Voltron Legendary Defender - Shining Like the Stars [98] [Shklance]

[scriveyner]

Title: shining like the stars [98]
Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender
AU: slts
Characters/Pairing: Shiro/Keith/Lance, Team Voltron
Rating: M
Length: 5311
Summary: Lance’s room had acquired the most stuff over the course of their adventures; which included an additional display console that was not, thankfully, holographic.

Lance’s room had acquired the most stuff over the course of their adventures; which included an additional display console that was not, thankfully, holographic. Not that Keith really had a problem with the holographic displays in the Castleship, but it sometimes made things simpler to be looking at them on an actual screen. He still hadn’t gotten dressed though, and made movements like he was going to retreat to his room to fetch some clean clothes when Lance rolled his eyes dramatically at Keith and pulled open the wall panel that hid their clothing. “You took over my room, remember?” Lance said, pulling out some of Keith’s stashed clothing. “At least I’ve made sure everything in here is clean.”

“The Castleship automatically cleans all the clothing,” Keith said, amused, as Lance shoved the balled-up clothing into Keith’s chest. Lance stuck out his tongue at Keith and then set to inspecting Pidge’s thumb drive, checking to make sure it was compatible with Lance’s console. Keith pulled his shirt on over his head and felt so much relief it was staggering. Lance was being normal,and that things seemed more normal than they had been in a week and a half.

He sat down on the floor in front of the console as Lance finally got the drive connected and pulled a keyboard out of somewhere. Keith stared at it, and Lance looked down at the keyboard and then over to Keith before shrugging. “Pidge,” he said, as if that were the answer to every single bit of technology-driven strangeness on the ship and not a huge can of worms in and of itself. Keith shook his head, as Lance opened the file drive and pulled up the data files.

Immediately, the screen filed with text, all violet and magenta-hued. Lance blinked, and made a noise of disappointment. “I can’t read Galra writing,” he said. Keith’s heart had frozen in his throat, the happiness of normalcy already long gone. He hadn’t sat down to talk with Pidge yet - he hadn’t had a chance, so much happened so fast, everyone else knew but he’d forgotten they were already gone when his secret was dragged out of him. “Boring,” Lance announced, and started scrolling faster than Keith could even begin to read the page.

Several images flashed past quickly, embedded into the data, before the file seemed to hitch and then shot all the way down the page, automatically pulling up a recording that made Keith’s blood run cold. It was a monitored recording, the sort taken by a camera set up in a lab, and as such the quality of the image was slightly lower due to the cheapness of the technology. Lance was frowning at the screen, leaning forward to try to make out the display, but Keith didn’t need to, the terror clinched tight in his gut and the memories he’d long fought to repress threatening to overwhelm him.

“Turn it off,” Keith said suddenly, his arms shaking as they wrapped around himself, unable to tear his eyes from the screen. Lance looked over to him, as if now suddenly aware of Keith’s altered demeanor, his expression baffled at the sudden change in the mood of the room.

Abruptly, the recording buzzed to life with activity as a high-pitched yell filtered through the speakers. It was static-filled and much younger than even Keith remembered but still recognizable. Keith could still remember the shape of the words. “Let me go, let me go, no-”

Lance whirled on the console, jaw gone slack as some Druids entered the frame. “Turn it off,” Keith’s voice hitched and overlaid his own young voice as a tiny, struggling form was revealed between two guards. “Lance, please turn it off, turn it off-”

“Unsuitable,” one of the guards said in a thick voice, full of scorn; but a Druid held up what looked like a syringe. Lance’s entire expression had frozen over but Keith wasn’t looking at him any more, his arms over his head and clamped tight over his ears, trying to drown out something he never thought he would hear again.

With his eyes closed tight he didn’t see Lance stagger to his feet and lunge, yanking the drive out of the console without ejecting it, he didn’t hear the high-pitched whine of disrupted playback or even hear Lance’s boot slam on the delicate electronics. He jerked physically when he felt Lance’s arms around him and nearly headbutted him but Lance didn’t let him go, pulled him tight and wrapped his own arms around Keith’s head himself, holding him close. “It’s all right, buddy,” Lance’s voice was quiet in a way he’d never heard before, but soothing still as Keith pressed his face against Lance’s shoulder and shook, choking, against him. “You’re safe now. You’re safe. I’ve got you.”

#

Keith lay curled up on his side in Lance’s bed, the sheet wrapped securely around him. Lance sat on the edge of the mattress and watched Keith quietly; he hadn’t moved in a while and his breathing had finally evened out. Lance had never actually seen Keith cry before, to look so helpless and vulnerable and he was shaken to his very core.

A core that was now a tightly-packed ball of incandescent rage. Keith was strong, and he was good, and he didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve any of this, and he’d come from such a terrible place and was able to keep it all packed away and even shouldered so much more without complaint. Lance was almost shaking. He wanted to find every single creature in that video and make certain that they couldn’t harm another sentient being in this universe, or any other one, ever again. Why had Pidge given that to Keith? And expected him to watch it by himself, holy shit…

Wait, Pidge.

Lance looked down at Keith again, and then tentatively brushed his hand through Keith’s hair, pushing it back slightly. He looked absolutely human like this, not a hint of anything alien about him … unless you counted his taste in hairstyle. Lance smiled at that thought, even if it was watery, and then leaned down and kissed Keith’s temple. Then he picked up the smashed drive from the floor and went to find Shiro.

#

Lance’s immediate impulse to smash the drive had actually only damaged its outer casing, once stripped of the damaged parts Shiro was still able to plug the drive into the console he’d set up in his own room. He watched the entire thing. Lance couldn’t stomach the thought of seeing any of it and stood outside the door to Shiro’s room, his back to the door and arms crossed, feeling sicker than he’d ever been. It was against every single instinct he had to stand there, but he waited for Shiro because he didn’t feel he could trust himself.

The sound of playback, muted enough that he could only distinguish noise from silence and not much else, ceased. It was a very long stretch of silence that followed, long enough that Lance was considering opening the door before there was a sudden loud and violent crash. Not ten seconds later the doors to Shiro’s room opened and Lance’s blood went to ice. Shiro looked absolutely fit to kill. “Where is he?” he asked, and Lance had a split-second of worry. Shiro sensed the way he reacted to Shiro’s question and he sighed, but that didn’t entirely take the edge off. “Is he okay, Lance? Is he safe?”

“I can’t answer the first one,” Lance said. “But he’s safe, at least.”

Shiro surprised him then by enveloping Lance in a tight hug. Lance didn’t realize how badly he’d needed it until Shiro’s arms were around him, and he pressed his forehead into Shiro’s shoulder and took deep, steadying breaths. “What do we do?” he asked quietly.

“That’s up to Keith,” Shiro said, and Lance raised his head.

“Like hell it is,” he said. “I’m going to turn those fuckers into ionized carbon and launch anything left over into a fucking star.”

“You’re assuming I would leave anything behind,” Shiro murmured, but his arms remained tight around Lance. “But it’s up to Keith. Not us. Remember that.”

“If you guys wanted to swing by Earth and turn those alphas inside-out I wouldn’t peep a word of protest,” Lance grumbled, and Shiro rubbed his back.

“You said Pidge gave you the files?”

“Yeah. What the fuck.” Lance lifted his head again. “Why would she do that?”

“We’ll talk to her,” Shiro said, and Lance nodded.

#

Pidge was in the Green Lion’s hangar bay, sitting at the mass of consoles and computers she had wired together that Lance had affectionately nicknamed the bat-computer. Matt was sitting on the ground by her chair, the outer casing of a computer sitting empty behind him and its innards strewn about. “Hey guys,” he said cheerfully when he saw Shiro and Lance enter the bay. “Uh,” he added, when he sensed the mood. “Everything okay?”

“Pidge, what the fuck,” Lance wasn’t able to contain himself.

She half-turned and looked at him, baffled. Then her gazed sharpened. “I told you to give that to Keith,” she said, and Lance’s entire frame went rigid with the implication. Shiro put his hand on Lance’s shoulder firmly, and then looked to Pidge with a severe expression.

“Did you know what was in those videos?” he asked, his voice forced very level.

Pidge’s expression had shifted from Lance’s strange reaction back to Shiro and she realized suddenly that something was very wrong. “No,” she said. “I didn’t even realize there was embedded video. I just grabbed an entire sector packet about a Galra breeding experiment, there were pictures that looked like…” she glanced sidelong at Matt for a moment before she continued, “that looked like Keith was in them, so I packaged the entire file cluster for him. I haven’t had time to actually go through any of the raw data yet, things keep coming up.” There was a hard edge to her voice, with the next statement. “He is Galra though, isn’t it?”

“He’s Keith,” Lance spat, and Shiro didn’t remove his hand from Lance’s shoulder but he also didn’t stop him from speaking. “He’s our friend, Pidge!”

“I know,” Pidge said and finally spun her chair all the way around. “I know he is.” She folded her arms and glared at them. “What was in the videos?” Notably, she did not move to pull them up herself. Matt stood up from where he was seated, his own face concerned.

Shiro’s jaw moved around but he did not speak, and Lance said, finally, “they tortured him, Pidge. He was a kid, and they…” Shiro’s hand again, tightened, and Lance fell silent because Pidge’s face had fallen even further. She pushed her glasses up off her eyes and into her hair, before she pressed the palms of her hands against her eyes for a long moment.

“Shit,” Pidge said softly. Then, after a moment she spun in her seat and changed the console she was working on. “My first instinct is to destroy the files,” she said, anger tinged in her voice, “but that’s a stupid idea because there might be information in them that we need. But I can at least lock their archiving so no one accesses them accidentally.” She slammed her had down on the keyboard in front of her suddenly, and leaned forward. “God dammit.”

“Pidge,” Matt said, and slung his arm over his sister’s shoulders.

“Can you tell Keith I’m sorry?” Pidge asked. “I’m sure he doesn’t want to see me, and I don’t blame him. I am sorry,” she added, looking to Lance. “I really didn’t know, I didn’t … okay, no,” she self-corrected. “I was mad that he was concealing this from us and maybe wanted to give him a little ‘gotcha’ but I really didn’t know what was in most of the data. I didn’t think he’d go deeper than the pictures.”

“It would mean more coming from you directly,” Shiro said. “But we’ll tell him.”

“Thanks,” she said, quietly.

When Lance and Shiro left, Pidge pulled up the file that she had just locked. Matt kept his arm over her shoulder, and when she leaned into him he let her cry for a little while, rubbing her back. “You didn’t know,” he said softly, and Pidge lifted her head, smearing her wet eyes on his clothing.

“It’s no excuse,” she muttered, and this time scrubbed her hand over her eyes and wiped her nose with her sleeve.

leaned over and hugged Matt tight. Her brother wrapped his arms around her and let her cry for a little while, rubbing her back. “You didn’t mean to,” he said softly, and Pidge nodded, smearing her wet eyes across his clothing. She let out a quiet sob, and then this time scrubbed her hand over her eyes and put them back on her nose, returning her attention to the console.

“I’m going to see what information I can pulls from these files,” she said, her voice still uneven but forceful. “If I slingshot the data to your terminal, do you think you can map it to a star chart, or at least glean the location data?”

Matt said, “you don’t have to do that right now, Pidge.”

“Yeah,” Pidge said. “I do.”

“Okay,” Matt said, pausing for a moment. “Okay. Yeah, I can see what I can do with the info you pull.”

With that, the siblings got to work.

#

“I’m going to go talk to Allura,” Shiro had said, standing outside of Lance’s room. His arm had remained over Lance’s shoulder the entire way back to the pilot’s quarters, and it was a small comfort. Lance suspected it was as much for Shiro’s benefit as it was his. Lance had nodded quietly, and accepted the kiss from Shiro without complaint. They both should be there if Keith woke, he felt, but … there were other things afoot, even now.

Keith hadn’t stirred, his back presented to the room and still curled into a tight ball. Lance sat at the edge of the mattress for a while, far too keyed up to consider sleeping but at a loss for what to do next. So he sat silent and waited for Shiro to return.

His nature had always been to react instead of act - let something happen, and he’d deal with it or its fallout in due time. That was changing, Lance realized, and it was something that had started with the introduction of the Blue Lion into his life. Lance stared at his hands and thought again of how he would Handle This if Keith deigned to let him, and his mouth quirked a little with savagery of it. He was enjoying a rather visceral plan when he felt the mattress shift and Keith rolled over, pulling him from his thoughts like an anchor. “Lance?”

“I’m here,” Lance said immediately, turning slightly. Keith shifted again and sat up, staring listlessly ahead. Then he rubbed both of his hands fully over his face and let out a low noise which was almost a growl, but when his face emerged from behind his hands he looked so much more like Keith again.

“Who have you told?” Keith asked without looking at Lance.

“Shiro,” Lance said. “Pidge… kind of. She doesn’t know exactly, but … she is sorry. Said she hadn’t watched the videos, only saw some of the data files and some pictures and was hurt you hadn’t told her yet.” He trailed off and immediately felt bad for making the excuse for Pidge, but Keith tilted his head forward and sighed raggedly.

“I’m sorry, Lance,” Keith said. “You shouldn’t have had to deal with that.”

“You’re…” Lance’s mouth actually fell open, because he couldn’t quite process that. “Excuse me, you are sorry? Why the fuck are you sorry? Fucking hell, Keith…”

Keith said again, his voice almost too calm, “you shouldn’t have had to see that.” He started to move, like he was going to get up, but Lance threw an arm out and blocked the way off the bed.

“Keith,” Lance said, his voice hard. “That was not your fault. I’m going to find whoever the fuck was on that video and kill them, do you understand? That isn’t an exaggeration, I can put a bolt of plasma between their eyes at a thousand meters, and I will-”

“Lance,” Keith said, and he had a strained smile on his face. “You don’t have to do that.”

“The fuck I don’t,” Lance said. “I will.”

“No, I mean you really don’t have to,” Keith rubbed his knee with one hand and stared at the top sheet, instead of looking at Lance. “They’re all dead.” He dragged his gaze up to Lance’s and for a brief moment Lance was scared of what he saw there, reminded terribly of the bloodthirsty expression he had seen on Keith’s face in the arena as he headed for Rian with murder on his mind. “Didn’t you wonder why I was on Earth, and had been?” Keith didn’t wait for Lance to ask the inevitable question. “I escaped. I made sure I wasn’t followed.” Keith shrugged his shoulders without moving his arms. “The end.”

Lance stared at him, still stunned into silence. Keith looked away. “I never wanted any of you to find out how much of a monster I am,” he said, his voice still quiet. “I’m sorry.”

“Keith,” Lance said. “If you’re a monster for that, then so am I. Same with Shiro.” Keith turned and looked at him, and Lance was deadly serious, more serious than he had ever felt. “I absolutely wasn’t kidding about blowing their heads off, if Shiro hadn’t beaten me to it. You are our mate.” He shifted more on the mattress and reached for Keith’s hand. Keith didn’t jerk away, and let Lance hold his hand with both of his. “You’re the Red Paladin, man. You are badass. You’re a good guy, no matter what you think your past says otherwise. We love you and we’re both here for you.”

Keith raised his eyes to Lance, but before he could open his mouth the doors to Lance’s room opened to show Shiro. The hard expression on his face softened when he saw Keith sitting up, and he crossed the room quickly, putting his knee on the bed beside Lance and nearly smothering Keith with his arms. Lance went to let go of Keith’s hand, but Keith didn’t let go of his, and put his other arm around Shiro’s neck, face buried in Shiro’s chest. “We’re going to find-” Shiro started, but Lance shook his head and Shiro caught the movement out of the corner of his eye.

“No point,” Lance said. “They’re already dead.”

“Well,” Shiro said, “Fuck that, who do I get to kill?”

“See?” Lance said, squeezing Keith’s hand. Face buried against Shiro’s chest, Keith actually laughed.

#

Keith looked like himself in the morning. He beat Lance out of bed, but not Shiro, and when Lance stopped by the training deck he saw the pair of them running laps. “It is way too early for that shit,” Lance said, and bypassed their insane work-out routine for breakfast.

Hunk was super cheerful, and Lance gave him a suspicious glare, although Illianya was nowhere to be seen. “Why is Hunk so happy?” Lance asked Pidge, who jumped at being addressed directly and gave Lance a guilty look. “Did he get laid? Do I have to drag him in front of everybody?”

“Can’t you let Hunk do his own thing in private?” Pidge asked, and Lance shrugged.

“He dragged the shit out of me when I first got laid.”

“Well, maybe that wouldn’t happen if you remembered to, I don’t know, lock your door once in a while,” Pidge muttered.

“Hey, Miss ‘I’m-unlocking-this-door-whether-you-want-me-to-or-not,” Lance said, indignant, and Pidge put up one finger.

“Once. Once, I did that, and boy howdy I have learned my lesson, okay?”

“Hey, Pidge,” Keith called as he entered the dining area. “Can we talk for a second?”

Lance had never actually seen Pidge turn that particular shade of pale before, but she nodded her head and made to stand up. However, before she could rise out of her chair Keith slid into the chair beside hers, across the table from Lance. He smiled at Lance though, and … well, he still wasn’t entirely used to Keith actually smiling like that but Lance felt relieved that Keith seemed to fell like Keith again.

“Keith,” Pidge said, standing. “I am really sorry-”

Keith interrupted Pidge before she could really get going. “It’s okay,” he said, glancing over a moment when the chair on the other side of him was pulled out, but that was just Shiro sitting down. Lance put his chin in his hand and grinned at Shiro, who gave him a Look in return to dial it down for a minute, earning a pout.

“it’s not okay,” Pidge said. “I did it to hurt you, even if I didn’t realize the extent of what was there, and it’s not-” her voice broke for a second, but she caught herself. “It’s not okay,” she said again, reining her voice in.

Keith had an expression on his face like he didn’t know what to do, and looked over to Lance helplessly. Lance gestured his arms at Keith wordlessly, a universal sign for ‘hug her you idiot’ but Keith clearly didn’t get the message. Fortunately for them both Pidge straight-up decided to hug Keith instead. “I know you didn’t mean to actually hurt me,” Keith said, patting her back awkwardly because despite everything he still wasn’t quite tuned to body language.

This was the moment that Hunk bustled into the room and paused at Pidge hugging Keith. He was followed by Allura and Illianya, who had clearly been having a morning meeting of some kind. “Uh,” Hunk said at the display. “So what did I miss?”

Allura glance at Keith, who nodded as Pidge got up from her awkward hug and shuffled back to her seat. All the Alteans had filed in together, and Rian grabbed the seat beside Matt while Coran chose to remain standing as he often did. Keith stood up from his chair after a moment, and that drew attention to him again as well.

“So, I have something I need to tell everyone,” Keith said, finally. “I’ve been keeping a lot of secrets and you all know that by now, but…” he looked across the table and met Lance’s eye and Lance nodded his head. They’d talked about this last night, and it was Keith’s idea to tell tell everyone. His pause lingered though, and then Shiro leaned forward and took his hand, squeezing it. Keith glanced at Shiro and smiled. “But I think it’s time everyone knew the whole story.”

#

“I think it went well,” Lance said, seated on the bench at the end of the training deck. Keith was busy doing hanging crunches, the show-off, his legs hooked over a bar as he hung upside down. Keith didn’t actually answer him, and Lance really didn’t expect him to huffing and puffing, but he knew that Keith appreciated the company. Shiro was sparring with Hunk on the mat, and Illianya was supervising them both, wearing a bodysuit not unlike the ones they wore under their Paladin armor. Occasionally, it appeared that she stepped in and showed both Hunk and Shiro a move.

Rian crossed the room toward them, and Lance groaned. “Our favorite Altean is heading this way, buddy.”

Altean ears were sensitive, and Rian was already scowling by the time he got close. He said something that Lance didn’t quite understand, and Keith stopped doing crunches and snorted. “What the heck was that?” Lance said, but Rian didn’t respond to him and Keith dropped from the bar and straightened, sweat dripping from his hair. “Why did you laugh?” he asked Keith suspiciously.

Keith regarded Rian silently, fetching his towel of the bench. Rian folded his arms and frowned and seemed to be bracing himself to say something. Finally, he sighed. “I don’t like you,” he said finally.

“Feeling’s mutual,” Keith said, and this time Lance snorted.

“I sense a ‘but’,” Lance said, and Rian shot him a dirty look.

“My mother escaped from one of the Galra research ships,” Rian said finally. “Before I was born. I think it was probably the same one.” He looked away. “Thank you for killing them,” he said softly. “I’ve been trying to track them down for years to do it myself.”

“I’m sorry about your mother,” Keith said.

“She lived,” Rian clarified. “For a while, at least. Couldn’t stand the sight of her purple child, just like her.” He smiled bitterly. “That was why she killed herself, or so I was told.” He kept his arms folded, fingers digging into his skin. “She didn’t live long enough to see that her child also inherited the long-lost Altean shape-shifting abilities.”

“Well that explains why you’re not purple,” Lance said, and then looked at Keith. “Wait, do you have Altean blood, too? Is that why you can shapeshift between furry and not?”

“I don’t know,” Keith said. “And I really don’t even care at this point.” He looked over to Rian, who still looked irritated that he had even shared any of this with someone he allegedly didn’t like. Then Keith held out his hand. “Truce?” he said, and Rian looked at his hand for a long moment, then took it.

“We’re on the same side now,” Rian said. “I guess.”

“Good enough for me,” Keith said, and rolled his eyes before he looked back over to Lance. “Why do you look like that?”

Lance’s eyes had gotten large and glittering. “I’m just so glad to see everyone getting along,” Lance said, mock choked-up, his hand on his chest.

Keith smacked Lance in the back of the head, who said a very loud and injured, “ow!” He rubbed the back of his head and muttered something under his breath while Rian folded his arms and shook his head.

“I still can’t believe that you’re with someone who gutted you like a fish,” Rian said, his tone derisive, and Lance shrugged.

“He’s my mate,” he said. “I would bare my throat to him if he asked to rip it out with his teeth.” Both Keith and Rian stared at him, and Lance hesitated. “…what?”

“I think that’s legitimately the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me,” Keith said, a little awed.

“Okay, that’s a problem,” Lance said. “We need to fix that.” He waved to Shiro. “Hey, Shiro! What’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever said to you?”

“Nothing that I’m going to repeat in polite company,” Shiro yelled back from across the training deck.

“God dammit,” Lance said, and folded his arms. “I’m disappointed. I need to step up my wooing game.” He looked up when Keith placed his hand on Lance’s head and leaned down, in close, rubbing his sweaty head against Lance’s.

“You’ve already won me over,” Keith said, and Lance pushed him away, affronted.

“Oh, gross, you’re so sweaty,” Lance yelped.

Rian shook his head and started to walk away. “Disgusting,” he said, as Keith grabbed Lance in a headlock and continued to rub his sweaty face all over Lance.