Voltron Legendary Defender - Shining Like the Stars [23] [Shklance]

[scriveyner]

Title: shining like the stars [23]
Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender
AU: slts
Characters/Pairing: Shiro/Keith/Lance, Team Voltron
Rating: M
Length: 1313
Summary:



Pidge sat on the floor in front of the memory core. She had wanted the thing moved to the green lion's hanger, where she had set up a nest of monitors and wires and various computer systems, but it had been a nightmare enough getting it to the training room, so in the training room the memory core stayed. She'd lugged up most of her equipment and now sat, monitors on either side of her and a bevy of wires and other calibration devices ensconcing the pillar.

Trying to find some measurable scale with which to further delve into the inner workers of the memory core was proving utterly futile; and every now and then Allura would check in on her and say something patronizing about magic that set Pidge's teeth on edge. There was no such thing as magic; just things science had yet to explain!

"What the heck are you trying to do over here, anyway?" Lance said, and Pidge looked up from her data and blinked owlishly.

The others had been using the training room to work out and spar, which Pidge knew she should be involving herself in – but mystery pillar with mysteries to crack – but she'd been so involved that she'd clearly forgotten. She looked up at Lance, who was wearing a black tee shirt that was a little too loose on him, and frowned. "Trying to figure out if this thing will be any use to us," she said, and hit a few keys. "What did you do to trigger it?"

"I didn't do anything," Lance said hotly. "I only touched it!" He wiped his hand back along his forehead into his hair, still breathing a little hard. "It was lighting up, remember?"

"Only you saw that," Pidge muttered mostly under her breath. "Could you touch it for me again? I want to measure any readings it might give off."

"Hell no!"

She shrugged. "It's for science?"

"No, Pidge." Lance shook his head. "Not in a million years."

Pidge squinted at Lance. "Are you wearing Keith's shirt?"

"NO," Lance said a little loudly. "Keith is wearing Keith's shirt, this was just in the drawer in our room! The ship provides shit, remember?"

"'Our' room?" Pidge repeated with a wicked grin, pushing her glasses up her nose.

Lance opened his mouth and shut it a few times, doing a marvelous impression of a fish at feeding time. "That's dirty pool," he muttered, then inclined his head. "Shiro wants us to work on defensive maneuvers, and that means all of us."

"All right, all right," she said. "Give me a few to finish up this program so it can run without supervision, and I'll be right over."

#

Lance and Hunk were standing off to one side of the training mat, half watching what was occurring on the mat, half watching the chrono on Hunk's phone pad. Pidge watched Shiro and Keith spar for a good ninety seconds – Shiro had Keith in a headlock, currently, but somehow Keith wriggled out of it and they kept going – before looking at Hunk's phone. "What time?"

"They've been at it for eleven minutes now," Hunk said, impressed and a little bit scared.

Pidge shrugged and watched them wrestle for another minute longer, before looking over at Lance. "So," she said, a grin spreading slowly. "Is that what it's like between you and Keith in bed? I figure it would be over by now-"

"Oh god, stop talking," Lance said, and turned red.

Hunk looked up from his timekeeping to look at Lance, then to the wrestling on the mat, where Keith had gotten Shiro's human arm twisted behind him but wasn't holding it well. "Are you imagining them, you know..."

Pidge looked back to the mat and cocked her head. "Well, now I am," she said, and Lance abruptly sat down cross-legged, beet red.

"What did I ever do to you two?" he sulked, arms folded.

Abruptly, from the mat Keith let out a breathy, pained groan and all three of them looked to see Shiro pinning Keith face-first into the mat. Keith wiggled underneath Shiro's weight, face deeply red but Shiro had him pinned well and he wasn't going anywhere. "Do you yield?" Shiro said clearly, although he was staring down at Keith and breathing very hard.

"Not a fucking chance," Keith snarled and wriggled and tried to get free.

"I don't think they remember we're here," Hunk said, turning faintly pink as Shiro lowered his head closer to Keith's and adjusted his body slightly.

"Yield," Shiro ordered, and even Pidge turned pink at his tone.

Keith growled and wiggled and then let out another breathy gasp before finally croaking, "I yield, I yield."

Without hesitation Shiro rolled off of Keith, and stood up, wiping his hands on his trousers and then looking at the others arrayed at the edge of the mat. Lance was still sitting cross-legged, bright red and staring at Keith, his hands clearly displayed by resting on his knees. Keith got up on his hands and knees, and then sat back on his ankles, wiping the back of one hand against his mouth and refusing to make eye contact with anyone, least of all Lance.

"Good, everyone's here now," Shiro said, somewhat winded but not allowing that to affect his voice. "We're gonna work on defensive combinations and drilling with bayards." Hunk pulled Lance to his feet, and Lance raised his hand.

"I think Keith might need a cold shower first," he reported.

"Lance," Shiro said in his warning tone.

"Just an observation," Lance called, now from behind Hunk, because Keith had gotten to his feet and looked like he had murder on his mind.

"Focus," Shiro said. "We have a lot to catch up on, break time's over."

#

Lance rested his chin on the long table and stared morosely across it. "My everything hurts," he whined, and didn't even scoot away to avoid the half-hearted jab from his left, where Keith was slumped in the high-backed chair.

"You didn't get your face ground into the mat repeatedly," Keith groaned.

"That was voluntary. You like it when Shiro beats up on you." Lance cracked open his eyes at this sudden revelation, and rolled his head to look at Keith in wonderment. "You're a masochist," he said, scandalized.

Keith turned red. "What the fuck," he said.

"Can we not have this conversation over dinner?" Hunk asked. "I mean, we're all here, Lance. We can all hear you."

Allura said, "a masochist is one who likes pain, yes?"

"More like, derives pleasure from pain but yeah," Pidge said, stirring her spoon in her bowl. "That's the general idea."

"I see," Allura said thoughtfully.

Keith covered his eyes with one hand. "I'm going to kill you," he said, glaring at Lance.

"Go ahead and try," Lance said without moving his chin from the table. "I would welcome death. My only regret is I didn't get to enjoy my last cheeseburger."

"Okay, that's enough," Shiro said. "Keith, no." Keith put his bayard on the table and sighed dramatically. "Can we maybe have a meal that doesn't devolve into drama for once?"

"This isn't drama," Pidge said. "This is just about sex."

"That too," Shiro said. "Keith."

Keith folded his arms and slumped back in his chair, thwarted again, as Allura said, "well I, for one, find this all very fascinating. Human mating rituals are so different from Altean!"

Pidge smirked and leaned forward. "Well, we could always let you observe one, Allura-"

"Pidge!" Shiro said, and the same time Keith and Lance went, "what?"

"Can we talk about something else?" Hunk ventured.

"Yes, let's talk about your poor performances this afternoon in the training simulator," Allura said pleasantly.

"Oh boy," Lance said very loudly and only a bit sarcastically. "Thanks, Hunk."