Voltron Legendary Defender - Shining Like the Stars [74] [Shklance]

[scriveyner]

Title: shining like the stars [74]
Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender
AU: slts
Characters/Pairing: Shiro/Keith/Lance, Team Voltron
Rating: M
Length: 1708
Summary: Despite his best efforts at staying asleep, Keith cracked open his eyes when he felt Lance slip out of the bunk. His eyes were gummy, so he rubbed one palm against his eye socket and propped himself up in the bed, squinting in the dim light of his room. Lance was moving quietly; he had pulled open one of the wall panels and was frowning because all the clothes held within were fitted for Keith, not him. "...Lance?" Keith asked, and punctuated his question with a yawn


Despite his best efforts at staying asleep, Keith cracked open his eyes when he felt Lance slip out of the bunk. His eyes were gummy, so he rubbed one palm against his eye socket and propped himself up in the bed, squinting in the dim light of his room. Lance was moving quietly; he had pulled open one of the wall panels and was frowning because all the clothes held within were fitted for Keith, not him. "...Lance?" Keith asked, and punctuated his question with a yawn.

Since the overhead light wasn't on, the closet panel had a soft inner glow as well, the same soft teal the Alteans seemed to favor as mood lighting. Lance started, and shoved the panel closed, cutting off the additional glow and effectively masking his expression from Keith, who had finally focused on him. "Sorry," he said. "Didn't mean to wake you." He didn't move away from the wall, his tone quiet. "Is Shiro still asleep?"

Shiro, at Keith's back, was tucked tight between him and the wall. His breathing hadn't changed, and while he had gone to sleep with one arm curled securely around Keith's waist, at some point he had tucked it against his body, between them. Keith nodded his head and then wondered if Lance could see it. "He's still asleep."

"Good," Lance said. "I'm going ... for a run. You can go back to sleep."

Keith yawned again, then shifted under the covers. "I'll come with you," he said, and sat all the way up.

"You don't have to," Lance said, surprised. "It's still early, go back to sleep."

Keith stretched his arms over his head to crack his back, and then started to slide out from under the covers. "A run like a great way to clear my head," he said. "Were you gonna use the track in the training room?"

Lance was standing where he had stopped, against the wall, his hands hanging uselessly at his sides. After a long moment he sighed, and folded his arms. "I'm not going for a run," he said. "I don't know why I even said that."

Keith, sitting on the side of the bed, cocked his head and squinted at Lance. Either he wasn't awake enough to really follow, or Lance wasn't making much sense to him. "...what?" he said finally.

"It doesn't matter," Lance said. He touched the wall panel again and yanked out one of Keith's black tee shirts, pulling it on over his head in a hurried motion. "I'll see you at breakfast." It was impossible to slam the door to his quarters, given the nature of the sliding doors, but it wasn't hard to imagine the door slam as it swished closed behind Lance. Keith blinked a few times, still sitting on the edge of the mattress, and entirely unsure of what just happened.

He looked over his shoulder at Shiro, sleeping on his side and prosthetic hand curled against his face, the other tucked against his chest, and a frown creased his face as he looked back to the door.


#

By the time he'd put on pants and a tee shirt himself, Lance was nowhere to be found. Keith was resolved not to be worried, because who knew what was bothering Lance — but something made him keep looking anyway. It was early, when he read off the time on the chrono it was only a few hours since they'd all squeezed in to Keith's bunk to sleep. Had Lance even slept at all?

The ship was quiet now, everyone trying to catch some rest on the off-chance that the warning alarms would go off any moment. The galley was empty, the common area, the bridge ... the lights were on in the training room, which Keith found odd if Lance wasn't going to go for a run, so he stopped in the open doorway to see what was going on.

Lance was not in the training room, either, but it was in use. The smaller, dark-haired Altean was fighting one of the gladiator bots with two short blades. He'd been at it for a while, judging by the half a dozen downed bots that littered the staging area. Keith stood in the open doorway and watched him fight, grudgingly impressed.

It took a little bit of time for him to bring down this bot on his own — he was clearly worn out. "Do you even sleep?" he called, and Rian whirled, both blades still in hand, still in a combative stance. He didn't relax his pose or change expression when he saw who was in the doorway, either.

"Galra," the Altean snarled.

"I have a name," Keith said, but didn't give it and did his level best to ignore the way that just the word dug under his skin. "Have you seen Lance come through here? Tall, thin, mop of brown hair, absolute smart-ass?" He had gestured with one hand Lance's height, and even from across the room saw the way that Rian tensed as if expecting an attack.

"You are a spy and a traitor," Rian said. Keith's eyes narrowed at him, he wasn't going to let this little shit get to him, Altean or not. "I do not know how you convinced the Red Lion to accept you, but I will expose your trickery and take her for myself." He shifted his position, both daggers held across his body, and he was tired enough that he was telegraphing his moves far in advance.

Keith said, somehow calmly, "I don't want to fight you." It was a lie and maybe not a very good one, but if he said it out loud he could kind of force himself to believe it.

"Too bad," Rian said, and ran at him.

Now, at this point Keith could have done the smart thing, which would have been to deflect and not to engage, but this shitty little Altean had been after him since he popped out of the memory core and hell Keith was not exactly a patient man. He stepped forward, bayard-turned-sword appearing in his hand without looking, and met the Altean's attack head-on.


#

Hunk was a pretty light sleeper, all things considered. He had to be — when bunking with Lance at the Garrison, he had discovered that Lance had the miraculous ability to sleep through just about anything; up to and including an air strike (or what Hunk was absolutely certain was one, instead of flight cadets buzzing the Garrison). So he learned to be a light sleeper, attuned to the slightest change in background noise and alarm clocks that might have been shoved under pillows or mattresses.

He wasn't certain what woke him this time, maybe it was the caffeinated content of the drink Illya had taught him to make that was to blame, he had no idea but sleep was elusive so Hunk shuffled out of his room and down the corridor. It wasn't like there was television in space to entertain him, but maybe if he pulled up one of those detailed ship manifestos he and Pidge had been looking at a week or two ago the dryness of the text would put him out again.

Hunk had barely made it to the common room when he heard the commotion. Now more awake than not he headed down the corridor that led to the training room in time to see Keith get slammed back against the opposite wall of the corridor by the smaller Altean named Rian. Hunk blinked at this; while Keith really did take his training seriously, it was one thing to go at it with full weapons against the drones that could be repaired — it was another entirely to practice combat with someone who actually bled when stabbed.

Then Rian flipped one of the daggers in his hand and swiped at Keith, who turned just in time to avoid losing his eye. The tip of Rian's dagger did draw a thin line of blood up over his brow, which Keith promptly ignored and planted his foot straight away in the middle of Rian's chest, flinging him across the corridor with a kick. Rian's shoulder and back hit the doorway to the training room and he rolled with it, ducking back into the room and drawing Keith after him with a shout.

"Hey!" Hunk bellowed, charging down the hall. He caught the edge of the door himself and swung himself into the training room, in time to see Keith slam his bayard-sword down onto Rian's crossed blades; they were glaring at each other through the interlocked weapons. "What the hell are you two doing?"

Rian was bleeding too, there were some shallow cuts on his exposed arms. He did not glance over at Hunk, but instead stared at Keith. "Show him your real face," he said, and Keith yelled and shoved with his body weight, breaking the hold that Rian had and forcing them apart. He switched his sword from his right right to his left hand and used his right to smear the blood on his brow so that it didn't run into his eyes.

"This is my real face," he growled.

"Stop it!" Hunk ordered, his voice authoritative and Keith glanced over at him. Rian however, did not, and charged forward again. Keith barely had time to deflect the first blow angled at him and while Rian's first dagger was knocked completely out of his hand, the second appeared, its point at Keith's throat.

"Show him," Rian hissed. Keith started to move and the point touched his throat for a split second.

"Keith!" Hunk yelled, and Keith held out the hand his bayard was not in, palm out, to Hunk. He didn't take his eyes off of Rian though, dark eyes that glittered with hatred.

"All right," Keith said, chest heaving. "All right."

Hunk had to be asleep, or still dreaming, because as he watched, Keith ... changed. Oh, his hair was the same, but his skin turned purple, turned furry, and his eyes changed, and Hunk stared, and stared. "Dude," he said, while Rian still held the blade at Keith's throat. "You're a ... werewolf?"