In which Paladins Prince Alonso and Sergeant Kyrian had to fake a wedding to prevent a planet-level civil war.
A very very late gift for @crystalklances! heres an altean prince lance and galra keith for all ur fake couple trope needs! happy new years boi i hope ull be blessed and happy always!
This is my secret santa piece for @kinkypoptarte ! I really hope you like it! Your art has inspired me so much, so I immediately knew I had to draw your witch! au. They’ve been hanging around Pidge a lot, hence all the plants (and I really felt like drawing them xD).
So I signed up for the klance exchange a while back and got @tiredpidgeon ! You asked for some hurt/comfort and that’s what I went for. I really hope you like it!
(Fic under the cut, 2′700 words)
that’s good to know
It had been a close call. Way too close, if you were to ask Keith.
He felt sweaty and tired, and he was guessing the rest of the team was only able to speak so loudly because of the adrenaline of having survived the battle.
"That surely was a tough mission." Allura commented with a smile in her face. She still tried to keep her good political posture but Keith could see that her back was slightly hunched, and there were small transparent drops of liquid travelling down her forehead. So Alteans sweat too.
The door to the Bridge opened and they were met by Shiro and Coran, looking at them with a mix of relief and pride.
"You all did very well out there." Shiro said in his fatherly sounding tone, looking at each of them individually. As soon as their eyes met, Keith looked away, staring at some corner in the room instead.
He couldn't agree less with Shiro; they had been sloppy. The mission could have went way better and been finished a lot quicker. If only I was able to lead them better.
"Hell yeah! We were awesome!" Hunk suddenly shouted, making Keith flinch and look back up.
If anyone was truly only standing thanks to adrenaline, it was Hunk. His speech was louder and faster than usual, which is what normally happened when he was panicking before a mission.
Hunk kept speaking, frantically moving his hands at the same time. "I really didn't think we would make it for a moment there but look at us! We turned the tables on them and- oh man, Shiro- you should have been there! You should have seen it!" He paused for a single second, changing his tone to be slightly more serious. "No seriously man, you really should have been there. You are still our best fighter, it really would have made our life a lot easier."
Shiro smiled sheepishly. "I will make sure to go along on one of the lions if it ever looks like we are going to face such danger."
Pidge smirked proudly. "Either way, I agree with Hunk's previous statement that we, were indeed, awesome" She pushed her glasses up with a single finger, that devious smile made Keith fear her sometimes. "I think I set a new record time at transcribing galra documents."
Returning to his previous excitement, Hunk mirrored Pidge's smirk. "And you actually managed to knock one of them out while doing it!" Then Hunk turned to Allura. "-And Allura! You keep getting better and better at using your whip thingy, that move you did like- shoosh and slash." He said while swinging his arms around, trying to somewhat imitate somewhat Allura moves, which made the others in the room laugh. "And then there was Lance! The way he got between Keith and that sniper and dodged the bullet and then fired! Buddy you were-"Hunk turned around to speak to Lance directly only to realize that Lance wasn't there. He dropped his hands and frowned. "Wait, where is Lance?"
The room went silent as everyone shared similar confused looks between them.
Keith was aware that he was the only one that knew the answer. Kind of.
While everyone had been chatting on their way to the Bridge, Keith had been deep in his thoughts about the mission. How he could have done a better job, how someone could have gotten seriously hurt, how it would have been his fault...
Briefly interrupting these thoughts, he noticed Lance acting weird. He had been following behind everyone else, in odd silence, and from the corner of his field of vision, Keith saw him parting ways without saying a thing. If it was a normal day he would have called Lance out but after their last conversation he didn't feel like he had the right to question Lance actions.
The memory of Lance offering to leave Voltron replayed on his head. It hurt to remember it, and it hurt more to think his words didn't help at all.
Keith stepped forward and spoke up. "I will go find Lance. You should all go rest and we can go over the mission later."
He didn't wait for a confirmation or a reply as he started making his way out of the Bridge, only briefly catching Shiro saying "Let's do what Keith said-" the doors closed, cutting Shiro off.
As he walked through the halls, keeping an eye out for Lance, Keith wondered what he could even say to Lance once he found him. Good job out there? Thank you for saving me? See how much we need you on the team, we would have failed without you? He shook his head, nothing sounded right, nothing sounded honest enough. Please don't do that again, for a moment I thought the bullet had hit you and I am scared of losing you. You mean more to me than you can imagine.. I think I love-
Keith stopped in his tracks, staring at the ground.
He blinked once and then blinked twice.
There was something on the ground.
Small dark red spots of-
Blood.
Keith started running.
---
Lance felt like a mess with a mix of failure.
Everyone else had turned out just fine, sure they all had suffered a few scratches here and there, but that was nothing compared to Lance. Lance, who actually managed to get himself shot. What a joke.
Thinking twice, maybe Keith wouldn't have turned out fine if it wasn't for Lance, but he still believed that Keith would have found a way to reflect the bullet with this sword or some cool junk like that. He is Keith after all.
Not that Lance regretted putting himself in the way. Not in the slightest, he would do it all over again if necessary considering it meant making sure that Keith would be safe. However, he still felt pathetic.
Currently half limping down the halls, with his right hand at his left side, as a poor excuse clogging up the wound. It wasn't too deep in his opinion, just losing a bit of blood is all, which he should probably stop from flowing as soon as he can.
Frustrated at the weight of his armor, Lance stopped only briefly to slip out of the top of his armor, leaving it abandoned in the hallway.
Someone will probably complain about that later, for giving them more work, unless... they notice the bloody handprint on the white metal, and then... they would instead complain for not telling them he was injured.
He made a mental note to come retrieve the armor piece before anyone found it.
And so step by step, trying to not trip on himself, with a hand against the wall for support, he kept on walking, while thinking over his options for where he should go.
The wound wasn't too deep, so he could probably just go to his room, grab some cloth and stop the bleeding properly, however he wouldn't be fully healed and someone could notice eventually. Meanwhile, if he went to the pods he could put his trust on Altean technology, but someone was bound to find out that he used the pods, most likely Coran.
Either way it didn't seem like it would be easy to keep it a secret. He groaned in frustration.
Before he could make a decision, someone shouted his name, echoing on the hallway, stopped him in his tracks. "Lance!"
Lance froze, swearing internally. He clenched harder at his side, hoping somehow that it would fix the wound, but instead it just made him hiss in pain. Giving up, he turned around, crossing his arms, trying to play it cool and hide his wound.
It was then he realized who had called for him. "Oh." He hadn't expected Keith of all people to be the one trying finding him. "Hey man, what's up? Is this about the mission?"
"I- you are hurt." Keith said, gasping for air, his expression was painted in worry.
He considering his available moves, how he could get out of this without revealing more than he wanted. "Psch, no I'm not. We were all incredible and owned that fight."
"Lance I saw the blood."
"What blood? Are you sure that wasn't just red goo?" Lance blatantly lied and Keith wasn't buying it in the slightest. His frown only deepened at his words, Lance tried to joke around. "Hey c'mon, stop with that face, you will get wrinkles you know? And you have your pretty face going on, it would be a shame to ruin it."
"Pretty? Wha- wait no that's-, " Lance smirked as he saw Keith cheeks darken slightly, unfortunately however, his expression didn't change at all. "Lance you are injured you have to go to a pod!"
Lance sighed in defeat and shrugged. "It's really not that big of an injury, just a scratch."
"You should have said something."
"I don't want to be bothering all of you with my problems more than necessary."
"Lance you-! You- aren't bothering anyone, we care about you-" Keith paused, biting his lip. "I care about you and... and if this is somehow about you being the weakest, then you are wrong."
"What?" Lance laughed. "You honestly think I'm not the weakest Keith?" He asked amused with a raised eyebrow. "Name a single person on this team that is weaker than me. Coran doesn't count by the way."
"I- there is no one, we are all a team, there isn't weaker or stronger."
Lance felt anger twirling inside him, he knew that Keith was only trying to help, he knew he shouldn't be angry, but he couldn't help it. "Don't lie to me Keith." Lance snarled. "Not you of all people."
"I'm not lying!" Keith replied on a tone that matched his own.
Lance really didn't want to argue over this. Not with Keith, who he unfortunately had a hopeless crush on, that he knew it would never work out. He still didn't want Keith to know how pathetic he really was.
But he was too tired to keep up his facade.
He breathed in and out slowly. "Then tell me, Keith. Why I'm the only one who got hurt." His voice was trembling as he felt the sting of tears forming at the corner of his eyes. Keith didn't say a word. "I am weaker than all of you, Keith. You said things would work themselves out but I still think I should just leave, Shiro should be a paladin, not me." He stared at the ground, tightening his arms around himself, as if giving a hug to himself. "This team would be better off without me."
Lance waited for Keith to reply, to agree with him and leave possibly. When he heard nothing, he looked up to find Keith staring at him, sadness evident in his face, it was a weird look on Keith; and when he spoke, Lance was taken by surprise at how soft his words were. "Now that's a lie" He was only loud enough for Lance to be able to hear. "We would never be better off without you, you are important to this team lance." He smiled. "Our sharpshooter, right? You literally just saved my life."
"You could have dodged that."
"I had my back turned to the sniper, I had no way of knowing. Also you got hurt not because you are weak but because you are a self sacrificing idiot." Lance couldn't find it in himself to disagree with that. "This is my fault, I wasn't clear enough last time we spoke, I don't know how to talk to people."
Lance stopped breathing then, as he felt Keith's gloved hand against his cheek. He didn't try to pull away and Keith kept going.
"I don't know how to talk to people but I am being as honest as I can be when I say that team Voltron wouldn't exist without you."
Lance smiled weakly. "Who are you and what did you do with Keith?" Lance tried to joke, though there were still tears coming from his eyes.
Keith rolled his eyes slightly, laughing softly and Lance fell in love with the sound. "Don't be a jerk, I'm trying."
"I'm not special Keith, I really am not. All I did was learn how to shoot and practiced it a little harder on that than the rest of you... That's the thing, I had to learn, but the rest of you all had natural talent. You are all so... special... And it's been like this my whole life you know? My siblings were older and better than me, on the Garrison I only got in because you flunked out, and now I'm just a poor excuse of a pilot for red. I can't pilot her like you... I can't be you."
"Lance you are way better than me, your shooting skills are honestly worth a lot more than we give them credit for, you can actually talk to the others, you put the team above yourself and look out for everyone, even me... You believe in me to do a job that not even I think I can do."
Lance smiled softly. "Because it's the truth, you can do it. I know you can, all you need is- nh-" Suddenly a sharp pain cut him off, he instinctively hunched forward, slipping away from Keith's hold.
He felt Keith grabbing onto his shoulder. "Lance, we really should be getting you to a pod."
"Okay yeah, I guess this wasn't the best moment for a heartfelt chat." His vision was becoming hazzy, and he felt like he was drowning, it was almost peaceful.
He let himself be guided by Keith and everything else became a blur.
---
After putting Lance inside a pod and making sure that everything was working properly, Keith sat down besides his pod.
He thought over their conversation, wondering if he had done any mistakes. He hated how hard it was for him to express himself better around people.
Lance had believed in him more than anyone else when the Black Lion chose him, and he had been there for Keith. Everyone in his life who had been close to him had left him alone at some point or another. His mom, his dad... Shiro.
He didn't want Lance to be like the rest of them.
When Lance woke up after a few minutes, he stumbled out of the pod, only managing to not fall on the ground by holding onto the pod.
Keith observed silently as Lance looked around the room, stopping when their eyes met. "Hey... uh." Lance rubbed his eyes, obviously still dazed. "Did you... wait the whole time I was on the pod?"
"Yes."
"Did the others find out about uh... me?
"No, I also went to get your armor." He pointed at the said piece in a corner, with his own next to it."
"Oh, thank you..." An awkward silence set in the room. "This is kind of awkward now."
Keith slowly got up, faced Lance, and then placed his arms firmly around Lance, hugging him.
"And it keeps getting more awkward alright."
"I don’t know my way around words like you do, so I don't know what is the right thing to say, and I don't know if what I said earlier helped in any way but I need you to know that you are important. I can't pretend like I know what the rest of the team thinks but you are important to me at least." He stopped briefly. "Please don't think about leaving."
Keith was nervous in the silence that followed, anxiously waiting for a reply. Slowly he got his answer, as Lance raised his arms and put them around Keith, returning the hug, Keith relaxed.
He could feel Lance shivering under hands, and then he heard the sniffs, realizing that Lance was crying.
They stayed like that for a while. Keith didn't know how long, could have been second, could have been half an hour.
"Thank you Keith..."Lance sniffed again. "Sorry for ruining your suit."
"I don't care that much about it."
Lance went silent and Keith had no idea what could be going through his mind, but something told him that there was something he wanted to say.
Eventually, Lance did speak again, his tone raspy and quiet, almost too soft to ear. "If I told you I love you, would you start hating me?"
Keith only took one second to think before replying. "I doubt it, considering I love you too."
Lance chuckled and Keith smiled at the sound. "Well, that's good to know."
