doesn't take being left behind well," Nallely said, adding a
little laugh at the end.
"I can't imagine how hard it must have been for you two," Allura admitted,
grabbing the woman's other hand and tracing circles with her thumb in slow
motions. "You had to go through that, your family is so important to you, and
you still didn't hesitate in leaving everything behind to help us," she kept
going.
"I couldn't just sit behind and do nothing just because my mother can't let the
past go," she said, sniffing and cleaning a single tear that had fallen on the
shoulder of the clothes she had worn yesterday. Allura had to tell her about
the synthesiser. "But I didn't count on Sugey following me. Ugh, I still can't
believe that she did it and I didn't notice!" she complained, laughing
nervously.
"She sounds like she is going to be unstoppable in the future," Allura
commented with a smile. Nallely lifted her face towards her with bright eyes
and a huge smile too.
"She picks stuff up too quickly. Just by watching Ariela she learnt to throw
knives the other day," she told her as if it was a secret she had just heard.
"Can you believe that? The last thing like that she did was learning throw to
pick locks from me telling her what it was about," she added, making Allura's
eyes widen.
"When was that?"
"Last week. She broke into my bedroom in two minutes the same day I told her,
after just five hours. She's going to overpower me in two years tops," she
answered, the smile now soft, eyes nailed in the table.
The door slid open and both Ariela and Shiro walked in, with the woman hugging
his torso and having her right cheek pressed into his back, as he asked her to
let him go and she denied in a really sleepy tone. And, although her eyes
weren't fully open, she didn't miss the holding hands on the table before
Nallely quickly let go of Allura's hand and hid her own under it. A smirk grew
on her face and the grigkean glared at her.
"Good morning, paladin. You've got a parasite?" Nallely asked, remarking the
last word as she squinted at Ariela, who just stuck her tongue out at the
woman.
"She won't let go of me. Allura, do something," he asked, fake-crying, and
Ariela just hugged him closer and buried her face between his shoulder blades.
"Why don't you let go of Shiro, Ariela?" Allura asked with a smile.
"He's a teddy bear that must be protected," she answered, without taking her
face from where she had hidden it, and the man blushed madly, the two women
being able to see it even though he buried his face in his hands because it had
spread to his neck. "I won't let go until he promises me he will be gentler
with himself and stop being awake for days instead of asking for help," she
added, and Allura understood what she wanted to make out of all this. Shiro
looked at her with begging eyes.
"What? It's your problem, and she's got a good point," Allura shrugged, before
cutting a piece of fruit and putting it in her mouth, crossing her legs and
looking at the man with a quirked eyebrow, like saying "go on".
Shiro just sighed and walked to the fridge, opening it and taking out a jar of
juice from it, stopping and turning for Ariela to take something too. She
grabbed that weird-green-liquid-thing that Hunk had given her a time ago.
"Do you want something else?" Shiro mumbled, turning to try to look at the
woman that nodded against his back, walking to a place where someone had put
something that looked like bread. "Are you going to heat that up?" he asked
again, and she nodded again, passing him the mug where she had poured the green
liquid, as he put it in the thing that worked like a microwave.
"Oh, Jesus, what did I miss?" Hunk asked from the still opened door, looking at
how the woman was clinging to Shiro's back.
"I'm on a mission of destroying certain obstinate and unuseful belief," Ariela
declared, and Shiro hummed. The yellow paladin shrugged, before starting to
prepare his own breakfast.
"What are we going to do now that we don't have Grigk on our side?" he asked,
once he was sat at the table with the rest of them. Ariela had threatened the
black paladin with sitting on his lap, but she ended up sitting beside him,
still clinging to his arm.
"Keep training? Rescuing more planets? I don't know. It's not like I have an
action plan," Allura sighed.
"Those fuckers. If it weren't for Ilayi's village I would nuke that little
awful planet of their's," Ariela mumbled, before sipping slowly from her mug,
causing everyone to look at her with surprised eyes. Shiro rose an eyebrow,
before snorting and starting to laugh lowly.
"There is a list of a few planets that would make great allies, though. We
could just stick to it and..., I don't know. We're just one ship trying to take
down an empire," Allura kept going. "It's just that I've been thinking, and I
don't believe we can actually do damage until we get Zarkon off the throne,"
she answered.
"Why would you think that?" Ariela asked, frowning and tilting her head, as
Hunk and Shiro nodded to her question.
"Before he was in charge, the Garla couldn't face Altea. Suddenly he barges in
and destroys my planet as if it was nothing, and then conquers the whole
universe. He even made malteians afraid. Grigkeans are never willing to kneel
before anyone and there we had them, desperately trying to win the Galra's
trust by handing us to them," she started. "There is something about that man
that makes him different, more powerful. If we take him down, we take that away
from the empire, and besides it would involve a whole rearrangement of the
power chain, unless Zarkon has left everything ready for his departure."
"But we are far from being ready to attack Zarkon. We can't even deal with one
druid, imagine the four of them and Zarkon," Shiro said, face full of worry.
"The last time we tried to stand up to him Keith almost got killed, we got
separated and haunted."
"And I remember that," Allura said, cutting Shiro off. "I'm not saying that we
have to go and knock on his door today. But I say that is the only solid plan I
can think of: getting ready and helping everyone we can in the meantime."
There was a silence after that. Ariela had noticed Shiro's pulse going up at
the mention of Zarkon and the thought of the druids, so she was massaging his
arm slowly to keep him calm. Hunk was nervous too, it wasn't as if Lance and he
had landed in an awful planet that almost destroyed them, but fixing their
lions underwater wasn't easy.
"It seems like the best course of action to me," Nallely commented, breaking
the silence, with a shy tone. "I know I just got here yesterday but... I don't
know. I just thought you would want my opinion," and now she was practically
trembling under everyone's eyes. Why did she feel so out of place?
"We do, Nalle. Thank you," Ariela smiled at her, the grigkean frown at the
nickname.
And the all the lights went out again.
"AGAIN? IF IT'S THOSE MICE CHEWING ON THE CABLES I SWEAR TO QUIZNACK..." Coran
started screaming from somewhere in the ship.
"What does quiznack mean?" Ariela asked, and Hunk laughed.
"I think it's like a fuck" he answered.
****** >>> ******
Keith usually didn't go through people's stuff without their permission.
Usually.
He had woken up, well-rested, warm and happy, with Lance sleeping against his
chest calmly with a soft smile and his eye mask on. When had he put it on?
Keith had absolutely no idea.
The idea of just lying there with Lance and continue with the cuddling until
the other woke up seemed like the best idea he had ever had, making a warm
feeling spread through his body as if it was carried by his blood, but the
reminder that he couldn't do this every time was there in the back of his brain
like always. Lance was just a teammate and yes, it was really nice of him to
offer himself to help Keith with his nightmares, but he was only doing it
because of that, and Keith couldn't allow himself to over-enjoy the situation
and let his mind in bliss misinterpret everything about Lance and make his
hopes rise up. No, Lance was a good teammate, that despite hating him, helped
him out.
Because Keith would bet his life on the fact that Lance hated him. Since the
first night they had met Lance had been utterly rude to him, acting as if Keith
had kicked his puppy or something like that. Of course that Keith's bad temper
didn't help one bit, but Lance's treatment didn't get better until they were
told that they had to work together or the universe would get conquered by
gigantic and purple furries, so now Keith thought that despite Lance's immature
facade, he was actually mature and had decided to hide his hate towards Keith
while it was necessary.
Well. Keith wanted to cuddle, but as he thought Lance hated him, he got up
without waking the other teen up instead of staying in bed until the other woke
up. And he swears he was originally planning on immediately going to his
bedroom to get dressed, but the curiosity and the knowledge that Lance wouldn't
be awake for another good hour or so got the best of him. What did he do? He
started looking around the teen's bedroom because that is what non-creepy
people do when they are on their crush's bedroom.
It started with merely walking around and eyeing, snorting about how there were
two or three books but tonnes of comics on the shelving, and smiling when he
saw drawings clearly made by a toddler hanging over the desk, where a red
dotted notebook rested alongside a pen.
Did Lance write?
With a last look over his shoulder to check that Lance was definitely asleep,
Keith sat down at the desk and opened the notebook. On the first page, it was
written "Memories from Earth" in a neat calligraphy. Different symbols or forms
were assigned to different things (people, dates, traditions, songs, etc) and
then it was over. The teen turned the page and found a list of people and their
ages listed to the side. Alec (46), Idania (42), Dominique (26), Adrian (24),
Flynn (20), Annelise (11), Colin (2) and Chloé (2). In the next page, the names
repeated themselves, along with a description of the person and everything
Lance seemed to remember about them.
Keith was reading about how Annelise liked organising debates between the
family members when a croaky voice shook him out of his easiness.
"What are you doing?" Lance asked as he rubbed his eyes. Keith jumped from the
seat as if he had a rocket on his ass and let the notebook fall on the desk,
blue eyes following it as it crashed against the surface.
"I'm really sorry I just..., found it there and I started reading. I know I
shouldn't have..." he started, already hating himself and knowing that Lance
was going to hate him even more, watching as his teammate sat on the bed
slowly, still sleepy.
"Don't worry. It's not like it is my diary," Lance laughed, getting up with a
groan and walking towards him, eyeing the still on the open notebook. "Who did
you get to?" he asked, without looking at Keith.
He took his time before answering, gulping and taking a deep breath, not
knowing if he had to take Lance's words seriously or if he was just playing
along to hurt him later.
"Annelise," he answered, after a few seconds, and Lance smiled as he nodded
proudly.
"She's a smartass, just like Flynn. They are the only ones that don't fear to
talk back to my mother," Lance told him. "A little while ago she told me she
wanted to be a lawyer when she grew up, and she really likes telling the family
everything new she learnt when we spend the summer at Havana with my
grandparents."
There was another awkward (at least for Keith) silence, as Lance just looked
into the notebook and smiled fondly, while the red paladin just waited to be
scolded for nosing in other people's business. But the scowl never came.
"Why did you tell me all that?" he asked, and Lance shrugged, still not looking
at him.
"I miss my family, and somehow talking about them makes me feel closer to
them," he answered. "Besides, you're not being half of the ass you used to be,
so I guesses we could try to be friends, again, and what better thing to do to
make friends than talk about your lives?" he kept going, and Keith had to
convince himself that the red thing in Lance's cheeks wasn't a blush.
"Oh. That's nice," he replied. And there was another silence until Lance
cleared his throat.
"How's your family? Are you many?" he asked, and Keith gulped.
"I'm an orphan, actually," he answered, and Lance was mentally slamming his
head against the wall. Of course, he had to go and ask that question to an
orphan, he was just that lucky. Ariela would call him yeta. "But Shiro's like
my brother, so..." Keith added, and Lance sighed.
"So that's how you knew him before all of this," he said in almost a whisper,
and the other teen nodded. "How did you two meet?"
"One of the foster homes I lived in also offered a temporal stay to Garrison
foreign students. Shiro couldn't afford travelling back and forth from the
United States to Brazil for just a few days when the Garrison sent everyone
home, so he stayed there," he explained. "He was the one to hook me up with
this whole space-pilot thing."
"That's a cute story wait," Lance said in a run, before looking at Keith with a
shocked face. "Why would Shiro travel to Brazil? Isn't he from Japan?" and the
shock increased when Keith shook his head.
"No, he's Brazilian," he answered. It was like Keith had just explained a
really important part of a suspense movie, pieces suddenly falling into place.
"¡Con razón Ariela estaba tan babosa con él!¡Shiro también es medio cazuelero
para andar metiéndose con una argentina!!" Lance exclaimed as if Keith was able
to understand him, while the only thing that he could make out of the Spanish
rant (that made Lance sound so fucking hot, he must add) were their teammate's
names.
"What?" Keith asked once Lance shut up, but the teen just brushed it off with a
gesture of his hand.
"I think we should go to the kitchen. They must already be having breakfast,"
the blue paladin said, instead of explaining himself. "You could have woken me
up, you know?" he asked, and like that he was gone, walking through the hallway
as if he hadn't just said that they could have woken up like a cheesy couple on
a lazy Sunday and... Oh, no. There was Keith's mind, doing stuff it shouldn't
again.
****** >>> ******
Pidge appeared, surprisingly followed by Sugey who had a bright smile on her
face that indicated something good had happened, when they were about to go
looking for her. Allura explained what their exact plan was (practising and
freeing planets from galran control until they were capable of killing Zarkon
off) and Shiro and Coran went with her to the control deck to check on the list
of planets that had priority to be freed, be it because they used to be Altean
allies or be it because they had some important material or knowledge the rest
of them needed.
Needless to say that the rest of the paladins and the two grigkeans hit the
training deck. Needless to say that Lance was being cocky about being able to
beat Ariela and Nallely challenged him. Needless to say, she won, taking his
pride as an advantage to smash him against the floor and make him beg for mercy
as Ariela chanted "DIE! DIE! DIE!" over and over again.
"This is the only training you get? You don't have a teacher or anything?"
Nallely asked when they were taking a break, covered in sweat and new bruises.
"Oh, no. There are several different training programs uploaded to the system,
and most of us already had experience in combat. Just..., not in real ones,"
Ariela answered, before sipping more water from her package.
"Did they train you to be warriors on your planet?" Sugey asked with curious
eyes.
"No, well, yeah," Hunk started. "The four of us and Shiro signed up in a school
that taught you how to be a space pilot, and Ariela is just shady," he
explained, and the woman gave a bright smile with closed eyes to the two
grigkeans, making Sugey laugh.
"Our planet is pretty big, and there aren't that many people that want to be a
soldier," Keith added.
"How big is your planet?" the youngest asked.
"Well, it holds seven billion people and there's still space," Pidge said,
shrugging, and Ariela made a face that represented she wasn't so sure about
that.
"But if your planet is at war with the Galra Empire, why don't they concentrate
on raising soldiers?" Nallely asked, and Lance shook his head.
"We are not at war with the Empire. At least not yet. In our planet they don't
know about there being life in space," he explained. "It would be great if we
could warn them, but we can't contact with them, as the Castle hasn't had a
previous contact established with some Earth system."
"Actually..." Pidge started, and all eyes turned to her questioningly, as
Sugey's eyes brightened up and she clapped her hands together.
"You are going to tell them?" she asked.
"Please don't be mad at me," Pidge told Ariela, and the woman frowned harder.
"Why would I be mad at you? What did you do?" she asked.
"Well... As you know, my computers are all homemade, which doesn't give them a
real connection to Earth. And a week ago or so I was looking for you in your
bedroom and I found your computer," the girl started.
"I knew something was missing!" Ariela exclaimed, and Lance put his hand over
her mouth to shut her up.
"That's the part I'm sorry about. The thing is that I took it and I think that
I can manage to make the Castle able to contact Earth. Basically, the Castle's
signals expand through all of the universe, so if I can manage to use it with
your computer it would be as if you were using it at Lance's house."
A long silence fell upon the group, as the paladins slowly processed what she
had just said. Lance was the first one to speak.
"That means that, if you manage to do that, we will be able to talk to our
families?" he asked, and Pidge nodded.
"We can even watch Netflix if everything goes as I planned," Pidge answered,
and three of the four looked so relieved it make Keith envy them slightly;
having someone who they yearned to call was not something that happened to him.
After all, the two people he had important feelings about where in that castle
with him.
"With such good news I barely care about you stealing my computer," Ariela
laughed, as she rubbed her face in excitement.
"Yeah. I just hope for your good that you didn't find Ariela's "secret" porn
stash," Lance said, laughing too, and the woman got red like a tomato before
punching him hard on the shoulder and swearing she didn't have a porn stash on
her computer.
It turns out that Sugey and Pidge had crashed ways as the older made her way to
the control deck, where she had been hiding and working on the computer and
Castle's wiring (causing the lights to go off and music suddenly start playing)
, and as the grigkean was a curious little ish, she had blackmailed Pidge into
letting her in and explaining to her what she was doing. Surprisingly for the
human, Sugey had picked up on the information and technical terms as fast as
lightning and had even pointed out some errors in Pidge's calculations.
Thanks to her she was a step closer to managing this.
The second they knew, they had decided they needed to tell Shiro and the
alteans the good news, so they left behind their training equipment and marched
towards the control deck, wearing wide smiles on their faces.
None of them had ever seen Shiro so happy until he heard Lance say that he
would be able to talk to his family. His eyes had lit up and a wide smile had
brightened his face, before he bit his lip and buried his face in his hands,
crying softly.
It was a shock for all of them, seeing their leader crying out of happiness
like this, but Ariela got near him and hugged him, with a soft smile, the man
hugging her back almost immediately as she started to slightly sway them both
from side to side.
"You're going to see your family again," she repeated, and Shiro let out a
happy and shaky breath, before laughing.
Chapter End Notes
     -¡Con razón Ariela estaba tan babosa con él!¡Shiro también es medio
     cazuelero para andar metiéndose con una argentina!: Now I get why
     Ariela was so crazy over him! Shiro is a masochist for messing with
     an argentian, though!
     -Yeta: It is an Argentinian word for someone that has really bad
     luck. When that bad luck affects other's, the person is called mufa.
     Example: If you fall down and break your leg, you're yeta. If you say
     that someone is going to be okay and they break their leg, you're a
     mufa
     I'm "Team Protect Shiro At All Costs" and I am totally shameless
     about this.
     Someone please tell Keith Lance doesn't hate him, btw.
     And also tell Nallely that Ariela is a little shit and she shouldn't
     be trusted. Allura will know soon or later.
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
The bad thing about outbursts of emotion is that the emotion tends to face away
and even turn the other way if it isn't fed with more.
So, when a whole month passed and there was not a progress on Pidge's mission
to connect with Earth, the paladins started to get a little bit nervous. And
when the girl told them that she was having a little inconvenient she couldn't
fix yet, it was as if their hopes weighted a tonne and were suddenly dropped to
the ground; they all thought that (being them and having their luck) that was
it. There wouldn't be a contacting their families.
Lance was the most affected one. If he suffered back at the Garrison, not being
able to see them five days a week, imagine what it was like for him not seeing
them three months. He was miserable, and Ariela noticed it at the right
beginning and asked the rest of the team to be even friendlier with him. She
didn't know if a sixth sense that helped her feel and exactly know other
people's emotions was included in the whole malteian-genes-package, but
whatever it was this new thing she had was working at full power, letting her
feeling Lance's sadness and homesickness as if it was her own. And yes, she
still cried herself asleep some nights or in the shower, thinking of how her
friends were probably looking for her madly, or what her (Lance's family and
her aunt) family was thinking had happened to her, after that mysterious phone
call she had made to Idania.
The other one that was being deeply affected by Lance's misery was Keith, being
in the same situation as his big sister, feeling the dark emotions that were
affecting his teammate. And he had to do something because it didn't matter
that Lance hated him when he was feeling so down. Keith was still crushing on
him, and he wanted to see him happy.
I miss my family, and somehow talking about them makes me feel closer to them
Lance had told him, and he was going to use that little piece of information in
his favour.
"Could you tell me more about your family?"
Lance was in the small individual bathroom of his bedroom, putting moisturizer
on his face slowly (it was kind of a therapeutic thing for him, rubbing circles
on his face slowly with just the right amount of pressure), when Keith let his
weight drop against the door frame and looked at Lance's eyes reflection with
an emotionless face. The blue paladin frowned and straightened his back.
"What?" he asked, without turning towards the other teen, preferring looking at
his reflection.
"I..." Keith started, panicking slightly when he realised that he didn't have a
proper excuse, but calming down when he remembered that dirty card he could
pull off in his favour. "I never had a real family, and listening to you talk
about yours... It makes me feel calm," he answered, acting the shame but the
blush being real.
Lance's eyes opened widely and he finally turned to watch the other teen, a mix
of empathy and sweetness covering his eyes.
"Get on the bed, I'll be with you in a minute to talk until your ears fall," he
smiled widely, Keith's stomach doing a flip when he saw how the white teeth
looked so perfect in contrast with the boy's tanned skin. He returned the smile
with a much softer one, but Lance seemed satisfied as he turned around again to
keep going with his beauty treatment.
Five minutes of stiffly lying on the other's bed, covered by the blankets and
trying not to let his mind drift away in the other's delicious scent that was
drowning him in there, Lance appeared in his pyjamas. He rapidly laid down next
to Keith and looked at him questioningly, and then the other nodded and Lance
wrapped his arms around him, cuddling him close.
"What would you like to know about my family?" he asked calmly, and Keith
pouted slightly as he thought.
"How did your parents meet?" was his answer after a few seconds of silence, but
he immediately regretted it when the teen's eyes turned a little bit sad and
nostalgic.
"My dad and my mum were neighbours. They knew each other they whole lives, and
they got married really young when my mum got pregnant with my first brother
when she was sixteen," he answered.
"It must have been really hard for them," Keith said, and Lance just shrugged.
"They loved each other. My dad wasn't going to leave her, and my mum didn't
actually want to pursue a career, so there wasn't much conflict," he explained
calmly, before biting his lip doubtingly. Telling Kieth would do no harm,
right? "It was all good until he died."
Both Keith's ears and head perked up at that sentence, violet eyes looking into
Lance's blue ones, wide in surprise.
"I thought that your dad was still alive..., Alec," he started, but Lance cut
him short with a slow shake of his head.
"My dad died when I was about to turn two years old. Alec is my mother's
husband and my younger sibling's father," he explained. "My mother worked at
the family's hotel, and he liked staying there to get away from the important-
business-person life. He was kind of a family friend and when my father died he
took a few weeks off to go to Havana and help my family," he explained.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't know," Keith said. There was a pause and he hugged
Lance closer. "So he's Annalise's, Colin's and Chloé's father," he said, and
the blue paladin nodded. And just when Keith thought he was going to start
crying, Lance snorted and started laughing.
"Jesus. We used to hate that guy," he admitted, with a wide smile.
"Why?" Keith frowned.
"Well, my older siblings hated him, I was about four years old, so I followed
their every step. Our dad had died and out of nowhere, this gringo appeared to
try and take his place, flirting with our mother and taking us shopping and
inviting us to his house... It was a war for my mum's affection. The most
savage one was Flynn, my older sister. She would make Alec feel guilty at least
thrice a week," he answered.
"But he was nice?" the red paladin asked.
"Nice? He was a fucking saint. My father and he were really similar, you know?
Both really good people, head over hills for my mum, good with children..."
Lance started, before looking down. "It was just that we saw him marrying mum
as her forgetting about our dad," he explained.
"And how did he get you to accept him?" Lance smiled at the question.
"I was five years old. He took the four of us to the cinema like he did every
Sunday, but we went without my mum because he wanted to talk with us. We
watched the movie, we ate and when we were having dessert he told us that he
really loved our mother and that he would do anything to make her happy, and he
wanted to ask for our permission to marry her," Lance started, before laughing
nervously. "I remember that there was this big silence and then Flynn said: We
will let you, but you have to know that you will never be our dad. He looked
destroyed, but nodded and thanked us. And then..."
The air suddenly was escaping Lance's lungs, as he remembered how he had
reached out and tugged at Alec's blue shirt, and he had looked at him with a
smile before kneeling in front of him. What is it champ?. Five-year-old Lance
was fidgeting slightly, but he still looked at the man's grey eyes with no
hesitation. You have to ask for permission to my dad too he had told the man.
"I'm probably going to regret saying this, but you were the sweetest five-year-
old boy I ever heard about," Keith laughed against him.
"I know. I was the one to help my mother choose the dress and everything. Alec
organised this huge wedding and even included a memorial for my father and he
gave a speech that made us all cry. I didn't remember seeing my mother so
happy," he answered.
"And how was it when they had children of their own?" And Lance snorted again.
"The house was a battlefield. Dominique and Flynn avoided Annalise at all
costs, and Adrian and I took care of her. It took a lot of talking with my mum
for them to understand that they weren't going to be replaced."
And after that, the story-telling went on and on, until they both felt their
eyelids get really heavy and just let themselves slowly drift to sleep.
****** - - - ******
Ariela was sitting in her bed, reading, as she couldn't sleep. She had heard
Lance talking to Keith in his bedroom and that made her insanely happy (Lance
opening up to the guy and actually talking to him like a civilised person
instead of just picking up fights) but it also made her want to be with her
friends. It was taking every fibre of her being not to unlock her cellphone to
look at the pictures of Naza and Benja, hugging her or lifting her in the air.
Of course, there were much more, but those two were her best friends.
"Fuck it," she said, as she closed her book and grabbed her cell phone. "It's
not as if I won't miss them," she added, trying to hate herself a little bit
less for being so weak, as she opened the gallery and looked at the last
picture: Nazareth holding the black cat outside of their favourite coffee shop
and making a silly face. She couldn't remember if the picture had been taken
when they were still dating or it was after they broke up.
Tears started to well in her eyes, as she remembered the lazy Sundays at her
apartment, sandwiched between the both of them, Benjamin peppering kisses on
her shoulder as Naza played with her hair.
A smashing sound caught her attentions, her first instinct being cleaning her
tears away and stand up as if she had been caught doing something
inappropriate. She was sure that it had been her enhanced hearing that had
allowed her to hear that, so it had to be inside one of the bedrooms. She
commanded her door to open and stepped into the dimly lit hallway, just in time
Shiro's door opened a two rooms to the left.
"Shiro?" she asked as she speed-walked towards the man's bedroom.
When she got to the door she found Shiro panting and crying on the floor, near
to the desk's chair that had fallen to the ground. He was gripping his sleeping
shirt with his right hand, as he tried to get himself up with the left one.
"Shiro, what happened?" she asked, running towards the man and kneeling beside
him, as she helped him up. His eyes were red and swollen from the crying, and
his face was contorted in an expression of sheer terror and sadness.
"They had my mum, Ariela. They were torturing her in front of my whole family,"
he said in between sobs. She was already hugging him close, counting the
seconds of her breathing to try inducing Shiro to imitate them, understanding
that he had had a nightmare.
"It's okay, Shiro. She's safe on Earth, they don't even know who she is," she
told him, as she rubbed his back and swayed slowly from side to side, trying to
avoid the little groan she wanted to let out when the man's arms tightened a
little bit too much around her waist, making her back crack once.
"They know about Earth because I lead them there. What makes you think that
they won't find my family?" he said, bitterness dripping from his mouth like
poison, and Ariela grabbed his face and forced him to look at her.
"They don't even know your real name, Shiro. The place where you dropped is far
away from where your family lives. There are more chance's they go after
Lance's. Your family is not going to get hurt, I promise," she told him, the
pressure of her hands on Shiro's face lessening when she noticed in his eyes
that her words actually had an effect on him.
There was a small pause, while he stared at her and continued to try to even
his breathing.
"I'm sorry," he said, breaking the silence, letting his head fall and resting
it on the woman's shoulder. "I shouldn't have talked to you like that. You were
just trying to help," he admitted, and she hugged him.
"It's okay. I have snapped at people trying to help me too. The important thing
is that you know that they are safe once the panic is over," Ariela explained
to him, and he started to shake his head.
"They won't be safe until I see Zarkon's head rolling across the floor," he
said, and the woman felt the environment tense and fill with electricity. She
had never imagined Shiro as the kind that can just say things like that.
She had imagined him a different than her.
"Do you want to sleep here or we go to my room?" she asked, but Shiro shook his
head again, as he parted from her and started to get up.
"No, I'll... I'll just hit the training deck. I won't be able to sleep tonight,
no matter how good of a cuddler you are," he answered with an awkward smile, as
he scratched his neck and Ariela pouted as she nodded slowly and got up.
"I'll join you in a few minutes, I just have to change into my sports clothes,"
she told him as she started to walk to the door.
"I can go alone, Ariela."
"Don't worry, I couldn't sleep either," she replied, still walking, but he
grabbed her by the arm and pulled her in. She frowned, noticing how the
familiar scent of Shiro started to spice up with anger and something else that
screamed violence, making Ariela start to growl lowly in warning, suddenly too
aware of how her fangs could pierce through skin.
"I don't need you to babysit me," he told her in a low and raspy voice.
"You are right. You don't need a babysitter, but you need someone to be there
with you," she answered, obviously challenging him.
"I can deal with this on my own," he muttered through gritted teeth.
"But I rather you didn't," she answered, imitating his demeanour, and he let go
of her arm to give her his back and rub his hair nervously. "You have been
dealing with this alone for a whole year and more, Shiro. Why do you refuse so
hard whenever I try to help you?" she asked, not caring about her voice being a
little bit loud.
He turned around and pointed at her with his index finger as if he was going to
accuse her of something.
"I feel weak," he admitted. "And you constantly taking care of me doesn't help.
I mean, if I can't deal with my own shitty and damaged brain why would I be
able to deal with having to lead the team that has to save the universe?" he
asked, jaw clenched and left hand trembling.
"So this is all about your manhood being harmed?"
"It's about me being powerless."
"You escaped confinement in a fucking war base, made it back home from across
the universe and now you fly a big-ass robot cat that could blow Earth up in
less than ten minutes. Tell me how you can be powerless," she said, speaking at
the speed of light and making Shiro's eyes open slightly in surprise. Ariela
took a deep breath before continuing, as she hugged herself. "After what
happened with Nick I felt powerless too, and you know what I did? I relied on
my family, and now I can kill five soldiers in a minute with a broken arm. If
you feel powerless you have to grow, Shiro, and you can't do that alone."
The silence that fell was much longer and, surprisingly, awkward. Shiro
couldn't remember when the last awkward silence in a conversation with Ariela
had been, and it was only making him even more nervous than he already was, not
knowing how to respond to what the woman had just said.
"I'll go and get changed," she started, before turning away. "Meet you at the
training deck." And with that, she was gone.
****** - - - ******
Nallely woke up first again, and she was walking to the kitchen when she
noticed Ariela's door open, so she thought that the woman would be having
breakfast too. But, when she didn't find her, the grigkean decided to move it
to the training deck, her second option.
And that's the story of how she found Shiro and Ariela training together and
fighting over it.
"Come on! That's all you can do?" Shiro asked with laughter, as the woman
stopped doing push-ups and let her body drop to the ground. She was on a grey
training top and pink sweatpants, sweat glistening on her skin and back rising
and falling fastly, as she started to stand up to face the man.
"I don't have a fucking robot arm. You cheated!" she exclaimed, jabbing her
finger in Shiro's chest, and she was actually mad.
"Don't be mad just because I can bench press you," he said, laughing, and the
woman crossed her arms over her chest.
"You can't bench press me," she said, and the next thing that happened was him
bench press the woman, as she started cursing in Spanish, thrashing around and
falling on top of the man's stomach, forcing the air out of his lungs.
"¡Te pasa por langa, pelotudo!" she shouted at him, before running to get her
bayard. "C'mon, I'll spar your ass off," she said, activating her bayard and
forming the two khopesh swords, and just when Nallely thought Shiro was going
to tell her to calm down the man smiled crookedly and lit his arm, putting his
body into a fighting stance.
"Jesus, are all humans like this?" Nallely asked herself, as she sat down and
prepared to watch.
Boy, was the fight good.
It was something hypnotising to see. Despite being huge, Shiro was really
agile, fast to evade Ariela's not so fatal sword arcs and regain his position,
before attacking himself. But the woman didn't fall behind either. She was even
agiler than the man and flexible (in one point of the fight she did a split to
avoid Shiro's punch). Her arms would tremble when blocking the man's arm with
her crossed swords, but she still managed to get him off of her all the time.
It looked like a fight that would end with a victor, but rather one that would
end abruptly because they were both too tired. And in fact, that was what
happened. Their movements started to become sloppy, and Ariela rolled on the
floor to evade Shiro's foot, but she didn't get up, just like him. He had
fallen when he missed the kick, barely reaching to stop the fall with his
hands.
They were both panting, not talking to each other, and if it hadn't been for
someone clapping suddenly, Ariela would have probably fallen asleep. She hadn't
slept at all (excepting for a power nap when Shiro went to look for water, but
shh) and the training with Shiro was torture. He was kind of a sadist and
masochist at the same time.
"That was really pleasing to the sight," Nallely commented, as she neared them
holding two packs of water in her right hand and towels on the left.
"Can you just finish him off for me?" the woman asked jokingly, as she reached
out and caught the towel that had been thrown at her.
"I never imagined you would hold on that long," Shiro admitted, as he grabbed
one of the water packs and started seeping greedily. The woman turned to her
side and looked at him, still panting, before raising her middle finger.
She dropped her arm to the ground, before bringing her right hand up to brush
her bangs off of her face, panting and looking at the ceiling before closing
her eyes. And, Jesus, Shiro hated himself for feeling the blush creeping up his
face and feeling all warm, not being able to avoid that she looked like sex in
that exact moment. Sweatpants low on her hips, hair messy, skin red, breath
ragged and sweat running down her body. The fact that she opened her eyes and
looked at him, cheeks flushed and irises a ring of gold around dilated pupils
because of the adrenaline, didn't help.
"Next time we do this, I'm going to whoop your ass," she deadpanned, and Shiro
closed his eyes and thought of disturbing things to kill the boner that was
starting to rise. It had been a year and a half since the last time he had
gotten laid, so God would forgive him, right? But, the more he tried to hold
his imagination back, the more detailed the images of having sex with Ariela
became.
"I'm really tired. I think I'm going to sleep," he declared and Nallely looked
at his crotch with a quirked eyebrow, judging him ruthlessly for his half hard-
on, making his blush spread, even more, almost reaching his chest, as Ariela
followed the woman's eyes nad grinned.
"Leave him alone, Nalle. It's normal for guys to get boners when exercising,"
she told the grigkean and started to get up, completely missing Shiro getting
relaxed now that he had an excuse and Nallely confirming that it wasn't because
of the exercise.
Ariela opened her mouth to say something, as she dried her face and the back of
her neck with the white towel when a weird noise started to come from the roof.
It was as if something was stumbling across the air vents, and the trio didn't
even hesitate before arming themselves and looking at the ceiling, following
the place it came from.
There was a loud crash and suddenly Pidge was falling, screeching loudly as she
tried to grip the void around her to stop her fall. Shiro deactivated his arm
and caught her, as the girl hugged him tightly and continued to cry.
"Pidge, what the heck?" Ariela asked, looking from the small hole that had been
opened on the ceiling to the green paladin, getting on her feet with slightly
wobbly legs.
The door opened and Hunk, Coran and Sugey ran into the room, the three of them
adopting relieved expressions when they saw Pidge safe and sound, speed
lowering and no one spoke until they finally reached her.
"Did you find them?" Coran asked, and the girl shook her head.
"What was she looking for?" Ariela asked, a little bit pissed because they had
ignored her.
"Somewhere in the vents there's a cable box that might be the key to contacting
Earth, so we sent our smallest soldier on a mission," Hunk smiled widely,
clasping a big hand on the girl's tiny shoulder, almost sending her face first
to the floor.
"Oh, nice," Ariela said, smiling softly, before frowning. "Why would there be a
cable box in the air vents?" she asked in a confused and full-of-feeling
whisper, making Hunk shrug.
"How long have you been training?" Allura asked, and both Shiro and Ariela
answered at the exact same time.
"All night long." Coran frowned and Pidge snorted.
"You know that by training we mean actual training and not making out right?"
the girl said, and when the pair looked at her with confused eyes, she
nonchalantly pointed at Shiro's hard-on.
"We didn't make out, for karma's sake," Ariela groaned, and Nallely nodded.
"They were actually fighting. Let's just say that your paladin has a great
imagination," she said, smiling crookedly and making Shiro look at her with
warning eyes.
"What do you mean with great imagination?" Allura asked, and Nallely wanted to
aww at the woman's innocence, but as she opened her mouth to answer her eyes
caught Ariela's and the paladin mouthed Allura's name and gave her a wink,
openly challenging her to go on.
"Nothing, I was just talking nonsense," she answered, without parting her lilac
eyes from golden ones, and the woman smiled at her like the cat that had gotten
the cream.
****** - - - ******
Keith refused to open his eyes. He was having the most beautiful dream in the
world.
Lance was softly humming a song in Spanish, as he caressed Keith's leg with his
cold feet and drew shapes on his back with the soft pads of his fingers. This
was what he was afraid of, suddenly starting to become helpless and crave for
those lazy mornings even more than before. If he was dreaming about them, he
was craving them a lot.
La soledad se hace carne en mi, y la noche parece un desierto. Pero llegas tú y
con tu inmensa luz te declaras dueño de mis sueños.
Dream Keith hugged himself closer to his teammate, Lance's breath hitching and
stopping for a second, as the red paladin let himself nuzzle against his chest
and got comfortable. A hand slid up to his hair and started caressing it,
untangling bed notches on it.
El viento viste un color azul, parecido a un suspiro del cielo, de sólo saber
que te voy a ver y a regalarte todos mis momentos
Warmth was flooding Keith's chest, infecting his veins and making his whole
body tingle with joy as he listened to Lance sing, practically hearing the
smile in the boy's voice as he sang sweetly, with a raspy voice that still
sounded so good it was not natural. If a Galra ship appeared and nuked the
Castle , Keith would die drowning in joy.
Lance's voice suddenly stopped, body tensing around him before sliding off of
Keith's grip and standing up, just in time to watch how the door opened to
reveal a wrecked Ariela, still a mess after the ruthless training with Shiro,
although Lance didn't know that.
"Kieth's in your bed," she said, and Lance narrowed his eyes, before telling
her to lower her voice with a gesture of a hand. "I mean, you have been reeking
of him this lasts days, but I just imagined you were spending a little bit more
time together," the woman followed, voice lowered, and Lance walked towards
her.
"Let's talk outside," he said, and with that they were out of the bedroom, the
door closing behind them.
Keith opened his eyes, debating how wrong it would be to follow them and spy on
their conversation, and then he realised.
Oh my god.
The fact that what had just happened was real and not a dream hit him in the
head like a brick. Lance cuddling him and singing to him happily, as he
caressed his body while Keith refused to get out of that comfortable and warm
bed (warm thanks to Lance's body temperature).
"What the fuck?" he asked himself, getting out of the bed as if the sheets
burned his skin and actually putting his body in fighting stance. "What the
fuck?" he repeated, feeling a dreaded mix of too many feelings settle on
different parts of his body, making him want to throw up and think he was going
to combust.
****** - - - ******
Hunk was in charge of dinner that night and that made Ariela hum with pleasure,
her heightened sense of smell picking up on the spices and other ingredients he
was using for cooking, as he happily sang a song that sounded Hawaiian.
"I luna lā i luna. Nā manu o ka lewa. I lalo lua i lalo. Nā pua o ka honua."
She had walked in the kitchen, wanting to join the teen in his happy little
bubble, but she didn't have the heart to, the chance of her making that fragile
and essential bubble explode holding her back, so she just decided to lean in
the kitchen's door frame, watching with a soft smile and arms crossed over her
chest how Hunk moved swaying his waist slightly, sometimes doing perfectly
measured movements with his arms when he didn't hold anything on his hands.
A hand rested on her shoulder, making her jump in surprise, quickly picking up
on the other scent that the cooking had hidden as she turned around to face a
blushing Shiro.
"Hey," she smiled, as she uncrossed her arms.
"I just wanted to apologise again, for last night. I was really rude and you
were just trying to help me," Shiro said, going straight to the point, as he
put his hands in his pant's pockets and looked to the floor. "But I can't help
feeling like I'm a little child that won't survive if you stop taking care of
him. I want to be able to be stable without you," he explained, and Ariela
nodded in understanding.
"The problem is, Shiro, that you are expecting one whole year of brutal damage
to be just piled under the carpet and forgotten about. That can't be.
Recovering is a process, and I just want to walk you through it. If you take
care of yourself properly, you won't need me soon enough," and yes, that was a
white lie, but Shiro couldn't know that, right?
"Really? It's just I don't like depending on someone for my recovery," he
admitted, rubbing his left arm and still avoiding the woman's eyes.
"Think of you as and almost dying flower. You need water and sunlight. I'm the
sunlight because people always tell me I'm a ray of sunshine," Ariela said,
smiling charmingly and making Shiro chuckle slightly.
"So I'm a delicate flower. Yeah, that definitely helps," he laughed awkwardly,
blushing harder as he finally rose his sight to meet Ariela's golden eyes,
which turned white when she rolled them.
"You are too hard to please, captain," she said, not really meaning it, and
Shiro didn't turn redder because he didn't have more blood to do so. It was
really hard to look at someone in the face when you had had kind of (totally)
erotic thoughts about them in the shower. Like, really hard. Especially when
that person was Ariela, who talked with him with so much easiness, not getting
away despite being two inches away from each other, and called him captain in a
way that sounded (at least after the shower he had had) hell-level-sinful.
There was a pause in which she looked at the man with unreadable eyes. The only
thing he could make out of the gold was that she was suspecting something,
analysing, but that was it.
"Okay, give me a sec. I can think of a more manly metaphor," she said, holding
her hands up. "You are like a lion that was harmed in battle, and the rest of
your pack has to nurse you and bring you food and lick your wounds or you'll
die," she said, speaking slowly as if she was unsure of her words.
Had Shiro suddenly turned to his fourteen-year-old self suddenly, wanting to
bang his head on the wall when he heard the woman say "and lick your wounds"
and images of her tongue running through his scars popped up in his mind like
an annoying advert in a computer, with loud music and no ex to click out of it,
blocking your entire view? Damn it, he thought he had left that behind in the
shower.
"Are you okay, Shiro? You're really red. Please tell me you didn't overwork
yourself," she begged, signalling the blush that covered his face, ears, neck
and chest, just that Ariela couldn't see it.
"I think I'll skip dinner, I'm not feeling really good," he said, licking his
lips.
"Okay. Want me to go to your room after dinner? Or you'll be able to sleep just
fine?" she asked. Shiro wanted to die.
"I'll let you know," he said, already starting to step back.
"Oh! I'll bring you food to your bedroom. You need to eat a lot after last
night," she told him, and he nodded, thinking of how he could use the excuse
that Ariela would be going to his bedroom at a random time to push the thoughts
that had been haunting him since that morning out of his mind.
Chapter End Notes
     -¡Te pasa por langa, pelotudo!: That's what you get for show-off,
     dumbass!
     -La soledad se hace carne en mi y la noche parece un desierto. Pero
     llegas tu y con tu inmensa luz te declaras dueño de mis sueños. El
     viento viste un color azul, parecido a un suspiro del cielo, de sólo
     saber que te voy a ver y a regalarte todos mis momentos: Loneliness
     is becoming usual in me (like flesh), and night looks like a desert;
     but you come here with your immense light and you declare yourself
     the owner of my dreams. Time is wearing a blue colour, similar to a
     sky's sigh, just to know that I'll see you and to give you all my
     moments. (This song is "La llave", by Abel Pintos. It's really
     pretty, if you want to listen to it I really recomend it)
     The song Hunk is singing is "Ke Ao Nani". It's really sweet and I
     love it.
     A.N: I'm sorry for torturing Shiro this way.
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Yes, Lance had gone looking for him when Keith hadn't shown up in his bedroom
that night and yes, he had refused to open the door or speak to the other
paladin completely, curled up in a ball in his bed while listening to Lance ask
if he was okay, voice starting to get worried as time passed and he didn't
answer.
It was just that he didn't want to see Lance if it wasn't necessary, and he had
been sleeping really well lately, so pulling an all nighter didn't seem like a
bad thing to do. He couldn't face the blue paladin until he had figured out
what the fuck had happened that morning. Did Lance actually hate him? Or had it
been him misreading his behaviour? Because let's be realistic, it's Keith who
we're talking about and that possibility was more than probable. He needed to
talk to someone about this whole deal, but there weren't many options: Hunk was
definitely out, being Lance's BFF, Pidge was a little shit, Ariela was Lance's
sister, Allura wouldn't have any idea of anything and Kieth didn't think Coran
would be any different. The only person left was Shiro, and that made Keith
bite his lip doubtingly. His relationship with Shiro had improved significantly
since the night they started with Ariela's re-bonding plan, but the red paladin
wasn't quite sure if it was a good idea just barging into Shiro's bedroom in
the middle of the night.
He shrugged as he took a deep breath and stood up, deciding that it couldn't go
that wrong. It was late at night, so no one would interrupt them, and Shiro
usually was either awake or sleeping with Ariela, so there was no real danger.
He walked out of his bedroom and tried first at Ariela's because they were
usually there. Keith thought that there was something about the woman's bedroom
that made Shiro feel more comfortable, more at home. It was kind of decorated
and so much more personal than their empty rooms. Hunk's was the only one that
had something his, it being a rock from the Balmera and a little plant Ariela
had bought him at donnybrook in Grigk.
Ariela's bedroom was empty, so he turned around and walked back towards
Shiro's.
He was about to command the door to open when he finally paid attention to this
thing tingling in the back of his mind, trying to catch his attention. It was a
smell, mixed along with Ariela's and Shiro's scent, and although it was barely
there, it put Keith's body on edge. The sweet smell was trying to lure him in
as if it was the smell of a warm meal guiding someone starving in one of those
ridiculous cartoons, where the person in question would float around because of
the smell. He hadn't felt identified with that ever, at least not until now.
"Open door," he said.
Shiro had taken his sweet time to go to Ariela's bedroom and ask her if they
could sleep together. She, of course, had nodded and walked sleepily behind
him, hand clutching at the back of the man's shirt as if she could get lost in
the path, eyes half lidded and body heavy. But, the second their heads hit the
pillow, they were both lights out. And it was so pleasing to sleep like this.
It was as if a part of her mind was still wide awake, in a state of alert,
gathering data of the waking world just in case something happened and she
needed to wake up. It was a weird feeling, it had never happened to her, but
she continued to sleep. The only information her brain received for a few hours
was Shiro moving around until he ended up laying on top of her, nose pressing
against her neck and legs tangled together, her body being too warm and her
slightly loud purring. She was mildly afraid the sound would wake Shiro up, but
she couldn't stop it no matter how much she wanted to, a part of her feeling
really content with her actual situation, and the noise seemed to lull the man
back to a quiet dream every time he started to squirm.
When the door opened and an outsider scent bursted into the room, it was as if
a fire alarm rang loudly in her head, telling her to wake up and defend her
place. It was a strong instinct taking over her body, making her eyes snap wide
open and the purring turn into a really loud growl, this time waking Shiro up
scared and disorientated. Her new side, her malteian side was trying to let the
message of "Out of my place" through her growling and her flashing teeth, but
her sight caught up with her brain, noticing an aware Keith standing on the
still open door and staring at her with surprise, although he seemed to
understand her behaviour.
Slowly, the growling lowered its volume till it finally stopped.
"Ariela, what happened?" Shiro asked, sitting up and rubbing his face, with
raspy and deep voice, making her purr again.
"I didn't mean to wake you up. It's just Keith entered and... I don't know,"
she answered, kicking the blankets off of her, as she felt a little bit too
hot. "I'm sorry Keith".
"Don't worry," the teen started, getting closer to the bed as slowly as he
could, while he awkwardly scratched his neck. "I kind of understand it, in a
way," he added, tilting his head from side to side.
"Hey, Keith. Are you okay?" Shiro asked, eyes half-open now that he was calm
again, the only two thoughts in his brain being that his breath stank and that
there was this really sweet smell he loved and he didn't know where it came
from.
"Yeah, I just... I was wondering if I could talk to you?" Keith answered, eyes
flickering from the man to Ariela and then back to him as if saying "In
private".
"Oh, don't worry. I'll go," Ariela smiled as she slowly got out from the bed,
rubbing her neck as if it hurt. "I'll be in my bedroom if you need me," she
added, and with that she was gone, turning the lights on and closing the door
on her way out.
There were a few seconds of silence, Keith looking at the door without moving,
noticing how the sweet smell faded away every second passing. Shiro let himself
drop on the bed again, burying his face in the pillow.
"What did you want to talk about at... two in the morning?" he asked, as he
lifted his head to check the small digital clock on the wall.
Keith walked towards the bed and sat on the edge, looking at Shiro, biting his
lip as he felt a blush starting to creep on his cheeks. His ears were stuck to
his head in embarrassment and he was regretting having come here, but what had
been done couldn't be undone. Shiro was awake and waiting for him to suck his
shame up and speak.
"I think that Lance doesn't actually hate me," Keith started, catching the
man's interest. In a second he was sitting by his side and looking at him with
all of his attention, smiling as Keith described what had happened that
morning.
"And when I opened my eyes they were gone. It took me a while to realise it had
actually happened," he finished, clenching and unclenching his hands on his
lap, actively avoiding Shiro's gaze.
"Wait a minute," Shiro said, making Keith look at him, ears straight in alert.
"You didn't actually see any of it? Like, you actually opened your eyes once
they were gone?" he asked, and Keith nodded. Shiro's eyes became a little bit
unsure, as he bit his cheek while thinking. "Couldn't that be that you actually
dreamt it?" he asked, and it was as if Keith's world came crashing down.
"What?"
"I mean," he started, straightening his back as he scratched the back of his
neck. "You were so sure it was a dream, and... Maybe when you woke up he had
gone away some time ago and you actually dreamt it, but it fitted so well with
your dream that the chance it was real wasn't that low," Shiro explained
himself, and Keith's eyes widened in surprise and sudden realisation.
There was a long pause before Keith let out a long and sad sigh, letting his
face drop in his hands.
"I'm such an idiot," he said, and Shiro was immediately giving him a tight
side-hug.
"Don't say that. There are chances that I'm completely wrong and you are
actually right. I just don't want you to get your hopes really high and get
crashed to the ground when Lance flirts with some alien on the next planet we
land on," he explained himself. "Remember what it did to you when he went away
with Nyma?" he asked, and when Keith had thought his heart couldn't sink lower
he had been so wrong.
"I'm getting my hopes too high. You're right. That guy's like the straightest
I've ever known," he sighed again, and Shiro chuckled awkwardly. "I just wish I
was just as lucky as you are," he said.
"Keith," Shiro started with serious voice. "I was abducted and tortured. By
purple furries," he said, and the younger one shrugged.
"Yeah, but you still managed to get Ariela," Keith said, and the man tensed.
"Oh, c'mon. It's so obvious you really like her," he kept pushing.
"I don't like her," Shiro said, sounding like a seven-year-old.
"All I'm going to say is that I came looking for you when you were taking your
shower and that the bathrooms are the complete opposite from soundproof," Keith
deadpanned, turning around just to catch how Shiro turned red like his robot,
scar blending in with his blush, as he seemed to recalculate everything he had
just heard with wide open eyes.
"Okay. In my excuse yeah, she's really hot and I haven't gotten laid in more
than a year and a half. I want to see how you end up with Lance panting and
groaning next to you, all messed up," the man started, standing up.
"I didn't say I blamed you. I don't need to be straight to know that she is
really pretty," Keith said, trying to push the image of Lance Shiro had just
described out of his head.
"Yeah, she is. And also she is a really nice person, and probably there's so
much more I don't know about her and it would be great to know her more, but as
friends hard," Keith said, looking at the man dead in the eyes. "How much do
you know about her, anyways?" Shiro sat by his side again, rubbing his chin as
he thought.
"There was this night in Menosfor. We both got drunk and she opened up a lot,
but I'm not exactly fluent in Spanish, you know?" he started. "But when she
finally got to speak English again she told me that her real family had kicked
her out when she was young, because of her sexuality. Then I remember bits and
pieces: where she lives, her friend's names, her favourite colour," he
finished.
"You know more about her than I know about Lance and I feel really lame," Keith
said. "Wait. You were both drunk and you didn't kiss? How long have you had the
hots for her?"
Shiro had never seen Keith as an annoying younger brother more in his life than
that exact second, mischievous grin on his face, eyes wide in expectancy and so
satisfied that he was making his older brother blush and flustered.
"I mean, I've always thought she was pretty. But that day, after we found her
underground... I actually never believed that she would be capable of defeating
the Galra until I saw the dead soldiers and knew that she had beaten them with
a broken arm. Suddenly, knowing that a woman can easily kill me is kind of a
turn on, you know?" he said, laughing nervously. "That night I was just
rambling about what I would do when we got back home and she grabbed my face
and said something and I was so sure I was going to kiss her, but then Pidge
threw herself in the middle of us," he finished with a disappointed look and
Keith started to laugh.
"Such a cockblocker," he said.
"What do you know about Lance? I mean, I know you've liked him ever since he
shot Sendak, so you've had quite a time to learn about him," Shiro asked,
already resigned to give up his sleep and just talk with Keith all night long.
After all, he had been sleeping quite well lately.
"Before changing? Not much. But after? A lot. I haven't told you, but we
actually have been following yours and Ariela's examples. I've had nightmares
every night ever since I turned like this and I used to go to Hunk, but one
night I couldn't reach him and Ariela was with you and you still hated looking
at me and Pidge was missing, so I went to Lance," he started, and Shiro let his
head fall to rest on the red paladin's shoulder.
"I'm so sorry about that Keith. I swear I still love you like I used to. You're
still my little snarky brother," he said, with a soft smile, and Keith let his
head rest on top of Shiro's.
"I know. Anyway, he was a total sweetheart and he treated me so well! And he's
been much more patient with me lately," he finished.
"Well, I think it's just because he knows what it's like to be different. You
know? Discriminated," the man commented, and when Keith looked at him with a
frown he explained himself. "Ariela told me that he's Cuban and that he moved
to The States when he was six. Usually, Americans don't like immigrants," he
explained.
"He told me a lot about his family. And he let me read this kind of diary... He
writes everything he remembers form Earth so he won't forget," and Keith wanted
to slap himself for smiling like a fan in love, but he kind of was.
"He's much deeper and complex than he lets us see, it was obvious."
There was another long pause, and this one was so peaceful that Keith regretted
breaking the silence.
"Can I stay tonight? I rejected Lance because I couldn't even look at him so
I'm kind of alone," he asked, and Shiro nodded.
"Yes. If you don't, I'll be alone too. Ariela's probably dead in her bed right
now. You should listen to all the stuff she says in dreams, dude," he said, and
then proceeded to tell Keith about them.
****** - - - ******
"Where's Ariela?" Sugey asked as she bounced on her chair in the kitchen while
looking at the clock. It was time to go and start training but the woman was
nowhere to be seen.
Just like if God had sent him to answer the girl's question, the kitchen door
opened and Lance walked in, looking a little bit down and smelling slightly
like... it was like a mix of roses and chocolate, a dense smell that was still
attracting. It was the same smell that Keith had noticed on Shiro's bedroom
last night.
"Ariela's not feeling good today. She had a fever and pain neck when I checked
on her," he declared, dropping tiredly on a chair. Hunk put a hand on his
shoulder.
"You okay, man?" he asked, and Lance shook his head.
"I didn't sleep well last night," he answered, before stealing bread from his
friend's plate and eating it slowly.
The training that day was a little bit off, no one's mind was actually on what
they were doing with their body as they ran through an obstacle track,
stumbling over stuff and crashing against walls and not being able to catch
ropes on time, falling face first to the floor. Keith was too busy thinking
about Lance, Lance was too busy thinking about Keith and Ariela. Shiro noticed
that he had gotten used to sleeping "a lot" as not sleeping last night was
getting the best of him. Pidge was mentally going over her plan to contact
Earth over and over again and Hunk was worried worrying about everyone else, as
he did so that his own homesickness wouldn't catch him. Worrying about others
to deny oneself seemed to be a tactic they all dominated in that Castle.
It wasn't until after lunch that they decided to check on Ariela. Coran was
following suit behind Lance, and Shiro walked by his side, carrying some Altean
medical stuff the man had insisted on taking with him, just in case the woman
was sick.
Now, none of them had the same heightened senses Ariela or Keith had, but when
they reached the woman's bedroom door, the smell was so intense they could
perceive it perfectly as if someone had emptied a bottle of perfume in the
hallway. Soft panting and whining could be heard from inside, and it made Lance
stop dead in his tracks, before indicating the other two to wait for him.
"Sis, is everything alright?" he asked, and when there was no answer, he
commanded the door open, immediately rushing towards Ariela.
She was a mess in the bed, sheets tangled around her body as she thrashed
around, clutching her neck and crying softly, like a kid that was sick. She
looked feverish, eyes glassy and body flushed.
"It hurts a lot, Lance," she cried the second he stepped into the bedroom.
Shiro and Coran followed fast after him, Shiro's eyes widening and worry
washing over him when he saw the woman like that.
"What hurts?" he asked, and the woman took her hands off of her neck, showing
him how both sides were really swollen. They soon noticed that her wrists and
thighs were like that too, just like the back of her ears.
"It really hurts," she sobbed, closing her eyes and curling herself into a
trembling ball. "I feel awful, I want to throw up," she cried, and Lance sat on
the bed, pulling the woman's head to rest on his lap, as he touched the swollen
wrists with cold fingers, making her sigh.
"What is going on?" he asked, looking at Coran with scared eyes, but the man
didn't seem to know more than he did.
"Hey, how's..." Keith asked, coming from the hallway, but he stopped himself
and covered his nose with the sleeve of his jacket, retreating a few steps.
"Jesus christ, what is that smell?" he asked, exasperated for not knowing.
"I don't know but I hate it!" Ariela screamed, slamming her fist in the
mattress, as she sobbed louder.
"Could it be something related to Malteia's poisonous air?" Shiro asked as he
brushed the bangs away from the woman's face, making her sigh again when cool
metal touched her burning skin.
"I don't think so, but it might be something from Malteian biology," Coran
said, opening the box that he had made Shiro carry. "We'll give her some
morphine to calm the pain for now, so we can call to Menosfor and talk to that
stupid Malteian," he said, as he prepared an injection.
Ariela started to shake her head.
"She's afraid of needles," Lance said, continuing to massage the swollen
wrists, thing that seemed to help a lot.
"Then I'm going to need you to hold her down," Coran said nonchalantly, and
Ariela tried to squirm away, but Lance had already grabbed her arm. "Shiro,
watch the legs," the Altean told him, as the woman started kicking around.
"I don't want to! Leave me alone!" she screamed, crying louder when she saw the
needle piercing through the skin of her left arm, being held by Shiro's metal
arm, as he sat on her legs.
"The morphine will take half an hour to make effect. I say someone stays with
her while we contact with Menosfor and find out what the quiznack is going on,"
Coran said, as he stood up, and Lance opened his mouth to say he would be the
one staying when Ariela grabbed Shiro's hand.
"Please don't leave," she told him with teary eyes, and Shiro's eyes opened
wide, the words catching Keith's attention and making his ears perk up as he
smiled in amusement.
"C'mon. The sooner we find out what this is the sooner we'll be able to help
her," Keith said, getting near and grabbing Lance's shirt to pull him away,
totally seeing the chance. The blue paladin let himself be carried away,
without letting his eyes off of Ariela.
"Take care of her," he said, before walking away.
****** - - - ******
"So, how's Ariela?" Allura asked as the trio walked past the common area to
pick them up.
"Not good. We're going to call Menosfor to see if Anferum knows what is wrong
with her," Lance grumbled. He didn't trust that guy at all, and he didn't like
the idea of him being the only one capable of helping his sister when she was
like that.
"What's wrong with her?" Nallely asked, getting up quickly as the rest of the
team and following them to the control deck.
"We have no idea, that's why we need to contact Anferum," Keith answered.
In a few minutes, they were all in the control deck, waiting for king Feer to
pick up their call. When he did, they saw him sitting in the chair in his
office, with a friendly smile on his face on the big screen.
"Paladins of Voltron! How are you doing?" he asked, but then he noticed
Allura's serious face.
"We need to talk with Anferum. It's about our Maletian paladin. Do you know
where he is?" she asked and the king nodded quickly.
"Yeah, he's right here with me," he answered, indicating his bodyguard to get
closer with a gesture of his hand. When the man appeared on the screen, almost
everyone felt a wave of anger wash through them.
"What's wrong with the black warrior?" he asked, green eyes wide with
curiousness and pupils slitted.
"The black warrior is feeling sick. We don't know what it might be. She's got a
fever and parts of her body are really swollen. She said it hurt," Coran
answered, stepping closer to the screen.
"And there's a weird sweet smell," Keith added from a side, and Anferum nodded
calmly as he closed his eyes.
"How old is she?" he asked.
"Twenty-two," Lance answered in a grumble, not wanting to speak with the man.
"Has she mated yet?" There was a silence.
"I... I don't know if humans mate," Allura answered, before turning to the
paladins. "Do you mate?" she asked them.
"Excuse me?" Keith asked.
"We don't mate, so no, Ariela hasn't mated. Why?" Pidge intervened, before
turning to explain to her teammates. "Mating is choosing a partner. Like
marrying someone but there's something more biological about it," she explained
softly.
"Species like mine or even the Galran have really intense breeding instincts,
as survival is hard for us because of our environment," Anferum started. "If a
Malteian reaches adult age and hasn't mated yet, their scent glands go crazy
like..., once every three months, in hopes of attracting potential partners.
It's painful because the body works really hard on producing an appealing smell
and making it really strong," he finished.
"How do you deal with it?" Coran asked.
"Either you mate or wait through it. It's more painful for some people, in
which case we would give them some form of pain-killer," the king answered, and
Hunk rose an eyebrow. His sixth sense was telling him those two had a thing and
that was why Feer new so much about this.
"What should we do?" Lance asked.
"Keep her cool, make sure she eats. Some loose appetite, but they need to eat
or they start to pass out. Um... Massage the scent glands and don't leave her
alone with a male," Anferum said, looking really focused on making sure he
wasn't forgetting anything.
"What was the last one?" Lance asked.
"Don't leave her alone with a male?" The blue paladin looked at Coran, before
mouthing Shiro.
"What can happen if we leave her alone?" Allura asked, catching the exchange
between the two and signalling the door to Pidge with a gesture of her head.
"Well, it actually depends on how good smell sense humans have. The scent her
glands produce is designed to attract males and make them want to mate with
her," Feer answered, and suddenly Pidge was sprinting down the hall.
"How long do this thing last?" Coran asked.
"Usually the longest ones last three days, but that's usually for the ones that
aren't so intense. If it's painful for her, it'll last a day and a half, maybe
two," Anferum answered.
"Okay. We will take care of it. Thank you for answering our call," Allura said.
"Anytime. Princess, paladins," and with that the video was out, leaving the
control deck in silence.
"Do you think they've kissed or something?" Keith asked, breaking it.
"If this is about the betting pool you started at breakfast shut up, Keith,"
Hunk said, rubbing his face with his hands. Nallely clicked her tongue before
whispering "Men" and getting near Allura.
"Do you think Pidge will manage to stop something from happening between those
two? I mean..., she's tiny, and if that smell has the same effect in your
species than in hers..." the grigkean started, making her lips go in a thin
line.
"You know about this?" Allura asked.
"Not much. If I hadn't listened to that guy explain it I wouldn't have
remembered it, but there was a book of different species in my house. Malteians
usually go into some sort of trance when they smell someone in that state,
that's why it is so effective," she answered.
"This means Ariela's body changed more than we thought it had. I'm going to the
library and look for information about Malteians," Coran started, before
turning to look at Keith. "And Galras, now that I'm at it. Lance, would you
join me?" he asked, and the blue paladin nodded.
"I'm going to see Ariela. Now that you mentioned it, Pidge wouldn't be able to
stop Shiro from anything," the princess said, before turning around and walking
to the bedroom.
****** - - - ******
Shiro felt like the kid that had been busted doing something wrong and was now
waiting for his parents to appear at the principal's office.
He had stayed, just like Ariela had asked him to, sitting on the edge of the
bed and massaging her wrists softly like Lance had been doing before going,
listening to the woman's cries turn into complaints and then stop. She was
looking at the ceiling in that moment, eyes unfocused and skin still too warm,
purring loudly in time with Shiro's movements on her wrists. The morphine was
slowly working her way into her body, numbing the pain slightly and making her
head feel like goo, but deep down she knew it wasn't the morphine that was
calming her.
"I'm starting to feel a little bit better," she said, as she slowly sat up,
resting her weight on Shiro's side when she finally managed to, and the smell
became even stronger. It was making the man's breathing turn a little shallow,
a blush creeping over his neck and the memory of when Ariela's face had been so
close to him at the party in Menosfor making him think "Kissing her wouldn't be
that bad!". He was doomed when he turned his face to look at her and his eyes
were caught in Ariela's blown pupil's fixated at his mouth and red cheeks,
parted lips looking all too inviting.
Shiro turned the rest of his body along with his face and slid his right hand
across the woman's neck making her moan lowly and lean into the touch when the
could metal brushed against the swollen gland. He slightly pressed his thumb on
her lower lip, hesitantly getting closer and closer.
Ariela didn't move away. In fact, she leant in.
It was a soft press at the beginning, before pulling away and leaning in again,
and this time, Shiro pulled her in, as he slid his tongue into her mouth,
making her sigh longly against him, as she rested her arm on his shoulder and
gripped his shirt, moving along with him. When he pulled away a second time,
she sucked his bottom lip in and bit it gently, making him groan and grip her
hips, pulling her closer.
The woman slid her left leg over his lap, straddling him. Their brains were
swimming in the overstimulation due to Ariela's state. The woman's scent was
making Shiro's skin itch, aching to be touched, slowly becoming addicted to the
long sighs Ariela would let out. Every piece of her being was suddenly more
connected to that instinct that seemed so ancient and that had settled its
roots deep down inside her, making her purr in content as she felt the strong
muscles twitching under her palms, the scent of the man filling her nostrils
(metal, salt and jasmine) fogging her mind.
"Oh god," he moaned, before leaning in again, the kiss turning more heated
every second that passed, the smell clouding his mind along with the sensation
of Ariela's mouth on his and her nails scraping the skin of his neck. He was
too aware of the woman's slim and muscled body pressed flush against his chest.
Shiro had already left all resolve of holding back behind, loving the weight of
the woman on his lap and the way they moved in total synch when the door opened
and Pidge started screaming as if she had seen two dead bodies. That was the
moment he felt like a toddler caught red-handed.
"DON'T TOUCH HER! DON'T TOUCH HER! DON'T TOUCH HER!" she continuously screamed,
as she ran towards them and started to pull Ariela away from him from the
waist. "Jesus christ, you were alone for like fifteen minutes tops! Control
yourselves!" she reprimanded them, looking infuriated.
"But Pidge...!" Ariela started, pouting like a small child before falling to
the floor in front of Shiro, who was redder than blood and could feel the
weight of shame making him sink even more into the mattress. He still wanted to
keep kissing the woman, and more, but Pidge's angry eyes stopped him from
reaching out for her again.
"But Pidge nothing. Men are banned from your bedroom until you are normal
again, did you hear me young lady?" the girl kept shouting as if she was the
adult and they were the children, while she pulled from Shiro's shirt to try to
make him go away.
"But I want to stay," he said, gripping the side of the bed and finally making
the girl's strength completely useless. No matter how much she battled, he
didn't move an inch.
"Don't make me go green paladin on your ass, Shiro," the girl threatened,
before taking a screwdriver out of her pocket and making the man's eyes open
widely, but then Allura appeared in the bedroom.
"You are going to get out of this bedroom or I'll throw you myself to the
hallway. You know I can do it. Don't test me," the princess said, stepping
towards him with confidence.
Surprisingly, Shiro looked at Ariela and didn't move.
"Oh, geez," Allura said, grabbing him by the ear.
"Auch, auch, auch," the man repeated as the princess dragged him out of the
bedroom.
"But I don't want him to go!" Ariela complained, and when Pidge looked at her
she was crying crocodile tears.
"I can't believe I'm the most mature person in this bedroom," she mumbled,
rubbing her eyes from behind her glasses. Allura walked into the bedroom again,
looking suddenly tired.
"You can go, Pidge. I'll stay with her," the princess said, as she picked
Ariela up from the floor where she had resigned and accepted the fact that she
was not getting what she wanted, and dumped her on the bed again. "You can keep
working on contacting Earth."
The girl left with a nod, and once she was outside, the princess locked the
door, kind of suspecting Shiro would try to get in again.
The first fifteen minutes went by in silence, Ariela giving her back to Allura
like an angry child, but then the morphine finally kicked in and the princess
regretted having stayed, as she wondered if there was any way of making her
shut up. Listening to her rambling about how Lance was a big idiot because of
something Allura didn't get was boring after an hour.
"Don't you have anything else to talk about?" she asked the woman, about to
lose her grip. Ariela was inspecting her clothes with curiosity when she spoke.
"I don't know. I'm not good for small talk. You have to ask me something," she
explained, mumbling softly, as she rubbed her red pants in a way that made the
cloth turn a shade darker, and then rubbed it back to its natural colour,
before whispering "Magic."
"Tell me about your life, Ariela. Everything you remember, but don't talk about
Lance, I beg you," was Allura's answer. She had sat down in the desk's chair
and pulled her hair up in a bun.
"Oh. Well, I was born in CABA, Buenos Aires. I have two sisters, but only the
little one likes me. She must be..., fourteen now, but I haven't seen her in
seven years. She was seven when I left. I moved with my aunt when my parents
kicked me out and that's how I met Lance. I finished high school in the USA and
returned to Argentina. University is free there, you know? My longest
relationship was for three years and I recently broke up with them, so I'm kind
of heartbroken, you know? And I miss them a lot. I also miss my bed and my
computer, but Pidge has that one. I want it back."
It was like verbal vomit. It never stopped and it was fast, but Allura managed
to pick something up.
"Your parents kicked you out of their house? Why?" she asked, thinking of that
as something inconceivable. Ariela nodded, sitting up.
"They kicked me out because I like both men and women. For some people that's
not normal and well, my parents thought I was sick and that I was going to make
my sisters sick so they sent me to live with my aunt. We haven't talked ever
since," she explained.
"It's... It's not normal to like someone from your same gender?" Allura asked,
and Ariela snorted.
"I say fuck that. There are several scientific explanations to it. It's not my
fault their heads are hard as rock. Even aliens understand. Take Nallely for
example. She's head over heels for you and everyone considered it perfectly
normal back at Grigk..." the human started, and Allura turned to her with wide
eyes.
"What?" she asked, but Ariela ignored her and kept on rambling.
"And I mean it is normal. Have you seen yourself? It's like you are some kind
of moon-goddess sent to bless our eyesight and help us in the war with you
amazing fighting skills and everything..." she said, and the woman was going to
continue, but Allura stood from the chair and covered the mouth with her hand.
"What did you say about Nallely and me?" she asked, before letting the human
speak.
"That she's crushing on you, and hard. She told me the night of the party, back
at their village. Oh, you two would make such an amazing couple. Space
lesbians: saving the universe by day and being all relationship goals at
night!" Ariela said. "And Nallely is like super hot. I tell you: if she and
Shiro walked past me, I wouldn't know which one to check out."
"So you like Shiro, huh?" Allura asked, still processing everything she had
heard about the grigkean.
"Have you seen that piece of beef? He's like the hottest guy alive, and he's
kind of sweet when he want's to. Encima chapa re bien el hijo de puta. Yo pensé
que me empotraba contra la pared y PAM, cogíamos," Ariela answered, and Allura
didn't know if she should be glad or regret that she didn't catch the last
part.
Chapter End Notes
     -Encima chapa re bien el hijo de puta. Yo pensé que me empotraba
     contra la pared y PAM, cogíamos: And the son-of-a-bitch kisses so
     good. I thought he was going to pin me against the wall and BAM, we
     had sex.
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Summary
     Heh. I hate myself.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Turns out Allura, somehow, fitted in Ariela's clothes. And that's the story of
how the Princess of Altea received a makeover from a drugged alien-human
hybrid, looking to play the matchmaker between her and the Grigkean warrior.
"Should I do your makeup?" Ariela asked, from her place on the bed, as Allura
kept turning for her.
It had all begun because the paladin wouldn't shut up about how Nallely would
react if she saw Allura all dressed up, and the princess really wanted her to
shut up, so she had accepted to try on some clothes. Ariela had stumbled to the
place where she kept them, before handing Allura black see-through-thigh-highs,
a pink tennis skirt and a black-long-sleeved crop top. And, although the
princess was a bit bothered at the beginning, she had started blushing while
hearing Ariela describe how Nallely kissed at some point on the conversation.
"Nah, I'm gonna mess it up, because I'm high. But... I'm gonna do your hair!"
she declared, as she sat again on the bed, patting the mattress next to her to
indicate the woman to sit.
"If I don't like Nallely that way, why do you make me dress up like this?"
Allura asked, not knowing how to feel on the short (for her) skirt, as she sat
next to the woman, who started to braid her hair at an unbelievable speed.
"Oh, if you actually don't want to it's okay. But don't you like it? Knowing
that there's someone that can't think straight because of you?" Ariela asked
her, chuckling at the not-intended pun, and Allura turned to her frowning
slightly, making the other woman shrug. "It's like you have some kind of power
on that person, a turn of your neck, a twist of your waist a lean in closer and
they are mumbling nonsense because you are stunning," she explained, and the
princess kept quiet to reconsider.
"It must feel great to have people crazy for you like that," Allura said after
a minute of silence, and Ariela looked at her purely confused.
"You are not going to tell me that you didn't have some noblemen after you back
at the time, aren't you?" she asked, making Allura snort and shrug, looking at
the wall with unfocused eyes, as if she was looking at the past, with a
nostalgic smile and a mix of sad and happy eyes.
"I don't really know. I had a few wooers when I was in Altea, but I actually
couldn't know if it was because of the prince status they would get from me or
because they actually liked me," she answered and Ariela pouted, making her
smile widely.
"Alteans sounded too pure to worry about shit like that."
"Huh, you have no idea then," Allura commented, again with a little sad face.
****** - - - ******
Contrary to popular belief, reading was one of Lance's things. Yes, he would
rather read a comic book or a play, but he had come top of his class and gotten
to the Garrison on a scholarship, after all, so he had to be able to sit his
ass for hours and swallow textbooks, which he did.
It had been hard to swallow the smug grin when he noticed Coran's quirking his
eyebrow at him after an hour of complete silence. The Altean had taken all the
books they had on Malteian and Gran people, splitting into two teams and kind
of competing to see who could gather more important information. Lance had made
a stop by his bedroom and had picked up a notebook and a pen, and after
flipping the necklace Ariela had brought him from Grigk's donnybrook (a white
leather cord that was tied to a sapphire square with something carved on a
side), he had sat his ass down to study Galras.
At the beginning it was boring, he had to be honest, but after some parts of
Keith's behaviour slowly started to be explained, it was as if the textbook
swallowed his mind, taking him to this new world.
So far he had learnt that Galras were divided in two different forms: one was
if you were female or male, and the other if you were alpha or omega. The
second division seemed to be a part of the brain that, depending on what you
were, made you react to violence in certain different ways. Alphas were more
hotheaded and had the advantage that they tended to be bigger physically, and
omegas were patient, making strategies because they physical complexion didn't
favour them in battle. That's why only alphas were allowed to be soldiers.
Also, he had learnt about Galran mating habits. They could have as many mates
as they wanted, but the first would always have a stronger connection, and if
they died in disturbing circumstances, the living part could even become crazy
because of the loss. It was a really hardcore race.
They kind of had a second language, made out of smells and noises that many
other species weren't able to hear, and when Lance looked over to Coran's book,
he noticed that Malteians were similar. Suddenly, Ariela being so comfortable
with Keith that night back at Grigk kind of had an explanation.
"Wait a minute," Lance said suddenly, making Coran's head snap up. "In which
language are this books?"
"Altean, of course," the royal adviser answered.
"Then why can I read them?" he asked. Coran laughed.
"The same way you can understand when I speak. Your mind is connected to the
lion's and they are designed to be universal translators," he explained calmly,
and Lance nodded, satisfied by the answer but annoyed with himself because he
hadn't noticed that aliens spoke English before.
"Did you find something interesting?" he asked, pushing his book apart.
"Well, Malteians are a really complex species. They mate for life and form
packs usually before turning adults, so that's why Ariela is going through
this. Also, it seems that the females are the ones to fear," he started to
explain, and he kind of seemed really content with himself because the indeed
had a female Malteian on their team. "They are really aggressive and follow
their instincts more. Won't hesitate in killing an enemy if it means protecting
something," he finished, and Lance pouted as he thought.
"That explains so much," he whispered, before looking at his own book, looking
at a picture that signalled different parts of the brain that did different
things.
Another hour passed, and then the library's door was being punched open by a
panicked Allura, looking totally fine
"Your sister escaped. I don't know how because she is drugged and can hardly
walk straight, but I went to the bathroom for five seconds and she
disappeared," Allura said, between pants.
"Oh, my god, Ariela," Lance groaned, as he stood up from the chair and ran
towards the woman, wanting to ask why she was dressed like that. He thought he
was going to blurt out some pickup line, but then the image of Keith wearing
those same clothes intruded into his mind and the blood rushed everywhere
It took the three of them (Coran had joined immediately) a while to find the
woman. Although they had peeked into the kitchen, they hadn't spotted her
sitting on the floor behind the island, playing with squishy white thingies.
They were able to find her when they passed through the kitchen a second time
because they heard her crying. Apparently, her brain had related the squishy
white things to marshmallows, so she had put several in her mouth and chewed,
discovering they tasted like the sole of a shoe (she would say ass, but the
taste was no similar). So, please remember she was high, she started crying
with her mouth stuffed of the white thingies. That was how the trio found her.
"They were awful, Lance. I don't even know what they're doing in the kitchen,"
she continued to cry like a toddler, doing gargles with water to take the taste
off of her mouth.
"It must have been a near to death experience. Horrible," he said, not amused,
rolling his eyes.
Allura was trying so hard not to laugh, and Coran was watching everything with
a small smile.
"Hey, what's...?" Nallely's voice was heard, making everyone turn towards her.
The woman was standing alongside Keith, who was covering his nose with a hand.
They were both sweaty and a little bit flushed from training, obviously, making
Lance's eyes linger on the teen's torso, appreciating the way the material of
the shirt stuck to his skin. The Grigkean, on the other hand, could still feel
the dead words on the tip of her tongue, as she took in the view of Allura,
dressed to take everyone's breath away.
"Oh, this oughtta be good," Ariela laughed, suddenly forgetting about the not-
marshmallows as she watched how a blush crept over Nallely's face, as her eyes
scanned the princess, who put her hands together on her lap and looked to the
floor.
Keith was the one to break the silence.
"Shouldn't she be locked in her bedroom?" he asked, voice muffled by his hand,
as he pointed at Ariela with the other. She signalled him "Fuck you".
"She managed to escape, somehow," Allura answered.
"I just said the word unlock and the door did swooosh and I walked away. I got
away with... Why was I locked up?" she asked, expression going from smug to
confused and forgetful.
"Because you are a potential danger. Now, someone else please take her to her
bedroom and stay with her. I don't think would be able to stand it anymore,"
Allura said, rubbing her face with her hands, and Ariela pouted.
"You can't stand me?" she asked, and Lance thought she would cry again, but
then she shrugged. "Okay, your loss," and then she walked away.
"I'll keep an eye on her until we find Sugey. My sister will stay with her
then," Nallely said, finally tearing her eyes away from the princess and
trotting after the woman. Allura just sighed and walked away, without saying a
word.
Keith walked in finally, looking for a glass, and Coran looked at Lance.
"I'm going to do some more research before preparing dinner. Are you coming?"
he asked the blue paladin, who would have said yes if it hadn't been because he
noticed that if Coran went away, Keith and he would be alone.
"Nah, I'm too tired. I'll continue tomorrow," he said softly, and Coran nodded,
before walking away.
Now, he knew that talking wasn't their thing, but he really thought that his
relationship with Keith had improved a lot ever since his teammate had appeared
in his bedroom days ago. Just when he thought he was done trying to approach
Keith for good, he had to go and pull an "I can't sleep and I need you" off.
They had argued strongly a week before that. Lance had found Kieth practising
his feelings off in the training deck and had tried to make him feel better,
explaining to his teammate that he knew what it was like to be different, but
Keith had snarled at him and swatted him in a way that, with his new claws, had
opened a superficial cut in his chest. Lance had been so mad that night, and he
had decided that it was time to stop trying to improve his relationship with
Keith once and for all, but then the red paladin had popped up in his bedroom,
crying and whining over nightmares, and they had bonded over that a lot.
You could ask anyone in Arizona, and they would tell you that Lance McClain was
one of the most selfless people they had ever met, but it was time for him to
be selfish. He wasn't willing to let that tiny ray of hope disappear because of
a huge cloud of "What the fuck is it now, Kogane?"
"So, how are you?" Lance asked, and Keith choked on the water he was drinking,
coughing a lot and almost spitting it out into the sink. He hadn't noticed
Lance staying, and he had thought he was alone.
"I'm okay. Fine," he answered, cleaning his mouth with the back of his hand as
he turned around, leaning on the counter and looking at Lance, who had his
hands in his pockets and looked at his feet.
"Great. I just was worried. Yesterday you didn't come and I didn't know if you
had gotten any sleep at all," he answered, without taking his eyes from his
sneakers, that were suddenly really interesting. Come on, Lance. You can do
this. He made himself step slightly closer, and Keith shrugged, putting both of
his hands on the counter's border.
"I slept," he stated, and it was a brutal lie. He had spent all night talking
with Shiro about anything until the clock had signalled a somewhat decent hour
for them to go to the training deck.
"That's great! Your nightmares went away!" he said, and then he scratched his
neck, smiling awkwardly. "I guess you won't need me anymore now," he added, and
Keith's eyes widened suddenly, feeling a little bit desperate. He still didn't
know how to face Lance, his thoughts being so mixed and not knowing what to
believe about the boy, but he wasn't willing to give the nightmare-scarer-
cuddles away just because he didn't know where he stood.
"No, no," he shook his head. "I slept with Shiro last night. I still can't do
it alone," he said, lifting his eyes slowly from Lance's chest to his eyes,
licking his lips awkwardly and regretting his choice of words profusely. Lance
frowned, confused and something more that seemed bad at the statement, and
Keith cringed internally. He clearly had been happy because Keith wouldn't be
bothering him anymore and he had crashed those hopes. Oh, boy, he did hate him.
The blue paladin didn't know if Keith noticed, but he was red as a tomato, the
deep blood no longer mixing with the training flush, and it was affecting Lance
a lot, along with the messy hair. Also, his lips were glossy from licking them
between sentences, and his hips stuck out ever so slightly because of him
leaning on the counter. It would be so easy to grab those slim hips and pull
him closer and kiss that pouty mouth away.
"Oh," was all Lance managed to say, as he stepped even closer, legs brushing
slightly with the other teen's, as he took his eyes away from his lips and
nailed them to the wall behind him. But then he felt Keith's gaze on him, and
when he looked at him again, he discovered his eyes wandering over his face
with an expression he couldn't (or didn't want to) recognise.
Was it him or it was hotter in there?
He could barely hear anything but the blood thrumming in his ears and his own
heartbeat, the noise getting louder and louder each second passing, as he
considered if he should fuck it all up and kiss him or just be patient and
continue to wait and work on the relationship.
"Lance?" Keith asked with a breathy voice, looking at his lips, and the teen
thought "Fuck it" as he started to lean in. Keith's body went stiff, not
moving, and then... And then...
There was a crash and the ceiling ripped open, a scared to death Pidge coming
out of it, screeching, and falling on top of the counter with an awkward and
painful smack before starting to curse loudly as she rubbed her back. Lance
immediately was checking on her, Keith still leaning on the counter without
moving.
He suddenly remembered Shiro telling him about how Pidge had thrown herself in
middle of Ariela and him when they had been about to kiss and he had replied
with "Such a cockblocker". Such a cockblocker indeed. Well... It wasn't
actually cockblocking because Lance obviously wasn't going to kiss him
Keith pushed himself off of the counter and ran away, sprinting when he heard
Lance's voice calling after him.
****** - - - ******
This time he actually had to face Lance, as the teen had found him sitting in
one of the corridors, still panicking because of whatever had happened in the
kitchen. The awkwardness in Lance's posture had made him a little bit nervous,
as he rose from the floor, knowing that running away now wouldn't do him any
good.
"Keith, I'm sorry if I..., I don't know. Scared you? You know, back in the
kitchen," Lance started, scratching his neck. "It's just," he continued, and
Keith licked his lips in expectancy when he noticed how Lance fucking blushed.
"I thought you had an eyelash on your cheek but I wasn't sure."
What?
Keith's mouth opened to reply something, but nothing came out of his mouth for
a few seconds, as he was too busy with feeling stupid for having let his hopes
rise too high. Shiro warned you about this, you fucking moron he reprimanded
himself.
"Oh," he said, before laughing and hoping Lance didn't notice how fake it was.
"For a second I thought you were going to kiss me." And then, those words he
hated so much left his mouth, just because he was panicking and sure that he
wasn't being convincing enough. "No homo, right?"
Lance's smile spread, eyes almost closing, as he clamped a hand on Keith's
shoulder and shook him slightly.
"No homo," he replied, before turning around and walking away.
****** - - - ******
"So..." a voice started from the door to the control deck, scaring Allura. She
was looking at the coordinates of Altea, an old picture of her planet showing
on the screen, leaving to her imagination the job to discover how messed up it
looked after being attacked by Zarkon's troops.
She was still in Ariela's clothes, enjoying being able to slide around the
castle on those thigh-highs and the feeling of the skirt lifting when she
twirled. But she felt too self-conscious when she turned around and encountered
Nallely, who was leaning on the door frame. She was wearing a black tank top
and a pair of brown pants that seemed too tight to be comfortable.
After hearing Ariela talk about how hot the woman was for hours, she kind of
needed to check her out and... Damn, those were some pretty hot thighs.
"How's Ariela?" the princess asked with a smile, as Nallely pushed herself off
the doorframe and neared her.
"Good, being interviewed by my filterless sister," she answered with a sweet
smile, and Allura mirrored it. And then there was this long and awkward
silence, in which Allura suddenly started questioning every part of her body.
Why? Why did she suddenly cared about how she looked? Was it because she knew
that Nallely was watching her now?
"So, what do you think about the Castle? Do you like living here?" she asked,
desperate to break the awkward silence, and Nallely looked through the massive
window on the wall next to them, into space.
"I won't lie to you. I miss my village, my friends, my mum, the forest... But
there's something about being here that... It makes me feel important like I'm
actually worth something," she answered, shrugging at the end. Allura frowned.
"Everyone's worth something," she said without thinking, and Nallely smiled
sadly.
"I disagree with you, but that's a really sweet thought," she replied.
****** - - - ******
Ariela's weird Malteian thing ended on the third day, but she was too tired to
do anything.
The woman had appeared on the kitchen while they were having lunch, on her
pyjamas and dragging a blanket thrown over her shoulders as she walked. Her
eyes were sunken, with dark circles under them, and she was a little bit paler.
Although the morphine had helped a lot with the pain, she had still felt this
strange awkwardness all over her body, and an unknown kind of energy that
hadn't let her sleep, but hadn't let her actually do stuff, the only option
being thrashing around the bed and whining. Also, she hadn't eaten well. All
that the women of the Castle had tried to force-feed her had ended up on the
toilet of her bathroom because her stomach would do a flip every time something
touched her tongue the second day.
It was like being pregnant but without a baby, which was a good thing. Imagine
having to be pregnant in the middle of a space war. Ha!
Silence had fallen in the dining room when she had entered, and the first one
to break it had been Lance, with a soft "Hey". She hadn't replied, just walked
towards him and sat on the empty chair next to her brother, picking on his food
and resting her head on his shoulder.
Ariela didn't notice then because she was too tired to care, but Shiro had
nailed his eyes on the table the second she had entered the room, eating the
rest of his food in complete silence.
He was so ashamed of himself he didn't know how to deal with it. Also the
regret, the regret couldn't be left behind. Okay, no, let's rephrase that. He
actually didn't regret kissing Ariela (because her kisses were worthy of that
"Just right" Pacha meme, from the Emperor's New Groove), he regretted the
sittuation the kiss had taken place in. He had completely taken advantage of
Ariela in a state she couldn't control herself and he had just thrown his brain
out of the window at the moment he needed to think for the both of them. Oh,
Jesus. It had taken him a while to realise what he had done because his mind
had remained foggy with the sweet scent of chocolate and roses for another half
an hour after all that.
All he had done that half and hour had been whining like a little child because
he waanted to go to Ariela and stay with her. But then the fog faded away and
left him alone with the realisation of how he had acted. Thinking of how the
woman would probably feel violated once she could actually realise what he had
done made his heart practically fall out of his body. She had opened up to him,
told him of what that douchebag had tried to do to her when she was sixteen,
then he had had to sit back and watch as another douchebag made his way with
her because he couldn't even speak without receiving an electric shock, and now
he had gone and kissed her when she wasn't able to consent.
He was a piece of trash.
That was something Keith and him were a lot like. They both swam in self-hatred
many times a week. Also, they both trained their feelings away, pretending like
it was a healthy way of coping. Remark the word "pretending", please.
So that was what he had done those three days: train and talk to his lion until
her ears fell off. Black probably hated him right now, as he could feel her
rolling her eyes when he opened his mouth to talk about how guilty he felt.
Also, he had just slept two hours in those three days.
He didn't know if Ariela had some kind of super power or if she actually stayed
awake at night, watching out for nightmares that came too close to him in order
to scare them away, but sleeping without her had proven to be impossible. At
least sleeping without having to wake up in middle of a panic attack, not being
able to breathe and feeling like someone was ripping his chest open to pull his
heart out. So sleeping was not an option, and now that he had gotten used to
sleeping (after... What? Almost four months?) of sleeping at least five hours a
night, sleep deprivation was getting the best of him, making him a little bit
moody and prone to make bad decisions.
Like setting the gladiator on a level that was too high for him, which ended
with the robot beating him unconscious and him finally "sleeping" on the
training deck's cold floor.
He was shaken awake by a gentle touch and a voice calling out his name. There
was a warm hand on his shoulder and he was hoping so hard it was Ariela that he
actually believed it was her.
"Ariela?" he asked, eyes still closed, and the person snorted.
"You wish, man," he answered, and Shiro opened his eyes. His vision slowly
focused, to let him appreciate Hunk squatting by him, smiling worriedly as he
kept his hand on his shoulder. "What happened? I found you here, passed out,"
he asked, and Shiro groaned, closing his eyes.
"The gladiator got me. I may have accidentally set it up on a level that was
too high for me to handle alone," he said, turning to rest on his back, feeling
and remembering the kick on his side that had sent him flying across the room
and crashing into a wall, finally knocking him out.
"Do you need to go to the healing pods?" Hunk asked, and Shiro shook his head.
"No, I just want to sleep," he answered, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his
hands.
"Do you want me to take you to Ariela's bedroom? She's there."
There was a long and awkward silence. The man had to make a really big effort
on holding himself back from blurting out "Yes".
"I can't go there. She probably hates me now," he answered, finally opening his
eyes and looking at Hunk, just in time to catch how the teen smiled as if he
couldn't believe what he had just heard.
"I talked to her, Shiro. Yesterday. She told me that you made out and she told
me it was great too. She also asked me to force you into cuddle with me last
night so you could get some sleep, but I couldn't find you to make you the
proposal," Hunk explained, still laughing a little bit.
"She was still drugged, Hunk," Shiro said, sounding like a parent tired of his
child talking to him about something.
"I mean it, Shiro. Ariela really worries about you, she considers you a really
good friend and she wants to be there for you. She's not mad. If she hasn't
come looking for you yet is because she is passed out in her bedroom," Hunk
explained to the man slowly, as if it was hard for him to understand (read:
Hunk actually thought it was hard for him to understand).
"Really?"
"Just go and speak to her for heaven's sake!" Hunk exclaimed, throwing his
hands up to the ceiling, making Shiro snort weakly.
****** - - - ******
When Shiro opened the door, all the lights were out.
He had managed to have a (not) decent shower and change into his pyjamas, after
patching himself up. He had had to cover some superficial cuts, but there was
nothing too bad. And now, he was clean and standing in the woman's bedroom.
She was sleeping, sprawled on her bed, half covered by blankets and half not.
The sheets had been changed and she had showered, looking a little bit better
than that afternoon.
Shiro walked hesitantly towards the bed, and slowly sat on the edge, without
tearing his eyes away from the woman, who immediately opened her eyes when she
felt the mattress sinking under someone's weight. She had just fallen asleep.
"Hola," she said to him with a sleepy smile, as she rubbed her left eye.
"How are you feeling?" he asked smiling awkwardly.
"I'm feeling like bruh. But I'm much better. How are you feeling?" she asked in
return.
"Tired, to be honest," he admitted, before sighing and biting his cheek.
"Listen, Ariela, I'm sorry," he said, but she shushed him.
"I don't give a fuck about it, Shiro. It was just a kiss and not one that I
hated. Just get in the bed and sleep," she told him, grabbing a fistful of his
shirt and pulling him to lay on the space she had just made for him on the bed,
in which he laid with a small smile.
"You promise you're not mad?" he asked.
"I pinky promise. Now have sweet dreams, captain," she told him.
Shiro waited just a few seconds, looking at the golden eyes (that looked like
worn and rusty gold on that dim lighting, but still contrasted a lot from the
woman's face) and searching for something that proved she was lying, but he
didn't found it, so he snaked his arms around her waist and nestled his head on
her chest, humming when he was able to hear her lazy heartbeat, already feeling
his eyelids falling shut.
****** - - - ******
They woke up at midday with Pidge coming into Ariela's room shouting "I didn't
get any sleep cause of yall" while Sugey banged pans against one another. It
scared Shiro shitless and made Ariela laugh so hard she almost peed herself.
Being woken up with a meme after a whole night of good sleep and cuddles was
always a good way to wake up.
It turns out Allura had told everyone to let them sleep until it was lunch
time, knowing they were both totally exhausted and needed the rest. So, when
Coran announced the food was ready, she sent her best soldiers to the battle.
They ate in their pyjamas, and Shiro immediately ran to his bedroom to change
before bonding time with his lion. Ariela just resigned, it wasn't as if
Bagheera would be mad at her for not putting actual clothes on.
No, the panther was mad at her because of something else.
The moment she stepped into the hangar, the robot turned to her and growled in
a way the woman identified as "playful", tail swishing behind him and starting
to circle her once there was space to do so. And Ariela had thought the panther
would have been worried about her.
What did you do to the black paladin? Bagheera asked irritated, and the woman
quirked an eyebrow.
"What?" she asked, completely confused by the panther's behaviour.
His lion is going crazy. She's been threatening to kill you herself because her
pilot was depressed because of you Bagheera explained, finally sitting down in
front of his pilot, tail still moving behind him anxiously.
"He told Black about the make-out?" she asked surprised, and the panther seemed
to go stiff. She felt his eyes go wide in surprise before narrowing, as he
started growling.
What the fuck happened this last days I didn't see you? I can't believe I can't
leave my paladin alone or she'll screw up! he started to complain, standing up
and starting to pace around again, as Ariela rolled her eyes.
"I went into some kind of..., heat that is normal for Malteians. And it made
him want to mate with me so we kind of had a slip, but everything's fixed now.
We talked things out last night," she explained, and the panther stopped dead
in his tracks again.
Did you mate? Is he your mate now? Malteians mate for life, idiot! You can't
just pick someone at random! HE HAS TO BE SPECIAL!
"We didn't mate and WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING?" she asked him, voice rising as she
spoke, and Bagheera sat down again, lifting his chin in pride before answering.
I don't think he would be capable of handling you. So he isn't worthy of the
paladin of the black panther. No, miss he said, and then waited for the woman
to laugh, but instead she aww-ed.
"You worry about me! How sweet is that? Come here, I want to give you a hug!"
she exclaimed, walking towards the robot.
How the crap are you going to hug me if I'm like two hundred times your size?
he asked, but Ariela just climbed into his paw and laid there with her arms
open, patting the metal with on hand and rubbing it with the other. Oh Bagheera
said then.
Chapter End Notes
     Heeeey! So, I wanted to thank all the people that have been leaving
     kudos and commenting. I love you all! And also, I would like to ask
     you something.
     Would you like to know more about the characters besides from what
     appears on the fic? Because I have been thinking of making one of
     this headcanon like things on Tumblr, only it would be canon in my
     universe, so that you could get to know them better, because there
     are many of their traits that I don't know if they'll appear in the
     novel.
     Anyway. If you'd like to, say it in the comments and I'll do it :D
     If you're liking it don't forget to leave kudos and comment any
     thoughts about it. Feedback is always welcomed with open arms and I
     answer to all the comments!
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Summary
     WE GET TO MEET OUR PALADIN'S FAMILIES! Well, at least five of them...
     Whatever, let the teary reunions begin.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
It was all of a sudden.
Pidge had appeared on the library, panting and looking like a maniac, as she
usually did when some of her technology stuff worked just right. Lance had
almost fallen from the chair he was sitting on while he read when the green
paladin screamed his name, sounding like a demon that was coming for him.
"PIDGE, WHAT THE FUCK?" he screamed, as the girl ran towards him and started
pulling him by his jacket.
"GET YOUR SCRAWNY ASS FROM THAT CHAIR AND FOLLOW ME, LANCE!" she screamed in
return, making the teen stand up and look at her with narrowed eyes, as he
followed her trotting by her side.
"For your information, it's not scrawny. It's just this jeans do not favour
me," he informed, and Pidge rolled her eyes so hard it hurt
She wanted everyone to be present for the big revelation, so they picked all of
the crew members up in their way. Shiro was on the training deck with Keith,
Hunk on his lion's hangar, Allura was in the kitchen speaking with Coran and
the Girgkeans, and Ariela was inside the panther, arguing loudly about not
wanting to take relationship advice from a sentient piece of metal.
"Pidge, what is so important that you had to get us all here?" Shiro asked,
crossing his arms over his chest, as they all entered the control deck. On a
small corner, there was a mess of cables and a Mac computer turned on. The
screen of the deck was showing a blue internet page.
"That's Tumblr blue. Please tell me you didn't get on my Tumblr," Ariela begged
as she sprinted towards the computer and started scrolling down, checking that
everything on her dashboard was safe for work.
"Looks like Pidge found the secret porn stash," Lance laughed, and Ariela
signalled him "fuck you" without turning around.
"Shut your fuck, Lance!" she exclaimed, and all the team exchanged knowing
looks. Suddenly, even more things made sense.
It was Hunk who was the genius to first discover it.
"Wait. How did you get on Tumblr if you need the internet to connect?" the
mechanic asked, already knowing the answer but not being able to believe this
was actually happening. All eyes fell on the girl, that was a mess. White tank
top stained with many things of different colours, jeans rolled up to the knees
and hair looking like a tornado had gone over it, plus dark circles under her
eyes but not even that managed to extinguish the excitement on her eyes.
"I did it. I connected with Earth," she said, smiling widely, as all the human
crew just let those words sink in. That was it. They would be able to talk to
their families now.
Ariela immediately opened up Skype, looking through her contact list, looking
for someone from the McCalain family to be connected.
"Flynn is on," Lance said, pointing at the screen with his index and Ariela
called the woman. Keith was blown away when, after a few rings, a female Lance
appeared on the screen. She had the same tanned skin, blue eyes that were just
a few shades clearer and her brown hair was up on a bun. Her eyes were
bloodshot and her nose was red, so she had probably been crying, and when she
spotted Lance and Ariela her face went from sad and tired to surprised, eyes
and mouth wide open, as she signalled someone to get close.
"Oh, my god," she whispered, and then an adult Lance appeared. He was the exact
replica of him, only that he was a little bit more squared and had a scrubby
beard.
"DOMINIQUE! FLYNN!" he screamed, and the only reason he didn't look like he was
about to cry was because tears were already streaming down his face, breathing
shallow. Ariela was already doing her pouty-and-trembling lip thing, meaning
she was about to start crying too.
"Where have you been? We are all worried sick about you! The people of the
Garrison have kept us in here since Ariela called mum. What did you get
yourselves into?" the female Lance, Flynn, asked and they laughed.
"We are actually in space, fighting a universal threat, called the Galra
Empire, because we are the universe's last hope," Ariela said with cracked
voice, before laughing weakly. "We really wished we were there, though," she
added at the end.
"I can't believe what you just said," Dominque whispered, and Lance shrugged.
It looked too warm to be just a video-call in the middle of the cold and empty
space. Keith couldn't help feeling the envy poking at his side, trying to
surpass the warm and tingly feeling that had spread through his veins the
second he saw Lance crying happy tears. He was finally speaking to his family
after four months of not having the slightest contact with them.
"Guys, we should speak to the authorities. Warn them about the Galra," Allura
whispered, placing a calming hand on both of the Latinos' shoulders, as they
turned around to face her with sad eyes, like kids that didn't want to leave
their friend's house.
"But..." Lance started and, surprisingly, Ariela cut him short.
"Allura is right. We need to protect them first and enjoy them later. We'll
have a lot of time to talk to them once we've spoken with..., whoever you have
to speak to," she told her brother, and Lance looked at her in the eye for a
few seconds, before nodding slowly.
"Who do you have to talk to?" Flynn asked with curious blue eyes, and Lance
turned to her.
"Listen, sis. I need you ask for Admiral Garrison. Tell him that it's the
missing students, Keith Kogane and Takashi Shirogane. We are on an alien ship
and have vital information about a possible attack. Did you get it?" he asked,
and the woman nodded immediately, before running off. "How is stuff down
there?" he asked his brother, who scratched his scrub beard as he thought.
"All the family is on edge Lance. First, we're told that you disappeared, then
that you died in a training accident. Mum and Alec are practically dying. Chloé
is calling for you all the time and Collin just... He stopped speaking.
Annalise is the one that seems to be coping with it the best, but she shuts
herself down, so we don't actually know how she's doing," he answered, and
Lance's knuckles went white from gripping his jacket too tightly. "There are
other families here too. Mum searched for the families of the people you gave
the name, Ari. Oh, god. I should tell them you're okay," he continued, and then
his eyes opened widely. "What am I doing here? I have to go tell mum!" he
almost screamed, but Ariela stopped him.
"Don't! Idania is going to freak out and she'll want to talk to Lance more than
anything, but we need to speak to the admiral, it's urgent. Once we finish with
him you can go and tell everyone that we're alive," the woman explained to him,
and Dominique's dark blue eyes seemed to suddenly fill with sadness again.
"It's just that she... She is crumbling. I hadn't seen her like this since dad
died," he commented, and Ariela's lips turned into a thin line.
"We'll make sure she is the next person to speak to us. But we have to save the
world first, you see," Lance joked, trying to look like a charming superhero to
hide the fact that he was dying inside. He wanted to speak to his mother.
"Who's admiral Garrison, by the way?" Ariela asked, and Lance turned to her
with his eyes wide open, but it was Hunk who answered.
"Hello? Garrison institute? I mean..." he said, before shrugging.
"Yeah, I understand. But, he's there? Like, you can just call him and he'll be
in your bedroom after five minutes?" she asked, and they all nodded.
"That is, in fact, a disadvantage. When I was a cadet he liked doing surprise
inspections at random. He'd barge into your bedroom and look everywhere for God
knows why," Shiro told her, with a warm smile.
"Yep. He still does that," Pidge huffed.
"Kind of the reason I got kicked out," Keith murmured, and they all turned to
him. "It's a long story."
"I'm sorry, but who are they?" Dominique asked, and Lance proceeded to
introduce them all to his oldest brother, even the aliens, who greeted them
awkwardly, feeling small under those big blue eyes filled with curiosity and
amazement.
Suddenly, the door was opened, and two soldiers came in, dragging Dominique out
of the bedroom while he yelped and asked what was going on as if he was a bag
of potatoes, and an old man sat down on the chair he had been seconds before,
looking at them with a nonchalant expression, as the McClain (yes, Ariela was
practically a McClain too) tried to assimilate the way their brother had been
treated. He must have been in his fifties, white hair and skin too pale to be
normal, grey emotionless eyes hiding behind a pair of narrow glasses. He was
frowning, looking at the people on the screen with scrutiny.
"Is this some kind of sick joke cadets? Because punishment will be severe if it
is," the man said, and Ariela wondered if she hadn't seen him in a movie about
WWII once. He looked just like a Nazi General, ready to take thousands of lives
and calmly sleep between silk bed sheets afterwards.
Shiro took a step forward and placed himself in middle of the picture, between
Ariela and Lance.
"Unless they managed to clone your presumed long dead student, then I guess
not," he answered, as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the
admiral with a scowl on his face.
"Takashi Shirogane," Garrison said, with a neutral voice, not acting like
someone who was watching a man that was presumed dead on the other side of a
computer, alive and very pissed. "I heard a few doctors saying that they
thought they had found you," he added, and Shiro's nostrils flared and he took
in a deep breath, calming himself down, before looking at the admiral again.
"So they actually recognised me and still insisted on drugging me and keeping
me as a prisoner?" he asked, practically shaking in anger, and Ariela wanted to
place a hand on his shoulder, but she couldn't find herself able to move under
those scary grey eyes.
"You fell from space after a year of being presumed missing. What did you
expect, captain Shirogane?" the man asked, but then it was Pidge who appeared
on the picture.
"You knew he wasn't dead. I've seen your investigations about Kerberos
accident. You knew something bad had happened to the crew, you knew it wasn't
the pilot's fault, and yet you went on and blamed it all on Shiro, let the
families of the crew think they were dead," she said. Her shoulders were tense
and her jaw squared, and her voice was so cold that everyone forgot she was
just fourteen for a few seconds.
The admiral looked at her with narrow eyes for a few seconds, before coming to
a conclusion.
"Katie Holt. The little flee that has been sneaking into my organisation to
steal information. I hope you know you will be charged for all that you did
when we find you," the admiral threatened, and Ariela couldn't believe he was
speaking like that to a girl.
"Well, good luck coming to the other side of the universe and evading the fleet
of alien monsters we have been fighting while you played the astronauts in your
shitty school," she barked back, arms crossed over her chest and chin high in
pride. She looked straight into the camera and enjoyed the flash of confusion
and surprise that crossed through the man's eyes.
"Excuse me, but I have no idea of who you are," Garrison said, and the woman
smiled crookedly.
"She is my sister and she is right. Never in her life has she touched flying
equipment and yet she is doing so much more for that planet than you are,
hiding information from everyone," Lance answered. "We know everything, Admiral
Garrison. Probably even more than yourself."
"That is not possible. Reveal your position right now," the man demanded, and
Ariela rolled her eyes.
"We are actually on space. We encountered the aliens that kidnapped me and my
crew and other one's that are standing up against them. Actually, we became the
last hope this universe's got," Shiro said, and asked Allura to come near in a
whisper. She did so, a little bit hesitant at first, but once she could be seen
by the admiral she looked like the actual queen she was (because if she was the
last royal member, for Ariela she was already the queen).
"I'm Allura, princess of Altea. Nice to meet you, Admiral Garrison," she
greeted, nodding politely at the screen.
"What the fuck is Altea?" he asked, and Coran flinched as if he was in pain
when he heard him speak, actually groaning. He didn't like that man not one
bit.
The explanation process was longer than everyone expected, as the old man was
more hardheaded than anyone they had met before, and by the time they were
finishing, the only ones standing and explaining were Pidge, Shiro and Allura.
"So this Galra. How powerful are they?" Garrison asked, and Ariela snorted from
where she had laid down on the floor to reappear in front of everyone, just her
neck and head appearing on the screen.
"We need six giant alien robots that are powerful enough to create wormholes to
destroy their fleets. How powerful does that sound?" she asked, making the man
frown again. He clearly was not used to be spoken to that way.
"She is right. We wanted to warn you in case they came too close to Earth, so
you would be aware. But there is nothing you can actually do," Shiro answered.
"Also we wanted to speak with our families," he added, and Garrison immediately
shook his head.
"I'm afraid you will not," he said, and that was when everyone's heads shot up.
"Excuse me?" Hunk said, completely unworried about the way he had just spoken
to his admiral.
"The mere fact of you contacting from space is dangerous if anyone outside from
outside of the Garrison organization suddenly learns what is going on. You
won't be allowed to speak to your families. Now, thanks to your poor sense of
rationality, we have to go and threaten the woman and the man you were talking
to before so not a single word slips from their mouth. Also, this computer will
be confiscated, so don't bother with trying to contact them," Garrison
explained, and as he spoke the sound of something growling started to become
more and more strong.
It was Ariela, who had her white fangs pressing against her lower lip, but she
seemed calm and collected when she stood up, fixing her hair and speaking with
steady voice.
"Go ahead, mister. Confiscate the computer. Fuck that, confiscate every piece
of technology they have and lock them up as if they were criminals. You know
what? I don't give a fuck because you can't confiscate the internet. And,
please be sure of what I say, if you don't let us speak to our families and
them be completely aware of everything that is going on, every last piece of
information we know will end up straight on some reporter's e-mail, and you
will be facing many problems in the next forty-eight hours," she said, looking
at the camera as if they were the admiral's eyes.
"She is right, Admiral Garrison. In less than twenty minutes I can have every
channel in the United States broadcasting a live connection with us, explaining
how you covered up the kidnapping of the crew of the Kerberos mission and how
you also covered up the captain's arrival. Let's not forget the fact that you
lost three students and a prisoner," Pidge said. "If I start typing now it
might be seventeen," she added then, enjoying how the man's face started to
become red.
Shiro leant in towards the two women.
"I don't think it's a good idea to make him mad," he said, but they both held a
hand out, signalling him to stop, without taking their eyes away from the
screen.
It took him almost a full minute to give in.
"What are your conditions?" he asked through gritted teeth, so mad because he
had to surrender to a group of cadets and a random woman.
"We will be able to contact our families whenever we want and as much time as
we want to. They will be treated correctly, no more dragging them out of
bedrooms like you just did. And if they want, they will be allowed to go back
to their homes," Hunk said, surprising everyone.
"In exchange, we will keep you updated on the war out here. And, if we win,
Eath will have access to really good technology and diplomatic agreements with
many planets just because we are from there," Shiro finished, and Garrison was
already nodding.
"It is arranged then. Who is your technician? I would like to settle more ways
of communication with him," the man asked, and Ariela smiled widely.
"Here you got her, sir," she answered, putting a hand on Pidge's shoulder, who
had the straightest face they all had ever seen.
"It might take a while before we can talk to our families, and I will be
speaking nerd, so if you want you can go. I'll let you know when we can do
this," she said, and they all started to turn around to do whatever they
wanted.
****** - - - ******
Garrison's technician actually asked Pidge if he could adopt her once they had
finished, after thirty seconds of downloading government secrecy programs on
Ariela's computer, who was really worried about if she would be able to ever
get it back, and the girl had just shrugged it off.
Then he had told her that her mother was already in the communication room,
ready to speak to her. And then Pidge had started to panic a little bit.
Kelley Holt was a really strong woman. She had become the support of her
teenage daughter, going through her rebellious phase and actually being able to
cause an actual rebellion, infiltrating in government facilities and extracting
information as if it was just a game, while she dealt with her husband's and
son's death. It had been really hard for her, and Pidge had hated herself a lot
for only putting more stress than her mother already had on her, but she needed
to know the truth.
But she couldn't just abandon her home and put herself at the Garrison without
her mother knowing, so she had told the woman about her plan. She had used the
typical speech of "If you actually love me you will let me do this", and her
mother, knowing that there was no actual way of stopping her, had just asked
her to not get in too much trouble.
And then Pidge had gotten involved in an intergalactic war. She had
disappeared, and the Garrison people had told her she was dead.
She was already crying, as she waited for the connection to start.
When the image appeared on the screen, Pidge had a hard time wrapping her mind
around the fact that the woman in there was her mother. She was thinner, hair
greyer and there were really dark circles under her tired eyes.
But then she saw Pidge and life came back to them.
"Katie! Oh, Jesus Christ. You are okay! They told me you had died and I didn't
know what to do," he mother started, immediately shedding tears of happiness
and actually reaching out to caress her daughter's face on the monitor.
"I'm so sorry mum. I swear I wasn't planning this to happen, it just did and I
didn't have time to let you know," Pidge started, cleaning the tears, slipping
her fingers behind the glasses, before continuing. "But I'm looking for them,
Matt and dad. They are alive somewhere out there, mum, I know it. I will find
them and save them, I promise," she told the woman, but she shook her head.
"Katie, please don't do anything reckless. You are the only thing I have left,"
Kelley said to her, but Pidge just smiled.
"Not for long, mum. I swear it will change soon,"
****** - - - ******
Once Pidge was over talking to her mother, she went away (clearly not liking it
one bit, but knowing that there were other families waiting to see their
children) and the Garrett came in, just as Hunk was entering the control deck,
with eyes wide open as he watched how his dad and his sister were sitting on a
chair, the woman fastly signing worried sentences to her dad.
"Hey," Hunk both said and signalled when he appeared in front of his screen.
A pair of identical dark brown eyes turned to him, filled with relief and
happiness, and the both of them started to well with tears, as Ailani signalled
at the speed of light.
I thought we had lost you out there, little bro. You had us so worried! Dad got
so many grey hairs. Haunani is really sad too! I just messaged telling her that
you are safe and sound she told him, as his father just stared at him in shock.
"I'm really sorry we didn't contact you earlier, but we couldn't seem to make
it," he said, his hands flowing as he signalled the words that came out from
his mouth for her sister, who nodded understandingly and put a hand on her
heart.
"I am so glad you are safe and sound, Henalu," his dad finally spoke, Hunk's
stomach doing a flip when he heard his name being called like that. He hadn't
heard it in such a long time. "How is space? You finally made it there," he
added then, making Hunk laugh quietly, lowering his face to clean a tear that
had fallen.
"Space is good, I guess. Really pretty. We have seen so many different
sceneries and races... It's been great guys. It is still scary and dangerous,
but I love it," Hunk said, and his sister laughed. "How's college? Architecture
is pretty hard!" he exclaimed, and she proceeded to tell him all about her
semester.
****** - - - ******
"ANS!" a baby voice screamed, as Chloé threw herself towards the monitor, being
stopped by her mother's hand on her chest, as Alec signalled her twin the
screen. The youngest f the McClain had teary eyes, as he looked at Lance with
them wide open.
"Hey there, baby!" he said, with a big smile, as he waved both of his hands.
"Lance, when you come home I am going to kick you ass until it becomes dust,"
Adrian said, and their mother shushed him, as Alec said "Language". And
although usually, the blue paladin would have complained, he just started
laughing, trying to swallow down the knot that had installed itself in his
throat.
"And I will let you. You have no idea in what I've gotten myself into, fam," he
said. "There are bad aliens, and good aliens, and spaceships, and giant robot
cats. I pilot the blue lion, and the little shit pilots the black panther. My
robot together with the one's the rest of the guys form this one giant warrior
robot, and I have an ice ray to freeze stuff with..." he started, and once it
was done he couldn't stop. He ended up telling his family everything that had
happened in the last four months (avoiding the parts when someone had almost
died, like Ariela or himself) and they listened to it with attention.
"So, huh? What do you think?" he asked once he was finished. There was a
silence, and then his mother opened her mouth.
"So, is this mullet boy cute? Are you going to go out with him?" she asked, and
all the family nodded along with the question, all wanting to know the exact
same thing. Lance couldn't believe it.
"I just told you the story of how I turned into a space warrior, being the last
hope of the universe, and your only question is about my crush?" he asked, and
Idania nodded quickly, making Alec laugh.
"Can you call him? I want to see him! What is his name?" Annalise started
asking, jumping around as she questioned him.
"Are you kidding me? No! You will start yelling embarrassing stuff!" he
exclaimed, feeling the heat covering his face.
"Oh, come on! We'll speak Spanish so he doesn't understand!" Flynn said, but he
shook his head once again. "Party pooper," she whispered, before lifting her
eyes to the screen again. "Where's Ariela?" she asked.
"We said that we would have one call each, and as I can tell you she is okay
she decided to call Naza and Benja when it's her turn," Lance explained. "But
she said she'll call you next."
"How mean, changing us for her partners!" Dominique laughed, and Lance licked
his lips.
"Actually they broke up," Lance informed them and all their eyes opened widely,
not being able to believe it. Nazareth and Benjamin were really close to her
sister, and she really loved them both, so they couldn't really imagine why
they had broken up.
"Really? Did they hurt her or something?" Alec asked, as he stopped Collin from
falling down from his lap, as he was trying to reach one of the bright and
colourful buttons in front of him.
"She just..., didn't feel like it was the same anymore. They are still really
good friends, though. She didn't tell you because you were all already worried
with me so..." Lance started, before shrugging it off.
"Poor thing. When we come back we are eating ice-cream and singing your break
up songs playlist," Flynn said, trying to mock Lance, but he just shrugged
again. He was too happy because he was able to talk to his family to let the
teasing affect him.
"She is okay, though. All my friends love her, and she really became friends
with the captain, Shiro," he started, and Dominique stopped him with a gesture
of his hand.
"The guy with the white fringe?" Lance nodded. "He was hot. Do you think...?"
he started, and all the family smiled, but Lance shook his head.
"He is the one that was a prisoner, and she helps him a lot with his PTSD.
But... Now that you mention it, I must admit they are shippable," Lance
admitted, scratching his chin as he looked at the ceiling. "I will keep you
updated on them," he promised.
"And on your advances with mullet boy too! Don't forget about him, Lance!"
Annalise screamed, and he rolled his eyes.
****** - - - ******
"Are you sure this is not another one of you hallucinations while being high?"
Naza asked and Ariela laughed before shaking her head one more time.
It was already 2am in Buenos Aires, but her ex-partners were there, wide awake
and talking to her. At the beginning, it had all been tears and cursing each
other, but then it had turned into the story of how she hand become a paladin.
"I am sure. It's all legitimate," she promised, putting a hand over her heart
and smiling. "How is the rest of the squad? Are they worried?" she asked.
"Ariela, you fucking disappeared for four months right after your brother did.
We were starting to think that someone had something against Alexander and was
hunting the family down!" Benjamin answered, looking at her with his dark eyes,
almost black, filled with sincerity. "Guido was already planning on travelling
to the USA and start and actual investigation," he commented.
"Please tell them all I'm perfectly okay," she asked them, and Naza wrinkled
her nose.
"You have already been on the verge of death, Ariela. You are not that okay,"
she said, and the woman just cliqued her tongue. "Don't act like that. Times
are tough," Naza added, but Ariela looked at him dead in the eye.
"And I am tougher. I will be fine. In a few months we are going to land on
Earth and I'll make you swallow your doubt in me," she said, and her friend
smiled weakly.
"I'm just worried about you," she admitted.
"We all are," Benja started, squeezing his girlfriend's shoulder. "But, we also
know that you are practically a ninja. So you are going to be okay," he added,
and the two women smiled at him before Naza turned to look back at Ariela.
"Please promise me you are going to make it back home. For me," she said, using
her puppy eyes. And that was so not fair.
"I pinky promise."
****** - - - ******
Ariela was walking out of the control deck while wiping the tears away from her
face, when Siro stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. His eyes showed a mix
of lost and scared.
"It's my turn," he declared, and Ariela nodded, smiling at him reassuringly.
"Are you excited?" she asked, and he nodded, but then shook his head.
"I've been gone for so long. What if they don't recognise me?" he asked, and
before Ariela could answer him, tell him that he hadn't changed that much, he
spoke again. "Would you come in with me?" The question surprised her, and she
looked at him with a serious face.
"I don't know, Shiro. It's something really personal," she started, voice near
a whisper, and he swallowed hard.
"It's just I don't think I can do it alone. You have to help me lie to them,
tell them that everything is okay," he said, and the second he noticed that
Ariela didn't approve what he was planning he continued. "It's just until I go
back home. They thought I was dead for a whole year, and I don't want them to
worry anymore. When I meet them again I will tell them the whole truth," he
promised, but Ariela still hesitated a few seconds before answering.
"Okay," and then she turned around and walked back into the control deck, Shiro
walking by her side. The second the doors opened, they heard a woman's voice
and saw a man rubbing his face tiredly.
"There must be something wrong! You told me I could see my son here and I am
not seeing him!" the woman complained angrily, and when they got nearer, Ariela
noticed that the man rubbing his face was actually doing it out of
embarrassment.
"He might be a little bit delayed, Jussara. There's no need to yell at the poor
boy because of that" the man calmly told the woman, pulling her by the wrist
and making her sit down.
They looked what you would get if you split Shiro in half. He had his dad's
narrow nose and his slightly slitted eyes, but then the jaw and the ears were
his mother's. Also the grey eyes, but the straight black hair was his father's.
Shiro took a deep and shaky breath before walking in front of the screen,
putting himself in the picture.
"Hey," he said softly, and the pair of eyes turned to him. His mother opened
her mouth widely, gaping at his sight, eyes starting to tear up quickly, as his
father just sat there, not being able to react. "I've really missed you," he
laughed awkwardly. There were a few more seconds of silence before his mother
spoke.
"¿O que aconteceu com seu cabelo?" she asked, and he started to laugh loudly,
as Shiro's father looked at her with narrowed eyes.
"Those can't be your first words to you only son, who you thought was dead for
a whole year!" he exclaimed, and she looked at him a little bit pissed off.
"Well, forgive me, Takeshi. It turns out that it's my way of just not breaking
down," Jussara answered in a sarcastic friendly tone of voice, and Takeshi
sighed longly, making Shiro laugh. Then their eyes were back at him, with
smiles on their faces now, and his mother was openly crying fat tears.
"I really thought you had died. I was so devastated, Shiro. It was so hard at
the beginning," she told him, grimacing at the memories, and Shiro's smile
faded away. "And then... When that woman called saying that you were alive...,"
she broke down midsentence, starting to sob.
"I'm completely fine mum. And I will be back home as soon as I can, I promise
you that," was the first thing he said, and Ariela noticed his hands were
shaking, so she took the left one and smiled at him when the man turned to look
at her.
"What happened to your arm, Shiro?" his father asked, and the paladin's eyes
drifted to his right arm, a pained and angered expression filling his face,
before quickly washing it away.
"Oh, this. I... I got harmed on the Kerberos mission, and they made me this,"
he lied, putting his robotic hand up in the air to show it to his parents.
"It's cool, isn't it?" he asked, squeezing Ariela's hand.
There was no need to be a genius to know he hated that arm.
"It is. What metal is it made of? How does it work?" Jussara asked, leaning in
to take a closer look at the arm.
"I have no idea," he answered with a shrug and looked at the other paladin.
"One of my teammates is here. Would you like me to introduce you?" he asked,
desperate to distract them from the questions they should be asking.
"Oh, yeah! Is it the little girl? Katie? We met her mum here, she is a really
nice woman," Takeshi smiled, and Shiro shook his head, pulling Ariela into
view, as she waved them slowly.
"Actually, she is Ariela. She is family from Lance, the one with the huge
family?" he asked, and their parents both nodded after a few seconds of
thought.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Shirogane," Ariela said, feeling a little bit
anxious, like the time she had met Idania and Alec, knowing that those were her
aunts bosses and that she would be living with them for the rest of her life,
or at least until she was capable of moving out.
"Nice to meet you too, Ariela," Takeshi answered with a smile, and Jussara
nodded along, grey eyes fixated on their linked hands with a glint of
curiosity. "What do you do in that crazy spaceship?" he asked, trying to make
conversation. He was really nice.
"I pilot the black panther. Is a robot that doesn't form part of Voltron," she
answered, and Shiro's mum finally looked at her.
"Oh, Voltron. The huge robot! You aren't part of if?" she asked, a little bit
disappointed.
"She isn't, but she is still a really important part of the team," Shiro said,
remarking word by word, and Ariela looked at him with a quirked eyebrow.
"Shiro's the leader. He has the biggest robot," she stated, and his parents ah-
ed at the statement, their eyes going from the woman to their son, starting to
congratulate him. Shiro looked at his teammate with narrowed eyes.
"So, how big are this robot?" Takeshi asked.
Chapter End Notes
     -¿O que aconteceu com seu cabelo?: What happened to your hair?
     Yes, Hunk is just a nickname. And yes, his sister is deaf-mute. And
     yes, Lance's family is just the fandom. Please, imagine that Ariela's
     conversation with Benjamin and Nazareth is in Spanish, and she
     actually had to call them on Skype to talk to them, as they are not
     at the Garrison to use the communication system.
     In other news, my tumblr already has Ariela's, Lance's and Pidge's
     headcanons, and soon I will be uploading Hunk's and Shiro's. I'm
     still thinking about Allura's, Coran's, Keith's and the rest of the
     characters that will appear soon ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). If you are interested,
     just copy the link I'll leave bellow, and that is my "artistic
     tumblr".
     Anyway, don't forget to leave kudos if you like the fic and to
     comment anything you like. Be it doubts, suggestions or even theories
     about what will happen!
     Love you!
         * http://thenwebohemianq.tumblr.com/
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Summary
     Hehehehe
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
"So..." Keith said when Ariela and Shiro appeared in the common room.
The five paladins that had talked to their families had bloodshot eyes and red
noses, still sniffing from time to time. And, although he didn't mean to look
brooding, he couldn't help it. He wanted to have someone on Earth too, someone
to go back to when all of this space crap finished and they were allowed to go
back home. But there was no one.
"Um... I say that we could watch a movie. You know, to cheer things up?" Ariela
said, with a smile Keith hadn't seen before. She looked like she still wanted
to cry, and she would rub circles on Shiro's left hand non-stop.
"What's a movie?" Allura asked, and all the humans turned towards her with
surprised eyes. Lance wanted to ask if she was just kidding, because how could
a place with such high tech like Altea not have the equipment to make movies
(the thought that maybe they just hadn't had the idea didn't cross his mind)
but Hunk spoke first.
"It's like a play, but on a screen. Sometimes they have effects and stuff like
that," he explained, and Allura's eyes seemed to glow. Sugey immediately
started jumping on the sofa she was sitting on.
"Yes, a play! I love plays!"
"But how are we going to...?" Shiro started, and Pidge smiled widely.
"To contact Earth, I had to connect Ariela's computer to the whole Castle. We
can access to it from any room!" she explained, as she stood up and cleared her
voice. "Enable Mac one," she said, and the image of Ariela's desktop appeared
on the wall of the common room.
"Netflix is back and it's here to stay," the woman murmured, before letting go
of Shiro's hand and opening Chrome. " We are going to need blankets, pillows,
snacks and drinks!" she commanded, and the man smiled widely, before turning to
the crew.
"Lance, Keith, Pidge and Sugey, you will collect all the pillows and blankets
you can carry. Hunk and Nallely will prepare the snacks and I'll go get the
drinks," he said, already walking towards the door. "Oh, Ariela!" he exclaimed,
and the woman turned towards him. "Pick something PG, please."
Twenty minutes later, they were all together in the pit of blankets and pillows
the youngest had prepared on the floor, the snacks and drinks on the sofas
because those were the only straight surface, watching "Now you see me".
It was a mess. Although Ariela and Lance had insisted on given the aliens an
"introduction speech to the human world" they still were pretty much confused
while watching the movie and would ask every time they didn't understand
something, which led to a movie of two hours last three.
Sugey had insisted on sitting with Pidge. They had ended up at the very
beginning of the pillow pit, laying on their stomachs and watching the movie
with wide eyes (because Pidge enjoyed magic, overall when it took her more than
five minutes to discover how the trick had been made). Allura was in the
middle, sitting and leaning forward, also wide-eyed, letting small exclamations
of surprise every time the horseman performed an amazing trick. Coran was
beside her, but he fell asleep fifteen minutes after the movie started, snoring
loudly. Nallely was also there, lost in a sea of blankets and pillows; if you
looked intently, you could find a glimpse of her lilac eyes from under the
blankets covering her. Ariela and Lance started watching the movie cuddled
together, but somewhere along the half of it, they started to fight: Lance was
hoarding all the pillows and blankets, and Ariela would keep drinking from his
glass, so they parted ways, Lance squeezed himself in middle of Hunk and Kieth
and Ariela just sat beside Shiro.
Both Kieth and Shiro were in a state of bliss. What they were doing was so
domestic, movie nights with friends and family, and peaceful. It was half
because the movie was great, and half because of the environment.
Keith was feeling really warm, rolled up in a white blanket, trying to choke
back his chuckles when Lance made a funny comment about the movie, causing the
blue paladin to look at him from the corner of his eyes with a small smile on
his lips.
And for Shiro, it wasn't that different. Although at the beginning Ariela had
just sat by his side and the both of them were just laying their backs against
the sofa, habits were habits, and they had ended up cuddling: she was laying on
his chest with his arms wrapped around her. The woman discovered that Shiro was
really anxious and couldn't wait until the ending of the movie to know the
truth, so he had tried to pry the information out of her, which hadn't worked
of course.
And then the movie ended.
"I LOVE MOVIES!" Allura screamed the second the titles started rolling,
clapping happily. Sugey sat up and turned around, looking at Shiro with wide
and gleaming eyes.
"Can we watch another one? Please?" she asked, and Shiro looked at her
surprised. Why was she asking him? Allura was the princess and leader of the
ship. And then all eyes were on him. Did he have to give the order?
"Um..." he started, looking around.
"Guys, it's already 2am. We should all go to sleep. Tomorrow night we'll watch
one again, okay?" Ariela said, as she stood up and started stretching her
muscles, yawning. A chorus of "Damn" followed her words, and everybody started
to move, Nallely suddenly surging from the sea of covers and pulling her sister
up as Allura woke up Coran. Shiro grabbed Ariela's wrist and she looked at him.
"Thanks," he said with a smile, and she mirrored it.
"Hey, Ariela. I've got a problem here," Lance said, voice almost a whisper, and
they all turned towards him. He was sitting all red, back against the sofa, and
Keith was asleep on his lap. "It's like a kitten. I don't want to move and wake
him up" he said with squeaky voice, and his sister snorted.
"Just pick him up and take him to his bedroom. He must be dead tired," she
answered, remembering how Keith had just shrugged and muttered that he would be
on the training deck when the parade of family reunions started, sulking. He
had probably trained his feelings away, like someone she knew.
"But what if he wakes up and punches me?" Lance asked, voice still squeaky, and
Shiro laughed, as he started to stand up.
"He won't, I promise. If he is as tired as I think he is, he won't wake up till
tomorrow morning, overall if he is comfortable," he told the blue paladin, who
gulped and started to move slowly, making Keith frown and mumble in dreams.
"I can't pick him up," Lance said through teeth gritted because of the effort.
"I'll take him," Shiro replied, still smiling. In one swift movement, he was
carrying Keith bridal style, and the teen was burying his face in the man's
chest. He was so cute when asleep and not being the aggressive little grumpy
shit he was used to being.
"Do we have to pick everything up or..." Pidge started, looking at their
comfort pit with a wrinkled nose. Allura followed her eyes and she looked at
them as if she had given up on life.
"Nah," was all she said, before starting to walk towards her bedroom, murmuring
a goodnight.
****** - - - ******
The door slid open and Shiro appeared in the bedroom, already on his pyjamas,
rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands, walking blindly towards the bed
and letting himself drop on it.
"He is still asleep?" Ariela asked from the bathroom, where she was getting
changed into her light-blue pyjamas. The man hummed in answer, smiling as he
remembered how Keith had been mumbling Lance's name while he took him to his
bedroom. It was funny to imagine what would have happened if the blue paladin
had been able to lift him.
"Did you like the movie?" she asked, walking towards the bed and turning the
lights off, as she slid under the covers and wrapped her arms around Shiro's
waist, burying her face between his shoulder blades, as they tangled their
legs.
"It was great. What are we going to watch tomorrow?" he asked, already feeling
his eyelids falling shut.
"No idea. We'll decide in the moment."
****** - - - ******
It certainly was weird sleeping alone after weeks and weeks of sleeping with
Keith on the same bed, usually cuddling. Even after the "No homo" incident they
had kept on doing it, so Lance was more than used to it.
And kind of missed it now that he was alone in his bedroom.
It usually wasn't hard for him to fall asleep as long as he had his music and
his eye mask, but there were things missing. The soft hair against his face,
the pressure of Keith's face against his chest or the feeling of his legs
tangled with his. He was already freaking out, thinking about the dark circles
that would appear under his eyes if he lost his sleep for the night.
"Fuck it," he exclaimed, ripping the covers from his body and angrily walking
out of his bedroom. He wasn't going to let that mullet boy ruin his beauty
sleep unless it was that other way of doing it.
Lance thought that when he opened the door he would find the lights out, Keith
sleeping peacefully on his bed. He would have to slowly and carefully slide
into the bed, praying that Keith didn't wake up. Instead, when he opened the
door he found the lights turned up to the highest bright, Keith sitting on his
bed like a little ball, hugging his legs close to his chest and slightly
rocking himself forward and backwards. He was mumbling something that Lance
couldn't understand, ears stuck to his skull, and the blue paladin almost
sprinted towards him.
"Hey, Keith. What's wrong, buddy?" he asked, putting a hand on Keith's knee,
and his teammate finally looked at him with bloodshot eyes.
"I had a nightmare. I dreamt I killed Shiro," he answered, panic appearing on
his eyes again when he said that out loud. "I was wearing a Galra uniform
and... Zarkon told me to kill him and I obliged," he sobbed, burying his face
between his legs again.
Lance quickly sat on the bed, manhandling Keith into hugging him, as he rubbed
circles on his back, letting the red paladin cry and drench his sleeping shirt.
"You would never do that. Shiro is practically your brother and you love him.
You would never hurt the people you love, Keith. I know you," he explained, and
his teammate's head shot up at the last phrase, wide eyes looking at him,
filled with a feeling Lance couldn't recognise. "Why didn't you come looking
for me when you woke up?" he asked, and Keith turned his face away.
"I didn't want to wake you up. I was really late and I have been sleeping well
lately, so being up one night wouldn't harm me," Keith answered, mumbling
softly, and Lance was only able to understand because he was so close.
"It's not about you sleeping Keith, it's about you not being alone," he
explained. "You can wake me up if you want, okay? It won't bother me," he
added, already starting to lay down on the bed. Keith immediately followed
suit, giving his back to Lance. "Do you want the lights on or off?" he asked.
"On."
****** - - - ******
Shiro was usually the first to wake up, both because once Ariela fell asleep it
was hard to wake her up and because he was used to waking up early or sleeping
little because of both his years as a military school student and as a war
prisoner. And he was really thankful of this, as it helped to avoid
embarrassing things (like bad breath and morning wood).
But that day was different.
When he woke up, there already was light in the bedroom, the noise of water
falling and soft chattering barely being bale to be heard over the music that
was playing. On the wall, right above Ariela's desk, the image of Spotify had
appeared. The music playing was Current location, by LANY, and it was really
soft. It made him want to go back to sleep, or just close his eyes and enjoy
the music, but if Ariela was already up it had to be pretty late.
He rolled into his back, rubbing his eyes before opening them, and with a
groan, he got up. Mind still hazy with sleep, he walked towards the bathroom,
surprised because he found the door open and Allura in there. She was holding
clothes of different colours, showing them to Ariela (who Shiro guessed was in
the shower, but he didn't dare to peek).
"Good morning," he said, letting his weight rest on the frame of the door, and
Allura turned towards him quickly, looking embarrassed because of the deep
blush on her cheeks and the gleam in her eyes.
"Good morning!" Ariela sang back from the shower, the note really high, making
Shiro open his eyes in surprise.
"Hello, Shiro," Allura said, slowly hiding the clothes behind her back while
looking at him in the eye, as if he hadn't seen that before.
"Are you helping Ariela choosing what to wear?" he asked, and the
aforementioned laughed, her head popping out of the shower door with shampoo on
the hair.
"Actually is the other way around. She wants to look pretty but she won't let
me tell her that tennis skirts really favour her legs," Ariela said. "Show him,
get a second opinion," she told Allura, before getting back on the shower.
Allura looked at Shiro, asking him if she, in fact, had to do it, and he
shrugged. Sighing she showed him the two outfits. One was a black halter neck
top with no cleavage and a white tennis skirt. The other was a lilac summer
dress with pink flowers.
"I have absolutely no idea of what... Why do you want to wear this? Maybe
knowing the reason I can actually help you decide," he said, and the blush
turned a deeper red. Ariela's head appeared again.
"I'm sorry, dear, but that is actually confidential information," she said,
smiling brightly.
"Oh, really?" he whined, feeling the curiosity picking harder on his brain. Now
that he couldn't know why he needed to know why. "Please tell me, I swear I
won't tell anybody!" he begged, and Ariela looked at Allura, eyes saying "Your
choice".
Allura bit her lip, groaning, before nailing her eyes on the floor, weighing
her chances. Shiro was a good guy, and he didn't talk too much with the people
that definitely couldn't know about this.
"I may want to impress someone," she started, still looking at the floor, and
Shiro's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Ariela laughed.
"Come on, tell him who it is!" she demanded, and Allura looked at the shower
with rage, before whispering softly:
"Nallely."
"Oh," Shiro said, with a big smile. "I suspected that she had something for
you, but I didn't suspect you had something for her," he laughed, crossing his
arms over his chest, and Allura looked like a little sister that was pretty
pissed at his taunting older brother, ready to kick his ass.
"I don't actually have something for her. I mean, I don't know. It's just that
Ariela mentioned something of the feeling of knowing that somebody is crazy for
you and she dressed me up. And I crashed into Nallely and she wouldn't stop
staring and although at the beginning it was embarrassing I found myself liking
it," she explained.
"I love when I influence people!" Ariela exclaimed from the shower, making them
both roll their eyes. "I really mean it with the tennis skirt, but I would add
a little bit of colour," she proceeded to mumble.
"But you add colour to your clothes. You are too colourful," Shiro complained.
"I think is good like that, but I don't know which shoes you are going to
wear," he then told to Allura, who seemed to just realise that she had to wear
shoes.
She answered after a few seconds.
"Fuck it, I'll go barefoot. Thank you, paladins," she said, leaving the dress
behind and walking away. Shiro watched with a smile, staying on the door frame.
"I'm loving this whole roommates sitcom aura, you know? It's really relaxed,"
he admitted, and the water stopped running.
"Yeah. It's amazing when stuff gets domestic," she said, "Can you pass me a
towel?" and then her hand was appearing from the door. Shiro looked around a
spotted one on the sink. He grabbed it and gave it to her. "Now that we can
talk to our families the spirits are going to be really lifted, and there are
other things to do that are not connected with space now," she explained. "I'm
worried about Keith, though."
"I know. We were all talking to our families and he..., wasn't," Shiro said,
and then Ariela came out of the shower, towel wrapped around her body and hair
a mess.
"That's exactly what I was thinking. Isn't there someone he can talk to?
Friends? A tutor?" she asked, as she started brushing her hair.
 
"I think the only person he would call was me. So..." he said, finishing with a
shrug.
"Then we will have to put more effort into making him feel like home here.
Engage plan: Make Keith happy," she said with a lame imitation of a captain's
voice, and Shiro laughed. "I'm just glad that the whole half-Galra stuff wasn't
as hard as I thought it was gonna be."
"Really?" Shiro asked, quirking an eyebrow. She sighed.
"I mean, yeah, at the beginning the whole deal was a bitch and, yeah, he
doesn't quite speak to us about it. But I don't see him alienating himself from
the team. Moreover, he seems to be closer to us, or at least more content with
our company," she explained. Shiro thought about it.
"I guess you are right," he admitted, before sighing. "Well, I'm going to get
changed. See you at breakfast," he said, already walking away.
"More like lunch, Shiro!" Ariela screamed, and he turned around, his eye
catching the clock on the wall, and it informing that it was, in fact, time for
lunch.
****** - - - ******
"What are we going to do today, Trainer Coran?" Lance asked as he saw the man
walking into the training deck with a huge box on his arms, Nallely, Sugey and
Allura following him.
"This morning I was rummaging on the store while you lazy quiznacks slept till
lunch, and I found this," he said, leaving the box on the floor and opening it.
Allura's eyes widened as she gasped, reaching into the box and taking a vest
and a pair of gloves out of it. They were blue.
"What is that, Coran?" Pidge asked, getting near.
"It's equipment for an old training game. We call it the bomb," he answered.
"The trainees would split into two teams. One of them has a vest with an orange
light, which means that he's got the bomb. The only way of getting the bomb off
of you is passing it to someone from the other team, touching them with the
gloves," Allura started to explain.
"The bomb has a random generate countdown. When it reaches zero, the vest of
the person with the bomb will give them a slight electric shock, and they are
out of game. The last team standing is the winner," Coran finished, looking up
to the paladins.
"So, it's Voltron against the rest of you guys?" Hunk asked, and Allura shook
her head, taking out a red vest.
"It's red against blue. The captains of the teams choose the members," she
answered, and Kieth and Lance looked at each other, eyes gleaming at the
opportunity of surpassing the other in something. This wasn't something they
made a competition of, this was a competition. "I think that the red and blue
paladins should be the captains," Allura said.
"I choose Shiro!" Keith shouted immediately, and Lance squinted at him.
"I choose Allura!" he exclaimed, and Ariela turned to his brother outraged.
"You chose Allura over me? What kind of brother are you?" she asked, voice
high, making the rest laugh, but Lance was impassive, waiting for Keith to
choose again.
"Nallely is mine," he said.
"Ariela it is then," Lance replied.
"So I was not your first, not your second but your third option!" she
exclaimed. "Can I change teams?"
"No," everyone answered in unison.
"Hunk is red."
"Sugey is blue."
"Coran in my team."
"Pidge on mine."
Two minutes later, they were all wearing their vests and gloves.
"There are not actual rules for this game besides the ones that we already
explained. You can play however you want," Coran explained, as he tapped a few
things in a hologram keyboard. And then the floor started moving.
It was as if the metal was alive, raising and forming different platforms and
structures you could hide behind of. There were stairs, slides, monkey bars,
bridges and ropes hanging from the ceiling. There were also things that looked
like caves and climbing walls.
"Dude, this is dope," Lance said, rubbing his hands together with an evil grin.
"We have fifteen minutes to scatter. GO!" Coran shouted, and everyone went
their own way.
Kieth, Lance, Allura, Hunk and Coran chose to stay down, hiding behind rock-
shaped pieces of grey metal, while Ariela, Shiro, Nallely, Pidge and Sugey
chose higher grounds. Ariela was crouching, just above Lance, when a doubt
surged on her mind.
"Wait! Can we pass the bomb around our own team if it is convenient for us?"
she screamed.
"I guess, yeah," Allura answered, from the cave she had been hiding in.
"Time's out," Coran announced, eyes fixated on the chronometer projected on
every wall.
A bip was heard from behind a wall and then a groan.
"Damn it!" Hunk exclaimed, before getting out of his hiding spot, orange light
shining, and running after Lance, who hadn't hidden at all.
Although Hunk seemed to have a fixed objective and he wouldn't change it,
everyone started moving, changing positions if he got too near. And then he
reached Lance, barely brushing his fingertips against the back of his vest, and
another bip was heard before the orange light appeared on Lance's vest.
"You have to touch someone that is not who just touched you!" Coran screamed,
suddenly remembering the rule.
"What?" Lance asked, looking around for a prey.
"¡Mancha con manga no engancha!" Ariela screamed as she dropped from the place
she reached out for Lance from the platform where she was on. "Pasala" she told
him, and Lance jumped, again barely brushing his fingertips against her vest.
The orange light appeared on Ariela with a bip, and before anyone could react
she was already on her feet, running towards her closest enemy.
"It's not fair! They have another language and we can't understand what they
are saying!" Shiro complained, as he turned around and started running, passing
through a really flimsy bridge that moved from side to side. It looked like
something Indiana Jones would run over.
"Suck it up, Shiro!" Pidge exclaimed, as Ariela jumped and grabbed a rope,
saving the bridge run, before letting herself drop and rolling on the ground.
Three strides later she was jumping on Shiro like a panther, eager to bury her
teeth on his neck and claws on his back. But she just touched the vest, before
grinning at him enjoying her immunity, hearing the bip and watching the orange
light appear.
"There are times I really hate you," he informed, making her laugh before he
jumped to the lower ground, and landed right in front of Allura's cave
entrance, before getting in and crawling his way to the princess.
There was the sound of punches and cursed before a bip could be heard.
"QUIZNACK!" she screamed, the word echoing on the deck, as she got out of the
cave and run after Keith.
"Language!" Coran reprimanded. Allura caught onto the paladin and touched his
back, the impulse almost tipping him over.
Before Keith could turn around, the sound of a cornet broke into the air and
the orange light turned red, before the electric shock run through his body.
Keith groaned and clutched his chest, but before it hurt a lot the shock was
over and the floor behind him opened, letting him fall into darkness.
"Who's got the bomb now?" Allura asked, just in time Sugey screamed bloody
murder.
"NALLELY! THAT'S NOT FAIR!" she shouted, as the orange light passed from one
sister to the other with a bip.
"This is practically a secure point," Coran laughed, but then the two Grigkeans
looked at him with scary eyes, seeming ready to murder. Nallely clamped a hand
on her sister's shoulder.
"Go get him, Su," she said, and the girl started running at a speed that just
wasn't natural.
"CORAN, RUN!" Hunk screamed, but the man started climbing a rope instead. Sugey
jumped and punched him in the back, causing a loud smack to sound across the
room, and Coran immediately slid to the floor, touching Pidge and running away,
although she couldn't touch him.
"There's no one near me!" she complained before she spotted Hunk on a platform.
She ran and climbed the climbing wall like she was a monkey, getting up there
in record time and touching Hunk.
"Again?" he asked, turning around and spotting Lance hiding behind a rock. In
almost no time he had passed the bomb to him, and Lance started going after
Shiro, but when he was about to touch him the cornet sounded again and Lance
was shocked, before being swallowed by the floor.
****** - - - ******
Like it happened in other training exercises, Lance magically appeared in the
control room of the training deck, falling on his butt gracelessly and
groaning. Keith was standing over the wide window, watching how the teams
played against each other with his arms crossed over his chest. Lance was
standing up when he turned around, and then it happened.
Keith started laughing. And it was not a half-hearted chuckle, it was a full-on
burst of laughter, clutching his stomach and losing air, making Lance's eyes
open widely taking in the sight. Keith's ears up in excitement, a red flush
dying his pale lilac skin (it had been losing colour after he changed, going
from angry purple to pastel lilac) and tears streaming down his eyes, because
he couldn't stop laughing. And, man, it was a beautiful sound, nothing like
Ariela's hyena cackles or evil laughs. It reminded Lance of water flowing on a
stream.
"Pathetic, aren't we?" Keith said once he managed to calm down a little bit,
still chuckling from now and then. Lance let out a breathy laugh.
"I don't know what you mean," he admitted, smiling softly. Keith took a deep
breath, giving a few steps in his direction, before signalling the window.
"Look at them. Our teams are still going at it and we're here. Us, the mighty
rivals that think they're the best and that won't let an opportunity to prove
it pass," he explained himself, and Lance pouted.
"If you think that then why do you keep challenging me?" Lance asked, voice low
and purely curious. Keith shrugged, before taking a hand back to scratch his
neck.
"I don't know. It's not that I actually think I'm better than you. But the
since the first day I met you, you were challenging me constantly. I don't
know, I just..." he started, before taking in a deep breath and continuing. "I
thought that you hated me without motive, so I just played along your game to
make you mad," he finished, and Lance's eyes fell.
"I guess that's my fault," he nodded, fingers tapping against his thighs
impatiently.
"Why did you act like that?" Keith asked, stepping closer, and Lance avoided
his eyes. Was Lance going to answer? Tell him that he did hate him or that it
had been something else? Because he was dying to know. Lance sighed and walked
to sit down, back against a wall, and Keith followed suit, sitting and leaving
a little bit of space between them.
"The moment I tried to apply for the Garrison all I heard was your name. Keith
Kogane, the best pilot of this generation. Keith Kogane, the kid who started
from the deep bottom and now is top of his class," he started, looking at his
hands. "I have a lot of trouble memorising, you know? And much of the Garrison
is about that, memorising codes, names, buttons, levers... I was doing awful,
and all the professors started talking. They thought the only motive I was
there was because of my stepfather," he started, before letting his head rest
on the wall and turning towards Keith. "And then you got kicked out, and I was
let in. I had to go to every class, do every simulation knowing that I wasn't
there because of my own merits, but because you had just snapped one day," he
answered.
"I never knew that," Keith said in a whisper, and Lance let out a sad chuckle.
"How would you? You didn't even know my name," he said, and Keith's heart
shrunk on his chest. An awkward silence followed, and Keith was wondering how
long the bomb would take on going off this time.
"Well, obviously the Garrison crew was wrong," Keith said then, breaking the
silence, and making Lance look at him again. "You are piloting a weapon of
massive destruction in a war against a whole empire. If you weren't a good
pilot you wouldn't be here," he said. "And I genuinely believe you are a good
pilot. Just because you struggle to remember complicated and unnecessary code
names doesn't mean that you are stupid or lack skill." God, it took a lot of
effort to get that off of his chest, but the beautiful gleam in Lance's eyes
was worth it.
"Do you really think that?" he asked, smiling softly, and Keith nodded.
"But you act really stupidly sometimes, though," he added then, and Lance
laughed out loud. "You don't take stuff seriously."
"I'm sorry. It's just my way of not letting things affect me," was the blue
paladin's answer, as he shrugged. "But now that we are at it, I think you are a
great pilot too. I really respect that," he added, looking at Keith again.
He looked extremely mature in that moment. It was as if the goofy Lance facade
he was used to putting up to comfort others or himself was down, and he was
showing himself like he was. No ornaments to make him seem prettier nor smiles
to make him see easy going. He was there, eyes glowing despite his face showing
that he was tired, and just being himself, letting Keith take a peek on the
real Lance McClain. The Lance that worried about his teammates and would
actually die for them, the Lance that was intelligent and had to stand people
telling him otherwise, the Lance that had worked hard to get to the place he
was and having people that didn't know him it was just because his stepfather
had money.
Underrated would be the perfect word.
And Keith looked so open. There were no walls around him, no tension on his
shoulders nor harshness in his eyes. He had laughed and laid back with him,
admitted what he thought, come clean about their rivalry and actually praised
him. He looked human like that, not like the unreachable perfect yet rebel teen
that everyone thought of him. He looked like what he was: a teen used to be
completely alone and sweating for the stuff he got, not quite knowing how to
make friends but trying. Trying to get closer to Lance.
Young was the word for him.
Okay, Kogane, this is it. Man up. Lance is there and he is looking great and
you practically confessed to him how great you think he is, so put on the pants
and fucking kiss him Keith thought, biting his cheek, as he took a deep and
shaky breath, leaning in closer really slowly, eyes never leaving Lance's.
Oh, good Lord Lance thought, eyes half-lidded, as he reassumed his "fuck it"
personality and leant in too.
They were so fucking close.
Lance moved away first, turning his face in the direction to his ceiling. Keith
practically jumped back to his place and added a few inches of space between
them.
"Did you hear...?" the blue paladin started, but the ceiling opened and Pidge
fell on the floor, screaming angry curses to Coran.
"That fucking space Nigel Thornberry!" she screamed, getting up as she rubbed
her butt.
"You have to be fucking kidding me," Lance muttered with a smile, as he let his
head softly bump the wall, Keith burying his face between his knees to hide his
blush, ears sticking to his skull in shame.
****** - - - ******
The final face-off was Allura vs. Nallely, having the last one eliminated
Ariela after she took Shiro off the picture.
It had been savage. Now that they were only two, the bomb would go back and
forth, the game having changed from something similar to tag to an actual
combat. It was something amazing to see, all the crew was mesmerised watching
the exchange of punches and the occasional running away that happened if one
took to long in recover from the punch.
Nallely won, not for much, but she did. She had cornered Allura against a wall
and playfully touched her in the middle on the best, and before the princess
could return it she was shocked. Which was a pity, because if she had had five
more seconds, Nallely was screwed. The sight of Allura, hair the remains of a
brain that made her look even wilder if you summed the fighting energy on her
blue eyes and the perfect stance, the training blue outfit sticking to her body
and panting had left her breathless and motionless. If the princess had had the
opportunity to pass the bomb again, Nallely wouldn't have returned it.
"I'm going to have a shower. You should all do the same if we are going to be
all stick together in the pillow pit after dinner," Allura announces, receiving
a chorus of "Aye, aye, captain", before walking away.
"Shiro?" Keith called, and the man turned towards him. "I need to talk to
you"."
****** - - - ******
Keith didn't want to go near his bedroom, so instead he took Shiro to Red's
hangar to speak.
When they arrived, the lion was walking around impatiently, jumping around the
moment she caught a glimpse of Keith. She was bombarding him with
recriminations and curses. I swear to the stars, if the next chance presents
itself and you don't kiss him I will slam my paw against your body and squeeze
you! was one of them.
"What's gotten into her?" Shiro asked, and Keith turned to face him.
"I almost kissed Lance," he answered.
Remark the way almost! Red roared on his mind and he shushed her, gaining an
angry "humph" as the lion gave her back to them and walked to the other corner
of the hangar to lay down, acting offended.
"What?" Shiro asked, eyes open wide in excitement. So Keith proceeded to tell
him all about what had happened when they had been alone in the control room,
ignoring Red's angry or not safe for work comments.
"When he turned away I wanted to die! I was so sure he was gonna kiss me!" he
complained.
"Then why didn't you kiss him? You just grab his chin and the deal is closed!"
Shiro exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air in exasperation.
That's the exact same thing I have been wondering about Red said, trying to
sound nonchalant.
"Because I wasn't sure if he was going to kiss me!" Keith answered, and Shiro
looked at him as if he was the most idiotic person he had ever met.
"Are you actually listening to yourself?" Shiro asked.
"It's just that when he turned away all I could hear was you telling me that
maybe I was misreading the situation and think about how everything would come
crashing to the ground if I kissed him and he didn't want to kiss me! What if
he doesn't like boys? WHAT IF HE IS HOMOPHOBIC?" he started, voice raising its
volume as he went on, Shiro having to put a hand over his mouth to shut him up.
"He is not homophobic, Keith. His sister is bisexual. And if he doesn't like
boys then you will be heartbroken, but it will be okay because that's a part of
life. I was devastated when Lila broke up with me, and look at me now," Shiro
said, and Kieth pulled his hand away, before scanning his brother.
"I don't know how your situation has improved," he said, and Shiro bit his
cheek, thinking.
"Well... I pilot my own ship. I have my own team and new friends," he said, and
Keith smiled mischievously.
"And a new girlfriend," he added, and Shiro rolled his eyes.
"Fuck off, Keith."
****** - - - ******
Allura enjoyed being powerful. Not in a mind and moral corrupting way, but in a
"Hey, I can use my power for good!" way. She was a princess and captain of her
own battleship, which already granted her a lot of power.
But there was something different about the power Ariela had described to her.
Having that effect on people just because they lusted after you, or were in
love with you or whatever the kind of attraction it was, left another taste in
your mouth. You didn't have that power over someone because you were powerful,
you had that power over someone because you made them weak. And she loved it.
So, when she appeared in the kitchen wearing Ariela's clothes and hair styled
in two braids and Nallely's eyes opened slightly more than normal, she had to
put an effort on choking back her smile.
"Are those Altean clothes?" Nallely asked as Allura sat in diagonal to her.
"No, this are human clothes. Ariela lent them to me. They are pretty, right?"
she asked, turning a bit to each side, showing off and acting like she had no
idea of the effect it had on the woman.
"Really pretty," the Grigkean nodded.
****** - - - ******
That night they all settled down in the pillow pit and watched "Corpse Bride"
and everyone went nuts. The aliens loved it, Allura actually joining Ariela and
Lance when they got up to dance "Remains of the day", the rest of the paladins
not knowing if they should watch the movie or the duo singing and dancing the
song to Allura, who would happily chuckle and twirl around when the
instrumental hit. That was how they discovered that the Latinos danced like the
gods.
Keith wanted to die, as he watched Lance dancing to the jazz music like he was
born to do that, sliding and snapping his fingers while dancing, grabbing
Ariela and making her spin around.
It was no different with her. She didn't move, she slid through the floor as if
she was ice-skating, making it looks so easy and effortless. She wasn't wearing
a skirt, but Shiro didn't have trouble imagining how it would move with her,
following her movements and flying every time she spun.
The group was even more pleased when the humans explained how the movie was
made, in what the "stop motion" technique consisted on.
"That movie was spectacular!" Sugey exclaimed, clapping happily, as Coran (who
had managed to actually stay awake this time) nodded along. "I hope we watch a
movie just as good tomorrow!"
Everybody started to get up.
"I'll see you in my bedroom?" Ariela asked Shiro, as she stretched her muscles.
"I think I'm going to try to sleep alone tonight. Things have been quite
tranquil lately," he answered, and she gave him a thumbs up before walking
away.
Chapter End Notes
     -¡Mancha con mancha no engancha!: Mancha is the word people use in
     Spanish to talk about the tag game. The mancha is the person who has
     been tagged. The translation would be: Tagged with tagged don't
     connect or something like that, meaning what they said, you can't
     touch the person that touched you.
     -Pasala: Pass it.
     Hehehehehhe
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Summary
     Shit gets real. Stuff goes boom, people screams and cries, and more
     backstory, yay!
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Shiro had been wrong about the nightmares not appearing that night, but he had
already told Ariela that he would sleep alone, and he didn't really have the
face to go to her bedroom once he managed to calm down from his nightmare
(having to kill Keith at the gladiator arena), so he decided to do what a
reckless college person would do when not being able to sleep.
He was watching "How to get away with murder", the sixth chapter, while curled
up in a bundle of blankets when the alarm started blaring. Almost five seconds
after, a loud, angry and hopeless "NO" could be heard even over the alarm and
through closed doors. It was Ariela's voice.
Shiro disenabled the Mac one and ripped off the blankets off of him, as he
started to get out of his pyjamas to get into the skin-tight lycra suit as fast
as he could, already hearing screaming from the hallways. Keith was cursing
loudly, Pidge was telling him to shut up and Lance was calling for his sister
with angry tone. The man hadn't finished putting on the chest plaque of his
armour when he commanded the door to open, finding all of the doors open, Keith
already suited up and leaning in Ariela's door with his face a furious purple
because of the deep blush.
"Keith, is everything okay?" Shiro asked, as he adjusted the plaque and walked
towards the room, peeking in and discovering the reason of the blush. Lance,
with the lycra suit half on (leaving him shirtless), was trying to wake up a
stubborn Ariela, who had covered her ears with her pillow.
"Wake up you fucking shithead!" Lance screamed, hitting her on the side with
his thigh plaque before starting to put it on. Ariela screamed, the sound
muffled by the pillow, but she didn't move.
"Lance, language!" Shiro called, as he got into the room, wanting to laugh at
Keith's inability to move, but knowing that time was gold in this situation.
"Yeah, Lance. Fuck off!" Pidge exclaimed from the hallway, actually making the
man grin.
"I don't want to get up!" Ariela screamed in actual rage, as she thrashed
around her bed, trying to mute the unbearable noise.
"DON'T MAKE ME SHOW THEM THE HAMILTON FOOTAGE!" Lance screamed, and Ariela shot
her head up, Shiro immediately picking up on the bloodshot eyes and pale skin.
She had had a hard night.
"DO IT FOR ALL I CARE! YOU ARE IN IT TOO, FUCKTARD!" she screamed, and Lance
decided to take action, because he just slipped his hands under the blankets,
grabbed Ariela's ankles and started pulling her out of the bed. The woman tried
clawing at the mattress, but nothing could avoid her fall to the floor, and her
brother just kept going, pulling her to the hallway.
"LANCE LA REPUTÍSIMA MADRE QUE TE PARIO. TE VOY A ROMPER LA CAJETA, FORRO" she
screamed fiercely, finally getting up in the middle of the hallway.
"¡Dejá de berrear y calmate, bofe! Gear up!" he screamed at her, throwing the
helmet right at her chest, but she caught it with her two hands and threw it to
her bedroom. "I want you ready in less than two minutes!" he then stated, and
she got in her bedroom, immediately starting to undress without caring for
foreign eyes.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, mum!" she complained, pulling her sleeping shirt
off quickly and tossing it to her bed, giving them her back. Shiro wanted to go
away but just good God. She picked up her bra from the desk and quickly put it
on, before taking off her sleeping shorts and grabbing the lycra suit.
"Are you conscious that if that alarm sounds it is an emergency?" Lance asked
her, as he slid his arms through the sleeves of his suit, and the woman turned
her head towards them. Hair messed up and covering her hair in some areas,
suddenly looking too awake and in underwear. Shiro was going to have trouble
again.
"This isn't a simulacrum?" she asked, and Lance shook his head. "OH SHIT!" she
screamed, getting on the suit at an unbelievable speed. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL
ME?" she shouted, already on the suit and putting on the plaques of her legs,
as Lance got near and zipped up the back of her suit.
"WHY ELSE WOULD I BARGE IN YOUR BEDROOM WHILE THIS FUCKING ALARM IS BLARING?!"
he asked in return, turning around without saying a word and the woman blindly
zipping him up too. "WE HAVE LOST PRECIOUS TIME BECAUSE OF YOU, ARIELA! FUCK!"
and that's when it hit the other two.
Lance was shaking. He was really nervous. They didn't know the situation yet.
What if people had died in the time they had wasted? What if it was all his
fault?
"C'mon guys, we don't want to waste any more time," Shiro said, slamming his
hand against the wall several times to call the attention of the two siblings.
Ariela started to run without looking, strapping her chest plaque at the speed
of light, Lance following close. Shiro started running after them too, but when
he noticed that Keith was still standing still he stopped. "Are you coming or
you're too busy?" he asked, and Keith turned his head to him slowly. And,
although at the beginning he looked really immersed in himself, he then picked
up in the everything of Shiro, distinguishing several things that he hadn't
seen ever since Lila had broken up with him.
"Those two are going to be the death of us," he mumbled, putting his helmet on
and sprinting after the siblings.
****** - - - ******
"What is going on?" Ariela asked, once she arrived the control deck. She could
hear Shiro and Keith running not far behind, and the rest was already there.
Sugey was doing something on one of the Altean panels, fingers flying over the
different touch buttons almost without looking, as her eyes followed every
single movement that appeared on the small screen. Coran was looking at a
holographic replica of a small planet, marking places with the rest.
"We received an SOS call from a planet nearby. We are almost in the middle of
nowhere, so the Galra hadn't been interested in them, but they appeared a few
minutes ago and are attacking. The planet is trying to resist, but they are
really few people and even fewer war machines. They are in a hurry," Pidge
explained quickly, as they neared the hologram.
It was a tiny planet, mostly made out of water and with one small continent.
Towns and cities were being marked so that the paladins could avoid the areas
to not cause so much damage.
"How bad is it?" Lance asked, scanning the map with serious eyes, and Ariela
was short of breath. Who was that guy and what had he done with his seemingly
careless brother?
Since when had he stopped acting like he didn't care to pretend he couldn't get
hurt? She hadn't seen him like this in front of so many people since the Sean
thing.
"A whole giant fleet. I don't have a good feeling about this," Hunk muttered,
nervously biting his nails, his eyes fixated on what Sugey was doing. "Did you
manage to download all the information into the lions?" he asked, raising his
voice. Sugey answered without turning her eyes away from the screen.
"I did, and I managed to hack into Keskeuro's database and I have more
information. They only have five hundred small battleships and a fifth has
already been taken down. They are taking civils underground, but there are many
left and there's no space for them all. We'll have to be extra careful," she
answered, and Ariela forgot that she was only nine once again. How?
"She has been spending a lot of time with Pidge lately, and she learns really
quickly," Nallely whispered, and the woman nodded in agreement.
"Voltron will be taking care of defending the front and pushing the fleet back.
The panther and the castle will stay back and take care of them once they are
out of a damageable zone," Shiro stated, appearing suddenly behind Hunk and
almost giving him a heart attack. "Understood?"
"Yes, sir," they all muttered, starting to go away.
"Wait!" Allura exclaimed, and they all turned to her, but she was looking at
Ariela. "I know this is the first fight where there will be civilians for you
involved, and that the panther is known for damaging more than protecting," she
started, blue eyes trying to impose her words onto the woman. "But if things
get nasty, if one single ship manages to get on Kerkeuro's atmosphere I want
you to go there and wreck it."
"Allura, I think it would be more convenient if the Castle is the one to go
near. We don't know how the panther will get in a situation like this," Shiro
started, but the princess shushed him.
"Sugey managed to catch a Galran transmission, from a commander to the one on
the fleet. They are not here to colonise. They here to annihilate, Ariela. If
they make it too near of the surface more people will die than if the panther
does something typical of it. " There was a pause, no one knowing what to say,
Lance looking at his sister with worried eyes, noticing how her eyes opened
widely in panic. "Did you understand, Ariela? I don't want a single Galra
putting a foot on that planet," Allura said. The aura around the paladin turned
darker as she lowered her head, hair covering her face as she took in a deep
breath to calm herself down, trying to stop the shaking of her hands.
"They won't make it there alive, at least," was all she said, and she turned
around to run to the hangar, worried eyes following her with intensity, until
Shiro clapped his hands and all the eyes flew back to him.
"Okay, team. Let's show them they shouldn't mess with us," he stated.
****** - - - ******
The Galra fleet was big indeed. Maybe it looked like it because of the lack of
automatized land weapons and the surplus of manned ships. And the pictured kept
getting darker and darker as they saw how Kerkeuro's ships exploded and floated
around in pieces, the Galra eliminating them quickly, almost one by one.
They formed Voltron almost immediately, flying to the front of battle and
putting the giant robot between the fleet and the atmosphere, sword in one hand
and the other free to fire lasers, making the small ships explode and damaging
the big ones. The effect was almost instantaneous, and the native ships
retreated, the soldiers receiving orders to go down and help with the civilians
and let Voltron do its job. And, despite Voltron was putting up a good fight,
the fleet was far from retreating.
So Ariela and Bagheera made their way in between the ships, leaving leftovers
of metal behind them.
Both robot and pilot had started out calm, holding down and not overdoing it,
sticking to what Ariela had been told. When a Galra ship is pushed back, you
tear it down. But as they reached the half an hour of battle and Voltron seemed
too close to the atmosphere, the fleet not having been reduced to the half,
Ariela gave in to the panther's insistence and said "Fuck it", not listening to
Shiro ordering her to stay in place.
Then, they went into some sort of frenzy (one where she was not batshit crazy,
but one where all she could think off was finishing them), and Ariela surprised
herself thinking just how right it felt, as she watched a ship crash and
explode on the panther's jaws. It was different from the trance, where she gave
herself to the panther and just sat back helping him. Now she was there,
sitting in the pilot's chair in the cockpit, very aware of her body and the
presence of the panther on the back of her mind, who didn't have to talk before
she already knew what it wanted. It was as if the part of her that was actually
made for this connection had woken up, giving her the place as the leader and
not just the pilot.
And, surprisingly, Bagheera did not say a word about it, he didn't complain,
despite noticing the big change the second Ariela gave in. It was as if they
had suddenly moulded together, the woman's mind keeping him at line.
We need to weaken the mothership Bagheera said, and his voice was not the usual
screaming tone, but a low grumble. He was focused and pleased with the results.
There was a cemetery of ships behind them, and many had escaped by the sides
when faced with the dilemma of choosing: Voltron or the panther?
"That's Voltron's job, not ours," she replied in almost a whisper, as she
pointed and shot the mouth laser at a ship that had decided to charge against
them. It evaded, but Ariela got him with the left paw, clawing their way
through dark metal. She was feeling too calm for it to not be weird, the chill
of the frenzy making her know she was going to feel sick once she stopped and
realised the path of death they had left behind themselves. "How is the Castle
doing?" she asked, over the intercom.
"We are getting the ones that try to escape and defending from the mother ship
just fine," Coran answered, and Allura's voice could be heard on the
background, shouting orders to them. "How is Voltron doing?" he asked.
The team opened their mics and it was the noise of panting and grunting. They
were already exhausted.
"Rusty," Keith replied, as he cursed, Pidge barely managing to form the shield
to stop the ray that had come from the mothership, ready to finish them.
"I don't know what's wrong, but... We are weaker," Hunk said. "It's like the
bond between the ten of us is something hard to maintain," he explained
himself.
"Stop thinking about anything that is not Voltron and pour yourselves into
this!" Allura screamed over the intercom, the volume of her voice ringing in
Ariela's ears and making her groan in actual pain. She had slept like shit that
night, and the screaming didn't help with a headache that had been pushed to
the back of her mind when her focus was put on the battle but was still there.
"Sorry." Surprisingly, it had come from Lance.
What is wrong with the blue paladin? Bagheera asked, and was that concern on
his voice?
"I don't know. Could you ask Blue? He hasn't been talking to me much lately,"
Ariela whispered, even though her mic was closed. What month was it when Lance
found her at the McClain's? July? Four months and something had gone by, so
they should be somewhere in November. "Oh, I think I know," she said.
Does the name Sean ring a bell? Because she says it's all he's thinking about
Bagheera informed, but it didn't surprise her.
"Yes. It's... It's nothing. I'm not usually around for this time of the year,
but I know he tends to get like this," she answered, flying the panther between
two small ships to crash it against a medium one, causing a chain reaction.
Who is Sean?
"I'll tell you later. Now let's focus on the mission," she said. Bagheera made
an agreement noise.
You are really different. You are more like me he observed, surprising her a
little bit before the woman regained her composure and kept on going at it,
before a red light appeared on the screen, as Nallely started screaming.
"TWO SHIPS WENT PAST VOLTRON'S BLOCKING!"
"Ariela, this is your go. Be as careful as you can with the civilians," Allura
said,
"Got it. Did you hear that, Bagheera?" she asked the panther, as she pushed the
levers and sent the robot flying at max speed through the fleet, evading shots
and zigzagging between ships, the panther already marking the two that were
getting closer to the planet.
If you keep thinking I'm going to kill someone I shouldn't you are going to
make me totally nervous the panther grumbled, making her chuckle slightly, as
they entered the atmosphere, already really close to the ships.
"We need to get them away from land to destroy them if we don't want the
leftovers to fall upon civilians," she said, and her right hand flew without
her telling it to do so, activating the jaws and biting down on one of the
ship's wings. With a twist of his head, the ship was flying towards the ocean,
spinning out of control.
We'll chase this one to the ocean and then we destroy them.
And that was what they did. They flew too close to the ground in moments,
Ariela's eyes barely going over the crowds staring at them wide-eyed and with
jaws dropped on the ground, screaming when the Galra ship shot its laser, but
they managed to avoid it hurting anybody, and get it to the water where the
another ship was floating, black smoke coming from its wing.
With a bang the flying ship was gone, at the same time screams were heard on
the intercom.
"LANCE, WHAT THE FUCK?" Pidge screamed, and Ariela turned to see how Voltron
had dissolved, the blockage weak and many ships slipping between the lions.
"Crap," she said, panic starting to rise through her mind before the panther
shut it down. "FORM VOLTRON AGAIN AND HELP ME!" she screamed.
"We can't! Lance, focus!" Shiro screamed, and Ariela could distinguish her
brother's ragged breathing in the audio. Oh, god, that could not be good.
The ships got closer to the city that was the capital and started shooting,
houses catching on fire and civilians running around in collective panic.
"FUCK VOLTRON, MAN! COME DOWN HERE INDIVIDUALLY AND HELP ME!" she screamed,
feeling rage starting to boil in her stomach, as she saw how a ship landed on a
park and soldiers started to get down, quickly pushing Keuskereans to the
ground and getting ready to shoot. Hunk's targeting missiles took care of most
of them quickly.
"It's land time, I think," she said. "Do you think you can do it? Protect the
capital from the air and I'll do it from the ground without getting out of
control?" Ariela asked the panther. There were a few seconds of silence, with
Bagheera's mind going at the speed of light. It was for her to catch
everything, but she recognised bits and pieces. He was thinking about her, and
her brain and something else, how it had changed.
Get ready to be spat out the robot answered, and then effectively spat her out,
Ariela flying, crashing, rolling and getting up, bayard already shifted in
swords and, before running towards the nearest Galra soldier alive she saw,
cutting through skin and bone without thinking.
The noise around her was something bizarre for her, like out of an Avengers
movie. Explosions, propellers, panicked screams, Galran shouting orders, battle
cries and growls. Every time they got near her she could hear the growl and she
would reciprocate it, surprising the soldiers before killing them.
"Ariela? Can you hear me?" Sugey asked as the woman stabbed a soldier through
the back.
"Loud and clear."
"They are going after you. There are no intentions of killing, they want to
kidnap you," she told her. "Beware. I would advise you to go back to your
robot."
"I'll be alert, Sugey. Thank you for the info," she said, as she kept fighting
against the soldiers that kept arriving. "How many are there left?" she asked,
but no one could answer her before they saw a loud explosion on the side of the
blue lion, it nosediving into a wasteland not far from the city.
"FUCK! Blue is not responding!" Lance screamed before there were a loud crash
and an exclamation of pain.
"Lance!" Ariela called, turning to see the column of black smoke rising from
where the Blue lion had fallen. In that second she turned around, a ship caught
her with a ray, the feeling of not being able to move paralyzing her mind in
panic. One second her feet were on the ground and at the other she was being
lifted into the air, but then the panther appeared, trapping her on his mouth
and flying away, the ship following them closely.
That was too close!" Bagheera told her angrily, not happy that she had almost
gotten taken away.
"LIKE IT'S MY FAULT!"
There were another explosion and the panther shook, sending Ariela flying
against the metal walls, and then it all went dark.
****** - - - ******
The Castle had gotten near, using its targeting weapons (similar to Gold's) to
destroy everything that had gone past Voltron's blockage. And, thanks to that,
only two ships were left, which Shiro cut in half with Black's blade.
Everything was a mess, rests of space ships littering the land and ocean,
civilians running in circles, still screaming because they didn't really know
if they were safe yet.
"How is everyone?" he asked.
"LIKE IT'S MY FAULT!" Ariela screamed, probably talking to the panther, and
then there was the sound of an explosion and her line filled with static.
"Ariela?" he asked, turning Black just to see how the panther, engulfed in
flames, fell into the ocean and started sinking quickly. "Guys, something got
the panther!" he
screamed. "Where are you?"
"I'm with Lance, he is barely conscious," Hunk answered.
"I'm..." Keith started, and his breathing was shallow. He was panicking. "I'm
trying to put off a fire here. Pidge?"
"I'm in space," the girl answered.
"Allura, can the lions submerge in water?" Shiro asked, already flying Black to
where he had seen the panther sink, trying to ignore the prickling that was
raising through his body, thoughts of Ariela being dead haunting the back of
his mind as he tried to push them away. She just couldn't be dead.
"Yes," the princess answered, and Black nosedived into the ocean.
The panther was there, slowly falling into the abyss, and there was something
dark coming from his open mouth. Black got closer and Shiro discovered Ariela,
unconscious and with a pretty nasty cut on her head, where the blood was coming
from.
"I need you to eject me, Black," he said, as he closed his helmet. In a few
seconds, he was already out, the suit clearly helping him maintain his body
temperature in the freezing water, swimming as fast as he could those five
meters that separated him from the woman. Her lips were already purple, despite
having entered the water a minute ago tops, and she looked worryingly pale.
Shiro grabbed her by the arms and started swimming back, Black quickly letting
him in, filtering the water.
"I've got Ariela. She's unconscious and hurt, I don't know if she didn't
drown," Shiro spoke in the mic, and while he was taking his helmet off he heard
a really weak "Ari" being said, Lance's voice raspy and out of breath. Shiro
put his fingers under the woman's nose and started rushing when he noticed that
air wasn't coming out.
He took her chest plaque off, put his hands over her chest and started pumping
strongly, counting each compression out loud, as he felt the prickling in his
skin getting stronger. Half of his brain was reviewing his CPR lessons over and
over, and the other half was thinking unhelpful stuff. What if she actually
dies here because you are not enough? What if you actually kill her, like you
have done to many others? Who is going to carry your dead weight if she is not
around anymore?
"Thirty," he said, before tilting the woman chin's upwards to open her
breathing channel. One hand on her forehead and the other pinching her
nostrils, Shiro leant in and gave one-minute long breath on the woman's mouth,
watching her chest. Luckily, it rose. A second breathing. "Cycle two," he
muttered, before starting with the compressions again.
"Shiro? How is she?" Pidge was asking, her voice coming out worried and scared
from the helmet, but he didn't answer, keeping his count out loud.
The panic hit fully when he reached half of the third cycle and Ariela hadn't
moved a muscle.
This is it, Shirogane. This is your biggest fuck up. You killed her just like
you killed Yerik. More blood in your fucking hands. The words boomed on the
walls of his brain, making it hard for him to control his breathing, as he was
trying to push images away from his brain. He hadn't remembered until now, but
in that moment he could perfectly see his friend's lifeless body under him,
eyes out as he desperately tried to save him before the soldiers took him away.
"Thirty," he said, voice cracked as he tried to not break down right then and
there while leaning in again and breathing in Ariela's mouth.
He was through half of it when a hand slammed against his arm and the woman
starting spitting sweet water out of her lungs, grasping at Shiro's uniform. He
moved away and she turned to her side, spitting more and more water, a puddle
forming in front of her.
When she was done, she let herself drop on her back again, breathing ragged and
harsh, but with an incredulous smile on her lips, quickly realising what had
happened, as she closed her eyes and relaxed. There was this sharp pain on her
head that was killing her.
"No, no. Ariela, I need you to be awake", Shiro told her, voice still cracked,
and she opened her eyes slightly, a frown taking over her face.
"Hey," she said softly, slowly raising a hand to cup his face. "Why are you
crying?"
In response, Shiro grabbed her and sat her up on the floor, hugging her closely
to his chest and burying his face in the crook of her shoulder, giving up on
fighting the tears back and just letting himself go.
"I thought you were going to die in my arms," he said, hating how much he
sounded like a child. Ariela had already started rubbing circles on his back.
"I'm alive, Shiro. Probably thanks to you, so don't cry," she told him. "You
need to calm down, okay? I still... I still need to go to the healing pods,"
she said, noticing the stickiness of her own blood on Shiro's suit. He started
nodding.
"Yeah, you are right," he said, getting up and taking her and his helmet along
with him, as he quickly strode towards the pilot's chair. "Do you think you can
remain sitting alone?" he asked, and she shook her head. She could barely stay
awake. He sat down on the chair, Ariela dropping herself on him, and he put on
his helmet. "Guys?"
"SHIRO! JESUS CHRIST, YOU WEREN'T ANSWERING? HOW IS SHE?" Hunk asked, his
screams sounding over the rest of the team's voices.
"She's awake, but she has lost a lot of blood. I need you to get ready a
healing pod and to get the panther out of the sea," he said, and no one asked
why his voice sounded like that, although Kieth had been about to do it.
****** - - - ******
When Lance woke up he felt all of the panic that had been there when he finally
passed out appear again, making him almost sprint out of the healing pod, if it
hadn't been for his weak legs. Someone had shot his lion, she hadn't responded,
they had crashed and Ariela had drowned. It was only this if you didn't count
the fact that because of him they had almost failed misserably at the mission.
He turned around and there was Ariela, sleeping peacefully on the pod next to
his. She had a cut that was healing on her forhead and that probably continued
on her head. Her skin was paper-white, making the dark circles under her eyes
stand out, just as her purple lips, but she was alive.
Lance put his hand on the crystal of the pod, closing his eyes.
"I did this to you... Just like I did to him," he whispered, feeling the need
to punch something really hard, when a hand clamped him on the shoulder. He saw
Nallely (hair pulled back in a pony tail, black shirt and brown pants) on the
reflection of Ariela's pod.
"She will be fine. Probably in a few hours she will be out," she told him,
smiling awkwardly at him. Lance didn't even look at her.
"How long was I out?" he asked.
"It's almost midnight, and they brought you here before noon," was her answer.
"I would tell you to eat something, but your family called while I was on the
training deck, and I promised I would tell you do call them back when you woke
up," she said. "They were really worried, both for you and Ariela."
"Where is the rest?"
"Shiro, Keith, Pidge and Allura are on Keskeuro, fixing stuff and helping
civilians. Coran, Hunk and my sister are repairing the panther," she answered.
That was when Lance turned to her, with gleamy eyes.
"They already repaired Blue?" he asked, and Nallely shook her head.
"Blue didn't need repairs. They think that you were too far away and that the
explosion only weakened your bond with her more, so that was why she wouldn't
answer," Nallely explained to him, and she really looked uncomfortable doing
so. She didn't want to be the one breaking such news to him, but she also
didn't like lying to people.
"Really?" he inquired, and she nodded. "So, did my family call long ago?" he
asked, already walking out of the room.
"Like fifteen seconds ago," Nallely said.
"Thank you, Nallely, and..." he started, waiting for a second. "Could you take
care of her while I'm gone?" Lance asked, his eyes going to Ariela.
"Don't worry, Lance," Nallely said, already sitting down on te stairs. "She is
tougher than she seems," she finished, and he snorted.
"I know," he said, "but even the Earth can shatter."
****** - - - ******
"Oh, god, Lance. If mum knew about this she would drop dead and go back as a
ghost to haunt our asses," Flynn said, rubbing her temple with her fingers,
eyes closed as she tried so hard not to punch his brother's face on the screen.
He had spoken to all of his family, but then he had asked his sister to stay.
Apparently, the rest of the paladins had already used their daily call, so he
had all the time he wanted to speak with his sister. And he needed it, because
he knew well that Flynn was the one with the strongest stomach for this kind of
stuff, and also a great secret-keeper.
"It was all my fault, sis," he said, sighing, and she opened her eyes to look
at him. They were the only two of the four first brothers with blue eyes, and
maybe that was what made them so similar, besides their attitudes. Adrian and
Dominique had brown eyes, Annalise had Alec's grey eyes and the twins too. "I
was too busy thinking about Sean..." he started, but she cut him short by
slamming her hands against the desk.
"Sean's death was not your fault, Lance. You made everything you could to help
him. If someone is guilty, it is those idiots of your ex-classmates," she said,
voice fierce trying to intimidate Lance's insecurity.
"But it was because of me that they bothered him. And..." he started, already
feeling the knot in his throat, so he stopped. "And I won't be there for him
this time either," he added. Flynn sighed longly.
"You won't come because you are out there, putting your life on the line for
seven billion of people, bro-bro. I will bring him the flowers, don't worry,"
she said, with a soft and awkward smile stretching her lips slightly.
****** - - - ******
He was the prisoner in the cell next to his. They would talk constantly,
comparing customs from the places they came from, joking together and cheering
each other up when one of them came back too hurt from the arena. They turned
into best friends after a few days, already knowing each other's lives.
And then, one day, they had to fight each other.
Shiro suddenly remembered the mix of both physical and emotional pain as he
fought Yerik all too well. He had beaten the life out of him when he finally
realised it was kill or get killed in this case too. And then it was the regret
and panic, as he tried to reanimate him, avoiding the ice blue lifeless eyes as
if they were the plague.
That had been two days before they took him to the druids, in both situations
the guards had had to drag him across the arena, with him clawing at the ground
and screaming bloody murder, trying to hold onto something.
A partner, or his sanity, maybe.
It only hit him hours later, when he was using Black to carry debbris of the
Galran ships out of civil areas.
There were more humans as prisoners of the Galra. The Galra had actuallly made
it to Earth, recently.
****** - - - ******
"It looks as if it had been blasted from the inside," Hunk muttered, still
confused.
Him, Coran and Sugey were on the panther's hangar. They had used the weird
materials the royal adviser had brought them, and Hunk found himself following
blindly his every command, slowly starting to understand the most complex parts
of the machine. The panther's blueprints were on a table near them, and the
hole that had been opened on the side of the panther had already been closed.
Coran was doing the wiring, sitting on the head, while Sugey just wandered on
the inside of the panther, and Hunk inspected the pictures they had taken off
the panther while it was still damaged.
"I know, but there is no way that happened," Coran answered. Hunk, not
accordant, shook his head.
"Still. When the panther exploded, we had already taken all the ships down.
What could had blasted it?" Hunk asked, not looking at the pictures anymore,
and watching as Coran turned to look at him, stopping the work and just
thinking.
"Something could have malfunctioned," Coran proposed, but Hunk groaned.
"No, I had made a general check this week. Everything was perfectly fine.
Besides, these robots are the smoothest ones I've ever seen. Something couldn't
just..., go boom," he answered, and Sugey appeared, poking her head from the
panther's open mouth.
"I might have found something interesting," she said, as she walked into the
hangar again, carrying pieces of metal in her arms. She dropped them on a table
and quickly started working, recognising figures and putting them together at a
speed that had Hunk amazed. By the time she finished, a box made out of dark
grey metal was sitting in front of them, big as one of the tool boxes he had
left back at home. Many pieces were still missing, but the lid was almost
complete and somehow it still could stay put.
"While I was cleaning the inside from water I found stains of something black
on the walls and on the edges of the whole on the side," she started. "I just
thought it had been because of the heat of the laser that had burnt through,
but look here," she added, signalling a place where there was something like a
whole on the lid of the box. "This looks like a place where a panel would go.
Do you know what sometimes comes in boxes, has panels and makes things
explode?"
"Bombs," Hunk answered immediately.
"The black thing I found could be something like gunpowder," she added, looking
at Hunk with big and smart eyes.
"But that would mean..." he started, but Coran cut him short, making them turn
around to look at him. He looked ready to murder someone.
"That means we have a traitor on the ship."
Chapter End Notes
     -LANCE LA REPUTÍSIMA MADRE QUE TE PARIO. TE VOY A ROMPER LA CAJETA,
     FORRO: LANCE, YOU SON OF A BITCH! I'M GOING TO BREAK YOUR CROTCH,
     ASSHOLE!
     ->¡Dejá de berrear y calmate, bofe!: Stop fighting and calm down,
     idiot!
     I'm so sorry it took so long to publish this chapter, I just wasn't
     feeling really well and I felt like my writing sucked, so...
     Anyway, we are going to have so much more backstory on the next
     chapters, and a someone's secret will be revealed. The ships are
     going to get spicy, be it in the sexual or in the "I'll fling you
     into space" way, and I better shut up now.
     Also, Hunk's headcanons are already ready. You can see it, along with
     Lance's, Ariela's and Pidge's heacanons and Ariela's and Lance's
     aesthetics in my blog ( http://thenwebohemianq.tumblr.com/ ). Soon I
     will be uploading more headcanons and aesthetics.
     Love you! -Q
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
The Galra part in Keith was starting to kick in again, making his performance
and help in fixing the places that had been damaged in battle pathetic. Red and
Shiro kept scolding him, voices sounding strong and exasperated on his brain as
he tried to push the thoughts and feelings away from him.
There was this void in the middle of his chest that he couldn't fill with
anything, it had been there since he had heard Lance screaming in pain and had
become stronger after seeing Ariela pass out when she seemed to be just fine.
Those two things had caused the same feelings in him as a troop of Galran
soldiers marching towards his unarmed team. Lance was pale, small cuts here and
there, but he still managed to walk on his own to the healing pod, although he
would groan from time to time as he was hobbling. He had wanted to reach out
for him, pick the paladin up and drop him in his bed, to curl around him and
nurse him back to health. It was this primal instinct that made him sick in the
stomach. And, once Lance was in the healing pod, Shiro walked in with an arm
around Ariela's waist, who was joking as she slowly and weakly walked towards
another pod. She had swatted Shiro's arm away and given three steps before her
eyes rolled back and she collapsed into the floor, Shiro barely being able to
avoid her head hitting the floor hard. In that mere second the air had been
filled with pain, terror and desperation, and knowing it all came from his pack
members made him feel even worse.
So, being out of the Castle until dawn, without knowing about his teammate's
state hadn't been good for him and without sleeping made him feel like shit,
but the second Red's propellers were off he was running, trying to calculate.
Should they be out already? If they were out, where would they be? He hadn't
even taken off his armour, less his helmet, but he was deaf to Shiro's orders
of taking a shower and getting some rest; all he could pay attention to was the
faint trail of that scent he loved so much, that started to get stronger as he
neared the common area.
The doors slid open and he immediately spotted Lance. He was sitting in middle
of the pillow pit, wrapped in a blanket and slowly sipping something hot from a
white mug, as he kept his eyes nailed on the screen that was playing "Toy
story".
His head was screaming. He wasn't quite sure what but it was warm and good, two
things that he hadn't felt in what he thought was a long time. His brain was
going over Lance's face over and over again, happily noticing that some of the
usual colour was back and that the cuts were gone, as he mindlessly started to
walk closer to his teammate, ripping the helmet off of him and the rest of his
armour pieces.
Lance's eyes flew towards him.
"Hey, Kieth. How you doing?" he asked with a soft smile, and the red paladin
noticed the tired eyes and..., something else. Maybe it was because of this
kind of mindless state where he just gave in to his senses and instincts, but
there was this new thing he was feeling that was completely unknown. It was as
if something was crashing onto him, covering all of his senses. It tasted like
sea water and smelt like sea air, the feeling against his skin being the one of
foam slowly dissolving in him, creeping more over his body as he got closer to
Lance, chest plaque already off. He could hear the soft rumble of waves and
something else that touched him somewhere that wasn't his body. It was a
noticeable pressure, but warm and totally pleasant, as if he had asked for it
as if he knew it would make him feel good. It felt like home.
"I was so worried," he mumbled, as he dropped to his knees in front of the blue
paladin, pillows softening the impact for his already protected knees, and he
found himself looking into surprised blue eyes, searching for any hint of
discomfort or anything negative so that he could fix it, hands slowly going up
to rest on Lance's shoulders.
"What?" he asked in a confused whisper, so full of feeling it had the same
impact as a scream. Keith's thumb quickly found his pulse point on his slender
neck and pressed, the feeling of blood rushing through veins calming him to a
ridiculous extent, as he let his head drop on Lance's chest and hugged his
teammate closer.
"I was so worried," he repeated, and Lance slowly left his mug on the sofa, to
wrap his arms around Keith too. The pressure on Keith's something grew, but it
was still welcomed, it even felt better than before.
Woody was getting a hole burnt in his forehead by the time Keith realised what
he had done. He immediately started to push himself away, although half of his
brain was screaming and battling against that so hard it almost made him hug
the blue paladin again.
"I'm sorry," he said, before standing up and quickly picking up the pieces of
his armour to leave the room, leaving a wordless Lance behind.
****** - - - ******
Shiro and Allura were heading to the healing room to check on Ariela when Hunk
found them and told them that they had to talk, his face incredibly worried and
making a void on Shiro's stomach form, but the one that got most affected by
the thing they had to talk about was, surprisingly, Allura.
Coran's voice was like white noise, the princess' eyes unfocused as the man
kept on explaining his theories to them, pointing at the pictures of the
panther's damaged area, which had already been repaired. And no one could blame
her, as Coran's first words had been "There is a traitor in the ship", followed
by a name that she didn't like hearing in such situation.
"Are you sure about this, Coran?" Shiro asked, eyes focused and arms crossed
over his chest, trying to look as tough and serious as he could when being
about to pass out from exhaustion.
It had already dawned, the two small suns of the planet shining over the
horizon. The one's that were conscious and not needed in the ship had been out
all day and night, helping civilians to fix stuff and trying to get an alliance
with the king. "If you don't fulfil our requirements for an alliance I want you
out of my planet in two days. You almost got us all killed!" had been the last
words shouted at her, as a heavy door bathed in gold closed right in front of
her face, almost hurting her nose. They were all ready to drop on the nearest
soft surface and wait for the sweet embrace of sleep (and maybe even death) to
take them. But no, she had to deal with this new crap.
"The Grigkeans have betrayed us before. Why wouldn't they do it again?" was the
man's answer. Hunk did not agree with that, but it was true that there was no
other logical answer. No one besides them had been on the Castle, and there
were only two people in it that they didn't really know.
"Why would she betray us?" Allura whispered, focusing her eyes on the royal
adviser, those being the first words she had said since she had dropped on a
chair that had appeared from the floor in the control deck.
"To give us to Zarkon like they had planned from the very beginning!" he
exclaimed, but she shook her head.
"Why would she save us then? It just doesn't make sense!" the princess shouted,
and Coran gestured her to calm down.
"The ones that were going to hand us to Zarkon were the Grigkeans from the
capital. The ones her village hates. Maybe she took us away from them to get a
deal that would benefit her village and wipe the others out of the map. It
makes perfect sense!" he explained, and Allura felt herself getting smaller, as
the fact that it indeed made sense sank into her. She turned to look at Shiro,
but he did seemed convinced.
"You don't think..." she started, but he looked at her with tired and sad grey
eyes.
"I don't know, Allura. It seems the only reasonable explanation to me," was his
answer. The princess let her face drop into her hands, as she just reviewed all
of the interactions she had had with the suspect.
If you would take me as a soldier, I would feel honoured. The same woman that
had avoided her getting captured and said that to her while blushing madly
couldn't be the same person that had almost killed one of her paladins, but
there were no more options. "What do you suggest we do, Coran?" she finally
asked, lifting her face from the place where she had hidden it.
****** - - - ******
Ariela had a nightmare while she was on the healing pod. It involved druids and
her, having to fight against Shiro on the arena. She was the one that made him
that nasty cut on the bridge of his nose, before chuckling and killing him. But
when she woke up, the doors of the pod opening and letting her fall forward,
the memory of the nightmare was gone, only the bad taste in her mouth and the
feeling of void in her chest being left behind, but she couldn't pay it too
much attention, because her legs felt weak and she had to keep herself
standing, or at least manage to slide into the floor, which she did, panting
from the effort.
"Ariela!" a voice exclaimed, and soon fast steps were going towards her, a pink
pair of shoes appearing in front of her eyes before the girl dropped to the
floor to be at her eye level.
"Hey! Why are you crying, Su?" she asked the girl, as she cupped the girl's
face and watched her pout as she shed more tears. The white around her lilac
irises was red from crying, just like her nose, and she had scratch marks over
her arms. Had she done that to herself?
"You have to help me, Ariela. They think Nallely put the bomb on the panther
and made Shiro lock her up in on of the cells. I'm scared they are going to
kill her," she explained, making Ariela's golden eyes open wide in surprise.
"What? Begin from the top," she asked the girl, and she sniffed while nodding
before starting again.
"I discovered rests of a bomb on the inside of the panther, so we know that the
panther exploded from the inside. Coran thinks that Nallely was the one to put
it in there and he convinced Hunk, Shiro and Allura, so they threw her in a
cell and started interrogating her. But she didn't do anything. You believe me,
right?" Sugey said, at the speed of light, and Ariela started nodding even
before she finished her question.
"Of course I believe you, Sugey. Take me to them right now," she said, starting
to slowly get up.
****** - - - ******
"Why did you do it, Nallely?" Allura asked, looking into the woman's eyes
through the glass. She was mad, and there was also a hint of betrayal in the
lilac irises, but she couldn't give in. If this was the person that had almost
gotten Ariela killed, then there was no room for personal emotions to appear
and cloud her judgement.
"I don't know. I would tell you if I had done it!" she answered, voice
outraged, as she massaged her bicep to calm down. She had pulled a muscle while
punching Shiro in the face. Seeing the bright red stains on the man's face made
her feel a little bit better, but remembering how he had picked her up and
thrown her in a cell didn't.
"Do you realise that there is no way of proving you innocent?" Allura kept
pushing, and Nallely turned and punched the glass between out of sheer anger,
wanting to smile when the princess didn't even flinch. That was another thing
to fall for.
"Just as there is nothing to prove me guilty," she spat out through gritted
teeth, and Shiro frowned at the way her voice was dripping venom.
"What the fuck is going on?" Ariela's voice boomed in the room, and all the
eyes turned to her. She was in the black lycra suit from their uniform, so she
had had to go there right after she came out of the healing pod. She was really
pale and there were circles under her eyes, trying to give away that the fire
heating the gold would soon melt and show just how tired she was. Her hands
were trembling and, if you paid attention, you could see her vaguely swishing
from side to side, but it was enough to make the black paladin want to pick her
up and take her to her room. She always took care of him, and now it had to be
his turn. finger at him. There was a flash of worry in her eyes when she
noticed the red punch marks on the man's face, but it was gone as soon as it
had arrived.
"Don't you try to distract me with your leader voice and your square jaw,
Shirogane. I know a fake case when I see one," she said, making Shiro's eyes
open widely and not letting him even move an inch as she fiercely walked past
him. "Why do you think she was the one to do it when there are no proofs of
it?" she asked Allura, who gave a step back.
"She is the only solid suspect we have, Ariela. It couldn't be anyone else!"
Coran chimed in, making golden eyes boiling with anger turn to him. Her
eyebrows were knitted, and Allura didn't know if it was because she was mad or
because of the effort she was putting in standing right.
"I don't fucking care you don't have an answer for what happened, it doesn't
give you an excuse to blame it on someone innocent!" she exclaimed, pointing at
Nallely with her hand without looking at her.
"Thank you!" the Grigkean exclaimed, letting her arms fall to her sides with a
slap.
"Okay. Let's all chill and talk calmly. Shouting won't lead us nowhere," Hunk
said, and this time it actually worked, making the tension between Ariela and
Coran fade away.
"There is no way to prove she wasn't on the panther's hangar recently, Ariela,"
Coran said, after taking a deep breath. And Ariela opened her mouth to reply,
but then it all went to shit.
A wall exploded, the power of it sending pieces of metal flying everywhere just
like the bodies of the people in there, that fell to the floor and tried to
protect themselves from the debris flying in their direction. A cloud of dust
rose, making it impossible to see, and then the power went out causing the
lights to turn off and the doors of the cells to rise.
"Don't let her escape!" Coran screamed as Allura tried to get up. She could
feel blood coming out from a cut on her face and the dust was making her lungs
ache. A hand suddenly closed around her arm and helped her to get up, before
blindly guiding her out of the cloud of dust. She recognised Nallely's black
hair immediately when she was finally able to see.
"Are you okay?" she asked, before grabbing Allura and pulling her closer to
look at the cut on her face. The blood was rushing madly on the princess'
veins, following the rhythm of her heartbeat, as she stared incredulously into
the worried lilac eyes.
"Why didn't you run away?" she asked, but Nallely frowned as if she was mad at
her.
"Are you okay?" she repeated as if Allura was stupid, and she didn't relax
until the woman nodded in reply. "Why would I run away if I'm not guilty?" she
asked then, before letting Allura go and trotting back into the dust cloud to
get the rest out of there.
Allura felt weak, and she started doubting who had the power over who in that
moment.
****** - - - ******
Coran had ran towards the control room the second he was able to get up and
restarted the energy of the Castle, activating the vents. The cloud of dust
finally dissipated and Allura and Nallely found Shiro hunched over Ariela,
trying to protect her from the debris that had actually fallen on him and even
cut through his back, as she grabbed her head in pain. The sound of the
explosion had given her a major headache, and all she could do was grind her
teeth together and groan as it slowly faded away. And he was trembling, his
muscles suddenly feeling week but also being unable to move, as the sound of
the explosion boomed in his brain over and over again. It somehow had reminded
him of the roar of blood-thirsty Galras watching the duels in the arena, taking
him back there.
Hunk had to take over the whole "calming-Shiro-down" stuff this time, as Ariela
could barely open her eyes without the light making her whine in pain. Despite
that, Nallely still had to hold her back from pushing the yellow paladin aside
and helping Shiro herself. It was making feel desperate knowing he was in
dispair and not being able to help, so she just started to tell Hunk what to
do. Not surprisingly, Hunk's sweet voice and words worked to perfection, having
learnt how to deal with this watching the woman from afar and feeling really
proud of himself when he felt Shiro's breathing become regular and his eyes
focused on his face.
Once they were all together and okay (Shiro's back badged up poorly, as he had
refused to go to the healing pods), they walked towards the huge hole that had
been opened in the wall to their right, Allura immediately cursing.
The bomb that had exploded had been placed in one of the propellers, which was
now the definition of wrecked. Repairing it would take a week with the Castle's
usual workforce, but now there were only two knowing people, so it could take a
whole year. If Shiro started helping immediately they would take at least nine
months, but he was still weak from the breakdown (that had probably been caused
because of a mix of adrenaline, fear and exhaustion that had messed with his
mind badly) and knowledgeless, Keith was nowhere to be seen and Lance was too
weak to help.
"We are totally screwed," Allura muttered, slowly dropping to her knees and
hiding her face between them.
"I think we have enough materials to fix everything, overall because the metal
you used for the Castle is reshapable and really magic and weird, but we don't
have enough workforce to do it," Hunk said, as he eyed the destroyed propeller.
His eyes didn't miss the metal crawling back into place in some parts, but it
was too slow. The Castle would take years to repair itself.
"It is impossible to have this fixed in less than two days, and by what you
told us about the king if we don't leave in two days they will nuke the Castle.
Besides, let's say we actually repair the Castle we still have a crazy bomber
on the loose!" Ariela was walking in circles like a jailed feline, going over
everything wrong about their situation with trembling hands and weak steps,
even stumbling from time to time. She was tired, at least her body was, but she
refused to sleep until this was all settled.
"We need an alliance, Allura. How bad is it that you refused so hard?" asked,
putting a hand on the woman's shoulder, making her unbury her face.
"Alliances with Keuskerians involve participating in their rituals. The closest
to the date to be exact. And they can be plain bizarre or even vicious. I don't
want to take that risk," she explained, looking at him over her shoulder.
"Allura, it's either pushing a virgin into a volcano or losing it all," Hunk
joked, making the princess frown and Ariela snort.
"Thank god I decided to be a slut and not wait until marriage," she muttered,
before feeling everyone's eyes on her. "Oh, come on, people. It's sex! Who
waits until marriage nowadays?" she asked.
"I think that the only one that knows what you are talking about is me," Shiro
said, with a crooked smile, making her stuck her tongue out at him. Hunk rolled
his eyes. How old did Shiro think he was?
"Well, in the worst case we have to throw Lance into a volcano. That's fine by
me! I have like..., three other brothers back on Earth!" she joked, putting a
hand on Allura's shoulder, but the fun on her face quickly faded away when the
princess' eyes were on her. "Whatever it is we have to do it, Allura. Don't
worry, we always manage to survive against the odds," she added.
"If you could kill the oviti with a pathetic knife you can calmly push a virgin
into a volcano," Nallely said, following the thread of the joke and gaining a
proud look from all the humans present, and a soft and broken smile from
Allura, that looked at her with teary eyes. "Why are you crying? What did I say
now?" the Grigkean asked worriedly, and Allura laughed loudly.
"We have a killer hiding in the castle and our only chance to survive might be
allying with sociopaths and... And you are joking about sacrificing virgins,"
she laughed/cried, before covering her face with her hands. "Everything is
falling apart and you still manage to joke about it."
The three of them looked at each other as if they had broken something. That
"oh, Christ, we screwed up" look.
"We didn't mean to offend you. It's just how humans and apparently Nallely deal
with bad stuff, joking. You have surely heard Lance talking some time," Shiro
started.
"No, no. Don't get me wrong. I admire you for it," she replied, looking at the
black paladin with gleaming eyes, before sighing and getting up again. "We have
to tell them now about the alliance and get out of here until we figure out a
way to discover who has been causing all of this damage," Allura said, but
Coran groaned.
"I don't want to leave the Castle alone with a bomber on the loose, like Ariela
said. Why don't you go to arrange the alliance and we stay here?" he asked.
"I'm sure we will find a way to bring some light to this darkness."
"Yay, let's stay in the haunted hotel where people has died, nothing bad will
happen," Hunk mumbled under his breath, and Ariela laughed again.
****** - - - ******
Shiro was in charge of the "find the crazy one" mission, and also the "put
Ariela to fucking sleep" mission. The first one was the easiest. He had taken
her to her bedroom and tried to somehow lock the door from the outside, but she
had walked out of there with the "I'm a bad bitch" song actually playing from
the inside of her bedroom and Shiro had just rolled her eyes and told her to at
least sit down while they discussed ways of finding the attempted murderer.
So now Coran, Nalley, Sugey, Ariela, Hunk and him were in the common room. The
man had made some kind of hologram whiteboard appear and they were writing down
ideas, as they all worked together to actually keep Ariela laying down on one
of the sofas. By the time Lance, Keith and Pidge found them they were already
running out of ideas, and Coran's crappy handwriting not helping them to
concentrate as they went over the options that they had already said. The most
legible word was "boobytraps" marked in a red circle.
"Okay, do we have security cameras?" Ariela asked as Coran wrote the idea on
the board with his fingers.
"We do, but they don't record," he answered, and then he crossed it out.
"What is going on?" Keith asked, with raspy voice that let them know he had
just slept. He was in a clean grey shirt and jeans. Lance, on the other hand,
was in his pyjamas and looked wide awake.
"You three..." Shiro started, as he got closer and erased the word "boobytraps"
from the list, ignoring Ariela's angry look (it had been her idea), and turning
to face the trio. "Just missed an explosion," he finished, crossing his arms
and leaning into the wall.
"Where were you?" Ariela asked, without looking at them, as she opened an
internet browser and actually searched for "how to catch a criminal" one her
cellphone, making Hunk quirk an eyebrow and choke back a sudden burst of
laughter.
"I was at the library," Lance answered immediately and Keith turned to him,
frowning but with a slight smirk that (obviously) Lance missed, although Shiro,
Ariela and Hunk didn't.
"I was showering," Keith said then, avoiding the part where he slept through an
explosion.
"And I was tinkering," Pidge finished, before running and jumping into a sofa.
"Make it short, fellas, we're on the clock here," she said, and Coran proceeded
to tell them everything that had happened since their last night discovery to
the present.
"And here we are, sitting calmly," Lance said after Coran finished the story.
"There might be some witnesses," he added, trying to help.
"We don't know when the bomb was put and, in the case of the panther, the only
witness would be the robot," Shiro replied, and Ariela's head shot up, before
turning to look at him slowly.
"The robot. The sentient piece of metal that has the ability to project his
memories into my head," she said, and Shiro's eyes opened widely too. "Is there
any way we can watch what there's in my head?" she asked. Coran nodded.
"You all go to the hangar, I'll go looking for the mental projectors. Meet you
there."
And they all set off running.
****** - - - ******
You are telling me that the person that did this to us went right in front of
my nose and I didn't see them? was Bagheera's reaction to the whole story. He
was being bombarded and not only by his paladin but by the lions too, as they
were trying to back everything the paladins said up. It was a mess of
hysterical female voices that made his head hurt.
"You might have been distracted with me!" Ariela replied, sitting down on the
floor with trembling legs. Without noticing that he was mirroring her actions,
he laid down on the floor too, looking at her worriedly. He didn't like the
tiredness he could feel in his paladin's brain, although he was sure that with
a good night of sleep she would be ready to go again.
I guess the fastest we finish with this the better he sighed wanting her to get
some rest, and Ariela smiled at him, as she placed the weird mental projector
in her head.
"Okay. Let's start with the night before the battle, okay?" she asked, dragging
the words as she was already being pulled into the bond, her feelings mixing
with Bagheera's and making her drift out of her body to be in his.
The rest was watching the image really focused. They noticed movement at the
door, but it turned out to be Ariela in her pyjamas. She was chatting outside
for a while, as she walked around and gestured heavily, making them all
intrigued. What was she talking about? And then she went into the lion to sit
in the pilot's chair. The screen divided itself in two, to show the interior
and exterior of the panther. More time passed by, and the faint purple dot
almost went unnoticed, but Keith gasped and pointed at it, indicating Bagheera
to freeze his thoughts for a second.
"What is that?" Lance asked, getting closer to the screen and squinting his
eyes. Shiro's opened widely.
"That's Haxus, one of Sendak's soldiers," he said in a whisper and a little bit
out of breath. Hunk put a hand on his shoulder.
"THAT BITCH KILLED MY ROVER!" Pidge screamed, pushing her way to the front of
the screen to stare at Haxus' image with anger. Nallely gasped.
"That bastard," she said, before looking at Pidge's nape. "Wait, what is a
Rover?" she asked.
"I thought you had said he was dead, that he had fallen heavily!" Hunk
exclaimed, and Pidge shook her head, trying to find a reasonable explanation.
They all set her eyes on her, and the weight of the gazes made Pidge turn
around.
"You said he was dead," Shiro repeated.
"Well, I'm sorry he isn't! I wasn't going to jump into the abyss to check!" she
talked back, and then the big argument started.
No one was actually sure why they were arguing. In fact, it wasn't arguing, it
was everyone screaming what they were thinking because they were panicking,
while Nallely and Sugey tried to calm them down. The bomber on the loose was a
Galra soldier they had thought long dead! Who wouldn't panic? Had he been able
to contact the empire? If so, how much information had he managed to slip in?
They didn't notice Ariela had passed out until the panther roared loudly to
call their attention, scaring them all and making them turn around. His pilot
was unconscious on the floor, pale and her nose was bleeding.
"Oh, god," Shiro said, trotting towards her, but the panther roared again,
stepping closer and putting one of his legs in front of Ariela's body, cutting
the way. The man's eyes opened widely in surprise. Why didn't he let them help
her?
He doesn't like you, Shiro. He doesn't like your relationship with Ariela
Black's voice sounded in his head, making him quirk an eyebrow, as he rose his
hands and slowly drew back.
"Hunk, could you pick her up?" he asked, but the yellow paladin didn't move.
"What if it attacks me?" he asked in a whisper, without tearing his eyes from
the growling panther as he fidgeted with his shirt.
"The problem is with me. He will let you get near," and once he heard those
words, Hunk quickly walked towards the woman, passing right in front of the
panthers sharp and bared teeth. Bagheera did not move and even stopped growling
when Hunk got near, relaxing once he saw Ariela was in his arms and kind of
safe.
"She needs to rest, but we can't leave her alone with Haxus hiding," Lance
said, nearing Hunk and wiping the blood on her face away with his thumb. It had
been a while since the last time her nose had bled because she had overworked
herself or was too stressed. There was this one time that she started bleeding
while taking a final and didn't notice. Her professor almost fainted.
"We can look for him with the security cameras on the control deck. Two or
three of you should go looking for pillows and stuff so that she doesn't lay on
the floor," Coran said. "Pidge and Sugey, you should come with me. We'll find
him faster if there's three of us," he added.
"I'll go looking for the pillows and stuff," Shiro said, and before speaking
Keith was already by his side. "Take care."
"You too," Lance said, without looking at him.
****** - - - ******
"How are you feeling?" Shiro asked when they were finally alone, the group that
headed to the control deck turning right in a hallway. It took Keith a few
seconds to respond the question, not knowing what Shiro was talking about at
the beginning.
"I don't know. I mean, it's been... What? Two months since all of this," he
started, signalling his body with his two hands. "And I still feel really
weird. This..., pack thing is totally new. I mean, you know me, and you know
that I am not one of the most sociable people you have met."
"God knows that's true," Shiro nodded with a small laugh.
"Yeah. And, suddenly, I'm constantly craving contact with everyone. If I'm
alone for more than an hour I start to feel physical and emotional uneasiness.
And... I crave for different people different times and is all of this whole
new world I understand at the same time I don't," he finished. "And this
craving to everyone is even worse with him. If you asked me if I would be okay
with living my whole life locked up somewhere with Lance just cuddling I would
say yes without hesitating." Shiro wanted to laugh at the way Keith sounded so
fucking done with the situation, but he knew better than jumping into a suicide
action.
"You need him," he added, once he knew his little brother wouldn't keep the
rant going, and Kieth nodded, ears sticking to his skull in shame and a blush
making the skin of his face go from pastel lilac to violet.
"I need him and I hate it. I can smell him before hi enters the room and it
practically makes me weak on the knees, Shiro! If this keeps up I will end up
flinging myself into the welcoming void of space and accept death with open
arms," he said, voice reaching a high pitch and finally making Shiro laugh, but
Keith turned to him, glaring daggers through his skull. "If you were me you
would have already done it. I mean, if being completely human you went nuts
over Ariela with the freaky heat imagine if you had this fucking nose," he
said, and Shiro felt his cheeks redden.
"I... Okay, you know what? Yeah, I like her a lot. I won't battle your teasing
anymore," he shrugged, and Kieth quirked and eyebrow at him as they entered the
common room and started picking up pillows and sheets.
"Really? Huh. I never imagined you would admit it so soon," he said, his voice
muffled by the pillows covering his face. "When are you going to make a move,
then?" Shiro snorted, as they walked out of the room.
"I'm not going to make a move. She is a friend and a teammate. I would be
risking too much. Besides, she doesn't like me," he answered, and Keith made a
doubtful noise.
"I mean, I don't know about emotions, but she would totally fuck you," he said,
making Shiro roll his eyes.
"When you finally solve your McClain problem we'll talk about mine, okay?".
****** - - - ******
All heads shot towards them when the door of the control room slid open. They
were all gathered around a screen that showed multiple security camera views,
except for Hunk, that was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall,
Ariela sleeping on top of him. She was hugging his waist and had her face
buried in his chest, while Hunk was hugging her loosely.
"We spotted him on the fuel storage room," Sugey announced proudly, pointing at
a purple figure hunching in a corner, letting them know that she had been the
one to spot him.
"He doesn't look that big. Keith and I could easily take him down," Nallely
whispered, leaning in and resting a hand on her hip. Lance turned his face to
her slowly, with a smile that sent chills running down Coran's spine.
"You two have been practising a lot lately, huh?" he started, before clamping
Keith in the shoulder. "Look a Keith, a ladies man," he laughed, and Shiro
wanted to slam his forehead against a wall.
"I don't know, Nallely. Galras are stronger than they seem. Besides, I want to
be the one nailing his head with a hammer," Pidge said through gritted teeth.
Hunk appeared beside them, already having left Ariela on the makeshift bed and
rubbing his chin.
"I think that two of us should stay to keep an eye on Ariela and the rest of us
should go and take him down," he said, closing his eyes and nodding. Coran
nodded too, as he started walking towards a wall.
"Hunk and Sugey should stay, the rest of us will go looking for the Galra," the
royal adviser said, and the paladins turned to eye him with incredulous looks.
"Umm, Coran? Don't you think it'd be better if you stayed with Sugey?" Keith
asked, as Coran punched a few buttons on the wall and four panels slid back to
reveal a secret compartment that worked as an armoury. He grabbed a white and
blue two bladed spear and started spinning it around distractedly with one hand
as if it was a stick, while he eyed the rest of the weapons.
"Nah. It's been a while since I last had the chance to beat a Galra," he
answered, as he took out a belt of little knives and handed it to Sugey. "Go
nuts, kiddo."
****** - - - ******
"How long do you think it will take them to reduce him?" Sugey asked as she
continued to play with the little throwing knives that Coran had given her. She
would throw them in the air and make them spin several times at an unbelievable
speed to catch them by the blade or the handle. She was going to cut her
fingers.
"I don't know," Hunk answered. He was sitting in front of the screens that
showed the images of the security cameras. Coran had programmed them to show
places where there was movement, so he could see them and Haxus at the same
time.
"Do you think they will kill him?" she asked.
"It depends. The most probable thing is that they try to keep him alive to
interrogate him, but if it gets too dangerous they will kill him," he replied
again, and then the big screen was occupied by something else.
Incoming call. Amiral Garrison
"What? The fuck does this man want now?" the paladin muttered to himself.
"Answer call." The image of the man appeared. He looked a mix of angry and
sick, as he frowned.
"Cadet Garrett. Where is everybody else?" he asked. hunk rolled his eyes.
"They are dealing with a tiny problem," he answered, and Sugey looked at the
screen with wide gleaming eyes.
"It's the scary man that Ariela hates!" she exclaimed, pointing at the admiral,
and Hunk turned to her mouthing the word "Don't".
"Anyways. We are dealing with something ourselves," the man sighed, and Hunk
turned to him with narrowed eyes. "The information was spilt. The technician
that arranged this system told everything to someone in the press and now it is
a worldwide news," he explained.
"Oh," was all Hunk said, before shrugging. "As long as it doesn't cause major
panic and we are not blamed for it, I don't really care," he said. Garrison
squinted his eyes at him.
"It didn't cause a major panic. On the contrary, everyone is in some kind of
blissed state. It seems civilians don't understand there is an intergalactic
war that could destroy us going on," he said, looking as if he had lost all
faith in humanity. "But the institute is going to take advantage of this."
Hunk's eyebrows rose.
"Excuse me?"
"We are going to sell communication time with you to the press. The more money
we can get the better," he said, and Hunk wanted to slap him. Where they really
going to turn this whole thing into a money maker business? It was a war!
"I'm sorry, but what if we say no?" Hunk asked.
"The world already knows about your situation, Garrett. If you don't follow our
rules we can easily make you look like villains and turn the whole world
against you. The traitors of the human kind! We'll cut every last communication
cable you have with your family and that will be it, good luck with coming
back." Garrison said the whole thing without stuttering nor tearing his eyes
away from Hunk's. He was not joking, and judging by what he had just heard,
there was no way out of this.
"THAT MAN IS A JERK!" Sugey screamed, knife spinning even faster on her hands,
and the Admiral laughed really hard.
"Anyway. That is your situation right now," he said, before reading something
from a piece of paper. "I was hoping Captain Shirogane could give a press
conference right now, but they will have to conform to you. You can't talk
about what I just told you, and try avoiding near death experiences and
anything that can make you look weak," he said, reading that from the paper
sheet. "You ready?"
"You mean like... talking to the press right now? I can't do that, Admiral. I
have to take care of something," Hunk said.
"Then make the rest of the cadets do it. You are going to talk right now. We
had a conglomeration of journalists on the door and we couldn't even get our
workers inside the establishment. They are sitting in the room next to us,
waiting for you," he said. "Whatever you have to take care of will have to
wait."
And then Garrison pressed a button and his image turned into the one of a big
room filled with people with microphones, cameras and notebooks.
Oh crap Hunk thought.
Those are humans too? They look so different from you. So... banal and simple
Gold thought, making him hold back a chuckle, as he tried to make out something
from the multiple people shouting at him.
The guards managed to calm everyone down and establish some sort of order for
questions. Which were all ridiculous. How do aliens look like? Do they know
about Earth? What do you eat? Where do you sleep? There were no questions about
how he had gotten there with the rest of his team, nor about the war, and Hunk
answered to everything with monotone voice and little to nothing expression.
Ariela woke up, but the little shit didn't go to help him, she just sat back on
the makeshift bed, stretching her muscles as Sugey told her what had happened
in whispers. Luckily, the part where they were was one of the little fringes of
space that didn't show on cameras.
"Where is the rest of your team?" a young journalist asked, looking at him with
waiting eyes.
"Umm, they are taking care of a..., malfunction on one of the propellers of our
ship," he said, which was partially true, as he started panicking because he
realised that he should be paying attention to what was going on with his team.
How long had it been since they had gone out? An hour? An hour and a half?
He was answering a question about if there was music in space when the door
slid open, and Pidge appeared panting.
"HUNK YOU DORK, I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO CONTACT YOU FOR LIKE FIFTEEN MINUTES!"
she screamed, angrily walking towards him and amazingly ignoring the press
conference on the screen. All the people in the institute ha fallen into a dead
quiet silence, watching with curious eyes.
"I was kind of busy. What happened? Did you catch him?" he asked her, but Pidge
didn't need to answer. The look on her eyes told her the truth.
"He escaped and we lost them. We split up and went looking for him but we just
can't find him," she answered. "He ran off in this direction, so I just came
sure that he didn't get here," she finished.
"Who are you talking about? Who ran away?" a journalist asked, and Pidge turned
towards the screen.
"Hunk, what the fuck is this?" she asked, and Garrison's face popped up in
front of the camera.
"Cadet Gunderson, I'm afraid I will have to ask you to moderate your language,"
he said in a warning tone, and Pidge shrugged.
"Bite me," she added without flinching, and a chorus of giggles rose in between
the journalists, but they stopped when a roar was heard from the hallway.
"HUNK!" Keith's voice screamed, and Haxus appeared on the control deck, armed
with a sword and aiming straight for Ariela and Sugey, that were still sitting
on the makeshift bed.
Sugey reacted by standing up and throwing a knife that nailed in the Galra's
shoulder, and Ariela stood up and ran towards the armoury, still open, and took
a pair of riddik knives. She put herself in between Haxus and Sugey and stabbed
the blade of the Galra's sword with hers, pushing him behind before kicking him
in the stomach. Keith appeared in the door and threw a gash with his sword, but
Haxus evaded it.
"Where did all these people come from?" a journalist asked, and Hunk couldn't
believe it. He grabbed his bayard from a table and turned it on, but Pidge
stopped him.
"DON'T! You can damage something or someone by accident!" she told him, before
running in the middle of the battle herself. She tried to cut Haxus on the
side, but he round-house kicked her and sent her flying against a wall.
"Protect Sugey! Keith and I will take care of him!" Ariela said, and they all
wanted to complain. She was still weak to fight properly, but it was what they
had at the moment. She rose a leg and kicked Haxus in the chin, sending him
stumbling backwards, and Keith made his sword go through the Galra's stomach.
Ariela and Keith quickly put as much distance as they could between them and
the Galra.
He fell to his knees, blood already starting to come out of his mouth, and the
woman relaxed, turning around to eye Sugey and Pidge. The youngest was looking
at Haxus with eyes wide open and a knife on her hand, while the oldest was
waiting in fighting stance, seeming calm. Keith gasped.
"He's got a bomb remote," he said in a whisper, but they all heard him and
turned towards him, watching in terror as his thumb was already about to press
the button on his hand.
And then a knife nailed his head and he dropped dead on the ground, Keith
running to take the button away from there. Sugey was panting in shock at what
she had just done, not registration Pidge talking to her, trying to get her to
react. Hunk was frozen at the spot, but when he noticed Ariela signalling him
to go to them he practically ran, as she neared the screen that showed really
confused journalists.
"Who are you?" one of them immediately screamed when she saw Ariela. "You
weren't on the missing people report from the Garrison!". Ariela sighed.
"No, I wasn't. My name is Ariela Torres and I'm not a student from the
Garrison," she answered tiredly.
"If you are not a pilot then why are you there?" another one asked. She rolled
her eyes.
"I am a pilot, although I didn't study..., piloting or whatever. Listen, we are
experiencing some difficulties. I promise you that once we have dealt with them
we will call you back," she said, smiling warmly and fakely, but Garrison's
face popped up again.
"Don't you dare to turn off the communication, Mrs Torres," he said using his
Admiral voice, and Ariela rose an eyebrow.
"You are no boss of mine, mister," she said. "End call." The screen turned
black just when all the journalists stood up and started screaming questions
desperately. She turned to eye her team. "Is everyone okay?"
"Besides from some nasty bruises we are alright, but your nose is bleeding
again," Keith said, panting and pointing at her. Ariela brought a hand to her
face and when she looked at her fingers they were read.
"Ugh," was all she said, as she wiped the blood on her uniform.
"You should go to rest, Ariela. We'll handle everything from now on," Pidge
said with a comforting smile.
Chapter End Notes
     Okay, I'm sorry it took so long to update, but I just finished my
     last semester in school and you know what it's like. Besides, the
     chapter would delete itself from time to time (I don't know why) and
     I would have to rewrite it all over again.
     Anyway, I've updated my blog with everyone's aesthetics (only Sugey's
     is missing) and Hunk's headcanons. If you'd like to check them out I
     leave you my blog's url (http://thenwebohemianq.tumblr.com/). Also, I
     recently had the idea of posting little bonus conversations between
     the characters that wouldn't be worth putting on an actual chapter,
     just for shits and giggles. Tell me what you think in the comments.
     Anyway, I hope you like it! If you can and want, please leave you
     review of everything in the comments and if you are liking it please
     don't forget to leave Kudos!
     Love ya!
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Summary
     I'm a sucker for cuddling, in case you hadn't noticed before. Heh.
     Also ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Once it was over almost all of the crew went to sleep. But Lance had enough
energy to stay awake for hours, and he had some new and interesting information
at hand that he wanted to corroborate. He hadn't lied when he said he had been
at the library, after all. It turned out that there was this huge pack of books
with different volumes about the lions and the panther and their respective
paladins. They were six big-ass books that deeply explained the building of
each robot, the ritual to provide them with quintessence, their behaviour and
how they bonded. There was this loooooong explanation about their arimas too,
but Lance hadn't finished that part.
"Hi there, Blue," Lance greeted when he walked into the hangar, lips pursing
when he saw how Blue faked activating herself when he stepped into the place.
Hello, Lance. Lovely afternoon, isn't it?she said, changing her stiff sitting
posture with a more relaxed one, lying down and resting her head between her
legs.
"Indeed. Listen, Blue," he started, as he sat in front of the lion and she
cocked her head curiously. "I was doing some research on the library and I
found this book, that explains how you guys work and stuff like that," he said.
And what did you find? She was trying to hide the slight anxiousness from him,
totally eliminating it from her soft voice, but Lance was still bound to her
and he could feel it picking in her mind.
"I read this thing that said that you guys actually can move without us."
Silence. "Why do you act like you are useless without your paladins?" he asked,
and blue stared at him with surprised yellow eyes.
You are not angry? You are not going to punish me? she asked, a tremor in her
voice making his heart skip a beat in the bad way, as he frowned and pressed
one of his hands lightly against her left paw. If she was human, or even if she
just breathed, she would have been hyperventilating, looking at him with fear-
filled eyes.
"Why would I..., punish you?" he asked, spitting out that foreign word with
disgust. And that startled Blue. It didn't calm her down, it just surprised
her, while she looked at him as if trying to find a clue that he was acting the
confusion and innocence. He waited for her to answer, and once Blue decided
that he wasn't acting everything up, she started explaining.
We are wild animals, Lance. Or at least we used to be. At the beginning, if we
started acting up or even if we tried to have some kind of free will they would
do this...thingto us. We couldn't move nor talk..., not even think! It was
horrible she explained, and Lance didn't doubt of her words for a second,
images and feelings of her panic flooding his mind as she spoke.
"How...? Who did that?" he asked.
The same people that put us in this metal bodies, but the paladins would
sometimes ask them to do it. My paladin was the one that asked for it the
least, but he would sometimes do it she explained. Lowering her head, and Lance
started rubbing at the metal.
"I don't understand. Shouldn't the paladins be this loving group of people
filled with sunlight and flowers that love their lions as if they were their
siblings just like the rest of the universe?" he asked, and Blue laughed so
loudly it made him dizzy. She stood up, before starting to pace around.
Oh, Lance, you make me laugh. No, the paladins are... The paladins are the last
hope, therefore they will need to be as ruthless and perfect as the last hope
can be. They must be loving people, of course, but towards the people they need
to save. I and my pack are nothing but mere tools for them, tools that need to
be adapted, pets that have to be trained. And, believe me darling, there is not
much love in a paladin when he is right in front of the enemy and there's
something to protect she explained, and Lance's ribcage suddenly felt hollow,
as if his heartbeat was missing. How could the previous paladins treat the
lions so poorly? They were amazing!
"I do love you if that makes you feel better. And I'm pretty sure the rest also
loves their lions," he told her, and this time Blue chuckled, the soft sound
sounding like water slowly flowing in a fountain and making him warm and fuzzy
on the inside. Blue's voice always had that effect on him; it calmed him,
relaxed him and made him feel as at home as he could feel, as if he was diving
in the calm sea of Boca Ciega, a beach in Havana, the soft rumble of the water
deafening him to his family's joyful screams and yelps.
I know you love me, and they know they love them. Why do you think it
practically took us no time to bond with you, when it usually takes years to
make a paladin be able to fly his lion properly? she asked him, as he laid on
the floor and started swishing his right leg from side to side, concentrating
half of his brain in that motion.
"I'm glad you told me. I had been wondering how we were not dead the first day
we arrived at this Castle," he said, laughing softly. Blue echoed him, as she
laid down next to him again, and there was this comfortable silence between
them for a while before she spoke again.
Are you feeling better? From all of this Sean business? she asked him with a
soft and mother like voice. He hummed, the sound not working neither as a
negative or an affirmation.
"Someone killing themselves because of you never actually fades away. It's like
living with an illness, this rotten thing climbing up your veins every second
passing. Sometimes you just forget about it, but it always comes back," he
answered, and Blue actually growled at him, mad.
It was not your fault, Lance. You did everything you could to help. It was
those...,monstersthat pushed him to do what he did. I think that the feelings
he had for you were the only bright feelings in him at that time she told him,
but being able to rummage through Lance's mind also made her able to know that
he didn't accept that. He didn't believe her words, so Blue just let the
subject go and waited a few minutes to bring another one up, breaking the
comfortable silence again.
How's stuff with Keith going? she asked, and Lance groaned.
"You know perfectly how it's going. You live in my brain even more than I live
in yours!" he exclaimed, but he quickly calmed down and started talking. "He
has been really affectionate and handsy lately, but there's this thing deep
inside me that tells me it's just his Galra instincts. Well, the thing deep
inside me and all the Galra biology books I could find in the library," he
answered, pouting, and Blue softly bopped her snout against his stomach.
If someone knows about pack instincts that's me. And you are right; Galras do
have very strong pack instincts, and Keith's are even stronger because of the
bond between the paladins that forms itself through the Voltron connection. The
more time you spend flying and training together, the more the others sink into
your skin and become part of your life. That's why paladins tend to die all
together, they can't survive without the others was her answer, and Lance's
eyes lost light. But, I also know Red like the palm of my hand, and there are
things she is not telling me. Ever since the Sendak incident she doesn't even
pronounce your name nor glances at you, it's like you didn't even exist for
her. And that is weird because she used to brag about how Keith was better than
you all the time she added.
"She really did that?" Lance asked. Blue nodded.
Yeah. And then it all stopped suddenly. So I think that Keith feels something
for you too!
"Maybe Red just started hating me. The panther hates Shiro," he proposed, but
Blue shook her head, letting herself drop to the floor comically.
The panther is really protective of your sister, Lance. You know that panthers
are not pack animals, and he didn't have a good relationship with his last
paladin, but Ariela is a sweetheart that actually worries about him and likes
his company, so he is crazy for her. She idolises her almost as much as you
idolise her. Black and he crash a lot because Black wants Shiro to be okay, and
for that he needs Ariela. The panther doesn't like Shiro being so close to
Ariela because he thinks he's not worthy of his paladin and blah, blah, blah.
But Red never said something like that about you. Besides, her silence is more
like the "I'm blushing because you just mentioned the person my paladin and
other half fantasises about and it's really awkward because if I say something
he'll hate me" kind of silence she finished, snickering and Lance laughed
loudly.
"So you think that I should go after him, huh?" he asked, and Blue purred.
I want you to be happy. And I have this feeling that you'd be really happy with
Keith.
****** - - - ******
By the time Allura came back it had already gotten dark outside and her face
was a little bit paler. A week! If they had arrived a week sooner they would
have had to participate of the Flower Festivity, that was spending the whole
day collecting flowers and knitting them into a long-ass rope to decorate the
Castle to welcome Spring.
She had arrived at the Castle and found almost everyone in a cuddle pile at the
common area, Coran sitting calmly in one of the sofas while reading a book. The
paladins, except Lance that wasn't there, looked all extremely peaceful and it
broke Allura's heart having to wake them up to tell them the kind of bad or at
least nasty news, but she did it anyways. Pidge was sleeping, half sitting on
the floor and half leaning into Hunk's back, with Sugey's head on her lap.
Nallely was next to her sister, made a burrito of blankets. Ariela was
sandwiched between Shiro and Keith, which was kind of weird. Not because of the
sight of Ariela's face buried in Shiro's chest, but because of Keith hugging
her waist tightly and having his cold nose against her nape.
In fact, Keith had started off sleeping alone in a side, but when he was half
asleep the alluring smell of ocean storm had called to him, the scent being
similar to the one of ocean breeze mixed with Lance's scent to his sleep-fogged
mind.
It took almost twenty minutes, but Allura managed to wake everyone up and take
them to the dining room, and Lance just appeared out of nowhere, saying that
Blue had let him know she had arrived.
"What we would have to do kind of involves virgins," was the first thing she
said to the groggy crew. They had just woken up, so most of them weren't
functioning properly yet, and Ariela was actually clinging to Keith like a
sleepy child clings to their mother, letting them know that she was more asleep
than awake. Surprisingly, Keith didn't seem to mind it. In fact, it looked like
the contact was quite pleasing for him, as he smiled softly when Ariela buried
her face in the crook of his neck and hugged him like she would hug a teddy
bear.
"Do we have to sacrifice a virgin?" Shiro asked with panicked look, actually
not being so chill about pushing someone into a volcano, but Allura shook her
head.
"We arrived for the Fertility Festival. Two unmated Keuskerians mate the second
week of Spring and the child they conceive is the offering to the goddess of
many things I won't repeat right now," she answered, and everyone squinted at
her.
"What do we have to do then? Encourage the two dudes as they fuck?" Lance
asked, and Keith rolled his eyes at the lack of sensitivity from his teammate,
making him slightly drop his head.
"Nope," Allura answered, mouthing the word exaggeratedly, and they all frowned.
"I don't like where this is going," Pidge announced. "Carry on."
"As Lance guessed, mating for Keuskerians is having sex. They are an incredibly
fertile race, so the females get pregnant every time they do it. The Festival
unites a couple per year, probably against their will," she started, before
noticing she was biting around the bushes. She nailed her eyes on the table
before dropping the bomb. "We would have to replace the two Keuskerians with
two of our crew," she said quickly and clearly, the words being easily caught
by everyone's ears, but it still took the team a few moments to react.
"These people need to chill," was the first thing anyone said, words coming
from Hunk and making Sugey laugh. She looked at him with little sparks in her
eyes, just like she looked at Nallely. Ariela shot her head up, eyes shining
with hope.
"¡Lance!¡Es tu chance de ponerla con el Nico Di Angelo espacial! she shouted at
her brother, startling them all. Shiro caught all of the words but didn't
understand any of them. The rest just wanted to strangle her (Why couldn't she
just tease Lance in English?) when they saw how the blue paladin's face started
to turn bright red.
"¡'tás ambientosa hoy, eh!" he snapped back, and she laughed a soft chuckle
before burying her face in Keith's neck again. It was warm and it smelt really
good.
"Leaving whatever just happened aside..." Shiro started, eyes going from one
sibling to the other, before finally setting themselves over Allura. "It's our
only option?" he asked a little knot in his throat. She nodded.
"I tried to negotiate participating from the next one, but the king didn't give
in," she answered with a small sigh. There was a long pause.
"Then we need to establish who will..., you know," Keith mumbled, before
clearing his throat awkwardly. Nallely was the first one to speak.
"I won't get near any of you guys, no matter how at risk our lives are!" she
exclaimed backing away and pulling Sugey with her. "And she is too little," she
added.
"Don't worry, Nalle. We never thought of you two," Hunk said with a soft smile.
"Allura is off the table too," Coran said, and the princess quirked an eyebrow.
"You are still a minor and unmated. No, no. Not happening," the royal adviser
said when he noticed Allura's expression.
"Oh, I see where this is going," Ariela muttered, before lifting her head.
"Fuck it, I'll do it."
"Ariela, are you sure?" Allura asked with concern. The woman laughed.
"Unless Pidge, a fourteen-year-old, wants to take my place," she said, finally
parting from Keith. "So, who's going to be the lucky one?" she asked, before
winking at Keith. Lance groaned and covered his eyes as he squatted.
"Ugh. The mental images. They are strong. I can not..., beat them!" he
exclaimed and Hunk pushed him into the floor with the tip of his foot softly,
and Lance went down with a yelp.
"How do we decide? Draw the straws or something?" he asked at the same time,
blushing madly.
Are you sure you don't want to volunteer, Shiro? Black asked, and that was when
he could hear the realisation fall into his brain with a harsh clank: the one
that was chosen would have sex with Ariela.
As if he had felt his queue, Keith tapped him softly on the shoulder and looked
at him with eyes charged with "JUST FUCKING DO IT" when he turned to look at
him.
"Why don't we rock-paper-and-scissors-it out?" he asked instead, and Keith's
eyes were suddenly on fire, murdering instinct working as fuel, as he mouthed
some curse in Korean that Shiro's ear recognised from some time when he was
still a cadet at the Garrison and Keith was too young to curse in English and
not getting scolded if the parents of the house noticed.
There was a long pause.
"I can't believe this," Hunk muttered as he put his right fist on his left palm
and the other three paladins mirrored him. Everyone looked at Lance strangely,
but he shrugged.
"She's not my real sister and yes, it would be awkward, but..." he looked at
Ariela, and she shrugged back. "Whatever," he concluded, preparing himself.
"The one that loses goes out? And the one that wins everything does it?" they
all hummed an agreement.
"Rock, paper, scissors." Keith was out, sighing. It would have been really
awkward to have sex with a girl, especially if the girl was your crush's
sister.
"Rock, paper, scissors." Lance was out, begging that Shiro won.
"Rock, paper, scissors."
Silence.
"Well," he started. "I guess it's me then," Hunk finished, looking at his fist.
Rock beats scissors. He bit his lip and sniffed, suddenly feeling a wave of
panic.
"Hey. What is is, darling?" Ariela asked, walking towards Hunk and cupping his
face in her hands. He looked at her, pouting. "Is it Haunani?" she asked, and
he nodded slowly, before sniffing again.
"I'm scared she'll get mad at me," he answered, and she awwed, before hugging
him.
"She sounds like a really cool girl, Hunk. I bet she'll understand this...,
bizarre situation," she said, frowning and then smiling again. Hunk hugged her
back. Everyone was watching the scene in silence, and Kieth strongly smacked
Shiro in the stomach, making him suck his breath, before pointing at Ariela.
"Dude!" he whispered in anger, opening his eyes a lot as if that replaced the
words he wanted to say. Which kind of did. Shiro clicked his tongue and got
near to whisper in Keith's ears.
"I don't want to! I already told you, Keith!" he whispered, and Keith smacked
him again, pointing at Hunk this time.
"You are making Hunk cry! You don't want to make Hunk cry, do you?" he asked,
again in a whisper, and Shiro sighed. He really did not want to make Hunk cry.
Yeah, keep telling yourself that, honey Black chuckled in his mind, and his eye
twitched before he separated from Keith and cleared his throat.
"I..." he started, and everyone turned to him. "I can do it if you don't want
to, Hunk," he said, voice low and scar camouflaging itself perfectly in his
blush, as he scrapped his nape and looked at the floor. Everyone rose their
eyebrows in mild surprise, and Pidge was regretting not having started a
betting pool in her limited time.
"Are you sure, man? Because if you're doing this just for me..." Hunk started,
but Shiro shook his head, cutting him short.
"I really don't mind volunteering," he said, before looking at Ariela and
catching her grin. "But just as friends," he added, and Keith found it
physically painful to hold himself back from facepalming himself.
"Just as friends," Ariela giggled back, and he blushed harder, but then her
face changed from relaxed to alert. "Wait a minute!" she exclaimed. "There are
a few problems here," she muttered. Shiro's stomach shrank.
"What is it?" Allura asked.
"If unmated is their word for virgin then I don't count. I don't know Shiro
but..." she started.
"Yeah, I-I don't count either," he stuttered out, and there was the pain of
holding the facepalm again.
"Oh. Well, I don't think they actually have a way of knowing who's a virgin or
not. It's just that when they mate they get married. It's a must do because
they are surely having a child together. If you don't have kids then there's
nothing to indicate that you are mated," Allura explained.
"Oh, good," Ariela said, but then the alert was back. "Second thing. I'm kind
of in the middle of a war, and I'm only twenty-two-years-old. The idea of
getting pregnant doesn't really call to me like that. Does someone have condoms
or...?" she asked, and Allura shook her head.
"Contraception goes against the Festivity, so they won't allow any form of it,"
the princess answered, looking as if she had just broken something.
"Then I back away," Ariela said.
"Ariela, either you do this or we all die!" Nallely said.
"It's easy for you to say! You won't be the one who has to have his baby
parasiting your stomach if you are not lucky!" she exclaimed, pointing at
Shiro.
"Would it really be that bad?" he asked with a smile, and she rolled his eyes.
"Don't take it personally, babe," she replied.
"Hey, hey. Calm down. I'm sure we can synthesise some kind of "the day after"
pill," Hunk said, smiling at his proposal.
"What is that?" Coran said.
"When you don't want to get pregnant but you didn't use protection while having
sex you can take a pill that kills everything that moves, basically," Lance
answered. And Allura's eyes opened suddenly.
"We have a thing like that!" she exclaimed. Coran turned to her.
"And how do you know about that?" he asked, and she blushed.
"Oh, you know... That thing..." she muttered, and Coran looked ready to kill
someone. "Anyway, if it is already settled then we should go to the castle and
tell them that it's not necessary to kill us anymore. Shall we?" she asked, as
she marched out of the common room.
****** - - - ******
Keuskerians were nasty, just like their rituals. If you asked Keith to describe
them in a few words it was pig-people. They weren't actually hybrids of humans
a people, but their features and the shape of their bodies resembled a pig's,
and we better not talked about their high pitched and broken voice. Hearing the
king speak had given him a major headache. And the smell; it was a really hot
day, so they were all sweating, but Keuskerians had an awful smell.
Their relationship with the king started with the left foot. When the man saw
that not only the princess (a female) was the one on charge of diplomatic
business but that half of the crew was female, including two of them as the
paladins that had saved their lives, and that they had a Galra paladin he got a
little bit fuzzy, like a baby that had skipped his naptime.
Guards had actually attacked Keith when they saw him. Everyone had jumped in
his defence in less than a second, but Lance and Shiro turned plain scary, the
blue paladin holding one of the guards at gunpoint and muttering through
gritted teeth what would happen if they touched the red paladin. It wasn't like
Keith wouldn't have been able to defend himself, but something had pushed the
team to jump in front of him and look at the Keuskerians guards with eyes
clouded with bad intentions.
"Whatever. If you are so interested in participating in our ritual and won't
back down, I guess the best thing we can do is get started on the
preparations," he had murmured, dropping his face in his closed fist, as he
sprawled himself on his big throne. "We will have to measure the offerings. Who
will they be?" he asked, and Ariela and Shiro raised a hand.
The guards started murmuring and the king frowned at Ariela, as he stood up and
started walking around her with squinted eyes and disgust twisting his face.
She was wearing a white crop top and shorts.
"Are you sure about your decision, paladin? She is too ugly, even for a human.
Look at those muscles and..., what are those purple lines?" he asked, pointing
at Ariela's stretch marks over her thighs. The woman looked ready to kill him.
"I am sure, king," was the only thing Shiro said.
"We could make an exception. You and one of our women," the Keuskerian kept
insisting, but Shiro covered his face with his hands, completely red (in part
from anger and in part from the embarrassment) and actually gently pushed the
king away from Ariela.
"That won't be necessary," he said with a soft fake smile and gentle voice, but
the king didn't take his eyes off of his hand, looking like he wanted to see
Shiro's head rolling on the floor.
"Whatever. My servants will take you to a measuring room. The rest can go and
use our pool, today is a really hot day," the king said, flopping down in his
throne and dismissing them with a lazy gesture of his hand.
Two Keuskerians dressed in black and white appeared from nowhere, each of them
grabbing Ariela and Shiro by one arm ad dragging them to a room, where other
servants were waiting for them with measuring tapes in their hands. They made
the paladins step up in two little podiums and started measuring, silently. And
then it hit Shiro completely.
"Shiro, you are looking at me as if I was Zarkon, are you okay?" Ariela asked,
looking at his pale face. Shiro had actually been gaping at her. He shook his
head, still in some kind of shock.
"I'm going to have sex with you," was what came out of his mouth, making Ariela
giggle and the servants blush.
"It will be okay, Shiro," she told him, but when she noticed the man wasn't
calming down she spoke again. "If you are so against the idea then you can
switch with one of the guys," she said, and Shiro felt a pang of regret in his
chest when he noticed the hurt in her eyes.
"Who can I switch with? Lance is your brother, and I know you would rather not
do it. Hunk has that girl you mentioned. Coran is definitely out of the table
and Keith doesn't like...!" he started off, before noticing that he had been
about to spill it. Ariela's head shot up at that phrase.
"What doesn't he like?" she asked in a whisper, and Shiro blushed.
"He doesn't like you," Shiro lied, lowering his head, so he completely missed
Ariela frowning in disbelief at him, but then the hurt returned to her eyes.
"I guess no one does," she whispered then, and the bang in Shiro's chest was
strong enough to make him react this time, realising that he was acting like a
baby.
"No, don't get me wrong, Ari. I do, you are... Wow, you are stunning. The king
didn't know what he was talking about," he said, and a knot surged in his heart
when he noticed Ariela blushing. A few of the servants sighed happily at
hearing him say that. "It's just that... You are the one thig keeping me from
falling apart. I can't lose my only pillar," he said, and his voice partially
cracked at the end.
Shiro's scent was mixed with so many things that Ariela felt dizzy. She could
recognise fear, happiness, and a sweet yet spicy thing she couldn't quite
place. There also was the pulling of the bond. Bagheera had explained it to
her: the Voltron bond, pulling paladins and their robots together. It was weird
for the black panther paladin to be so connected to the team, but she was
closer to the team than the previous paladin seemed to be. Apparently, they
didn't even talk.
She could feel Shiro's insecurity and fear pulling her in, making her want to
comfort him. Pat his back, tell him that everything would be alright. So she
did.
Ariela looked at the servant measuring her with questioning eyes, and the woman
nodded, so she got down on her little podium and walked towards Shiro. He
seemed surprised when she got up and hugged him tightly, but the surprise
didn't stop him from wrapping his arms around her and burying his nose in her
hair.
"It is going to be okay, Shiro. I won't leave you alone, no matter how the
night goes," she told him with a smile. "After all, I've taken it as a job to
make you feel better," she added, finally parting from him and looking at his
eyes with gold irises filled with warm feelings that made Shiro's stomach do a
flip.
I think that you might be attracted to her in more than one way Black sing-sang
in his mind, but he slapped the voice out of his head immediately, hearing a
chuckle after, as he finally focused on the feeling of Ariela against him and
how she looked in that moment.
It was not like that time they had kissed in her bedroom. They were calm now,
and the moment felt so much more intimate now despite being watched by six pig-
aliens that were enjoying this as someone would enjoy a Mexican soap-opera. He
could feel her breathing crashing warm against his skin and could see her chest
filling and then letting the air go. She was a little bit paler than that time,
and there were a really light dark circles under her eyes, but she still looked
great.
Now that he had her tight there, pressed against her body and being able to see
her in a different way he had never seen anyone but Lila before, it wasn't so
hard to imagine how the night would go. Well, at least he didn't fear it
anymore.
It was the servant's chuckle that made them break away, Shiro blushing madly
and Ariela with rosy cheeks.
****** - - - ******
The swimming pool was huge, made out of tiles of different shades of blue, and
it was located in a gallery with sight to the sea. They had been given some
black cloth that looked like a swimsuit, and the women had white tunics too.
The water was really cool and transparent. Lance was in heaven.
Because of that and because of the sight of Keith, shirtless and wet.
He had gotten taller, he noticed, maybe three inches. His chest and back had
gotten a little bit broader and his abs... Jesus. His abs and that ass may be
the reason Lance had been programmed to like dudes. His skin was particularly
pale that day, looking almost white.
And Keith wasn't doing much better. He had never really seen Lance without
clothes on (that time in Ariela's bedroom didn't count, it was too dark to
appreciate the view), so the second he saw the supposedly skinny and tall guy
shirtless he almost fainted. his legs were long and lean, thighs made to bite,
but he already knew that. No, the surprising part was upstairs. He had a
shoulder waist ratio of a Dorito, chest and back so broad Keith was starting to
believe Lance was a professional swimmer instead of a pilot student before
becoming a paladin. And the worst things were the freckles. His shoulders and
back were showered with ginger freckles that Keith could spend his life
counting and hold on, hold on... No, there was a new worst thing. The worst
thing was his back dimples or Venus dimples. Not even the tattoo they had all
just discovered ( a sequence of runes which had been explained, but Keith was
too busy dying to pay attention) had been as bad as the dimples.
"Hey, Keith!" Shiro called as he appeared from the door in his own black...,
something similar to a swimsuit (it was longer than their pants, reaching the
ankles, and it also had a long-sleeved shirt on the outfit), with Ariela
following suit behind him in one of the white tunics. The moment she saw the
swimming pool her face lit up and she started running, diving into the water
flawlessly and swimming to the other end of the pool before getting out to take
a breath. Lance made a sound similar to a howl and dived in from the stairs he
had been sitting at, chest stroking his way to his sister at an amazing speed.
Shiro just chose to calmly walk down the stairs.
"I have never been so gay in my whole life," was what Keith said, in a whisper,
once his brother was next to him.
"I can't believe I'm getting laid before you do," Shiro laughed, clamping him
in the shoulder.
Meanwhile, in the other end of the pool, the siblings were having a breakdown.
"I tell you I'm a hundred percent sure that he is indeed gay," Ariela assured,
and Lance looked at her with narrowed eyes.
"What did Shiro say that makes you think that?" he asked, and Ariela rolled her
eyes, before submerging for a fraction of second and coming back up again.
"He was panicking about the whole us having sex thing and I told him that, if
he felt so bad because of it, he should just switch with one of you," she
started, but Lance cut her.
"I can't believe you took that risk!" he muttered, angry, before splashing her
in the face with the cool water. She splashed him back.
"He was about to break down, Lance! It doesn't matter how fine he is if he
doesn't want it! Anyway, he started saying reasons for the rest not being valid
and he said that Keith didn't like and he made a pause," she said.
"You think he was going to say that Keith didn't like gals," Lance supposed.
"Yes. He said that Keith didn't like me, but c'mon... You can't be into women
and not be into me," she joked, and Lance snorted before his eyes opened wide
in panic and realisation.
"What if he is asexual?" he asked her, and Ariela groaned.
"Do we know someone that is asexual, Lance? Why would he be the first?" she
asked.
"We know Pidge."
"Oh, she told you?" Lance, nodded, but she brushed it off. "The study says that
one in five people are gay, not asexual," was her comeback.
"We are ten people. We have room for two gay people. Nallely is one, and you
and I together make a whole gay, so there's no room for Keith to be gay," he
said, and Ariela looked so done it was unbelievable.
"Are you even listening to yourself, Lance?" Her brother groaned and buried his
face in his hands. "What are you going to do?" she asked and he looked at her
from between his fingers.
"I think I'll prepare the ground, instead of just jumping onto him," he said,
nodding o himself, looking to the stairs of the pool and catching Keith's eyes
on him.
****** - - - ******
They had a week of rest, well, at least Ariela and Shiro, that weren't allowed
to leave Keskeuro's palace. Shiro had had to leave someone prepared to take his
place in the interviews Admiral Garrison had threatened to do, and that person
turned out to be Pidge. Lance told Ariela to expect many memes when she was
allowed to get into the computer again, as Pidge does not have patience with
stupid people, such as reporters. A major lie had been invented to excuse both
of the black paladin's absence and, despite the sassy comebacks and slight
rudeness, the interviews seemed to go greatly with Pidge in charge. That week
was also used to repair the Castle. Thousands of Keuskerians had their hands
woking on the metal and by the fourth day, it was almost done. And all those
who weren't working at the Castle were preparing everything for the festivity,
even the offerings. Ariela couldn't believe that they just had to break down
and have to be used as sex offers in a planet where waxing was an essential
thing.
Apparently, hair was not well seen in Keuskero's culture, because the more hair
you had the closer you were to an animal, so Keuskerians waxed their whole body
and put their skin through a procedure that avoided any hair from growing back.
A procedure that hurt like hell, but Ariela did it anyways because, hey! She
wouldn't have to wax anymore! Although she had been kind of forced to do it,
and she had had to fight with claws and teeth for the servants to not shave her
head and wax all of her eyebrows off.
She would laugh so hard when she knew that Shiro had to go through the same
thing.
Because that was another thing. They couldn't see each other until the night of
the Festival. No one knew why, but they just couldn't, which made Shiro feel
like crap because he couldn't sleep.
It was the third night without sleep when his door was opened suddenly, and
Lance and Keith appeared with grumpy faces. Ariela had gone banging to Lance's
bedroom to tell him that he had to go and cuddle Shiro to sleep or she would
personally make sure their death was painfully slow. So, although it took him a
while, Shiro ended up falling asleep sandwiched between Lance and Keith. There
was something weird and out of place: Lance was warmer than Ariela, and
although they smelt similar, it wasn't the same, but he didn't complain because
he was able to sleep three hours in a row.
And then the big night arrived.
"I'm not going out like this," he said firmly. Keith wanted to roll his eyes,
but before doing so Shiro added. "There's no shirt in this outfit?" And the red
paladin noticed why his brother was so bothered by the lack of shirt.
Everyone would be able to see his scars, his plenty deal of ugly scars in the
back and chest, there were also small and deep cuts in his arm. hand and neck.
There was not a single patch of skin that wasn't crossed by at least a faint
white line. The bagged blue pants made out of silk hid the ones in his legs,
but that wasn't enough. Even the one's at his hips were visible.
Keith cringed when he managed to distinguish claw marks.
"I'm sorry, paladin, but this is it," the servant that was dressing him said,
as he slipped a necklace made out of rubies in his neck.
"I can't come out like this," he said, looking at the servant with fear, but
when he said nothing he turned to Keith. "She's going to hate them, Keith."
"You never showed her?" he asked, and Shiro lowered his head and shook it.
"Why would I? It's gross," he answered, pointing at his reflection in the
mirror.
Keith only tried to lift his brother's spirit for five minutes, then he ran
towards the room on the other side of the floor. When he knocked on the door,
Lance was the one to open.
"Is Ariela here?" he asked, panting, and Lance nodded, stepping aside to let
him in. Keith gasped.
Ariela was standing in front of a mirror, as a servant standing on a stool
fixed her hair. She was wearing a chiffon red skirt, so long it dragged across
the floor, with sapphires decorating the hipline and cuts that showed her legs.
Then a red top, with crossed straps, made out of silk. She had ankle bracelets
and bracelets made out of gold and sapphires, that tinkled with every slight
move of hers. Her eyes were painted with a deep blue and her lips with a bright
red, and the servant was tangling little blue flowers on her hair.
"Oh, god. Ariela, you look great," he breathed out with a sincere smile, and
the woman turned to him with a soft one.
"Really?" she asked, and just in time the servant finished her work.
"Yeah." Keith shook his head. "But that's not why I'm here. I need you to talk
to Shiro. He is having a little crisis," Keith said, not wanting to explain the
whole thing with Lance there, listening.
"But I can't see him," Ariela said, walking towards him barefoot.
"You can speak to him through the door," Keith proposed, but she was already
getting out of the bedroom.
"I'll be right back," she screamed to both Lance and the servant who started to
power walk after them, as Ariela trotted next to Keith, the sound of bracelets
tinkling filling the air.
Soon they were in front of Shiro's bedroom door, and Keith asked her to stay
there as he went inside. Shiro was sitting at the edge of the large bed,
fidgeting with his own hands and head hanging low. Keith cleared his throat and
he rose his.
"Come'ere," Keith told him, signalling him to get near the open door, and
stopping him once he was just next to the door panel.
"Why did you...?" Shiro started, but Ariela's voice sounded to his ears clear
and worried.
"Shiro? Are you okay there?" she asked, and Shiro's face seemed to light up.
Oh, no. He's just as in deep as me Keith thought, as he watched how Shiro gave
a hesitant step closer to the door.
"I-I'm kind of fine," he answered, and they could hear a sigh from the other
side.
"Keith told me that you didn't want to come out of your room." Shiro lowered
his head in shame again.
"I don't feel comfortable in this clothes. They are..."
"Keith also told me why you didn't want to come out," she added, and it cut him
completely. There was a kind of long silence, in which Ariela waited for him to
say something, but Shiro stayed mute. "Shiro, there's nothing to feel bad
about," she said and a spark of fury crossed his eyes.
"They are horrible, Ariela. I want to throw up when I see them," he muttered
through gritted teeth.
"I bet you are exaggerating. Look, I have stretch marks and moles and freckles
and regrettable tattoos and a little scar on my feet. I know they don't compare
to whatever you have, but if you can see mine I can see yours," she said, and
then chuckled. "That sounded awful. I apologise, my mind is not in its proudest
moment."
"I don't want you to think I'm disgusting," Shiro said, completely ignoring
what Ariela had just said. She sighed again.
"Those scars are the physical memory of what you went through. They are not
disgusting, they are honourable. You probably shouldn't be alive right now, and
those scars just prove how you mocked death," she said. Shiro paused again.
"You promise you won't hate them?" he asked.
"I pinky promise."
Chapter End Notes
     -¡Lance!¡Es tu chance de ponerla con el Nico Di Angelo espacial!:
     Lance! This is your chance of getting laid with space Nico Di Angelo!
     -¡'tás ambientosa hoy, eh!: You're looking for trouble today, huh?
     Well, things are getting Tom-Hiddleston's-laugh-worthy
     (ehehehhehehe). Now that I have finally sat the FCE (First
     Certificate Exam, a Certificate from Cambridge) and I'm on my summer
     holidays I'll have much more free time, so in the next two month's
     this fic might be finished, but I'm not sure, delays always can
     happen.
     For the klance fans, calm down. They are the late bloomers in this
     fic.
     Don't forget to leave kudos if you are liking it and, if you have the
     time, comment everything and anything you want. Reviews are always
     useful and recieved with open arms. Also, I'll leave my blog's url
     here (http://thenwebohemianq.tumblr.com/), where everything is this
     fic related and I can chat more freely with you! Feel free to send
     asks about anything1
     See you in the next chapter! Love ya.
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Summary
     ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ
     ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
I don't want you to think I'm disgusting.
Once she had managed to reassure Shiro that everything would be alright, her
servant had dragged her back to her bedroom. They had to wait until midnight
for the procession to the goddess temple to begin. The men went first, they
arrived at the temple and waited for the women. And then the ceremony started.
So she was stuck in her bedroom, alone with her servant because Lance had
already gone away. She was waiting and thinking, Shiro's words echoing in her
mind over and over again. She knew that he thought poorly of himself, but she
never suspected it came to this point. Because they had been talking, that
daily hour they had when she helped Shiro try to recover from his PTSD.
You'll see, PTSD is strongly involved with the mind not being able to register
a really traumatic situation and the best way to treat it is make the person
that suffers put the traumatic experience into words so that their mind can
slowly register the traumatic event and get some closure. So, every night
before going to sleep, Shiro and she would sit down, and he would tell her
everything he could remember. And yes, he had many times explained how much he
had hated himself for not being stronger, for not being braver or smarter or
more skilled, for not saving the Holts or not killing Zarkon when "he had the
chance". But, in those many many nights, the subject of him hating his body or
at least what had been done to it had never surged.
So that was just another problem to write down and talk about with Shiro, and
she was thinking about how she could bring it up again when the second priest
appeared and told her that her procession was about to start.
And, as the women walked in the dark of the night and sweated like pigs (no pun
intended) because of the hot and heavy air, towards the temple in the edge of a
cliff that looked to the sea, Shiro was panicking in that same temple, as the
priest explained him about the ritual; it was all related to fire and water.
Fire represented the women; the temptation of sexual passion and the
destructiveness of the flames (because women destroyed everything, apparently).
Water was men; the fierceness of the waves and the life giver (because, yeah,
women were only a small part in this whole birth giving business). In this
ritual, both elements should be balanced and that lead to the fertility
because... And then Shiro just stopped listening to focus on is own dread.
He was panicking. He and all of the men had already arrived at the temple along
with his friends, but they hadn't been allowed to stay with him. The only ones
allowed into the "offering circle" where the priests and the two offerings, so
he was stuck in the middle of the temple's principal room with the priest's
cold glare digging at his left temple. Many of the Keuskerians were pointing at
him and murmuring, probably wondering where all of those scars had come from,
and his friends could do nothing but death-glare the one's pointing at him and
smile with confidence to Shiro.
He couldn't stop thinking about many things. What if what happened that night
actually affected his relationship with Ariela? What if, the minute she saw
him, she felt repelled? He felt so tempted to bail; now that the Castle was
almost totally repaired they were supposed to have the ability to flee, so he
would tell Ariela that he wouldn't do it when they were left alone, and the
next morning they would run away. But a servant had told him about how the last
couple that refused to participate had been burnt alive in the pyre the morning
after. He didn't want to be burnt alive, but that also brought questions to his
mind. How the fuck did the priests know if you had done it the same night?
Better not think about that.
He was panicking, hard. But then the giant gates of the temple, bathed in gold,
opened and he suddenly couldn't breathe but in a good way.
Ariela was stunning. He immediately noticed how her clothes had been made to
remark her curves and try to make her loo a little bit more round. Jewels
shone, catching both the moon's and the torches' light, and fabric flickered in
the air thanks to the ocean breeze. She looked distant, as she walked
distractedly, eyes nailed on the floor. She didn't look up until she saw
Shiro's feet, and when she did look up he almost wished she hadn't.
Her expression twisted into something Shiro didn't want to analyze when her
eyes encountered the first scar, a deep nasty cut along Shiro's right hip. She
kept going, slowly, taking her sweet time to inspect all of them. She opened
her mouth to say something when the priest spoke.
"Kneel." They knelt on the floor, face to face.
"Shiro, I...," she started, but the priest shushed her, gaining a hate-filled
gaze from her, but Ariela kept quiet, just looking at him with gentle eyes as
if trying to speak through them, but the man lowered his gaze.
The ceremony was too long and slow, but it ended sooner that Shiro would have
liked. It had been made in an unknown language none of the foreigners could
understand, so it that made everything even worse, but when they were told to
get up, the rest of the people already leaving the temple, and taken to an
adjacent room he wished to listen to that ceremony forever.
"Don't do anything sketchy," one of the priests said, and he closed the golden
doors shut.
The room was huge, and it almost didn't have walls. Windows that reached the
high vaulted ceiling gave an amazing sight of the agitated ocean, red with blue
designs curtains flopping in the air because of the wind. Ariela's skirt was
doing something similar, and she suddenly felt really refreshed from the heat
of the night and the hot of the nerves and anxiety. Because, yeah, sex wasn't a
spiky subject with her. As long as it was done with someone you trusted then it
was all okay. But this was Shiro, mister hot beef, mister mentally and
physically scared, mister "I can't lose my only pillar". He was something
delicate and complicated in her eyes, and she just didn't want to damage him
more.
She eyed the huge bed to their right, red covers probably made of silk looking
too inviting for a good sleep instead of sex, and walked towards Shiro to grab
his hand.
"Come here," Ariela told him with a smile, as she dragged him towards the bed.
Shiro wanted to escape, fling himself out of one of those windows and into the
raging ocean, but instead he followed her suit and sat down at the edge of the
bed.
"You are tense," she told him, as she knelt behind him on the bed.
"You are disgusted," he replied with a grumble, and Ariela's head popped up
from behind him, hair and flowers tickling him in the right shoulder.
"What do you mean?" she asked confused, worrying more when he didn't look at
her.
"I saw you looking at them before, you looked disgusted," Shiro answered, and
Ariela rested her head on his shoulder, her hands sliding up his back and
started to massage him. "I know you don't like them, but I can't do anything
about them." He sounded like he was defending himself from a verbal attack.
"I have no problem with your scars, Shiro. I don't think they are disgusting,"
she said, kissing one that started at the base of his neck to prove her point,
making Shiro shudder and his breath tangle on his throat. "Is the people that
did this to you the ones I don't like," she added.
"So you don't hate them," he asked, finally turning his head to catch her eyes,
the knot on his stomach slowly starting to undo.
"I don't, and I can kiss them all to prove it if you want to, but it'll take a
while," she smiled, looking at him with half lidded eyes. His gut tied itself
into a knot again. "So, how do you want to do this?" she asked, and Shiro let
out a breathy laugh, sending warm air that reeked of jasmines against Ariela's
skin.
"Okay, fuck it," he muttered jokingly, as he turned his body slightly to face
her. "Um..." he mumbled, as he awkwardly put his left hand on her waist,
feeling the muscle twitch under his warm touch. Ariela stopped breathing, the
only sound filling the air being the crashing of the waves down on the shore
and the curtains flying with the soft wind, that carried the salty sea water
air towards them.
"Can I?" she asked, pointing at his lap, and he nodded even before actually
thinking what it meant, Ariela's ankle bracelets tinkling softly as she slipped
her right leg over his and sat on his lap, putting her hands on his chest and
taking in a deep breath. "If there's anything you don't like you just have to
say it, alright?" she asked, looking at his lips.
"Same," he breathed out before she leant in.
And, just like the first time they had kissed, she just pressed her lips
against his for a few seconds, before parting and putting a few centimetres
between them, breathing hot puffs of air that tasted really sweet into his
mouth. Shiro, again, reached out for her face and cupped her jaw, pressing his
thumb on her lower lip and sliding it, loving how the flesh moved and how the
paint faded. He leant in the second time, this time lips actually tangling and
mouths moving, slowly.
It was basic kissing for a few minutes, Ariela slowly rubbing over his
collarbones and shoulders, not minding the roughness of the scars at all, as
she tilted her head. Shiro put his right hand on her waist too, the cold metal
biting into her hot skin and making her break the kiss and hiss, but it was
just like the time she had gone into that weird heat. She was giving off that
scent of chocolate and roses that made his head swim, the only thought that
floated on it was having her, so he just put his left hand on her nape and
pulled her in again, turning the kiss into something more hungry, but still
slow, making the woman sigh against his skin.
He made her part her lips and slipped his tongue in her mouth, her taste not
being familiar but not unknown either, and he thought he would gladly get to
know it better, as he lowered the hand on the woman's waist to her hips and
pulled her even nearer to him, pressing her body flush against his and feeling
the metal fingers digging into her skin, stopping because of the bone. The
thought that it might hurt her crossed his mind quickly, but he brushed it off
when she moaned lowly and longly in his mouth, the sound quickly travelling
down to his groin and making him shiver.
His whole body felt too hot, muscles tensing and relaxing constantly, his skin
feeling too sensitive and enjoying the caress of the red clothes and Ariela's
soft hands, as she slid them from his chest to his nape and back, starting to
scratch slowly, in rhythm with their kissing and the circles Shiro was rubbing
against her hipbone, enjoying how his finger slipped on one side and then the
other. The nervous knot on his stomach was slowly fading away, as he gave in to
the feelings and the scent. He had forgotten how good it felt. Because, besides
from the cuddling, the only physical contact he had been having for the last
year and a half was fists or other harmful things landing on his skin and
usually splitting it over, causing the scars Ariela was running her fingers
over, making him shiver and gasp for breath when they broke the kiss to
breathe.
"You okay?" she asked, her eyes still closed, and he whispered a breathy yes,
as he licked his lips and looked at her; lips no longer red because of the
paint, but because of how much he had sucked and bitten on them, making them
swell. He lifted the hand that was still cupping her jaw and ran it over her
hair, and surprisingly she threw her head back to follow the move, exposing her
tanned throat. Shiro dove in without thinking, placing a really big open-
mouthed kiss on her jugular, repeating the motion over and over again, as he
slowly made his way up to her chin and then back down to the place where her
collarbones met. Ariela gasped at the feeling of the hot mouth closing around
the skin of her throat, hand flying up to the part of Shiro's hair that was
longer and tugging gently.
If someone asked, none would be able to answer who had started to grind, but it
was slow and dragged long breaths out of them, hips moving together and making
their minds fog even more. Shiro groaned, the friction on his crotch feeling so
good, as he slid both of his hands down and grabbed Ariela's ass, making her
let out a breathy chuckle when he started to set the rhythm he wanted. She
leant in, starting her duty to suck on the side of his jaw until the skin was
swollen, littering the white pale skin with red marks that looked so good and
sinful at the same time when she opened her eyes to look at them. She could
feel the arousal already pooling in the pit of her stomach, making her skin
more sensitive and the want grow stronger.
"We should move it to the real part of the bed where we don't fall down," and
he immediately stood up, Ariela tangling her legs around his waist before
kissing him even more hungrily.
Shiro walked around the bed as he kept kissing her, his tongue working hard on
the woman's mouth and making her sigh and moan before he dropped her in the
middle of the bed and crawled on top of her. The smell of roses and chocolate
was practically drowning him, making the only thought in his mind being how
good it all felt, how nice it was to hear and see the woman underneath him,
taste the salt in her skin as he lowered himself to kiss and lick his way to
her cleavage.
He rose his eyes and Ariela was nodding, throwing her arms up to help him, even
before he asked anything. He helped her slide out of the top and proceeded with
his job, before Ariela flipped him over, straddling his hips.
"I won't let you do everything alone," she laughed in his ear with sultry
voice, making Shiro groan as she bit on his earlobe, before sliding down.
"Oh, god," he moaned.
****** - - - ******
Shiro was snoring. He had never snored ever since he had come back from the
Galra ship. Keith was in between wishing he could take pictures, cringing, and
admiring how relaxed his brother was.
Shiro was sleeping on his back, one arm thrown over his eyes and the other
around Ariela, holding her close to his chest. She was curled up against him,
head resting on his chest and arms wrapped around Shiro's waist. A red sheet
was covering them both, luckily, because when the crew of the Castle of Lions
got into the room Pidge and Nallely started playing a game of who could spot
the more clothes, and they had spotted absolutely everything the two black
paladin's had been wearing last night, thrown around the bed.
The only thing stopping Lance from jumping onto Shiro's bones when he saw
Ariela's neck and shoulders peppered with hickeys was seeing the man's neck and
shoulders covered with hickeys and bite marks.
They were all there, as it was a tradition for the family and friends of the
offerings to be the ones to wake the "happy couple" up the next day and
congratulate them on the expectancy. But, being the crew, they were there just
to mock them.
"I honestly don't know what you see in him," Nallely muttered, squinting at
Shiro, and Lance snorted.
"C'mon. You might not like guys, but you have to admit he is hot," he said, and
Nallely turned to look at Allura with a side smile, nonchalantly.
"He is certainly not my type," she said. Allura heard her and turned to catch
the Grigkean's eyes on her. The princess blushed deeply in record time, nailing
her eyes on the bed's headboard and not moving a single muscle as if Nallely
was some sort of predator that would jump on her if she moved. Good luck Lance
was going after Keith now because he was not sure if he could compete with
that.
"So, who will be the one to wake them up?" Allura asked.
"SHIRO! WAKE UP!" Keith screamed, using his hands as a horn, and Shiro's eyes
shot open, his whole body tensing before relaxing, and then noticing they were
not alone and tensing again.
"Guys? What are you doing here?" he asked as he rubbed his face with one hand
and gripped the sheets with the other. Ariela murmured something and sneaked
behind the sheets, curling herself into a ball.
"The priest said something about us having to wake you up," Hunk answered, and
Ariela growled at the mention of the priest like a dog would growl at someone
who had attacked their owner. She seemed to hate the guy.
"Did something happen with him?" Keith asked, picking up the threat not only in
the growl but in the scent that had suddenly started to filter in the room.
Shiro got red that Coran was surprised he didn't faint after all of his blood
travelled to his chest, neck and ears. Ariela just kept growling, the sound
becoming louder with each second passing.
"I rather not talk about it," Shiro said.
"Whatever. We brought you clothes. The Castle is ready. Once you are dressed we
are leaving this planet. We have plenty to do," Allura said, shrugging as she
dropped the stack of clothes they had taken from their rooms. "C'mon guys," she
said, and all the crew left the room quickly.
"I wonder what she has been doing this last week. She was kind of tense but
happy at the same time," Ariela said, as she popped back from under the
blankets and got out of the bed, making Shiro blush even harder, as she went to
fetch her clothes. Then he spotted the finger-shaped bruises on her left hip.
"I'm sorry about that," he said, pointing at them, but she dismissed it with a
gesture of her hand, as she slipped in her underwear.
"You are saying that just because you didn't see your back," was her answer.
She was already putting on a pastel pink jumpsuit by the time Shiro had the
balls to get up too, leaving the cover of the red sheets behind and start to
get dressed.
"How much do you think they will tease us?" Ariela asked him, noticing that he
was feeling really awkward, with a funny smile. Shiro looked down, smiling too,
and noticed the ankle bracelets still on.
"A lot. You are going to keep them?" he asked, and she shrugged.
"They are pretty," was her answer. She stood in front of him, arms crossed over
her chest, as she waited for him to finish getting dressed, and the need to
joke about it was growing in Shiro's mind.
He was putting his shirt on when he said:
"So, rating from a one to a ten... How good was it?" he asked with a really
faked and tense cheeky smile. Ariela snorted, before turning around and
starting to walk. She had already reached the door, and Shiro didn't expect her
to answer, but then...
"An eight. I was good, but there's still room for improvement," she answered,
before opening the door.
****** - - - ******
They actually fled the planet, barely greeting the king as the left. After
leaving the temple, they were in the Castle, flying through space, in fifteen
minutes.
Allura wanted to have a general meeting in that exact moment, but she allowed
them to have a really quick shower (Ariela had to stay behind to drink a small
blue pill that Allura gave her, along with a glass of water) and return running
to the room where they had established their meetings base.
The Castle was prepared to fit three thousand people more than comfortably, so
there were many rooms with multiple purposes that hadn't been used because...
They were ten people too busy to explore the Castle, and the only two that knew
their way around it would feel too nostalgic if they visited the rooms that
used to be boiling with life. The ballroom, the communication room, the other
training decks, the observatory, and the living room. Because the last week
Pidge had practically lived on the abandoned control deck, being interviewed by
annoying people, Allura and Coran had reconfigured the Castle. Now you could
access to almost everything from any room and had moved their "office" to the
living room of the ninth floor.
The paladins had never been out of the first floor and the basements, so it was
really weird for them to discover that surprisingly big (really big, prepared
to hold at least a hundred and fifty people at one) room on the ninth floor. It
had carpeted rooms, sofas, chairs, tables, empty shelves, actual beanbags, and
an amazingly wide picture window that you could program to show the place you
wanted (like a beautiful view of an Altean city).
Shiro and Ariela appeared on the living room with their hair still dripping,
Lance guiding them and looking at everything with wide-eyed. Just in the
centre, under a huge floating cubic lamp of warm light, the rest of the crew
was waiting for them. A computer (a blue, flat square that allowed you to
access to all of the information on the Castles software and create holograms
to your liking) had been placed on a white coffee table, and it was showing
pictures of different galaxies, the images changing every five seconds. The
planets were marked red, green or blue.
"While you two rested this long week, we decided that we have had enough,"
Allura started, as she sat gracefully on a sofa in front of the computer.
Ariela smiled when she noticed what she was wearing. The woman had used the
synthesiser to create a beautiful white dress with crossed straps and an
asymmetrical skirt. Nallely had her eyes nailed on the coffee table, knowing
that if she looked she wouldn't be able to part her eyes.
"Did we do something wrong?" Shiro asked, nervous, as he sat down next to Keith
in another sofa. Ariela just sat on the floor, back resting against the sofa
where Lance was sitting.
"No," Coran answered.
"You have been thoroughly trained, and our crew is stronger now. But, even
though our situation has improved we will never be able to actually defeat the
Empire if we go planet by planet, freeing them just to go away and have the
Galra colonising them again," Allura started, and with a gesture of her hand,
the hologram expanded. "Lance and Coran helped me to divide the universe into
quadrants. We used the intelligence and the distress calls the Castle has been
recollecting this past ten thousand years to estimate which planets are still
free and putting up a fight."
"We managed to make a thousand allies, more or less," Lance proceeded,
surprising Ariela. "We have been making calls day and night, but we managed to
have at least five fighting planets on our side per each quadrant that will be
trying to take the Galra down on their own. They help us freeing the slaves and
we focus on destroying the power chain," he explained.
"There are a few planets that didn't want to do business on video call, so we
will have to pay them a visit. We are starting tomorrow, and this is the hard
part," Allura started, calling their attention to her. "We can't afford wasting
more time doing everything we can to get an alliance. If it hadn't been because
we wouldn't be able to repair the Castle we would have left Keskeuro on their
own. From now on, if a planet says no, we walk away and leave them to their own
luck," she said, and Ariela thought it was a little rough, but then she saw the
mixture of hurt and determination in the princess' eyes and knew that it was
the right thing.
"Isn't it a little bit..., I don't know, mean? Maybe they are just afraid,"
Hunk said, and Allura sighed.
"It is mean. It is really really mean, Hunk," she started. "But you know what
else is mean? What the Empire is doing. This week alone the Galra colonised one
hundred new planets and destroyed twenty. We are in the middle of a war and
time is not something we have on our side," she explained.
"We are outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered, outplanned," Ariela said, gaining a
snort from Lance. "There is no time to be afraid, Hunk. Neither for us nor for
them."
"Yeah, I get it," he said.
"Kieth, Nallely and Sugey have been cataloguing our allies and setting an inner
net of help. Who has what and who needs what. When we have the files ready we
will send them to all or our allies. A contact list of resources and help,"
Allura kept explaining.
"Do we know anything about if Haxus was able to contact the Galra? Records on
the Castle's communication system, anything?" Shiro asked.
"Either he couldn't do it or he did it without leaving a trail. By the way,
Ariela, a bazillion of your friends and familiars called saying that they saw
the video of you fighting Haxus on the news and that they needed to talk to you
whenever you had the chance," Nallely said.
"You spoke with my friends and family?" she asked, assuming that with family
the Grigkean meant the McClains.
"Yeah, I just explained the situation shortly and told them you would return
the call as soon as you could," she answered.
"I am so fucked. I will get an earful from Idania tonight," she groaned,
burying her face in her hands, as Lance compassionately rubbed her back.
"Talking about people on Earth," Pidge started, tapping a few things on a
tablet and the hologram changed to a page of a magazine. The picture of the
crew the day they had first spoken with Admiral Garrison was there with the
title "We are at war, and this are our soldiers". "The public loves us, the
government is unstable," she said.
"Wait, there's a public?" Shiro asked, disbelief tainting his voice, as he
questioned the choice of word.
"Yes, public. Apparently not being invaded by the Galra yet has made your
people feel untouchable and they are watching all of this from behind a
screen," Coran said, rolling his eyes. "That Admiral of yours asked us to
record the battles and send the good footages to him," he explained. Keith
growled.
"They are profiting from a war where millions are dying every day," he said
through gritted teeth.
"That is what happens in every war, Keith. Don't be surprised," Hunk said.
"And I used to think you were punny," Allura sighed, making all of the human
eyes travel towards her, and she noticed the offence in their expressions. "Oh,
come on. Your species seems weak and stupid at the beginning," she insisted,
and all of the aliens backed her up.
"But, if it makes you feel better, once I knew you I thought that humans were
incredibly dangerous," Sugey added, making Ariela smile.
"Continuing on the topic," Allura said. She grabbed another tablet, tapped a
few things, and an actual schedule appeared. "We have fifteen training decks
available now, so I took the freedom to rearrange your training schedules. The
training will be more intensive from now on. Your team bond is really strong,
so we will be focusing on the individual stuff. Coran managed to activate the
training tutor simulations, and Pidge and Sugey built these," she said, taking
a box from under the sofa.
"They are miniaturised versions of the tablets. They allow you to access the
Castle's net wherever you are, and I added a few gadgets to make it work like
cellphones. Everyone's schedules are uploaded there, along with a map of the
castle. There's also a better version of Whatsapp and you can take pictures,
record audio and I don't know what else. You can also access to the internet
from them and install stuff. Go crazy," Pidge said, as she grabbed the box and
gave each of the members of the crew one of the devices.
"It'll help us to get in touch when you don't have your helmets on," Allura
said. "Is there anything I am forgetting?" she asked, and Coran started to rub
his chin.
"Oh, please no. There's too much information for my brain to suck in," Ariela
groaned, already starting to fidget with the device. "Pidge, this is basically
an iPhone," she said.
"Yeah, IOS software is really easy to copy," was the girl's answer. "The only
difference is that ours can submerge up to fifty meters, have more than two
hundred gigas of storage and a camera that is as good as the human eye."
"You should worry about getting a job," Lance muttered, and then his eyes
sparkled. "We should all take a picture!" he exclaimed as he jumped up from his
seat, already standing on the coffee table. "All gather up behind me!" he said.
"Lance, don't..." Ariela said, but, surprisingly, Keith laughed and stood up ad
put himself in the frame. "Alright."
Once they were all in the picture, Lance smiled.
"Everyone say "Voltron"."
****** - - - ******
Grigk, one of the few planets that could stand up to the Galra empire, had
fallen two days after they fought on Keskeuro.
The news had arrived from Feer's mouth. The king of Menosfor had told them
everything he knew with sad eyes, knowing that two Grigkeans were part of the
crew. Apparently, most of them had been murdered, but a few had been left alive
to help the Galra take advantage of the planet.
Nallely and Sugey had zero hope that their village was alive, being the ones
that were more determined to put up a fight.
Allura had been outraged. The news and the Grigkeans reaction's had caused an
outburst of emotions inside of her that had made her scream. How could they be
so calm? How didn't they cry? She, the person that had met the incredible women
living in that village for only three days, felt like digging pins in Galran
eyes. Meanwhile, the two sisters had taken the news in silence and just sighed
sadly, hugged for a minute and then carried on with what they had been doing.
But then she heard Nallely crying in her bedroom that same night. So she had
gone in, surprising herself with the sight of the Grigkean, fierce warrior,
crying as she curled herself up in her bed. The sight making, Allura almost run
to comfort her, ending up with the woman's head on her lap as she brushed her
hair and sang an Altean lullaby.
Nallely hadn't said a single word for almost an hour, but the hurt in her eyes
when she said "They are advancing too fastly" was what made Allura realise that
what they were doing was useless.
One of the most powerful planets they had visited since this whole deal started
had fallen. The only reason Menosfor hadn't had been pure luck, but now they
had a really good planet (Facel) looking after them. Had the Galra been
affected by the few losses? No. How long would it take recover the whole
universe if they kept going like that? Decades and they didn't have that time.
All of those things had made Allura stand up and start calling leaders and urge
them to fight, arranging alliances and deals between different planets and
organise the new schedules. They were running out of time, and without help
they were weak.
"The Galra are advancing in your quarter. If you are lucky you have two weeks
before they take over your planet and turn you all into slaves" had been the
phrase that had made their new allies heads click and accept joining them.
Joining the defense. Joining the resistance.
****** - - - ******
The month and a half after that meeting went..., weirdly.
Training alone was something great at the beginning, but after the first three
days, all of the paladins started resenting the robotic voice of their tutor.
It was a program that worked with the cameras in the training deck and made
difficult-of-understand diagrams about your strengths and weaknesses and told
you how to work on them. Also, based on that diagram, the robotic tutor chose
what training activity you should do.
They wanted to complain, but they couldn't because they were progressing at
giant steps. Their fighting styles were much wider now, and the fights against
the gladiator lasted longer, now that they could adapt the style to the one of
their opponents or change it once their opponent adapted to theirs. Also, they
were all learning how to use multiple different weapons and guns.
Shiro asked her if they couldn't change cuddle partners the third day after the
meeting. And although she had started to sleep with Lance and Shiro with Keith,
they ended up changing because neither Shiro nor Keith could sleep. Lance ended
up sleeping with Shiro, and at the beginning, Keith refused to sleep with
Ariela, but the second night without sleep he gave in.
In spite of Ariela telling him that their relationship wouldn't change after
that night, it had changed for Shiro. If he was kind of weak for her before, he
was much weaker after sharing a bed with her. Touching suddenly built
anticipation in him (anticipation for something that wasn't going to happen)
and training with Ariela was really hard (seeing her sweaty and panting,
hearing her groan and moan made him recall several things that clouded his
mind). Being so close to her was like being close to a fire, it burnt, so he
was left with no other choice than distancing himself slightly if he didn't
want it to hurt anymore. But, when it was time to sleep, he just couldn't.
Keith was cold and he didn't smell anything like Ariela (he smelt like coal,
wood and fuel), but Lance was warm and the smell of ocean breeze resembled the
ocean storm scent of Ariela. He still didn't sleep as much as he used to, but
it was better than nothing.
Keith really felt awkward at the beginning. Although Ariela had that thing that
made you want to trust her with your life, he resisted to that feeling so hard
it made the transition from Lance to her really hard, but after a week he had
gotten used to it and even kind of prefer it. He was not nervous because it was
Lance, so he was even more relaxed. Sometimes he would wake up because of a
nightmare he couldn't remember, and he would hear and feel Ariela purring
loudly in content against his chest, the sound lulling him back to sleep so
fastly it was ridiculous.
With this, Ariela became closer to Keith and Lance closer to Shiro.
With the new harsh training schedule, they were all incredibly tired by the
time where they all organised into a cuddle pile to watch a movie, so the
watching a movie became watching an episode of Modern Family and talking all
playing some game until they someone fell asleep. Someone would carry that
person to the room and then they would all go to sleep.
They wouldn't spend more than a day in each planet, trying to get an alliance,
and almost everyone stayed up on the Castle, training, as Allura and Coran went
down to do business. But, after a sudden attack where Coran had had to defend
Allura alone (although he had done it wonderfully and Allura had kicked some
ass herself), Nallely was added as a guard. And that's the story of how the
duty of lunch was officially passed to Hunk, to everyone's happiness.
They had to fight the Galra five times in that three weeks and a half, fights
in which they came out victorious. The footage, as Admiral Garrison had told
them, was saved and sent to them. Not even an hour after they sent it they saw
it circulating on the internet. And when they found a blog dedicated to making
gifs of their battles and of them they found out that there was a solid fandom.
There were ships, memes and blogs dedicated to spreading trivia facts about
them that were true and made the paladins wonder how those strangers had gotten
them.
The one with most fans was Keith (although Pidge was biting his heels), who was
considered the tsundere one. There were ship wars and kallura and kariela,
having Lance fuming through the ears and starting to tweet stuff encouraging
other ships and his own with Keith. He had to thank God the red paladin didn't
really pay attention to social media.
There even was merchandise being sold.
Back to the Castle, things were changing slowly. Pidge had started to get more
talkative and share her projects with the rest of the team, now that Sugey
worked as some kind of translator to difficult technic slang to something for
the rest of the stupid mortals could easily comprehend. She was becoming more
sociable with them and even started to slightly open up and let them take a
peak of her worries and fears.
Hunk, loving this whole family atmosphere, was juggling with his schedule, the
lunch duty and spending time with each member of the crew. He would ask a
different person to help him in the kitchen every day, and he would also ask
for a sparring partner when they had free training time, where they could just
ignore the robotic tutor for an hour and a half. And then, in the two hours of
spare time, he would try to spend an equal amount with all of them. He was
spreading hugs and compliments as if they were change, now that he felt
comfortable enough to do so, and had eve presented the whole crew to his family
and girlfriend.
Lance was feeling really hopeful and uplifted. Although their new routine was
extremely tiring, knowing that their allies were slowly freeing other planets,
being able to contact his friends and family freely, and the newly-found
fanbase he had on the internet made him feel great. Besides, he was carefully
laying the ground with Keith as he had told Ariela he would do. Shiro wanting
to have him as a nightmare catcher had presented an obstacle, but he quickly
covered it by asking Keith to help him with his swords skills and helping him
with his shooting in exchange. At the beginning it had been awkward because
Keith was clearly tense, but as the days passed he relaxed and began to joke
around with Lance as they trained.
For Keith, this new kind of socialisation was weird. He used to think that the
only motive the rest spent time with him was because they were forced to
establish a god team bond. But now that everyone was training individually and
people actually went looking for him whenever they had the chance... It made
him feel truly wanted. He started to loosen up, to joke more and to actually
let himself rest from the whole fearless part, sometimes expressing his worries
out loud (mostly to Shiro, Hunk or Ariela).
Allura felt like things could actually work out for the first time ever since
she had been left alone with this whole mess, having to let her father's
memories go. The team seemed to support her decisions and help her in
everything they could. Coran was just as helpful as ever. And then there was
Nallely. Nallely, who was slowly starting to flirt with her, showing chivalry
gestures and complimenting her on her looks, personality and leadership
abilities. It made the princess flustered at the beginning, but she quickly
recovered her teasing status and started returning the flirting. Then her heart
started beating faster every time she saw Nallely entering a room, or when she
heard her laugh. Ah, quiznack.
Shiro also felt much better. He could stop relying on his Galra arm now that he
had a variety of weapons to choose, and that took a heavy weight off of his
shoulders. He would talk to his family every day, especially to his cousin
Maicon, who was aware of his problem with Ariela and would tell him suggestions
while chuckling like an idiot. He was also starting to rely more on the rest of
team, having noticed that "showing weakness" didn't subtract from his position
as leader of the team, and the paladins (at least the ones that formed Voltron,
because Ariela did pretty much whatever the hell she wanted) behaved just like
they always did on the battlefield, even though they had heard Shiro talking
about his time on the Galra central.
And Ariela was pleased. She was always tired, yes. Shiro was kind of avoiding
her, yes. She got scolded by her friends and the McCalins every time they saw
footage of her just jumping onto someone, yes. But it all felt like pieces were
falling into place; they were all more united now, the bond being there because
they actually wanted and sought for it instead of being there because it was
needed and it pulled them together. The only thing that gave her headaches now
(besides the robotic voice of her tutor) were the interviews. Apparently, the
career she had followed at university not being related to piloting or space
made her the target of suspicion and hate from the reporters, although she was
loved by the public. In every interview, she was treated like a terrorist on
the cover.
Like it was happening right now.
"So, despite not having any training as a pilot whatsoever, you are capable of
flying the black panther?" a redhead reported questioned her, and she rubbed
her face before answering. She was at Bagheera's hangar, watching how Hunk,
Coran and Sugey checked the robot's state while she gave the interview.
"I believe princess Allura has already explained this but it's okay," she said
with a fake smile. "The robot's mind fuses with its pilot's, so practically I
have the knowledge of how to pilot the panther on my brain because the panther
gave it to me," she explained slowly, and the reporter made a gesture that
showed he didn't believe that.
"Do you have as much authority as Captain Shirogane does?" another questioned,
and she frowned.
"Excuse me?"
"You two went together on a special secret mission a few weeks ago, and in all
the footage of your battles he never gives you orders, unlike he does with the
rest of the team," the reported explained himself, and Ariela was about to
answer when a woman butted in.
"Are you two in an amorous relationship?"
"What? No! How did you get that from him not bossing me around? Which he
doesn't because the panther and its paladin are a different fighting unit,
apart from Voltron. I am my own captain," she answered.
"Ariela?" Shiro called, as he trotted towards her.
"Shiro!" she said, and a general murmur started in the press room. "Is it too
rude if I kill myself in the middle of press row?" she asked him in a whisper,
once he was close enough, and he laughed.
"Yes it is, and you can't do it because we would die without you," Shiro said.
"When you guys finish with what you are doing you should go up to the meeting
room. Allura and Coran have to tell us something about a planet," he whispered
back. He looked at her for a few seconds, without saying anything, before
awkwardly clamping her in the shoulder and trotting away without giving her the
chance to answer.
"Can you tell us what Captain Shirogane just told you?"
"Are you sure you are not a couple? Lance McClain has been suggesting it on his
latest tweets!"
"Does the fact that you do whatever you want cause tension in the team?"
"Uy, la puta que me parió. Son insoportables" Ariela groaned, covering her
face. They could ask her about the whole alien-human-hybrid thing and no. They
asked this stupidities. "I'm afraid that princess Allura just summoned us all
to a meeting. We will finish this press row whenever we have the time. Pilot
Torres out," she said, and with that, they were gone.
"Allura called for us?" Hunk asked.
"Yeah. A meeting about some planet. May be about an alliance or defending
someone. Let's go, you can finish with Bagheera later," she said.
I pity you so much you have no idea. The other humans are incredibly dumb
Bagheera muttered in her mind, and she sighed.
"You have no idea."
Chapter End Notes
     -Uy, la puta que me parió. Son insoportables: Uy, sun of a bitch.
     They are unbearable.
     Two chapters in two days, yas bitch. Now that I'm on holidays this
     might be my new rhythm.
     Remember to comment and leave kudos if you are liking, and pay a
     visit to my blog (http://thenwebohemianq.tumblr.com/). You can send
     me asks about the fic if you want.
     Love ya.
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
"You called for us?" Coran asked as they arrived at the living room. The rest
of the crew was already sitting around the map of a huge planet, murmuring
about something not even Ariela could catch.
"Yes, we might have a little problem," Allura said, as she urged them to get
closer. Sugey immediately ran to sit next to Pidge and Ariela next to Lance.
Hunk just stayed up, leaning his weight on the back of their sofa and Coran
aimed to sit next to where Allura usually did, but he discovered Nallely was
already there, smiling smugly.
"Humph," he said, just flopping down next to Lance. "Is that Goridion?" he
asked, once he focused on the planet in front of all of them.
"Yes. It is," Allura said with a sigh.
"What is Goridion?" Keith asked, leaning in closer.
"Goridion is one of the most important planets in more than its own quadrant.
It used to be one of Altea's strongest allies," Allura explained, tapping
something on a tablet. The image of a woman appeared in front of them. She was
the angelical type of beautiful, a bright aura around her and warm welcoming
eyes. Her hair was sandy blonde and her eyes a shade of brown too cute to exist
on Earth. "Desa, the queen of one of the fifty kingdoms of Goridion, called
Velime," she pointed out.
"Oh! I knew her grandma. A great queen," Coran said, smiling.
"Well, Desa wants an alliance with Voltron, but she only managed to get eleven
kingdoms on her side. Apparently, Altea being burned down to its ashes makes
the rest think that Voltron will have the same fate," Allura explained.
"It doesn't matter. We need that alliance," Coran said, righting himself.
"Goridion alone has twice the population of Altea. Entire kingdoms are
dedicated to raising soldiers. Their technology is as advanced as ours. They
could turn the tide in our favour," the royal adviser insisted.
"That is why we are going to give them special treatment. We land on that
planet and we don't leave until we have an alliance or prices over our heads.
Lance," Allura said, making him shoot his head up. "You will come with me and
Coran. You are good with statistics and make a good impression on people if you
are not flirting with them," she said.
"Um, are you sure? I don't want to screw up," he murmured, and Ariela elbowed
him in the ribs.
"C'mon. You used to be Drama Club's president. You can do this," she said, and
all of the humans snorted. And Lance actually blushed.
"I'm sure, Lance. I think you've got what it takes," Allura told him with a
reassuring smile. "We have to convince thirty-eight kingdoms to make the
alliance with us. Goridion is a unity, and they won't make decisions with more
than the ten percent of the kingdoms in disagreement. We will have to actually
get down there and make the best impressions we can," she kept explaining.
"Goridion's culture varies a lot depending on which kingdom you stay, but
Velime is really accepting to foreigners, so it will be good that we stay
there. Besides, summer in the south is beautiful," Coran commented.
"We still have to be really careful with our actions. We arrive at Goridion
tomorrow, so you have the rest of the day free to rest."
****** - - - ******
"Hey, pining man, I can hear your inner struggle from here," Keith joked in a
low voice as he dropped next to Shiro on the sofa.
They had the rest of the day for themselves, so everyone had gathered in the
common room to watch an actual movie again, but they had ended up watching the
recording of the time Ariela and Lance acted on the juvenile recreation of the
play. It was almost as good as the original if you listened to Pidge who had
actually gone to Broadway with her family to see it, and now everyone could
understand a fifteen percent more of the sibling's humorous references. Keith
had blushed through the whole thing, not being able to believe that that was
Lance's voice and that he looked that good in Aaron Burr's costume. And seeing
Ariela with long hair and curls was an expirience.
And now, after the two hours and a half, most of them were just chilling on the
pillow pit. Ariela was talking with Pidge and Sugey, as she showed them a small
cube which Shiro had seen her fidgeting with many times before. Coran and Hunk
were helping Lance prepare all the data he thought he could need on the
meetings for the following days, they had gone to the kitchen, so that Hunk
could help while preparing dinner. Allura and Nallely were lying down in the
middle of the pillow pit, chatting softly as they played who could push the
other with her legs.
"Leave me alone, Keith. It's not like you are making a move on Aaron Burr,
sir," he said, pushing Keith gently by the shoulder, without tearing his eyes
apart from Ariela. "I want to die," he then muttered, making Keith snort.
"I insist, you should just go and tell her "Hey, we had a great time that
night. Want to try again?" and she will say yes and a third of the sexual
tension in this ship will be gone," he insisted.
"Okay, hold on. Lance and you. Ariela and me. There's another third missing,"
Shiro said. As an answer, Keith quirked an eyebrow and pointed at the two
women, who were now giggling at something Allura had just said. "Ah, I see your
point."
"Look," Keith started. "You may not see it, but I'm making a progress with
Lance. We train together every day and he jokes around a lot and we talk a lot
too. We know much about the other. But you are growing apart from her, and not
because you want to, just because you are scared," he explained himself, making
Shiro bite his cheek as he thought.
"But, can you really blame me? What if we give it a try and it ends badly? I
can't compromise the team in such a way," he replied, and Keith groaned and
rolled his eyes.
"Listen. I don't know if Ariela told you this, but she "recently" broke up with
her partners of three years! And they are best friends!" Keith told him, and
Shiro frowned.
"Partners?"
"Yeah. She dated the girl first and then the guy joined in. They are still
together, and they are Ariela's best friends," he repeated.
"Whatever. What assures you that it will be like that with me?" he asked.
"Oh my god, I'm seven years younger and much more mature than you," Keith
groaned, as he stood up. "Just do it, Shiro. She won't be the problem if you
break up, and it's not like she has to form Voltron with you if something goes
wrong. I just can't stand you watching from the distance and whining like a
hurt dog no longer," he said and walked away.
There was silence for a few seconds, and then Nallely and Allura snorted.
"Oh, my God. Keith has no chill," the princess snickered. Shiro looked at her
with wide eyes.
"You heard that?" he asked, and Nallely rolled onto her stomach to look at him.
"We heard the whole conversation and we both think like Keith. No one can stand
your pining ass anymore, Shiro. Pidge started a betting pool about if Ariela
would end up noticing or not," she said.
"Literally everyone in this room thinks you should go for it except you,"
Allura added.
Red told me that she will stomp on you the next time she has the chance if you
didn't do it by tomorrow. And I told her that she wouldn't have the chance
because I would have already killed you Black butted in, making him shake his
head as if with that he could send her flying out of his head.
"Okay, you know what? It won't be my fault if all goes to shit," Shiro said,
standing up just at the same time as Ariela went walking past him. "Hey, Ari."
She turned to him with a smile, and suddenly all the eyes were on him.
"Could I talk with you for a second?" he asked her.
"Yeah. I was going to visit Bagheera, but you can come with me," she said,
urging him to follow her with a gesture of her hand. They both left the room,
eyes nailed on their napes.
"Okay, Pidge. You lost," Sugey sing sang happily.
****** - - - ******
"So, what did you want to talk about?" Ariela asked him cheerfully, after they
had made half the way in silence, Shiro getting redder and more awkward by the
second. Now that he was there, he didn't actually know what to say. He didn't
even know what he wanted to ask her.
Because what he wanted was straight up dating. He liked her, and each day
passing it was getting worse, like some kind of illness that started to affect
his whole body. He used to think that he only had the hots for the woman, but
turns out that his dick was not the only problem. No. The realisation crashed
onto him when Ariela had sneezed when they were having dinner and he thought
"Cinnamon roll, to good for this world, too pure" while smiling. He hadn't
noticed he had thought that until Black started cracking up on his head and he
said "Oh, shit" out loud.
"Umm, I..." he started and Ariela turned to look at him, picking up on his
blush and the way he was scrapping his neck.
"Oh. It's about Keskeuro, right?" she asked, and he looked away before nodding.
They were already in the hallway to the panther's hangar. "Ugh, you are going
to ask me to back away, right? Tell me that I'm making things awkward?" she
said, and Shiro almost choked on his own spit.
They appeared on the hangar and the panther stopped walking happily towards
Ariela when he spotted the man. Then, he just laid on the ground, growling.
"Ignore him. He's a diva," Ariela said, hugging herself and looking down at the
floor. "I guess that I could ask Hunk to take my place as the listener," she
said, retaking their previous subject, but Shiro started shaking his head
strongly, making Ariela frown.
"It's not that," he said, clenching his fists, as he rummaged in his brain for
the right words. "I mean... I can't let go," where the words he chose, and
Ariela frowned harder. "Things are really awkward, yes, but because I can't
stop thinking about it if you know what I mean."
There was a long silence. Bagheera perked his head up in interest and Ariela
seemed to be frozen on the spot, before she finally cleared her throat.
"What?" she said, her voice high pitched and low, making Shiro laugh nervously.
"I can't stop thinking about it. It was..., great and I was wondering if..." He
just couldn't do it, couldn't say it out loud.
"You want to do it again?" she asked again, punctuating every word with a nod
of her head.
It's not just that.
"Yes?"
Oh, god. I'm weak.
"Oh," Ariela said, lowering her eyes and licking her lips.
"But if you don't want to it's perfectly okay. I don't want to make things
uncomfortable. You are a really good friend and I don't want to lose you," he
said, trying to look into Ariela's eyes. She lifted her face and there was a
spark of determination.
"I mean... It's not a bad thing," she started. "Sex helps us to be healthy both
physically and mentally, and it even helps to build trust between the people,"
she said, nodding a lot again.
"So that is a yes?" Shiro asked hopefully, already stepping closer, but it was
Ariela the one who closed the distance between them, putting her hands on his
shoulders.
"Yeah," she said, putting a hand on his nape and making him lower his head as
she stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. Surprisingly, it was already hungry, and
by the time they broke apart Shiro was already breathless and pretty much
confused. Ariela laughed breathily and rested her forehead on his chest. "You
are not the only one that couldn't let go," she mumbled, before looking up at
him again.
"Oh. Well, that certainly makes me feel less pathetic," he laughed and Ariela
echoed him, as he slid his arms around her waist. "So..."
"So..."
It went from zero to a hundred real quick.
There was much tugging at clothes, trying to pull the other in the direction
they wanted. Ariela aimed to the hallway to go to her bedroom and Shiro aimed
to one of the counters filled with the rests of Hunk's tools and metals he had
used to repair Bagheera. Shiro was the one to win, quickly pulling Ariela up to
sit her on the counter and standing between her legs as she pulled his shirt
out of him, hers long forgotten on the floor next to him.
"You said there was room for improvement when I asked," Shiro started, as
Ariela sucked on his neck. "What would make me get a ten?" he asked, and Ariela
broke away from him, cupping his face in her hands and rubbing her thumbs over
his jawline. Her lips were already swollen and her cheeks had a delicious tint
of pink in them that made him want to bite them.
"Well..." she started. "You should pay more attention to the thighs," she said,
nodding, as he pulled her closer. "Maybe a little bit of hair pulling." He
frowned.
"It doesn't hurt you?" he asked.
"I'm tough," was her answer, as she leant in to kiss him again, making it slow
and slipping her tongue into his mouth, brushing it against his teeth. She
lowered her hands through his sides and then.
"Now that we are officially doing this, can I admit that I love your ass with
no regrets?" she asked when they parted again, making Shiro laugh again when
she squeezed.
"You can. And I have to admit that I love your ass too," he said, also slipping
his hands down, passing the waistband of the grey sweatpants.
"Mphm. I guess Lance was right and I was wrong. You are not a boobs man," she
murmured, before licking a long stripe on Shiro's neck, making him shudder. He
pulled her up again, as he slid the sweatpants off of her and Ariela kicked
them across the room.
"He was, indeed," he said, pulling the woman so she was sitting right on the
border of the counter, before kneeling down slowly as he left a trail of kisses
down her torso until he was finally on his knees. "So, more attention to the
thighs, right?" he asked, before gently biting down on one, before licking a
long stripe of skin from practically the knee to passing mid thigh.
"Yes," she breathed out, tangling her fingers in his hair and tugging as he
mouthed the place where her thigh met her groin, biting her lip harshly.
Are you kidding me? Do you really have to do this here? Bagheera asked her with
an unhappy groan.
Ish off, Bagheera. You should be happy for me she thought back, and the panther
just covered his ears with its paws.
Shiro tugging at her underwear made her pay attention to what was happening
again, and she was about to lift herself when she finally picked up on a noise
that had gone unnoticed before. A cellphone buzzing. Well, not a cell phone,
but those devices Pidge had given them that she insisted on calling a
cellphone.
"Shiro, pass me my pants," she said, wanting to turn that damned thing off. The
man did and she took the device out of her pocket, but before she could turn it
off she saw the notifications.
Two missed calls from Sir Lancelot.
"Ari, where are you? I need you to help me with a Goridion thing".
"I'm going to your room?".
"NVM. Nallely told me you are in the hangar. OMW".
"Ah, crap," she said, as she put a foot on Shiro's shoulder and pushed him
away, before jumping off of the counter and start to put her pants back on.
"Lance is on his way. You need to go, now," Ariela told him, picking up the
man's shirt from the floor and tossing it at him.
"Okay, I'm running away," he said, frowning and confused but still obeying, as
he ran towards the hallway as he tried to put his shirt on, but giving up when
he stumbled and almos fell face first to the floor. He had barely disappeared
when he came back. "Lance is at the entrance, but I don't think he saw me. But
please explain, why are we hiding?" he asked.
"Because Lance will kill me if he sees us," she said, as she grabbed his hand
and pulled him towards the panther.
"What?"
"Bagheera, open up," she commanded the robot.
Are you kidding me? I'm not lettingthatthing inside the panther answered, and
she just looked at him threateningly. He sighed. Okay, but I don't promise
anything Bagheera said, as he opened his mouth to let Shiro in.
"Go, go, go," Ariela urged the man in, pushing him.
"Ariela? Are you still here?" Lance asked from the hallway.
Bagheera closed his mouth and sat still, watching mutely how the blue paladin
appeared on the hangar, walking distractedly as he looked at a tablet.
"Hi there," was all she said, as she brushed her fingers through her hair.
Lance looked up at her and the woman thought she had gotten away with it, but
then he frowned, looking around.
"I sense a disturbance in the force. What the fuck are you plotting?" he asked
her, blue eyes piercing through hers as Ariela put up her best mask over her
face to fake confusion and slight offence.
"I'm not plotting anything, Lance. What did you need me for?" she said, putting
her hands on her hips as she walked towards him.
"Oh, I need you to intimidate me. You know, how you helped me practice for
presentations?" Lance asked, handing her the tablet.
Lance rarely got nervous when talking in front of people, but not remembering
the data he needed to talk about could take sleep away from him, so he had this
method to study: basically he asked someone to act as a mean and intimidating
teacher of whatever he had to give the presentation in front of.
"You know you will be able to have notes with you at the meeting, right?" she
asked, as she hopped on the counter again, still reading the questions that had
been written on the tablet. She didn't understand anything, but she could
always act like she did.
"I know but I still want to be ready for anything," Lance replied, but then his
eyes drifted to the panther and he frowned. "What is wrong with him?" he asked,
and Ariela turned to look at Bagheera, who was bucking and shaking his head as
if trying to get something off of him.
That's it. I hate him he thought, and Ariela felt slight panic and a lot of
resignation settle on her body.
"Ah, crap," she said again, just in time to see Bagheera spitting Shiro out,
who went flying across the room, still shirtless for some random reason. He
rolled on the floor and quickly got up, catching Lance's mouth open in outrage
and slight surprise.
"Um... Hi," he said, smiling awkwardly, already getting red, as he quickly put
his shirt on.
Lance turned to his sister with angry eyes, and she looked at Shiro.
"Could you leave us alone for a while?" she asked, cringing, and the man
practically ran away. "Listen. I didn't do anything. He was the one to come to
me with the idea!" she started, as Lance crossed his arms over his chest.
"Still! I told you not to act on your want and not even one week later I walk
in on you two hooking up!" he practically screamed. Ariela hopped down of the
counter and walked towards him, jabbing a finger at Lance's chest.
"What is it that you hate so much about me and Shiro fucking? You almost
slapped me when I told you about suggesting him the switch with one of you!"
she counterattacked, and Lance slapped her finger away from him.
"Because that was a one-time thing. You had the perfect excuse to screw space
Bucky Barnes and you were going to give it up for him, a sweetheart. Of course
I would have slapped you. But this is different!" he exclaimed, pointing at
Bagheera as if Shiro was still there. The robot had sat down behind Lance,
showing that he supported the paladin, making Ariela squint at him.
"What is different? Guess that we do it this time, and then again. We would be
like friends with benefits! That's all. Maybe we even end up dating, whatever
hell wants it to be! But I still don't understand why you are against the idea
so much," she said, finishing in almost a whisper.
"I'm against it because I know you," he started, and Ariela frowned. Lance
sighed, putting his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "You tend to shut down
and grow apart from the people you love when you are not feeling completely
okay. You suddenly are not there anymore. And you know what? I don't give a
shit about it because I know how to handle it. The trick is attacking you with
worried looks until you are spitting out what is wrong like some soviet spy in
a bad movie," he answered, and she snorted at the metaphor.
"Yes. I know I do that, I am aware of it. So what?" she asked.
"The problem is that I know how to handle it, but Shiro doesn't." Ariela
frowned harder and Lance sighed again, before rubbing his face tiredly. "Being
Shiro and hating himself the way he does, he will probably think that he did
something wrong, that you don't like him anymore. So he will shut down and
distance himself from you," he explained himself, and Ariela lowered her gaze.
Would Shiro truly think it was his fault if she suddenly had a shutdown? She
knew he didn't exactly like himself, but... Arriving at the point where it was
all his fault was another thing.
"Shiro may be really strong, but there's only so much he can take. If he has to
drift away from you, we will have him breaking down every day. We can't afford
that and we don't want that. Everyone is aware of all the shit Shiro had to go
through, and we know that he must be on the verge of falling apart every single
day," he proceeded.
"I won't..." Ariela started, sighing and looking at Lance again. She looked
hurt and scared. "I won't do that to him, I promise. And, if I do it
unconsciously you will let me know," she said.
Lance huffed and looked to a side, ignoring her. Ariela walked towards him and
put her hands on his shoulders.
"I worry about Shiro as much as you do, and I would kill someone before they
hurt him. I would never do something on purpose to do it, just like I know you
wouldn't hurt Keith..."
"That's something different," Lance said, shaking his head.
"Why?"
"I love Keith," he said, biting down on his lip. Ariela wanted to be shocked,
to have just a few seconds to admire the way Lance had said that (dead serious,
without stuttering nor blushing, as if he was talking about something not as
important as his first love confession was), but he kept going. "You just are
thirsty," he ended. Ariela sighed.
"Yo quiero a Shiro. Es un amigo, y para mi los amigos son familia, Lance. Puede
que no lo ame como vos amás a Keith, pero lo quiero lo suficiente como para no
dejar que nadie lo lastime, así como no dejé que nadie te lastimara a vos
cuando pasó todo el asunto the Sean," she said, her voice lowering to a whisper
as if they were talking about something secret, and leaning on him. (I love
Shiro. He is a friend, and for me, friends are family, Lance. I might not love
him like you love Keith, but I love him enough to not let anyone hurt him, just
like I didn't let anyone hurt you when all of the Sean business went on)
"That is a dirty card," Lance laughed, nervously, and there already were tears
in his eyes.
"I'm sorry," she said, hugging Lance close and rubbing his back. "But I had to
use it," she added.
"I guess you had to," he said, with croaky voice, finally returning the hug.
"Sean used to think of you as some kind of superhero, so I guess you deserve
some credit," he laughed.
"Some credit? I went to the principal's office and threatened to sue him when I
was fifteen, Lance," she said. "I threatened ten-year-old kids with throwing
them off of a bridge and argued with the police at least three times."
"Okay, okay. I get it. You are like a mamma bear or something," Lance admitted,
breaking apart from the hug.
"So you won't be mad?" she asked him.
"I'll try. But I will snitch on you to Allura if you manage to fuck up."
"Please don't. She would make dying sound like a sweet experience."
****** - - - ******
"Is he still mad?" Shiro asked even before the door was completely open. He had
gone to Ariela's bedroom to wait, and the second he distinguished her height
and shape he spoke. "Why would he be mad anyways?"
Ariela shook her head, closing and locking the door after her and peeling her
white shirt off, making Shiro's eyes widen at the sudden action. She lunged at
him, pushing him against the mattress and quickly straddling his hips, before
kissing his brains out. Shiro's hands flew to her waist despite the surprise,
as he returned the kiss with a style that he was slowly becoming really
comfortable with, despite being the completely opposite of what he was used to.
"Just forget about it. It's already solved," she said. "But I have a question."
"Ask anything you want," Shiro said, as he pecked her lips.
"You stopped sleeping with me because...?" she asked, and she already had a
smile on her face, letting the man know that she already had imagined what the
answer might be.
"It was a mix of dreams and having your butt pressed against my junk that made
me back down," he answered, loving how she chuckled and dove back down again to
kiss him.
"So, now that we are like..., friends with benefits we can cuddle again?" she
asked, and Shiro hummed while kissing her neck. "Perfect."
****** - - - ******
"So one done, and one to go," Allura commented jokingly, breaking the silence
that had been there ever since Nallely had offered to walk her to her bedroom.
They had spent all the day together.
Ever since she discovered Nallely crying at her bedroom after receiving the
news about her planet, Allura had felt a little bit closer to her, mildly
forgetting about the whole "I've got the power over you" thing, and Nallely
seemed to like their new relationship dynamic better, because she was much more
easy to be around now. Not that it was quite hard before, but Allura used to
feel stupid, not knowing what to talk about; now she felt comfortable talking
about anything, Nallely being more responsive and sharing more of her thoughts.
After an hour of not doing anything, most of the crew (Ariela and Shiro were
nowhere to be seen and no one wanted to go looking for them because reasons)
had gathered again in the common room to watch a movie called "Star Wars". It
had really amused the aliens, and Nallely had had the audacity to invite Allura
to rest her head on her lap. Of course, the princess had said yes, avoiding
Coran's inquisitive looks and almost melting on Nallely's soft touch on her
hair, as she played with it distractedly while watching the movie.
After that, they had gone training together. They could defeat a gladiator
level ten together, which was amazing. After that, Nallely walked with Allura
to the woman's bedroom and then went to hers. They had a shower and met again
at dinner, where they sat together. After dinner, Allura announced that she
would go to the library to do some Goridian demographics research, and Nallely
said she would be glad to help.
And there they were, after three hours of being floors up at the library. They
had gathered deep information about thirty of the kingdoms that were not in
their favour and decided to stop it when Allura almost hit her head against the
table while nodding off.
"What do you mean?" Nallely asked, frowning, as she turned to her, tucking the
hair that was covering her face behind her ear.
"Oh, well. Ariela and Shiro seem to be kind of together now if you listen to
Lance. Now there's only Lance and Keith left and they'll be peace back at this
castle," Allura explained herself, fidgeting slightly with her new dress. She
had gotten a liking for human clothes, and had created herself almost a full
new wardrobe with Ariela's help. Now she was wearing a brown dress with golden
edges, a long gipsy skirt and a strapless top. Nallely was wearing black pants
and a wide blue t-shirt.
"I'm afraid I disagree with you," the Girgkean chuckled, and Allura frowned as
she turned to look at her. She could already see her bedroom door a few meters
away. "There's another couple I hope you are just forgetting about and not
denying," she explained herself.
Allura's heart skipped a beat, but she frowned harder.
"Which one?" she asked, as they stepped in front of the door.
"Well... I was kind of hoping that you would notice I was trying to court you,"
Nallely said, with a breathy and nervous laugh as she lowered her eyes to the
floor, and Allura's widened.
"You were trying to court me? No just..., being really nice?" she asked,
gulping midsentence. The confession had just set off a revolution inside of
her, emotions running wild trough her body and making her unsure of which one
to feel. Pleased, scared, overwhelmed. There was a tint of disbelief covering
them all.
"Well... Yes. It might be different in Altea, now that I think about it, so it
would be totally my fault that you didn't notice and you didn't have the chance
to reject me before I could make it awkward," she said, without lifting her
face and laughing awkwardly again.
"No, no. I-I did notice. I just didn't think that..., that you would I don't
know act on it. And... Why do you think I would reject you?" Allura asked,
frowning and her voice and octave higher, surprising Nallely, that finally had
the sudden rush of courage to meet the princess' eyes.
"Are you kidding me? You are royalty, captain of a Castle and leader of a
boiling resistance. Not only I'm not at your level, but you must be too busy to
worry about stuff like courtship and..., simple foreigner warriors that kind of
pushed themselves into your life," Nallely answered, grabbing her hair with one
hand and starting to play with it in the middle of the confession.
Allura could only look up at her wide-eyed and mouth slightly open, arms
hanging limply at her sides and being barely conscious that she had to breathe
sometime soon or many brain cells were going to die.
"You really think that? I just..." Allura started, after almost a whole minute
of silence. "I've been courted ever since I was... What would be two hundred
years in your time? Oh, right. I've been courted ever since I was fifteen and
never, I tell you never, I liked the person that was doing it nor they liked
me," she explained herself, looking to a side when Nallely's eyes glimmered. "I
guess I was just reflecting my past experiences with you. You know? Believing
that you were doing everything out of pure courtesy or even custom," she
finished, her eyes catching Nallely's hands lifting instead of the woman's
smile growing on her face.
Allura's eyes followed the hands until she saw Nallely smiling softly as she
cupped her face. If the princess thought her eyes couldn't widen more she was
quite wrong. Because her eyes did widen more, at the same time a know grow just
next to her heart and breathing became difficult. Because Nallely looked great
and pure, with her hair framing her face on both sides and her eyes looking at
her so fondly it was ridiculous. She looked relaxed and content.
"Would you mind if I kissed you?" she asked, licking her lips (they suddenly
felt so dry), and Allura shook her head as she put her hands on top of the
woman's.
Nallely leant in slowly, puckering her lips slightly and Allura followed her
movement with half-lidded eyes, standing as still as she could be. And then she
felt the pressure on her lips, warm and somehow calming. It felt just as full
of support and love like one of Hunk's hugs, but it was also charged with
something different, unknown. A completely new form of love she imagined she
would never have. Because, then, men fought over her for the prince status only
and now they were at war.
The woman parted with a soft smacking sound, but she didn't take his hands off
of Allura's face, and Allura didn't take her hands off of hers.
"Can I get another?" she asked, looking at Nallely in the eye, smiling softly
when she noticed the relief flashing through the lilac irises, and the smile
widened when Nallely softly pressed her forehead against hers and smiled,
laughing awkwardly.
"I'll give you one more as a good night kiss," she murmured, lips already
brushing against hers before pressing again. They parted quickly this time.
"See you in the morning," Nallely said, lowering her hands still intertwined
with Allura's fingers.
"I... Can I kiss you again?" Allura asked, and Nallely broke in a full cackle,
finally hugging her and giving her a quick peck on the cheek.
"You'll get another one tomorrow morning. So go to sleep now, princess," she
said, putting distance between them and raising Allura's hand to kiss her
knuckles. The princess' slight blush increased a little bit, but she smiled.
"Might as well call me your princess," she said, opening the door to her
bedroom. "Good night, Nallely."
- - -
Ariela was sleeping peacefully. She was warm and wrapped around an amazing
scent, her body carefully tucked with Shiro's blankets. She was lying on her
side and facing him, lips slightly parted and the volume of her purring really
loud, almost as if she was snoring.
Shiro wanted to stay there in bed and watch just watch her sleep for a while,
but it was already time to wake up and they needed to be wide awake and ready
by the time they arrived at Goridion. So there was no time to be lazy.
"Ariela..." he sing-sang, tapping her nose lightly. She just wrinkled her nose
and turned around as the purring stopped, murmuring a no. "C'mon," he started,
getting closer and kissing her shoulder and up her neck. "We are meeting
important people and we both need to shower," he continued. Ariela cocked her
head to look at him.
"You go shower first," she grumbled.
"No. You have your own shower and, if I let you, you'll sleep till noon," he
insisted, kissing her again. "C'mon. Don't make me bite you," he said, and
Ariela laughed.
"If you start biting we will end up staying in bed anyways, but we won't be
sleeping," she said, finally turning around to face him again.
"That doesn't sound too bad," he said kissing her jawline.
"If you don't have trouble to stay in bed for sex then you don't have trouble
to stay in bed for sleep. Goodnight," she said, covering herself to the head
with the blankets and Shiro snorted.
"Oh, come on," he whined.
"I said good night, sir," she replied, voice muffled but the blankets, and
Shiro clicked his tongue.
"That's different. We can get sleep anytime but sex... It's not that easy," he
murmured, straight up rolling on top of Ariela, laughing at her groan when the
sudden weight appeared.
"Well, well, well. Someone's looking desperate," she chanted, her head popping
up from under the blankets.
"Mhm," he admitted, catching her mouth in a kiss and licking at the roof of her
mouth before breaking away. "I want to see you after two years of complete lack
of sexual action," he said, as he sneaked under the blankets himself.
"Uh, that sounds like a dark time for me," Ariela joked, kissing him again.
"But I mean it. Last night we had fun, at least wait twenty-four hours," she
said, biting her lip when Shiro sucked on her throat. "But, if you are this
desperate, I guess that we could do something before getting up," she murmured
aginst his chest as she lowered herself to make a trail of kisses. "After all,
I should pay you back for last night's favour."
They were too busy to hear the door slide open.
"Oh, good god. And here I am, having thought that you were just sleeping,"
Keith said, voice filled with resignation, the moment his eyes caught sight of
the two moving bulges under the covers, that stayed still the second they heard
his voice. Shiro's head popped up from under the blankets, blushing madly.
"Keith, could you just go away and never come back?" he asked, voice rough, and
Keith rolled his eyes.
"Straight people, can't control themselves," he murmured.
"Oh, come on! That accusation is unjustified!" Ariela screamed and Shiro
blushed harder, as Keith just turned around and left the bedroom. "Next time
please lock the door. Will ya, honey?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm sor-Ah!" he started to say, before he moaned, a hand shooting up to
cover his mouth. "Jesus Christ."
"I'm Ariela, but if you want you can call me that if you want," she laughed,
before doing something that had Shiro throwing his head back against the pillow
and grasping at the sheets.
****** - - - ******
Surprisingly, they were not the last ones to arrive at the kitchen, where
everyone was waiting, because Queen Desa had told them that they would be
received at the royal palace and would start discussing business over the
breakfast table. Apparently, Hunk had been talking with his girlfriend all
night long and had just woken up.
"Good morning," Keith said with a smug smirk as Ariela and Shiro walked through
the open door. She squinted at him and the man lowered his gaze in shame.
"So, I guess that you've already ate," Lance followed, over-gesticulating the
las word and Ariela rose her middle finger at him, but then Keith started
laughing and they high-fived each other.
"Did you just see what I just saw?" Ariela asked Shiro, still looking at Lance
and Keith.
"They are getting along so well. I feel like a father that is watching his sons
graduating," Shiro joked, and Ariela laughed.
"Listen, paladins," Allura started, appearing from the dining room, and
Ariela's jaw fell to the floor.
"OH MY GOD! Allura, is that Elie Saab's dress that Lily Collins used on a red
carpet?" the woman asked, running to check the dress out from up close, and
Allura kind of panicked when she saw the woman sprinting towards her.
"I-I don't know. I saw it on that funny website you showed me and I liked it,"
Allura answered, watching how Ariela jumped around her, squeaking and laughing
like an excited child.
"You look gorgeous on it!" she almost screamed, and Lance was covering his ears
to avoid the high pitched compliments hurting his ears.
"Indeed," Nallely said from the chair she was sitting at, and Allura smiled
softly, looking at her with a new shine on her eyes and Ariela backed away,
noticing that there was something else in the air between those two.
"Oh! Things are going great lately, don't you think?" she said, grabbing her
left boob as she spoke, and Keith didn't miss the way Lance practically hit
himself in the crotch when he heard her speak.
"Yes, they are. Anyway. I was going to tell you that you shouldn't wear your
uniforms for the breakfast. It is going to be something formal, so I need you
well dressed," Allura kept saying, recovering the thread of what she needed to
tell them. "Coran and I took the liberty of preparing classic Altean suits for
you, so you will we wearing that" she said.
"Oh, please. Let it be something pretty," Ariela muttered under her breath,
crossing her fingers and making Pidge laugh.
Chapter End Notes
     Ehehehehe.
     Well, stuff is getting hot and heavy, and before anyone asks me,
     Klance will happen in the next chapter. Also, you will finally learn
     what the whole Sean thing is about and I think that's it for now.
     What else? Announcements? Well, the blog is quickly growing and I'm
     really proud of it. People seem to love the chat and quotes that I
     publish and it feels great. There are fake quotes said from members
     of the fic, conversations that never happened, headcanons, aesthetics
     and memes. Also, a friend of mine offered to voice Ariela for some
     audios I was thinking on making (Ariela singing Shiro to sleep). Do
     you think it would be a good idea or would you like to hear it?
     Comment any opinion you have on the chapter or the stuff I just said,
     leave kudos if you are liking it so far and if you have any question
     or something to say that you don't want to put on the comment box you
     can always send a message to my tumblr ( http://
     thenwebohemianq.tumblr.com/ ).
     See you in the next chapter. Love ya!
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Summary
     Happy holidays!
     This chapter was going to be longer, but I decided it just was too
     long and I will put the third part on chapter 30. Basically, this
     chapter has Keith's and Shiro's backstory and the next one will have
     Ariela's and Lance's (how they met and who the crap is Sean).
     I hope you like the new concepts and characters I introduce in this
     chapter and that you forgive me for taking so long to publish.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
****** Part 1: Go home, Hogg. No one likes you! ******
It had been a rough day, and Keith would probably be crying or beating
something if he wasn't too mesmerised petting the African serval cat as she
talked to him, quieting the negative thoughts on his mind, along with Red.
"Hogg is a stupid prince. Not even queen Desa likes him. It's like the man
wants to be hated or something," Ara said, as she sat on Keith's lap and pawed
gently at his nose, the little soft hairs tickling him. Her voice was so nice;
it sounded like raindrops falling on a crystal.
She is right, Keith. There's something I don't like about that cocky prince. No
one on the pack does. It's been the first time I have agreed with the panther
out loud ever since we met Red contributed, earning a soft purr from Ara. They
already liked each other, and it made Keith feel pleased, for an unknown
reason.
It had been different than with Red. The bond with his lion had to be built, he
had had to work on it. They weren't made for each other, they were compatible.
They were together and they were perfect together, yes, but there were many
people all around the universe that would be perfect with Red. But with Ara it
had been instant. He was talking with Lance, the boy trying to calm him down
after his encounter with Velime's prince, and he had felt something claw its
way up his clothes and climb to stand on his shoulder and head.
The second he caught the hazel eyes with his own they were connected. He could
feel everything belonging to the serval and she could feel everything belonging
to him. It was like living a whole foreign life in a second.
"But he is right in some way, don't you think? No one knows where I came from
nor who I am. Not even me," he said, lowering his gaze, and Ara started
nuzzling her snout against his neck.
"Cheer up, Keith-y. I have the feeling that you will know in the future," she
said, making him chuckle.
And you may not know where you came from, but you know who you are. Keith
Kogane, paladin of Voltron, pilot of the red lion... And future boyfriend of
Lance.
"Lance is the boy with Sean? He smells really nice, like the sea."
"Are you two teaming up on me?" Keith asked them, squinting at Ara, but someone
knocked on the door before she could answer. The serval jumped comically,
before starting sprinting in circles around the bed, rolling and stomping on
the sheets. She got riled up too easily.
"Keith, are you there?" Shiro's voice asked.
"Yes."
The door opened and a black snout sneaked in before the huge Tibetan mastiff
stepped in, immediately going towards Ara and panting funnily, as he waved his
tail.
"Hello, Keith," Matt said, before licking his nose.
"How are you feeling?" Shiro asked, sitting next to him on the bed.
"I feel like niee," he answered, shrugging, and Shiro slipped his arm through
his shoulders and Matt rested his head on Keith's lap. Ara stood up, resting
her front legs on his shoulders and started licking his ear and neck. "You are
drowning me in love," he laughed.
"You deserve it," Shiro said.
****** - - - ******
It had begun when they landed at Velime, one of the South-kingdoms of Goridion.
Magic was something as common as rain on that planet, so the royal castle was
in the middle of a meadow, far from the nearest town. They could use a portal
if needed; this decreased the chances of someone infiltrating, as there was no
movement outside the castle. Flowers of all the colours and high grass
surrounded it, a tall and beautifully built edification of white stone, glass
and black iron. Creepers made abstract drawings on the outside walls and
connected, windows and balconies.
The Castle of Lions landed thirty feet away from Velime's and they were not
ready yet.
Everyone, excepting for Allura and Coran (who was wearing his usual clothing),
was already dressed in the Altean uniforms (white high waisted pants, white
shirt with golden buttons and a golden pin holding a cloth -coloured to match
their lions- that went from their left side to their right shoulder, where it
was held by a golden band and the fell across their back; Ariela was all black
and where they had gold she had silver, and then Nallely and Sugey had the same
uniform but without the cloth), but Allura was styling his hair as she talked
fast Altean that sounded like curses, words slightly muffled because she was
holding bobby pins in her mouth as she twisted Keith's hair furiously. Thirty
seconds later he had two small braids at his sides, that travelled to a cute
little bun.
Ariela, who had something similar to his, but it was a ponytail instead of a
bun, was braiding Sugey's hair as the girl braided Nallely's.
"Come on, people. We are one minute late and the queen must be expecting us
with the breakfast on the table!" Allura screamed, eyeing the clock, as the
doors of the Castle opened, showing the path of greystone, lined with Goridian
guards at the sides.
The paladins froze in place, not expecting the carbine that was waiting there
to escort them to the castle. Nallely stood up and pushed the long and thick
braid from her right shoulder, immediately positioning herself close to Allura.
She had told them not to bring weapons, but her fists would do if someone was
daring enough to attack them. The paladins quickly stood together, Lance on the
far end with Ariela at his left and Shiro in the middle, and then walked out of
the Castle.
"Good morning, gentlemen," Allura greeted, and the eight guards bowed deeply,
before standing right again.
"Welcome to Velime, princess Allura, paladins of Voltron, and crew of the
Castle of Lions," one of the guards said. "Please, follow us. The queen and the
prince are expecting you at the dining room."
All the walk was made in silence, so Keith had just put his mind into ignoring
the guards side-eyeing him (A Galran paladin? Can we trust him?) and admiring
the decoration of the castle: plants. Be it just green leaves or beautiful
giant and colourful flowers, it was full of them, hanging from the walls or the
high ceilings, or resting on their pots on the white marble floor.
The big doors opened and a big table appeared in front of them, covered with
all kinds of food and drinks. One of the walls was all made of glass and had an
iron door that lead to the outside. At the head of the table, there was a man
sitting down, and he was alone. There was no sign of the queen.
The two guards that had opened the door closed it once the last person had gone
into the dining room, not even one getting in with them, as the man at the
table stood up and walked towards them. He was wearing a lazy smile that didn't
reach his eyes and paced with an elegant stance that looked prepared to impose
power. He had black hair, pale blue eyes and pale skin too, and was wearing a
small silver crown on his head.
No one liked him.
"Paladins! Welcome. I will have to ask you to excuse queen Desa. She is at a
meeting right now. It was something urgent and unplanned," the man said, bowing
slightly, and Allura returned to bow.
"Worry not. I guess you are prince Hogg, Desa's husband," Allura said, chin up.
With that simple gesture she outpowered him and, by the way, the man's smile
grew they could all tell he had easily noticed.
Hogg pointed at the table with a gesture of his hands.
"Please, sit. Desa will be here at any minute," he said. And they moved.
Coran, who had been covering Keith from the eyes of the prince unintentionally,
moved to sit down, and Hogg caught eye of him. Lilac skin, those ears... He
easily recognised the race. So, when Keith sat down, his head was suddenly
smashed against the table, his neck surrounded by a chain that shone orange and
slightly burnt his skin.
Keith groaned in pain when his forehead smashed against the table, the
dizziness that rushed through him impeding him from resisting as Hogg grabbed
his hands and tied them with the same chain that was around his neck in no more
than eight seconds. The few that had already sat down stood up, Lance doing it
so violently that his chair was tipped and fell to the floor.
The air shifted as Ariela's heart started pumping furiously, the voice of the
panther screaming outraged in her head. Coran saw the woman moving, but before
he could tell her not to, her booted foot was already smashing against the
prince's head, sending him crashing to the floor.
"Who do you think you are..." Ariela started. The air suddenly filled with a
pungent smell that made Keith's nape hairs stand. She lowered herself and
pinned the prince to the floor by putting her right hand around his neck and
pressing down. "..., to attack him like that?" she finished. Her eyes were
shining dangerously.
The prince rose his left hand towards Keith and, with a twist of it, the orange
chains around his skin started to actually burn, making him hiss in pain.
"Keith!" Lance and Shiro exclaimed at the same time, running towards him.
"STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING!" Ariela roared, her growl becoming louder and
scarier by the second, as the prince started to claw at the hand around his
neck. He was strong, but the woman hadn't liked him hurting a member of his
pack one bit.
No one touches our family an unknown voice resonated on her head.
"Galra... Soldier. You can't..., trust him," the prince said, gasping for air.
"Ariela, get off of him! I understand, but we can't afford to kill him," Coran
said, putting a gentle hand on the woman's shoulder, and she almost immediately
let go of the man's neck, "accidentally" leaving red marks with her nails.
"I am afraid that you will have to let go of my paladin or there'll be awful
consequences," Allura said, walking towards the prince, who was already
standing up, quickly and loudly.
"Tell me how he ended up as your paladin and I'll let him go," he said, voice
husky, looking at Allura with challenge.
"The blue lion brought them all to me. He has never had contact with the Galra
empire before becoming a paladin," she answered, almost spitting the words out
through gritted teeth.
"Therefore you didn't know him since the moment he was born," he started,
looking at Keith, who was writhing on his chair, not being able to move because
of the chains. Shiro was trying to take them off of him, and Lance was letting
the water drop on top of them, barely calming the ache on Keith's skin. "He
could be a spy, a traitor."
"He is not!" Pidge screamed.
"Let me end him. One of our bests warriors could take his place, and he
wouldn't have that muddy, sick and dirty blood in his veins," the prince kept
insisting, and this time it was Allura's hand the one to close around his neck
and raise him in the air, making the prince start to kick fruitlessly.
"I will not repeat myself again," the princess started. She reeked of anger,
and it made Ariela flinch slightly and back away a few steps. "You let go of my
paladin... Or there'll be awful consequences."
The prince's eyes nailed on hers and, although he was already starting to turn
an ugly blueish colour, didn't stop whatever he was doing to Keith.
Another door opened and a woman walked in. She was wearing a long white dress
and a golden crown over her hair, loose blond hair falling flawlessly and hazel
eyes that had looked so gentle and welcoming on pictures filled with anger.
"HOGG!" she screamed, stomping her way towards the prince. She made a gesture
with her hand and a blue light came out of it, and the chains around Keith
burst in small pieces and fell to the floor before disappearing. "What did you
do now? Do I need to get you a babysitter? I can't believe my father thought it
would be wise to make me marry you."
Desa was flaming mad. The air around her was similar to the prickly storm air,
and her scent was spicy, making Ariela's and Keith's nose itch. Allura dropped
the prince, who fell to the floor on his knees and stayed there.
Lance pulled Keith towards him and grabbed his face, looking at his neck and
eyes. He was dead worried, and the red paladin could feel it. He could smell it
in the other's scent, hear it in his heartbeat and feel it in their bond,
pulling them together.
"Are you okay? Does it still hurt?" Lance asked him, as he rubbed his thumb
across the place where the chain had been. Surprisingly, although it had burnt,
there was no mark.
"They have a Galran soldier, Desa. They don't know where he came from, nor who
he is. It is a danger for us," he answered, and in spite of still being angry,
he lowered his head.
"You have no right to act upon anything. I am the queen. I am the one to make
the decisions," she said. If there was a way to catch her voice and condensate
it, the liquid could be used to kill at least fifty people.
Hogg averted her eyes.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Now go. I don't want to see you until tonight," she said, and he immediately
stood up and almost trotted towards the door from where she had come from and
disappeared.
It was as if Desa became another person. Her shoulders lost the tension, her
eyes softened, her scent became sweet as flowers and the air started to move
again. She looked at Allura with eyes filled with shame and walked with gentle
pace towards Keith, kneeling in front of him, ignoring Lance's and Shiro's wary
eyes.
"Please forget my husband's idiotic behaviour. There are times I want to grab
him by the neck too, but by the time I had to marry we needed an alliance with
his kingdom," she said, grabbing Keith's hands and looking at his wrists. "It
was a magic heat, so it won't leave marks. I'll tell one of my maids to bring
you something for the ache."
She stood again, her hands still holding Keith's, and looked at him with such
gentle eyes.
"I am so, so, truly sorry," she said again, and Keith smiled.
"Don't worry. It wouldn't be the first time that someone snaps when seeing me
for the first time," he said. "It was not your fault."
Relief washed over the woman's eyes, and she gave Keith one more gentle smile
before going to sit at the head of the table.
"Please, sit. You must be starving, and there's a lot we need to talk about. We
have a pretty tight agenda. A few things..., came up this morning," she said,
as the rest of the crew finally sat down at the table.
Keith found himself sandwiched between the McClains, with Shiro looking at him
worriedly from the other side of the table. He was paler now, practically
white, and he felt as if his soul was drifting away from his body. He could
barely feel Lance's hand massaging his shoulder, which was weird because the
places where he touched usually burnt. Ariela's head resting on his other
shoulder also went unnoticed to him.
"I... I can't feel anything," he said, looking at his sides. He wanted to
panic, he couldn't feel his own skin, but it was as if he was too tired, his
brain not having the energy to pass the information from his body to him.
Ariela's fingers started tapping at his neck.
"Oh, that's a form of dissociation. You have to calm down, Keith. Breathe
deeply and focus on something that doesn't make you feel bad," she told him.
"The event with Hogg might have over-stressed you, so you need to relax."
Lance squeezed his shoulder.
"Do you want to get out of here?" he asked him, and Keith looked at him. In
Lance's eyes, he had shrunk; he looked smaller, weaker, scared. Ears sticking
to his skull, pale, tired and kind of absent.
"I-I don't want to disrespect the queen," he said, and Ariela got up with a
groan. He turned to look at her, watching how she exchanged a few words with
Desa, who nodded eagerly and took a bell that was resting next to her plate on
the table and rang it. Almost immediately, a ginger woman wearing a small white
dress. She had her hair in a bun and a black apron tied to her waist.
"This is Skal. She will take you to your bedroom and bring you your breakfast
there afterwards," Desa said, looking at Keith with worried and gentle eyes.
The maid smiled at him too, and he stood up. Lance went next to him, and Allura
spoke.
"Could you stay, Lance? Shiro can go with Keith. We are going to talk about the
meetings," she said, looking awkward, and Lance's eyes went from Shiro to Keith
to her.
And then Keith grabbed his hand and whispered the word "please".
"I will pay attention and pass the information to Lance, Allura. Don't worry,"
Hunk said, smiling at her, and the woman thought for a few seconds before
nodding.
"Please follow me," the maid said, before walking away.
They all watched them go with their eyes stuck to Keith, feeling an awkward
knot on their stomachs as they noticed how slowly he was walking.
After the door closed it took almost a whole minute for someone to talk.
"For the loom, I will kill Hogg tonight if Camlei doesn't stop me," Desa
muttered, as she let her face drop on the table, before start to fake cry.
"That man is making my hair go grey and I'm only a thousand years old," she
said, and all of the human's eyes shot open.
"Is there a way for you to calculate how much a thousand years would be for us
here?" Ariela asked Pidge in a whisper, and the girl just shrugged.
"I guess I could, but I won't. It would take time and I honestly don't give a
fuck. I left all my fucks to give on Earth, so I just roll with everything that
comes up, and you should to," she answered, before grabbing a toast from a
little basket and start to spread butter on it.
"Okay."
"So, queen Desa. What do we need to know about the meetings?" Allura asked, and
Desa's head shot up from the table to look at her, crown falling on the table
and rolling before falling to the floor. The queen just stared at it as it kept
rolling through the white floor with a look that screamed: "There goes my
crown, with all the fucks I give".
"Well. The meetings start tomorrow, so today we can prepare for the first one.
It won't last more than an hour. It'll be to briefly present the case and state
why making an alliance would be the wisest thing to do," she started to
explain, as she grabbed something that looked like a teapot and poured a
pinkish steaming liquid in a teapot. "The long ones will start the next day.
They would have started tomorrow, but there's the daemon festival," she said,
and Hunk frowned.
"Daemon... Where do I know that word from?" Shiro asked, looking around the
other paladins, and Hunk was the one to answer.
"It's from The Golden Compass," he said, and Shiro snapped his fingers and
nodded with a smile. "It's my favourite movie."
"Yeah. Those used to be my mother's favourite books," Shiro laughed, and his
smile turned a little sad. He still talked to her, of course, but it was not
the same than being there with her.
"You also have daemons on your planet?" Desa asked, wide-eyed and clearly
excited, and Pidge shook her head.
"No, they're something that a person invented for his book. In the books,
daemons are like a person's soul mirrored in an animal that exists with them,"
Pidge explained to the queen, and her eyes shone even brighter.
"That's what they are here! Well, kinda. Deamons are animals that are bound to
a person that has a huge energy impact on the loom of existence. Their energy
is so big that it creates another living being. Daemons are only born here,
though, because of our strong connection with the quintessence, so really few
people that have a daemon actually get to meet them," she explained excitedly.
"You having that book must be due to a threading snap."
There was a long pause.
"I have like..." Ariela started, counting with her fingers. "Yeah, like so many
questions." Desa chuckled and Shiro snorted, trying not to die inside.
"Goridians are the heart of magic, that is how we define the controlling of the
quintessence. Everything in the existence is made of quintessence, and
Goridiands think that the universe is like a big loom, made out of quintessence
threads. This means that one same thread could be, for example, on Altea and on
Earth. This makes that the same energy that flows in Altea flows in Earth,"
Coran started explaining.
"Usually the flow doesn't really affect different places, but sometimes there's
a big cumulus of energy that makes the threads snap, like a whip, and this
alters the flow of energy greatly. Usually, it happens short distance, but it
also can happen from one galaxy to the other. Threading snaps result in people
or places sharing energy, being connected," Desa finished the explanation for
him. "Maybe the man that wrote the book connected with a Goridian, and our
reality came to him like a dream or an idea that he exploited."
"I'd like to act like my mind is not blown, but do you know what this means?"
Pidge started, standing up from her chair and grabbing Ariela by the shoulders.
Sugey laughed at the woman's scared face as Pidge shook her. "This could
explain how many scientific breakthroughs are related or happened at the same
time!" She was practically screaming. "Does anyone have a notebook? Or
something to write on? I can't forget this!"
"Pidge, calm down," Hunk said, a little bit nervous, noticing how the queen
looked at her with really curious eyes.
"But, Huuuunk."
"Worry not, paladin. You can have access to our libraries. There you will find
all the information you want," Desa said with a nice smile, and Pidge clapped
her hands together and shrieked out of happiness.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"I'm glad you are so interested in our discoveries and culture, in part because
it flatters me and in part because you have had a great impact on the loom,"
she said, making a gesture with her mouth that a kid would do when dropping
something. "In fact, all ten of you have."
If it had been a classroom, a general murmur would have risen, but the crew
only exchanged wary looks instead of words.
"What do you mean, queen?" Nallely asked, leaning on the table. She was sat
next to Allura, in front of her sister.
Desa started fidgeting with her fingers, avoiding everyone's eyes as she
murmured to herself, fast whispers that Ariela's ears barely caught but she
couldn't understand. It sounded like another language. Who chose when to stop
translating?
"Our Oracle... The Oracle is a person that has even a stronger connection with
the loom, and knows about daemons birthings, she knows their name's and their
other halves. She came here a few hours ago, telling me that she had been
informed about your future arrival," the queen started. "She told me that there
are ten daemons that belong with you in her territory. I would have told you
before, but she just let me know."
More silence.
"What?" Sugey asked in a whisper. "How can I have a daemon I haven't done
anything great?" she asked, and her voice was so full of emotion despite being
so low. Pidge squeezed her hand, trying to support her.
"It's not about what you've done. It's about what you'll do," Desa said. "We
don't know how, nor who did it, but history has been written aeons before it
happened. The loom already knows what the future will be like, and apparently,
you all will have a huge impact on history. And, I mean... You are the paladins
that will end with a more than ten thousand-year-old empire that has affected
almost all of the known universe. If that isn't a big deal, no one would
deserve a daemon," she said, and the speed of her speech started going up as
she reached the end, noticing how the news had made everyone a little bit
nervous. A little laugh escaped at the end, and she looked at everyone, waiting
for someone to speak.
The door that lead to the outside opened, and when everyone's heads shot to
look up at the person that had just walked in, they saw nothing. Then they
lowered their faces and discovered a cougar, licking its snout with ease and
looking at them with curiosity.
"Are these the paladins?" he asked, with a soft voice, and the eyes turned to
Desa, who looked more calm.
"People, this is Camlei. My daemon," she said, smiling at the cougar.
There was a chorus of "Oh"s and Allura smiled.
"I guess you have an important weight on history too," she said, and the queen
gave her a tired and anxious look.
"I don't really know how. Maybe I'll be the queen with the stupidest husband in
the history of the universe," she said, before shrugging, and Allura chuckled.
"So, when will we meet them?" the princess asked.
"Your daemons? Well, if you want to, the Oracle will bring them in..., like
half an hour," Desa said, eyeing a fancy clock that was on the roof.
"What do you mean with if we want to meet them?" Ariela asked.
"Oh, well... Having a daemon is having someone who knows you fully there's not
a thing about yourself that you can hide and, although they would never betray
their other half, it can make people nervous," she explained.
"Does something bad happen if we don't meet our daemons?" Nallely asked, and
Desa's lips went thin.
"It depends. You will not suffer... But you will never be..., satisfied. It
will feel like there's always something that you haven't done, that there's a
small hole on your life."
****** - - - ******
Skal took them to the living wing, where there were bedrooms for guests, the
one's of the people that lived there, and a huge living room. The rooms were
wide, with big beds and wide windows.
Keith was leaning his weight on Lance by the time they arrived there and his
mind only kept repeating the happenings of minutes ago, soundlessly. It was
like watching a muted video over and over. He barely noticed Lance making a
beeline to the white bed, before pulling him to sit in the middle and curling
him up against his chest, Lance's back against the wall.
Sometime Skal walked into the room again, carrying a little cart filled with
food and a little pot of ointment on it. She talked briefly with Lance and then
went away, and the blue paladin started rubbing the ointment in Keith's neck
and wrists, the cool and soft feeling it left in Keith's skin being the first
thing that he felt and kind of pulled him back to reality.
"Would you have let him kill me if you didn't like me?" were the first words
that left his mouth, leaving Lance startled. He had been quietly singing a song
as he rubbed the ointment on Keith's skin, and the other boy's voice almost
didn't make it over his.
"What?" he asked in a whisper, a little bit shocked by the question.
Keith was scared of the answer. When he went back into his body he had the
realisation that it was really easy to replace him now that they had so many
powerful allies. Allura could even find someone better than him in a tick. If
he hadn't gotten the team to like him, would they have let Hogg kill him? It
was terrifying, knowing that your existence suddenly lost worth and uniqueness.
"If you didn't like me. If you had the same relationship you had with me at the
beginning. If Shiro wasn't my brother. If I wasn't Ariela's favourite. If I was
just there because I'm the only thing you had at hand reach... Would you have
let Hogg kill me? In that table? To replace me later?" he asked again, eyes
slowly and silently filling with tears, as his own words nailed in his skin
like ice pins.
"Are you insane, Keith? Did you hit your head that hard?" Lance asked, pulling
Keith to a straight sitting position and making him lift his face to meet his
eyes. He immediately saw the tears and Lance seemed to panic.
"I know I'm not an amazing person and that I'm really hard to be around. I'm
kind of asocial, I tend to challenge people, I don't open up much and... I
can't help but feel that you all like me because you got to like me. It's like
you've reached the point when you accepted that you will have me around for a
long time and we need to get along. Because I mean, who would like me? I
wouldn't blame you if you said no because I don't think I would stand being
around myself for too long. Maybe that's why I never stayed long in the foster
homes, they just couldn't stand me or I was such a pain in the ass..."
It was like verbal vomit. Like, "I don't know what the fuck I just ate but it
hit all of a sudden and hard" kind of vomit. He couldn't stop; all of those bad
thoughts that he had ever had since the beginning of times were running wild
through his mind, and he was too busy ranting to notice Lance's horrified look.
"Maybe that's why the kicked me out of the Garrison. Because keeping a kitten
in your bedroom isn't that bad. They saw a chance to get rid of me and they
took it." Lance blinked.
"Hold your horse," he said, and Keith stopped right away, waiting for the next
words. "You got kicked out of the Garrison because you sneaked a kitten to your
bedroom?" he asked, and Keith's eyes teared up even more as he nodded.
"I found him outside the door. He was black and fluffy and had blue eyes. I
named him Taquito because I was craving tacos and he was so little. I felt so
lonely because I couldn't talk to Shiro anymore and we were going to have his
funeral soon and I needed someone and I found him alone outside," he told him,
and Lance seemed even more surprised.
"You named your cat Taquito? And they kicked you out because you sneaked him
in?" Lance asked, with a breathy laugh, and Keith nodded as he wiped the tears
away with the sleeve of his shirt, humming an affirmative sound. "Keith... You
named a kitten Taquito and you think you are an awful person?"
Lance asked that with a smile that made him look too pure. It was as if it
shone with its own light, making it mesmerizing but painful to watch. He
grabbed Keith's hands, and squeezed them, as he leant in and pressed his
forehead against Keith's.
"You are an amazing person," he started, closing his eyes, and it made Kieth
want to sigh because of the loss. He couldn't look at those eyes anymore. "You
went through so much shit alone. Since young you had to be strong for yourself,
you lost the one person that felt like your family, you got kicked out from a
place that represented your future when you needed company the most... There
are so many things that make you amazing I would need a whole day to say them
aloud."
"Lance..." Keith said, wanting to stop him because clearly it had been Lance
the one to go through the biggest mountain of crap. He didn't deserve so much
credit!
"I understand that when you were a child no one loved you, or at least you
think that no one did. But you need to understand that some people are assholes
and that we do love you for who you are..." Lance gulped. "I love you for who
you are."
"Please don't say that," Keith told him, closing his eyes. Had he actually
fainted when Hogg smashed his head against the table?
"I need to say it, Keith. It's the truth.We might have started as some crappy
kind of rivals but you've become a really important person in my life. I'm sure
that all feel the same way about you than I do," he said, letting go of Keith's
hand only to tuck a lock of hair behind his ear.
Keith let out a breathy laugh.
Unless everyone is in love with me that's not what I want to hear he thought,
opening his eyes again and parting from Lance.
There had been really few times when Lance looked open; because, despite his
easygoing demeanour, he was much deeper and complex than he liked to show. It
was really hard to catch him with the guards down, the gates open, showing how
much he thought about everything. How much he cared.
He looked perfect like that.
Lance hugged him close and Keith let him do it, curling up against him and
sneaking his arms around his neck. The warmth, the sound of his heartbeat and
his scent was slowly washing the ugly exhaustion away, to leave him just tired.
"Thank you for never leaving me," he said, voice croaky because of the crying,
and Lance hugged him even closer and pressed a kiss in his scalp.
"No one is going to leave you behind ever again, Keith. At least not us," he
told him, and Keith heard him sucking air in to keep talking, but then he
suddenly tensed and everything changed. His heartbeat started to run like crazy
and this new three smells entered the room.
"Hello, paladins," an unknown voice said, and something climbed its way up
Keith's back, making him tense. There were paws in his shoulder and head, and
all of a sudden a pair of hazel eyes were in front of him.
****** - - - ******
****** Part 2: There are balls and Lance gets punched in the face. ******
The only ones that didn't have an overly enthusiastic daemon were Shiro and
Allura, so the rest almost shat their pants when knowing the animal. Mostly
Hunk, because who would get really scared if you saw a grizzly bear running
towards you like crazy?
He had been talking with Ariela, the woman listening to him rant about not
being ready to cause energies to burst or something like that while sitting on
a staircase they had found while pacing around the castle. The sound of nails
on marble caught their attention and they turned around to see the bear running
towards Hunk. She had tipped him to the ground and grabbed him in a strong and
actual bear hug, as the paladin shook in a mix of too many intense emotions.
Ariela had been looking at them and clutching her heart when something pounced
against her back and sent her crashing to the floor, a snout quickly starting
to nuzzle her back and bite gently on her shoulders. The animal got off of her
and she met pale green eyes, the snow leopard chanting loudly: "Hello, mine.
Hello! I love you, I've waited so long to meet you!".
The Oracle was a woman with paper thin skin, really pale, that allowed you to
see her veins too clearly. Blind pearled eyes and silky black hair, she had
appeared running like mad on the room, smiling when she..., saw? Smiling when
she saw that the paladins had already found their daemons, and getting close to
give them their names. Hunk had cried when she told him that his bear was
called Aikane (his mother's name) and Ariela just laughed loudly when she knew
that the leopard was called Argentina.
Allura, Coran, Nallely, Sugey and Pidge were at the library with Desa, the
queen and Allura preparing their argument for the meeting with Coran's help and
the rest reading books. Pidge had gone to look for her laptop and was reading
three different books at the same time and smashed the keyboard as she
furiously wrote. Sugey calmly wrote things down in a little notebook and
Nallely read more out of curiosity than for research.
The Oracle had arrived first, magically, telling them that most of the animals
were a little bit too excited and that they should be patient. Then, a hawk
passed flying next to her and landed on top of Nallely's book, careful not to
tear the pages with its sharp claws. "I'm Ilayi, mine".
Then Coran with his barn owl that landed on his shoulder and started to rub her
head against his cheek so dutifully. It tickled, making the man laugh as she
presented herself.
Sugey screamed when her daemon appeared at her feet, pawing quickly at her leg
for her to pick him up. The little fennec fox started licking Sugey's nose the
second the girl picked him up, whispering his thoughts quickly. "You are so
pretty,mine. And smell so good, you are great."
When the male lion crossed the door with elegant pace and looking like the
actual king of the savannah, Allura was almost sure that it was Pidge's daemon.
Something about the irony of such a tiny human having a huge lion as daemon
made her smile, but the lion walked straight towards her and sat in front of
her, putting a gentle paw on top of her knee. "Hello, Allura. I'm Aryeh."
Pidge thought that there had been a mistake. No more animals were coming from
the door, so hers probably didn't even exist. She wouldn't make that big of a
change. But then she felt a pressure on her leg climbing up, and when she
looked down the first thought that came to her mind was "That is a tiny
dragon". "No, mine. I'm an Indonesian autumn adder. You read about me once. Do
you remember?".
Shiro was on Keith's door, opening it and getting scared by the white tiger
sitting on top of Lance's stomach, when Matt (the Tibetan mastiff) headbutted
him on the back and sent him stumbling into the room, discovering that Keith
was also being nuzzled and showered in affection by a weird cat, while a woman
with some sort of parrot resting on her shoulder watched with a smile full of
affection.
By lunch time they were all like meat and nail.
****** - - - ******
"Did you notice?" Keith asked, finally breaking the silence. Ara, that had been
tossing at his lap, looked at him.
"What did we notice, mine?" she asked, sitting up, and Keith's hand flew to
caress her head as he spoke, Shiro and Matt looking at him intently.
"Lance's daemon is called Sean," he said, and Shiro rolled his eyes.
"It must be one of his brother's names, Keith. I doubt that Lance is the kind
of person to have a boyfriend and not brag about him," he told him,
distractedly rubbing Matt's stomach with his foot, as the dog waved his tail
happily.
"Yeah, Kieth. Besides, if it worries you so much, why don't you ask him?" the
dog asked, and Keith shrugged.
"I can ask him if you want to, mine."
"Thank's Ara, but I rather he told me alone."
There was a knock on the door and before they could answer it shot open, a
leopard running to jump on the bed and starting to play with Ara immediately.
Matt got up too and jumped into the bed, barking happily, as the leopard jumped
into his back and nuzzled his neck, purring.
"She's too energic for me," Ariela whined, as she closed the door. She walked
towards them and sat on the floor, in front of both of them, before putting a
hand on Keith's knee. "How are you?"
"Fine, I guess. There's another person in the list of people I hate," was his
answer, and Ariela chuckled, before whispering "Same". Then she turned to
Shiro, who was distracted because Argentina was nuzzling his hair and licking
his cheeks.
"Do you know where Lance is?" she asked him.
"Mhmm. I took him to the library. Allura and Desa wanted to prepare the meeting
before lunch," he answered, and then his eyes shot open, as he turned to Keith.
"You have to tell her!"
"What?" the red paladin asked, frowning, and Ara stopped dead in her tracks.
"You have to tell her about the thing. You can trust her with it, and she can
help you!" Shiro explained himself, pointing at Ariela with his hand.
"What thing? A special mission?" Argentina asked, as she sneaked herself in
middle of Keith and Shiro and landed on the floor to sit beside Ariela.
"Yeah, what thing?".
"I don't know, Shiro. You remember her position in this whole business, right?"
Keith asked, and Ariela's eyes shot open. She was growing impatient.
"I swear I won't tell anyone, Keith! You can trust me!" she practically
screamed, gripping his knee. Keith looked at Shiro.
"My opinion is kind of biased. I would trust her with my life," he said while
shrugging and Ariela awwed. "But she could seriously help you, Keith. You need
to get this deal out of the way or you'll die of something."
"Okay." Ariela turned to look at Keith again. "But if you tell anyone about
this I will murder you," he said, practically hissing, and Ariela nodded
eagerly. She looked like a child who had been told they would know the secret
about Christmas or something.
"Come on, Keith-y. Tell her," Ara said, nudging forward with her head against
his nape.
"Okay, okay... I may be kind of..., gay," he said, and Ariela smiled.
"Welcome to the club," she said.
"Yeah. I may be kind of gay and I may like... like really be really gay for
your brother. Like, crushing ugly for your brother," he continued.
And that's the story of how Ariela was diagnosed with sudden brain death.
Everything around her stopped, and Keith was afraid that it would make things
awkward, but after almost a whole minute of calling her name and gently shaking
her, she screamed.
"OH MY GOD THIS IS SO FUCKING PERFECT! YEAH BOOOY!" She jumped to the floor and
practically lunged herself at Keith, catching him in a brutal hug and making
them both fall into the bed, almost squeezing Matt and Ara. "You are going to
be my little brother in law! Yes! Idania is going to love you!" And then she
proceeded to rant about family and weddings and kids.
"Oh, Jesus," Shiro said, cackling like a mad man as Keith looked frozen in the
surprise. Then Ariela shot up, rolling off of Keith and pointing a finger up in
the air.
"We need to make a plan! The perfect confession," she said, standing up and
starting to pace around in front of the two men.
"See? I told you," Shiro said.
"I know! Tomorrow is the daemon night, and there are going to be celebrations
of course. There'll be a ball on the castle, but the queen knows that we will
suffer, so she gave us permission to leave after half an hour to the party on
the town. We should all go together, you take Lance away and drop the bomb,"
she said. "I'll make sure no one interrupts you!"
"But, do you know if he has someone back on Earth or something?" Keith asked,
looking at his hands, the name Sean resonating in his head. He lifted his face
to look at the woman, and something hurt in his heart when he noticed that she
was actually thinking about it.
"Not that I know. The last time he dated someone it was the guy that played
Hamilton at our play... But they broke up before he went to the Garrison," she
answered.
"Oh. What was his name?" Shiro asked.
"I don't quite remember. I was paying attention to Lafayette if you know what I
mean. Besides, I went back to Argentina a week after we finished the play," she
said, her leopard's head shooting up at the sound of her name.
"You dated Lafayette?" Shiro asked.
"Yep. We were dating before the play, like..., years before. Once he gave me a
hickey and I convinced ten-year-old Lance that it was a leftover from a vampire
bite," she told them, before chuckling. "He was so worried I would turn into a
vampire! How cute." She looked at Shiro, who had a weirded out expression.
"What?"
"I don't know. Lafayette didn't seem that cute when we watched the tape of the
play," he said, shrugging. Ariela frowned and Keith's mouth fell open.
"Are you jealous?" he asked his brother, and Shiro got red.
"No! Why would I be jealous?" he practically yelled, and Ariela laughed,
getting closer and pecking him on the lips.
"Don't worry, Shiro. Lafayette is not here to threaten your status of my friend
with benefits," she told him before fully kissing him and thank God she had her
eyes closed because Keith looked surprised at a second and ready to murder at
the other.
Friends with benefits? They are not dating? What the fuck, Shiro? We thought
you were smart! Red screamed in Keith's mind as the pilot nodded.
"Well. I don't know you, but I want to hit the training deck until tea time,"
Ariela said, getting up, and Argentina started to jump around, climbing up the
woman's body and making her lean slightly forward so that the leopard could
stand in her back.
"I'll go with you," Keith said, getting up. "I haven't sparred with you for a
while, I want to see how much you've improved. And, I still need to talk to you
about the whole Lance thing. Are you coming, Shiro?"
"Nah. I think I'll stay here and rest," he said, dropping down on the bed, Matt
quickly rolling to be beside him.
"Proud of you, Shiro!" Ariela said, already getting out of the bedroom.
****** - - - ******
"How was practise with Ariela?" Shiro asked when Keith stepped into his
bedroom. He was cradling Ara in his arms, the right one bandaged up. He had
scratches on his face and he was probably covered in bruises under his clothes.
"She is a beast. He got much better since the last time I sparred with her, I
barely beat her," he said, flopping down on the bed next to the black paladin,
Ara sliding out of his arms and laying between them, purring when Shiro started
to rub her tummy. "Speaking of Ariela, you owe me an explanation."
Shiro groaned and covered his face, rolling onto his back, as Keith pushed
himself up with one arm and with the other he smashed a pillow against Shiro's
covered face.
"Friend with benefits? What the fuck, Shiro? I thought you were an actual
couple!" he practically screamed. Matt barked, Shiro fake-sobbed, Red screamed
with Keith, Black groaned and scolded her pilot, and Ara sprinted away from the
mess to curl up with Matt and sleep. She was tired after fighting with
Argentina.
"I know, I know. I was going to tell her, I swear. But... At the beginning she
thought that I didn't even want to talk to her, that it was all too awkward to
keep being friends," he started, uncovering his face and looking at Keith. "And
when I denied it and tried to explain that that night had been something like a
blessing and that I wanted to be with her she understood the being with her
just sexually."
"AND YOU DIDN'T CORRECT HER?" Keith was flaming.
"I thought that I was shooting too high and that I should just be thankful for
what I have," he answered, shrugging and sighing. "Besides, if you look at us
carefully, you will notice our relationship is like if we were dating," he
said, and Keith rolled and sat on top of him, jabbing a finger on his chest.
"You are right. Friends with benefits are one of the closest things to a couple
that there is. But you know what? It doesn't give you any right, she can still
go and flirt with anyone and leave you just like this," he said, snapping his
fingers right in front of Shiro's nose.
"You think so?" the man asked him, looking a little bit scared, and Keith got
up from the bed and pointed at the door.
"Wake up, Shiro! For anyone a that has a mentality a little bit similar to us
she is a great game! Beautiful, smart, great taste in everything, good fighter,
strong, singer... And I don't mention sex because only you can judge that
area," Keith said, and Shiro sat up while he talked, looking like he had just
had a revelation.
"Oh, god. She's so out of my league," he said, and Keith wanted to scream.
"No! NO! She is in your league. You are a captain, Shiro. A great guy, really
hot, astronaut and... You are great with kids," he continued. "What I was
trying to say is that everyone in their right mind and liking women would go
after Ariela like a starving man would run to a McDonald's."
"But she doesn't want anything with me besides from what we already have,"
Shiro muttered, and he was playing with his fingers like a little child being
scolded.
"You don't know that," the red paladin said, crossing his arms over his chest,
and Shiro looked so done™.
"It's her who we are talking about, one of the boldest people we've ever known.
If she wanted to do something with me she would have faced me already," he
said.
Keith ran fast hands through his hair and fell into the bed, next to Shiro,
again. The man awkwardly patted his knee as he waited for the teen to finish
his whispery rant about how stupid his older brother was and that he was going
to date Ariela if he didn't snap out of it.
"I am happy with my current situation, Keith. If she ends up liking me enough
to be his boyfriend, great. If she doesn't or we just "break up" then it'll be
bad, but I will survive it. I survived Lila after all," he told his brother,
who looked at him with squinted eyes.
"Lila was poison, and deep inside you knew it. And, despite she being a harpy
and shitting on your career and your family, you were destroyed when she left
you, even though she left you because you were going to Kerberos instead of
"staying home with her like a good boyfriend"," Keith started, and he looked a
little sad. "You would barely come out of bed and only ate pre-cooked meals."
"Yeah, when I tried to make a salad I managed to set a scrubber on fire," Shiro
laughed.
"You were destroyed. If a shitty woman like her leaves you like that after a
breakup, imagine how you will end up if you have to separate from Ariela."
Shiro looked at him in the eyes, and there was hesitation and fear when he
answered:
"I'll still have the rest of you if that happens." Keith shook his head.
"We are like some kind of shitty tape and she is super glue, Shiro. Without
her, I don't know how long it will take for you to fall apart. And it only gets
worse, because the war only grows stronger and bloodier, so the stress we are
feeling right now is nothing compared to what will come. And, did you ever
notice? Allura tells us the fights we need to fight and we never discuss the
battles with her after they happen. We don't know the damage we cause, the
lives we take nor those we didn't even bother to save."
The air was suddenly really cold and it hurt Shiro's lungs when he took in a
shaky breath. Because what Keith had just said was true. He had never
questioned Allura about damages, maybe because he was too tired to do so or
because his mind unconsciously wanted to save the guilt up for him. But he was
right.
"We are not alone here, Shiro, but we can't afford to grow apart. We are only
ten people there, dealing with the stress, fear and responsibility of a whole
platoon," Keith told him, sitting next to him and putting a hand on his
shoulder. "I don't like seeing you so down, and I know that without her it will
be hard lifting you from the ground."
"Why is the man crying?"
The two paladins shot their heads to the sides, surprised to hear the childish
voice breaking the tense silence, and discovered two little girls. One, the one
that had spoken, with long and ginger curly hair loose and a red dress. She was
holding the youngest one's hand. The baby couldn't be more than one-year-old,
and she had the same curly ginger hair, blue eyes looking curiously at Keith.
"Who are you?" he asked with caution, as he looked at the door. It was open,
but there was no adult in sight.
"I'm Solara, and this is my sister, Calupe," the older one said, pulling gently
her sister's arm. "Say hi, Calu," she indicated her, and the baby lifted her
hand and shook it slowly, smiling and swinging slightly from side to side.
"How did you get here?" he continued to ask.
"My mum is talking with Desa, and she told us to wait outside," Solara
answered, picking her sister up. "Why is your skin purple?" she asked, walking
towards Keith and standing in front of him. The red paladin shot a panicked
look to Shiro, who shrugged.
"I-I don't know, really," he said, and Calupe threw her arms at him, opening
and closing her little hands.
"Kitty!" she said, laughing. Shiro laughed.
"I think she wants to touch your ears," he said.
"Do you want to pick her up? She is really heavy, and my arms are getting
tired," Solara told Keith, as she left the baby on his lap without letting him
answer. The baby immediately climbed to a stand, grasping Keith's clothes, and
grabbed strands of his hair, her blue eyes opening wide as she started to
roughly caress the hair. "She likes you."
"Kitty," Calupe gasped.
"Who's your mother?" Shiro asked Solara.
"My mum is Skal, the royal maid," she answered. "The cook couldn't take care of
us today so we came with her to work."
"Oh. And, won't she be worried when she can't find you?" he asked, and Solara
shrugged, looking at the floor.
"I was getting bored," was her only answer. "Can I pet your daemons? They are
really cute!"
****** - - - ******
"How is preparation going?" Ariela asked him, and Lance just lets his head fall
and bang against the library table as an answer. "That horrible?" Sean let out
a small roar and rolled on the ground, kneading the carpet under her paws, and
Argentina quickly mimicked her.
"I feel like throwing up, Ari. I can't hold them in my mind, the numbers just
slip through my fingers like water," he answered, turning his head to a side
and sliding the notebook he had been reading over and over again. "I discovered
why Allura wanted it to be me the one to go with them," he said, pointing at a
little chart. Civilain deaths (by Galra), civilians deaths (by Voltron vs.
Galra), planets destroyed...
"How come we never saw this numbers?" Ariela asked, while still reading the
charts as she sat down in the chair next to her brother. Lance sat up straight
again.
"She has been dealing with all the diplomatic business alone, so unless she
told us we wouldn't know, and she didn't want to burden us with the number of
people that died because of us," he started, looking at his sister for the
first time, and Ariela finally discovered the red eyes and nose. "I guess she
told me to go with them because she thought I was the only one who could deal
with knowing all of this," he said, licking his dry lips. "Of course she was
wrong."
The woman gave him a strong side-hug, pressing her cheek against his shoulder.
"It was not our fault. If the Galra hadn't started all of this shit we would
have to let anyone die," she said, and Lance snorted.
"Speak for the rest of you," Lance said, rubbing hi wrist and slightly pinching
the skin there, only to get Ariela slap his hand away. "My daemon has his name,
Ariela. It's like he came up from hell to haunt me," he said.
"He came down from heaven to protect you," the woman contradicted him.
"Suiciders don't go to heaven."
"And that's why I don't believe in your God. I mean, if he was so sweet and
forgiving, why would he deny heaven to someone who has suffered so much?"
Ariela said, sitting straight again, but this time Lance dropped his head on
her shoulder.
"I will not discuss religion with you right now," he said, and a silence
followed for a few minutes.
"If it makes you feel better, I know something great will happen tomorrow
night," she said with a sly smile that Lance couldn't see.
"I will only warn you once. If you are going to brag about fucking Shiro,
you'll get hit," he told her, and Ariela laughed.
"Is not about me, nor Shiro. It's about you, but I can't tell you or I'll be
found lifeless in a ditch."
****** - - - ******
"The bed is a little bit cramped, don't you think so?" Ariela laughed, as she
tried to place herself somewhere she would feel comfortable. Argentina was
already sleeping, her own tail wrapped around herself and Matt had his head on
top of Shiro's stomach.
"Ariela," Shiro called, licking his lips. He looked stiff, laying there and she
quirked an eyebrow as she finally laid kind of next to him. "If something goes
wrong with us...," he started, and she shushed him.
"Unless you disrespect me or are bad to me in some way I won't stop being your
friend, Shiro. You need to stop worrying about that," she told him.
****** - - - ******
"Where are they?" Desa questioned, looking from side to side of the ballroom.
Maids and butlers were running hurriedly everywhere, carrying trays and baskets
filled with different things they needed to place somewhere in the room; the
musicians were practising on the stage, and the children of the staff were
dancing to the bits and pieces of melodies they played. Solara and Calupe were
there too, playing with the other children, and sometimes running to tell Shiro
about something.
The two little girls had stayed with him and Keith for almost two hours, before
Skal found them and started to apologise, with them telling her that there was
no problem, that her daughters were the sweetest children they had ever met.
And that was true. The two girls had taken some liking towards them because the
following day they practically lived behind Shiro's or Keith's steps, Solara
asking them to explain everything she could ask about and Calupe just babbling
and playing with them.
"They must be coming back, Desa. Don't worry," Allura answered, as she played
with her hair. She was nervous too, but she knew better than letting her own
uneasiness sink into the queen too.
Ariela and Keith had gone training again once Lance and the two royal women
went to the main kingdom, Jonc, to the meeting through a portal. The rest of
the crew, even Coran, had joined them for a while and together they had beaten
a level seventeen of the Gladiator, but then they all returned to the Castle to
get ready for the ball, and the other two stayed there.
"I'm sorry. It's just that many important people are coming and they can screw
us up with any little thing they notice about you," she explained. "Everyone
already knows that the red paladin is Galran, so it can only go downhill."
"Hear yee, hear yee," Ariela chanted as she entered the room with Keith by her
side. "Stop the panic and smile, because the future of the universe has
arrived."
"There are times when I want to punch that smile out of your face," Lance told
her before pulling from the small braid she had made with her hair. He slid an
arm around her shoulders and the other through Keith's who tensed slightly,
before relaxing again and smiling.
"Please pardon us, we got too caught up with training and we ended too bruised
up, so we had to use the healing pods for a while," he said, buttoning up the
left wrist of his black shirt. He was wearing that and a pair of really dark
jeans, with his hair up in a ponytail. Ariela, on the other hand, was wearing a
purple gipsy skirt and a black strapless tank top, with a little bit of makeup.
"I'm so glad you finally made it! The guests are arriving in fifteen minutes or
so," Desa said, and then a bunch of children started to shriek out of
happiness, running towards Keith. The platoon was lead by Solara, and Calupe
could be seen running at the far back, not being able to keep up with the other
six-year-olds.
"KEITH!" the girl screamed, straight up jumping onto him and the red paladin
catching her up and lifting her in the air. "This is the cat boy I told you
about, guys," she told the rest of the kids, who were looking up at Keith with
wide eyes.
"Why are your ears like that?" one of them asked.
"Because... They are like that," Keith mumbled out, and half of the children
ahhed at the answer as if it was the most logical possible.
"Who is she?" Solara asked him, pointing at Ariela, who looked at the little
kid with surprised.
"This is my friend, Ariela. Ariela, she is Solara, one of the maid's daughter,"
he said, and the woman waved her hand awkwardly at her.
"I like your clothes. You are really pretty," Solara said, as she looked down
and played with the collar of Keith's shirt, suddenly feeling shy. The woman's
golden and bright eyes had kind of intimidated her, although she thought they
were really beautiful at the same time.
"KIF!" Calupe screamed, as she fell to the floor in front of them and got up
quickly, using Ariela's skirt as leverage and then latching onto Keith's leg,
laughing happily.
"Damn, you're like a kid magnet," Lance laughed, patting the red paladin on the
chest before squatting down and picking the baby up. She immediately grabbed
the necklace his sister had gifted him and put it on her mouth, cringing and
spitting it out at the taste of leather, making Lance cackle and bounce her.
"That's puagh, right?" he asked the baby girl, making a face of disgust, and
she nodded.
"Aww, look at you," Ariela started, walking away from the both of them and
settling between Hunk and Shiro. "You look like a couple with their children."
Her fake cute smile turned into a sly one as the blood rushed towards both the
teens' cheeks, Keith shooting her a warning look nonetheless. His eyes screamed
"If you dare to say a word..." and left the threat hanging there for Ariela's
creative brain to fill, like a morbid game of fill the blank... Or like Cards
Against Humanity.
A white shine came through one of the windows on the wall facing the huge and
beautiful park, indicating them that someone had arrived through a portal. The
effect was immediate; butlers running to their designated places and maids back
into the kitchen, dragging their children with them. Skal deviated, though,
trying to grab her daughter's, but Desa stopped her.
"Oh, could you leave her with us? Only if you don't mind," the queen told her,
and the maid didn't look at Keith twice before nailing her eyes on Solara's.
"You promise you'll behave?" she asked, and the little girl nodded. "Take care
of your sister." Then she turned to Keith. "If they are ever a bother to you
just... Uh... Tell one of the butlers and they will take them to me," she told
him.
"Don't worry, they are great, but we were going to go to the village's party.
Is that a problem?" he asked, shifting Solara's weight from one hip to the
other.
"No, no," Skal answered with aa wide smile, before turning to the door to
discover that the guests were already coming in. She waved her hand fastly
before sprinting towards a hidden door for the staff and disappearing there.
The first pair of guests came through the door and Desa put her royal walls up,
going from friendly and sweet common woman to merciful queen that could end you
if she wanted.
****** - - - ******
Hunk had always loved the concept of balls. Everyone dressing up fancy,
dancing, chatting, dining, drinking and gossiping. So, he had been more than
excited by this, but then reality hit him like a truck, and he realised that
balls weren't reunions, they were the battlefield of the wealthy people. There
was people gathering data aginst his enemy, intelligence groups studying
behaviour and alliances being made in grotty foundations., only for the sake of
destroying common enemies. In the first forty minutes, Hunk had seen groups of
counts and countess, lords and ladies, etceteros and etceteras talking with
fake smiles, exchanging murderous glances and fixing some shady business over
the canapé table.
So? It couldn't be that bad. He had always loved drama and gossiping. He would
probably be chatting with Lance and Pidge in whispers, guessing who was
cheating on who and who wanted to take someone's lands. But, there was the
little fact that everyone was there not for the real purpose of the ball
(gathering, celebrating daemons and being shady). No. This ball was to lay them
naked before everyone's inquisitive eyes.
"They will end up giving us the evil eye," Lance whispered to him before
sipping from his wine glass.
He looked like one of them, in the black suit he had made for himself with the
synthesiser, the white tiger sitting next to him in all her glory, and a fancy
crystal cup filled with dark wine in his right hand. Many of the women
whispered while looking at him, or over his shoulder to Keith, but with one
glance of Lance's piercing eyes, they turned away.
The only ones that weren't on the "Shield Keith from the bitches' eyes" club
were Shiro, Allura, Coran and Ariela. The black paladin and the two Alteans
were chatting politely with the leader of the Velimian army, and Ariela was
socialising, which (according to Lance) was really weird. He always said that
his sister couldn't stand stupid people and that place was filled with stupid
people. Lance had been looking at her warily until he caught her clenching her
fists and noticed she wasn't actually socialising, she was gathering
information. Not quite sure about what, but that was what she was doing.
"When can we sneak down to the village?" asked Sugey, that was sitting on the
floor with her pretty lilac dress, playing a Grigkeand hands game with Solara,
and tricking Calupe into thinking she was actually playing too.
"The queen asked us to stay until midnight, but I'm afraid I will be too
emotionally drained to do anything after this shit," Nallely answered, sipping
from her own glass. She was stunning; her hair up in a complicated hairstyle
and a slim, black one piece that made her look even taller.
Ariela laughed at a joke a guy had just said, putting a soft hand on his
shoulder. Almost everyone's eyes flew towards them, and Hunk couldn't avoid
biting his lip when he noticed Shiro glaring, biting his cheek and clenching
his fingers around his glass.
"Do we have more alcohol at reach?" Keith asked, surprising everyone. His eyes
were quickly flying between Ariela and Shiro, imitating his brother's disgusted
gesture when the woman tried to break away from the lord she was talking to and
the man picked up his hand to kiss, to which she responded with a flirty batter
of her eyelashes before turning to them and walking. Pidge noticed the tension
on the woman's shoulders and called over a butler who had a tray with more
alcoholic drinks.
"That guy is an asshole and I hate him and I want to cut my hand off. Thank
you, darling," she said quickly once she had reached them, leaving her empty
cup on the tray and grabbing two of the small ones. She downed all of the light
liquid in one of them in one go and left it in the tray again. "He's some
king's brother. I don't remember the name, but now we are sure we have them on
our side," she added, now sipping from the second cup like a civilised person.
"So that's what you were doing. And here was I, thinking that you had dignity
and wouldn't fall down enough to trick stupid royal people," Lance said,
giggling.
"Yeah, right. As if we were going to stay behind and do nothing. Right, mine?"
Argentina said, and Ariela crunched slightly to pet her head lovingly.
"I want to leave," Ariela sobbed, downing the cup again. "These cups are too
small," she said, and the butler snickered behind her.
"Fancy people make them this small so they don't get wasted and spill any
dangerous secrets," he said, and Ariela turned to him with a smile, eyes
gleaming at the man's humour, as she grabbed another wine cup.
"Now I understand so many things," she replied.
"These people are choking me," Shiro said, popping out of nowhere. "Can we
like..., flee? Screw the alliance they are so...," and he finished his
statement with a grumbling noise. Ariela laughed.
"How long until we can Cindirella our way out of this thing?" Pidge asked,
eyeing the giant clock on the roof. Only ten more minutes. "So... Do we
like..., sneak out or just say "Bye, Felicia" and run?"
"I say Lance gets his gun out, blasts it into the roof and we "Bye, Felicia","
Keith said, and everyone chuckled, making his cheeks turn a little bit redder.
He already had a slight blush on his cheeks, in part because Lance had been
chatting with him and protecting him from mean and reach people, and in part
because he had drank a few cups of whatever and it was slowly getting to him.
"Oh, no. Asshole is coming and he has company," Nallely said, eyeing over
Ariela's shoulder and then lowering her gaze.
"Mrs Torres," a silky voice said behind them and Ariela looked like she had
just smelt a mountain of crap, before turning with a bright smile.
"Lord Vonj. We meet again," she said, and he smiled, before putting a hand on
the lower back of the woman standing next to him, pushing her gently forward.
She glanced at Lance and smiled like a high schooler. "My sister and I were
wondering if your brother and you would like to dance with us the next piece."
"Our older brother has only talked wonders about your eloquence in today's
meeting," the woman said, and Lance smiled, grabbing her hand and bowing
slightly, dropping one of his pick up lines. It set Keith's veins on fire, and
Shiro had to put a calming hand on his shoulder to make him notice he was
slightly growling.
All that was going through the red paladin's mind was Mine, mine, mine. Take
your filthy hands out of him, he is mine, and Red backing him up and insulting
the woman didn't help him. Ara climbed to his shoulders quickly and whispered
in his ear:
"I could scratch her face for you," but Keith shook his head, as he watched the
two McCalin go.
"Please tell me you'll do something about that tonight," Hunk said, and Keith
turned to him with a confused look. "You should change your name to Jealous
McJealousy, jeez."
"Does this mean an end to your unresolved sexual tension?" Pidge asked, and
Keith's eyes grew wide in surprise. He turned to Shiro, looking ready to kill,
and the man shook his head, lifting his hands up in the air.
"How did you know?" he gasped, ears sticking to his skull in shame.
"Are you kidding me? I don't know shit about humans and I noticed you wanted to
have Lance for yourself since the..., third time I saw you together," Nallely
snorted, eyebrows raising at the surprise of something and almost choking on
his own spit, but when they turned to watch to see what had ripped that
reaction out of her, they just saw Lord Vonj's back.
"You look at him with eyes that say "I want to drill your ass and cherish your
heart" every time he enters the room," Pidge added, and Keith turned the colour
of a pomegranate.
"How come Lance didn't notice if it was that obvious?" he asked in a small and
high whisper.
"Are you serious?" Hunk asked, before sighing. "Lance is not used to have the
people he likes liking him back." Ara reacted before Keith, jumping on top of
Hunk's broad shoulders.
"Lance likes Keith too?" she asked the yellow paladin, and he scratched his
nape, feeling shy under everyone's intense looks.
"He never told me he liked you, but I think he does, by the way he looks at
you," he said, and Keith's eyes shot towards Shiro again. He was beaming. He
wanted to hug him and congratulate him, but Nallely mouthing the words "You
need help" caught their attention. They turned and saw Ariela.
She mouthed the word "Wait" and laughed at a small joke Vonj had made.
"You know, I was really surprised when my brother told me the glorious paladins
of Voltron would be staying at Velime's palace. I thought their allies would
dissuade the queen and ask her to let someone else host you," he said, and
Ariela parted a little to look at him.
"What do you mean?" she asked, with an innocent frown. Vonj smiled, thinking
that he could take her surprise to lower his hands to his ass again, but she
swatted them away.
"Oh, well. After all the mess they went through a few months ago... The queen's
cougar murdered the prince's daemon, totally cold-blooded," he said, and the
world stopped around Ariela.
Hogg used to have a daemon? And Camlei, Desa's, had killed it? Why did Hogg
have a daemon? He didn't look like someone who could change the world. And why
had Camlei killed his daemon? Had it been instinct, some thought of his or
Desa's orders?
The woman took a step back to put distance between her and the man, but he
waltzed forward, grasping her waist. Ariela's jaw squared and she nailed her
eyes in his. You could never trust a person that smiled while talking about
murder. She quickly took her arms out of the man's shoulders and she scratched
her right arm in a pin that was in his jacket. She hissed in pain and Vonj
immediately grabbed her wrist, turning her arm to examine the wound.
"I'm sorry about that," he said, grabbing the pin and showing it to her. It was
a four pointed star made out of really sharp glass, the top one tainted with a
little drop of her blood. "The skjalr star. The emblem of my family," he said.
"I should get going," she said, giving another step back and crashing against
another couple dancing. They murmured angrily at her and she muttered an
apology.
"So early? I thought we were having fun," he said, grabbing her wrists and
pulling them around his neck to grasp her waist again afterwards. "I'm sorry if
I scared you with bloody tales. But if you are scared of Desa, you can always
come to our house. We can fit all of your crew mates..."
Let me kill him Bagheera murmured in her mind.
No, letmedo it Argentina stepped into his words; she had actually stayed with
the group, not taking her pale green eyes away from her other half. It was
weird having another voice in her head, but there were more important things
right now.
"I'm going to have to ask you to remove your hands off of me or I'll slap you,"
she said.
"A woman slapping me. Hah. Where do you get those funny ideas?" the man
chuckled, leaning in and Ariela leaning away, as he lowered his hands once
again and grabbed her butt. Ariela really wanted to slap him, but she opted for
the most discrete option, and dug her sharp and long nails in the man's neck,
enjoying the pain appearing in his expression.
"I want you to know that I have broken a guy's arm for less," she spat through
her teeth, as Vonj took her hands out of her and backed away as if she had the
plague, the back of his knees hitting something and falling, crashing against
something hard and turning around to discover Shiro's eyes dark with anger.
Matt was there, growling softly.
"Are you okay, Ariela?" he asked, without taking his eyes away from the lord,
and she whispered a yes, grabbing Shiro's arm and pulling him away, towards the
spot where the group was waiting for them, with wide angered eyes.
"How dare he?" Sugey squeaked when they were close enough to hear her. "He...,
groped you as if you were his wife or something." She sounded so outraged that
Ariela would have smiled if she wasn't so busy evening her breath. She was
shaking.
"He smelt bad," she said, licking her dry lips.
"What?" Keith asked.
"I don't like him. There's something wrong about him," she said, hugging
herself, and then Shiro pulled her against his chest, murmuring that she
wouldn't have to ever see him again.
"You are bleeding," Keith said, grabbing her arm and inspecting the small cut
there.
"I say we just leave. It's already midnight after all," Pidge butted in.
Everything that the rest could see was blank of emotion (her expression, her
voice, her body language), but Keith and Ariela could smell the striking sense
of fear in her blood. "He is looking at us, and he..." she continued.
Everyone followed Pidge's eyes and found Vonj next to Hogg. The first man was
smiling, while the second just looked at Keith with eyes that carried a threat.
It was a disturbing image; the two man that they didn't have a good feeling
about standing in the middle of the dancefloor, chattering easily without
taking their eyes out of them, even when couples waltzed in front of them and
blocked the view.
"He looks like a shark," Pidge finished, amazed and terrified. "And not a cute
one. He looks like a shark that just smelt blood." Ariela buried her face in
Shiro's arm and the man felt a light pain, of the woman biting him slightly.
"Grab the kids and let's get out of here," he said as he looked at Skal's
daughters, starting to pull the woman along with him. "Someone get Lance,
Allura and Coran."
"Allura and Coran are staying, and I will do the same," Nallely said. "I don't
trust this people with them."
"Okay, I'll go get Lance," Hunk said.
"I'll ask the Oracle to open the portal for us," Pidge said, practically
sprinting away towards the door of the garden.
****** - - - ******
Travelling in a portal was like getting swallowed by a wave in Argentinian sea.
His first summer in an Argentinian beach had been hell. Being used to the
tranquil and warm water of Cuba, with the ground made of soft sand, he had been
taken aback by the freezing water, the raging waves and the raspy sand that had
left his knees destroyed.
The waves had caught him out of guard many times, crashing against his back and
sides, and it had been as if he was suddenly thrown into the cold and evil
washing machine of hell. He rolled, losing air and crashing against the sand,
not knowing which way was up and which way was down. Ariela had had to fetch
him out of the troubled waters many times, and after the first eight times that
that happened, he decided to stay at the shore, watching how the woman enjoyed
swimming there, making the waves look like they weren't harmful and avoiding
them easily.
To make it short, it felt like being thrown into the cold and evil washing
machine from hell, unaware and unprepared.
When he took a shaky step out of the portal he fell forward, Hunk catching him
when he fell against his friend's chest, thinking the trip was not worth it,
but then the cold was overcome by heat, the ugly rushing sound of the portal
turning turned into a band playing beautiful and lively music and people
screaming and shouting.
Ariela, who seemed to have come back to life, grasped his arms and dragged him
across the crowd.
"THIS IS OUT KIND OF PARTY!" she screamed excitedly, and finally stopped him,
in front of what Lance thought would be the best sight of the night. There was
a huge fire burning in the middle of a square, people chatting, eating and
drinking around it. At the left, there was a group of people with many
instruments playing music, and many other either sang or danced.
The houses that surrounded the square were all really high and the streets
between them narrow, so the village people had hung many balls made out of
glass with..., little galaxies on them? There were red, purples, golds,
silvers, burdeos, lilacs... All the mini fragments of universe lighting the
streets along with the three little moons in the sky and the candles everyone
had set at the sill of their windows. Lance couldn't spot a single window sill
without light.
The people cleared the way for them, looking at their daemons with wide and
intimidating eyes. Usually, only warriors had them, and when they spotted Hunk
with a fucking grizzly bear walking by his side there was no doubt that these
people were actually warriors. Of course, the ones that weren't intimidated
were the kids who, at the sight of fluffy animals, ran towards the paladins,
asking if they could pet the daemons.
This ended up with Aikane calmly carrying seven kids on her back, with Hunk's
worried looks and ready arms over them, ready to catch anyone falling down, and
the family of those kids hovering over him, praising him and thanking him for
the opportunity, curiously asking who he was and where he had come from.
Now, when Ariela stepped in front of the main guitarist with Argentina perched
up on her back and shoulders and she asked him if they could join, all
instruments stopped and silence fell. The musicians eyed the tiger and then the
snow leopard, before making a little bit of room in the circle in which they
had sat. Ariela and Lance dropped one next to the other, and looked at
everyone, smiling and anxious for them to start playing again, but no one dared
to move a muscle.
"You don't have to be afraid of us," Sean said, with her smooth and calming
voice, as she rubbed her head against the percussion guy's side.
"Yeah. Not of us and nor of our halves. They are great people. They are going
to step up to the Galra," Argentina told them, happily, anxious to start
praising, but one of the women singing held her hand out to her, and the
leopard met the shaky palm with her snout.
Once everyone agreed that, if their daemons were so friendly, they should be
friendly too, the music came back to life. After a few songs, someone passed a
guitar to Lance, and after that time went flying.
He hadn't held a guitar ever since he had entered the Garrison. And, despite
the long time that had gone by, the instrument felt so right in his hands he
couldn't stop the smile growing in his face, wider and wider as he scratched
notes out, with his sister immediately recognising the song and starting to
sing. Everyone was amazed, by the way those foreign words sounded so beautiful
even though they couldn't understand them, and by Ariela's voice. She would
later tell him that the way he ran his fingers through the cords so
effortlessly was the origin of the amazement, but he wouldn't believe her. In
Lance's head, he still sucked at playing the guitar.
It had taken him years of hard work to be able to play one of the easiest
songs. And, although at the beginning he started learning because if you didn't
play an instrument you weren't a Martínez (later to be McClain), he ended up
doing it out of spite. He couldn't remember the melodies, the cords nor the
chords, and his fury stopped being directed to himself and started being
directed to the instrument itself ("That damned thing won't let me play it").
And now, he was one of the best guitarists in generations of his family, if you
listened to his grandfather.
With this, he also discovered that things that had to do with motor were easier
for him to remember. The habit.
He was pouring himself into the instrument, blind and deaf to the world around
him, just feeling like he was back at his place again. He wasn't conscious of
the other musicians following him with their instruments, nor of Keith watching
mesmerised from the other side of the circle. Because, man. In the last month,
he had discovered that Lance was the lost son of Aphrodite, a great singer and
played the guitar as if he had invented it. Who could blame him?
He was so astounded (and a little bit drunk too -alcohol also ran free in the
town-) that he almost didn't notice when he started to understand the sexy
Spanish flowering out of Lance's and Ariela's lips. And, by the looks of the
rest of the musicians, they could understand too. Shiro's hand tightened on his
shoulder, and Keith discovered Ariela looking at him with sultry eyes as she
and Lance sang.
"...pero quiero rezar en tu boca la ardiente plegaria que sanga en mis labios"
(But I want to pray in your mouth the burning plead that bleeds in my lips).
"This is so not fair," the man murmured, burying his face in his hands as Matt
laughed loudly.
"How come we can suddenly understand them?" Keith asked him.
The panther and Blue were finally able to upload their language into all of our
translators Red answered, and Ara rolled on her back in front of him.
"If he looks up at you while singing this you just have to just get up and kiss
his lips to dust," she said, straightening up and watching at Lance intently.
The blue paladin didn't look up until the other half of the song. Quisiera ser
una gota de sal y nacer en tu piel una y mil veces. Quisiera ser un amanecer,
para llenarte de mi cada vez que despiertes. (I'd like to be a drop of salt and
born in your skin one and a thousand times. I'd like to be a dawn, to fill you
up with me every time you wake up). Blue eyes nailing in Keith's, pupils blown
and cheeks rosy.
Keith bit his lip and looked down, taking a deep breath as he counted to ten.
"This is it, Keith. You have to do it," Ara insisted, trying to nudge him
forward, but Keith stood up and retreated, away from the music circle and
towards the food area, where he found Hunk and Pidge, taking care of Solara and
Calupe.
"I can't do it," he said, licking his dry lips.
"Okay, don't panic, Keith," Hunk started, as he threw the little girl in the
air and the caught her, earning happy shrieks and laughter. "One of us can take
him away from the croud if you want."
"Nah," Pidge said, grabbing a bronze jar. "What he needs is some courage
juice," she finished, giving the jar to Keith, the smell of bitter bear filling
his nose and making him wrinkle it. Despite that, he gave a little chug,
surprisingly enjoying the really cold liquid going down his throat. He hadn't
noticed he was burning until that moment.
"I'm not sure. I'm already a little bit drunk... I think," he said, frowning,
as he thought.
"You don't realise when you get drunk?" Pidge asked, and he blushed.
"I have never gotten drunk before," was his answer, and his teammate's mouths
feel open. "What? I didn't have that much money and there were more important
things to spend money on," he defended hismelf, blushing ever harder and
lowering his gaze, but Hunk just put a friendly hand on his shoulder.
"It's okay, Keith. We're not judging you. Umm, let me think," he said, shiftinf
Solara's weight to his hip.
"What's getting drunk?" the little girl asked.
"Something you shouldn't do," Hunk answered, almost as a reflex. "When you get
drunk you usually feel a little bit dizzy, and lightheaded. You are still
conscious of your worries and stuff but you don't give a fuck," he told the red
paladin, and Keith focused.
"I'm not feeling dizzy. A little lightheaded, yes, but I think that's because
another thing," he said, giving Lance a look over his shoulder.
"Then chug, my friend. Chug," Pidge laughed.
****** - - - ******
He was "a little bit" dizzy by the time he just said fuck it and signalled
Lance to get near.
The teen, who had left the guitar behind to get up and dance with Ariela to the
drums that the Goridians were playing (making Keith even more lightheaded
because, how the fuck could he move like that?), had handed his sister to Shiro
and calmly walked towards Keith, rubbing his hands on the thighs of his pants.
His suit jacket had disappeared, along with his tie, and he had the sleeves of
his white shirt rolled up to the elbows.
"What's up?" he asked, with a little smile.
Instead of answering, Keith grabbed his hand and dragged Lance across the
streets, their daemons running behind them and making people jump out of their
way. Lance was getting dragged around a lot that day. He was opening his mouth
to ask what was up when Keith turned in an alley and stopped there.
There was not a soul, and the little galaxy-balls and candles illuminated
everything greatly, so he could perfectly see Keith wrecked. He was slightly
panting, lips glossy from licking them slightly parted, face flushed, pupils
blown and hair a mess, as he quickly ran his hands through it to tie it in an
even messier pony tail.
"Why did you bring me here?" Lance asked him, eyes not moving away from Keith's
ears, practically stuck to his skull. He was ashamed.
"Remember when we first met? How we used to fight about everything and
practically fake-hate each other?" Keith asked, not looking up from his feet.
Lance hummed an affirmative. "Do you think we move on from that? Do you like
me? Not fake-hate me anymore?"
"Keith, I thought we had already talked about this," Lance said with a smile,
and Keith sighed. They had, he was right, but his mind was so foggy that this
was the only way he could think of to slightly let his intentions and true
feelings slide out of his mouth.
"Because I really like you," he said, biting his cheeks, and he could hear
Lance's heart skip a beat and breathing catch on his throat, before everything
went back to normal and he put a hand on his shoulder.
"I really like you too, buddy," he said and Keith groaned.
"No, Lance. Not in the straight way. I'm gaying you. I like you in the gay
way," he snapped, his voice raising along with his sight and he nailed his eyes
in Lance's.
The blue paladin had the word "surprise" written with red marker in his face;
eyebrows raised, eyes wide open, mouth agape. He had even slightly leaned away
from Keith, and that set a panicked fire burning through his veins, making him
grab Lance's collar and pull him in, trying to go straight for a kiss ("At
least let me have one"), but the other teen put his hands on his shoulders and
kept the distance between them.
"Keith, I don't want it..." he started, and his lips actually kept moving, but
the blood rushing through his ears and the sudden outburst or negative emotions
didn't let him listen to the rest of the statement.
He had let himself be lead into a dead end. He had let his hopes fly too high.
Now he suddenly understood Shiro's fear of Ariela rejecting him, because if it
felt this bad he didn't wish it to anyone (except Zarkon and his allies of
course). Everyone had fired him up, telling him that he had a chance, that
Lance probably liked him back. And here he was, standing with sliced lamb eyes
looking at Lance as he spoke with a soft smile and brushed loose strands of
hair out of his face.
"I hate you," Keith said with broken voice, feeling the tears prickling at his
eyes and tying a knot in his throat, making the other teen frown. "I hate you
so much," he repeated, the first tear falling. He was feeling a mix of sadness
and anger that was bound to cause a disaster.
"What? Why? I just said that... FUCK, KEITH!" Lance screamed, as Kieth's fist
connected with his face and the blue paladin's lip split open with a bomb of
pain exploding. Sean jumped between them, roaring at Keith in a way that would
have made him hunch in fear, but he didn't even notice it.
"WHY DID YOU HAVE TO GET CLOSER TO ME IF YOU DIDN'T WANT ME? WASN'T IT OBVIOUS
THAT I LIKED YOU?" he shouted, Lance looking at him with wide eyes as he
covered the wound with his fingers, already reddening with blood.
"Keith, I don't think you understood what I say," Lance told him, putting a
hand on his shoulder, and Kieth slapped it away.
"Go to explain it to Sean or whoever is waiting for you, Lance. You know what?
I don't give a fuck," he said, being barely conscious that what he was saying
didn't make sense, but at the name of the mysterious guy, Lance's jaw squared
and he stopped trying to explain himself. "So I was right," Keith started,
giving a step back. "You had someone back on Earth.
Shiro and Ariela were laughing and dancing when they saw Keith running past the
fire at an amazing speed, Lance walking lazily towards Hunk, face facing the
floor.
"I get Keith, you get Lance?" Ariela asked, and Shiro frowned.
"Shouldn't we do it the other way around?" he asked her.
"I think Keith will snap less at me," was all she said, before squeezing his
hand one last time and picked her skirt up to run after Keith. Shiro noticed
she was barefoot, shoes abandoned in the place she had been sitting and singing
next to her brother a while ago.
Chapter End Notes
     Please don't kill me, I know miscommunication is a crap, but Keith is
     drunk and scared.
     Well, things will clear up in the next chapter and I will try to have
     it published by Tuesday/Wednesday. My rhythm of publishing may go
     downfall from next saturday to two weeks on because I'm going on
     vacation with my family, so I'll probably won't be able to write (nor
     watch season two, let me die, pls).
     Anyway, I hope you liked it. Remember you can always go to my tumblr
     (http://thenwebohemianq.tumblr.com/) to check out extra content and
     leave kudos if you liked it, or comment if you have any feedback,
     thoughts or etc.
     Kisses, Q.
     P.S: Kudos for Taquito :D
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Summary
     Pls don't kill me for taking so long.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Keith only stopped running when his legs failed and he fell face first to the
floor, getting a mouthful of earth and grass. Ara's snout was pressing against
his nape, rubbing and purring, the second he took too long to get up. He wanted
to grab her and pull her close to his chest, but he just laid there, sobbing.
"Fuck," he said, voice choppy from the crying, as he started to get up, resting
his weight on his forearms. "Fucking Lance McClain."
C'mon, Keith. Calm down. I'm sure there was a missunderstanding Red told him,
sending warm thoughts to his mind, but he immediately shot them down. Ara
rubbed her cheek against his and climbed into his lap once he sat down, looking
around.
"Where the fuck are we?" he said, sniffing and cleaning the tears away with the
sleeve of his shirt. Around him, he could see trees, and to his back, there
were more trees. "Oh, great," he said when he realised he was lost. He was
angry, heartbroken and lost. Ara cuddled herself up, head hiding in the crook
of his neck and Keith hugged her close.
"Sean got really mad that you punched Lance," she told him, and he snorted.
"I bet the original Sean would have gotten mad that I confessed to his
boyfriend," he said, and Ara growled.
"KEITH!" a voice called from his back, and he rolled his eyes. There was only
one person he wanted to see even less than her. Only Lance. So listening to
Ariela's voice almost made him growl too. She had been the one to tell her to
confess in the first place. Her reaction had made them sure that he stood a
chance. "KEITH, WHAT HAPPENED?"
"GO AWAY, ARIELA!" he yelled back, hating how his voice was still cracked. Next
thing he heard Argentina screaming a warning, something breaking and Ariela
cursing.
A minute or so later she stumbled into the place where Keith was drowning in
regret and self-hatred, panting slightly and collapsing on the ground next to
him, Argentina quickly going to cuddle him too, as she put a hand on his knee.
He really wanted to back away, but there was something about her worried eyes
and the comforting tone on her scent that made him yearn the contact.
"What happened, Keith?" she asked again, and he shrank into himself even more.
"I told him that I liked him and... He leant away and when I tried to kiss him
he told me he didn't want to," he said, starting to cry again. "Damn it. I got
really angry and I punched him, and then I knew he has a boyfriend," he said,
cleaning his tears away, his skin getting wet again almost immediately, and
Ariela hugged him, rubbing his back.
"Are you drunk, Keith?" she asked him.
"Yeah." And he started to cry harder.
"How do you know he has a boyfriend? Did he tell you?" she kept inquiring, and
Keith shook his head against her chest, sniffing again.
"No. I had heard him say his name in dreams sometimes, and when I brought him
up now Lance just froze." Ariela tensed, tightening his arms around him, and
when he managed to stop sobbing like a baby he asked: "Do you know someone
called Sean?" There were thirty seconds of silence, and then Ariela dropped her
head on his shoulder.
"Aw, Keith. No, you got it all wrong," she said, and he noticed her voice was
straining too.
"What?" he asked, and Ariela pushed him away from her, to brush the hair away
from his face and clean the tears away. Her own eyes were a little bit glossy,
pools of black with a ring of gold around. Her pupils had dilated a lot to take
in as much light as she could. She could probably see much better than him.
"I didn't tell you this before because Lance would have murdered me, but Lance
is like... Totally in love with you. Since before I got here," she told him,
smiling softly.
"Did he tell you that?" he asked, eyes wide.
"Yes," she nodded. ("If I told him that Lance actually said the words "I love
Keith" he would flip his shit, but it's not me from who he has to hear that").
"Sean was..., one of Lance's best friends. He died when they were eleven," she
told him. Keith frowned.
"What happened to him?" he asked. Ariela lowered her eyes, the smile
disappearing.
"He jumped from the school's rooftop."
****** - - - ******
Lance was the human equivalent of the little mermaid, picking broken or useless
stuff up from the bottom, giving them a place and treasuring them. Only that
the useless stuff was people that thought they were useless.
Like Ariela and Sean.
Ariela arrived at his life when Lance was ten years old, and he befriended her
out of spite (thing, he would later notice, that was one of his main
motivations in life). She had arrived at the McClain household by her aunt's
side. Valeria Torres was, and still is, Alexander McClain's personal assistant,
and when she knew her nephew had been kicked out of her house because of her
sexuality she had almost resigned to take care of her; she lived with the
McClains to make everything easier, and the job of personal assistant didn't
have a good schedule to raise a troubled teen. But Alec, being the saint he was
and knowing he would die without Valeria's help, told her that Ariela could
move in with them to the house, occupying the guest's room and making it her's.
Lance and Flynn had been there when she arrived, having breakfast before going
to the yard to play. Ariela was worryingly skinny and pale; she had scratch
marks on her neck (Lance would later know she had done that to herself and that
she was prone to hurting herself when she felt overwhelmed), really dark
circles under her eyes and her slightly curly and really long hair covering her
face. She had politely declined Lance's invitation to play and went up to her
bedroom to unpack.
Alec had explained to them why she was there, once Valeria had given him
permission, and the two kids made it their objective to befriend her. The only
difference between them is that Flynn's style was much more discrete and much
less forceful. Lance had straight up pushed himself into Ariela's life,
invading the girls' space and interrogating her until she finally let
everything go. He now partially regretted his tactic, but only partially,
because Ariela was a hard nut to crack and she wouldn't have given in any other
way.
So, at the beginning, she had hated him. She just wanted to be alone and try to
re-build her life over the shaky foundations. Teach herself how to live with
this new freedom and acceptance she didn't have before but also live with the
knowledge that she was a pariah to her own family, that they had kicked her out
of her house without thinking about it twice. And there was this kid, bursting
into her room to drag her to watch a movie or tell her to help him study or,
or, or...
By the end of the year, Lance was the only one with an unbreakable bond with
Ariela. He had dug his way into the pit where she had buried herself with blood
and sweat.
The next year, it was Sean's turn to appear. It was the beginning of seventh
grade and Lance was keeping up with his discrete reputation at school. He had a
few friends, the bullies didn't bother him much unless the usual targets missed
school. But that changed when he saw Sean being pushed around by the usual
group of bullies. Of course they were doing that, he was the new kid. So Lance
stepped in, he got punched and when they were gone he helped Sean get to his
feet again.
He managed to sneak from his mother's sight when he arrived, briefly presenting
Sean and running upstairs to his room. Then, when Ariela arrived, he called her
to his bedroom and told her everything. The girl put some makeup on the bruise
and told him to fetch her if someone ever bothered him again. Then she looked
at Sean and said "Both of you".
Time went by and Lance and Sean became best friends, with the bullies still on
their backs. Ariela and her boyfriend would go looking for them and scare the
bullies; at the sight of the two sophomores they would run away, so it wasn't
that bad, excepting for the days that Lance and Sean got out earlier than them.
Those days they suffered. Sean was a target for an unknown reason and Lance was
a target for his latin surname (he would change the Matínez by McClain a year
after to stop the bothering) and his really slight Cuban accent. But Lance
still managed to hide everything from his mother.
By mid-year, Sean distanced himself a little bit from Lance and the bullying
got worse. That was when Lance knew why people bullied him: He was gay. He knew
that Sean had a crush on him from one of the bullies' mouth, the guy trying to
"disgust him away" from Sean. Just it didn't work. They kept being friends, and
when the kid knew Lance didn't care about him being gay, their relationship got
as close as it used to be.
Ariela moved the threads around for them. She was the one that talked to the
principal about the bullies and even talked to the police that patrolled near
the school, telling them that there was a group of kids that used to beat other
kids and that she would report them if they didn't do anything. It wasn't
enough, though. The bullies would follow Sean home and the beatings got worse
after the principal called them to his office.
Then, Sean kissed Lance. They were playing video games in Sean's bedroom and
Lance turned around to have his friend press his lips against his. This
triggered doubts. Many doubts. And fears. The kiss had been... Good? It felt
nice, or at least it didn't feel wrong because Sean was a guy. That meant he
was gay too? No, he liked girls. Maybe he was like Ariela, and she always told
him that there was nothing wrong with liking whoever you liked, but it still
scared him. Because, he was already picked on by different things, but it
wasn't as harsh as the stuff people did to Sean. And then there was his family;
yes, they had accepted Ariela completely, but one thing was having a friend
that was kind of gay and then having a son that was kind of gay.
These troubled thoughts lead to a major shut down. Lance wouldn't come out of
his room and wouldn't talk to anyone, as he tried to calm himself down and
figure what was going on out.
Lance suddenly disappearing made Sean think that he hated him, that he had
fucked up greatly and that he had lost his only friend, best friend and crush
all at once. He was alone, and despite Ariela and Eliot (who would play
Lafayette in the future) kept walking him home, the bullies managed to find him
alone in the breaks and take advantage of Lance's absence.
The shutdown lasted five whole days, and the Friday of that awful week, Sean
decided that he just couldn't take it anymore and jumped.
Idania was out shopping for food and the rest was either at work or at school,
so Lance was the only one at home and he was the one to pick up the phone,
listening to Sean's crying mother on the other end tell him what had happened.
He had hung up the phone and just..., kept on with his routine; read, play
games and practise the guitar. Like nothing had happened. Ariela and Elliot
witnessed Sean's fall, though; they had been looking for him at the exit when a
shadow crashed against the pavement. She told Idania about it, not knowing
about Lance knowing, and they talked about what would be the best way to let
the kid know what had happened.
Everyone was watching the news in the living room that night when Sean's face
appeared on the screen. Everyone recognised him, and when the footage of the
body being carried to the ambulance it downed Lance that yes, Sean had actually
died.
****** - - - ******
"There was no way of getting him to stop crying," Ariela finished, cleaning the
tears away with dirt-stained fingers. "It was like a nightmare."
Keith was nailed to the spot, unable to move. He wanted to throw up, and he was
totally sure that alcohol had really little to do with it. The story that
Ariela had just told him was slowly letting him understand many things. And
then the realisation of how big he had fucked up: he had confessed, not
listened to Lance say whatever he had said, misinterpreted it, punched him,
screwed up his on confession and ran away, after making his crush remember his
childhood best friend, who had killed himself.
"Oh, my God," he said, burying his face in his hands, listening to Ariela
sniff. "I punched Lance and then brought Sean up, I must be the person he hates
the most in this world." Ariela put a hand on his back, rubbing gently.
"Don't worry. I'm sure he is just sulking somewhere with Hunk and being
confused. When you explain what happened he will understand and everything will
just smoothly roll by," she said, before straight up hugging him, Keith
immediately untangling himself to curl up with her, sighing at the warmth and
the home-like scent. "We should get going before they start to worry about us."
"No," he protested, tightening his arms around her waist. "I want to stay here.
I'm drunk and alcohol makes me fuck up."
"You don't have to talk to Lance right now if you don't want to," she told him,
caressing his hair.
"If you make me move I will cry really hard. No."
Ariela sighed.
"Okay. Tell me whenever you are ready."
****** - - - ******
They fell asleep before Keith was ready. And, as Argentina and Ara thought that
sleeping in the middle of the forest was something perfectly normal, they
didn't wake them up.
It had already dawned when the search party found them. The team was starting
to get worried after an hour went by and they didn't come back. Shiro, Pidge
and Sugey grabbed a few of the galaxy-balls to use as lanterns and went in the
direction Shiro had last seen Ariela running towards. They found the four of
them curled up in the middle of a forest near the town. Well, Matt found them,
smelling them from afar.
Shiro had to carry Keith back because he had a really strong headache and no
will to live. Ariela followed suit behind them, clinging to Shiro's shirt and
walking without actually looking. No one knows how she made it back to the
castle without spraining her ankle or something.
Keith woke up with a desertification on his mouth, his stomach eating itself
and an uncomfortable ache settled in his back and neck. He saw Ara sleeping
next to him, purring lowly. Skal was sitting in a chair, chatting quietly with
her daughters, and her head shot up the second Keith groaned and turned in the
bed, rubbing his face.
"How are you feeling?" she asked as she got up, Calupe crawling quickly towards
the bed and trying to climb up, whispering "Kif" over and over again, smiling
when he sat down and picked her up.
"Horrible," he answered, as Calupe hugged him.
"Do you want me to bring you breakfast?" Skal asked, but she was already at the
door, knowing what was the answer.
"Yes please," Keith said, with a weak smile, and the woman returned it, telling
her daughters to follow her with a gesture of her hand, but Solara shook her
head.
"I want to stay with Keith!" she protested, crossing her arms over her chest.
"KIF!" Calupe screamed, smiling when she recognised the name, and hugging the
paladin again.
"But Keith wants to rest, honey," Skal told her.
"Don't worry, Skal. They can stay," he told the woman. She worried her lip,
taking a second to decide if she should insist or just let them with him.
"Behave," she told Solara, before disappearing behind the door, and the little
girl was almost immediately sitting by his side and looking at him with wide
and curious eyes.
"Why did you ran away last night? Lance said something that I didn't
understand. He likes you, did you know? He was really sad because you said that
you hated him." It was like a machine gun, digging bullets in him as he
recalled what had happened last night once again, this time with his head
clear.
"I like him too, I don't hate him. But last night... I was dumb. I drank stuff
that makes you dumb," he started, catching Calupe when she almost fell, still
looking at Solara. "And I thought he didn't like me, and because I was dumb I
punched Lance. That's why I ran away," he explained to the little girl.
"Ans," Calupe echoed, aiming for Keith's ears.
"You have to tell him. You have to tell him that you like him too!" Solara
exclaimed, grabbing his arm and shaking it.
"It's not that easy. Have you ever liked someone?" he asked her, and the girl
stood up in front of him, chin up and arms over her chest again.
"It is easy. I have a boyfriend, sir," she told him, and Keith's eyebrows shot
up.
"You do?"
"Aha. His name's Drime, and he treats me really well. He lets me dress up in
his clothes and play the to the prince and the royal guard," she said, and
Keith's surprise grew.
"And who are you?" he asked him.
"I'm the prince. Alase, prince of Velime. I really like the name Alase. Do you
know what it means?" she asked, and before he could answer she was already
speaking again. "It means bright deity. It's beautiful. I wish that was my
name."
"So, you like dressing like a boy?" Keith asked, and Solara sighed.
"I wish I was a boy."
"Why?" The girl started to fidget.
"Well, if I was a boy, people would let me be a boy. You know, cut my hair
short, wear boy's clothes, learn how to fight..." she answered. "My dad doesn't
like me wanting to be a boy, so I usually don't talk about it. That's why I
like Drime so much! He lets me be a boy when I'm a girl!"
Oh.
"Oh," Keith said. "You know? On my planet it's pretty normal for some people to
be born a girl and want to be a boy," he told her, and Solara's eyes lit up.
"Yeah, it's called transgender. It's when you are born with one gender but
you..., um..., like being another gender. Do you understand?" Solara nodded
eagerly.
"So I can be a boy!" she exclaimed.
"Well, you are able, but... There are people that don't understand it, so they
try to stop people like you," he told her, and the girl lowered her gaze,
giving him a perfect sight of the red freckles dusting her nose and cheeks.
"Different scares. That's what my mommy always tells me," she murmured, but
then her head shot to the door. "Shush. Someone's coming," and she stood up to
run away to the chair she had been sitting on, just in time to see Skal opening
the door of the bedroom with a tray on her hands.
****** - - - ******
The next half an hour was a mess. Keith asked where Lance was, and Coran told
him that he was at the planetary, on the Castle. He was clearing his mind for
the meeting, that would be in a few hours. Allura was still sleeping, resting
from the ball.
Keith then walked out of the castle to find Lance, wearing a shivering coat of
determination, and Coran went to fetch every member of the crew that was awake
and made them run to the Castle too, entering the control deck and setting up
the cameras of the planetary and turning to everyone, who were looking at him
with confused eyes.
"What are we doing here, Coran?" Shiro asked, rubbing his face tiredly.
"Last night, Keith tried to confess to Lance. We left them alone, and it all
went to shit," the royal adviser started, pacing solemnly. "So now we are going
to monitor everything and make sure that they don't screw up again."
The paladins and Sugey exchanged weirded out looks. Nallely would have blurted
out something that represented with a high accuracy the feelings they all had,
but she wasn't there. No one had been able to find her.
"What?" Pidge finally asked.
"Yeah! We will set the mood, control everything, and if we see that things are
going to shit again, we send someone to intervene!" Alfor, the owl that was
calmly standing on the man's shoulder, said, surprising everyone. He had never
spoken before.
"Because I am dead tired of this two not being together. It's making me sick!"
Coran added.
"He's got a point!" Ariela said, pouting slightly and looking at Shiro for
approval. The man felt an inquiring poking in his mind, both from Black and
Matt, but he let it slide.
"I don't know..." he said, rubbing his chin. "This moment should be something
private. We shouldn't sneak our noses in," he finished, shrugging.
"Yeah, Shiro. You're totally right. But consider this," Hunk told him, putting
a hand on the man's shoulder and making a gesture towards the window. "No more
sexual tension."
"Plus, we get to orchestrate this, so we could end up making it perfect!"
Ariela exclaimed. She widened the screen that showed Lance resting his back
against a wall, watching a tiny version of the Milky Way. Argentina was already
running around, talking about how happy the two paladins would be once this was
over with.
"I don't mean to throw your plans to the ground. I mean, they are dumb, yes,
but they are not that stupid. They'll notice someone is doing something," Pidge
said.
"They won't care!" Sugey chimed in.
"Shush everyone! Keith's went into the planetarium!" Ariela screamed, and they
all sprinted towards the screen, and Coran activated the audio.
 
Keith's palms were already sweating even before he walked into the planetary,
with Ara waiting by the door. She would step away this time. He had been
practising what he would say for like thirty minutes, and now that he saw Lance
sitting there, all the words he had repeated drifted off of his mind like fog.
The planetary was a wide and round space, with dark blue walls and black roof.
You could manipulate the projections to your will, the size and the colour,
everything. So Lance was against a wall, curled up on himself, holding a tiny
version of a galaxy on his hands. Sean was sitting by his side, and although
she had been totally relaxed seconds ago, the moment she saw Keith she sat
stiffly, trying to look as threatening as she could. I dare you to hurt him
again. Keith took in a deep breath and started to walk towards Lance, but he
stopped in the middle of the room, next to a few benches. Lance had totally
noticed his presence, but he didn't lift his eyes from the projection.
"I'm sorry," he said, and he got even more nervous when Lance continued to
avoid him. "Last night... I wanted to confess. I was a coward, so I got drunk
thinking that it would help me. And I made..., so many mistakes!" He took a
deep breath. "I don't hate you. I like you a lot. I'm probably in love with
you, but I just can't admit it to myself. I've been ever since that time the
Galra tried to take the Castle. It's just that... I confessed and you didn't
react, and I thought that if you liked me back you would jump right in like you
do with the other people you like. You don't hesitate before starting to flirt
you just..., do it," he finished. Both his voice and hands were trembling, and
he was about to cry. Lance wasn't looking at him. Even with his head leant
downsides he could see the split in his lip.
"You never listen," he said, as he started to stand up. Did the lights dim or
Keith started to lack blood in his eyes or something?
Lance walked towards him, still looking downsides, and when he was a few feet
away, he finally looked up. There was a foreign glimmer in his eyes, and Keith
was splitting his head open trying to interpret it. And then he opened his
mouth.
"You are like a picture frame," he said, and the smiled, savouring the
confusion on Keith's face. "Because I want to nail you to a wall."
("Oh, thank God," Shiro sighed. "I thought he was going to say he wanted to
hang him.")
"What?" Keith questioned in a puzzled whisper. Lance's smile let the cheesiness
behind and became something beyond all sincerity.
"When you tried to kiss me I said "I don't want it to be like this". I guess
you didn't hear the whole thing," he started, fidgeting with his shirt. "I am
really romantic when I'm in love and Keith... I've fancied guys for a long time
but you've been the first I ever fell for." And then the place bursted in
light.
A new projection of the universe appeared, on full colour and taking the whole
space of the planetary. Lance's face was white with star shine, and Keith's
even more purple because of a big planet that was bathing him with its magenta
light. Lance blinked, starting to suspect again. First, the lights dimming and
now this.
Ariela, you're so dead he thought, as he took a sharp breath and decided to
carry on. Besides, the look of utter surprise and amazement in Keith's face,
being bathed with soft light was worth his sister sneaking in.
"I didn't want our first kiss to be with you drunk. I wanted it to be something
special." He nodded, biting his lip. "But if you want me to treat you like the
rest, there you go. That's my worst pick up line in English, fully dedicated to
you."
"So you do like me?" Keith asked, and Lance had never seen him so vulnerable.
"I just told you I was in love with you, Kogane," he said, stepping in closer.
"Shut up, McClain," Keith responded, blushing but smiling.
"Actually, it's Martínez. I changed it when I was twelve," he informed Keith,
as he slowly settled his hands on his waist, making him take a sudden breath,
the warmth of Lance's hands passing through the material of his shirt and
making his heart beat even faster.
A little melody started playing and then:
Fire and ice. This love is like fire and ice. This love is like rain and blue
skies. This love is like the sun on the rise.
Lance bit his lip and rolled his eyes, watching as Keith frowned and looked
everywhere around them, confused. He just let his forehead drop on his shoulder
and chuckled, loving how Keith's muscles tensed and then relaxed, as he put his
own hands on his back.
"They have to be kidding me," Lance muttered, before lifting his head again,
and the pieces clicked inside Keith's mind.
"Well," he started, smiling softly. "You said you wanted it to be special,
didn't you?" he asked.
And just like that; all I breathe, all I feel. You are all for me. I'm in. And
just like that; all I breathe, all I feel. You are all for me. No one can lift
me, catch me the way that you do. I'm still falling for you
Keith never imagined that he would ever drag the moment if he got to kiss
Lance, but the second the teen started to sway from side to side, inviting him
to slow dance to the song, he jumped right in, sliding his arms through his
shoulders. It was funny, none of them dared to look the other in the eye so
they just dedicated themselves to watch the constellations and comets spinning
slowly around them as they listened to the song.
It took us a while, 'couse we were young and unsure.
"Damn straight, Ellie," Lance chuckled, before leaning closer. "Or should I
say: Damn gay?" Keith threw his head back, laughing loudly, before
straightening up again and saying:
"Just shut up and kiss me."
 
Everyone went nuts. It was like that time when Leonardo DiCaprio won his first
Oscar. They all had their eyes stuck to the screen, listening to the music and
the muffled voices, and then Lance's lips were on Kieth's, the red paladin's
arms tightening around the other's neck as Lance quickly sneaked his hands up
to tangle one in Keith's hair and to slightly push Keith forward by the nape
with the other.
There were jumps, screams (and churchbells ringing), chants and high-fives, and
even one really loud roar from Aikane.
"WE DID IT!" Ariela screamed, as she hugged Hunk and jumped excitedly, with the
boy imitating her, but then the bear stood up and rested her feet on his
shoulders and they were not able to move anymore.
"We? Didn't they do it?" Shiro asked, and Pidge snorted.
"Please, Shiro. If it weren't for us they'll still be looking at each other
with pinning eyes across the room," she said, and Coran appeared in the middle
of them, smiling excitedly.
"Do you want to know the best part?" he asked, and all eyes were on him. "I
recorded it."
Shiro had only seen four more people looking so proud in their lives. Coran
looked like he was the first man to walk on the moon as Ariela high-fived him
hard, the slapping sound making everyone think it was painful.
"Now we have to go and wake Allura up to tell her the good news!" he said,
looking at the owl resting on his shoulder with a content expression, and with
that, they were gone.
Once they calmed down, their eyes drifted towards the screen again. Lance and
Keith were just like when they had left them, kissing pasionately and holding
each other. It was one long kiss for a first one.
"Should we go up and congratulate them or...?" Hunk started.
"Yeah, let's go and tease them!" Pidge screamed, before running towards the
door, Shiro surprising for the fifth time in twenty-four hours when he noticed
a red thing tangled in Pidge's neck, just to remember it was her daemon,
Jeanne.
****** - - - ******
Allura was laying on her bed, curtains drawn and lights off, sighing softly and
closing her eyes. Her head was spinning, and Coran suddenly bursting into her
room screaming didn't help. It didn't help one bit.
"Coran, calm down and then tell me what happened!" she told the man, who
finally shut up and took a deep breath. Her voice had sounded a few octaves
higher, but she couldn't help it. The panic had filtered in it.
"KEITH AND LANCE KISSED! THEY'RE TOGETHER!" he yelled. He then jumped happily
three times, clapped his hands, screeched and left the room, closing the door
after himself with a loud bang. It was like those storms that start out of
nowhere, wet everything and make you think you'll die drowned just to stop
after two minutes.
Allura's head dropped in the pillow as relief washed over her, and Nallely's
head popped up from under the covers.
"Do you think he noticed I was in here?" she asked, looking up to Allura with
wide and shiny lilac eyes, making her smile, before leaning down and kissing
her. It was addicting. Ever since she had kissed her for the first time,
thinking when would be the next kiss was always a thought running around in her
mind.
"I don't think so. He was too excited to pay attention to the extra bulge on my
bed," she said, laughing.
"Good, because I'm totally sure that he would kill me if he knew I touched
you," Nallely sighed, resting her head on top of Allura's chest. "So... Should
I carry on?" she asked, with a cheesy smile.
"Nah, the scare ushered the mood," she said, and Nallely groaned.
"Agh, fun spoilers."
****** - - - ******
They kissed for like... Hours. Keith didn't want to let go; it was just like
when they started to cuddle. He had always wanted to have that "close friends"
that Ariela and Hunk had with Lance, where they could just go and touch him
(hug, hold hands, use as a pillow or just brush their arms or legs together
without it being awkward). And now that he could touch and kiss him, he didn't
plan to waste one damn second. Everytime that Lance broke away, Keith would
follow his mouth blindly, tightening his arms around Lance's neck.
They ended up in one of the benches, Lance sitting down and Keith on his lap.
When they finally broke apart, Keith couldn't feel his lips and his chin was a
little bit wet with drool. A song (that he later remembered was one of the
openings to Naruto, anime Shiro made him watch everytime they had the chance)
was still playing from the Castle's speakers and Lance was looking at him in a
way that made his heart skip a beat. And then...
"No homo, right?" he asked, and Keith frowned, tilting his head, only to feel a
hand grabbing his ass. "Syke!"
"I can't believe I'm in love with you," he laughed, dropping his head against
Lance's chest and he dropped a kiss on his head, still laughing.
"I'm sorry. I needed to tell a joke or I would burst. That's how I deal with
being too emotional," he said, lowering his face so that he could meet Keith's
eyes. "I guess that you should know it, now that we're boyfriends."
"What? Boyfriends?" Keith asked, and Lance frowned.
"Well, yeah. I thought you wanted to, after confessing and making out with me,"
Lance muttered looking at his right to avoid Keith's big purple eyes. He was
just too cute.
"No, no. Of course I want to," he said, cupping Lance's face in his hands.
"It's just that... After so many months of pinning, hearing you say it like
that is like... You know the feeling when you are in one of the last levels of
the video game? And there should be a boss battle but there isn't?" he asked,
and Lance ahhed in understanding. And then he snorted, laughing awfully.
"What's that?"
"I just thought of a joke," he answered, and Keith's eyebrows shot up.
"Then tell it."
"No. You will hit me if I do," Lance shook his head, before planting a chaste
kiss on Keith's lips. Then Sean's head appeared in the middle of them, looking
at Lance with wide blue eyes that looked too pure to be part of this cruel
world.
"If you ever mistreat me I'll tell Keith the joke you just thought of," she
threatened, and Keith looked at her with apologetic eyes. He could remember the
tiger baring her teeth and roaring after he hit Lance.
"You wouldn't!" the blue paladin gasped, and Keith grabbed his bottom lip
between his thumb and index fingers, looking at the split.
"Does it hurt?" he asked him, and Lance's eyes travelled to him.
"Don't worry," was all he said, which meant that yes, it hurt. Ara climbed up
on the bench and stood up, pressing her front paws on Lance's right arm, making
him look at her.
"Keith is really sorry about that. He thought that you didn't want him to kiss
you because you didn't like him and got really mad," she told Lance, before
turning to Keith. "You can't drink that stupidising thing anymore. I forbid
it."
"Don't worry, Ara. I won't," Keith smiled, resting his head on Lance's shoulder
again. "I'd like to stay like this forever," he murmured, and Lance kissed his
exposed cheek.
"First we destroy Zarkon's legion of horror, and then we'll cuddle all day,
every day. Deal?" Keith hummed in content.
"Deal."
"LOOK AT THEM!" a voice screamed, and they both looked at the door, to find
Shiro, Hunk, Pidge, Ariela and Sugey watching them with shining eyes. "They are
having a bonding moment! Lance is cradling him in his arms!" said Pidge and the
three paladins that had lived the moment bursted in tears, while Ariela and
Sugey just stood there, wondering...
"My new brother-in-law! Yaay!" Ariela sing-sang, as she got closer and hugged
Keith so tightly it kind of hurt. "I think I already love you more than Lance,"
she added, earning a narrowed-eye look from her brother. "Did you like the song
I picked for your first kiss?" she asked, rubbing her cheek with Keith's.
"It was surprisingly accurate," Lance replied, chuckling softly. Then Shiro
appeared and patted him hard on the back, smiling at him in the way that
screamed: "I will murder you in your sleep".
"We have to talk later," the black paladin told him, and Lance gulped. What
were his chances of escaping an anger-driven Shiro? Pretty low, but if he had
Ariela those chances boosted up, although now she could easily take Shiro's and
Keith's side if something ever went wrong. He had to walk on his tiptoes.
"I can't believe you are finally together, man!" Hunk exclaimed, also patting
Lance in the back.
"Congratulations," a hissing voice told them, and Keith turned to meet Jeanne
face to face. There was something about the snake that was horrifyingly
beautiful, and having her so close it only reminded him that she could kill
people with one bite, despite looking so cute and helpless.
She was just like Pidge.
Now that you finally have him I will allow you to have sex in the cockpit! Red
exclaimed in Kieth's mind, and everyone started to wonder why he had suddenly
turned so red.
I won't do that! he snarled back.
Oh, c'mon. It was practically made for it! Listen, it even has the word "cock"
in its name! If that is not a signal then I don't know what is.
"I can't believe her," he sighed, and Lance laughed.
"Red is talking to you?" he asked. Keith nodded. "Yeah. Blue is really excited
about us too, you know?".
"Listen, guys. I'm like..., so happy for you, but Lance needs to prepare for
the meeting. It'll last several hours today, so you probably should get to
sleep," Pidge told them, and Lance looked at Keith.
"Want to cuddle?" he asked with a sheepish smile, and Keith nodded. Lance
straight up picked him up and stood up, making Keith yelp and cling onto him
for dear life.
"If anyone needs us, we'll be in my bedroom!" he announced, and Keith buried
his purple face on the crook of his neck when he saw Shiro's face get red too
and opened his mouth to scream.
"No! If you want to cuddle you can cuddle in the common room!" he said, and all
the eyes turned to him, eyebrows up in disbelief and Ariela chuckled.
"Shiro, you are not in a position to ask that from us," Keith told him, and
then it was Lance the one to get red. "You shouldn't be able to be alone in a
room with Ariela either."
"He's got a point, Shiro," Ariela sing sang, before starting to walk away.
"Where are you going? You're not going to back me up?" Shiro asked her,
watching as she left. She was wearing another gipsy skirt, red this time, and a
white top.
"We need to talk to Desa about something," was all Argentina said, as Ariela
didn't even turn around to wave her hand, before leaving definitely.
"Well, if no one is still going to bother us, we will be going too," Lance
announced, gently shifting Keith's weight and walking away towards his bedroom,
with Keith waving cheesily at Shiro as he stuck his tongue out at him.
****** - - - ******
"Oh, thank God I found you!" Allura exclaimed the second Ariela stepped inside
the library. She was standing in front of a table that was currently covered
with many papers, which Desa was scrambling through, as she spoke fast Goridian
with who Ariela thought was the leader of the Velimian army.
"What is it?" Ariela asked, Argentina quickly running towards the table and
jumping on it, to start reading the papers.
"One of our allies just called. The Galra are having their first riot ever,"
the princess told Ariela once she got close enough to see. Yeah, I don't
understand crap she thought to herself, eyeing the papers and trying to look
interested.
"They had never had a riot before? The size of an organisation is generally an
invitation to inner fight," she observed, gaining a smile from Desa, who didn't
stop talking. Argentina hid her head behind her arm.
I have a bad feeling about this she whispered quietly in her mind, and Ariela
caressed her head.
"The thing about Galra is that they are scary and evil. The first thing they do
when they get a prisoner is make sure they rip all of the hope and will to
fight for them. Prisoners are usually lifeless puppets," Allura explained.
"But..."
"There's a solar system we thought had been completely destroyed. Yaytera, one
of the planets we thought didn't exist anymore, is currently a Galra base. The
prisoners that were being kept there started a riot, we don't know how but they
managed to surface from their cells and are trying to take over the Galran
ships to escape," Desa explained.
"You want us to go there and help them?" Ariela asked, and Allura blushed. A
knot formed itself on Ariela's throat when she decided that it was a shameful
blush; Allura was already regretting what she would say.
"No. It is too dangerous. I want you to go with Pidge in the Green lion and
take a close look. See who is leading the riot, if there are any Galran
soldiers fighting by their side, if they have weapons. I want you to get as
much information as you can," she answered. "If this means that the Galra have
traitors in their system we need to know."
"Okay. I'll go get Pidge. We get changed and go," Ariela nodded, but Allura
shook her head.
"It won't be necessary. You'll just be in the Green lion. No landing, no
fighting."
****** - - - ******
"I insist. Why the fuck are you here? This was supposed to be a girls mission!"
Pidge complained for the eleventh time, and Keith rolled his eyes, still
playing with his knife. He carried that damned thing everywhere, and it only
made Ariela like him more. "Shouldn't you be making out with Lance?"
Keith only answered with a groan.
Lance and Keith had never made it to Lance's room because the girl had been
following them and taunting extremely. So, when Ariela found Pidge she found
them too, and when she explained what she and Pidge had to do, Keith's eyes
glimmered at the opportunity of a mission. It had been cute how he had looked
at Lance, like asking him for permission, only to have his new boyfriend place
a kiss on his temple and tell him to be careful.
Just like Allura had said, none of them had changed into their suit. Pidge was
in her shorts and big t-shirt and Keith in his jeans and black t-shirt. Of
course, it was not as bad as wearing a fucking skirt and a top and walking
barefoot, but if they had to just sit back and watch, there wouldn't be much of
a problem with that.
"Dude," Pidge said, looking at the planet before their eyes. "That's fucking
Mars."
The words made Ariela stand up from where she had been sitting on the floor and
look at the screen before her eyes, immediately agreeing with Pidge. It wasn't
Mars, it was Yaytera, but they were almost identical. Wide, red and sandy. If
it weren't for the Galran installations, Ariela would have thought that they
were back at their solar system.
With an easy tap of her fingers, Pidge activated stealth mode and neared the
planet, even more, entering its atmosphere and slowly descending to hover over
the place where the riot was taking place. In the middle of the sandy-red
ground, there was a huge pit that seemed to have no end; stairs could be seen
at the sides, and aliens in Galran prisoner uniforms were running to the top of
them quickly, the ones that had already arrived trying to push the sentinels
back to finally break free.
"Allura said that they were trying to get to the Galran ships and use them to
escape. Does that mean that the Galra are somewhere else?" Ariela asked,
leaning forward, and Keith shook his head.
"I don't think they are far. The most probable thing is that they might be
having a meeting or something somewhere near and they're just underestimating
the rioters," he answered but Pidge looked at him with wide eyes.
"If it is what you say it is, that means the prisoners somehow new about the
meeting schedule and that all Galra had to assist. Someone must have informed
them!" she exclaimed, but Keith wrinkled his nose.
"Maybe they heard it from one of the guards, back at the cells," he said, his
fingers tapping quickly and harshly against the control panel catching Ariela's
attention. She knew he wanted to dive right in and help them out of there, but
Allura had told them specifically not to get in the middle.
"They don't have high-tech weapons, mostly cold steel they could have made
themselves. And there're no Galras fighting with them," he observed after a few
seconds of silence, leaning closer to the screen.
"But look; there are androids from the side of the rioters. Do you think they
could have hacked them?" Ariela asked, looking back at Pidge who was still
sitting on her pilot chair.
"I don't think so. With Altean technology, it took Hunk and I a few minutes to
hack into one of those, but it was Hunk and me with Altean technology. Even if
there was someone that matched our brain, they would still need access to
technology or good based knowledge of the sentinels building," the girl
explained, but then Keith pointed at a flag one of the rioters was waving.
"Isn't that the Star Trek logo?" he asked, and Ariela looked at the flag.
"It is the Star Trek logo," she nodded. "Could it be another threading snap?
Star Trek actually does exist and we just think it's a show?"
"A threading what?" Keith questioned, but Ariela shrugged him off.
"I'll explain it later. Pidge, what do you think?" she asked, bu instead of
getting an actual answer, Pidge slammed the planks forward and sent the green
lion flying towards the ground, roughly landing and sending Ariela and Keith
smashing against the walls and floor.
"PIDGE, WHAT THE FUCK?" Keith screamed, as the girl quickly got up from her
seat and ran towards the now open cockpit door, with Ara trying to catch her by
the clothes. "What does she think she's... Oh," he said, as he got up.
"Why did she do that?" Ariela asked as she rubbed the place where her side had
been nailed against the edge of a control panel, but Keith smashed her own
bayard against her hand and pulled her to running in the same direction that
Pidge had gone.
"Her family is in there. Matt Holt. He is the one waving the flag," Keith
explained quickly. "We need to get him out of there before he gets killed," he
added, but Ariela shook her arm out of his grip.
"Allura told us to stay out of it. We don't have the suits, the propellers or
the shields. We are getting Pidge out of there and going back!" she screamed at
him, over the noise of the brawl. It was getting stronger every stride they
took.
"It's her brother!" Keith complained.
"It is dangerous, Keith. That's what it is!" she answered, just in time for
them to finally come out to Yaytera's environment, that made them stop dead in
their tracks and almost immediately start panting.
It was ridiculously hot, the air heavy and humid making it hard to breathe,
even though they were under Green's shade. The sand under Ariela's feet was
burning, and she was already starting to sweat, making her skin feeling even
more clammy because of the humidity in the air. The smell of fear and anger
wasn't helping her to focus and shrugged off the sensations that suddenly
overcame her.
"This place stinks," Keith muttered, covering his nose with his sleeve, before
starting to run again.
She was crashing against rioters and sentinels, both trying to attack her or
just protecting the rioters from the Galra, but the parts of her body that were
aching because of the hits went unnoticed for her. The only thing that was on
Pidges mind in that moment was finding Matt again.
Her heart had stopped when the somewhat unfamiliar face had appeared in front
of her. The first thing she had thought was "I didn't know they had more human
prisoners" because that couldn't possibly be her brother. Long hair tied in a
bun, the angles of his face sharper, the circles under his eyes darker than
ever and his skin super pale. He looked taller too, and maybe broader, but it
had been the angered spark in his eyes that had confused her.
"Maybe we should go back, Pidge. This is too dangerous," Jeanne whispered
against her ear right after a huge brown mass bumped them both against the
ground.
"PIDGE!" another voice screamed. Unfortunately, it wasn't Matt's. "WE HAVE TO
GO. THE GALRA KNOW WE'RE HERE!" Ariela continued to scream. As Pidge got up he
was able to identify a red skirt twirling between the people running, Ariela's
bare feet disappearing when she jumped to avoid being shot at the legs.
"I AM NOT GOING BACK WITHOUT MY BROTHER!" she screamed back, answering both
Ariela's and Jeanne's words, before finally getting back to her feet to keep
shouting her brother's name and searching for him in the constantly moving
crowd.
"Damn it," Ariela muttered through gritted teeth when she heard Pidge's
response.
Her head had never spun faster than that exact moment. She was suddenly
exhausted, as if the heavy and hot air sucked in her vital energy like a
sponge, it was hard to distinguish the androids that were helping the rebels
from the ones that wanted to kill her, and the very same rebels pushing her
around and not helping with the two luckily unarmed droids were fighting her
like it was personal.
"I can't help much!" Argentina exclaimed. It was true; apart from bumping the
dorids to the ground or distracting her, she couldn't do much. Her instinct of
capturing and bleeding out the prey to death didn't work so well with robots
that didn't have blood.
"Go find Keith. He'll help me drag Pidge's ass back to the lion," Ariela
answered, cutting through a metal neck with her right sword, suddenly
forgetting to breathe because of the effort it took her.
She wasn't able she'd make it by the time she felt Argentinas voice in the back
of her mind. Keith needs our help. It was as if she was tied with a rope to the
paladin, and he started pulling her in, Ariela's tired legs getting up and
starting to run in the direction she felt was right, suddenly feeling a string
of someone else's panic surging in her mind.
When she saw Keith she understood why.
Actual Galra soldiers were trying to drag him to one of the ships, where Matt
Holt was already being cuffed. Keith was putting up a fight, slashing the air
with his sword, but it wasn't so much an attack as it was to keep them away. He
looked like he was trying to shush wolves away from him with a stick on fire.
One of the four was holding Ara, the cat scratching and squirming to try to get
out of the soldier's grip.
"SHUT UP!" he screamed, and then the woman picked up on his expression,
contorted in childish fear.
"WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU'RE DIFFERENT, PALADIN?" one of the soldiers asked,
mocking Keith's title, as he neared him with some weird sword.
Keith wanted to scream, fight back, kick, but he didn't have the energy. He
felt tired, confused, and emotionally weak. He wanted to drop to his knees and
cover his ears, give in to the raged sea that his mind was in that moment.
But then he smelt it.
A pungent smell that suddenly stilled his waters and made his mind focus on one
thing and one thing only: Run. Escape. It seemed to affect the Galra soldiers
too; their breathings became heavier and their eyes started to go from on place
to the other, searching. Looking for the threat.
The threat arrived quickly, putting herself in front of Keith and slashing a
Galran chest with her sword.
Relief washed over Keith's body when he recognised Ariela, knowing that the
angered threat was trying to protect him making him feel somewhat safe, but he
was still worried. He could distinguish Ariela's scent glands on her neck,
already starting to swell, and when he caught the woman's eyes he discovered
that the white that should be around her irises was black.
"Who the fuck are you?" one of the Galran soldiers asked in a growl, as he
stopped Ariela's blade with his own, only to come face to face with the woman,
that was matching his growl and adding the show of her sharp canines.
"Don't touch him," was the only thing she said, words slurred and heavy on her
mouth. Suddenly, speaking was really hard, her mind pouring all of her focus on
protecting Keith. She could only identify her own anger.
Someone was going to attack her but she dug her left sword on the Galran
soldier chest, making the other three stop dead in their tracks as the saw
their mate fall to the ground on his knees, eyes wide open and blood coming out
of his mouth like a cascade.
"Next?" Ariela asked turning around to face a smaller Galra and slash his
uniform open before attacking again. The soldier barely managed to block it and
run towards the ship.
"Leave them alone! It's not worth it!" he screamed, and the other two that were
left seemed to accept it immediately and run after him, looking at Ariela in
sheer horror.
She just stood there, watching them flee and enjoying how the ship flew away
almost immediately. Ariela could feel Argentina pawing at her waist just when
the Galra were already leaving the atmosphere. The leopard was worried, very.
"Mine, please stop that. You are scaring me," she said, and Ariela frowned
still struggling to breathe. She turned to look at Keith, who was sitting on
the ground, hugging Ara, and then realisation hit her.
The only person besides them in the surface was Pidge, who was running her
teammates with the worry making her heart beat on her throat. Many of the
towers showed signs of having been blown up by a bomb, and all of the other
Galran ships were gone.
"What happened?" she gasped, as she dropped to the floor and crawled towards
Keith. Ara immediately went to nuzzle her neck, to rub them together, and Keith
seemed to want to imitate her, but he held back.
"You were... Out. It was as if you weren't yourself. Your eyes were kind of
black and you smelt... You scared me," he murmured, curling up on himself and
rubbing his cheeks against his knee. "After they ran away you zoned out," he
finished.
****** - - - ******
Everyone back at Goridion felt uneasy, but the three paladins were struggling
with it the most. If Lance didn't have the meeting to worry himself with, he
would probably be running around and bugging someone to take some of the edges
off to his nerves.
But Hunk and Shiro... Nallely couldn't believe what she was seeing.
They were rarely seen together, only the stars know why, but not only they were
together: they were practically sitting on the other's lap, both fidgeting and
Hunk even laying his head to rest on Shiro's shoulder. They had suddenly starte
craving being together, feeling even worse if they were appart. It was weird
and sudden, but the relief that came with finding the other paladin and being
close to him muffled the questions in their minds.
"What is going on?" Sugey asked her sister in a whisper, who answered with a
shrug.
"I don't have the slightest idea," she answered, and then the door of the
living room where they were sitting opened, allowing them to see the three
paladins that had gone on a mission completely disheveled and exhausted.
Hunk practically rocketed from the sofa and ran towards them, somehow managing
to hug them all at once, surprising Nallely. Then the three paladins hugged him
back and it surprised her even more. She felt a strange urge to go to them too,
but it was quite easy to quiet like she did to all the things that slithered
inside her and she didn't know.
"We were really worried," Shiro said once he was able to grab Keith by the arms
and inspect him, discovering a few bruises and small cuts. "What happened?"
This time he looked at Ariela, but Pidge was the one to answer.
"My brother was there. I couldn't take him out," she said, lowering her gaze,
and Hunk hugged her once more.
"They tried to take Keith," Ariela commented and she looks like a toddler about
to cry, as she grabbed the aforementioned and hugged him tightly, nuzzling his
neck as Keith imitated her, Shiro just staring at them wide eyed.
"Oh, yeah. They've been like that since we were safe," Pidge said, voice
muffled by Hunk's hug.
Keith wanted to explain why, but he couldn't find the words. It was something
purely instinctive, and he was sure that he and Ariela being part alien that
had really strong pack instincts was a big deal here. Ariela somehow was
comforting, her smell changed to something stronger and earthier when he was
feeling down and it reminded him of home, of the few memories he had with his
parents. Her warmth, her purring and her scent made him feel okay.
"We think that the Galra might have traitors in their lines," Ariela said,
still speaking from Keith's neck. "There were sentinels that had been hacked to
fight on the rioter's side, and Pidge is sure that they needed outside help."
"We should tell this to Allura the second we see her," Nallely said, finally
approaching them. Sugey snaked herself in the middle of Ariela's and Keith's
hug, only making Ariela's purring loud enough so that they could all hear it.
She's so adorable Shiro thought with a smile.
You are right. Why don't you tell her? Black butted in.
Chapter End Notes
     The joke Lance thought of was "The only boss you'll be facing today
     will be my monster cock" and it was so hilarious, but the boy
     appreciates his life, thank you very much.
     I am so sorry that it took so long for me to update, but as I
     explained before, I went on a two-week vacation. It was pretty cool,
     taking my psycho mother away from the business: I met a bunch of
     backpackers at a beach and we played the guitar, sang and drank mate,
     fernet with coke and beer. Then I jumped from a dock to a like that
     was 42° Fahrenheit when the outside was 90°, so I experienced the
     feeling of the cold constricting my lungs and heart :D
     Also I passed my FCE with a 183 score over 190 and I something
     relating to this fic came to my mind suddenly and I hope and think
     you will really like it ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) .
     Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the backstory, the klance, Matt's
     appearence and Keith's and Ariela's bonding moment.
     I may or ay not be planning some angst for the future chapters
     (meaning I totally am).
     Love ya, Q.
***** [NOT UPDATED] *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
All the conditions were given for them to jump down into the pillow pit and
repeat the cuddle pile from when they were at Keskeuro, but the team was
content with sitting down on the couches in the living room, somehow managing
to either be touching everyone or have everyone at reach. The somehow being
Hunk moving the couches together as if they were a couple of grapes.
They were all incredibly quiet despite no one being actually asleep, as they
all had the stuff to think about.
Keith was trying to push away the teasing from the Galra soldiers (What makes
you think you are different from us, paladin?), but it was hard because the
damned "What if...?" was always there. What if they were right? If he was not
different and it was just a matter of time for him to turn into a violent and
hatred-filled monster? Was that something that ran in his blood? And if it ran
in his blood, how the hell had it gotten there? He barely remembered his
parent's faces, because he had been a baby when they disappeared, but he had
pictures, and none of them looked purple.
Pidge was mute and unmoving. Her brother had looked so very different. But he
was alive, anger-driven, but alive. The only problem was that she had found him
too late; now he had probably been relocated, and he might even be being
tortured now that the Galra had found him being the head of their first riot
ever, and knowing Matt's big and loose mouth he would probably make things
worse. It ran in the family after all. At least she knew that one of them was
still kicking.
On the other side, Shiro's side, Matt was alive! He was alive, he hadn't died.
Was he allowed to feel less guilty about leaving him behind now that he knew
that he was alive? No, because, with the Galra, being alive mostly meant
something worse than being dead. All kinds of torture. He could still remember
his first week in the Galra prison: no sleeping, no eating and barely drinking.
He had passed out from exhaustion so many times, only to be awakened by Haggar
piercing into his brain for information, the feeling similar to having nails
digging on your skull. It was either that or bored guards that wanted to play
with electricity, enjoying the show that the prisoners put while contorting and
screaming as they were electrocuted.
Ariela noticed. She felt Shiro's change of thoughts from every sense she had.
The smell, his heartbeat, his breathing (the sharp intake of breath) and the
sudden and shaking pull of the bond, that made not only her head rise and turn
towards Shiro with worry. She imagined what he might be thinking about, but she
had her own hurricane causing destruction in her own brain. There were so many
questions. First of all, she still had to talk with Desa about the murder of
Hogg's daemon. Then, there was the hating herself because "It is dangerous,
Keith. That's what it is!"? Seriously? What had happened with no man is left
behind? She hadn't even blinked while stating that she wouldn't actively fight
to get a fellow human and a war prisoner out of a dangerous place just because
it was dangerous. Since when did she stop doing stuff because it was dangerous?
Oh, but that was not the main problem, no no. The main problem was this wild
and animalistic anger that had partially blinded her. Suddenly, killing was
nothing, killing was something that she might even enjoy, just because she was
seriously mad at those soldiers. In those moments, she could imagine herself
reaping their hearts out with her own hands and she would have hummed in
pleasure and content.
She hadn't feared herself that much ever since the whole bisexual deal.
Lance stepped into the room and the first thing he did was do a head count.
Relief washed over him when he noticed that no one was missing, but then he was
suddenly overcome by dread. Everyone was feeling down, especially Keith. He
could see the ears sticking to his skull and the way he had curled up in
himself to be as small as he could.
"What happened?" he asked, almost trotting towards the cube of couches that
they had made, and Keith lifted his head at the sound of his voice. He looked
really affected by something, so Lance almost immediately caught him in a tight
hug, pressing flush against his chest and burying his face on Keith's neck.
"Ariela, Pidge and I went to a Galra colony to investigate a riot," Keith
answered, taking in Lance's scent and almost shivering. It refreshed his mind,
almost as if it was actual ocean breeze. "We need to talk later," he whispered
then, looking at Lance in the eye with a serious look, and his boyfriend nodded
quickly. He needed to tell him about Ariela's sort of trance.
"How did the meeting go?" Hunk asked, sitting up, as Allura and Desa walked
into the room, Coran by their side looking a little bit down. Allura
immediately averted their gaze and Desa gulped before answering. Lance was
fidgeting, just like the queen, who suddenly seemed too interested in her own
fingers and Camlei's swishing tail at her feet.
"We planned to cover several topics, but the council decided to focus on just
one tonight, so we didn't..., advance as much as we would have wanted to," she
said, clearing her throat at the end of the phrase, and Lance liked his lips
and looked down.
"You talked about the kills, right?" Shiro asked, and the silence was an
affirmative. "Where civilians included?" Allura opened her mouth to protest,
but Lance spoke first.
"I have the highest number, so don't worry," he said, still looking at the
floor and jaw clenching.
God, no one could ever imagine how much he wished that was a lie to calm down
Shiro and the rest, but it wasn't. He had the highest rate of civilians deaths
and the lowest on enemies. Ariela had the highest of enemies, and Hunk the
lowest on civilians, numbers that didn't surprise anyone who knew them, but
still.
Keith was looking at him wide-eyed, a little bit teary even, and just when
Lance thought he would break apart (surprised, disappointed eve) he kissed him.
It was a harsh press of lips that lasted long, just to be followed by many
small peppered kisses over his cheeks, nose and eyes. He cupped his face and
looked at him with a determination that Lance had never seen on him.
"Don't you dare to beat yourself over it. Those numbers are probably wrong, and
we all know that it's me the one that must have more... Lance, look at me," he
ordered him in the moment the blue paladin tried to move his face away. Keith
knew really well that it was so that he wouldn't be able to see how the last
string of self-composture snapped and the tears started to well; he had done it
many times. "It must be a small number, you can't..."
"Four hundred and fifty-six people, Keith," he said, and he tried to hide the
crack in his voice with a small laugh. "I think that's a pretty big number."
"Actually, it was four hundred and fifty-five," Allura said softly as if that
would help, and Ariela growled.
"Keep Sean out of this, Lance."
"It's still a pretty high number, and it's mine," he snapped, raising his voice
slightly.
"Listen, darling," Ariela started getting up and crawling around in the cube to
get out of it without kneeling Shiro in the stomach and stand up. "We'll fish
you out of your sea of self-loathing later, but now there's something we all
have to talk about, including queen Desa," she said, turning to face the woman,
who lifted her head immediately at hearing her name.
"What is it?" Pidge asked, frowning, as she sat up too.
"Yesterday at the ball, Vonj told me that Hogg used to have a daemon. And that
Camlei killed it," Ariela explained, signalling at the cougar resting at the
queen's feet. He also stood up stiffly when the woman spoke, eyeing his other
half warily.
"What?" Sugey asked, sounding outraged but hugging Yaretzi close to her chest
and making herself smaller, the little fox licking the tip of her nose to
comfort her. She knew that the thought of her dying had crossed the girl's
mind.
Desa gulped again, but this time she didn't look down. She held her chin high
and challenged Ariela with all of her body, just like Camlei. They both adopted
a solemn pose that made Ariela clench her jaw and prepare for being accused of
lying, or at least listening to people she shouldn't listen, but...
"It's true. Camlei did kill Hogg's daemon," the queen said, letting out a huff
of air with her words. "But it was not because I asked, and we don't really
know why," she added, eyeing her daemon, who relaxed a little bit.
"I have no memory of doing it. I just remember waking up surrounded by guards
and..., the rat was dead before me," he said, making them all frown at the
animal.
"Rat?" Coran asked.
"He doesn't mean to depreciate him, it's just that Hogg's daemon was a rat. He
was killed three months ago," Desa explained.
"I thought that if you killed a daemon, the other half died," Nallely said
softly. Ilayi was resting on her shoulder, the small piece of armour that had
been prepared for her to cover her shoulder from the deadly claws almost going
unnoticed. Te weight of it felt right. The daemon rubbed her head gently
against Nallely's cheek, making her smile softly.
"No. If the person dies, the daemon dies, but it's not the other way around.
What happens is that you are left with a big void inside, it's worse that never
meeting your daemon. It is said that it's almost as bad as your child dying,"
Desa explained. "There are not many that overcame their daemon's death; most
end up with severe brain damage because of the loss and end up taking their own
lives. It is considered a form of torture, and something illegal. That's why
the daemon and their other half get hung," she finished, hugging herself and
taking in a shaky breath.
"So you should be hanged," Allura said, and Desa nodded.
"The guards were going to kill me right there and then, because I'm more
powerful than them and I could have easily escaped. I was still in shock at the
moment. But the Oracle stopped them, and when Hogg walked out of it like
nothing, they just shrugged it off."
Ariela frowned. Hogg's daemon had died, and the man hadn't suffered at least a
little bit?
"If knowing this makes you want to leave or... Stay somewhere else until the
alliance is formed it's okay. My alies can host you," Desa murmured, finally
dropping her head, crown almost falling down with the movement. Allura spoke
almost immediately.
"We'll stay tonight and we'll see what we do tomorrow." Desa lowered her head
with a soft and faked smile.
"I'll leave you alone to discuss it then," she said, before nodding at them
politely and marching away, with Camlei following suit. Once the door to the
living room closed behind her, Pidge spoke.
"I CALL BULLSHIT!" she screamed. "There're so many things that are wrong in
that story! And not against them," she continued, finally getting off the couch
and starting to pace around the carpeted floor, frowning and humming as she
thought. It was like the sound of a computer turning on and starting to work,
the hum of the fans turning on.
"Pidge is right. If losing your daemon is so mentally scarring then I believe
it wasn't Hogg's daemon at all," Keith muttered, flopping down in the new free
space, and trying to drag Lance along with him.
"Whatever our conclusion is, we stay. Wary, but we stay. We can't afford to
loose this alliance because of some petty marital argument," Allura said, and
Shiro wanted to remind her really hard that they were talking about an actual
murder, but he just swallowed it down. "Besides, why would Camlei kill the
rat?" she asked.
"I feel like we are in some kind of Law and Order Space Special or something,"
Ariela muttered, making Keith snort. "I don't think we'll get to any conclusion
without knowing the motive behind all of this, and we all had a really long
day."
"Ariela's right," Hunk started, getting up too. "We should all go to sleep and
start the serious investigation tomorrow if we actually want to get involved."
A look around told him that yes, they all wanted to actually get involved.
"Then, good-night." And with that, he marched away.
****** - - - ******
"At least lay down with me," was Ariela's immediate response when Shiro told
her that he didn't want to sleep that night.
"If I lay down I'll fall asleep. So no," he said, crossing his arms over his
chest. The woman looked at him with narrowed eyes, trying to look threatening
despite being in the middle of a nest of pillows and wearing her light blue
pyjamas. She was still tiny despite having grown and having almost the same
quantity of abs than Shiro.
"It's not good to go on without sleep, Shiro," she said, and he rolled his
eyes.
"You're talking as if none of us had to go through finals," he said, but his
little joke didn't lighten the mood, so he sighed and sat next to Ariela in the
bed of her bedroom. There was silence for a few minutes, the only sound being
Matt's soft snoring; he had curled up with Argentina in a corner of the room.
"I don't want to see him," was what he said, looking down from the ceiling to
his legs, head hanging heavy. "If I sleep I'll dream with him and I'll feel
even worse than I'm feeling now," he finished, lips thinning into a straight
line.
Ariela put a comforting hand on his shoulder and looked at him with eyes so
soft it was incredible. It was hard to accept that this was the person with the
highest body count.
"You didn't leave him behind, Shiro. You told me how it happened so many times
I can see it, and what you did wasn't abandoning. It was protecting. You saved
him from the arena," Ariela told him, slowly shifting to sit on his lap. He had
recently noticed that she did it to be at his eye level, even a little bit
higher. "There is no real reason for you to feel guilty, despite from being the
one that got out," she finished, caressing his cheek.
"I've been sleeping a lot lately. Just let me this night. Please?" he asked,
and Ariela locked eyes with him for almost a whole minute before sighing.
"You will think about him tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. He
won't leave your mind for months. You need to sleep anyways, Takashi, even if
you have nightmares," she said, Shiro shivering at the sound of his first name.
It was so weird for him, not even Lila had used it ever.
"What if it happens again? The time I punched you the night before arriving at
Grigk?" he asked, biting his cheek.
"As if you were the first person to hit me ever," Ariela huffed, and he
actually got mad.
"I've killed people with this, Ariela," he said, lifting his robot arm on the
air. "What makes you think that I wouldn't do it while thinking you are someone
attacking me while I'm dreaming?" he asked, and the woman grabbed his right
hand and kissed the palm.
"I've killed people with this hands too, and they don't shine pretty purple nor
make me look cooler," she said, winking at him and making Shiro roll his eyes.
"You'll be little spoon, so you're not facing me. Okay?" she asked, starting to
run her hands through Shiro's nape and scrap his nape softly, trying to get him
to relax. "And if you wake up I'll sing you to sleep, just like I do every time
it happens," she finished, resting her forehead against Shiro's shoulder, and
he started rubbing up and down her back slowly.
"You are the one who fought today. I should be pampering you," he said with a
soft smile before he realised the words that had escaped from his lips. His
hands stilled and Ariela lifted her head, eyes slightly wider and the faintest
blush covering her cheeks, but she quickly dismissed it with a smile.
"You can pamper me if you want, you know? How would you pamper me?" she asked,
and Shiro's heart stopped for a second. She was smiling tiredly but with a kind
of love that was sort of weird and confused him. It was as if she was waving
something he wanted to have but couldn't have in front of his eyes. It made his
heart shrink and ache a little, but he also dismissed it with a smile.
"Lots of rubs, hugs, and kisses," was his answer, as he pecked her on the
cheek.
"Hmh. I definitely like that idea," she hummed, closing her eyes in content and
starting to purr as Shiro continued to rub her back slowly, peppering more
kisses all over her face and then shoulders. "But you will seriously try to
sleep?" she asked in a wary tone, and Shiro sighed.
"I'll try," he said.
****** - - - ******
"Stop smiling."
"Stop being so cute," Lance replied immediately, smile only widening as Keith's
face turned a deeper purple and his ears stuck to his skull. "The second we are
done with the Galra empire I'm locking you up in my room and kissing every inch
of you," he said, before rolling them both, to make Keith lay on his back,
Lance's forearms at the sides of his head to keep him up.
"I thought that you were the kind that liked being worshipped, not the one to
worship," Keith said, turning his head to the side and nuzzling Lance's arm
softly.
"Well, I like both, but out of us you deserve the worshiping more," he hummed,
before leaning down and kissing Keith softly and slowly.
He was so not used to that. Because, no, it wasn't his first kiss. But he was
used to being roughly kissed by strangers at some cheap club, them smelling of
alcohol and sometimes even cigarettes and sweat. It was always ravishing, the
other person pressing him up against the wall until it was hard to breathe,
kissing clumsily and harshly, sometimes making his lip bleed and leaving drool
behind. But this? Being comfortable, laying back in a bed while his boyfried
kissed him sweetly while smelling of his signature scent and floral Goridian
soap was something completely new.
They parted with a kiss and Keith took advantage of Lance being distracted by
looking lovingly at him to cup his face and ask:
"How are you feeling?"
The question made the blue paladin's eyes darken in that exact moment. It was
like seeing the sun suddenly disappear upon the ocean; clear and bright blue
water suddenly turned dark and mysterious, the depths kind of frightening. He
dropped on top of Keith's chest, making him huff out his breath, and nosed at
his collar bone.
"Great. Haven't been better," was his answer, and Kieth frowned at him. The
soft growl rumbling in his boyfriend's chest let Lance know that he was mad.
"Okay, I'm feeling like a mountain of crap bigger that the Everest, but what
did you expect Keith? Highest number of civilians' deaths?" He snaked his arms
around Keith's waist and held him tightly, taking in a deep breath. "I thought
you'd hate. Be disgusted," he said, and Keith's heart rate picked up.
"What? Disgusted because you are risking your life to save the entire universe
despite not having asked for it and some people being harmed because you're
standing up to a tyrannic empire?" he asked, urging Lance to look at him.
Seeing him so sad make his heart ache. "You are not guilty of those deaths,
Lance," he added, before kissing Lance's neck, just behind his pulse point,
where the scent was stronger. "You can't blame yourself for everything."
"I don't blame myself for your body count, or Shiro's, or Pidge's," Lance
mumbled, pouting like a five-year-old.
"Please stop that, mine," Sean said from a corner of the room. Ara was sleeping
on top of her, and the tiger's eyes shone bright like a blue neon light in the
dark. "Those lives were lost saving thousands," she added, feeling Lance's non-
content when she scolded him.
"You know what?" Keith asked, kissing Lance in that spot again. "Let's make a
deal."
"Oh, I'm listening," Lance said, gulping and suddenly feeling his mouth go dry
at the foreign glimmer in Keith's eyes, sly and devious.
"You are not allowed to beat yourself over something until we win this war.
Then, when I have time to battle against your shitty brain, you can cry as much
as you want," he said, resting his forehead against Lance's. "And I'll hug you
and cuddle you as much as you want to so it goes away. Okay?"
"Interesting. But, why do I get for waiting for what could be years to sulk?"
he asked, smiling slyly and making Keith bite his lip.
"We can make out now, or I can make you wait until you accept the deal," Keith
said, matching his smile.
"Now? But Sean is watching," Lance said, sounding a little bit shy.
"Sean won't tell," Keith said, catching Lance's lips in one of those slow
kisses that he liked to give him so much.
"Yeah, I won't tell," Sean said, resting her head on the floor and closing her
eyes, as she covered her ears with her paws, making Keith laugh.
"So? What do you say?" he asked, and Lance answered with a hum and by catching
Keith's bottom lip between his teeth and pulling teasingly, making Keith's
blood start to run faster to both his cheeks and South. What had happened to
Lance's loving eyes and soft, innocent touching?
"Deal," he practically breathed out, before needily leaning forward and kissing
Kieth how he was used to: hard, rough and messy. The surprise made the red
paladin gasp, as his hands flew to grip Lance's biceps, enjoying the feeling of
them clenching as he made the effort to put himself up, and then moan when a
warm tongue slipped inside his own mouth, moving with a perfectioned technique
that made Keith's eyes flutter shut. Lance echoed his moan, squeezing Keith's
hips hard for a few seconds before softening his grip.
"That noise," he said when they finally broke the kiss, already panting.
Keith's night-vision was shit, but even with the little moonlight coming
through the window, he could tell the sudden growth of Lance's pupils. "I love
it," he finished, chasing Keith's lips once more, making the red paladin's
lungs struggle to suck in some breath because damn, that was hot like a fucking
volcano.
Lance quickly licked inside Keith's mouth, tongue sliding against the roof of
his mouth and making him whimper, before leaning away, sitting down in Keith's
hips and yanking his t-shirt over his head by the collar, making Keith gulp
once more.
"How far do you want to go?" Lance asked, licking his lips as he felt the
somewhat familiar pressure against his ass.
Keith's mind flung itself out of the window, along with the thought of him
having to tell Lance about Ariela's weird state that afternoon.
****** - - - ******
He fell asleep in the end, and he managed to sleep an hour and a half before
waking up sweating, crying and yelping, dragging Ariela up with him. She got up
growling, looking around for any danger in her hazed state, but as she slowly
actually woke up, she noticed that Shiro had just woken up from a nightmare, so
she helped him breathe normally again and started singing "Of the night", as
she drew shapes in Shiro's back. She fell asleep singing, words starting to
slur and languages starting to mix, and Shiro knew he wouldn't be going to
sleep anytime soon, so he just turned around and watched her sleep.
Her face was half smashed against her pillow, making her cheeks seem puffier
and her lips pout, a little spot of drool darkening the fabric.
God, he didn't remember pinning being so painful. Because he had had his fair
share of impossible crushes back in the day. There was Ana Julia, in fifth
grade, that chose their classmate Máximo over him because she didn't like
Shiro's eyes, Lara, from high school, that had smiled awkwardly when he
confessed and told him that she didn't want to ruin their friendship. Even Lila
had been an impossible crush at some point, but she had broken up with her
previous boyfriend and Shiro had gotten closer, taking his chance. He
remembered it being a big bother, something that stole your thoughts and made
your stomach and heart twist in ugly shapes when you saw or heard something you
didn't like, but he didn't remember it aching and consuming.
Maybe he was in deeper than he thought. And there he was, playing with fire,
being friends with benefits with this woman he might be painfully in love with,
while she saw him only as a... How did Ariela see him? A friend? A teammate?
Maybe even an acquaintance. Nah, you wouldn't share things like they shared
with an acquaintance. But Ariela was certainly peculiar; it seemed like you
didn't quite know what your relationship with her was because she would
sometimes exchange information about her to get some from you.
Shiro rubbed his face, feeling a headache coming. He was going to have to ask
Lance, and he didn't want to ask Lance. Maybe he could get Keith to suck the
information out of him. Oh, God, what an awful choice of words.
He had thought about so many things by the time Ariela woke up that he had an
actual headache, snapping out of his deep thought state when Ariela hummed and
hugged him closer, slowly opening his eyes and smiling at him, making him groan
mentally. This didn't make anything any better.
"Bom dia," (Good morning) she hummed with a cheesy smile.
"Bom dia," he answered with a smile, despite wanting to fly with the black lion
into the nearest sun.
Keep me out of your human drama Black snarled in his mind.
"You're up really early," he noticed, frowning, as he rubbed up Ariela's arm,
making her nuzzle closer and start to purr.
"I like the breakfast here, and if I wake up too late I don't get any, so I
mentalise myself to wake up early to eat," she answered, making Shiro snort and
laugh.
****** - - - ******
They all had breakfast together with Desa and Hogg. Allura just addressed their
conversation from last night by saying that they would be staying and giving
the queen a gentle smile. They knew they would probably have a meeting back at
the Castle about everything (Hogg's daemon and the riot at Yaytera, along with
Matt Holt, probably), just after breakfast, because Lance, Allura and Coran
would have to go to the meetings about the global alliance.
They were all tired; the day before had been a moved one and it was really
early.
Seeing Lance and Keith walk into the dining room together with faces of
satisfaction and a few hickeys and bite marks was what woke them up (and made
Shiro choke on his tea). Hunk followed Lance with his eyes as he went to sit
down next to him and turned to look at his best friend with a smile that went
from one ear to the other.
"Bro," was the only thing Lance said.
"Bro?" Hunk asked. Lance nodded and smiled even more.
"Bro," and with that Hunk chuckled and rose his eyebrows.
"How the fuck did he understand him?" Pidge questioned, squinting at both of
them. She turned to look at Ariela, but the woman seemed just as confused as
she was.
"Did you mate?" Sugey asked, and Shiro choked on his tea once again.
"It seems to be a sensitive subject for humans, Sugey. You can't just go
around, asking them about that," Nallely told her sister, but she was smiling
devilishly as she looked at Keith's hickeys (that were hard to see because
purple over purple didn't really stand out). The paladin narrowed his eyes at
her.
"Please leave the taunting for later. We need to get breakfast quickly. We meet
at the Castle in twenty minutes," Allura said, but her voice didn't sound so
authoritative with the cheesy smile she was wearing.
The chill went away the second that they were seated in their now official spot
in the living room of the Castle, screaming insults and dirty jokes back and
forth. Keith was fuming at Ariela and Pidge, who couldn't stop questioning who
topped and who bottomed. Then, he would shoot back by asking in what position
Ariela and Shiro had done it last night, and although Ariela answered "cowgirl"
with a wink (totally not feeling awkward), Shiro turned as red as Mars and
seemed on the verge of crying, as Lance gagged and tried to claw his eyes out.
"Okay, people, calm down. You can discuss your sex lives when we're done with
the actual exciting stuff," Allura said, sitting down in her designated sofa
with her chin held high, making Hunk snort.
"Oh, burn," he chuckled, as the blush from hearing his friends talk about sex
slowly faded away.
"I want the mission report from yesterday," Allura said, nailing her eyes on
Ariela, and the cheesy smile faded away. She spoke with no emotion, scratching
the fabric of a cushion she was hugging tightly against her chest but not
evading Allura's piercing eyes. She felt like she was being judged by every
decision she had made, and having to say how she had told Keith that Matt was
not a priority out loud in front of Shiro and Pidge made her skin tingle and
her cheeks and neck redden in shame.
When she was over, she looked around to see Pidge sulking at Shiro playing
nervously with the hem of his shirt, jaw clenched and eyes down.
"You did the right thing. It was indeed very dangerous. Pidge escaping like
that could have gotten all of you killed," Allura finally said, leaning back
against the back of her sofa again, sighing. "From what you say, it seems like
there are traitors in the Galran lines," she mumbled.
"If we could know who they are and why they do it, it would be great," Coran
said, looking at Ariela with eyes that hid many thoughts.
"Yes," Allura said. She put both of her hands together and pressed them against
her lips and nose, thinking as she looked into the void. Everyone exchanged
confused looks, not knowing what to do, until she took in another breath. "I
have a plan for the time we stay at Goridion," she announced, sitting with her
back right again.
"How long will we be staying?" Sugey asked, frowning.
"The negotiations are going slow, and by the number of data the other kings and
queens want to go over, it might be even a month or more," Lance said. "Someone
even putting us to test against the best warriors they had."
"It will be much time, and while Lance, Coran and I manage the diplomacy issues
you can't just sit around and train. No, no. Pidge, I want you to install a
stealth device on the black panther as soon and fast as you can," Allura
started looking at the girl. "Of course Hunk and Coran will help you," she
added.
"Why only Bagheera?" Ariela asked in a whisper, looking up at Allura.
"I used to believe that you were as impulsive as Keith, maybe even more, but
you have shown to be quite sensible when the situation requires it," Allura
started, looking at the woman with some sort of pride. "There are many things
that we need to get for the Castle from different planets, and you being away
from the rest of Voltron wouldn't be an issue if there's a sudden attack. Over
that, I want you to be our spy."
Ariela's eyes opened wide and her ears perked up, just like Keith's. Everyone
seemed surprised by that.
"Nallely would go with you. It would basically be nearing Galran territories
that aren't hot spots and gathering information. How many guards there are, the
weapons and ships they have, if they have occupated the entirety of the
surface, what their shifts are like. Evry little detail counts. If there are
patterns in the race of the Galra or the prisoners, if there is some motive to
put certain prisoners together or it's just decided by a roll of dice, what is
done on that planet. Anything could help. And you are also the only Voltron
face that the empire doesn't know, so you can go to colonies and actually
search for information instead of watching from the distance."
"Why do we need to know all of that?" Shiro asked, frowning, and Allura's eyes
turned to him and he almost leant away. Everything in her aura screamed because
I say so. Aryeh, her daemon, rumbled contently, noticing the alpha attitude his
half had taken.
"War isn't won only in unwanted battles, Shiro. You should know that," she
said, and it made everyone want to ohhhhh, snap, but they didn't because they
were too afraid of Allura even looking at them slightly mad. "With all of that
data, we could know which colonies to strike and when to do it. Which ones are
vital and which ones would be empty victories," she explained herself.
"And the rest? What would we do?" Hunk asked.
"You will help Sugey and Pidge manage the new information and train, until next
week. Once we have given away all of out shameful facts, I'm letting Lance go
from the court. His ability to make big losses look unimportant won't be needed
once we only talk about our wins. Then, Voltron will be back and we start using
that information to destroy the pillars that are holding the empire up."
There was silence, everyone just letting the new plan sink in.
"Also, I've taken care of the Hogg's daemon business. I talked about it with
Desa and explain to her how we think it must be some kind of ardid, and she got
someone to start snooping around. She said to my face that she doesn't trust
Hogg one bit," she added.
"That's right. She said that, lately, the prince has been disappearing to do as
he pleases and letting his work pile up. And that lord Vonj you mentioned? He
is the brother of one of Velime's biggest enemies, and one of Hogg's best
friends," Coran added, looking at Ariela.
"He said that they were supporting Velime in the court," Ariela muttered, and
Lance snorted.
"He was trying to get into your pants. You should have heard what the sister
said to me," he laughed, making Keith huff and pout. He almost instantly went
to nuzzle at his boyfriend's neck, murmuring things like "But she stands no
chance against you, babe".
"That's great, but I have a question," Pidge said, leaning forward. "What are
we going to do about my brother?" she asked, nailing her eyes on Allura,
challenging her to not care about Matt. Instead, the princess lifted her chin.
"We will try to retrieve him and know if your father is alive too. Once Ariela
gets more comfortable with the spying area we can start to enter enemy's bases
and try to extract information," Allura answered, nodding to Ariela with a
reassuring smile, making the other woman want to cry. She hadn't signed up for
this shit.
Pidge leant back on her seat, mildly satisfied, and the princess looked around
the group, checking if anyone else wanted to ask anything.
"So? Are we all set?" Allura asked, getting up. There was just an hour left for
them meetings to start, and they should be there in forty minutes. "Pidge, when
do you think the stealth device will be ready?" she asked.
"With Coran's and Hunk's help? Maybe by tonight if we work all day," the girl
asked, frowning and looking at her lap as she made calculations.
"Okay," Allura said, nipping at her lip as she thought. "Nallely, you'll come
with me and Lance. Keith and Shiro, I want you to do stealth exercises with
Ariela. The rest, try to teach Sugey all that you can, overall you, Coran," the
princess said, before turning around. "I'll go meet Desa now. I want to see you
in the portal in thirty minutes, Lance."
And with that, she was gone, leaving an awestruck team behind. Pidge was the
first one to clear her throat.
"Is it me or Allura is getting..., more alpha lately?" she asked, and no one
even turned to look at her, eyes sticking to the elevator in which Allura had
disappeared.
"I don't know what it is but it amazes me and scares me at the same time," Hunk
answered, before getting up. "Anyway, we all have stuff to do, guys, so we
better start working," he added, clamping a hand in Pidge's shoulder and the
other in Sugey's. "Are you two ready to science?"
"Do you have enough energy to train? Did you sleep last night?" Ariela asked
Shiro instead, bu he just nodded it off.
"I'm great, but I don't know how to activate the stealth exercises," he said,
and Coran smiled at him.
"I'll do it for you."
****** - - - ******
The stealth exercises had been a lot of fun. Exhausting, but fun.
Once that she was able to succeed in the exercise three times in a row, Ariela
announced that she would be taking a break and that Keith and Shiro should do
the same. So they had all ended up in the common room, Ariela napping on the
sofa and the two men in the pillow pit, watching Pacific Rim and chatting in
whispers.
The woman was dreaming with punching an orange guy with an ugly toupee when
everything went dark.
Paladin...
Ariela turned around, only to find more void. The voice had sounded from...,
everywhere. Almost as if the void around her had spoken. It had been a clear
and profound voice.
"Who's...?" she started, before hearing a flapping sound behind her and turning
to come face to face with..., some guy. Some guy dressed like an ancient king,
dark skin that seemed to shine with its own energy, dark blue hair and eyes
that..., held the sky itself.
"We don't have much time," he said, before stomping closer to Ariela and
grabbing her hand with a soft grip. A spark of recognition crossed his eyes and
he smiled at her dearly. "So, you are Raquia's chosen one," he said, lifting
his gaze and locking eyes with her. He lifted his other hand to tuck a lock of
hair behind Ariela's ear.
"What?" she said in a breathless whisper. She felt like she had a rope tied
around her waist pulling her closer to the some guy, and when she frowned, the
man's smile doused and his image flickered to Shiro. Shiro in the clothes he
had worn for Keskeuros ritual, smiling lovingly at her in a way that set her
heart on fire.
"He is after me," some guy said, Shiro's image fading away to give place to him
again. He was still smiling at her, and he spoke with a calm voice that didn't
quite fit the urgency of his words. It made Ariela feel sleepy and relaxed. "It
will take a lot of time for him to be able to get me, but if I didn't let one
of you know now it wouldn't happen," he added.
"Who's after you?" she asked, and the love disappeared from his eyes, and the
image flickered again. First, it was an Altean, judging by the red marks on his
cheeks, similar to Allura's and Coran's, but then it was a Galra, with purple
eyes and a thin scar that went from his left eye to his lip. The image
flickered back and forth between them, the change speeding up until it was hard
to tell one person apart from the other.
"If he gets me it will be the end." The image snapped back to some guy's, and
now his face did match the urgency of the situation. "You need to stick
together, don't let him divide you. Understood, hubein?" he asked, cupping
Ariela's face fully, making her eyes open widely. "Jesus, it is hard to see the
real you when you are her mirror," he chuckled.
"I'm terribly sorry, but I don't get anything of what you're saying," she said
in a confused and desperate whisper. The image flickered back to Shiro's, who
rested his forehead against her and took in a deep breath.
"Soon you will all be in terrible danger, you have to listen to Alkat's and
Boquiem's protegee," he said, licking his lips, as a tear streamed down his
face.
"We're running out of time, Siquem," a new voice said, and someone else
appeared behind some guy, also dressed like a king, red eyes that shone like
fire piercing her with so many mixed feelings that it took Ariela's breath
away.
"I hadn't seen her in so long, Ferek. Please," some guy still wearing Shiro's
image murmured, actually softly crying, and it made the woman's heart clench
and a whimper escape, as he leaned close and kissed her slowly, holding her
face carefully, as if she were going to break, or as if she had sharp edges
that would cut his hands if he did it too forcefully. The pull at her waist was
getting stronger.
"She is not the actual Raquia, Siquem. We have to leave now," the other man
said, putting a hand on some guy's shoulder, making him separate from Ariela
and turn back to his actual image. He smiled softly at her again and caressed
her cheek with his thumb.
"Take a lot of care," he said.
And then she woke up.
"Hey, hey. You're okay, don't cry," Shiro was telling her as he rocked her from
side to side. She was sitting in his lap, body limp and head resting on his
shoulder, as Keith rubbed her back diligently, looking at her with concerned
eyes.
"It's you?" she asked, lifting his head to look at Shiro, and yes, it was the
actual Shiro, still dressed in his training clothes and the love of someone
that had fallen and had accepted it gone from his eyes, there was only worry
and slight panic. "It's you," she sighed with relief, letting her head drop
again.
"What happened? You were crying in your sleep," Keith asked, leaning closer.
"Did you have a nightmare?"
"I... I dreamed with a guy that changed images," she started, sitting straight.
"First he changed to you." Shiro's eyes opened in surprise. "Then to an Altean
man and then to a Galra," she finished, frowning in confusion. She could
slightly feel the pull at her waist from her dream. It was extremely faint, but
it was there.
She missed Shiro and Keith exchanging worried looks.
"H... What did the Galra look like?" Shiro asked.
"He was huge and scary. His eyes were not yellow, they were purple, and he had
a scar," Ariela described, showing them with her finger where the scar was, and
Keith's shoulders tensed.
"That is Zarkon," he said, almost in a whisper.
"The guy from my dream told me that he was going after him, and when I asked
who he changed to the Altean and the Galra, over and over again," she added,
and Shiro began to softly push her off his lap to make her stand up.
"We need to talk about this with Coran," he said, standing up too and grabbing
Ariela's hand to pull her towards the door.
Chapter End Notes
     For those who are curious, no. Keith and Lance didn't do it, although
     they had lots of fun anyways.
     You could say this is the "turning point" in the novel; from here on
     in, things start to slowly (or maybe not so slowly) get darker and
     the actual plot starts to emerge from the depths.
     Well, I hope you are liking it so far. I have been uploading a lot of
     content in the novel-related blog (thenewbohemianq), and ended up
     deciding creating a personal blog (tnbquimey). If you want to talk
     about anything that is not novel-related you can message me there
     (don't be afraid, I don't bite and I'm probably more socially inept
     that anyone you know).
     Anyways, see you next chapter. Love ya!
     Q.
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