#human!lance

[musicanddancingthroughlife]

Werewolf Stalkers - Shklance

Depression is a bitch yo. Um. So school started again. I have never felt so overwhelmed in my life, so that’s been a blast. But hey! Stories!

Okay, I’m absolutely hoping to do more with this story in the future, but here’s the first little bit.. I’m still working on other projects, too, but I’m taking a few creative writing classes too so I’m having to balance a lot of fanfics with original pieces. But still, if there’s any you guys think I should focus on right now, hit me up! I’d love some direction and actual goals here haha. 

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So here’s the deal. Lance is pretty sure he’s being stalked by a werewolf.

Two werewolves?

Possible. That or it’s one werewolf with multiple personalities, one that’s fairly polite and understanding - considering it’s a large dog in the habit of stalking him almost daily - and one that’s much more demanding of his time, which is just rude. Even worse is that the mutt (mutts?) won’t ever let Lance’s friends see them, so now everyone thinks he’s crazy. Actually, a lot of them have stopped hanging out with him because he’s gotten to be a lot more paranoid than he was, but you really couldn’t blame him for that!!!

Werewolves!!! Like. What about that isn’t crazy??? Why wouldn’t he be paranoid, he’s actually BEING STALKED BY THE SUPERNATURAL!

Anyway, the lack of friends is probably why he was now in this situation.

Although, if Hunk or Pidge were still around, they would say it was mainly due to his own stupidity, but Lance was choosing to ignore that.

Hmmm.

Okay, back to the situation at hand. Lance was sick of it. He was sick of being stalked. He was sick of having no friends and therefore left even more vulnerable to the stupid animals that were following him around all day. Just last week, Lance had exited his apartment complex to find there was a dead deer lying at the front of the property. There was a crowd of people, and officials were already clearing away the mess, so there was no way that Lance could truly prove it was a werewolf, let alone his stalker werewolves. But he knew he saw a furry tail disappearing around the corner, as soon as Lance had seen the mess on the lawn.

And just a couple days ago, Lance had totally been chatting it up with some cute girls, until they had been scared away by a very large dog. Again, that might’ve been a coincidence, but there were too many coincidences to be… coincidence! Ugh, whatever, he didn’t care if Hunk or Pidge thought he was stupid… Okay, so he did. But this was more important! So here he was, lying around in the middle of the woods by himself, waiting for the stupid wolves to approach him again. (And he was pretty sure that there were two. One was definitely bolder and more annoying than the other.)

The night was cold, leaving Lance shivering in the grass of the clearing he had found a few weeks back while hiking. Right around the first time those wolves started following, now that he thinks about it. Damn it, was this a meeting ground for them? Is this where they did all their hunting? Did they somehow know Lance was going to come back, and now they were going to hunt him down and eat him? Fuck, this was a bad idea, he just knew it…

A twig snapped somewhere behind him, and Lance snapped upright. He twisted around so he could see behind himself, but of course, there was nothing. Because now he was living in a goddamn horror movie. Yeah, this was definitely a bad idea. Lance stood and slowly pulled out his phone so he could use the flashlight, hoping for a little more light for the trek back to his car. The light flashed on, and Lance was startled to see that the very clear and distinct wolf sitting in front of him.

“FUCK!” Lance shouted, and scrambled away, yelping again as his foot got caught on something. A sharp pain shot up his ankle and leg, and Lance landed on his ass. Hard. “Shit,” he whimpered, and then he flopped himself flat on his back. Because really, there was no point. If he was gonna get eaten, there was nothing he could do about it now. Even if his ankle wasn’t badly injured, no way he could outrun a wolf. Or the second, smaller wolf that was now whining in Lance’s ear and nuzzling at him. Probably trying to find a clear way to tear out his throat, God.

He squeezed his eyes shut, praying that they would make it quick, he really didn’t want to be stuck there all night dealing with the agony of death, thanks. Except…

They weren’t doing anything? Well, besides the same basic nuzzling. That second wolf was nudging at his face, soft whines and rumbles alternating in Lance’s ear. The first was down at Lance’s feet, licking gently at his throbbing ankle. God, he almost didn’t want to do it, but…

“What are you two doing?” Lance breathed. The wolf at his head huffed, and Lance flinched, but the first wolf took up the low rumbles, and fuck that was nice. The second quickly rejoined. Lance eased his hand up, slowly leaning to touch the smaller wolf. Amazingly, this was allowed. The wolf even lolled his tongue out a little, those rumbles growing louder. Lance laid like that a little longer before he attempted to leverage himself into sitting up again. This jolted his ankle further, causing Lance to cry out. The bigger wolf whined and then carefully levelled himself into a position where he was bracing the injured limb, allowing Lance to move without also moving his leg. The other wolf snaked around to his back, helping to push him forward, until he was able to sit up and they could pile themselves on top of him.

And that’s how Lance found himself sitting there, his ankle still screaming at him if he even tries to move, and two huge wolves crawling all over him. Because apparently this was his life now.

Stupid werewolf stalkers.

[ebhenah]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron) Characters: Lance (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith (Voltron) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Domestic Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Friends to Lovers, Monstertron Exchange, Lance (Voltron) is a Ray of Sunshine, Broken wing, Magic, warrior pixie, WingedFolk!Keith, Minor Violence, Lance tried to be a good ally Summary:

While trying to find something to keep the bugs out of his garden, Lance instead stumbles upon a Pixie with a broken wing.

Keith can't quite figure out the odd surroundings he wakes in after an altercation with a crow damages his wing, but the human seems nice enough

Written for the 2019 @monstertronexchange as a gift for @delannatheelf!

[michi-is-a-liar]

Black & White [idea]

Lance is talking to his cat one day and he looks at him. A smirk crawls onto his face and he pokes Keith’s resting cat body. The cat jolts and snaps around to look at Lance with tired eyes.

“So...” Lance starts, his smirk turns into a grin and he giggles slightly. “What’s tea?”

Keith becomes confused, staring at Lance tiredly. His tail moves to show his annoyance. Lance bursts out laughing and ends up falling off of the couch, where he was hang upside down on.

“Y’know, I used to have a boyfriend,” Lance began, his giggles dying down. “his name was Shiro. He told me how the age gap between us was bothering him so he left me for a dude closer to his age.”

Keith stopped moving completely, Lance knew Shiro? That’s odd, considering... Well, not really odd. Keith had never met Lance’s friends or family. None of them even stopped by the apartment. Now that was sad.

“We’re still in touch, it’s just that I don’t really...” Lance trailed off, he laid on the floor in front of the couch. Staring at the ceiling, he continued, “His new boyfriend’s name is Adam. He’s so nice... Kind of blunt sometimes, but still. Their relationship is going really well. Sometimes I wish I could be in love like that.”

Keith simply mewed in response. He leaned over the edge to see Lance. Blinking, Keith tried to purr comfortingly. Lance smiled, his gaze directing at the pretty kitty. “Thanks... Anyway...” Lance’s body softened. He sighed and closed his eyes. “Sometimes I wanna just... start over, be in love, get a happy ending. But like Martha said, are there any happy endings?”

Keith kept purring, he huffed and jumped from the couch and onto the space next to Lance. He went on forward and got onto Lance’s chest. Lance looked at him, he let out a breath. Smiling, Lance made a comment, “huh, you’re getting heavy.” Keith got into a comfortable position and laid on Lance’s chest. “Thanks, again. It really seems like you understand,” sniffling a bit, Lance blinked the tears away.

“I love you, my precious pretty kitty...”

[cam-cat-writer]

Klancetober/Fictober Continued

day 22(also a LOT later on here than it was on AO3 but here it is hahahaha bye)

Here on AO3 and under the cut!

      Lance stared at Keith with wide eyes. "You... You're a..." He shook his head as though to clear it.

      Keith nodded slowly. "I'm a vampire, yes. I know I should've told you earlier, but I was a bit worried about how you'd react... Please don't hate me-"

      Lance took Keith's face in his hands and looked him right in the eyes. "I'm not mad, babe." He punctuated the reassurance with a kiss on Keith's nose. "I promise I'm not. I'm just in a bit of shock right now, is all." He proceeded to smooth back Keith's bangs and kiss his forehead before wrapping him in a gentle hug. "A vampire, wow," he chuckled. "You do know how kinky that sounds?" Keith sputtered and pushed himself out of Lance's arms.

      "Lance!"

      A few hours later, the two were cuddled up on the couch in their living room, finishing Tangled- Lance's pick. Keith had his arms wrapped around Lance's waist, and Lance was covering Keith's hands with his own. As the credits started to roll, Lance twisted in Keith's arms until he was facing his boyfriend.

      "Hey Keith?"

      Keith smiled and placed a hand on Lance's cheek, swiping his thumb back and forth under Lance's eye. A fond look settled on his face. "Yeah?"

      "I... I was wondering a few things. And... by that I mean... y'know... Vampire stuff." Lance averted his gaze to Keith's shirt, absently stroking the pattern on the front of it. "And you don't... you don't have to, y'know, answer them or anything, but... I just... there are a few things that I'm kind of realizing now and-"

      Keith pressed a soft kiss to his rambling boyfriend's mouth. "Fire away. I really don't mind, Lance. Ask me anything you want."

      Lance took a deep breath and nodded, biting his lip. He looked up at Keith through his eyelashes, and offered a small smile. "You sure?"

      Keith chuckled quietly, nodding. "I'm sure. Go on, I know you want to."

      Lance breathed a sigh, closing his eyes and nodding a few more times, pausing to collect his thoughts. "Okay." He opened his eyes. "How many of the myths are true? Can you really not see your reflection? What about garlic? If you can't have garlic what have you been doing this entire time when I make garlic knots? Can you do the running thing? Can you teleport? What about the silver thing? Are you actually invincible? What about the wooden stake thing? The whole burning in the sun bit? Oh, what about holy water? Crosses?" Lance finally ran out of breath and stopped talking for a minute, looking up at Keith eagerly.

      Keith couldn't help but laugh. "You're adorable, you know that?" He smiled. "Some of the myths are true, yeah. The reflection one used to be, but they stopped making mirrors backed with silver, and that was the problem all along, so I show up in the mirror now. Something about silver being blessed, and therefore it won't even interact with us." He shrugged, rolling his eyes. "Garlic doesn't hurt me, specifically, just kind of gives me indigestion. But really, who can pass up your garlic knots, they're amazing." Keith started ticking things off on his fingers. "Running thing, no, I can teleport really short distances, I'm working on it, silver does irritate my skin, but it doesn't burn me or anything. I haven't pressed my luck with the whole invincibility thing, since I'm not sure how invincible I am, nor have I been stabbed with a wooden stake... or encountered holy water or crosses, for that matter, but yeah, the sun does give me a pretty severe allergic reaction." He smirked. "There is actually a reason I wear a hoodie every single day of the year and this stupid baseball cap. Between the two, I'm usually alright." He cupped Lance's face again, dropping another kiss on his lips. "Keep 'em comin'."

      Lance grinned. "What about the compulsive counting thing? Do you have to sleep? Or eat? Where do you get your blood? Wait, if you don't have to sleep, do you sleep? Or do you just stare at me all night? Is this why your hands and feet are always so cold? Does anyone else know? Does Shiro know? Were you born a vampire? Can that even happen?"

      Keith smiled as Lance continued to ask questions: endlessly curious, apparently. Lance seemed... interested. Intrigued, fascinated even. And it was completely adorable.

      It was then that Keith decided... maybe this had been a good idea after all.

[theponydins]

WE NEED LANCE'S CUTIE MARK! PLEASE PLEASE

Lance: If I was a small rainbow horse, my cutie mark would be an infinity sign because I’m awesome at everything I do.

[musicanddancingthroughlife]

Shklance -- Protectors (Demon AU)

To start, thanks for the kind messages this last week, guys. I will try to thank ya’ll individually later today, but I wanted to make sure I did it at some point, in case I forget. You guys are incredible and have no idea how much those messages helped me get through last week.

Okay, this is short, late, probs not very good (trust me, I hate myself for this just as much as anyone else could). But I am determined to keep up with my goal, even if I’ve missed it a couple of times. I’m gonna do this. Unfortunately, last week was a mess of trying to recover from my vacation, catching back up on assignments, literally the following Monday we got back started the last week of midterms, which is when I apparently had most of mine, plus my husband got in a car accident so now I’m having to get myself (and him) up even earlier than I usually do for classes so I can take him to work in the next town over and then come back for my classes, and then I have to pick him up when I get off work. In short, guys, I’m leaving the apartment at 6 every morning and getting back at 11 or 12, and then I have homework before I can go to bed and do it again. I’m tired.

Also done complaining. For now XD

ON THE STORY: Okeiiii so this is part of a demon au I forgot I did? Apparently it has two parts, Despair and Kindhearted. I’m pretty sure that’s the order they go in, too, so 5 points to Gryffindor for that. Anyway, here’s another piece!

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              Shiro sprung from the couch, instantly overcome with an overwhelming urge to throw up. He rushed to the nearest bathroom, focused on his need to rid himself of the roiling in his gut, but was foiled by his boyfriend, who was already leaning over the toilet. Talking hurt, but Shiro managed.

              “What the hell is this?” Keith shook his head, turning after a moment to speak with Shiro, but he had already fled to their other bathroom. Really, though, Shiro had a point. There wasn’t much that could knock down a demon like that. The last time he remembered it happening was whenever they accidentally…

              “SHIRO!” Keith stumbled to his feet, weak and shaky. “Where the hell is Lance?!”

              There was a silence before Keith heard a clamber, the slamming of a door, frantic steps coming from their bedroom. Keith launched himself in the same direction he knew Shiro was taking, and, sure enough, they met each other in front of Lance’s door. Shiro hesitated before he gently nudged it open to expose the emptiness behind it. Keith checked his phone. It was after 11, way later than Lance usually tried to stay out when he had a major test in the morning.

              They’d spent all day studying for their midterms the next day.

              “I thought he went out with Pidge and Hunk?” Shiro broke Keith out of his quickly-growing-frantic thoughts.

              Keith bit his lip. “They’d be able to take care of him and make sure Haggar and her witches stay away from him, right? I mean, it took us so long to figure out what was happening to him…”

              They made eye contact, their concern mirroring the other’s. Shiro sighed, “Well, he is still extraordinarily clumsy; I’m sure that’s all it was…” But he sounded unsure, and they both knew that probably wasn’t what had happened. Keith groaned.

The next fifteen minutes were some of the worst Keith had ever experienced. They spent most of it on their phones, desperately calling and texting Hunk, Pidge, and Lance himself. With each vacant ring, they found themselves tensing more and more. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before they heard shuffling at the door, and they both flung themselves in that direction. Though somehow Shiro managed to “fling” himself much more slowly and carefully. Keith didn’t give a fuck. He was going to find their human.

              Upon reaching the door, Keith barely even paused before he swung it open, both shocked and unsurprised to find Lance cradled carefully in Hunk’s sure arms. “What happened?” he demanded, rushing to relieve Hunk of the precious weight.

              “Someone spiked his drink.” Pidge’s grim reply, coupled with flashing eyes, made Shiro’s tail lash from its bindings, black smoke swirling around his hands.

              “Nothing happened to him,” Hunk rushed.

              Shiro stared incredulously. “Are you kidding me? He can’t even focus on what we’re saying right now!”

              Hunk winced. Pidge didn’t even blink, the stupid little gremlin. Her second set of eyes opened, making the stare down twice as intense. “But he’s safe, he’s whole, and nobody hurt him. He’s home now, and you and Keith are going to take care of him. Right?”

              Keith bristled at the challenge. “I’d like to see someone try and stop us!” As he turned to whisk Lance upstairs, Hunk stopped him.

              “Keith… take care of him, all right? He’s important to me.”

              A solemn nod. “Hunk, I would die again before I let anything happen to Lance, I swear to you.” A whisper of black smoke rose from his mouth at the words, and Shiro shook his head. “Keith, you are lucky demons aren’t actually bound to their promises, you moron.”

              Keith gasped indignantly, though they could all hear the laughter hiding in his voice when he responded with, “Take that back, you fluffy wombat! I would absolutely die for Lance, and you can’t stop me!”

              Hunk’s giggles were cut off when Lance began to stir, whimpering lightly in protest at… something. Keith had no idea. He shot Shiro a panicked look.

              “All right, Hunk, Pidge. Thank you for bringing him back. We’ll have him call you tomorrow to let you know how everything turned out, don’t worry. For now, we need to get him taken care of.” And with a quick round of goodbyes, their friends saw themselves out while Shiro turned to his boys. And yes. They were his boys. Even if 50% of them didn’t know they were, Shiro would be blessed before he would let anyone hurt either of them. He put a hand on Keith’s lower back, guiding him and their lovely boy to their room, where they could easily keep an eye on Lance and make sure he recovers from whatever drug he had been given. Nothing else mattered.

              They had a human to take care of.

[musicanddancingthroughlife]

Shklance - Despair

              “SHIRO!” Keith stormed his way into their home, Shiro not even bothering to glance up from the book he was quickly thumbing through, his barbed tail flicking distractedly. Keith stepped in front of him, arms crossed in exasperation. "What’s with the new roommate?!”

              “Oh yeah,” Shiro’s flicked up to meet the other’s, memorizing his page number before setting the book aside, “we got a new roommate. Surprise.”

              “But why?” Keith pressed.

              Shiro’s lips pursed. “Did you not see the guy? Poor kid’s desperate. It’ll be easy to feed off him. Plus, we’ve accidentally chased off our last four roommates. Hopefully Lance is desperate enough that no matter what we throw at him, he’ll stick around for a while longer.” Shiro eyed his lover. Keith was biting his lip, eyes averted, body language suggesting discomfort, which wasn’t unusual for him, but it was still… curious.

              “I just thought-“ Keith broke off, spinning on his heel and huffing out a breath. Shiro teleported in front of him, grasping his upper arms tightly and preventing him from escaping. “Keith.” And in the face of his boyfriend’s quiet determination, Keith found himself spilling.

              “He’s cute. And you’re right; he is desperate. It… it hurts.” Shiro’s face softened. Keith was still new to this, and while he usually didn’t let his emotions get the better of him, Shiro was glad to see that exceptions could still be made. It was good that he hadn’t lost this small spark of humanity. “Keith. You know we won’t let it get out of hand. Just a few small scares, doors slamming and crashes at night. That kind of thing. We wouldn’t ever hurt him.” Reluctantly, Keith nodded, closed his eyes briefly, offered Shiro a tremulous smile.

              Shiro took a deep breath. They could do this, easy.

                Lance didn’t understand it. He was just so clumsy. It had caused more than one problem with previous friends, roommates, and even lovers. Yet after maybe a week of small accidents, he hadn’t had a single problem. It was more obvious in the house. Those problems he usually caused, such as small fires, doorknobs breaking off, accidentally locking his keys in his house, etc., had yet to really trouble him. And interestingly enough, Shiro and Keith seemed to pay him more attention than really warranted that of a housemate, a third wheel. (He didn’t care what they said, they were absolutely in a relationship. And he didn’t know why they could possibly feel a need to lie about it.)

              But even outside home, he’d never gone more than a couple of days without sustaining burns on his hands (and sometimes even elsewhere on his body, when he was especially clutzy and spilled coffee all down his front. School had even become hazardous to his health, before his new living arrangements. It wasn’t uncommon to have a near-death experience of some kind at least once a week. Lance knew it had really only been about he’d been living accident-free, but it didn’t dampen his optimism about the situation.

              After all, you had to take the victories where you could get them, right?

                Keith and Shiro could only stare in shock. How… the hell was this kid so fucking clumsy??? “…is he cursed???” Keith finally asked in amazement. Lance’s despair and misery had hit the point where they couldn’t even feed from him anymore; it was just making them sick. Keith couldn’t tell if that was cause it had become too much at once, or if it was just too… strong, but it was making life harder. And those few times in which Lance had felt like a winner, and they had felt a surge of triumph shoot through him, it had tasted… good. Better than his despair had. And wasn’t that the weird part? Demons normally fed on despair, yet somehow this kid had such strong emotions it was overwhelming, and his positive emotions were more nourishing than his fear. Shiro didn’t want to think about what that might mean. He forced himself to instead focus on what Keith had just asked.

              “Maybe…? I wouldn’t… be surprised.” It had barely been over a week since Lance had come to live with them, and yet Shiro had never found a human who struggled as much as this one did. Though you couldn’t tell for talking to him. If Shiro and Keith weren’t demons, they probably would’ve been deceived by his bright and vibrant attitude. And Shiro knew that Keith found him attractive; they both had already established their interest in their young roommate. They were hoping to pull him into their relationship as their third lover, but Lance appeared uninterested. They knew this wasn’t true, but it was something they needed to work on.

              Keith suddenly hissed and dug his nails into Shiro’s arm, just as the door rattled. Shiro saw a flash and realized Lance had left his keys in his room again. Shiro sighed, waving his arm to unlock the front door and let Lance in before he realized his streak of good luck was over. Keith rolled his eyes as they heard Lance talk to Red, Keith’s kitten. Despite his attempts to get Lance to stop training her “the wrong way”, Lance had continued to tell her all about his day. Shiro found it endearing.

              “-and then the car completely swerved and didn’t even hit me! Can you believe that? I mean, I’ve only been hit a couple of times, usually they only graze me, but this one looked like it was dead set on hitting me and there was nothing I could do about it, and then it missed! Completely!” The laugh that followed was as bright as anything else Lance did, yet Keith and Shiro could only blink at each other in horror. Their boy had been hit by a car? Multiple times??? Shiro opened their link, ‘Did you pin a talisman to his bag?’

              ‘And sealed one to his person, in case he somehow managed to lose his bag.’

              ‘Good. He’s gonna need the extra protection.’

And Shiro was going to do his damnedest to figure out what was happening to Lance.

[musicanddancingthroughlife]

Shklance -- Kindhearted

Wow this was rough guys. Idk how many of you actually look forward to or wait for updates, but I literally got food poisoning yesterday so I was up all night being sick and gross in the bathroom. Spent today recovering, but I did spent some hours working on this I suppose. It’s late and not my favorite but it was fun and I think I did okay idk lol. I realize it doesn’t exactly fit with the last one like it, but I’m playing with the universe, trying to figure out the rules. If you have an opinion of which you liked better, feel free to share cause I’m doing this pretty much blind lol

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              See, demons just get a bad rep. They can’t help what they are any more than werewolves or vampires, or the boring “normal” humans. And really, what makes them normal? To Keith, this was normal. It was normal to feed on the discomfort and pain of humans. However, Keith was one of those demons who chose to live among humans and feed off their everyday worries rather than cause mayhem himself. Yet another reason why Shiro loved his kind heart so much. It was more common than most humans seemed to think was possible, but it wasn’t an easy thing to develop or retain. Hell, not even all humans were capable of kindness.

              Still, while Keith was a sweet guy, Shiro was a little surprised by how quickly he befriended their new roommate. It was understandable, though. With Lance around, they were less irritable, not as starving as they had been in the past. The kid was clumsier than anything else, constantly tripping over books he accidentally left scattered on the floor, walking face first into doors, and one memorable night, Lance had come home late covered in cuts and bruises. Despite Shiro’s gentle prodding and Keith’s demands to know what had happened, Lance refused to talk and disappeared into his room to bandage his own wounds. While the pain should’ve probably tasted good, it was too much for Keith and Shiro. They would’ve preferred to know that Lance was safe.

And that was the whole of it, wasn’t it? Lance was just like a bright ray of sunshine.

              He had the worst luck of anyone they had ever met before, but it never seemed to get him down. He laughed his way through his accidents, and ran at life with an enthusiasm that Shiro and Keith found themselves thrilled to watch. They wanted to preserve that, to protect that with everything they had. Keith had taken to walking Lance to his classes, and Shiro would join him in the kitchen in the evenings, exchanging recipes and helping to prepare dinner and then Keith would join them in the cleanup after. It was new to Shiro and Keith, but they loved it.

              So when Lance came home again, with even more cuts and bruises, a busted lip, a pronounced limp, and one arm clutching desperately at his side, to say Keith and Shiro were concerned would be a definite understatement.

              Nope, they were livid.

              “Lance, what the hell happened?!” Lance scowled, and even though it wasn’t directed at him, Shiro felt a definite need to take a step back from the ferocity facing him.

              “Why should you care, Keith?” Keith jerked back, and Lance’s face softened, regret slipping through the harsh expression of earlier. Shiro risked moving closer to Lance, placing a hand on his shoulder. Despite his silent apology to Keith, Lance still shook him off, attempting to push past them to head up to his own room.

              “Yeah, no, I don’t think so,” Keith all but snarled. Somehow (Shiro suspected some of his daemon magic was being used) he managed to grasp Lance by his jacket, pulling him around and shoving him back onto their couch. Lance spluttered.

“Keith, what, what the hell? Knock it off!” When he moved to get off the couch and dart to his room, however, Keith growled again, pushing Lance back forcefully and then clambering on his lap to pin him in place. Shiro was amused to see this had the added benefit of silencing Lance, making it much easier for him to check him over without any fuss or argument. Lance turned steadily redder as Keith gently clasped his chin and turned his face side to side to check on the cuts marring his face. Shiro knelt and looked Lance’s leg over, grateful to find he’d just bruised it somehow. But seriously, what in the world had happened this time?

 Lance was blue-screening. All he could see was static. Okay, that was a lie. All he could see what Keith, but this intimate proximity was killing him. How the hell was he so pretty? Why was he so pretty? Allura had warned him Keith and Shiro were probably supernaturals, possibly dragons or demons… were they drop dead gorgeous to lure in prey??? Or maybe they were drop dead gorgeous cause they were dead… Lance was jerked from his thoughts when he realized Keith was now trying to strip him.

“Hey, damn it, knock that off!” Lance tried to buck Keith off him but quickly regretted it when that caused pain to shoot through his ankle and ribs. Stupid Zethrid. Lance eased back down on the couch with a small groan. He felt cool hands settle gently on his face, easing through his hair, soothing voices urging him to breathe. As he focused on even breaths, Shiro gently eased him forward, one hand firm around his wrist, and the other supporting his back. Keith grabbed Lance’s other wrist and then worked his jacket off, quickly followed by his shirt. Lance squeezed his eyes shut tightly. He couldn’t help it. These idiots had been bugging (bullying) him for years now. And he couldn’t even handle that on his own. Useless as always.

He heard a gasp from Keith, and short hitching of breath from Shiro behind him. “Oh, Lance,” and why the hell did Shiro sound so sad, that wasn’t even fair. Keith let out a huff and then shuffled enough for Shiro to tug him sideways, both keeping a hold of his wrists and shoulders, which was smart because the minute he felt Keith move, he had tensed and readied himself to make a break for his room. Whatever Keith and Shiro were, they were freaky strong.

                Once they had Lance completely stretched out on the couch, his body seemed to realize this was a good place to give up, and he fell asleep almost instantly. Keith shook his head, shocked to see the mottled blue and purple bruises stretching across this kid’s chest and back.

              “I’m gonna grab the first aid kit. I’ll be right back.” Keith nodded, offering him a quick kiss before he left the room and Keith focused again on Lance. Even in his sleep, he appeared to be in pain, mouth twisting up, fists clenching and relaxing again. Keith sighed, running gentle fingers up and down Lance’s arm, rubbing at his temples, scratching lightly at his scalp, tugging softly at strands of hair. He felt contentment ease from Lance, brighter than anything. It felt good. It felt right.

              And almost an hour later, after Shiro and Keith had finished patching Lance up and had managed to comfortably situate Lance in his bed and had taken up a near-silent vigil over him, Keith finally voiced what had been bugging him.

              “Shiro, why wouldn’t he come to us if he needed help?”

“I mean. If it makes you feel any better, I think you were right.” Keith glanced up at him, tears glittering in his eyes, fingers tangling once again in Lance’s soft curls. “I’m pretty sure he was cursed.”