for a prompt ( if you wanna do it) imagine Lance sparring against an enemy, and they turn it into a but of an emotional battle targeting his fears and trying to wear him down and win this battle. Lance wins the battle but the insecurities are drilled in and the depression is strong and he kinda just has Pidge who shows up and kinda just acts all sisterly to try and help.
Hello! I’m sorry this took so long—I’ve had a lot of event pieces to do recently—but I figured it was time to fill a prompt or two again so here we are! I hope you enjoy this, and thanks for sending the request in!
Lance stared the soldier in the face, seeing his sneer while Pidge’s lithe hands worked at her bounds. At the least, that was what Lance assumed she was doing. She was a devious little thing, worming her way out of all sorts of unsavory predicaments.
“The red paladin, wearing blue armor, the pretty face that plays on a rope and doesn’t actually do anything to help his teammates,” the soldier crowed, locking blades with Lance, who was still getting used to the impressive length and weight of it in his calloused palms.
“Shut up,” Lance growled, ducking to avoid a blow and roll around to put his back to Pidge. He’d buy her as much time as possible, but what his current opponent lacked in physical presence–Lance noted that he was quite a bit thinner than other soldiers he’d seen–he made up for in his barbs, harsh and unrelenting.
“Everyone knows it. Cowards talk in the break rooms about how the blue paladin isn’t a threat, that if they ever were to engage in combat with a paladin, they’d hope it was with them for an easy victory.” Lance gritted his teeth and masked his discomfort at the words with a blow from his sword that cut into the soldier’s side.
“Idiots, the whole lot of you,” he ground out. “Besides, any one of us could take down a soldier easily. The second Voltron shows up, you should just save yourself the trouble of fighting and run.” The soldier swung down despite how Lance had wounded him and the blood seeping from out under his armor. His blade narrowly missed Lance’s shoulder, who turned away a second before the swing hit its mark, and with a deft turn of his own weapon sent the sword clattering from his paws. The Galra roared in rage, and Lance gulped as he watched the claws tipping its fingers elongate. Those were always a threat, no matter how small the opponent.
Lance raised his sword, ready to bring it down if need be.
“Yield, and we can get this over with easier.” The soldier kept speaking.
“You are nothing, paladin. You will be the first of your ilk to die, and if not, then you will be the catalyst for the demise of your teammates.” Lance flinched, and the soldier’s claws went to his own throat.
“Vrepit-”
A sizzling filled the air and Pidge’s bayard had the hand falling to the ground unceremoniously while the creature’s face contorted and he fell onto his face.
“That’s enough of that. We’ll have to get him to Lotor, emperor and all. He’ll decide what to do with him.” Pidge kicked the fallen warrior’s side, perhaps a bit harder than what was strictly necessary. It would be an extraordinary stroke of luck if he woke up and didn’t have a bruise from it. Lance, now that the heat of the battle had passed, let the words the soldier had hurled his way sink in. His free hand clenched tightly into a fist. Pidge didn’t appear to have noticed, or at least not for the moment.
“What a douche. Kinda’ skinny too–I bet all the other Galra made fun of him.” She poked his cheek, but when Lance didn’t respond she looked up.
“Lance?” Lance stared at the ground. Was he really useless? If their enemy realized it in the limited time they’d been exposed to him, what did his teammates think of him? His eyes began to get a little shiny, and Pidge walked over to him, putting her hands on his arms. That got Lance’s attention. Pidge was not, as a general statement, touchy.
“Lance, you don’t really believe anything he said, do you?” Lance shrugged noncommittally.
“It makes sense. I mean, I’m not really good at close combat yet, and being a sharpshooter is nice and all, but-” Pidge, as brash as she normally was, shook her head.
“Nope.” Lance frowned.
“Pidge, you can’t deny what he said. If the enemy is even talking about it,” he trailed off, and still wouldn’t make eye contact.
“Then the enemy is even dumber than we first thought.” Lance brightened up a bit at that, giggling like he did when he wasn’t in the mood to laugh but couldn’t help himself. Pidge wasn’t done. “Look, I’m not super great with words–that’s Allura’s thing–but you’re valuable to Voltron, to the team, and to me. Who cares what a single soldier says, anyway? He was trying to distract you in battle. He could’ve been lying, and even if he wasn’t,” Pidge smiled wolfishly and Lance reminded himself why he slept with one eye open, “Give them a small reminder about why you’re a paladin, right here.” One hand went off his arm and poked at the space between his brows.
Lance stared at her, and Pidge patted his arm with the same smile as she hooked her hands under the soldier’s arms and started to drag him off.
“Now come and help me. He’s heavy and I want a massage from one of the attendants. My hands are sore.”
Summary: Voltron is heading home. Except, for Keith, the destination of Earth isn’t his home, not really. There’s no one waiting for him there. And, he tries to tell himself, that it’s not like the space family he'd made up here with Voltron would abandon him as they go seek out their own loved ones on Earth. But he’s so used to being left behind, forgotten, why should this time be any different? Fortunately, Pidge is right there to remind Keith just how much he belongs with all of them.
Story snippet:
Keith could feel it.
Everything was going to change.
And as much as he tried to deny it, as much as he told himself he was jumping to conclusions…
He could already feel them starting to pull away and maybe… maybe it was better to be the first one to leave. Just like he had before. Leave them before they could leave him as everyone always did—
“What are you doing?”
Keith barely refrained from jumping and even worse letting out any sort of shout of complete and utter both surprise and terror and settling on a sort of gasping noise and whirling around as he hadn’t even heard Pidge approaching let alone seen her despite the fact she had done nothing to camouflage herself and Pidge’s smirk as she realized she’d startled him said it all.
But within the second it was sliding away to be replaced with a narrowed set of eyes and Pidge repeated her question, less amused sounding than before. “What are you doing?”
“Um,” Keith resisted the urge to shift on his feet, “I was filling the canteens.”
“Yeah, which you should have put over there,” Pidge jerked her head in the direction of the Lions. “But you’re here,” she gestured at the treeline outside the campfire’s light and not entirely on trail from the stream he’d been at, “and honestly looking like a bit serial killer stalking your next victim.”
“I do not,” Keith muttered, crossing his arms defensively and looking away.
Pidge sidled up to him and gave him a gentle for her nudge with her shoulder. “What’s going on?” she asked quietly, all joking gone.
New Fic: Interlude: What Makes Us Different (But Also Human)
Part of the Human Nature series.
Summary: Where Pidge and Keith discuss what about their heritages of android and Galran are the same, different, and discover how truly human they actually are.
Story snippet:
“Are you tired?” she asked quieter.
She could only imagine. He’d had the trials with the Blade of Marmora that morning that had been both physically and emotionally draining, then the whole thing with Allura in the hallway, the cryo-pod and yeah, she’d be exhausted too.
He gave a short nod. “Can’t sleep,” he said quietly and his hands — sans gloves, one of the few times she could recall seeing him without them — tightened to white-knuckles around his mug.
“Come watch a movie with me,” Pidge said, the suggestion out of her mouth before she could think it through but that was perfect actually. “If you can’t sleep, you can at least focus on something else other than,” she tapped her head, “everything else. And maybe the nice, dark room with ambient sound and comfy, squishy couch pillows and blankets will make you oh so sleepy.”
Keith’s lips quirked up the barest bit. “Hercules?”
“Duh,” Pidge grinned back at him. “Plus the young Hercules sort of sounds like Shiro, don’t you think? And it’ll be like he’s singing us a bedtime lullaby.”
Keith did let out a laugh then — a real one that crinkled his eyes — even as he shook his head and Pidge’s grin widened.
Summary: They’d been told that the guest houses were supposed to keep them safe from the deadly low temperatures of the planet. And while for Pidge that is indeed the case, she learns it’s not so for Lance as she’s awoken by a projection of pure terror from the Blue Lion, who can sense her Paladin dying. And now as Pidge hurries to Lance’s guest house and finds him so so cold and still, she can only hope she’s not too late.
Prompt: Lance + Hypothermia + Pidge
Written for my Patreon membership drive. Available to Chai Tea + Tiers.
