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actress4him · 4 years

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Whumptober 2020 - Day 27

I actually wrote an entire fic for this that was a part 2 for Abandoned on day 8, with a part 3 to come later, but I wasn't overly happy with it and decided ultimately that it would flow better if there was no middle part. There will still be a part 2 (only, no part 3), but not for another couple of days. So, I deleted that entire fic and started over and wrote this. Which meant that I had less time to work on this one, as I'm already catching up with myself and hoping that I don't have to put off any updates! I'm not necessarily entirely happy with how this one turned out overall, but I do like the middle at least and I hope you guys enjoy it regardless of my feelings.

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Day 27 - Extreme Weather

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Warnings: hypothermia

“Pidge, radar check. It looks like the temperature is dropping rapidly.”

“Okay, just a sec...holy crow, you’re right. Storm coming your way, fast. You guys need to find shelter now.”

That was all the warning they got before the wind hit. It howled across the plain with all the fury of a hurricane, so loud in his ears even through his helmet that he could barely hear Shiro’s voice shouting over the comms.

“If we can get to the other side of this hill we should be out of the wind.”

“Roger!” Keith yelled back. It wasn’t like they had much choice in moving that direction, anyway. The wind was shoving them along, causing them both to have to lean backwards into it even while running to keep from tumbling over.

They were almost to the small mountain when the storm fully arrived. Suddenly the air was filled with so much white that Keith couldn’t see his hand in front of his face, and he had lost sight of Shiro completely.

Apparently he wasn’t the only one who couldn’t see, either. “Just keep moving forward! Once we get there we should be able to work our way around to the other side by feel.”

Keith furrowed his eyebrows. As long as neither of them somehow missed it and wandered off into the open plain on the other side...but they were close enough that it should be fine. He hoped. And they both had on their armor, which was made for much colder temperatures than this in deep space, so even if they did get lost they probably wouldn’t die. Probably. As long as a hundred other variables didn’t happen.

“I can hear you worrying from here. Just keep walking, Keith.”

“You just keep walking,” he lamely replied.

The good news was, he found the mountain. “You here yet?”

“Yep. Turn east, that’s the closest end.”

“Got it.”

The bad news was, after several long, stumbling minutes of walking blind with one hand trailing the face of the hill...something happened. He wasn’t ever really sure what. All he knew was that suddenly his feet were flying out from under him, and he was smacking face first into some unseen object hard enough to make his forehead impact with the inside of his helmet. Before he could reorient himself, Shiro was nearly tripping over his feet.

“You okay? What happened?”

“Think I hit a slick spot, or a root or something. I’m okay. Just watch your step for the next couple of feet.” Pushing himself back up, he shook his head slightly to rid himself of the slight dizzy feeling, then kept moving forward.

It seemed to take ages, but they eventually turned a corner and had the wind at their backs again. It was only a few paces more from there until they turned again and the world fell relatively calm. There was snow shooting around the sides of the hill just behind them, and it was still swirling in the air all around them. But he could see again.

And one of the things he could see was a little starburst cut into the center of his faceplate.

At first he thought it might be a snowflake, and tried to brush it off, but no, there was definitely an indentation there, and maybe even a longer crack coming off from the center. Whatever he had hit must have been sharp to do that kind of damage to a space helmet. It wasn’t a big deal, though. Yeah, the display inside his helmet was fritzing a little, but he could just rely on Shiro’s information until they got back to the Castle and could get his helmet fixed.

There was no reason to tell Shiro. Then he would just be the one excessively worrying.

“Did you guys make it?” Pidge asked.

Shiro nodded. “Yep. Looks like we’ll just have to hunker down here until the storm passes.”

“Could be a while by the looks of the radar. I’d offer to come pick you guys up, but…”

“No. There’s zero visibility out here. Stay put, and we’ll do the same.”

He looked over at Keith and gave a smirk. “It’s not like we’ve never had to kill time together before.”

Huffing a small laugh, Keith settled back against the rocks, folding his arms over his chest. “View here’s not quite as nice as the Garrison roof.”

Now Shiro smiled for real. “Nope. That view was definitely the best.”

They sat mostly in silence for the next several minutes, just staring out into the strange patterns of whirling snow. It seemed so natural to feel cold while watching a snowstorm that Keith didn’t even think anything of it until a shiver shook his body. That’s when he finally realized that something wasn’t quite right.

He was cold. Not only cold, but goosebumps were forming on his skin underneath his flightsuit. That shouldn’t happen. The whole thing was designed to regulate his temperature. He had floated out in open space before and felt perfectly comfortable, so there was absolutely no reason that a snowstorm should have made him cold.

Unless the armor or the flightsuit was compromised, of course. Like, say, a crack in the helmet.

He didn’t want to tell Shiro. He knew he really should.

“Um.” He cleared his throat, nonchalantly tried to rub a little warmth back into the part of his arms that wasn’t covered by armor. “Don’t like, freak out or anything -”

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

Keith rolled his eyes. “I said don’t freak out! It’s not a big deal, okay? I just wanted to let you know that, uh...I think I may have cracked my faceplate when I fell earlier? And it’s possible there’s some air leaking in.”

“What?” Shiro was in front of him immediately, clapping his hands onto either side of Keith’s helmet so he could tilt it up toward him. That close, he could actually just make out his voice over the wind without using the comms. “Keith, why didn’t you tell me as soon as you noticed?”

“Who says I didn’t?”

“Me, because I know you. Do you see what the temperature is out here? ‘Some air leaking in’ is not good!”

“Um, no, I don’t see. My, uh...display has kinda been on the fritz ever since it happened.”

“Keith!”

Jerking his head out of Shiro’s hands, he glared up at him. “I’ll be fine! I’m just a little cold, that’s what made me realize. It’s nothing to worry about, though. It’s not like the air is toxic.”

Shiro gave him one of his patented stern dad looks, which then fell into the even more common - at least around Keith - exasperated dad look. “You let me know as soon as you start feeling any colder.”

“Yeah, sure.” He was already feeling colder than he had at the beginning of the conversation. But it wasn’t like there was really anything Shiro could do about it. They couldn’t walk through the storm, and no one could come get them. He’d just have to deal with it.

Unfortunately, his thoughts of not actually telling Shiro anything didn’t work out, because he sat so close that their arms were touching and could feel when he started full-on shivering. To his credit, though, he didn’t say anything. He merely nudged Keith forward a little and swung one leg around behind him, pulling him up close to his chest and wrapping his arms around. It was awkward with the bulky armor and the jetpack, but Keith imagined he could feel the tiniest bit of warmth on his arms where Shiro’s rested on them.

It didn’t really help anything. The temperature inside the helmet was still dropping quickly, the cold creeping down his body and seizing every inch of skin and muscle. He couldn’t stop shivering.

After a few minutes, Shiro muttered something under his breath and pushed Keith gently forward, beginning to unbuckle his armor at his shoulders and sides. He pulled off just the back portion, and did the same with his own chestplate, before hugging him close again.

He could feel the pressure, which was nice against the tremors wracking his body. He could maybe feel a little bit of the body heat. The problem was, the suits weren’t just meant to keep out cold temperatures. It was going to take a whole lot more than body heat to get through two of them.

“Pidge, tell Lance to be on standby in his Lion. As soon as there is any kind of break in the storm, I want him to get to our location as quick as he can.”

“Roger that.”

“Keith, bud? Do you think you can cover up the crack with your hand any?”

“I c-can t-t-try.”

His arm didn’t want to cooperate. When he finally did get it to raise, it was shaking too badly to keep it in one place. Shiro must have seen his struggle, because he reached up and grabbed onto the hand, pressing it in close to the helmet.

“Is here good?”

“Y-ye-ah, I...I… ’s good.”

It was a bit hard to keep track of time. The snow kept flying by in mesmerizing loops and waves, and the two of them sat silently with both of their hands pressed over half his faceplate. Gradually, numbness began to steal over him, replacing the cold with blissful nothing. Even his shivers calmed, leaving him exhausted but relieved to be done with them.

“Keith. Keith, you still with me?”

“Hm? Yeah. ‘m good. Feel...better. Stopped shivering.”

“Yeah, I know, that’s not good. Don’t you remember the Garrison training?” Shiro’s free hand began pumping up and down his arm vigorously. “You’re okay, though. You’re gonna be okay. We’re gonna get you warmed up.”

Keith wasn’t really sure which of them he was trying to reassure. Personally, he was feeling too sleepy to care much about any of it anymore.

“But whatever you do, don’t fall asleep on me, okay? You can’t fall asleep. Talk to me, Keith.”

“You’re not my dad.”

Shiro chuckled. “Oh, yeah? Well, tell Lance that. He’s the one that’s dubbed me ‘Space Dad’.”

“Whaaat? That was totally not me, that was...that was Hunk!”

Oh, apparently Lance was on comms now. Probably waiting in his Lion like Space Dad had said.

“Are you kidding me? That was most definitely you, and we all know it,” Pidge butted in. “But seriously, Keith, listen to Space Dad. Don’t fall asleep.”

“‘m sleepy, though.”

“Well, wake up! Hey Shiro, got any embarrassing stories you can tell us about Keith?”

“Oh boy, do I ever. How about the time when he was sparring with this kid named Brandon, and -”

“Daaaad,” Keith whined. “Be nice to me while I’m dying.”

Shiro’s tone suddenly sobered. “You’re not dying, Keith. You’re gonna be just fine.”

“Yeah, Mullet. Even if I have to figure out how to activate a snowplow feature on Blue, we’ll come get you before anything happens to you. No dying today.”

Everyone fell quiet, and through the slight haze in his brain Keith wondered if he had done something to upset them. It wouldn’t be the first time, and probably not the last. Just as he was thinking of apologizing, Pidge spoke back up, as perky as before.

“So. I’m pretty sure Keith hasn’t heard yet about what you did in the kitchen the other day, Lance.”

“And he doesn’t need to! Ever! Too many people know about that already! I mean...nothing happened in the kitchen the other day, what are you talking about?”

Pidge launched into her tale, Lance protesting all the while and Shiro laughing along. It actually did keep his mind feeling more alert, as did Lance’s answering story of something Pidge had done back in their Garrison days...to start with. By the end of it, though, heaviness had started to overcome him, inviting him to sink down into deep, comfortable darkness.

On the edge of his consciousness, he thought he could feel someone shaking him, and Shiro’s voice calling his name. He tried to answer, he really did. But his tongue had already succumbed to the heavy sensation, and all he could do was give a little hum.

Then Pidge’s voice came, curiously close to his ear. “Uh, guys? Red just left her hangar.”

“She what?”

Lance’s voice, also really close. What were all these people doing in his ear? “Yeah, I see her! She’s like...wow. She’s just burning a path through the storm. I’ve never seen anything like it. And she’s moving fast.”

The body he seemed to be leaning against heaved a giant sigh and relaxed. “Thank you, Red,” someone whispered.

That was the last thing he was aware of for a while.

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appleb18 · 4 years

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Cartoons Relationships Are Terrible

Back in the day of cartoons, the romantic subplots were simple and yet very heartwarming to see such as

Katara and Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender

Phineas and Isabella from Phineas and Ferb

But now, modern cartoons are taking romantic subplots into heavier territories that something that some live-action shows would do. While it does sound interesting that making relationships more realistic and complex but the way that has been written in the previous decade is pretty bad. The writers try to make romance relatable to the audience but fail on doing so such as making likable characters to really cringy and awful people, shoving down our throats of how cute it is and having the romantic subplot more focus than the actual plot.

Adventure Time and Regular Show

So you must be wondering why I put Adventure Time and Regular Show together instead of separate categories. The thing about these two shows is they used to have bad romantic subplots but as the show progresses, they really did it well and I have to say it did better than most cartoons that failed to do which I’ll talk about later.

For Adventure Time, Finn and Flame Princess broke up in “Frost and Fire” due to him deceiving her by having FP fight Ice King/Simon Petrikov for his amusement

After their break, he tries to rekindle his romantic feelings for Princess Bubblegum and thinks age is just a number in “Too Old”. However, it doesn’t end up too well that she has people to watch over and that’s when he realized that he really did donk up with Flame Princess.

Although he apologized to FP in “Earth and Fire” to her it didn’t fully restore their relationship and Finn still had romantic feelings for her and Princess Bubblegum.

Thankfully, Finn matures in later seasons.

Finn realized it’s better for him to be friends with Princess Bubblegum

He then fully apologized and realized what he has done wrong to Flame Princess and she tells him that he really matured and hang out by playing guess who and rapping in “Bun Bun”

and Princess Bubblegum, and Marceline. They both finally reconcile at the end of “Varmints” and start to hang out more which develops their relationship from being platonic to romance.

For Regular Show, in “Steak Me Amadeus' ' Mordecai asked Margaret to be his girlfriend and although she would like that, she can’t because she got accepted into college which broke his heart.

It didn’t last when he’s been reunited with CJ in “New Years Kiss”.

As the show progresses, the two become a couple but then things get complicated when Margret returns. It made things awkward between CJ, Mordecai, and Marget like CJ always gets jealous and runs away when she sees Mordecai and Margret together.

By the end of season 6, he dumps CJ in front of everyone in Muscle Man's wedding.

Like Adventure Time, Mordecai and Margret hangout and realized they should stay as friends in “Just Friends”

While Eileen and Rigby become a couple.

Now it’s time to talk about other cartoons shows and their romantic subplot problem

Steven Universe

Steven Universe relationships can sometimes be well written but most of the time can handle poorly.

Such as Lars and Sadie were starting to develop their relationship in “Joking Victim” however it repeats itself throughout three seasons until the end of season 4 where Lars develops. Then there’s Sadie trapping him and Steven on the island in “Island Adventure” so he won’t have to leave and they don’t resolve and don’t even mention it ever again in later seasons. All they show was Sadie scar and that’s it

In “Steven Universe: Future”, Sadie and Lars didn’t get together and she’s now with Shep and they did it off-screen. So throughout the whole thing with Lars and Sadie, they don’t get together. The show kept teasing it and they might get together in the future but the writers just said screw it, let's have her date a nonbinary while Lars goes on a space adventure. It feels like a waste of seeing those two characters that the show keeps showing them together and not have them become a couple. Unlike SvTFoE, Shep just came out of nowhere with no proper introduction and doesn’t establish they and Sadie's relationship and it’s really bothersome!

Connie and Steven's relationship was good for the first four seasons. It was really had good chemistry and she was a good partner for him

then season 5 came in and it kinda got ruins by after Steven escape from Gem Homeworld and coming back to Earth, it starts off with Connie leaving Steven with lion and never to be seen for a month according to “Keven Party”. The Steven and Connie arc was really bad like why was it dragged for five episodes? The whole thing could’ve been resolved in one episode by having them talk about their feelings like how “Mindful Education” and “Full Disclosure” did by they talk about their emotions instead of running away.

Then in “Gemcation”, Steven the most important thing to him is Connie's relationship than worrying about Lars and the Off Colours' safety. That has to be the dumbest thing I’ve heard in my life and I can’t believe Rebecca and the Crewniverse have written it like that.

Then there’s Ruby and Sapphire. I’ll be honest, the relationship feels like old Disney love stories like Cinderella, Seven Dwarfs, and Sleeping Beauty and that’s not a compliment. In “The Answer”, after they accidentally fused, they escape and wander Earth that caused them to fall in love which kinda contradicts what Garnet said to Jamie about love, at first sight, isn’t good in “Love Letter”.

In “Pink Diamond” Arc, the plot came to hold to make room for Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding.

While it is revolutionary that they show an LGBT wedding live on television but as a narrative standpoint, it feels rushed. The reason for that is after that Blue and Yellow came in after the wedding. They were no build-up or anything, they just came.The reason why they did it so some countries can’t take it down due it the main story which is stupid. It’s nice they represent LGBT but why in the middle of a major story arc, that’s just sloppy.

Voltron

So Voltron has a reputation of queerbaiting the audience that Shiro is gay and he has a boyfriend. The writers keep telling us on Twitter that they’ll show his boyfriend in season 7 but when it finally aired. It was terrible

The first time we saw Adam was a flashback but it was nothing, it was more friendship than romance.

When he finally shows up in the present he dies. Shiro goes to the memorial and signs than that’s it.

The writers really made a dumb move of hyping it up but they let us down by having him die. They try to make it up by having Shiro marrying some guy who has a very little screen in the final season. Similar to Regular Show with Mordecai marrying a batgirl but not dumb while Voltron trying to get brownie points for having LGBT rep.

Lance and Allura were really forced. For six seasons, Allura was never interested in Lance and only saw him as a friend but in season 8, the two confessed their love for each even though there wasn’t any chemistry nor sign that they truly love each other and they insensitively become a couple for one date. I would’ve supported if their relationship was established back in season 2

The Legend of Korra

The love triangle between was handled so poorly with bad timing, making characters look terrible, making things force and having it engage more than the plot.

For the first season, there was a love diamond. Bolin liked Korra, Korra likes Mako and Mako liked Asami and those two go out. Korra and Mako kissed which broke Bolin’s heart but he got over it but when Asami finds out when Korra was missing, she gets jealous. I understand that she was concerned about her relationship with Mako but during when Korra, the avatar that is missing while Equalis are on the move? That’s not the right moment to get jealous when Republic City is gonna be under attack but of course, Mako and Asami break and Korra gets in with Mako.

In season 2, things get worse when the happy couple keep nagging and they break up

Which he tries again with Asami

After Korra got her memories back but forgot breaking up with Mako, she asked him if it was bad however though he lied and everyone judged him for that dick move, especially Asami who started to have feelings for him again. Thankfully they broke up because that was just an awful way to get someone back by having their mind erased.

Also, Bolin was with Eska and it was abusive. Forcing him to be her man, changed his whole entire to match with hers and she forced him to marry her.

What’s worst about it is no one is concerned about him being with her and instead they just laugh like it’s supposed to be funny. Being in an abusive relationship isn’t funny and I hate how the show treats it so. By the end, they just forgot the whole thing that ever happened and moved on with their lives.

Season 3 and 4 kept the romance to a minimum with Bolin x Opal and Jinora x Kai but there was one romantic relationship that had to happen with no hints or build up and it’s Korra x Asami. By the end of the series, they decided to go to the spirit together while holding hands and having their eyes glazed toward each other and they become a couple.

While many of you may say that they hinted it since season 3, however, it looks like friendship. Blushing and writing to her isn’t enough to say they have feelings towards each other. That is what best friends do too. The creators even have to confirm that they are a couple and the comics showing their love while it’s nice and all but it would’ve been a lot better to show it either on streaming service or live television than buying volumes to see more of their pairing, it’s balderdash. Now it’s time to talk about a cartoon that has one of the worst romance I’ve ever seen in my entire life of watching shows.

Star vs The Forces of Evil

Star vs The Forces of Evil has one of the WORST romantic subplots I’ve ever watched, it is even worse than CW’s Arrowverse romance and that’s saying something. The romantic subplot makes Star and Marco look like terrible people that only care about each other more than other characters.

Jarco

Out of all ships in SvTFoE, Jarco has the most establishment than most others. Marco liked Jackie when he was little and it was bound to happen that those two will date. Ever since season 1, the relationship has been growing to platonic to a romantic couple in season 2.

Their chemistry together worked well but then “Sophomore Slump”. When Marco finally went back to Earth, he was obsessed with Mewni and Star and he won’t stop talking about and he still wears the cape. When Jackie told him to stop obsessing over Mewni which he tries to do but it got the better to him by he still wears the cape when he was on his date with Jackie. It’s really BS when Marco said to Jackie “You’re my best friend” which ruined everything that it established since season 1 and this, of course, caused them to break up.

Then he left Earth to go to Mewni the day after their break up. It’s a real shame that building up their relationship and giving Jacie character got shoved aside for Starco. Although she returns and meets up with him again I can’t help feeling that it just for fan service and being inclusive for Jackie being Bi

Tomstar

Before the show started, Star and Tom were a couple but broke up due to him getting angry very easily and he wanted her back for the past two seasons luckily he stopped trying in “Mr. Candles Cares”. Their relationship becomes healthier when Tom gives Star space and that causes them to get back together and not have feelings for Marco anymore.

Tom went through a lot of development for Star and it was a Mewni x Monster romance which is similar to Eclipsa and Globglor and it fits season 3. After rewatching it, it was pretty good. However, like Jarco, it was doomed from the start due to fans wanting Starco to be canon even though Tomstar was getting good. Also, Star was a terrible girlfriend to him.

Star never told him she kissed him, Marco did and when Tom confronted her about it, she got mad and tried to walk away.

She mistreats him by nagging somethings, blowing on his face and angrily ask translate

She declined on going on a vacation with him so she can be with Marco.

Even his mom was afraid that she might break his heart again and her response “Everybody breaks up. That’s what teenagers do! Teenagers are dumb”. He went through so much development, changed his character and gave her so much but she never returned the favor. What an awful girlfriend

Kellco

With Tom and Star getting together (for now) it left Marco feels devastated that she’s dating someone and can’t get rid of his feelings for her while Kelly doesn’t want to be with Tad which she broke up with him. They both have something in common and start to hangout and their relationship has developed throughout season 3 and he’s with her more than Star.

They became officially a couple as “breakup buddies” in “Kelly’s World” and it also when they did a perfect synchronization between two partners.

So they’re pretty much a good pair but everything changed when the episode “A Boy and His DC-700XE” and did an off-screen break up. I don’t care who or what you write but never, ever a major plot point or character development offscreen. Kelly finds happiness when she leaves Tad but they break up with no explanation. It was glossed over like for five seconds and Marco doesn’t even care about their break up, what an a*hole.

This relationship feels like a real waste of time and serves nothing to the plot nor character development, it was just there to waste time.

Starco

Before I talk about Starco, I used to ship it and I thought they were enjoyable characters. They would've worked in a relationship if things were written better and would have been the next Phineas and Isabella but sadly the writers messed up probably the easiest romance to write.

Season 1, Star and Marco became best friends. Although there weren't many romantic moments they still look pretty good together

Season 2, As Star was happy for Marco that she’s finally dating Jackie, the girl he has had a crush on since preschool,

on the other hand, she started to have feelings for him and she has trouble expressing it.

In season 3, Marco started to have feelings for Star which caused him and Jackie to break up. Star told him that he wants nothing to do with him romantically in “Lint Catcher” and Tad told him that he does have feelings for her in “Lava Lake Beach” and he wasn't happy to find out about it at all. Then in Booth Buddies, they were held hostage by some freak until they kiss and they were completely in denial about having feelings for each other

Then season 4 is when Starco becomes really sour. Star and Marco always keep saying that they don’t want to have feelings for each other and yet the writers have several episodes before the end of the series

. They never showed any romantic interest until “Mama Star” where he confessed his feelings to her and then they kissed in the second last episode. By the finale, instead of either of them going back to their dimensions they went back to the World of Magic and held each other. It would’ve been more meaningful if they got together before the end of the show.

It’s very odd that they risk their lives for a relationship that just started. However, for some miracle, both of their worlds collide and become one with no explanation of what so ever.

Starco could’ve been a lovely ship but the writers have to keep messing around with it till the very end.

Conclusion

Whenever a show presents a romance, I don’t mind as long it either fits with the narrative of the story it be fun but 2010s romantic subplots have been written very terribly by having it the main focus but sacrifice pacing and quality of the story, forcing characters to become a couple without establishing it enough in the show, and having characters go off for the sake of drama. Romantic stories can be simple and cute like Kim x Ron from Kim Possible, Suki x Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Starfire x Robin from Teen Titans and that’s all right. I do hope that this generation will fix what the previous decade of cartoons has failed to do.

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backupblogforjg · 4 years

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The racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism and cruel tropes in Voltron

So, it’s the anniversary of the ending of Voltron. And I’m getting really, really tired of people saying that only shippers hated the ending. There were many issues with Voltron, and they were neither limited to shipping nor to S8.

So, I’ve decided to compile a list.

It gets LONG. Turns out there was a hell of a lot of racist, sexist, ableist and cruel tropes in VLD.

In fact, I had originally planned on writing a list of both the terrible tropes and the plot holes. But there just wasn’t enough room for both. The post is huge as it is, and with the plot holes, it would have been twice as long, so I had to focus on only one thing.

Salt, obviously. So, so, so much salt. I could turn a lake into a sea here. You’ve been warned.

RACISM:

1) The Alteans are genocide survivors. Out of all the Alteans, only the black Altean was used for a Reverse Racism story where she resents a teammate for belonging to the race that exterminated hers. The white Alteans are totally cool with him, and with his race in general, and only hate the bad people. But the black one had to be taught that hating people because of their race is wrong.

2) VLD Allura is also the only version of Allura who is black. In every other Voltron media (several different cartoons and comics), Allura is blond with blue eyes. All the white versions of the character get a happy ending, while only the black version ends up dying to save the world.

While "hero sacrifices their life to save the world" is not a bad trope in and of itself, it becomes bad when it kills off one of the extremely few black female characters in leading roles. You kill off a white male hero, there are 463278462387 more. You kill off the black female hero, you are kinda screwed. Making it worse, Allura had been portrayed as suffering from depression throughout the latest seasons, so that her death comes across less as heroic sacrifice and more as suicide.

3) The brown Cuban kid who dreamed of being a pilot, and never once in 78 episodes ever expressed anything but sheer love for an exciting life, in the final two minutes of the final episode ends up realizing that the place for him is a farm.

4) As told in interviews, Lotor was meant to be a bad example of mixed-race person, to contrast him with Keith as good example of mixed race person. Do I even have to point out how messed up this is?

5) Even before they became Space Nazis, back when they were still on the side of the angels, the Galra invaded and conquered planets. This is portrayed as totally cool when they happily name the prince after a "hero" who invaded and conquered a lot of worlds, and the peaceful Alteans think the guy is just as heroic as one of their greatest scientists. Apparently there is such a thing as ethically killing people to steal their land.

6) They whitewashed Keith, a character who is poc in every other iteration of Voltron.

I’m sure a lot of people are going to get angry here, claiming that I hate Keith. Let me assure you, I don’t. I love Keith, and I hate what was done to him. I hate that they took a traditionally poc character and went to frankly ridiculous lengths to erase that part of his character. Keith should be Asian, and it would be incredibly easy to make him so in VLD (seriously, all they’d have to do is update the freaking bios, an intern could do it right now in 5 minutes). But they refuse to do it.

A lot of people don’t realise that the surname “Kogane” in VLD is fanon.

I’m serious. Check his official bios page. Keith is not actually called Keith Kogane in VLD. Fans started calling him that in fanfiction, and it stuck, but it’s not canon.

In every other Voltron media, Keith is an Asian guy. But in VLD, they:

- went out of their way to always avoid giving him an Asian surname

- gave him a Texan father

- refused to confirm his race, even when every other character had a specific race. Again, check his official bios. All the other characters got a race, Keith gets “human.” It got so ridiculous it would be funny if it weren’t sad. It pretty much went like this:

Fans: Keith is half alien, but about his human half, what is his ethnicity? EPs: oh, we couldn't possibly say, because the story takes place in the future, and in the future, everybody is mixed up! So, Keith is HUMAN, we can't give him a specific race because there are no specific races in the future! Fans: ok. And what are the races of the other characters? EPs: Pidge is Italian, Lance is Cuban, Hunk is half-black half- Samoan, Shiro is Japanese. Fans: but Keith...? EPs: HUMAN! There is no such thing as race in the future!

Some people at least hoped that Keith's Texan father had Asian ancestry because he kinda looked like Shiro, who is Japanese. But the EPs confirmed that the resemblance was just a coincidence, they never meant for the dad to look Japanese.

At this point pretty much the only evidence that Keith is Asian is that he is voiced by an Asian person. But then, Josh Keaton is not Japanese, is he?

7) After whitewashing Keith, they claimed he is the best leader of Voltron, better than his poc predecessor, because he has Galra blood.

So, instead of bringing up any sort of legit reason to justify why Keith should be in charge (like his empathy or pilot skills), they go with "the half-white guy is also half space-nazi and that's why he should give the orders instead of the poc guy."

If you think I’m bashing Keith here, please ask yourself why you are getting angry at the person pointing out the whitewashing instead of getting angry at the whitewashing. Especially when, again, making VLD Keith canonically poc could be done anytime with zero cost and zero effort, and DW just doesn’t want to.

- Hunk, the half-black half-Samoan guy, was going to be killed and replaced as Paladin by a blue alien. The EPs were pissed when DW forbade them to, and complained in the interview about it.

SEXISM:

Every single woman who is ever put in charge ends up going insane, making terrible decisions that endanger her planet, or losing all of her authority.

Allura starts out as co-leader of Voltron and leader of the Coalition. Ends up as a foot soldier who takes orders from the new leader and his right-hand man, and is treated as a cadet by the Earth military.

HOMOPHOBIA:

1) Dreamworks, Netflix and the EPs very, very, very heavily promoted S7 as GLBT-friendly. The EPs gave whole interviews about the past relationship between Shiro and new character Adam, retweeted a ton of posts celebrating Shiro’s homosexuality, and enthusiastically sent tweets like "you are going to see more of Adam in S7! :D" from their personal accounts after they showed the episode that introduced him.

In S7:

- Shiro's homosexuality is so ambiguous that even the Brazilian voice actor didn't realize that he was supposed to be gay. Just by watching the show, without knowing the World Of God, you can’t tell he and the other guy were engaged.

- Adam gets about 30 seconds of screentime after that one episode they had already shown. Then he dies screaming in pain and terror in a fire.

A lot of people claimed that it was okay to kill Adam because Shiro was supposed to be our rep, not Adam, who was a brand new character we knew little about. And, out of context, that would be true. Adam was pretty much a NPC, why would his death matter?

But the problem here is the context:

- Shiro is closeted in S7, you need to read interviews to know he is gay. So, if only Shiro is meant to be the rep, they couldn’t even do that right.

- They very heavily marketed both Shiro and Adam as gay rep, and specifically talked at length about Adam in several interviews.

In THAT context, REGARDLESS of what you ship, killing off Adam revealed a complete willingness to manipulate the audience to the point of outright lying. Even if you hated Adam, even if Adashi is your NOTP, the clear evidence that the creators had absolutely no problem making empty promises was NOT a good sign.

2) The moment Shiro is revealed to be gay in interviews, he is practically quarantined from the Team.

3) Shiro is also given a Totally Not AIDS deadly disease.

Making it even worse, Shiro never actually gets cured in canon. We are told he is cured in interviews, but the show itself drops the topic entirely. Depending on where you lean in the Word Of God VS Death Of The Author debate, Shiro may be doomed to die.

4) A female villain is revealed to be a lesbian. 30 seconds later she gleefully tortures a little girl. Then she, too, dies in a fire.

(Fan outrage about pulling two Bury Your Gays in the Season that had been very heavily promoted as GLBT-friendly caused DW to retcon her death and bring her back in S8, but she was originally meant to die in the explosion)

5) Shiro ends up marrying a random character who doesn’t even get a name in the show.

ABLEISM:

1) Shiro's PTSD magically disappears offscreen. In interviews, the EPs claimed that he "got over it" between S6 and S7 because "he is a professional." Wow! Who knew being a professional magically cures mental illnesses!

2) Shiro is an amputee. The EPs admitted that they never put any thought into his status as disabled rep, they just wanted a character with a cool-looking arm. It literally didn't occur to them that making him lose his arm (TWICE! First up to the biceps, then up to the shoulder) meant anything. Also worth noting that Shiro’s new arm makes him look like the guy who tormented him.

3) Shiro is systematically robbed of his agency.

- He is the only Paladin who never gets to use his bayard.

- He loses his bond with Black for no given canon reason (and the reason they give in interviews makes no sense, they basically say that transferring his soul out of the Black Lion makes her stop loving him. But she still lets Zarkon fly her!).

I know that Keith is traditionally Black’s pilot in Voltron media (although that shouldn’t matter, because VLD made a lot of huge changes to the traditional status quo). But if they wanted Black Paladin Keith that badly, they could have given some non-insulting reason for it. For example, say “because Shiro has spent so much time within Black, their bond is now so strong that he will get absorbed again if he flies her again.” Or co-pilots in Black (if Pidge can co-pilot with Matt, why can’t Shiro co-pilot with Keith?).

- He is defeated not only by Sendak, but also by a bunch of random Alteans. He basically can’t win a fight anymore unless it’s played for laughs.

- His new robot Atlas is bigger than Voltron, but also much weaker, and can only buy a few minutes for Voltron to come save the day.

- Every single enemy he ever defeated comes back to be finished off by somebody else (even the friggin' Gladiator from S1 comes back in S8). In the epilogue, he retires in his twenties.

4) Narti, the disabled General, is fridged shortly after her introduction. For a while at least it seemed like her death had affected the remaining three Generals, but then it turns out that the "For Narti" line was a trick and they never actually planned on avenging her.

CRUEL TROPES:

1) They intentionally baited the fans by pushing the plot thread that Lotor would be redeemed. They named the episode where he defects "A New Defender," they kept saying in interviews that they come from Avatar and they are very familiar with Zuko *hint hint*, they showed his family as incredibly abusive and Lotor himself as desperate, they showed that Lotor was a victim of severe racism (he is mixed race, and as stated above, the Galra are Space Nazis and are pretty obsessed with blood purity).

Then, after revealing him to be a villain, they gave an interview where they practically dislocated their shoulders by patting themselves on the back as they gleefully bragged that "we made them think we would give them a Zuko, but we gave them an Azula!"

(Nevermind the fact that Azula herself was a 14-year-old child, not a monster, and that Aaron Ehasz himself confirmed that he always wanted her to be redeemed).

When fans who are survivors of child abuse told them that the bait-and-switch was really hurtful, they laughed it off, and claimed that Lotor was just beyond redemption. Then they proceeded to redeem Lotor's abusive parents, who were objectively much worse.

2) Shiro’s clone, who sincerely believed he was Shiro and always meant well, was dehumanised, demonised and discarded like his life meant nothing. His short existence was full of pain from literally the moment he first opened his eyes, as Haggar kept torturing him with migraines to manipulate him. In the end, she brutally violates him body and mind, and brainwashes him to force him to turn on the family he was so desperate to find in The Journey. He dies in incredibly questionable circumstances, without ever getting to learn that his family survived Haggar’s plans. He is victim-blamed for the things she forced him to do against his will with mind-control, and is never mourned because the only family he ever had writes him off as a “thing” and “evil.”

In fact, the horrific treatment of Kuron foreshadowed S8. The Medium article “It never stops at one - Why Voltron: Legendary Defender's tragic ending wasn't a surprise and why more DreamWorks' series will follow suit” explains how.

The tl;dr version is that, when a story posits that the circumstances of your birth determine the value of your life, so that good intentions and hard work mean nothing, and long-established bonds can be discarded with zero thought and care, and your very humanity can be revoked over something you have absolutely no control over, and the whole sociopathic disaster is celebrated as a happy ending... it really, really can’t end well. Not just for you, but for the entire cast.

#voltron critical #vld shiro #vld keith #vld lance #vld allura #vld lotor #voltron #voltron salt #takashi shirogane

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dammitadolfnomorecake · 4 years

Text

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt.41

“Did you have to do that?”

Watching Lance forced to hide away for the second time that day pissed Keith right off. Glaring at his brother, he wasn’t impressed with Shiro’s attitude at all. Why did Matt and Rieva get a free pass, when Lance got... well... this?

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you were rude. He’s a nice guy and you went at him like he’d killed your pet dog or something”

Shiro sighed

“Keith, I only want what’s best for you. Lance isn’t comfortable with so many people in his house, and it’s not safe for either us being under the same roof as two werewolves and vampire”

“Yet you had no problem with Matt and Rieva before. You didn’t have a problem with Lance before. He’s probably got whiplash for how cold you’re acting towards him”

Shiro groaned at him, leaning heavily against the kitchen table as he did, Keith had no idea what was on Shiro’s mind

“I really don’t mean to... When I look of him I think of Adam in the end. That’s not something I want you to go through”

“Lance isn’t Adam”

Lance was Lance. Adam was Adam. That was all there was to it... Spending time with Lance had helped. It’d reassured him, it’d shown him that being a vampire wasn’t easy. Even if Adam hadn’t been killed, the psychological effects on him would meant years of pain and therapy. Even if there’d been times Adam had deserved to be pushed into traffic, he didn’t deserve going through what Lance did. It would have broken him to see the effects on Shiro

“No. He’s everything Adam could have been if things had been different... And now you say you have a crush on a vampire, after how messed up losing Adam left you. I’ve barely been back a few hours and you’ve made all this decisions without me. I don’t want you having your heart broken because they turn around and decide Lance needs to be put down”

“Lance isn’t like that...”

Lance wasn’t an animal. He was nice and he was funny. Younger Keith had been so embarrassing...

Shiro rubbed at his eyes, sounding tired as he continued to irritate Keith

“Keith, you’ve known him all of a month. You’ve been living on top of each other, feelings are bound to happen. I’m not saying you can’t be friends with him, but maybe you take things slowly? Spend some time apart and think about how you actually feel. There’s a lot to think about...”

If only his brother knew how much damn thinking he’d had to do, and how much extra thinking Lance had done for the pair of them

“You think we’re moving too fast?”

“Aren’t you? You’ve never dated. You’ve neglected you health, and... accidents happen. You went to help him when he was bleeding, despite the fact his blood could have gotten into your system. What if you were making out and he cut his lip? What if you’re too caught up in having sex and you suck too hard on his neck, and got his blood in your mouth? I don’t want to lose you. And I don’t want you going through what Lance and Adam have been through”

“Then talk to him like a normal person. You don’t think we’ve talked about this? Lance is the most paranoid person I’ve ever met when it comes to his teeth and his blood”

“A relationship works both ways. What if you’re both hurt and he can’t help you because you’re bleeding? You’re acting reckless and it scares me that I’m going to come back and find you turned”

“And you’re acting he hasn’t done us all a huge favour by letting us stay in the first place. He doesn’t want to lie to Pidge, nor does he want to lie to Hunk. They’re best friends, they talk pretty much everyday and you decided to bring Matt and Rieva here without having a proper conversation with him over it. You decided to move us here without having a proper conversation either. Lance has been helping me deal with my issues over losing Adam. He made me see that maybe I did need a break to deal with what I’m feeling. I like him, and he likes me. We’re not rushing into anything”

“Do you know for a fact he feels the same way?”

“I do. He’s agonised over this and we’ve talked. We both want to see what this thing between us before anything gets serious”

Shiro let out long breath, his eyes silently pleading with Keith to listen as he cast his gaze to Keith

“Can you understand I’m scared for you? I don’t want you being hurt. Your my brother...”

“I know. We’re taking the time to get to know each other properly. We’ve both got issues and we both know that we don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m asking you to respect our choice, and to stop being to negative towards him because he’s trying his best for all of us”

“Are you dating?”

Keith didn’t want to lie. He wanted to be able to reach out and touch Lance when either of them needed that comfort they’d found in each other

“Kind of. We’re taking it slow”

“I’m being overprotective, aren’t I?”

“Yeah. And a dick too. I’ve never felt anything like I do when I’m with him”

“I can’t say I support it. But... I respect that you’re an adult and can make your own decisions. I did push all of this on him. Maybe I should talk to him?”

“Wait until after dinner. He’s stressed out about everything needing to be perfect because he’s upset about his vampire ego. I’ll check on him for now”

Shiro’s eyes widened fractionally

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been like this... Falling for a vampire wasn’t in my life plan. Lance hasn’t seen what we have. He doesn’t judge me for what skills I have and don’t have. I’m not Krolia’s son here, or your little brother. I feel more like me than I have in a while now”

They both knew it wasn’t easy for him at the Blade headquarters. No matter where he went, he was always in the shadow of his brother and his mother

“If he hurts you, I won’t hesitate to make the call”

“I know”

Lance was sitting at his desk, tears rolling down his cheeks as Keith let himself into his office. He’d barely slipped through the door before Lance was throwing his arms around him

“You idiot”

Keith felt himself smiling, despite how heavy the conversation with Shiro felt

“You heard?”

“I told you I didn’t want you two to fight”

“We’ll be fine”

“Still... I could hear how upset you were...”

“Because he wouldn’t listen. And I was worried about you”

“I’m sorry...”

“Don’t apologise for needing a break. Shiro will tell you in a professional at shutting myself in my room”

“I can see that. But are you really okay?”

“I will be”

The answer didn’t satisfy Lance. Tugging him backward with him, Keith found himself ending up in Lance’s lap as he sat in the armchair in the corner of the room. Resting his chin on Keith’s shoulder, Lance held both his hands. This was new... but not necessarily... maybe a little embarrassing seeing he was built larger than his boyfriend, and he was all manly and that

“Talk to me?”

“I thought we were?”

He didn’t need to see Lance’s face to know he was rolling his eyes at him

“I heard what Shiro was saying. Leaving Rome was the same as leaving Adam all over again for him, for him, wasn’t it? I think that’s bled into Matt. Did you two stay in the same place after Adam died? You don’t have to answer, but you’re thinking about him. Maybe talking will help? Or am I over thinking this again? I’m talking too fast, aren’t I?”

Lance was doing both. Over thinking and talking too fast. Keith squeezed his hands, still really not sure about the position they were sitting in

“You’re trying. You get points for trying. We moved for our own safety, but Adam owned the place so Shiro took over the deed. I... I think it’s was one of the first places I felt at home again. Him and Shiro wasn’t much of a family, but they wanted me there. Sometimes I felt like the third wheel, and got the feeling Adam would have happier if I wasn’t living with them... Shiro says it’s in my head from being in the system so long. I’m not good at moving...”

“You feel like you lost your home again”

“Yeah. Basically. I suppose... and I’ve always kind of gone where the job sent me. I’m not used to wanting to stay...”

“If you’re worrying about being so far away, Platt is just down the road. We can call and text. Pidge still wants you in our group chat. And I’ll help you. I mean, I’m not a hunter and I don’t have much patience for my kind, but I can help you the best I can”

“You already have. I don’t know why they don’t teach us about using blood when we make our bullets...”

Lance let out a nervous laugh. Lance had probably never held an actual weapon before with the intent of killing

“I don’t know if I should be happy about you talking about getting excited over weaponry, or just accept it?”

“Seeing I’m not going to kill you, I don’t know either?”

His boyfriend kissed his neck. Lance seemed bolder now, maybe because they were alone and didn’t have to have to hide. Keith sighed, earning him a poke in the stomach

“At least living with Shiro you’ll have your own stuff again?”

That was definitely a plus. He missed his bike... and he missed his cameras... and his swords. He was a simple man. But living with Shiro in a new city meant starting all over again without knowing how long they’d be there for.

“How badly are you going to worry about me on my bike?”

“I only have to worry if something happens. You’ve made it this far. I think you just be okay”

He had made it through some pretty shitty situations. He’d made a lot of mistakes on his way, fuelled by anger and the need to be seen as himself

“Because I felt like I really didn’t have that much to lose outside of Shiro”

“Well, now you’ve got friends. Totally awesome friends. And you’ve got Coran and Allura. Trust me, if anything goes wrong they’re the people you want closest to you. They might be weird, but they’re dependable”

“I’m not sure how that’ll work when Coran will technically be my boss”

“He’ll back you up. He’s been like a rock since I turned. He never once turned me away, even when I probably deserved it”

“But he’s your friend...”

Wouldn’t it be the same though? Keith in Lance’s shadow this time. He knew Coran because of Lance. Coran had seemed certain they’d get together and the man had been right... meaning he’d be seen as Lance’s boyfriend and not himself

“So? The work you do for him will determine what he thinks of you. Not because you’re my friend, or Shiro’s little brother, or because your mother’s a hunter. He’s not one to be hung up on that kind of thing. Work is work and personal is personal. He’s going to worry about you on a hunt because he cares, but he’s not going to give you easier assignments because of me”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. So don’t go using the wrong syringe and you’ll be fine”

He was never ever going to live that down...

“You won’t save me again?”

“I’d prefer I didn’t have to... but what’s the worst that’s going happen? Ooooh... maybe I’ll grow two heads?”

Lance poked him in the stomach again. He was annoyingly good at knowing what to say... and what to do. Maybe sitting in Lance’s lap wasn’t so bad? Not when he was trying to be there for him. Keith knew he shouldn’t be shocked, but having Lance cry over him seemed like overkill. Like he didn’t deserve Lance’s worry... but at the same time, it was actually really nice... and made his heart go weird

“And be twice as annoying?”

“I think you mean i’ll be twice as handsome. I’ve already lost my position as the hottest supernatural thing in town. I have to have something going for me”

Keith was genuinely confused. Curtis was... Curtis. Matt was... Matt. Rieva was pretty enough... but Lance like a nice little dork package. There was something in his “not plain plainness” that was nice...

“You think Matt’s hot?”

Lance laughed, Keith’s cheeks heating up. He was missing something here

“Oh my god. Nooooo. That’s Pidge’s brother!”

“Stop laughing at me! It’s not like I know! I like you well enough”

“Oh, god... oh, Keith. I think that’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever said. No. I mean Rieva. She’s definitely out of Matt’s league... Oh my god... I’m going to have mental scars forever”

Keith’s heart sunk, his stomach felt like he’d missed that bottom step and everything had lurched

“You like Rieva?”

“I don’t know Rieva. I meant she’s pretty...”

“Do you like girls better?”

Lance immediately caught his upset. This time he used both thumbs to poke Keith’s stomach

“What? No. I’m saying aesthetically she’s the best looking out of the four of us. You’re a close second in the house, only because I’m a proud fur father and Blue would never forgive me”

“But you think she’s pretty”

“And I think you’re prettierererer... prettiest. See, I can’t even English to tell you”

“I think you’re nice...”

Keith was failing hard on this. He couldn’t tell Lance all the little things were what he liked, because he felt kind of lame about saying it like that

“I know, you said. If it counts I thought Shiro was handsome. I thought you were a total douche and look at us now”

That’s because Shiro was handsome. He was just plain with weird purple eyes

“You’re like cute and stuff when you’re a bat”

“Don’t be coy, I saw you staring at my junk”

“It’s nice junk...”

Fuck, he was getting flustered. Why did he let Lance get to him like this?

“I’m pretty attached to it. Seriously though, I like you. We’re both pretty hard on ourselves, but you’re a good man under that emo anger loaf. I want you to know you can talk to me about this. About work or anything out. I get you probably have some of secrecy thing going, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to talk to someone who sort of gets it”

“Yeah... Shiro likes that I’m making friends”

“Friends are good. You’re good. You deserve to let yourself be happy”

“Because you’ll worry about all the other stuff?”

Lance snorted

“You know me so well. We should get back to the kitchen. I... was having fun. Having you in there with me. I know I was super awkward... but I don’t mind spending my space with you”

Shit. With just a few words Lance had feeling like a million bucks. That flustered feeling only growing like the warmth in his chest. He really liked Lance and hoped things would work out...

#once bitten twice stupid #oncebittentwicestupid

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multi-fandom-asks · 4 years

Note

(this is definitely not the mod for this blog who needed somewhere else to post this idk what you’re talking about) Paladins x reader tea meme!

(ah yes hello stranger)

For the tea meme, (created by @bite-sizedfe), I’ve chosen rosehip tea, green tea, and English breakfast tea. The questions that correlate with these teas are down below. And for the Paladins, I’m including all six of them (Allura, Keith, Lance, Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro)

rosehip tea 🌹 (how romantic are they? How do they show affection to their S/O?)

Keith

definitely not the connoisseur of romance but don’t mistake that for insincerity

he’s the guy that doesn’t go into theatrics; but makes sure to perform meaningful gestures

flowers for an anniversary or birthday

gifts that hold an incredible amount of significance

road trips all over Earth, listening to rock music and eating fast food

cozy, unexpected moments of intimacy, especially at home doing regular tasks like cooking or cleaning, are the norm with him

Lance

do you want a man that takes you on extravagant dates? you’ve found him

this boy goes all out for you

cleans all the way up, looks so handsome, and constantly showers you in compliments

concerts, broadway shows, walks in scenic parks, fancy restaurants, etc. anything that’ll put a smile on your pretty face

and you’ll totally rest your head on his shoulder

and he’ll take a moment to wonder how he’s so lucky

Hunk

more low key than Lance, more extravagant than Keith...a happy medium if you will

he will absolutely cook for you

dancing in the kitchen

watching movies all night long

getting to that point of sleepy where you giggle at everything

cuddles cuddles cuddles

Shiro

pretty traditional guy

a lunch date filled with conversation

or a simple trip to the store

if he’s with you, he’s happy

will buy you flowers all the time

always straightforward and vocal about how much he loves you

Allura

Allura wants to explore all the intricacies of Earth, and she wants you to accompany her

swimming in lakes, watching fireworks, or visiting the zoo so she can see the animals of Earth

but she also adores quiet nights in, snuggling or just talking with you

sometimes it’s a night filled with laughter and stories

others it’s a night of content silence and happy sighs

either way, she’s the luckiest Altean in the galaxy

Pidge

literally will spend hours playing video games with you and just having a really good talk

sitting on the rooftop, watching the sunset

tons of museum dates

visiting her family (plus her gushing about how amazing you are to everyone in the household)

midnight meet ups in the kitchen to eat ice cream out of the container while talking about that weird dream you had

trying weird DIY projects that will often fail but be the most hilarious thing in the world

green tea 🍵 (how do they comfort their S/O?)

Keith

he’s actually very perceptive to your emotions and has grown familiar with your mannerisms (plus what they mean)

he’ll always be concerned that he did something wrong, or there’s something you’re keeping secret from him

he will take it upon himself to give you space if you need it (he understands that)

but if you need a shoulder to cry on, he will be at your side in an instant

prepare for a hug

kisses you on the forehead and doesn’t pry for an answer if you’re not wanting to talk about it

totally lets you fall asleep in his arms when you’re done crying/talking/quietly grieving

Lance

many hugs and kisses

affirmations of his love for you and how incredible you are

him being inwardly sad that he can’t wave a magic wand and make you feel better

will do his best to encourage you (and it almost always works - he’s a good cheerleader)

and tries to see things from your perspective...always wanting you to be the focus, not him. He wants you to know he’s listening to you (awww he cares)

will crack a joke and end up making you laugh long enough that the wave of sadness has passed

Hunk

casually slips you a plate of delicious food

looks pointedly at you until you eat it or you talk to him (most likely both)

if you need someone to hold your hand, kiss your tears away, or hold you, Hunk has got you covered

always asks if there’s anything he can do for you (and he’ll do whatever will help you, no questions asked)

totally the guy that gently asks the team to give you space or help you out when necessary

he will give you the best freaking advice

Shiro

how can someone be so gentle? Simply hearing his voice will calm you

offers his hand, will place a hand on your shoulder, or brush back strands of hair behind your ear (as long as you’re comfortable with it)

brings you food, drinks, or little gifts

he is a very wise person who’s been through a tremendous amount of turmoil so he will let you know things will get better

tells you stories to distract you and make you smile

worries about you but never oversteps his boundaries

Allura

instantly recognizes that something is off about you

she’ll quickly finish up whatever she was doing at the moment and then rush to your side

she’ll obviously want to fix things in a split second for you but knows she can’t so she’s content to sit and talk with you instead

similarly to Shiro, she likes to tell you stories that’ll make you smile, or at least lift your spirits a little bit

if she’s out on a mission, she’ll check in on you fairly often just to make sure you’re hanging in there

and when she comes back, she’ll always be there to cuddle with you, humming softly so hopefully, you can sleep and wake up a little happier

Pidge

honestly? She’s kinda unsure what to do

she might distance herself just a little bit at first, though this isn’t intended in an apathetic manner (but it comes off that way)

finally she’ll come to her senses and sit down with you

she’ll offer up a video game or awful joke that will actually make you feel better

she’s definitely blunt and opinionated, but she will also display her more patient and understanding side around you

lets you flop onto her lap and just chill until you feel more at ease

english breakfast tea ☕️ (would they want a family?)

Keith

it’s actually not something he’s thought very much of

he wasn’t sure he’d have a future where that could happen

however, he does have a fairly strong paternal instinct

when he’s fallen in love with you though, the thought of starting a family crosses his mind often

he’d want a child at some point, but not until you were ready to take that step

when you talk about it with him, it’s clear to even the blindest eye that he longs for a family

and when he becomes a father, he does his absolute best for his kid (and for you) every single day

Lance

ohh does this boy want a family

he wants 3-4 kids, maybe even 5

he thinks about starting a family with you a lot so when it comes up in discussion, he jumps on the chance to make it a reality

obviously he won’t force you to do anything you don’t want but he’d be stoked if you wanted kids

large families are very ordinary to him and he loves the adventures and experiences it brings

so when he becomes a dad, he feels nothing but endless joy and love for the tiny life he holds in his arms and for you

Hunk

like Lance, this boy grew up in a large, loving household; and he definitely wants to start a family of his own one day

when you come into the picture, that desire only strengthens

he daydreams about it and eventually confides in you about his want for a large family

he is beyond ecstatic if you reciprocate those desires

how could he not want to have mini yous running around? You’re literally perfect!

becoming a parent is easily one of the most special moments he’s ever experienced; and he couldn’t be more grateful to share that with you

Shiro

to the surprise of no one, Shiro is the kind of guy that sees himself doting over his adorable children in the future

and he loves kids. absolutely adores them

he thinks about having a family with you a lot; and wants it really badly but never pressures you into anything (because he’s a good boi)

when it’s decided that you two will start a family, he is overjoyed (like sobs wracking his body kind of overjoyed)

needless to say, Shiro is a phenomenal dad and partner to you throughout it all

dad Shiro is best Shiro (fite me)

Pidge

not really the mom type

rarely thinks about having kids of her own

but if you want kids, she won’t immediately turn the idea down

it’ll take time for her to warm up to the idea

if she doesn’t, she’ll still spend the rest of her days by your side, loving you endlessly

if she does, she’ll be quite the doting but carefree mother

it’s a surprise even to her but she wouldn’t have it any other way

Allura

while she’s not bad with kids, she’s not overly fond of their constant neediness and vulnerability

it’s all very overwhelming to her

the thought crosses her mind every once in a while but she shrugs it off

if you want kids, she’ll consider it

if you don’t, that’s cool too

and no one could deny that if/when Allura becomes a mother, she will be excellent at it

she’s more maternal than she gives herself credit for

- mod Aoi 🌺

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crazy-fangirl1245 · 4 years

Text

My one-shot fanfic @plancesecretsanta for @numbah34! They requested a “surprise me” fic, so I decided to do a scene rewrite of Season 7 Episode 3 “The Way Forward”. You know...the one with our favorite Plance moment (”Don’t you touch her!”). I did not realize Pidge and Lance were going to be so difficult to write, so here’s hoping that I kept them in-character well enough! <3

Well, this certainly hadn’t been part of the plan.

Why did it seem like every time something went right, five other things went horribly wrong?

The Voltron paladins, Allura, and Krolia had been captured and now sat trapped in a small and cramped cell on a Galra pirate ship. They were handcuffed, their lions were out of commission, and there was currently no way of getting out of the cell without someone manually opening it on the other side.

And their fate rested in Coran’s hands who had somehow managed to evade capture.

To put it plainly, they were quite screwed.

As they all sat around contemplating what was in store for them if they didn’t escape soon, the door opened and two Galran soldiers walked in followed by their old enemies, Ezor and Zethrid, who looked a little too happy for the prisoners’ comfort.

“Look who’s here,” Ezor smirked. “It’s Voltron.”

Zethrid slammed her huge fist into her palm. “We’re going to have a little talk.”

“Hey, you’re the guys that Lotor shot into space,” Lance remarked.

“And the ones that were trying to kill us,” Pidge added.

Hunk smiled nervously. “Yeah, sure, but we’re all friends now, right? I, for one, am glad you survived.”

“I’m glad you survived, too,” Ezor smiled. “It’s not fun torturing a dead person.”

“Oh. So maybe not?”

“Where have you been all this time?” Zethrid demanded. “And what happened to Lotor?”

“What are you talking about?” Shiro asked.

Ezor frowned. “We’re talking about your little disappearing act.”

“Answer the question!” Zethrid said. “How did you survive that explosion?

“Don’t you know?” Hunk asked. “You were there.”

“I think there’s a little confusion about how the ‘we ask questions, you give us answers’ scenario works,” Ezor told him.

“Enough questions,” Zethrid growled. “Where is Lotor?”

Keith glared at them. “Lotor’s dead. We left him in the Quintessence Field.”

Ezor rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that doesn’t really add up. Why aren’t you dead?”

“Because of…the power of teamwork?” Hunk offered.

“I’m going to ask you one more time,” Zethrid said, glaring at the Paladins. “And then we’re going to have to take a more extreme approach.”

“The fun part,” Ezor smiled eerily.

“What happened to Lotor and where have you been all this time?”

None of the paladins could answer her. They had told her the truth, and it wasn’t their fault that she didn’t believe them.

“If you insist on maintaining this charade of ignorance, you leave us no choice but to apply pressure.”

“Finally. Who’s our first victim?”

Zethrid’s eyes scanned the paladins and she smiled as she landed on the green paladin. “You. I’d bet half my fleet this group of heroes has a soft spot for the small one.”

Ezor started walking towards Pidge.

“Don’t you touch her!” Lance yelled.

He attempted to attack Ezor, but the red alien had much more fighting experience and it didn’t help that he was still handcuffed. Ezor dodged his hit and then kicked him into the far wall. He sat up and prepared to try again, but one of the Galra soldiers aimed his gun at him.

Zethrid smirked. “Your defiance is adorable and so very misguided.”

“Leave us alone!” Pidge demanded.

Ezor used her ‘hair’ to grab Pidge and yank her forward into her arm. She smirked as she hoisted her well above the ground.

“Pidge!” Hunk exclaimed.

“Let her go!” Keith ordered.

“No, please!” Lance begged. “You take me instead, do you hear me?! Give her back and take me instead!”

Pidge spared a glance in Lance’s direction full of fear and confusion. She wasn’t sure she had ever been more scared than she was at that moment. Not just for her, but for the rest of her team as well. For him.

Ezor grabbed Pidge by the neck and slammed her against the cell wall. Lance took a step forward, but she held up a finger. “Take one more step, and I snap her pretty little neck.”

“We told you everything you want to know! Hurting her won’t change the fact that Lotor is dead! Please! Just let her go. Do whatever you want to me, just please don’t touch her!”

Ezor and Zethrid exchanged knowing glances.

The red alien smirked again and held up the hand that wasn’t holding Pidge up against the cell wall. Her fingers sharpened into talons, and Lance thought for sure that his heart stopped beating. She slowly inched the claw closer to Pidge’s neck.

“Answers. Where is Lotor?”

“He’s…dead,” Pidge choked out, her oxygen supply cut off by Ezor’s hand. “It’s…the truth.”

Ezor used one of her talons to slice Pidge’s cheek, leaving behind three deep cuts.

“No, stop it!” Lance cried.

Small lines of blood began to make their way down Pidge’s face, the dark liquid standing out against her pale skin that was beginning to turn blue.

Lance thought he might throw up. He had never felt so powerless in his entire life. He couldn’t do anything to stop this. None of them could. They just didn’t have enough strength. Not like this.

“Pidge, I’m sorry,” he whispered as he collapsed to his knees. He tried to fight the tears welling in his eyes, afraid that it would make him appear weak in front of both the enemy and his teammates, but it felt as if Ezor was strangling him too and he couldn’t breathe.

Pidge kicked against the steel behind her and clawed at Ezor’s hand, desperately trying to draw in a breath.

Her vision began to go dark from the lack of oxygen.

Ezor’s smirk widened at her pain as she tightened her grip.

Suddenly, red lights and alarms began flashing and blaring exclaiming that there was a hull breach.

Zethrid angrily left the cell to deal with the problem followed by the other Galran soldiers. Ezor looked at Pidge with disappointment before dropping her onto the cell floor.

Pidge inhaled sharply and began coughing and taking deep gulps of air.

Lance was at her side in a second. “Pidge! Come on, come on, breathe!”

He put his handcuffed hands to her back and shoulder to help her sit up while she focused on reclaiming all of her stolen oxygen.

Tears formed in the corners of her eyes, but Lance couldn’t tell if it was from the pain or the fear. It was most likely a combination of both.

He was furious that he hadn’t been able to prevent this.

If anything worse had happened, he never would’ve been able to forgive himself.

He already couldn’t forgive himself.

“Lance…” she wheezed.

“I’m right here,” he said quietly. “I’m here. I’m so sorry, Pidge…”

The girl’s eyes closed and she slumped over into his arms. When he saw the dark bruises on her neck and the blood running down her cheek, he wanted to pummel Ezor and Zethrid into the next deca-phoeb.

“Pidge? Pidge!” He looked up at the others. “We’ve gotta get out of here now.”

Krolia walked over to the door and peeked out of the small opening. “This is it. The next time that door opens, overwhelm the guard.”

However, before they could do anything, they heard the guard crying out in pain and a loud thump.

Then the door opened. To their surprise, the space mice sat on the unconscious guard’s stomach smiling proudly.

“Hello, little friends!” Allura smiled as she knelt in front of them. They squeaked at her. “What?” More squeaking. “Where?”

“Where?” Hunk repeated. “What are they saying?”

“Coran’s trying to rescue us. And he’s got help. Acxa.”

“What?” Keith said in surprise.

The space mice helped everyone undo their handcuffs.

“Pidge?” Lance said urgently, lightly shaking her. “Pidge, come on, you gotta wake up!”

Nothing.

“She’s barely moving!”

“We gotta get out of here,” Keith said firmly. “Can you carry her?”

Lance quickly scooped Pidge up into his arms, and they began making their way through the ship so they could find Coran, retrieve their bayards, and get to the lions.

Lance always knew that Pidge was the smallest one of their team, but holding her broken, damaged form in his arms made him realize just how small she really was. She didn’t get enough credit for being this small and still managing to be a defender of the universe.

He made a mental note to tell her that when she woke up.

If she woke up.

Lance shook his head. No. When she woke up.

Holding her close and feeling that she would be okay as long as he held her, Lance followed the others towards their lions.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

The Voltron team found solace on an abandoned planet and made camp inside a small cave.

Allura bandaged Pidge’s wounds on her cheek and neck while the others made a fire and tried to find something to eat.

Lance refused to leave Pidge’s side. Even though Allura and Acxa insisted that she would be okay, he couldn’t believe it until he saw it himself.

He couldn’t stop blaming himself for her injuries and what might’ve happened if the alarms hadn’t gone off.

After what felt like hours, Pidge’s eyes slowly opened.

Lance was pretty sure he hadn’t ever seen Pidge without her glasses on, fake or not, but without them on, he realized just how pretty her eyes were.

“Lance?” she croaked out, her voice hoarse after the beating her windpipe had taken.

“Hey, don’t talk,” he said gently. “We got you off the ship and we’re on another planet to get our bearings and figure out our next step.”

“My throat hurts.”

“Here, Acxa managed to make this.” He handed her a glass of amber liquid.

“Acxa?”

“Yeah, turns out she’s on our side. We wouldn’t have made it off that ship without her.”

Pidge sipped the liquid and made a face.

“Uh, yeah, she mentioned it wouldn’t taste good. But it will help you get your voice back.” Lance sighed heavily and put his hand on hers. “I thought I had lost you, Pidge.”

“You…you tried to get them to take you instead.”

“Come on, any one of us would’ve done the same.”

“Maybe…but it was you.”

“I would die before I let anything happen to you. I hope you know that.”

“I do now.”

“I’m so sorry. For everything. That should never have happened to you. It should’ve been me.”

Pidge slowly put the back of her hand to his cheek. “It’s okay. Comes with being a Paladin, right?”

Lance put his hand against hers. “Still…seeing you like that…it made me realize just how important you are to Voltron, to the universe…to me.”

Pidge smiled a little, feeling her heart throb. She wasn’t sure she had ever truly seen Lance in a romantic light. Not consciously anyway. But him looking at her like that made her realize that she wanted him to like her that way.

She fingered the bandage on her cheek. “Think it’ll leave behind a scar?”

Lance knew Pidge wasn’t really a self-concious person (maybe with the exception of her height), but hearing her sound so scared about the possibility of three scars on her face made his heart ache.

He gave her a charming smile. “Well, if it does, no one will ever think twice about crossing you again.”

Pidge couldn’t help but lightly smile. She supposed she hadn’t thought of it like that.

“You amaze me, Pidge,” Lance continued. “Even though your skills lay in your incredible tech abilities, you still fight with everything you’ve got. You have more courage and bravery than anyone I’ve ever known.”

Pidge’s throat began to tighten, and not because of the injury she had sustained. “Lance, I…”

“Pidge…”

Lance stood up and leaned over her.

“What are you doing?”

“I really want to kiss you. Is that okay?”

Pidge’s face turned several shades of scarlet. Then she barely nodded.

The kiss could barely even be called a kiss. It was more like a brush. Lance didn’t want to hurt her even more, and Pidge wasn’t sure how much she could take.

But it had to have been the most beautiful thing either of them had ever experienced in their entire lives.

#plance #voltron #numbah34 #plancesecretsanta2019 #fanfic #don't you touch her #best plance moment #one-shot #these two are so hard to write

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mizu-writes-kumo · 5 years

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I love the idea of a shance friends au were pidge has phoebe's reaction to finding out. But I also love the idea of veronica being the one to react like ross even more. Shiro being terrified of lance's sister and climbing out the window and saying he's going on the lam. lance saying he can handle his sister and opening the door saying whats up sis. And kinda shielding shiro behind him even though lance is shorter.

I can’t help picturing the scene for Pidge, so here is a dabble for it before I go off and write some other stuff for the day (and rest of the ask to be addressed below as well…after dabble).

–

Pidge still can’t believe Keith managed to score the apartment of the weird, but sweet, old guy Lance and Hunk liked watching from their window. And of course its like extra nice. Pidge doesn’t want to think about their price range it’s in, let alone how Keith managed to afford it.

But really good first step to getting out from under Shiro’s wing.

She walked her way over to the giant main window. The one Lance and Hunk…and all of them looked into like creepers when they were bored. While Allura compliments the crown molding or something about the place, before Keith goes off to explore the depths with…excitement in his voice.

The window unsurprisingly has a great view of Lance’s apartment. Like great view of the apartment. Perfect view of the living room.

Where, oh, Lance and Shiro both are chatting.

“Oh look, it’s Lance and Shiro.” She said to no one as she waved slightly. She knows the chances of them seeing her are slim. But on the off chance one of them turns to look, will it would be a fun surprise. “Hey look over here losers, your on the window show.”

But then Lance smiles, and tilts his head that flirty way they all know.

And Shiro leans forwards and kisses him.

Pidge’s eyes went wide at the action.

She’s pretty sure her brain did a full restart before it really registered that Lance and Shiro were kissing each other. Like really and truly making out. wrapped around each other, arms traveling all over each other…and down. Really just going at each other.

Which is fantastic news to her, even if it is crazy out of the blue.

But like finding love in a friend has always been a dream of Lance. The friend being Shiro was a fantasy, both she and Hunk knew way to much about. Shiro admittedly enjoyed Lance attention a great deal. It was second only to Keith for sure. And they two were suited for each other, according to that magazine quiz Allura made them all take to figure out ideal pairs if anyone was to hook up…you know for fun.

Pidge barely registered that her voice was picking up volume in her excitement and bounce. Happy watching as Shiro moves to go to Lance’s neck, and Lance fights with buttons’ of Shiro’s shirt. But then Shiro had a hand down Lance’s pants, and—

“My eyes! My eyes!” Pidge declared as she turned around covering her closed eyes.

It’s fruitless, she can’t unsee what she just saw.

She just…can’t.

“Pidge, what is it–Oh my goodness!” Allura said hurriedly as she came to Pidge’s side. “Okay, so…um…you know about…”

“Lance and Shiro, yeah!” Pidge snapped loudly. “It’s great, but I can my delicate sensitive eyes!”

Allura hushed her quickly. “I know Pidge; I’m happy you know now. It’s just been Hunk and I, and well…there is so much to talk about…I know, but you have to be quiet. Keith doesn’t know yet…and well we’re not sure how well he’ll react to the news. We have to keep it a secret, okay, Lance and Shiro aren’t really to say anything about it.”

“Wait,…Hunk knows?!”

“Yes, Hunk knows.” Allura stated gently.

“Hunk knows what?” Keith’s voice asked, cut off Pidge’s question of how

Pidge snapped her head to see him standing in the hall by the dining area. Allura makes a surprised sound beside her, but quickly cleared he throat.

“That this is a great apartment!” Allura declared happily. “We’re just so happy you managed to get this place, Pidge just con’t contain the excitement in her little tiny body.”

Keith eyed them slightly but seemed to buy into it. And by some miracle Allura and Pidge kept him out of the view of the window. Away from Lance and Shiro’s sexapades on the living room rug…guess Pidge is never sitting there again.

–

Yeah, I don’t think Keith would react to bad to finding out. More of ‘finally’ reaction, and being made that he was the last one to find out about it. You know, that Shiro never said anything to him and their brothers, but he’s touched that they were concerned how he would take the news.

But yeah, I imagine Veronica having Lance’s reaction, when she visits Keith’s apartment for some reason. And she just goes into a sisterly rage, cause that’s her baby brother, why is anyone touching him like that, much less her superior at work she loosely knows! And immediately has to run over and knock on Lance’s door, then use her key to get it in. (But like Lance and Shiro had long ago started using the chain to stop their friends from just waltzing in while their doing it.) So she can’t fully open the door.

And yes, Shiro is totally terrified of her, even though he is above her, like if you want something done by someone you send Veronica to get them to get on it. Because Shiro is firm, but like he’s also like doesn’t care and is nice, he use to be a low man on the totem pole in a listless job. So he is immediately ready to run. It was a good run, he’s going to move to witness protection know and never see Lance again ever. While Lance is like just, figure out a way out of there, he’ll cover for him and calm veronica down.

Only he’s so bad at it when he opens the door. cause like everything about him is rumbled, like he was just going rather hot and heavy with someone. Like evenly stupidly out of breath, and goes for chill way to quick, with “Sup, sis?” And trying to stand as causal as possible while blocking the view of where Shiro is trying to get away. So it does not look natural in the least. Veronica just barges right in, and zero’s in on Shiro, who decides, screw the window, go for the door, as Veronica starts to chase after him to berate him.

Lance wedges himself between the door. Veronica and him are similar sizes so they evenly match. But yes, Shiro hides behind his smaller boyfriend like as much as he possibly can. While Lance is arguing with Veronica to get her to calm down. He really likes Shiro…like a lot, and it’s not fooling around, it really really means something to him, and Shiro. They like invested in the relationship together. And eventually talks Veronica down to being really happy for them, because yeah, she knows they are really good friends, like from before she ever got her job. Shiro’s a nice guy too, and like tells Veronica when Lance is sick, or just not feeling well so she can bring him soup or hang out (cause Lance stubbornly won’t call his family sometimes) Plus Lance is an adult, he can sleep with who he wants, okay…which was the wrong thing to say…but it’s still true.

After Veronica calms down and leaves, you know, she throws like a “Oh Ma’s having dinner this weekend, you can tell everyone there about your secret serious boyfriend, we we go, so she’s not on my ass for [X Y Z].”

#shance #friends au #I couldn't pass it up #I really like this au

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wofuru · 5 years

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Voltron s8 (long post sorry)

So ... voltron has come to an end (unless there are more surprises coming). And I will say right of the bat that I am devastated.

I know this is 'only' a tv show, but let me explain some things to get you on the same line. I started a little late on the VLD train thinking it was only a mecha anime show at first and then I saw the character designs. Shiro caught my attention right away and Keith as well. And then watched season 1. That moment when Keith finds Shiro and turns his head, his expression at seeing the only person he loves and that have been there for him being alive after all... I fell in love with their relationship. I thought ‘huh oh ... I think I got a pairing I will be shipping XD’ and tough myself as silly.

And then as the episodes went on, the more we got to see a beautiful, respectful relationship between two men that are equals. Yes Shiro is technically his superior according to ranks at the garrison, but he treat him and all the other paladins as equals. He is their leader, but most of all their friends. Shiro/Keith relationship evolves through the serie, but have always been on the basis that they love each other so so much, but do not stop the other from taking risks, they trust in each other strenghts while they still worry for each other. They keep saving each other in so many ways that are shown to us through the series.

Sheith vs gays representation in stories/series

Sheith has been since the beginning something more than any of us, more then what anyone could have expected. They represent something we haven’t seen before. And this is a m/m couple relationship that is pure, non-toxic and natural, not forced. And also not between background characters. Yes we have been having as the LGBTQ2+ community more representations in the last few years in different shows. while females couple were more rarely seen at the beginning, they were there as a beautiful and cherished relationship and treated as normal (unless it falls under the stereotype that it’s hawt because its 2 girls having sex in the mind of classical straight guy characters representation). But with m/m relationship, we have been shown as either toxic relationship in which one or both partners cheat with sleeping with someone else or are blatantly sleeping around with just everyone (cheating or as an open relationship sort of). Every gay couple shown as kinky stereotyped relationship that are together only to have sex all the time and nothing else. IN the rare cases that it is not the situation we see, instead we get a character that we learn is gay after a while and mentions having someone in their life that we either never see or are simply a nobody OR someone super stereotyped like a girly boy or drag queen (in which there is nothing wrong with being at all, but they are used as a moquery to being gay in these cases which IS disrespectful). Sheith is the 1st relationship that are neither these. Both are important characters, both are strong characters and none girly to have like a “Who’s the girl in the couple” vibe. They are equals, have a healthy and interesting relationship. Every interactions they have are natural and transpire sensibilities that as men we are still told or shamed everyday if we dare show or talk about.

AND take into account that not only adults watch the show. Kids of all age love those characters for WHO THEY ARE and learn that it is alright to love people around them, to show them. That it is not wrong to be two boys and love each other so so much, to show your affection towards the other.

Shiro is also a man that was sick and lived with it knowing he had little time left. He got abducted, abused in so many ways. Lost an arm and still continues to love and care about people. He still continues to fight to what is right, despite his ptsd, despite all.

Characters in the season

What Season 8 did (and 7 as well to a certain extent) is show us that it doesn’t matter how hard you fight, how hard you care, you’ll get everything get ripped from your hands. Life won’t be kind to you ever. Shiro lost the black lion for no real reason, just an excuse to have Keith become the main character. But moreover got shoved on the side in a corner to be seen once in a while so we in the fandom would not rant too much about him barely existing anymore as a character. In s8 they have stripped him of every character traits he had to make him become the basic space ship AI character type that speaks to only to explain what the audience and the other characters needs to be explained to let the story move on. He does not even get to be the one leading the meetings and building the strategy. Every occasion they had, he was put on the back up line to let Voltron pass forward. He became a plastic character with no personality.

As for Keith... Keith got every dialogue Shiro would have normally have, even the phrasing of how he speaks is not reminiscence of himself, but the same as Shiro speaks, his words, attitude, everything. So his personality was thrown out the window. The goal of the series had been for him to evolve from the right arm character to a leader (which does not stand right with me for other reasons I will speak in another post maybe in the future), but that is understandable. But for that, he didn’t have to become someone else. Being a leader can be done different ways. Yes Shiro was and is a big influence in his life, but they are two different persons. Why they are so strong together is because they complete one another. Keith could have picked on some things from Shiro, but make it is own that is what I mostly want to say. To see him preside the meetings at the garrison, make the strategy, tell people what to do inside the Atlas, not just the Voltron team is simply bad, both for him and for Shiro’s character. This is completely OOC in many ways and also put Shiro in the corner as non existant, especially since we see in the room with them sitting and saying nothing.

I have been speaking mostly of Sheith, but the other paladins also lost all their flavors in this season to become 1 dimensional. Hunk is the cook that cares, Pidge the genius geek and Lance ... the worried boyfriend, Allura the character that wants to save everyone herself alone and will stop at nothing to do so. All the side characters of the series were on point, but none of the main cast characters were. Every paladins became those plot exposition devices to explain what was going on because it became so condensed with concepts and ideas that were interesting yes, but there is such a thing a too many things happening. And with all those things they have sacrificed what the people loved the most about the series and it was the characters and their story. The season was about mechas fighting mechas so the universe would not explode too much or will come back.

Wrapping everything up

Through the series we met a lot of different people, planets and all. We even got the AUs that were confirmed and given in a way to the fandom to validate that all the content fans have been doing were considered as possible because of the infinite quantity of realities in which the characters could have had different lives. This was truly a beautiful gift to everyone, to every crack ships even.

Now in season 8 we see all those aspects being reduced to shreds. The paladins of old are shown, but disappear forever. The olkari gets destroy and we never hear from them again, all the realities get destroyed expect the one we are following which makes it so that ONLY this one is the real one starting from there. Putting the fans to realize that however this ends in the next minutes of the show, this will be the only possibility the story will end, so you better put your seat belt on, because if your ship doesn’t happen, then no hope for you.

Pairings and couples

Allura and Lance became a couple through this season after a well evolving relationship through the season, but at the end Allura sacrifice herself, with the team not really trying to stop her, except Lance. Which does not make sense since they do not even react that much until she says her goodbyes to everyone. So they kill one of the pairing right here and there saying that Lance will always think of her and remember her. He gets marks just to remember him more. But there is no chance of redemption, Allura is dead, becoming cosmic dust in the skies.

Punk didn’t happen, but this is something we could have anticipated. Since they do not seem to be with someone else, this at least gives lenience to an open ending game for them.

And now Sheith ... at the very end, they have decided that Keith would go back to the Galras and try to make them evolve in a better society, which is interesting BUT. As we see in the 1 year later skip, they do not seem to have been in contact with him at all because they were asking news on how things were going with the Galras. And Shiro is the one asking so it means that they haven’t both been in contact in a long while. Then comes the epilogue in which we see Keith continue to travel the galaxies helping people in his separate way and Shiro ... gets married to a nobody that we never saw before s8 (unless maybe in the background once in s7 I hear). They made the guy speak a few lines during this season and these moments always seemed forced implanted so we would know who he is sort of. The whole s8 (and even 7 to a certain extent), Keith and Shiro never interacts. Like at all. They become complete strangers. Keith is seen behind Shiro at the marriage seen like a posted image half hidden. Which does not make sense and is simply insulting to the fans. If they were not romantically involved, they were if anything at least best friends, there were their everything. And Keith telling Shiro he loved him was never addressed, the whole black paladins episode either. They never talked about it on screen and if it was behind the scene ... it made Shiro stop talking with Keith entirely ? Which he would simply never do and Keith would never abandon Shiro either. We have seen him run the universe times and times again to help him, save him, be there for him. To have Shiro simply leave (and become a HOUSE WIFE no less) is worse then killing the ship, it is an insult to every gay out there. This tells us all that it is ok to be gay, but choose someone that nobody will care so it does not make waves, that when you do, leave to live the discreet life and abandon your dreams and your personality. That basically you need to lose yourself, to hide, to be afraid. That if you tell someone you love that you love them (especially between guys), you will lose them, that they will never speak to you again.

And THAT is the problem. Yes I am sad my ship didn’t become canon on screen, but if they had made an open ending, it would have been just fine. Have Shiro arrive when Keith leaves for the galras saying ‘hey Keith, we need to talk’ or just leave with them. Anything, but not this. But aside from just my ship, don’t just coward behind because you are afraid to show a main m/m couple show on screen. Sheith is the most beautiful gay representation in American history and instead, DW decided (not Lauren and Dos, I mean above them who made these decisions) litterally piss on our face and throw a bone at usby marrying Shiro to a guy to say hey you got your representation and we are the first animated show to have a gay marriage seen... but it does not count DW. The guy is a nobody cares about, this is just throwing gays under the rug, again.

Modified scenes

With everything that have been digged out by now after s8 dropped, we now know that this ending was NOT the one the creators did and wanted. They wanted to most likely make Sheith cannon, and I am pretty sure this wedding sequence was suppose to be Keith and Shiro due to a post Lauren made not so long ago about what seemed to be it showing a black and a red hearts which has been the representation logos the fans have been using for Sheith since the beginning. I also found this last scene when the lions leaves slightly off. The moment we see Shiro and Keith one behind the other (which is gorgeous), Shiro seemed weird and I realized why by seeing someone talk about it on twitter. Shiro is missing his left arm at that moment and shoulder making him look was thinner. Which look like he was there maybe with his hand on Keith’s shoulder like on the drawing Lauren gave us the day before the season aired. We know that Ezor was supposed to be dead, but they brought her back after all with another VA which means they did this change very last second and couldn’t get the VA to join perhaps. They added scenes with this couple maybe to purchase our silence into the lgbtq2+ community representation, so we would have 2 couples and shouldn’t whine about it. But ... by doing this and sacrificing maybe scene Shiro and Keith had during this season to have none at all is again just an insult to the fans of the serie. S8 was bad from beginning to end. Some elements were fine, but 90% not. This is an insult to the fandom, to the dedicated fans and also to the crew who worked on the show for so long.

.... with all that said, since we know now that LM/DS didn’t have this ending in mind, this means the S8 ending (at least the epilogue) is actually not canon. Yes it was aired, but it was made by people who took the final result, basically sabotaged/vandalized it and gave it to people to see. Sheith is canon and this is not fine that it ends this way. I do pray they will hear us all and make things right. Give us the real footage of this season, release it to us and even better remove the season we have on netflix now and put the real one. This is something they can do, they have the real footings. And some series have done this before by removing episodes that ended up being racist and disrespectful. Making things right would prove they care about the fans of the show and the people that were there to support them and also the crew who worked so hard and made so much efforts and put their soul into their work.

I’ll still be posting Sheith arts and fic. This relationship have moved me like nothing ever did in my life (and I am 32) and made me get back on my feet from a very dark place. I am like Shiro, I have ptsd due to events that happened in my life that were done to me. I was judged all my life and worked hard to be where I am today. I am disabled in some ways and also come from an abusive family where I was raised to be a slave. Seeing a show like voltron, a character like Shiro made me see what I was and the wounds I had that I was walking on all those years. Because of him I finally got the courage to get to see doctors and specialists to heal all those wounds so they would become scars. And I know I am not the only one. Voltron was the best thing that happened to me in many ways and to see it destroy so many lives now (because this is what this season has done) is the saddest thing. I am scared to see kids when scars from this and I know this is already happening. And adults will have to.

Send your love to the animators and VAs and LM/DS for all their work and let’s hope we can fix this somehow or help them do it.

#shiro #keith #sheith #vld #voltron #voltron legendary defender #vld s8 spoilers #voltron s8 #vld s8 #these are my opinions #I'm a train wreck right now

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a-corndog-named-schibbs · 5 years

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Operation Beach Day

It’s the dead of winter where I am, so here’s my take on a Voltron beach episode.

Canon compliant up to season 6. Kind of an au where the crew return to earth, but rather than having to deal with a big mess, they get to relax a bit when they get there.

Enjoy!

“Almost there, guys,” says Lance, making a final turn onto a side road.

“Still not gonna tell us where we’re going?” says Keith.

“It’s a surprise,” says Lance, “Don’t worry, guys, you’ll love it.”

All his friends are piled into the old family van with him. Shiro’s in the navigator’s seat next to him, Keith, Hunk, Pidge, Allura, Coran, Krolia, and Romelle all squished into the back rows. Technically, this van wasn’t meant to carry this many people, so Pidge is currently sprawled out over Hunk and Keith’s laps while Lance tries his best to drive carefully and not hit the brakes too hard. Even Kosmo is in the trunk, turning circles and whining nervously at the new sensation of being in a moving car. Every once in a while, Krolia will reach back and give him some reassuring head scratches.

Finally, Lance pulls into a small parking lot, “We’re here!”

Everyone presses their faces against the windows and stares at the soft white sand and immaculate blue water that awaits them.

“It’s a beach!” says Hunk, his face lighting up, “I haven’t been to a beach in forever!”

Lance grins, “I told you you’d love it.”

“Uh, Lance?” says Shiro, “I didn’t bring a swimsuit.”

“Don’t worry, I brought extras for everybody. And sunscreen too, Pidge, don’t panic. Now, everybody out! Operation Beach Day begins now!”

“How the hell is this place not crawling with tourists?” Keith asks as they all climb out of the van.

“It’s a private beach,” says Lance, grabbing bags from the backseat, “My parents know the owner, he’s always been chill about letting us use it. We just have to not blast obnoxious music or leave a bunch of trash or anything like that.”

There are small changing booths near the parking lot and everyone claims one to get dressed in, some pulling out swimsuits from their own bags and the rest going to Lance for an extra one.

At one point, Lance taps Allura on the shoulder just before she goes into one of the changing booths.

“Princess, I got something for you. A little gift to celebrate your first time at an Earth beach.” He holds up a pair of black swim bottoms.

“Oh, that’s sweet of you, Lance, but I already have a bathing suit.” Allura holds up the pink two-piece swimsuit she thankfully remembered to pack.

“Don’t worry, they’re not for you to wear. Hey, Shiro!” Lance says, louder this time, “Did you say you needed an extra swimsuit?”

“Yeah, I did. Thanks, Lance!” says Shiro, catching the suit as Lance tosses it and stepping into his own changing booth.

Soon, everyone is milling around on the sand, admiring each other’s swimsuits. Everyone except Shiro, who hasn’t left his changing booth yet.

“You okay in there, Shiro?” says Keith, knocking on the booth door.

“Just having a little trouble getting my suit on,” says Shiro, “Lance, I think you got me the wrong size.”

Lance suppresses a laugh, “No, they’re supposed to be like that.”

Shiro opens the door, clad only in a black speedo.

“Oh!” says Allura, unabashedly admiring her boyfriend’s toned physique.

“Enjoying your gift, Allura?” says Lance, grinning.

Allura grins back, “It’s the most wonderful gift I’ve ever received.”

Finding a place to set out their beach towels and umbrellas isn’t too hard considering they’ve got the beach to themselves. Lance is practically bouncing with energy the whole time, eager to get into the water.

“Come on,” he says, waving to the others, “Everybody in!”

Hunk is also ready to burst with excitement, “Yes! I’m so ready for this!”

Pidge crosses her arms, “I’m good, thanks.”

“Wrong answer, Pidge,” says Hunk. He scoops her up easily in his arms, “Come on, this way to the water!”

“No!” Pidge shrieks, suddenly panicked, trying to squirm out of Hunk’s grip.

Hunk stops, surprised, immediately setting Pidge back on her feet. “You okay?”

Pidge scowls at the ground, cheeks red with embarrassment. I don’t know how to swim,” she mumbles, “I don’t want to fucking drown.”

“Aww, Pidge…” says Hunk, putting an arm around her, “Lance and I have both been swimming since we could walk. We’re not gonna let you drown.”

Lance nods, putting a hand on Pidge’s shoulder, “We’ll stay in the shallow water the whole time. And hey, maybe we can even teach you how to swim!”

“Right, and if you don’t like it, we’ll come right back to the beach. Sound good?” says Hunk.

Pidge nods, hesitantly, “Yeah, I think that’d be all right.”

“Sweet!” says Lance, “Keith, you coming in too?”

“Sure,” says Keith. He turns to Krolia, “Mom, do you want to swim with us?”

Krolia shoots him a look over the tops of her sunglasses, “And get my fur wet? No thank you. Besides,” she holds up a paperback book, “I’ve got some Earth literature to entertain me.”

The book has the title Ranch of Romance written on the cover in a flouncy font and features a rugged man in a cowboy outfit, his flannel shirt almost completely unbuttoned, holding a swooning woman in his arms, her dress dangerously close to slipping off.

Keith’s entire face goes red, “Uh…okay, Mom. Coran, what about you?”

Coran’s currently dressed in an old-fashioned striped one-piece bathing suit and holding a sand pail, “Oh, I think I’ll pass, my boy. I’ve been meaning to try my hand at building one of those sand castles you Earthlings sometimes talk about. I figure if my grandfather can build the Castle of Lions, I can surely build its miniature in sand form.”

“Suit yourself,” says Lance, “Come on, Keith, let’s see if Hunk and Pidge want to have a chicken fight.”

Over the course of the next hour or so, Lance and Hunk attempt to teach Pidge how to swim, first getting her used to having her face in the water, then trying to teach her how to float. It’s not easy, her skinny frame making it hard to stay buoyant, but eventually, she can manage a doggy paddle with relative ease.

Once she’s comfortable in the water, Keith suggests pairing off for a chicken fight. They start out Arms vs. Legs, with Pidge on Keith’s shoulders and Lance on Hunk’s. Team Arms wins, but only because Hunk stepped on a shell and lost his balance (at least, that’s what Team Legs insists happened). Then, they switch to Left Side vs. Right Side. Right Side wins that time, though it’s a hollow victory for Lance, since Keith’s strategy seems to be to use him as an actual lance. Eventually, the game devolves into a four-way splash fight.

“Hey, guys,” Shiro calls from the shore, causing the four paladins to cease splashing for a moment, “Anyone up for a volleyball game? I think I found a net.”

Once the others have waded back out of the water and toweled off, they all gather around the volleyball net Shiro found, joined by Allura and Romelle, who have been enjoying some sunbathing. Romelle, especially, is looking quite a bit pinker than normal and Lance makes a mental note to remind her to reapply her sunscreen later.

“So,” says Shiro, “How should we divide into teams?”

“Boys vs. girls!” Lance says quickly.

“No fair!” Pidge protests, “There’s more of you!”

“No duh, Pigeon, why do you think I suggested it?”

“We should have one of you join our team then,” Romelle points out.

“Yeah! We deserve a fourth honorary girl on the team!” says Pidge.

“Fine, fine,” says Lance, “I’ll let you have it. Pick an honorary girl.”

Pidge’s grin is downright devious, “We want Shiro.”

“Pick another honorary girl.”

“You never said any of your teammates were off-limits,” says Allura, as precise as any lawyer, “If you didn’t want us to choose Shiro, you should have said something before hand.”

Lance crosses his arms, “Well, maybe Shiro doesn’t want to be an honorary girl.”

But Shiro merely shrugs, good-naturedly, “I don’t mind, really.” He ducks under the net and joins the girls’ side.

“Oh, no,” Keith groans, “We’re so screwed now. Lance, you’ve screwed us.”

“Why? What do you mean?”

“Shiro’s a monster at volleyball. He’s gonna wipe the floor with all of us.”

Shiro rolls his eyes and grins, “Stop trying to scare them, Keith.”

Keith turns and glares at him, “Shiro remember when they had that volleyball tournament at the Garrison and you spiked the ball directly at some guy’s head and he went to the hospital for a concussion? ‘Cause I do. It’s actually a very vivid memory for me.”

Shiro shrugs, “What’s a game without a little risk? Now are you gonna serve or what?”

In the end, the girls’ team wins soundly. Pidge and Romelle might not be athletically inclined, but Shiro and Allura very much are, and competitive to boot. Keith puts forth a valiant effort, but is no match for both of them in the end. Lance and Hunk spend most of the game trying their best to not die.

Once the boys’ team is done licking their wounds, everyone decides to swim a bit more to cool off. Even Pidge agrees to it, though she spends most of the time hanging onto Hunk’s shoulders while he does the actual swimming.

Meanwhile, Keith finds a piece of driftwood and he and Lance decide to play fetch with Kosmo. Kosmo seems more interested in splashing around in the ocean than actually chasing the stick, so it’s mostly Lance and Keith who have to retrieve it when it lands further out and begins to float away.

At one point, Lance throws the stick a little too hard and it lands in the deeper water where the waves are breaking.

“Dang it,” says Lance, knowing there’s no way in hell he’ll convince Kosmo to swim all the way out there, “I’ll get it.”

“No, I got it,” says Keith, “I’m closer.”

Lance watches him wade out into the water, almost slipping at one point as he hits a small drop off. Eventually, it’s just his head and shoulders visible above the water. He reaches the stick and holds it up in the air, waving it at Lance, completely oblivious to the huge wave about to break behind him.

“Keith!” Lance yells, “Keith, there’s—“

Before he can even finish his sentence, the wave hits Keith, knocking him over. It must flip him completely upside down because at one point, Lance can see his feet briefly stick out of the water. Just when Lance thinks he’ll have to go rescue his dumb boyfriend from drowning, Keith surfaces again, a shell-shocked look on his face.

“You know what,” Lance calls over to him, “I think that’s enough fetch for one day. Why don’t you come back to shore?”

“I can’t,” Keith calls back.

“What do you mean you can’t?”

“I can’t. I’m naked now.”

“What?!”

“The wave took my stupid trunks off!”

“Oh my god,” Lance has to bite his hand to keep from laughing too hard, “Hang on, I’ll get you an extra suit. Just stay there. okay?”

“Like I have a choice!”

Lance sprints back to the van and digs through his bags to retrieve an extra pair of red swim trunks. As he runs back to the shore, the others seem to have noticed Keith’s predicament.

“Keith, if you wanted to go skinny dipping so bad, you should have said something,” Shiro calls, between bouts of laughter.

“Don’t let the sharks bite you!” says Pidge, “You won’t be able to sit for weeks!”

Keith flips the bird in their direction.

“Don’t worry, Keith, I’ll save you!” says Lance as he bounds into the water, holding the swimsuit over his head. Kosmo, wound up from all the excitement, follows him into the water, barking and teleporting at random.

“Oh, sure,” Lance says to him, “now you want to chase stuff.”

He reaches Keith and tosses the suit to him and Keith ducks underwater briefly so he can shimmy into them. Once he’s decent again, Lance scoops him up in his arms and carries him back to shore.

“Is the princess carry really necessary?” says Keith, “I’m not injured or anything.”

“Keith, buddy, you’ve gotta let me exercise my god-given right to be as dramatic as possible. Besides, am I not allowed to cradle my own boyfriend?”

Keith snorts, “How the tables have turned.”

Krolia’s waiting for them on the shore with towels and a lecture for Keith to be more careful. As the sun begins to set, the others wade back to the beach and get dry. Hunk and Shiro find an old fire pit and build a bonfire. Lance, fully prepared for the possibility of any beach activity, brought plenty of food to be roasted. The group enjoys a delicious meal of hot dogs and s’mores. Soon, they are all full and beginning to feel drowsy, the especially satisfying kind of tired that comes from running around outside all day. It takes all the energy they have left to pack up their stuff and get it back into the car. At one point, Pidge actually falls asleep on her feet and has to be carried to the van by Shiro.

Eventually, Lance starts the car and makes the drive back to where they’re staying, this time with Krolia in the navigator’s seat, since she’s the only one among the group not in imminent danger of falling asleep. Lance can hear soft snoring coming from the backseat.

There’s something deeply satisfying, he thinks, about coming back to his old home and sharing it with his new family.

#voltron #vld #klance #shallura #lance #keith #allura #shiro #pidge #hunk #the gang's all here #my posts #my fanfictions

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spopz · 5 years

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hm. here's some kl

hey folks now that we’ve all said fuck canon and fuck s8 i decided to compile a couple of my fav klance fics for some better vibes! i’m including some classics so that i can Stress how Good they will make you feel, and some which are ones i don’t think i’ve seen recced too often but they’re def good quality! without further ado here we go :) putting most of them under the cut for the sake of length

✫ just come to me once by laallomri

Lance’s smile widens. He leans forward, and the prickling in Keith’s chest gives way to butterflies, fluttering wildly in his stomach, and oh wow has Lance always had this many freckles, has he always had eyelashes that long, has he—

Lance pokes his cheek, right over the Galra mark. Keith blinks.

“I can’t believe you and your mom have matching face tattoos now,” he says, and it’s so fucking dumb, but it’s exactly the kind of dumb thing Keith has longed to hear, and before he knows what he’s doing he’s surging forward, almost knocking Lance back against Red’s paw, and throwing his arms around him.

In which Keith lives on a space whale, goes on a road trip, and (eventually) gets a boyfriend.

[i have no doubt that this is already a classic or at least will be considered one soon enough, but it was finished recently and i can personally vouch for the softness, sweetness, and quality of this fic and the WRITER!! it’s just such a great feel-good piece and wonderfully written. 10/10 made me cry out of pure joy]

✫ speak for the stars by speaks

All Lance has ever wanted is to prove his worth. So, maybe it’s fitting that the Black Lion picked him right when Lotor betrayed them and Shiro’s clone went rogue. Right when the team was at its lowest and closest to failing.

The desire for glory that Lance grew up with—that drove him to join the Garrison and pursue fighter class, that drove him into his one-sided rivalry with Keith, that drove him after Keith in the Sonoran Desert and into Blue’s cockpit and into space and into the war in the first place—it’s a relic of the past for him now. All he wants these days is to keep his friends alive and the Coalition afloat, and he tries his best, despite the pervasive fear that he isn’t the right person for this monumental task. Despite the growing certainty that Black picked the wrong guy.

This fear will be put to the ultimate test when the mess that ensnares the team after the clone disaster turns out to be a labyrinth more winding than any of them were prepared for. Because Lance might just be the only person equipped to lead them through this maze and into the light.

[this fic. THIS FIC. if you were rightfully disappointed by the way characters were treated, especially in the later seasons, then PLEASE read this. everyone is done so much justice and the writing is top notch. had scenes and lines that just... took my breath away. also the writer has some excellent other fics too, which if you haven’t already read then you def should!]

✫ hey, mom, i met a boy by mothpoem

“Sweetheart,” says Lance, his hair longer, his shoulders broader, the slope of his nose uneven now where it didn’t used to be, “you don’t know the half of it.”

[i wish i was kidding but just reading the description alone invokes so much emotion in me?? my throat closed up just typing this ohhh my god every time i reread this— probably three times already bc i don’t want to wear it out— i absolutely lose my shit. teary smiles, the works. i will never shut up about this fic or this author. please read it]

✫ colours and planes, laser guns and champagne by skelebro

Shiro invites Hunk and Lance to his roleplaying campaign, and it's all fun and games except for how Lance is constantly on the verge of fighting the team warrior in real life.

[okay this one is 2016 era and it’s also a lot shorter but i read it and was like woah! you know. felt good. felt organic :) simple and fun and sweet]

✫ eternity (was in our lips and eyes) by thespacenico

Lance feels like he’s on the cusp of a life-changing revelation.

“I told him not to tell you.”

And this time, Keith doesn’t seem to have trouble asking the unavoidable question: “Why?”

Lance looks at Keith, and everything falls into place.

A life-changing, mind-blowing, head-splitting, earth-shattering revelation.

[okay this fic did me in it’s just really God Damn Good. also while i’m on the topic the author is writing an INSANELY cute klancemas series featuring the whole squad and if you want those soft holiday feels i’d highly recommend that too]

✫ you are the moon that breaks the night by talking_bird

"He looks up then and stares the beast right in the eyes—right in Lance’s eyes. Because in all the terror and fleeing, Keith forgot that part, that somewhere, underneath all that fur and teeth is Lance. Lance."

The simple truth is that Keith Kogane is in love with his childhood best friend, Lance McClain. It's a simple truth he plans to keep locked away until the day he dies, but that was before Lance survived a grisly animal attack. Now, a month later, Keith is resolved to confess.

But the full moon has other plans for them...

[admittedly i haven’t read this one yet but i’ve already heard good things and the tags themselves are just... Hell Yeah... i’ll probs update this w/ my personal thoughts but i’m super excited!! EDIT: IT WAS V GOOD!!!]

✫ it’s you that’s haunting me by perfchan

Keith is a loner; his interactions with others tend toward clumsy or strained, but he has a persistent enthusiasm for the paranormal. Lance is a recent college grad; caught up in his day-to-day, he wouldn’t call himself unhappy, but suddenly feels that his life lacks direction. When Lance is introduced to Keith’s ghost hunting videos, his interest is piqued and he can’t help but want to tag along. Initially opposed, Keith soon finds himself warming to the company of the living.

A little tongue-in-cheek, a little cliché, and a little bit of a slow burn. A not-too-serious ghost hunting AU.

[okay i’m so bad w/ anything paranormal but this was SO good and cute pls read]

✫ the expiation expedition by intelligentairhead, obstinaterixatrix

Lance is well aware that miscommunications can result in horrific, preferably avoidable mishaps, which is why he tries to circumvent them whenever possible.

It just figures that the state of an entire planet's fragile political climate rests on him running straight into one.

[okokokok i don’t see this one on many lists but it SHOULD be it’s got fake dating! lesbian aliens! politics! it’s really good i have to reread it soon ALSO check out both the writers!!]

#klance #klance fics #fic recs #voltron #vld #i have more classics/other lmk if you want recs!#also was gonna add a cute adashi one but decided 2 keep it kl focused #if u want that one tho i'll link it its p good :')#fics

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actress4him · 3 years

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Whumptober 2020 - Day 31

This is it! The very last post of Whumptober, and the long-awaited sequel to Day 8! If you're brand new to this whump party and haven't read it yet, you'll want to go back and do so before diving into this monstrosity. And when I say monstrosity I mean, it's looooooong. I wanted to do it justice and give you guys the ending you deserve, which...I'm hoping I pulled off. I'm not used to posting stuff so soon after writing it, without re-reading and editing over a period of time! Anyway, it wasn't one that I could easily just say, oh and they rescued him and put him in a pod and they lived happily ever after, because there was a whole bunch of emotional stuff everyone had to deal with, too. Thus the length, and the postponing of this post so I could actually finish it.

That said, this is actually more angst than it is whump, but hopefully there's enough whump to satisfy and hopefully it's a satisfying way to end the month. Enjoy!

Read on AO3

Read on FFN

Day 31 (No. 29 and Alt. 7) - Reluctant Bedrest/Found Family

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Warnings: fantastic racism, self-hatred, death mention, blood, referenced animal attack, fever, infection, hallucinations, needles, panic attacks, suicide ideation

It had been nearly a week since they abandoned Keith. Discarded him, like garbage. Dropped him off on some deserted planet like some people back on Earth used to drop off animals that they didn’t want to have to take care of.

Shiro had always hated those people. Now he was one of them.

Except worse, because this wasn’t a puppy they had dumped on the side of the road, this was a hu-...okay, well only partly a human being, but a person, nonetheless. The person that he had seen as the little brother he never had for the past several years that he had known him. The person that he had sworn, even if only internally, to look after, always.

And sure, it wasn’t like it was his idea, but he had still let it happen. Yeah, if he had tried to fight it, Allura probably would have locked him in his room and done it without him. But he should have fought anyway. He should have let them drag him away like they had Keith that day they found out he was part Galra. Maybe they would have thrown him in a cell, too. Maybe then he’d actually be able to look at himself in the mirror now.

They wouldn’t have, though. He was human. He was trustworthy.

So trustworthy that he had turned his back on his brother, all for the sake of Voltron and the universe.

That was the lie he had been telling himself, the one thing that had kept him from jumping in his Lion and going after Keith for days. The universe needed Voltron. Therefore, the universe needed him. He was the leader of Voltron, he couldn’t just abandon the rest of the team and disobey the Princess’ orders for the sake of one man. Being a defender of the universe meant having to make sacrifices and hard choices.

And maybe all of that was actually true, but it was only half the story. Keith needed him. As the leader of Voltron, he should be setting an example for the rest of the team to follow, and should be able to make decisions for the good of every team member without being threatened and overruled by the Princess. Being a decent person who could live with his own choices meant not going against his own promises and ideals.

He knew all of that. But both sides seemed true, and which side seemed more important changed by the second.

To top it all off, the team had practically fallen apart since leaving Borulmyte. Not only were they down a Paladin, unable to form Voltron, but hardly anyone was speaking to each other unless forced. Allura was sulking because her father’s Lion wouldn’t accept her. Hunk, who had never seemed all that happy with the idea of kicking Keith out, seemed depressed. Pidge had pretty much locked herself in her room, he assumed furiously searching for any sign of her family. Lance was, as always, hard to get a read on, but he was noticeably quiet and stoic whenever he happened to appear. Coran had barely spoken a word the whole week.

And Shiro? He couldn’t stand to be around any of them. They were the ones who had done this to Keith. Sure, a couple had made weak arguments on his behalf at the beginning, but in the end they had all caved to Allura’s wishes and turned on him. He blamed them just as much as he blamed himself for sitting here in the comfort of the Castle while Keith...who even knew? At the very least he was alone and probably scared, even though he’d never admit that. At the worst, he could be struggling to survive, dying at that very moment, and none of them would ever know.

Whichever it was, he didn’t deserve it.

Coran had called a meeting on the bridge for something he said was urgent. It was probably another distress call, though the last one - the only mission they had attempted that week - had gone so terribly that Shiro wasn’t sure if they should even bother trying again. Running a smooth, successful mission is awfully difficult when no one wants to speak to each other, much less work in sync.

Usually he was the first one to arrive for meetings like this. Well, except for maybe Keith, but that wasn’t a thought he wanted to dwell on right then. This time, when he finally dragged himself to the bridge, the others were all already there, though none of them looked happy about it. Unlike in the past, when he always tried to keep up everyone’s morale by being focused and enthusiastic himself, no matter how he actually felt, now he didn’t bother. Crossing his arms, he let his face rest in exactly the scowl he was feeling.

“What is this about, Coran?”

“Yes, I would like to know as well.” Allura’s brow was furrowed, clearly not happy at being left out of the loop.

The orange-haired adviser wrung his hands, staring down at the floor. “Well, it’s...this is difficult to say. But…” Drawing in a deep breath that puffed out his chest, he finally looked up, catching each of their gazes. “I’ve been keeping something from you. It’s about Number F-...Keith. It’s about Keith.”

Keith’s name had practically become forbidden, so of course it automatically caught everyone’s attention. Shiro unfolded his arms and stepped forward. “What about Keith?” he demanded.

Coran’s eyes darted back to the floor. “He gave us messages to pass on to each of you. Before we left Borulmyte.”

“Coran!” Allura hissed.

“No, Princess.” The response took everyone in the room by surprise, including Allura if the expression on her face was any indication. None of them had ever heard Coran speak that way to her, especially not to tell her no. He took another breath and seemed to steel himself. “You know that I have always served the royal family willingly, and that I see you like a daughter. I would follow you anywhere. However...you are still young. A great burden has been placed on your shoulders, and you have done extraordinarily well with it. But sometimes you make mistakes, and this, my dear...this has been a grave mistake.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that we never should have left the boy behind. Galra or not, he has never proven himself anything but the most loyal of paladins, and yet we have punished him for a crime he did not commit.”

Shiro was torn between feeling relief that someone besides him was saying it, and anger that it hadn’t been said sooner. “Why didn’t you speak up when I was trying to convince them all of this same thing days ago?”

Coran flashed him a guilty expression. “Because I was too much of a coward. I didn’t want to speak against my Princess, even though I knew what she was doing was wrong.” Squaring his shoulders, he looked around at the other paladins again. “But regardless of what anyone else thinks or decides, I can do this. I can fulfill the boys’ last request before he was left behind.”

Something in Shiro’s gut twisted at that statement, and he could see some shuffling of feet and shifting of positions around him that pointed to the others feeling the same way. No one liked to be reminded of what they had done.

“Fine,” Allura finally spat. “Do what you must to clear your conscience.” She crossed her arms and leaned back against the console with a huff.

“First to Number Two...Hunk.” Coran gave the Yellow Paladin a gentle smile. “He wanted you to know that he would miss your cooking, especially the brownies you made for him.”

That was all it took for Hunk to start crying, though he said nothing in reply.

“Lance, he said to tell you that he never hated you, that you annoyed him sometimes but were a good friend, too.”

If Shiro hadn’t been intently watching, he might have missed the way Lance’s eyes widened before he ducked his head and scuffed his sneaker into the floor.

“Pidge, your message was that he really, really hopes you find your family. And that he kept meaning to tell you he thinks you’re doing great with your bayard.”

Her eyebrows pulled in tight at the first part, but at the second she blinked as if surprised and looked away.

“And besides his message to the Red Lion that he would miss her, and to us, thanking us for the opportunity to fly her…” He turned to stare at Allura for that, and she couldn’t hold his gaze, either… “That leaves you, Shiro.”

The other messages had already left him ripped open, so he wasn’t really sure how he was supposed to handle one meant just for him.

Coran lips pursed into a sad smile. “‘Just tell him I love him.’”

He felt as if all the walls came crashing down on him all at once. He loved him. Of course he did, he knew he did, they had always treated each other like brothers. But he had never said it. And now he had, and it was after Shiro had allowed him to be kicked out of the place they had all come to see as a home.

Spinning on his heel, he marched toward the door without a word.

“Shiro, wait, where are you going?”

If it had been any of the others, he might have just ignored them. But it was Hunk, so he at least threw the answer over his shoulder. “I’m going to get Keith.”

“Shiro -!”

“No!” This time he whirled around, sending all of his fury in a glare toward Allura. “I’m done letting you tell me how I should treat my little brother! I am going to get Keith, not the Galra, but our friend, the Red Paladin, the strongest and bravest and most loyal person I know, and no one is going to stop me! If you don’t want us back here, fine. I don’t care. Find yourself new Red and Black Paladins. But I won’t leave him down there a second longer.”

It was unclear whether Allura even knew what to say to that, but before she had the chance Hunk piped up again. “I’m coming with you! Erm, if...that’s okay.”

Shiro spared him a small smile. “Of course it is.”

No one said anything as they left the room. Hunk jogged a little to catch up to Shiro’s long, quick strides before matching his pace.

“I was a coward, too, like Coran said. Which, you know, isn’t really anything new, just...me being a coward isn’t usually at the expense of one of my friends. I was scared, to start with. Of him being, you know. Galra. But that’s stupid, really. Galra Keith is still Keith.”

“Yeah. He is.” He just hoped he was still Keith, still whole and well and not irrevocably changed, when they got to him. “I was just as much of a coward as anyone else, or more. I let the duty I felt to Voltron and the universe get in the way of the way I actually wanted to act. I should have gone after him right away.”

Hunk hummed in understanding. “Well, at least you actually stood up for him.”

They stopped off in their rooms to change into armor, then headed for Black and Yellow’s hangars. The long way, since they didn’t want to risk going back to the bridge and running into everyone else. Shiro had debated whether or not he should take Black, or just a pod, but decided that even if Allura wouldn’t let them stay, returning Black would give everyone a good chance to see Keith again and really make sure they wouldn’t change their minds.

“Since we don’t have a wormhole, it’s gonna take us a while to get there,” he told Hunk over the comms once they were situated in their Lions and starting to take off.

“I don’t mind. Just...how are we gonna find him once we’re there? I mean, he could have traveled a ways from where we...you know, left him.”

“I can track his quintessence.” The new voice took him by surprise, but not nearly as much as spinning around to find Green and Blue hovering over the Castle. “But I’ll have to be pretty close to him first. So we’ll still have to fly around for a while to try to catch a signal, then we’ll be able to narrow it down to a smaller area.”

Shiro was too shocked by their appearance to come up with a reasonable response, so he just ended up echoing, “We?”

Lance’s solemn face popped up on a video screen in front of him, followed by another with Pidge’s. “Yeah, we,” he said, mouth set in a firm line. “We’ve been stupid, and we wanna fix it. If...if we can.”

Clenching his jaw, Shiro sighed. “That’ll be up to Keith, I suppose. What kind of shape he’s in, and...whether he’ll forgive us.”

“We don’t really deserve it,” Pidge mumbled.

“No, we don’t. But let’s go ask for it anyway.”

They talked a little as they flew. It was quiet, and a bit awkward, but it was more than they had talked all week. Lance admitted that he had been having doubts ever since they left, memories of time spent with Keith haunting his thoughts. The message had just sealed the deal.

Pidge shrugged when asked about her change of heart, and quietly conceded that she didn’t think she had ever really believed he was a bad guy. She was just hurting, and he had been the perfect target to take it out on. Her desperation to find her family had blinded her.

They were several hours into a trip that Hunk calculated would take a few days when a wormhole appeared in front of them, seemingly out of nowhere. Every Lion pulled up short, exclamations of surprise echoing across the comms.

Shiro jerked his Lion around to find the Castle looming behind them. His immediate thought was that Coran had somehow taken over and caught up with them, but Coran couldn’t make wormholes.

“...Allura?”

Her voice over the comms was more tentative than he thought he had ever heard it. “I have not yet decided to trust him. But I...I have seen how passionate all of you are about this, and I am...willing to reconsider my original stance.”

It wasn’t what he wanted to hear, but it was more than he had expected. He’d take it.

“Alright guys. Let’s go bring our boy home.”

The sight of the planet Borulmyte made Shiro’s stomach turn a flip. This was it. This was the place where Keith had been living for the past week. He couldn’t even imagine what it had been like for him. Allura and Pidge had done extensive research on multiple planets before deciding that this was the best one, and they had had plenty of “reassuring” things to say about it. He had always wondered, though, what they weren’t saying. Or what their research hadn’t turned up. There was no way that they could have known everything there was to know about a planet just from reading about it. “Livable conditions” didn’t mean enjoyable conditions.

“Coran and I will stay here with the Castle. Keep us updated.”

Shiro gave a nod. “Pidge, how close do you need to be to pick up Keith’s quintessence?”

“Within a few miles.”

“Alright. We’ll start at the drop off point. I’m gonna guess he would have headed east, into the forest, to find shelter.” That was the one reassurance he had about the whole situation, knowing that Keith was trained in survival skills. “We’ll head there first, and take it mile by mile.”

It took them the rest of the day. Only a fraction of that time had passed when Shiro started to run every possible horrible scenario through his mind of why they weren’t finding it, even though he knew that they probably just hadn’t hit the right spot yet.

“There!” Pidge shouted. “I’ve got it!”

Relief flooded Shiro down to his toes. “Alright. Mark this location. We’ll have to go land in the desert and fly back in the Green Lion. She’s the only one small enough to fit in that little clearing over there.

The little clearing, as it turned out, was around a creek that seemed to be clear and safe. His relief grew just a little more. If Keith had managed to end up this close to a water source, then maybe he was doing okay.

“Okay, Pidge. Lead the way.”

Hiking through the woods took almost another full day. A day in which the sun never actually rose. He hadn’t paid attention to start with, when they were still flying, because constant darkness outside had become the new norm, but now that they were on solid ground it was painfully obvious that they had yet to see light this entire time. And the temperature gauge on his helmet display was much lower than he wanted it to be. Livable? Yes. Comfortable without armor? No. He wanted to interrogate Allura and Pidge on whether they knew about this when they had chosen to send Keith to this planet, but it wasn’t the time. He had to focus on finding Keith, nothing else.

After hours and hours of walking by only the flashlights built into their helmets, during which time no one, not even Lance, dared to complain, there was finally a spike on Pidge’s quintessence tracker.

“Over here!” she shouted, taking off at a sprint through the underbrush.

The others followed, swatting branches and bushes out of their way. Any second, Shiro expected to run into Keith. Maybe sitting in whatever hideout he had found, or out hunting for food in the never-ending darkness, his eyebrows flying up in surprise when he saw them all rushing in.

Instead, when he stumbled to a halt beside Pidge, she was staring at the ground, and there was no Keith in sight.

“Pidge? What is it?”

Lifting a shaky finger, she pointed. Even before he looked, Shiro could feel his chest tightening with anxiety. And for good reason, too. The stain that was illuminated on the dirt and leaves was dried, at least a couple of days old, but it was undeniably blood. It was also concerningly large, and with the quintessence tracker crackling louder than they had heard it so far, there was no getting around the fact that it belonged to Keith.

Hunk immediately began babbling his worries, but Shiro’s heart was pounding too loudly in his ears for him to comprehend what he was actually saying. For a long moment he just stared at the bloodstain. It wasn’t until Lance stepped in closer to speak that he was broken out of his trance.

“Shiro? Do you think he’s…”

“No.” Yes. He didn’t know. It was a lot of blood. But he wouldn’t allow himself to believe that Keith was anything but okay until he saw him with his own eyes. “Pidge, is there a trail?”

She tore her eyes away to look at the screen, pacing back and forth a bit before nodding wordlessly and taking off through the bush. If her steps were a bit quicker now, no one blamed her. They just picked up their pace, too, solemn and silent other than Lance quietly updating Allura and Coran on what they had found.

Every once in a while, a small patch of dark red on a leaf or tree trunk would catch Shiro’s eye. He tried to take it as a good sign. If Keith had been able to pick himself up from whatever had happened and trek through the woods, then maybe he wasn’t too bad off. At the time. Two or more days later? It was impossible to say.

The walk from there only took a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity. Finally, finally, he spotted a small cave over the top of Pidge’s head, just as the tracker grew in volume and Pidge broke into a run.

“Keith? Keith!”

He was right on her heels, barreling through the opening, terrified of what he would find. And what he did see was almost exactly what he had feared - Keith, his skin far too pale under their flashlights, lying completely still on the ground next to the cold, charred remains of a campfire. There were rough slashes in his t-shirt, through which bloody scabs could be seen, and his right leg was almost entirely wrapped in large blue leaves tied off with what looked like dried grass. It didn’t take much guesswork to figure out that the sporadic dark stains on the leaves were blood.

“Keith.” Shiro was by his side without really knowing how he got there, sliding down onto his knees next to the unmoving figure. “No, no, no, no, Keith, come on, don’t do this to me.” He carded his hand through the messy black hair. “Keith, please.”

Pale lips parted, and a groan spilled out. Shiro nearly fell over with relief. Somewhere behind him, Lance was exclaiming his own relief in Spanish, while Hunk hovered just over his shoulder. Keith’s forehead, which he now noticed was coated in a sheen of sweat, furrowed, and he turned his head slightly to face Shiro before squinting his eyes open.

“Go ‘way,” he rasped, taking all of them by surprise. “‘re not real.”

“Yeah, yeah we are, buddy.” He stroked his hair again, then yanked off his glove so he could lay his flesh hand against his cheek, trying not to wince at the heat that met his touch. A fever. Whatever that wound was on his leg, it had probably gotten infected. No wonder he didn’t think they were real. “Doesn’t this feel real?”

Keith seemed to consider this, his brain probably having to work twice as hard as usual to process anything. Finally there was what seemed to be acceptance in those glazed eyes, but instead of seeming happy or confused or surprised or any of the emotions that they might have expected, he simply let his head roll back to the side and closed his eyes. “Come to...finish me off?”

“What? Keith, no, why would you think that?” Hunk exclaimed, dropping down right next to Shiro. “We came to take you home.”

“We’ve, uh...we were really terrible to you. It was really, really wrong,” Lance joined in.

Pidge shuffled her feet awkwardly. “Yeah. We, um. We want you to come back.”

“Even Allura is willing to reconsider, but whatever she decides, we're getting you out of here.” Shiro took one of Keith’s hands in his own and squeezed. “I never should have let her dictate how you were treated to start with.”

Silence fell for a moment. Keith cut his eyes up toward Shiro, not moving his head. “Knew you weren’t real.”

Pidge gave an exasperated grunt. “Keith -”

“Don’t worry about it right now.” Sliding his glove back on, Shiro straightened and got ready to pick Keith up bridal style. “He’s burning up with an infection. We’ll have to talk to him later, once he can actually comprehend what’s going on. For now let’s just get him back to the Castle and into a pod.”

Shiro scooped Keith up gently into his arms, causing him to cry out when his leg was jostled. “I’m sorry, bud,” he whispered. “You’re gonna be okay.” He didn’t at all like how light he felt, nor how gaunt his face looked. It had only been a week, but it didn’t seem like he had eaten much in that time.

Now that they knew where they were going, the walk back to the Green Lion went by quickly. Pidge flew them back to their own Lions, with Hunk and Lance towing Black to the Castle so that Shiro could stay in Green’s cargo hold with Keith. He didn’t want to let him go, couldn’t even keep his eyes off of him. He was too afraid that if he looked away, he would be gone, would succumb to his infection or perhaps just vanish into thin air. In the better lighting of the Lion, Keith looked all the more pale and feverish, his breaths coming shallow as he mumbled unintelligible words and occasionally whimpered with pain.

“What kind of injuries are we dealing with here, Number One?”

Shiro barely remembered arriving at the Castle and exiting the Green Lion, but there he was, standing next to Coran and a stretcher. Tenderly, he settled Keith down onto the padded surface. “Not sure. Maybe an animal attack of some kind? I haven’t been able to get a look at his wounds yet. He’s got a fever for sure, though, so they’re probably infected.”

Coran’s face turned grim. “That’s unfortunate. We won’t be able to put him into cryosleep until his temperature is back to normal.”

Gritting his teeth, Shiro found Keith’s hand and held it as they walked toward the infirmary. Poor kid just couldn’t catch a break. He didn’t deserve any of this. And now it sounded like when he was back to himself, they were going to have to go back through a whole three years’ worth of self-esteem boosting...maybe even more. He let out a long sigh. It seemed like he had just finally convinced Keith that he was worth loving, that he was important, that not everyone in his life was going to abandon him.

Then he sat back and let everyone in his life abandon him.

Coran sucked in a loud breath through his teeth as he peeled back the crude leaf bandages. “Yes, this is most certainly infected. And I would say that your animal attack hypothesis is correct. These look mostly like tooth marks. Quite deep.”

It looked mostly like a mangled, bloody mess to Shiro. His stomach turned, not just from the smell of the infection, and he was glad that Hunk wasn’t there at the moment. “What do we need to do?”

“Well, I’ll need to clean these. You might want to hold him down for that part.”

Keith bucked and writhed under Shiro’s hands as Coran poured antiseptic over his leg, screaming in agony. Shiro was pretty sure his heart was permanently residing in his throat now. He whispered reassurances, hardly knowing what he was saying, well aware that Keith probably couldn’t hear or comprehend any of it.

After a thorough cleaning, Coran wrapped the leg in clean bandages and pulled a thin sheet up over his waist. Shiro sank into the bedside chair, relieved beyond words that the worst part was over. They spoke very little as they went about the rest of the work that needed to be done, Coran handing Shiro the antiseptic and a clean cloth so that he could work on the claw marks across Keith’s chest, then focusing himself on preparing an IV bag of antibiotics and nutrients. Shiro gently smoothed adhesive bandages over the cuts when he was done. When he looked up, Coran was sliding the IV into place in the back of Keith’s hand.

“That should do it for now. I’m going to get a cool, wet cloth to help bring his fever down, but he should recover just fine.”

It was only then that Shiro finally allowed himself to dissolve into tears, like he had been wanting to ever since finding Keith in that cave. Burying his face in his hands, he let the tears soak his cheeks and the sobs wrack his body, uncaring for once that someone was there to see him fall apart.

A sturdy hand landed on his back, rubbing soothing circles. “There, there, lad. I know it’s been a rough few quintants, but it’ll be alright.”

“Will it?” Shiro scrubbed at his face with his flesh hand. “You should have seen him, Coran. I don’t know if he’ll ever be able to trust any of us again.”

The adviser heaved a sigh. “I don’t know, either. I’m not sure if I would be able to trust us, if the roles were reversed. But perhaps, with time, we’ll be able to prove to him that we do, indeed, care for him.”

Once Shiro had cried himself out, Coran convinced him to go change out of his armor and possibly get something to eat. He was surprised to find all three of the other paladins sprawled out on the floor just outside the infirmary, remnants of snacks scattered around them and expectant looks on their faces.

“Well? Is he...okay?” Pidge asked tentatively.

Shiro sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Physically, it seems so. He’s stable for now, at least, and Coran thinks he’ll be fine. We just have to make sure his fever doesn’t get too high.”

They all nodded slowly, seeming lost in thought. He imagined they were all thinking about the “other than physically” part that he had failed to comment on.

Hunk cleared his throat. “Is he awake?”

He shook his head. “He’s been in and out, but he’s resting pretty peacefully for now.”

“We didn’t want to, you know, be in the way,” Lance supplied. “But you can let us know when it’s okay for us to see him. Or we can take turns watching out for him.”

“Alright. I’ll let you know.” Right now he couldn’t imagine leaving his side, not for longer than he was doing right now. As he started down the hall again toward his quarters, he met another unexpected presence - Allura, lurking just around the corner from where the paladins sat, looking abnormally anxious. He stopped abruptly, not sure he was ready to see her again yet.

“I heard your update,” she stated after a moment of awkward silence. When Shiro said nothing in return, she pursed her lips. “I suppose we have some more discussions ahead of us now.”

“No. We don’t.” Allura’s eyebrows flew up in surprise, but he didn’t give her time to respond. “There’s nothing to discuss. Either you accept Keith back as the Red Paladin...and treat him just as well as the other paladins, or he and I leave. Whether or not the others stay is up to them.”

Allura’s brow furrowed, and she dropped her gaze to the floor with nothing else to say. Pushing past her, Shiro continued to his room, hurrying through changing so he could be back with Keith.

.o.0.O.0.o.

They would tell Keith later that he had been out of it for around two days before the fever broke. All he knew was that he woke up in the infirmary of the Castle with no memory of how he had gotten there, and assumed he must have been hallucinating again. He was actually a bit surprised that the wounds from that death beast hadn’t killed him yet...or maybe they had. Maybe this was some sort of purgatory or something, though the infirmary seemed like a strange choice.

It made a bit more sense when he turned his head to the right and saw Coran sitting there studying him. Seemed maybe he was going to have to face people he had failed in life before he could move on to whatever came next.

“Are you with us this time, my boy?”

Wrinkling his eyebrows at the strange question, Keith licked his dry lips with an equally dry tongue and tried to come up with something to say, but all that came out was a raspy, “What?”

Immediately Coran went into action, producing a hydration pack from somewhere nearby and holding the straw up to Keith’s lips. The cool liquid hit his throat like a slice of heaven, and he gulped greedily.

“Not too fast, now. Don’t want you making yourself sick.”

Keith nearly whined when the straw was pulled away, but he could already feel the liquid sloshing around inside of him, so it was probably for the best. Clearing his throat, he decided he could try talking again. “What am I doing here?”

“You were in pretty bad shape when the others found you. Something had torn your leg all up, and it had gotten infected. We couldn’t put you in a cryopod until your fever went down, which it seems it now has.”

His eyes darted around the cavernous white room. “So...this is real?”

The corner of Coran’s mouth tilted up. “Yes. It’s real.”

He had kinda suspected after the water. But that left one major question…“Why?”

Before Coran could respond, the door slid open, and Keith turned his head to see Shiro enter the room. The sight of his surrogate brother had him torn between happiness and a strange sense of dread, leaving him to clench the sheets in his fists and wait for some kind of reaction to come. Half of him expected it to be disgust, or anger, or maybe just an apathetic announcement of what his new punishment for existing was to be.

Instead, Shiro’s face lit up with a happy, almost hopeful expression. “Keith?”

“Wait, is Keith awake?” another voice called from the hallway behind him. Lance’s head poked through the doorway, making Keith’s stomach clench, before he turned and yelled back down the hall. “Hey guys, Keith’s awake!”

All at once the infirmary was filled with almost all the people who hated him, all crowding around his bed and staring down at him with faces he couldn’t read. They were going to hurt him. He knew they would, why else would they have brought him back here? Obviously they had changed their minds and decided they had been too lenient. What were they going to do to him? How much pain would he be in now?

He couldn’t breathe. Suddenly it felt like that beast was sitting on top of him again, crushing his chest, and he struggled to draw in air through an open mouth while tears stung his eyes. His hands shook where they were still gripping the sheets. People were talking, but it sounded as if his ears were stuffed full of cotton and he couldn’t make out any of the words.

He almost didn’t notice when the crowd above him dispersed, but it did help his breaths start to come a little easier. Only there was still Shiro, and he still didn’t know where Shiro stood on any of this. The Black Paladin sat down next to the bed and tried to grasp his hand. Keith yanked it away.

“Don’t...don’t.”

“Okay. I won’t touch you. Do you know where you are?”

Of course he knew, that was the whole problem. “Yes.”

“Okay. You’re safe now, Keith.”

Safe. Yeah, right. There was no such thing as safe, not anymore. He had thought the Castle was safe, that these people were safe, but he had been wrong. “Why?”

Shiro looked at him in mild confusion before choosing what to say. “We made a mistake, leaving you there. We -”

Keith rolled away, tucking his hands up next to his chest, cringing at the pain that still radiated through his leg. He didn’t want to hear it explained, how they wanted to punish him further. Yet at the same time, he needed to know what was coming.

“Keith…”

“Now?”

It had been a long time since Shiro had needed to interpret his one word sentences, but luckily it seemed he was still good at it. “Now you keep resting and getting better until we can put you in a pod for your leg.”

“Why?”

That one seemed to give him pause. “So...you’ll be well.”

Were they really going to prolong the torture like this? Make him get well before they did away with him? He curled up tighter. “Just...kill. Now.”

“Kill? Keith -”

“Please.”

The chair scraped across the floor, and Keith flinched. Footsteps came around the bed. He tensed, waiting for the blow. The air in front of his face stirred, and Shiro’s voice came from very close.

“Keith, can you look at me, please?” When he didn’t comply, Shiro put a hand on his fists and pulled them down so that they were face to face. “No one is going to kill you. No one is going to hurt you. You’re back on the Castle because we were wrong. They were wrong about you being untrustworthy, and I was wrong about my duty to Voltron being more important than my duty to you. I’m so, so sorry that I let them kick you out, and that I didn’t come after you sooner. You will always be more important to me than the rest of the universe. You’re my brother. I love you.”

Tears welled up in Keith’s eyes despite his reluctance to believe any of it. Tugging his hands out from under Shiro’s, he covered his face again, unable to respond.

Shiro let out a long, quiet sigh. “The others want to apologize, too, at some point. But for now you should try to get some more rest. You’re still recovering from the infection.”

He didn’t want to sleep. He didn’t trust that he wouldn’t be messed with while he was asleep. But his body decided for him that it was ready, drifting off without his permission.

.o.0.O.0.o.

Keith hadn’t really improved by the next couple of days. He slept some, he ate some, and his color and temperature seemed to be returning to normal. But he regarded everyone who came into the room with the wary stare of a cornered wild animal, and he still wasn’t speaking more than one or two words at a time, if that. Just as Shiro had feared, he had reverted back to the year that they had met, except worse.

He tried to spend as much time in the infirmary with him as he could, hoping that the company would eventually coax him into relaxing. The other paladins still hadn’t gotten their chance to talk to him. Everyone, including Shiro, was afraid their presence would trigger another panic attack. He had already nearly gone into one when Hunk had delivered his breakfast that morning, and had been extra jumpy around Coran, too.

Shiro was eating his own breakfast, trying not to focus too much on the fact that Keith’s was just sitting there untouched, when he heard a telltale sniffle. Keith was sitting up, propped on some pillows against the wall, but his head was turned away from Shiro, as was pretty common. Even so, he could see the shimmer of a tear as it streaked down his face. Setting aside his bowl, he rounded the bed and settled down on the edge, expecting the flinch that followed but still hating it.

“Talk to me, Keith.”

He didn’t expect a response at all, and especially not a long one. But Keith angrily dashed the tears away, forever hating himself for ever crying, and spoke in a hoarse whisper. “Why didn’t you just leave me there?”

Shiro’s eyes widened. “What? Why?”

“I was almost dead. It would have all been over. You should have just left me there.”

Heart aching, he scooted in closer, though Keith leaned even further back away from him. “Keith, no. We don’t want you dead. We want you here, alive and well, with us. If you died, I...I thought you were dead, when I first saw you. And it was like...it was like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. I don’t know if I could survive it.”

Keith’s face, passive up until then, creased with a look of emotional pain that Shiro could hardly stand. “But why should I live? I’m...I’m Galra, Shiro. I’m one of them. But not even really Galra, just some cross-breed freak of nature. I never should have existed. Maybe that’s why my mother walked out on me, she knew I was a freak and she couldn’t stand to -”

“Stop it. Keith, stop.” He grabbed his shoulder and shook it, not caring at the moment whether it startled him. “Don’t talk about yourself like that. You are not defined by who your parents or grandparents or anyone else were. You are you. You are Keith Kogane, Red Paladin of Voltron, best pilot at the Galaxy Garrison. You’re a survivor. You’re a fighter. Not because you have Galra blood, but because the universe has thrown every hard thing that it could think of at you and you’re still standing strong.”

“I’m not standing strong, don’t you see me?” Keith met his eyes finally, a tiny bit of his old spark of anger visible. “I’m pathetic. Maybe I was the Red Paladin, maybe I was a survivor and a fighter, but right now I don’t think I can be any of those things. I don’t want to fight anymore, Shiro. I’m tired of surviving. I just want…” He broke down into tears again, covering his face with his hands.

Moving over closer, Shiro wrapped his arms around his brother and pulled him in tight. “You want what?”

Keith’s shoulders shuddered beneath him. “I don’t want to be here. I don’t trust any of them. I can’t trust any of them.”

“I know.”

For a long time, they sat together like that, Keith’s face buried in Shiro’s chest while he cried out all his tears. Shiro ran his fingers through his hair, trying desperately to come with anything he could say to comfort him.

“Do you think you could listen to them, if they come and talk to you? Just one at a time, not everyone at once. I know they’re really anxious to speak to you, and I think it might do you some good, too.” Or at least he hoped.

It took him a minute to answer. “I don’t know.”

“Okay. Well, it doesn’t have to be now. But I’d like you to consider it.”

Keith just nodded.

.o.0.O.0.o.

He had been in bed for days. The infection was all but gone, there was no longer any danger in putting him in a pod, and doing so had been brought up a couple of times. But Shiro and Coran must have noticed how he shrank into himself every time it was mentioned, because they dropped the subject and just continued to let him stay there.

He didn’t want to go in a pod. Being forced unconscious for who knew how many hours or days was just too vulnerable, and he already felt that way far too much, anyway. After all, he was stuck in bed in the middle of a ship full of people who hated him. He was pretty confident that Shiro would try his best to protect him, and Coran might, too. The Altean had taken the time to sit down and apologize to him for his role in the whole mess, and based on the way he had been treating him Keith was fairly sure he could be trusted.

But that left four others, all who had weapons, one of whom had some kind of weird magic and was literally connected to the Castle. He didn’t feel safe, and he hated it. There hadn’t been many places in his life that he had been able to truly let down his guard and feel safe. A foster home or two, though later on he had become so jaded that even the good ones didn’t feel like they would last. The Garrison to some extent, at least as long as Shiro was there.

And the Castle. Yeah, there was always the chance of an attack, and there had been the couple of times that someone had snuck on board without them knowing. But in all of those situations he had known that there were people around who had his back, people that he could count on. It was the most at home he had felt since Shiro had left for Kerberos.

Now it was those very same people that he was afraid of, as stupid and weak as that made him. The thought was almost laughable. Him? Afraid of Lance, Hunk, and Pidge? But he couldn’t get the hatred he had seen in some of their eyes out of his head. Couldn’t forget the venom in their voices. Couldn’t erase all the times he had watched them, hallucinations or not, show up in that cave with insults on their lips and weapons in their hands, ready to make him pay for the crime of being part Galra.

He didn’t want to talk to them. But he knew that Shiro really wanted him to, and that meant he would have to do it sooner or later. Maybe if he went ahead and got it over with, they’d leave him alone more, and then when his leg was healed enough that he could actually walk it’d be easier to leave. He hadn’t figured out where he was going - definitely not back to Borulmyte - or how he’d get there, but leaving was the best option for everybody.

“Will you...stay? If I let them…”

Once again, Shiro knew exactly what he was talking about, despite the question being out of the blue. “Of course. I’ll be right here with you the whole time.”

Sinking back into the pillows, Keith hugged himself. “Okay.”

Shiro smiled softly. “Okay. I’ll send them a message and let them know you’re ready.”

Hunk was the first to come in. He burst into tears pretty much as soon as he walked through the door and saw Keith, and cried so much the whole time that his many, many apologies could barely be understood. It made Keith uncomfortable, if he was honest. He had never known how to deal with tears, his own or anyone else’s. But Hunk was so obviously genuine and straightforward, and he had always had a hard time believing that there was any part of such a loving person that could have held such malice.

“I get it.” It took everything in him to force multiple words out, but he knew he had to this time. “It’s hard to...stand up. When...everyone else...disagrees. It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not okay, it’s so not okay!” Hunk blubbered. “I don’t know if it would have done any good for me to say anything or not, but I still should have done it.”

Keith nodded. “Okay. You’re right. It wasn’t okay. But…” He took a deep breath. “I forgive you.”

The way Hunk’s face lit up was totally worth the difficulty of saying the words. “Really, man? Thank you. Like, really, thank you, you don’t know how happy that makes me. I know we’ve never been, like, the best of friends, but I’ve always really wanted to get to know you better, I mean if you’d be okay with that, it’s totally up to you, but maybe sometime when you’re feeling better we can like, hang out? Also I know you haven’t been eating much right now but I am definitely making you brownies when you feel up to eating them. Like, a ton of brownies. All the brownies I can possibly make. Hey, maybe you could help me make the brownies! Cooking is such a good way to bond, I can’t believe I haven’t thought of it before! What do you think, does that sound okay? Or I mean, if you really don’t want to hang out with me at all, I totally understand that, too, I just -”

“Hunk.” Keith’s lips twitched upward slightly as the breathless Yellow Paladin finally screeched to a halt. “Yeah. Sounds good.”

Hunk beamed. “Great! Okay, I’m gonna like, go, and let somebody else come in here, ‘cause, yeah. Feel better, Keith!”

When the room was empty again, Shiro leaned over and squeezed his hand. “How do you feel?”

“Good.” He was surprised to find it was actually pretty true. A small burden had been lifted from his chest.

“Good. You ready for Lance or Pidge?”

Keith’s heart started beating double time again. “Lance.” Even though he had been more active in the process of his condemnation, Pidge’s response had hurt the worst.

The boy that came into the infirmary wasn’t the Lance that Keith knew. He couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off the floor, or his hands, or anything but Keith and Shiro, and when he spoke his voice was so soft it was barely audible.

“I don’t know why I did it.” He picked at a loose thread on his jeans. “I just get...so emotional, so caught up in the moment sometimes...I’m really just as much of a hothead as you are.”

If his demeanor and apology hadn’t caught Keith’s attention, that statement did. Lance, admitting he was as bad as Keith at something? “Thought that was because...I’m Galra.”

Lance’s face pinched. “Yeah. I said some pretty stupid things. I mean…” He shrugged. “Who knows, maybe it is because you’re Galra. But still, it’s...you’re just you. And that’s okay. Maybe we don’t always get along, but I don’t really think you’re evil. I mean, I guess I kinda thought you could be. It was stupid, though. I’m an idiot, that’s what I’m getting at. There’s no real explanation, just...I’m sorry, like I said.”

Part of Keith wanted to accept that. Part of him didn’t think he could. “I...thanks. For apologizing. I think...maybe I can forgive you...soon? Maybe not yet. But, yeah. Soon.”

Lance nodded. “That’s fair. I didn’t really expect you to, like, at all, so…” He finally flicked his eyes up to meet Keith’s. “I think you and I could use to work on some things, anyway. Like, you know, not acting like we hate each other. Because I don’t. Hate you, that is. And I’m...pretty sure based on what Coran said that you don’t hate me, either.”

“No. I don’t. And yeah, that...that sounds good.”

“Okay. Good.” A brief smile flashed over his face, then he nodded again and excused himself.

“You still doing okay?”

Keith pressed his lips together. “Think so. I’m nervous, though. About Pidge.”

Shiro smiled sympathetically. “I know. Just give her a chance, ‘kay?”

Pidge shuffled into the room in a very similar fashion to Lance, eyes on the floor. She perched on the very edge of the chair that each paladin had occupied, kicking her feet back and forth since they didn’t quite touch the floor. In a low voice, she said her apology and explained that she had let her hurt over her family get the best of her, but insisted that it didn’t excuse her blaming him.

It took a moment longer than the others for him to find his words. “I remember what it was like...missing somebody. Believing that they were still out there, but not knowing for sure. I mean, it wasn’t my actual family...unless you count my mom, which...at least I knew she chose to leave. So, she’s...probably fine.” Just didn’t want him. “But Shiro is the closest thing I’ve had to family since...since my Pops. And it’s hard. I mean, I kinda went ballistic, broke into a commanding officer’s office, punched a bunch of other officers, and got kicked out of the Garrison.”

“You what?” Shiro broke in, sitting forward, then realized his interruption and sat back, waving a hand. “Never mind. Sorry. We’ll talk later.”

Pidge snickered a little, and Keith took that as encouragement to continue. “But, yeah. I know how hard it is, and I would never, never wish that on someone else.”

Her head popped up, eyes wide and wet behind her glasses. “I know you wouldn’t. I know...I know you didn’t have anything to do with it, I never should have said something like that. You...you’re right, you understand probably more than anyone else, and I…” She trailed off, ducking her head as tears spilled down her cheeks.

Once again, there was someone crying in front of him, and he didn’t know what to do. But he was pretty sure what any of the other paladins would have offered in this situation, so… “Do you, um...need a...hug?”

The next thing he knew he had an armful of Pidge, curled up on the bed next to him and leaving tears and snot all over his shirt. He patted her back awkwardly. “You’ll find them. I know you will.”

“Why are you comforting me? I’m supposed to be in here helping you to feel better, this is not how this is supposed to work!”

Keith frowned. “Um...sorry?”

Pidge glared at him, not at all intimidating with her sopping wet face. “No, don’t apologize, that’s my job, too!”

“Sorry!”

She punched him in the ribs. “You’re a good hugger. Why are you such a good hugger.”

Keith was just getting more confused the longer this conversation went on. “I...don’t know? It certainly isn’t from practice.”

Tilting her head back, she narrowed her eyes at him as if she could see into his mind. “Do you not like hugs?”

“No, I...do.”

“Then I’m gonna hug you. Every day. From now on.”

“Aw, can I get Keith hugs every day, too?”

Keith startled a little bit when he realized that Hunk and Lance had returned to the room, but forced himself to relax. This was okay. They weren’t going to hurt him. They had all been very open with him, and even though it was going to take some time, he thought he could learn to trust them again.

“I...guess?”

“Yay!” Hunk settled onto the end of the bed, and Lance took the now empty chair, folding his long legs up into it. Shiro scooted forward again to be in Keith’s line of vision.

“How are you feeling now? Think maybe you can keep surviving a little longer?”

He felt Pidge tense in his arms, and Hunk’s face froze while Lance’s went carefully blank. Keith swallowed. “Yeah. I think...maybe I’m ready for that pod now. So I can finally get out of this bed and...I don’t know, kinda figure this out all over again.”

Shiro ruffled his hair fondly. “I’m glad. We’ll all be there with you for every step, okay?”

There was one more question, though. “What about Allura?”

Shiro’s face darkened slightly. “I’ve already told her she can either treat you the same as everyone else, or we’re leaving.”

“Nah, we won’t leave,” Pidge piped up. “There’s more of us than there are of her now. We’ll just stage a mutiny.”

Keith laughed awkwardly. “Somehow I don’t think that’ll be necessary.”

“I don’t think so, either, because I think she’ll come around,” Lance said. “But the point is, Mullet...we’re gonna support you.”

“You’re part of the Space Family now, dude!” Hunk cheered.

“Exactly,” Shiro smiled. “And Space Family has to stick together.”

The others kept chattering quietly, someone throwing in something about “ohana” in a weird voice, which triggered a whole conversation about some movie that he didn’t care about keeping up with. Closing his eyes, Keith let his body truly relax for the first time since before going to the Blade.

And he felt safe.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Thanks so much to everyone who joined me this month!!! This was my first ever Tumblr writing challenge, and it was a blast. You guys are what made it so much fun, with all the comments and likes and reblogs! Thank you!

If you want more Keith whump from me sometime in the future, you can follow me on here, on FFN, or follow the series "In which I whump Keith" on AO3...and if you haven't read Abyss yet (my first Keith whump fic!), you should check it out!

Happy Halloween and Happy Whumping!

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khellamendrawrites · 5 years

Text

I Believe in You

Keith has always had problems with approaching people, or so he thinks. With his first real crush, he struggles with how to tell him or if he should at all.

Pairing: Hunk x Keith

“Shiro, how do you tell someone you like them?”

That had been more than enough to get Shiro to look up from his tablet, surprise evident in brown eyes. Keith hadn’t meant to blurt it out but they had been walking along and it had happened. Now that it was out there he couldn’t take it back and he could see Shiro trying to work out who it was and what to say. “Well-” Shiro started. “I would say the simple answer to that is you say it. That sounds cliche but it’s true. Speaking from the heart is always the best option.” Black brows furrowed as Keith thought about it as Shiro waited for the next question.

“What if they say no?” Rejection had always been Keith’s biggest issue. It was the main thing keeping Keith from talking to the person he liked.

“Then you accept it and keep moving forward. There’s no guarantee that someone will like you back. Rejection hurts and it’s hard but if you never try then you definitely won’t have a chance. Keith, you have a big heart and anyone would be lucky to have you. I know you have a lot of doubts about yourself but you are a good person. You deserve to be able to see that.” Purple eyes looked at Shiro and a small smile lit up a scarred face.

“Thanks, Shiro. I don’t know if I have the courage for that yet but I know you’re right. I’ve spent a lot of time pushing people away, maybe it’s time to try the opposite. What’s so funny?” Frowning, he crossed his arms.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that you’ve been doing that for a while now. I see the way you are with the other paladins. They rely on you and you talk more to them than you ever have. I know you’ve got this. I have to stop by Iverson’s office to discuss some things with him but later I want to hear about how this went for you, okay?” Accepting the nod as a confirmation, he smiled and headed off, leaving Keith to think about what to do.

He wasn’t sure when this crush had started though he could think of plenty of times he had felt it. Not that he hadn’t tried to hide it, even from himself but recently that had become almost impossible. Now Keith became very much aware of those times. Especially when he found himself sitting in the cafeteria, watching Hunk work in the kitchen. He wasn’t in love, that was something that had to come with time but he at least wanted the chance to get there. That was okay wasn’t it? Head in his hands, he wasn’t so sure. “Yo Keith, you alright?”

Pulled out of his thoughts, he looked up at Lance. “Oh hey. Yeah of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” He asked as Lance sat down on the opposite side of the table.

“Maybe because you had the most pained look on your face that I’ve seen in a while. Which means somethings up. Spill. Please?” Lance pressed when Keith hesitated. Putting his head back in his hand, Keith sighed.

“I’m just debating strategies with myself.” That wasn’t exactly a lie. He was trying to figure out the best approach but Lance didn’t seem to buy it. Looking away, he frowned again. “On how to...asksomeoneout.” He said quickly and instantly regretting it when a huge grin spread across Lance’s face.

“I never thought I would see the day that you would be interested in anyone. At least like that. Soooo who is she?” He prodded.

“Who said it was a girl?”

“Alright who is he then?” Lance rolled his eyes at the surprised look from Keith. “What? You thought I would care? Love whoever man. Long as you’re happy it’s whatever. So?” The black paladin didn’t answer right away but eyes went to Hunk who was showing someone how to cut something. Lance looked at Keith before turning to follow his line of sight, blue falling on Hunk. The Cuban boy turned around so fast that Keith was almost concerned for him. Desperately he put his hands up to stop Lance from shouting it out to the whole room. “Oh. My. God. Seriously?” Keith nodded frantically.

“Yes alright. Now shut up.”

“I can’t believe you like-” He mouthed the name. “Well I mean I can. He’s the nicest person in the whole universe. Wow. So I take it you haven’t said anything have you?” That scowl was all Lance needed. “That’s what I thought. Well, good thing I’m here to help you out.”

“Oh no, I do not need help. I can handle this fine on my own. Besides you haven’t been able to get a girl to say yes to you, the entire time I’ve known you.” Lance gasped.

“I’ll have you know they don’t call me Loverboy Lance for nothing.” He shot back as Keith scoffed.

“Yeah, they do. It was a persona made up for those shows Coran made you guys do. It was about as real as that fake science stuff they made Pidge say. Not to mention-”

“Hey guys, you got a sec!” Both of them immediately stopped talking, looking over as Hunk walked up, carrying a piece of paper. “Sorry, I’m sure you were having a riveting conversation that was not at all about to turn into an argument. But, I need a favor. We were going to make something special for everyone with the holidays and stuff but I need ingredients. Like several. More than I can carry by myself which means I need someone to go with me. Please, please, please someone come. Plus it’s cold and I am not a fan. It’s usually super hot back home being an island and all. You know what I mean Lance.”

“Oh yeah, I definitely know what you mean though it is cool to see snow. We don’t have that back home either. On the subject, I can’t do it. I have to help Coran with something but Keith’s free and he’s stronger than I am anyway. It’ll be perfect.” Keith gave Lance a murderous look that disappeared as soon as Hunk look at with big eyes.

“Really? That would be amazing thanks, Keith!” Keith managed an awkward smile as he got up.

“Yeah no...problem. Happy to help.” he said, shooting Lance another look. The red paladin grinned and waved at the two of them as Keith followed Hunk.

Bundled up, the two of them stepped into the chilly air with Hunk shivering the moment they were outside. “Yup still as cold as I remember.” Keith stuffed his hands in his pockets and fell in step with the taller man.

“I grew up around here so I'm used to it. Did you really never see snow until you came here?” Keith asked.

“Nope. Back home it’s always warm. In fact, during this time it’s actually our hottest time of the year so this is a bit of a shock. At least it would be if we hadn’t been through so much in space. After all that, a little cold is actually pretty tolerable.” Hunk said as Keith chuckled.

“When you put it that way, it makes sense. I’ve always admired the way you can stay positive no matter what. It’s helped the team, and me.” He admitted, watching his breath fog up as he talked. “Thanks for that.” Keith continued, hiding his face in the collar of the heavy jacket.

“It’s what friends are for, to watch out for each other. I know you’d do the same for me, you have.” Hunk said with a smile as Keith swallowed thickly.

“Friends huh?” He said softly, looking at the white ground and the way it clung to his boots. The hand on his shoulder stopped him though he didn’t look up.

“Hey is everything okay? You’ve been kinda down lately. I mean you always have this kind of scowling look on your face.” He said, imitating it as he spoke.”But it’s been, I dunno, a little sadder the past few days? You know that whatever’s up I’m here. I’m always here.” Those sweet words were almost too much for Keith. If there wasn’t a hand on his shoulder he might have bolted then and there. He didn’t think Hunk had even been paying attention to him but that was wrong and he swore he could feel the warmth of that hand even through the layers.

“I know you are. You’ve been there since the beginning and were able to believe in me when I couldn’t believe in myself. When I found out I was part Galra, you didn’t turn your back on me or say you didn’t want to go on that mission. You’ve always been there with so many nice things to say and I...it’s helped so much.”

“You’ve done a lot for me too you know.” Finally having purple eyes on him, Hunk smiled. “You always push yourself no matter what and you’re one of the bravest guys I know. I think you’re way too hard on yourself but even then you find a way to push through. It’s because of you that we made it this far and it’s because of you that we were able to get Shiro back. You helped me know that my family was okay. That meant so much to me. Keith, you’re not perfect and you do have some anger issues, like woah chill out sometimes, but even then you’re there for us.” Keith looked at Hunk, confused and heart pounding at how sweet this man was and he was so close. He needed to say something, anything to not look like an idiot.

“I like you.” Keith blurted out. Mentally he wanted to smack himself, that was the complete opposite of not looking like an idiot.

“Aww, I like you too man.” Hunk said, putting his arm around Keith and making him turn even redder. Moving away from Hunk he shook his head.

“No..I just..that is.” He made a noise of frustration. “I mean I like you as in like like you.” Keith did think about running this time, the silence between them nerve-wracking. Then Hunk was smiling and he felt his heart skip a beat.

“I know. I meant it the same way. Kinda figured it out a shortly before we got back to Earth. I didn’t want to say anything because I wanted you to decide for yourself when you were ready. I’m glad you finally got there.”

“So what now?” Keith asked, shifting from one foot to the other.

“Well...now we go and get the supplies. Maybe you can help me prepare stuff and we can talk some more. After that, just take it one day at a time.” Hunk said with a shrug. Thinking it over for a second Keith smiled as he put his hands back in his pockets and nodded.

“I’m pretty sure I can do that.” It looked like he would have something to tell Shiro after all.

#voltron #vld heith #hunk garrett #keith kogane

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miss-rosie · 5 years

Text

-The Klance Post-

-Disclaimer: this post is in no way intending to hate on any other ships, especially Allurance. It is simply me talking about my opinions on who will be the endgame couple. Everyone is free to ship whatever they want, I am not in any way saying that my ship is the only good one.-

So, this is it I guess. In a few hours, the final season of Voltron will drop and finally we will find out whether Klance will become canon or not. It’s been a crazy ride with this show, but honestly I couldn’t be more grateful. I have so many happy memories from this show and I’ve learned from and related so much to the characters, as well as met my best friend and so many wonderful people through the fandom. As you may know, Klance is kind of my life and I am very optimistic that they will become canon in the next few hours. However, even if they don’t, this ship has made me smile, and laugh, and cry, and I will never stop loving it regardless.

I’ve been working on this post for almost 2 months now, and finally, a few hours before the last season drops, I’m finally posting it. This is basically just all the evidence I’ve compiled that makes me believe so strongly that Klance will be the canon endgame. I basically restored my own faith in Klance while writing this. So if you’re looking for some hope in these last moments, just keep reading...

________________________________________________________________

Ok guys, to start off, I want to talk about this live stream done by Jeremy Shada. (the voice of Lance)

In the live stream, a fan asks Jeremy if he can elaborate on Lance’s endgame. Obviously, he can’t tell them the answer, or say too much at all, because that would spoil the ending of the show, but what he does say gives some solid evidence for why the endgame will be Klance. Allow me to break it down for you.

The main thing I want to focus on is when he says that some people will think "oh this thing came out of nowhere!"

I think it's safe to say that most of the people who watch this show, but aren't really in the online fandom, would naturally assume that Allurance is the endgame. If you think about it, Lance has been flirting with Allura since the first episode, and they had that scene in season 7 where they blushed at each other which obviously would be seen as very romantically coded to anyone with eyes. Therefore, to most casual viewers, there wouldn’t really even be a question as to who the endgame couple will be, as Lance has only ever actually admitted out loud to liking Allura. So my point here is that Allurance isn’t really the a ship that would seem “out of nowhere” to most of the viewers. Even people who don’t ship Allurance, including myself, can see that so far the only explicitly proven romantic scenes have been with them. However, Jeremy clearly states that the romance endgame in the show will seem to come out of nowhere to some people. Well, of the only two endgames that seem to really be options at this point, Klance or Allurance, which one do you think would probably seem to come as a surprise to most casual viewers? The one where the boy has been pining after the girl since the first episode, and has spoken many times throughout the show about his crush on her. Or the rivals who couldn’t even speak to each other for the first season or two without getting into an argument? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

I think we can all agree that most casual viewers would think Klance totally came out of nowhere, not Allurance. Since these people had never even considered the two of them could ever develop a strong loving relationship, they will likely have not realized that over the course of the show, Lance and Keith have in fact had the most developed relationship of all the characters. They go from rivals, to colleagues, to friends, to something so much more. They have gone through so much together and have grown and matured so much both individually, and in their relationship, that if those viewers had payed attention to the two of them and how the way they interact and view each other throughout the show continued to change and develop, they really wouldn’t be surprised at all to see them end up in a relationship.

Another thing important thing Jeremy says in the live stream that is that "the creators put little things throughout the series in ways to kind of make it as a whole make sense.”

By saying this, Jeremy continues to support the point I was making earlier, that if one were to simply pay attention to how the creators have developed Lance and Keith’s relationship in small ways from the very beginning, the endgame would easily make sense as a whole.

There is so much foreshadowing, so many parallels, so many unnecessarily soft looks towards each other, to possibly ignore that Keith and Lance are written as a pair. Just as Hunk and Pidge are portrayed as the tech genius pals and Shiro and Allura as the strong selfless leaders, Lance and Keith are constantly portrayed as a set, although the exact definition of their relationship continues to change. If you were to watch the show over again and count every time Lance and Keith are standing right beside each other, that alone would be enough to prove that the two are clearly set up to have some sort of significant relationship, whatever that relationship may be.

I could go on, but there just isn’t enough room in this post to have a picture of every time these two are together, and I think you get the point.

Now enough about the livestream. There’s a lot more evidence still to get into.

In a panel for the show, Josh Keaton (voice of Shiro) encouraged fans asking about the endgame relationship to be patient (true to character as always) as the endgame is set up as a slow-burn.

Although Lance has flirted with Allura since episode one, Allurance is in no way a slow-burn relationship. A relationship requires effort from both sides. Their relationship has in no way developed at all until the end of season 6, when Allura finally begins to acknowledge Lance’s presence, although only viewing him as a friend, as she was in love with Lotor at the time. So, while Lance has been putting in the effort from the beginning, Allura has never once shown anything but annoyance or at best indifference towards his advances until after she is betrayed by Lotor in the second to last season. Then she suddenly develops a crush on him in the span of half a season.

On the other hand, Klance is the perfect example of what a slow-burn relationship looks like. These two boys start out with a lot of tension, caused by Lance’s one-sided rivalry with Keith (one that he created out of jealousy that Keith was always “better than him” instead of actual hatred towards him). It takes them time, but slowly they begin to argue less and work together better as they spend more and more time together. After Shiro disappears and Keith is forced to take his place as the leader, Lance finally matures about their relationship and lets go of the “rivalry” he created with Keith as he steps up to become his right-hand man. It’s after the pressure to maintain this image of hating Keith is finally gone, and Lance allows himself to become openly friends with Keith, that the two quickly become very close. Lance becomes Keith’s support as he struggles to lead the team and deal with the loss of Shiro. Throughout the show, their relationship turns from barely-able-to-say-a-word-to-each-other-without-causing-an-argument to a solid relationship built off of mutual trust and genuine care for the other.

Of the two options, it is clear which one fits Josh’s description better. Klance is a slowburn, Allurance is not. Those are just the facts.

Now I would like to get into more detail about some of the many parallels the creators put into the show that prove Klance will be the endgame couple.

First off, there’s the scene where Krolia and Texas found the blue lion together which very similarly resembles the scene when Keith and Lance found her.

Although the entire team was there when they found Blue, Keith and Lance are the only two that step up in front of her, just like Krolia and Texas did. (Yes, we are calling Keith’s dad Texas in this post, fight me)

There’s also the scene where Keith’s angry expression while Lance was injured perfectly mirrored Krolia’s when Texas was injured.

In both cases, Keith and Krolia’s love interest was severely injured and they can do nothing but wait while they recover. They both stare to the side and brood with their arms crossed, as their way of dealing with the genuine concern they’re feeling.

(he’s not wrong)

Then there’s the parallel where the creators lowkey made the scene when Texas meets Krolia almost identical to the scene where Keith meets Lance.

In both scenes, there is an explosion in which Krolia and Keith make their entrances, followed by their love interests Texas and Lance discovering them.

Assuming that this parallel was not just some crazy accidental coincidence, what could possibly be the reason to mirror Lance and Keith’s meeting with Texas and Krolia’s if Lance and Keith were not eventually going to end up in a relationship just like the other couple? Solid math, I know.

Then we have the parallel when Keith finds out that Krolia left earth so that he would be safe, just like Keith left the team so that Lance could keep his spot in the red lion.

While Keith doesn’t explicitly say his reason for leaving the team, it’s clear that Lance questioning his place on the team is what made him decide to step aside. Both him and Krolia make a selfless decision to leave the one they love, in order to protect them.

Then we have my personal favorite... this perfectly identical parallel between Keith/Lance and Allura/Lotor.

Both scenes start off with Lance and Allura having a special moment together, only to be interrupted by their respective love interests and then proceed to direct all their attention to that person. Allura’s face when Lotor calls her is exactly the same as Lance’s when Keith calls.

Basically, throughout the show, there are many parallels comparing Lance and Keith to characters like Krolia/Texas and Allura/Lotor, both of whom are in (or previously were in) confirmed romantic relationships.

In an interview, when asked about the significance of parallels in the show, (specifically the one where Texas/Krolia and Keith/Lance find the blue lion in similar ways) Jeremy Shada confirmed that those parallels are very much intentional.

Here are some clips from his answer to the question. (The answer was very long so I only included the parts that have to do with the parallels and their importance. However none of these clips are taken out of context or edited to seem to mean different then the original answer. These are Jeremy’s exact words.) You can find the entire unedited answer here:

“Anytime you can have parallels I think, as a viewer, um, there’s just that kind of… uh, unspoken kind of symbolism behind the scenes when it, when you know, there’s a parallel with an earlier scene too and it kind of has that emotional resonance and weight to it. ”

“And so I think those are always intentional. I don’t think, usually I don’t think those are coincidental because especially, if you’re writing something and you write it and you have seasons that are airing when they’re you know, farther through the show, um, you’re kind of going back and going, ‘oh yeah! we did that!’ ”

“And so I don’t think those are usually unintentional, I think those are usually pretty, um, pretty intentional when the team puts those in there.”

Basically, the creators continuously parallel Keith and Lance’s interactions with those of other couples, proving that in the future, the pair will likely become a couple too.

Still not convinced? Don’t worry, I’m not nearly done yet.

In order to further continue, we first need to talk a little about Keith’s character arc.

Each of the main character’s in Voltron have an individual arc. Keith’s is all about allowing himself to open up to people and get rid of his fear of loving people and being loved.

Growing up, Keith was a kid who’s mom left him as a baby, and who’s dad died when he was fairly young. His tragic past had a serious effect on how he handles relationships when he’s older. Keith starts out in the beginning of the show as the “loner”. He is afraid of growing close to people and allowing them to see him vulnerable for fear that they’ll end up leaving, just like his mom did. So to avoid getting even more hurt, he keeps himself closed up, hidden behind so many walls, so that people won’t get close to him. He keeps his feelings locked inside instead of opening up and risking being rejected.

Now, over the course of the show, Keith has grown and matured so much, and has really overcome this constant need to appear indifferent to people who care about him. An instrumental part of his arc is when he finally finds his mom, and spends those two years on the space whale with her. All that time, seeing each other’s memories, finally understanding why she left him, growing closer together, forming a bond. It’s in those two years that Keith finally realizes that it’s ok to let people love him and to love them back.

Keith’s arc is about him finding 4 different kinds of love.

The first kind of love, is brotherly love.

Shiro is the only person who Keith is visibly close to before going to space. He took Keith in when he was a just a problem child to everyone else, jumping from one foster home to the next, and never stopped encouraging him to make something of himself. Despite Shiro never once giving up on him his entire childhood, Keith still hesitates to express how much he cares about him because of his built in fear of rejection.

In the episode in season 2, where Shiro and Keith meet with the Blade of Marmora for the first time, Keith tells Shiro that he’s like a brother to him. Here, he already loves Shiro, but he’s hesitant to show too much of his emotions for fear that, even after everything Shiro has done to prove that he truly cares about Keith, he might still not feel the same way.

Compare that scene, to the one where Keith finally says “I love you” for the first time. This is after he’s come to peace with his mom, and with himself, and learned how to let people into his life. The hesitation is gone. Shiro is no longer like a brother to him. He is his brother.

In this scene we really see how much Keith has grown in the show, as he finally lets himself be vulnerable and say how he feels now that he’s dealt with the trauma caused by his mother leaving.

Which brings us to the next kind of love Keith will find in the show, motherly love.

After his entire life of questioning who his mother was and why she left him, Keith finally understands that she did it to protect him and can begin to heal from all the hurt it caused him. In their two years together in the quantum abyss, Keith develops a strong bond with his mom and comes out much more confident because he knows now that she loves him, and he’s finally allowing himself to love her back.

The third kind of love Keith will find, is the love of a friend.

Since the beginning of the show, Keith always closed himself off from the rest of the paladins. He would usually stand in the corner when they were having fun together and stay to himself. He never felt like he could fit in and he was always afraid of getting to close to them, again, because he had this huge fear of being rejected. In season 7, when the paladins are lost in space without their lions, they all start to talk very honestly about their feelings and can’t seem to hold back anything they’re thinking, even if it’s hurtful. (almost like they’re drunk, in a way) When Hunk tries to keep him from leaving, Keith snaps and once again falls back into his habit of distancing himself from the people who care about him. When he’s not in a right state of mind, Keith’s insecurity about whether or not the paladins are his friends comes out.

However, later in the season, when Hunk is struggling with not knowing where his family is, Keith is the one to step up to comfort him, something he never would have had the confidence to do before, because he has learned that Hunk and the rest of the paladins really do care for him as their friend, not just their fellow soldier or leader.

Finally, Keith realizes that it’s better to let people in, and he is finally able to be a real friend to Hunk and experience the love of friendship.

Now the final kind of love Keith will experience is the only one that hasn’t had it’s conclusion yet. That is romantic love. Obviously, the only person this could happen with is Lance as Keith has never shown any interest in anyone else. Everything that’s happened to Keith up until this point in his personal journey has been building up to this. Finally allowing himself to be in love with Lance will be the final piece of Keith’s character arc.

The creators have confirmed that when the same facial expression is used more than once for a certain character, it's because they were intentionally making a connection between the scenes and the emotions that character is feeling. When Keith is talking to someone he deeply cares about, he makes a certain face. He makes it with each of the three people I talked about in regard to his character arc, and also one other time. That time is when he is talking to Lance.

Keith’s talking to Shiro (his brother):

Keith talking to Krolia (his mother):

Keith talking to Hunk (his friend):

Then there’s Keith talking to Lance (his love interest):

Still need more proof? Say no more, I got you.

There is one episode in season 7 that is just packed full of Klance content: The Feud. This also so happens to be an episode which the creators say has a ton of foreshadowing. Everything in this episode just screams KICK.

Seriously, we can’t even get past the title of the game show without some serious evidence.

Let’s take a look at the logo for Garfle Warfle Snick.

Obviously, it’s not written in English, but that is the least important detail. What is worthy of noting is that this logo is an exact copy of the logo for the 1970′s show, The Dating Game, a game show in which couples had to choose their date based off questions they were asked. Take a look.

Identical right? Although the letters for Garfle Warfle Snick are not written in Engish, the symbols appear to be written in the same font. Then, we also have the way the words fit together, which is perfectly identical. Not to mention, the little flower shapes which were basically copy/pasted from The Dating Game’s logo.

Now it is important to realize that in animation, every detail is intentional, as it has to be drawn into the scene by the animators. These two logos are so similar, that there is no possible way the creators didn’t purposely make the logo for Garfle Warfle Snick so similar to the logo of The Dating Game. Therefore, there must have been a deliberate reason for the similarity.

So, remember how I said in The Dating Game couples would have to choose someone to be their date? Yeah, well if we look back to The Feud, who were the only two of the paladins to choose each other to get to leave Garfle Warfle Snick? That’s right. Keith and Lance.

Now it honestly was a bit of a surprise when Lance chose Keith to leave out of all the paladins. Given his past with making advances towards Allura in order to gain her affection, this would have been the perfect opportunity for Lance to prove to just how serious he was about liking her by giving her his vote. But he didn’t choose Allura. He chose Keith. What does that tell you about how important Keith is to Lance?

Really though, there’s honestly no need to even speculate about Lance’s intentions when he made his choice. His soft, love-sick, face says it all.

That fucking eyebrow crinkle. That is the face of a man in love.

Also.. Lance calls Keith “the future”. Despite being just downright romantic as fuck, this is also a nod to this scene from way back in season 2.

Look at that. Lance started out the show looking for his future Mrs. Blue Lion in any single cute girl he could find in space. Now, 5 seasons later, he finally realizes that Keith has been his future the entire time.

It’s called, character development.

And this is not even the first time we’ve seen Lance with that same exact love-sick look while talking about Keith. He makes the same face when gushing about how cool Keith is to Laika.

Now, while Lance’s reason for choosing Keith has us all in our feels, Keith’s response when he was asked by Bob why he chose Lance was not so romantic, and has a lot of people upset, calling Keith an asshole for being so rude to Lance.

Ok, so I know Keith’s response sounded very rude, but if you think about it for a second, his logic really doesn’t make any sense. Keith knows how important team Voltron is to the universe. If only one of them can get out to continue the mission, Keith knows the weight that decision holds. I find it hard to believe that he would really waste his vote for the sole purpose of getting rid of someone annoying so he could spend the rest of eternity in peace.

Keith spent two years on the space whale in the Quantum Abyss seeing probably hundreds of visions of the past and future. It’s possible that in one of those visions Keith saw Allura and Lance during one of their bonding moments and assumed that she finally started to reciprocate his feelings and that they were together. Seeing Lance choose someone else probably hurt him a lot and because Keith’s instinct when he’s hurt by someone is to retract into himself instead of talking to them about it to keep himself from being hurt anymore, he pushes Lance away. This would explain why, after all the time that Keith had been gone from the team, despite him and Lance having become friends before he left, he totally blew Lance off when he got back. He’s doing what he’s always done. He’s “pushing people away before they reject him”. Instead of allowing himself to keep having the feelings he has for Lance, he completely closes himself up to try and keep his heart from getting broken. He tries to push Lance away and act like he doesn’t care.

What he says about not wanting to spend an eternity with Lance is completely fake. Keith is just pretending he doesn’t have feelings for him because that would leave him vulnerable to be rejected.

Remember, Keith doesn’t get emotional when he’s hurting, his first instinct is to get angry and immediately put up all his walls. Take a look at his body language. He has his arms tightly crossed and he looks very angry. It reminds me a lot of when he went to talk to Hunk.

He’s trying to help Hunk but he’s afraid of opening up too much and possibly getting rejected.

Keith uses this body language when he is holding himself back from showing his emotions. He doesn’t actually hate Lance, he’s just trying to act like he doesn’t care as much as he does.

He can’t even bring himself to make eye contact with Lance, probably because he knows his facade would crumble the second he did. His anger is directed more towards Bob for putting him in this situation in the first place.

In the end, we can’t take what Keith said to mean that he doesn’t love Lance anymore. He’s just trying to cope with the fact that Lance and Allura are supposedly together in the only way he knows how.

*Also side note, can we all take a moment to appreciate Pidge’s face when this is all going down. Poor thing is so goddamn confused.

Has nothing to do with Klance, but I just love this precious child so much...

Anyway, back to the point... Amazingly, there is still more Klance evidence The Feud has to offer.

When Bob tells Lance that his team is starting to lose faith in him, his excuse for why he is failing at the game is that he’s “just not real good with names”.

While that is an understandable excuse, it brings up a question from way back in season 1. Lets go back to the scene where Keith breaks in to save Shiro in the first episode. Remember how Lance was the first one to immediately recognize Keith, without even being able to see his face?

He instantly knows who he is just by looking at his hair. For someone who’s “not good with names”, that’s pretty unusual I would say. As we know that Lance is not the type to remember the names of people who do not hold some sort of significance to him, Keith must have been pretty important to Lance, seeing as he was able to identify Keith from only his mullet, at such a distance.

(Not saying that young garrison Lance would spend entire classes staring at Keith’s hair from behind, attempting to convince himself that his gay crush was in fact just very intense feelings of hate, but that’s exactly what I’m saying.)

Also, notice how Pidge seems to have no idea who Keith is.

However, as soon as Lance says the name, Hunk immediately reacts, probably because in his time at the Garrison, he’s been on the receiving end of many angry rants about the guy’s “stupid mullet” from a very jealous and flustered Lance.

With this information, I think it’s reasonable to to believe that Lance’s obsession with Keith (whether or not he understood his feelings at the time) began way back before the show even started when the two were still at the garrison together.

Now... another thing I want to mention is the famous “You are deserving of respect” picture drawn by producer, Lauren Montgomery.

Now yes, this poster could really not mean anything and could have just been a sweet message where the paladins were chosen at random to hold up their signs. However, notice how both Hunk and Keith, and Pidge and Allura have had small arcs dedicated to the topic of the signs they are holding.

In season 1, Allura talks to Pidge about her gender, and how she was pretending to be a boy.

In season 2, Hunk talks to Keith about him being galra.

Both those two pairs had the words on their signs translate into real plots in the show.

Seeing that signs for "gender" and "race" turned out to have a direct connection to the canon storyline, with the people holding them, it's only logical that Shiro and Lance will have their own miniature arc based of the "lgbt" sign. We already know that Shiro is gay, as well as being Lance’s “hero. Therefore, it's very possible that lance will go to him for advice on his feelings for Keith, and Shiro will help him as he has experienced the same thing.

Another thing I want to touch on is the “relationship” between Keith and Acxa. For those who are concerned about Acxa becoming a romantic interest for Keith, allow me to ease your mind.

While it is white possible that the reason Zethrid and Ezor continuously tease Acxa about liking Keith is that Acxa may actually have feelings for Keith, is is also very likely that Zethrid and Ezor were simply messing with her to throw her off and distract her from the battle. However, regardless of Acxa’s feelings for Keith, I can assure you, Keith does not have feelings for her.

Keith is very gay. This boy has never shown any romantic interest in any women in the entire show.

Just look at his reaction to just the idea of being in a relationship with a woman.

The poor guy just wants to fight like normal people without having to be shipped with the girl he’s trying to save out of common decency.

Then there’s the scene where Keith catches Allura sneaking into the pod, and she falls into his arms. Allura immediately gets flustered and blushes uncomfortably. However, Keith doesn’t even flinch and seems totally indifferent to the fact that he’s carrying the princess in his arms.

*Quick reminder that the last time he carried someone in his arms (Lance) he made it a very big deal.

But to the point, Keith’s reaction to catching the princess in his arms is not the reaction a guy who likes girls would have.

Not to mention the time he low-key checked out the hot alien dude who’s crashed ship they were fixing.

Have I made my point? This boy is not straight.

If that’s not enough evidence, Bex Taylor-Claus (voice of Pidge) themself confirmed in a livestream that Keith and Acxa are not going to be a couple, refering to them as “kindred spirits”.

So fear not, Keith is still very gay and is most certainly not in love with Acxa.

This scene is most likely just Acxa either wanting to thank Keith for saving her life (like a decent person, or alien I guess) or possibly she is related to him or Krolia in some way, and that will be touched on in season 8. Either way it has been confirmed that Kacxa will not be a thing, so there’s no need to stress about it.

Now, there’s one more thing I want to talk about before wrapping this up, and that is the infamous “stay safe out there” scene that basically confirmed Allurance...right?

Lmao you really underestimated me if you thought I wouldn’t find a way to bring Klance into the most Allurance themed scene in the entire show.

Notice Lance's reaction when Veronica mentions the princess liking him. He doesn't get excited or cocky about it like he normally would have at hearing that kind of news. In fact, he actually denies that Allura even has feelings for him, saying that she just cares about everyone. That really doesn't seem like the reaction Lance would have to finding out Allura likes him earlier in the show. Last time someone told lance Allura liked him back, he had a very different reaction.

If we already know that Lance is never shy when it comes to the princess, why is his reaction to different in season 7? He constantly acted like the princess liked him even when she clearly didn't. Why would he act like she doesn’t when she clearly does if there wasn't something inside him that changed? Maybe he's not so certain about his feelings for Allura anymore huh?

This is just reminding you not to lose hope just because of this one scene. One scene against an entire show of built up evidence, is not the end of the world, or in this case, the end of Klance.

My prediction is that in season 8, Allura will be very open about liking Lance, and he will try to go with it at first, but as we started to see in that scene, there will be something off for him and he will realize that he has moved on and loves Keith.

Now, it’s about 3 hours until the final season drops, and I have to post this now or never. Just remember, Klance has a serious chance guys, but even if it doesn’t become canon, everyone be kind and remember that it’s ok to not have everything go just how we wanted it to go. There’s no need to hate on Allurance if it becomes canon. Klance will always live on in our art, our writing, the friendships we’ve made because of them, and in our hearts. (I know, cheesy as fuck, but Voltron is almost over and I’m emotional)

It’s been an honor flying with you all. And one last time...

KICK

#klance #voltron #Voltron legendary defender #vld #keith kogane #lance mcclain #keith #lance #kick #goodbye voltron #and thank you #just my posts #i love you all and enjoy binging #i'll be back on saturday to scream with u all

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dammitadolfnomorecake · 4 years

Text

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt.31

Lance was not having a fun time. The tunnels were poorly lit. Long dark shadows made him skittish, unusually on edge about those things just outside his vision. The place felt cold. Cold and loveless. Like dozens of people had died there suffering. The cold had left him chilled right through, his teeth aching as if they wanted to extend to feed. His stomach felt worse with every step, and ignoring Keith wasn’t helping. He shouldn’t have been so standoffish. He shouldn’t have been letting his embarrassment get to him. Feeling himself stumble for the umpteenth time, Keith took him by the arm without promoting. Lance wanted to shake him off, but honestly he felt so lonely that he craved the touch

“Guys, I think I’m going to take Lance back upstairs. He keeps tripping”

Pidge sighed loudly, the gremlin unhappy. This wasn’t what she expected to be there. Most of the storerooms were blocked off, already empty and left that way for years

“I hate to admit it, but we’ll have to come back. There’s not enough light down here. I should have brought head torches. Next time I’m bringing head torches”

“Next time? Noooo, I don’t want to come down here again”

Hunk was one wrong noise away from jumping out of his skin

“What would Shay say? You know she wanted to be here”

“That’s why I said we should wait... I don’t like this place”

Pidge continued like Hunk was dying a little more with each second passing down here

“She couldn’t help that she had to work because Rax went to Platt”

“Great, so we’re all decided. We’re heading back upstairs and we’re drinking. Good? Good. Let’s go”

Since when was Keith so forceful with everyone? Lance had to admit that his bossiness went straight to places it shouldn’t have. Maybe his crankiness had rubbed off on Keith? He didn’t want Keith to be cranky. The hunter was far too young for wrinkles from frowning. Tugging his arm free, Keith bit his lip as he looked away from Lance. The poor guy was as probably confused by Lance as Lance was by himself. If they did come back down here, he’d insist they do so during the day, with Keith armed, and torches for everyone, with spare torches and spare spare torches. He couldn’t go collapsing the tunnels here, though he wished he could. This place felt so wrong that wanted to go to the nearest church and confess every last sin.

Returning upstairs, Lance still felt ill. Pidge had bounced back, off to the bar to order them around, while Lance was slowly inching towards the toilets, needing a moment to collect himself. This time his arm was grabbed by Hunk

“Where are going?”

Lame shrugged, trying to play it cool

“Bathroom. Call of nature and all that”

Hunk nodded, then Keith ruined things

“Good. I’ll come too. Why don’t you grab us a table?”

Nooooooo. He couldn’t refuse Keith. He couldn’t kick him out a public bathroom

“Okay, don’t take too long or Pidge will drink your drinks”

“Be right there, man! Make sure it’s something large and cold. I need a drink after that”

“You need a drink? I feel like I need seven”

Lance sympathised with Hunk. He didn’t like dark cramped places, or places that were haunted, or both of them together

“I feel ya. Be right back”

Walking into the bathroom, Lance headed straight for the sink. Turning both taps on, the best he could hope for was tepid thanks to health and safety. Leaning down, he splashed water over his face, groaning as his jeans dug into his stomach

“I knew you were feeling worse. What’s going on? Did you see something?”

Closing his eyes, Lance leaned against the sink, trying to push away the cold feeling clinging to him

“Felt it... that place doesn’t feel good”

Something warm fell over his shoulders, the vampires opening his eyes to find Keith had placed his jacket over Lance’s shoulders. Technically it was Lance’s jacket to begin with, but he’d leant to to Keith when Keith had nothing much to wear

“You’ve been avoiding looking at me. It’s because of me, isn’t it? I stuffed things up, didn’t I?”

Straightening up, Lance turned the taps off. He didn’t want to have this conversation, but his defences were to low to fake sass

“I don’t know what to do”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean...”

Turning to face Keith, Keith staring at him, looking at him so earnestly

“I mean... I don’t know what to do. I like you. I think I like you. But we’ve barely known each other a handful of weeks and I’m not sure if this isn’t me getting an ego from having someone who understands by myself side, or if I like you because of who you are. We barely know each other. I’ve been scared of myself my whole life. I’ve avoided anything close and intimate. It’s stupid. A monster like me doesn’t deserve friends or happiness, or even a fairytale love story and I’m scared. I don’t want to hate you. I don’t want you to hate me, but I’ve bitten you twice without permission. My first kiss... I knew I was wrong so I had to stay away and now you’re here and I don’t know what to do. I’m so fucking cold. That place may me feel so sick... but I noticed it because I’m not right”

Lance didn’t mean to turn the tears on. He felt sure that Keith would walk away after hearing his confession. Instead the hunter surprised him. Walking over to him, Keith wrapped his arms around him

“God. Why don’t you get a hint. You’re my friend. I don’t know why, but I want to kiss you. When you start calling yourself names I want to hit you for being an idiot. I don’t know why I want to kiss you, maybe because I’ve changing too. My heart keeps racing and my chest feels weird, but I want to kiss you”

“If your having problems with your heart, you need to see a doctor as soon as possible. Has it happened before?”

Keith shook his head. Lance had heard Keith’s racing for no reason, so knew the hunter wasn’t simply making this up

“Not like this...”

That wasn’t good. If anything happened to Keith... He wouldn’t be able to live with himself

“Keith...”

“I’m going to ask Shiro when he gets back”

That’d be soon, but what if something happened to Keith in the mean time

“Maybe we could ask Coran? He has to know, or he’ll know someone we can talk to. We can’t take risks with your health. How long has it been happening”

Keith mumbled against Lance’s shoulder

“A couple of weeks...”

“Keith!”

“It’s not important”

How could this idiot not think his health mattered?! It mattered more than whatever was going on between them. They couldn’t play games with Keith’s health. If there was something wrong, they needed to diagnose it as soon as possible

“How can you say that?! You’re rude and annoying and I don’t know much about you, but you’re human. You need to take care of yourself!”

“You’re overreacting”

“You’re my friend, you dumb jerk!”

“And I think you’re mine too. If you don’t want to kiss me, I’ll understand, but for some reason, I want to try kissing you”

“But I can’t date anyone. I’m...”

“An idiot crumpet”

Lance couldn’t help but laugh. He’d never been called an “idiot crumpet” before. Raising his head at the same time as Keith, they were half a second away from what ever was going to happen when the door to the bathroom started to open, Lance reacting by pushing Keith away as the stranger casually walked over to the urinals. With a silent agreement, the pair nodded at each other, before quickly leaving the bathroom.

Keith wasn’t quite sure what had happened in the bathroom. He wasn’t sure if Lance was going kiss him or not. Thanks to the arsehole who’d walked in, now he’d never know. Joining Pidge and Hunk at the table, Hunk was nursing a beer as Pidge kept guard over the three shots in front of her, another three sitting in wait for him and Lance. Eyeing the shots, Keith had a horrible feeling

“Tequila?”

Pidge nodded happily

“When drinking to forger, it has to be tequila”

Lance let out a loud groan, before poking at the side of one of the shots

“Are you trying to kill me? What happened to me being sick?”

“You were wallowing, now you’re drinking!”

“Noooo... Pidge, this isn’t a great idea”

What did Lance have to worry about? He couldn’t get drunk. Sure, there was the after shot burn, but that’s about as bad as it got for him. Keith hadn’t very fond memories of tequila. It most revolved around the bottle he’d stolen as a wayward teen. Shiro had no sympathy when he’d thrown up on his jacket and ruined it

“This is a great idea! One, two, three!”

Both Lance and Pidge took a shot, Keith releasing mid shot and grabbing the closest so he didn’t look clueless. Wincing as he coughed, that was definitely tequila and this was definitely not going to end well

“Fuuuuuck...”

Lance reached over and patted his back

“It’s not going to get any better”

Because that was totally reassuring!

“I know... god... do I have to do the other two?”

Pidge shuddered, ignoring the involuntary movement, she smiled

“Yep! This one’s to way friends and missing brothers who desert us!”

Shooting the second shot, it was worse than the first. His third shot glass was taken by Lance

“Okay. Time to slow down. Keith has a bad heart and too much alcohol isn’t a good thing”

Hunk went into concerned friend mode, something usually directed at Lance

“You never told us that”

“It’s fine. He’s overreacting”

Lance quickly downed the shot meant for him

“Oops. Now you’ll have to slow down”

“Oops” his left arse cheek. Lance had no right spilling that thing about his heart. Reaching out, he took Lance’s last shot, locking eyes with him before downing it. 3 shots in the space of 5 minutes wasn’t the smartest of plans but he didn’t need protecting. He was a grown adult who could make his own choices

“Keith, my man! Nicely done. In your face, Lance!”

Hunk nervously interjected

“Pidge, I don’t think we should be encouraging him...”

“We’re not. He did that all by himself”

Lance pushed his chair back, Keith had the feeling he’d somehow disappointed him, but his original plan of liquid courage was back on track, so Lance could suck it

“Right, well, before you both get shit faced, I’m getting food for the table”

The more Keith drank, the more he knew he was screwed. The tequila had hit hard, as had the four double bourbons and coke, even with Lance pestering them all to the eat wedges he’d bought for the table. When Pidge suggested karaoke, his dumb arse had agreed, not knowing he was going to end up on stage with Lance, belting out the words to Black Parade... Drinking made his normal tight hold on his emotions slip away. That’s why he’d started drinking only when he was at home and not likely to get himself in trouble. Lance seemed to be having fun, but Keith couldn’t tell if it was an act. Coming off the stage, Keith headed straight to the bar for another drink, leaning against the counter as Lance was pulled into another duet with Pidge, who really couldn’t sing despite giving it her best shot.

Ordering another bourbon and coke, Keith smiled as he watched the pair making fools of themselves, Pidge being booed, as she alternated between singing and telling the crowd to “shut the fuck up”. Fuck she was feisty. Feeling an arm brush against his, Keith turned to the stranger beside him, the man barely taller than himself

“Watch it”

Keith blinked at the stranger, they might be in the middle of nowhere but the man was backwards on top of backwards with more testosterone than braincells

“You’re the one who bumped into me”

“You should still be careful. Can I buy you a drink?”

Now he was being hit on?

“I’ve got one, thanks”

“I haven’t seen you around here before”

“Maybe you haven’t been looking?”

“I think I’d remember a pretty face like that”

“Then maybe you should get a doctor to look you over?”

The man snorted at him. Drunk Keith was a horny Keith. Another reason to avoid drinking in public

“I don’t know about your friends, but maybe you could come give me a moment of your time?”

“Only a moment? Sorry, I don’t think that’s going to cut it”

“What about all night?”

There were worse choices he could make. Keith found himself smiling despite the fact the man not being his type at all

“I’m...”

Keith was cut off, Lance appearing beside him, an arm shaking around his waist

“Sorry about my friend here. He’s a terrible drunk. I hope he wasn’t inconveniencing you”

“Not at all. We were having quite the stimulating conversation. We were about to take it somewhere more private”

“Sorry, but he’s actually coming home right now”

“What are you? His keeper? Let’s leave this jerk off. You can do better than that”

The strangers words didn’t go down well. Keith went from feeling buzzed to murderous that the man would insult Lance like that. Grabbing his drink, he threw it in the man’s face. There were a few gasps, the strangers face morphing to anger

“Don’t you talk about him like that!”

“What the fuck is your mental damage?!”

Keith went to swing. One moment he was standing and the next he was over Lance’s shoulder

“Pidge! Hunk! Time to go!”

“Put me down, you arsehole! He insulted you!”

Hitting Lance’s back, Lance kept walking, Keith keeping his head down in embarrassment. He wasn’t a kid! He could handle himself!

Following them out the pub, Pidge was laughing, Hunk apologising to everyone. Lance still refused to put him down until they reached Hunk’s car

“What was that?”

Wheezing with laughter, Pidge was annoying him. Pushing against Lance, Keith really wanted to go back and punch that guy square in the face

“Keith had a bit too much to drink. Pidge, you get in the front with Hunk. I’ve got an angry emo to wrestle under control”

“He insulted you”

“And you decided to throw your drink in his face! I can’t believe you!”

“He...”

“Was a nobody! Get in the car, Keith!”

Keith swallowed. Lance was livid and he knew it. Unlocking the door, Keith was forced in the back while Hunk walked around the pair of them, the poor dude didn’t look happy at all. It wasn’t Keith’s intention to be a dick, but Lance was Lance and didn’t need to be spoken to like that.

It turned out that climbing into the back was the worst idea Lance had ever had. Keith felt trapped by the sweet scent rolling off the vampire, and maybe a little bit too horny from the alcohol and adrenaline rush. The ride home was lost in a fog, Keith finding himself being pulled out of the car by Lance, who was calling apologies to Hunk and Pidge and promising to make it up to them.

Getting inside the house, Keith felt his self control erode. Lance’s hand in his gave him a private thrill. The fire simmer in his belly burning into something dangerous. Barely through the door, Keith grabbed Lance by the collar, pushing the vampire up against the wall hard enough to make a thud, his lips on Lance’s before Lance knew what was happening. Fuck... he wanted him. He wanted him in any way he could get him. Resisting the kiss, Lance’s teeth cut Keith’s lips, Keith keeping him pinned until the resistance started to fade. When Lance shoved him back, Keith was confused, then the vampire was pushing him back up against the door, kissing him every much as Keith wanted to be kissed. Bringing his hand up, Lance grabbed him by the back of the head, the pair of them rutting up against each other as they made out sloppily.

Before they could go further, Lance was pulling away, head dropping against Keith’s shoulder as Keith bared his neck, hands going to the button of Lance’s jeans

“Keith... this isn’t...”

“Less talking, more moving”

Rolling his hips, the hunter moaned, feeling how hard Lance was against him

“Keith...”

“Goddamn it, Lance... Shut up and take me to bed”

Releasing his hair, Lance grabbed him by the arse, Keith jumping up to wrap his legs around Lance’s slim waist as their lips met again. Being with Lance was exhilarating. Their kisses deep and hungry, hands all over each other as Lance carried him upstairs to his room.

Clumsy as they reached their destination, Keith was dropped down backwards on the bed, not slowing down an inch as he started stripping Lance. Reason had gone out the window, the human animal laid bare by their desires. Getting Lance’s shirt and jacket off, Keith’s hands went back to fumbling at Lance’s jeans, trying and failing at getting them undone. Groaning his annoyance, Lance pulled his hands away, pinning them above Keith’s head as he looked him in the eye

“Do you want this?”

“Yes... fuck yes...”

He was hopelessly horny, feeling like a teenager all over again. He didn’t care which way he had Lance, only that he had to have him now. His consent was enough for the older man, Lance releasing his hands and moving to stripping his shirt off. Fuck... they hadn’t even fucked and Lance looked blissed out. Fangs protruding over his teeth as his hands moved to Keith’s pants. Keith getting all the more impatient over Lance’s jeans not being around his ankles

“Patience”

Rising from the bed, Lance stripped his jeans off, Keith quickly doing the same. Moving over to his bedside drawers, Lance grabbed out a line of condoms and a bottle of lube, his cheeks adorably red as he mumbled about “vampires having needs too”. Climbing back onto the bed, Lance straddled his hips, Keith moaning as he wrapped his arms around him, leg coming up to prevent him escaping as they rocked together. Feeling at bursting point, Keith broke the kiss

“I fucking want you...”

“I’ve never done this before”

“Neither have I...”

“I don’t want to hurt you”

It was a sweet confession, but not what Keith wanted. Growling, he rolled them over, kneeling between Lance’s long legs, he eyes the vampire below... Lance wasn’t hung, but he wasn’t small, Keith agreeing mentally he was the perfect size to be in his mouth. Shimmying back, he placed kisses on Lance’s inner thighs, Lance moaning lewdly at the action... Blowing Lance was going to need to wait until he was sober

“Lube”

Keith knew enough to know it was going to hurt without proper prep. Whether it be vaginally, anally, or bank robbery, always finger your partner. The lewd joke coming to mind as he took the lube from Lance. Squeezing out a generous amount, Keith tossed the lube aside

“Ready?”

Lance nodded, Keith’s fingers dipping into the cleft of Lance’s arse. Finding the tight ring of muscle, he was a tad too enthusiastic as he pressed his finger in. Lance’s eyes shooting wide open

“Gentle!”

Keith took the hint, blush in his cheeks. He didn’t want to hurt Lance... right... he needed to calm down...

Keith couldn’t calm down, and Lance was too impatient. Pushing Keith back, Lance flipping himself over, pushing his arse in the air

“Just do it already...”

There wasn’t anything sexy about the comment, Keith rushing to grab a condom, before finding his fingers too slippery to get the thing open, tearing open the one beneath the one he actually wanted. Rolling the flimsy piece of plastic in place, he hands were shaking with exhilaration and nerves, a sucked down a deep breath. They were doing this... and fuck he wanted it.

Slowly sinking into Lance’s heat, Keith groaned at the tightness around him. Lance whimpering as he kept things slow, trying not hurt the vampire. Burying himself balls deep, he caged Lance’s body with his own, giving him a moment to adjust before slowly pulling back then snapping his hips forward. Lance felt so goddamn wet and tight... Keith losing himself in the pleasure of the act as he pulled back again. He’d never done this before, but it hands down beated jerking off alone in his room. Sitting back, his hands went to Lance’s hips, feeling more confident about what he was doing given he hadn’t broken Lance with his first pathetic thrusts. They’d barely started but he was ready to come, the feeling building all over again as he started fucking Lance’s pert little arse sloppily with in experience.

When his orgasm finally hit, Keith came with a twisted groan. Beneath him Lance was making the most beautiful noises, hands clutching his blankets as his orgasm hit, clenching hard around Keith like he was trying to drain him dry. Dizzy from exhaustion and alcohol, Keith flopped forward, hips still rutting as he rubbed his cheek against Lance’s smooth back, babbling a string of praises that didn’t reach his ears. Easing out his now lover, he found himself crawling off Lance to flop down next to him, a hand coming up to pat Lance’s shoulder before Lance was letting himself fall against him. Fuck, he boneless with release, sated and sleepy. Lance seemed to want to cuddle, Keith not objecting as Lance moved to face him rather than having his back against him, their lips finding each other’s again. Wow... just... wow...

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