Chapter Text
"So.…" began Lance as he sat down on the edge of his bed. Him and Keith had met up in Lance's room to discuss what they had discovered. "Where should we begin?" It was the morning after the event with the Gnarans and the other paladins were probably either asleep, working on some crazy project (Pidge), training (Shiro) or cooking (Hunk). Most likely not asleep then. Keith was standing awkwardly near the door with his arms crossed.
Keith had never been in Lance's room before but somehow he'd still be able to tell it was Lance's even if he didn't know already. Small souvenirs from all the planets they'd visited were displayed around the room; different coloured rocks or glass fragments, small bracelets and other pieces of jewellery gifted to him from aliens they'd helped save and even a small figurine of Blue that Lance had been ecstatic with when he first saw it (and ever since then too). Everything in the room was so Lance, it made Keith feel relaxed and he felt some of the tension roll off his shoulders when he took in Lance's relaxed posture.
"Good question" Keith replied. "Let's start with that portal thing. It was definitely a portal wasn't it? And where does it go to? There's no way it's there just for decoration. It wouldn't have been covered up otherwise."
"Hmm that's true." Lance hummed in agreement. "Not to mention that the Gnarans didn't say anything about it. There's just something not right about this. About them. You know what I mean? Like why did we never meet their actual leader? There has to be a reason." Lance moved over to one side of the bed so that Keith could sit down. He looked a bit wary at first but then relaxed and sat down beside him. "Also a portal? I didn't even know they existed. What do you think the difference between a wormhole and a portal like that is?" Lance continued, running his hand through his hair in confusion.
"I think you might be right about something not being right with the Gnarans. Something doesn't add up. And I don't know about the differences but I'm sure Coran must know something right?" Keith added, looking to Lance for confirmation.
"Yeah you're right. I can ask him about it. But maybe we should we should keep this to ourselves for now? The others have enough on their plates already."
"Hmm alright. We should meet up again same time tomorrow to talk more? Hopefully we'll know more then."
"Yeah sounds good. I'll be waiting here for you!" Lance said with a wink at Keith. "Even though we'll be together all day." he chuckled. Keith laughed and let himself out of the room.
"See you later Lance!" Keith called while leaving, feeling light on his feet for some reason. It was nice to talk to Lance about stuff like that instead of thinking about it all day by himself. Any excuse to talk to Lance was a good one Keith reasoned.
The paladins were seated in the chill room eating breakfast. 'Breakfast' consisted of some strange smelling food goo that was an orangey - brown colour instead of the usual green. It smelled a bit like an orange dipped in vinegar. No one had eaten any yet as Hunk had tried a new recipe using some of the spices they had gotten from the Gnarans.
"Go ahead guys! It's not poisonous you know!" Hunk exclaimed as the others laughed awkwardly. "The colour and smell might be a little off putting but it doesn't taste half bad. I only used a tiny amount of the spices too so there's still loads left."
The paladins including Allura and Coran seemed hesitant to take the first bite but Lance, not wanting to let down his best friend, took a massive spoon of it enthusiastically. "Cheers!" he said to no one in particular as he pretended to clink the spoon of food goo against an imaginary glass before shoving it in his mouth so he didn't have to breathe in the smell for too long. Pidge looked at him in shock while mouthing what looked like "what the quiznack" and Coran looked like he was ready to set up a healing pod for him. Keith, who was spurred into action by Lance eating first, started shoveling chunks of it into his mouth as quickly as he could. Hunk was wildly gesturing with a wooden spoon and his apron still on, looking like he was guilty of murdering the pair. It soon became a race between them; who could eat the most without stopping with neither of them breaking eye contact with each other. The others looked back and forth between them nervously, expecting one of them to either start choking or collapse on the spot although Pidge and Hunk were quietly placing bets. Shiro was sitting with his head in his hands looking like he was ready to drop the two boys off on a planet and look for new Red and Blue paladins. Lance and Keith were still maintaining intense eye contact and managed to tease each other between mouthfuls. Eventually Lance had to stop to breathe and Keith shouted out in victory however his triumph was soon outlived as he started choking and launched into a coughing fit.
"Well?" Hunk enquired. "What's the verdict? Is it food goo or not?"
Lance considered his answer, building the suspense for dramatics. "Hmm... well it's definitely food goo! Just very... spicy food goo."
"Agreed. Maybe a little less spice next time?" Keith said between coughs. Pidge, Hunk, Coran and Allura started to eat after seeing that Lance and Keith were still alive. Shiro looked sceptical but soon joined them after a long consideration.
"Alright everyone here's the plan for today..." Allura started to speak.
Lance tried to concentrate on her words but suddenly found that the room was spinning and his head was pounding. Everything was swirling and it felt like he was holding his breath underwater. He felt Blue in his mind distantly but strangely she felt calm. Somehow it reminded him of those playground spinner things and it was like he was sitting on one and watching the room go round and round in circles as it kept spinning faster and faster. As quickly as it started, there was a pop and it felt like he was surfacing from underwater. He opened his eyes and then closed them again. He opened them again and tried to take in his surroundings. Where was he? It reminded him of when a TV had no signal and was displaying a staticky screen. Except he felt like he had walked through the TV screen and straight into the static. Lance looked down at his body and saw that he was flickering in and out of vision. 'Ok.... what is going on?' Thought Lance. 'Is this one of Pidge's pranks?' He tried to reach Blue and found familiar blue thread that connected him to her in his mind. He felt the connection but if he lost concentration it went faint.
"Blue? Do you know what's going on?" He sent down the connection to Blue. "Are the Galra attacking us and that's why I'm here in this place? Is everyone ok?"
Relax my cub.... All is well with Voltron. I may have an idea of why this is happening to you but I cannot tell you yet. Blue's words echoed in his mind.
“What do you mean? Why can't you tell me? What’s happening girly?”
Trust me my cub, I need you to see if you can search for different energy sources around you. If you feel something then try to connect with it. Blue instructed.
Lance wasn't quite sure where to begin but he trusted his lion so decided to calm down and go with it. What did he have to lose anyway? Not like he was getting anywhere just standing there. How does one even look for energy sources? They’d hardly be visible would they? No, he can’t see anything that would be an energy source so it has to be something else. Nothing was happening and he felt the same as before so he decided to try a different approach by sending out something similar to the thread that connected him and Blue with his mind. He thought he could see something glinting in the distance, almost like a star, so he tried to connect with it. As soon as that connection went out it reacted instantly and hundreds maybe thousands of silver, luminescent, threads appeared in front of him. Lance was overwhelmed with the energy from it. It was too much, too many connections and too many energy sources and Lance felt like he was going to explode. Too much too much too much what’s happening! Too many thoughts in his head, smells, sights, sounds, tastes, everything was too overwhelming, he needed to escape it or else he’d flip out. Lance knew when enough was enough and closed his eyes to focus. His panic suddenly gave way to understanding and the connections to each energy source became distant in his mind. They were still there except not as strong and upfront as before, no longer at the centre of his mind but just faintly present as white noise. 'Huh...' Lance thought. “Am I dreaming?' Wait a second... these.... thread thingys? I've seen them before!” Lance connected the dots in his head and realized that the threads were the same as when he woke up floating in Blue and when he sent his helmet flying full speed into his head. “What are these threads? Energy sources? But energy sources of what? Blue are you going to tell me what's happening now?” Blue was silent and hadn't said any more since instructing him to connect to the energy sources.
Once again Lance tried to connect to more of the threads and felt a wave of energy slam into him as all of the threads connected with him at once for the second time. Except he orchestrated it and knew more of what to expect this time so while he was still overwhelmed he felt slightly more in control. Suddenly he was back in the castle with the others again as if nothing had ever happened. Well... almost. It felt... like he wasn’t actually there, just watching in. He didn't know how to explain it but it was almost like he was invisible. He noticed that everyone was out of their seats and looked to be in a state of panic. Keith looked ready to murder someone and he was swinging his sword wildly, Hunk looked like he was going to cry while aiming his gun at various points around the room, Pidge was frantically typing on her laptop while Shiro and Allura were running around the room. Coran was the only one who looked remotely calm, he was deep in thought standing in the middle of the room.
Lance would have laughed at the chaos of everything if it weren't for the fact that they were calling his name. “Why are they calling my name? I'm right here?”
"Guys chill out I'm here!" He called out but no one heard him. "Everyone calm down! Why is everyone panicking so much?" Still no one heard him. He whistled in an attempt to catch someones attention but failed to even get someone to look at him. He tried again but no one was listening to him. "Hunk it's ok I'm fine!" Lance attempted to put his hands on Hunk's shoulders to calm him down but promptly fell forward and through Hunk. “What?” Lance suddenly realized why no one was listening to him and why it felt like he was invisible. It was because he was invisible.
“Blue a little help here please? I have no idea what's going on.” He pleaded with Blue until he felt her stir in his mind. You are shadow - walking right now my cub. To become visible again you have to disconnect from the energy sources. “Shadow - walking? Blue that doesn't even make sense.” Lance replied, still as confused as ever. What on earth was shadow - walking? Disconnect from the energy sources? Lance didn’t even know he could connect to energy sources until a few moments ago let alone how to actually disconnect from them! He felt Blue in his mind again. Because you are new to this, I will help you this once my cub. You have a lot to learn however. Blue explained to him, he felt a wave of blue energy wash over him like a fire blanket over a fire and everything was drowned out. He felt that pop like he was on that playground spinner again and then felt solid ground beneath his foot.
“Lance! Are you okay? What happened?” Keith shouted over as he ran up to him and wrapped his arms round him causing Lance to take a step back from how quickly Keith barreled into him.
“Lance! Don’t do that you scared me, what on earth happened?” Pidge and Hunk exclaimed as Shiro, Coran and Allura looked at him in shock.
“Hey there guys, I don’t really know what happened... but I’m fine I promise.” Lance explained, wrapping his arms around Keith in return when it became clear that he wasn’t going to let him go. It felt good, like having Keith in his arms was the most natural thing ever. He never wanted to let him go. As they pulled away from each other, Lance whispered to Keith and winked at him. “Looks like I’ll remember this bonding moment.” Despite what just happened, being with Keith made him calm and felt right. Keith looked at him “so you do remember it!” He started to say before being interrupted by Shiro.
“Glad to have you back bud, you scared us though.”
“Aww you missed meeee” Lance said drawing out the “me”. “Thanks Shiro. To be honest everyone, I don’t know what happened but I do know that I’m in need of sleep before I pass out. I’ll see you all in the morning.” He said as he started to walk out into the hallway.
Lance didn’t feel like explaining what just went on and he didn’t have the energy to answer the questions that would follow. He could deal with it all in the morning when he’s had time to think through what exactly happened. Secret portals and shadow - walking? Sounds like a problem for future Lance. He just wanted to lie down and sleep. Preferably with Keith beside him but hey he can’t be that lucky.
“Hey Lance!” Keith shouted down the hall at him as he ran up to him. “Let me walk you back to your room.” He smiled at him and Lance thought he was gonna melt.
“Thanks Keith, I owe you.”
Despite Lance feeling drained and not wanting to explain everything, he found himself telling Keith every detail on their walk to his room. He wanted to tell Keith. Keith just listened and let Lance ramble on. He nodded occasionally, taking note of what Lance was saying. They arrived at Lance’s room and sat down on the bed. Lance was exhausted and found himself drifting off as he sat there. He shrugged off his shoes as he was still talking to Keith who was sitting at the edge of the bed. Exhaustion was taking over and he lay on his side on the bed, eyes closing and his mutterings incomprehensible now. Lance’s legs somehow ended up on Keith’s lap as he tried to get comfy.
Keith gazed at him and smiled. He placed his blanket over him and went to leave but stopped, not wanting to move Lance’s legs incase he woke him up. Plus he didn’t wanna leave Lance, it felt so nice being with him. He looked at him and saw he was fast asleep. What does he do now? Leave and risk waking him? Oh well, he’ll stay a bit longer. Keith reasoned with himself, secretly glad for the excuse to stay. Before he knew it he was lying back on the bed and was falling asleep.
Lance woke up during the night and felt warmth at his back, he looked behind him and in his sleepy state realized that Keith was lying behind him, so close to hugging him but not quite. He wanted to reach out and put his arms around him. He noticed Keith reaching out and smiled at him, edging closer until Keith’s arms found him. Why not he supposed? Keith was too adorable not to snuggle closer to. Lance smiled sleepily and fell back asleep, this time with Keith in his arms.
Maybe he could be that lucky after all?
Edit posted as draft please