Archive of Our Own

It was the second week of their trip back to earth. Shiro had made a full recovery and the rest of the paladins agreed to finally make a stop on one of the nearby planets. Flying in lions for so long had been exhausting and they all needed to stretch their legs out and have a breath of fresh air.

The planet wasn't big. It resembled both Arus and Earth but it was smaller and was mostly covered by trees.

The team had decided to split up and search the woods for any materials to set up a camp for a few days, so when the lions landed, everyone formed small groups and went in different directions.

Keith had went with Krolia and Yorak while Lance- with Hunk and Pidge. Coran, Allura and Romelle had stayed behind to watch the lions and catch up with each other, while Shiro had went off on his own.

It was bright outside. The sky was blue and if Lance ignored everything around him, he could pretend for a moment that he was back on earth. Hunk and Pidge walked in front of him talking about all that science stuff that he couldn't be bothered to understand, so they didn't notice when he fell back.

He turned his head up and watched as the soft pink clouds slowly made their way across the sky. The clouds we're the only thing that reminded him that he wasn't currently on earth. 

"Lance?" a voice that belonged to Pidge broke him out of his daze and he turned his head back down to face the green paladin standing a few feet away from him, "You coming or not?"

Truth be told he wanted some alone time but he didn't want to hurt the other's feelings so he agreed to go with them. Now though when the opportunity had arisen he decided to accept it.

"I think I'll go this way," he pointed in a random direction and scratched his neck, "I think I saw something there. Besides we'd cover more ground if we split up. That sound good with you?"

Pidge scanned his face for a few moments before nodding and turning around to run back towards Hunk who was currently picking at a purple plant.

Lance gave them both one last glance before turning around and walking to wherever he'd pointed previously.

It was a good five minute walk until he decided that he wasn't even sure where he was going. He walked up to a large tree and slid down against it, stroking his hands through his hair.

He was frustrated.

Everything had gone to shit for the past few months.

Hunk and Pidge kept making fun of him.

They thought they had found Shiro, but turns out he was a clone that kept lashing out at him.

Keith had gone off with the blades only to come back and ignore him even if their relationship had grown a lot before he'd left.

He was wondering if maybe Keith didn't want to be friends.

He also started forming a friendship with Allura only for Lotor to come in and ruin it, so maybe friendships just weren't his thing.

Speaking of Lotor he screwed them over royally and Lance was mad.

Mad at Lotor and mad at himself for not trying to convince others not to trust him.

He may have told Allura that he ended up trusting Lotor, but it wasn't the truth. He just wanted to comfort her.

And now the castle is blown up and they're going back to earth. He should be happy, but he's not. He's anxious that the Galra are ahead of them and that earth is already destroyed. He's scared that his family might be dead. He's scared that he's too late. 

He was too late with a lot of things lately and he didn't want to be too late with earth.

But the trip was taking ages and the longer they flew the more frustrated Lance grew with sitting still.

He let out a sigh and shut his eyes, focusing on the sounds around him.

He could hear the wind and something that sounded like birds.

He heard the rustling of leaves so he opened his eyes and looked around, but he couldn't see anything lurking.

Then his ears fixed on a sound somewhere above him and he turned his head up.

He was met with yellow glowing eyes and the next thing he knew, he let out a startled scream as something fell on him.

After propping himself back up and regaining his composure Lance realized what or rather who had been making all that noise.

It was Yorak, who was currently sitting in front of Lance and staring at him.

"Uh..." Lance stared back, "Hi? What are you doing here? Where's Keith?"

The space wolf ignored his question and instead closed the distance between them, laying it's head down in Lance's lap.

He felt bewildered. The wolf hadn't left Keith's side ever since they returned and now he was laying in Lance's lap, Keith nowhere in sight.

Yorak nudged him.

"Well I take it Keith's safe and you just decided to pay me a visit since you're not freaking out or anything..." Lance stroked his hand over the soft dark fur, "You don't mind if we lay here for a bit right?"

After not receiving a reaction, Lance figured it was alright so he closed his eyes, leaned back against the tree and started playing with the wolf's fur absentmindedly.

Slowly he found himself drifting off to sleep.

It wasn't until a while later that he was woken up by someone nudging him.

"Lance, Lance wake up." it was Keith, "How long have you been sleeping here?"

Lance tried getting up but a weight in his lap wasn't letting him. He looked down to find Yorak asleep on him and then he remembered everything else.

"Lance?" Keith repeated with another nudge.

"Huh.. Oh," his mind finished clicking the pieces of information together, "What did you say?"

"I asked how long you've been sleeping here." Keith asked as he tried pulling Yorak off of Lance, "And how long has he been here? He ran off like four hours ago."

The blue paladin looked up at the sky as if it would answer all his questions.

"I don't know?" Lance scratched at his neck trying to get rid of the strain in it, "I came here shortly after we split off into groups and he joined me maybe a minute after?"

"Oh my god, you've been here for like three hours then. Is your neck okay?" Keith's eyebrows shot up in concern, "Yorak, come on, get off of him. I know you're awake."

That earned Keith a whine and the wolf finally got up and, if Lance wasn't imagining things, glared at his owner.

"It's alright just a small strain." Lance replied as he got up to his feet, "It's already going away."

Keith nodded and suddenly they were left alone in silence.

"So, what were you doing here?" Keith spoke up after it was clear that Lance wouldn't, "I thought you went off with Hunk and Pidge?"

Lance let out a chuckle that lacked any sincerity: "Wanted to be on my own and think for a bit. I told Pidge that we should split up."

Keith furrowed his brows and pursed his lips at the answer.

"Think about what?" he prodded and suddenly Lance was reminded that Keith was one of the things on the list.

"Nothing." Lance muttered and turned away from him, "Doesn't matter."

"Lance? Is something wrong?" Keith spoke from behind him.

"I said it's nothing." he replied louder and started walking towards to where he assumed the lions were, "Now let's go."

If Keith didn't want to be friends, Lance won't force him to listen to his problems.

The walk back to the lions was awkward for the most part. It took them nearly two hours to get back and when they did they saw everybody already settled down around a fire, talking.

"There you are!" Allura was the first to notice them, "Where have you been?"

"I was looking for Yorak and found him and Lance asleep under a tree, two hours from here." Keith replied and sat on one of the logs, next to Krolia and Yorak, who had already teleported to her.

"Lance, what were you doing asleep under a tree of all places?" Hunk turned towards the boy as he sat down next to him.

Lance decided to ignore the question and stared straight at the flames.

"Yeah man, what's up with that?" Pidge squeaked from where she was sitting, "I thought you said we'd split up to cover more ground, not so you could slack off!"

Lance ignored that too and focused on throwing daggers at the flames, rather than the green paladin next to him.

"Lance!" Allura raised her voice and Lance tried not to flinch, "I can't believe you! We've been working all day trying to set things up and you've just been sleeping around?!"

It was fine. He could ignore them, they'd drop it and everything would be fine. The flames seemed bigger somehow, Lance could pinpoint every color in them if he focused hard enough.

"What's next? You're going to start slacking off with paladin business?" Allura kept going, "We barely just got Shiro to recover from all that stress. Do you want him to start feeling stress over his team again?"

He knew Allura was overreacting, he could sit through this with clenched teeth and it'd be fine. He knew Shiro didn't have to worry about the team. Or Lance.

"Do you not care at all about how your team feels?"

A crackle from the fire.

"Seems like you don't care about how I feel." Lance muttered as he stared into the fire, "Why should I care about how you feel?"

Silence.

"Excuse me?" Allura's eyebrows furrowed, "What did you just say?"

"I said," Lance raised up his eyes to meet Allura's and replied coldly, "You don't care about how I feel so why should I care about how you feel?"

"Lance, what are you talking about?!" she asked in disbelief, "I do care about how you feel!"

That was enough.

"Really?" Lance got up on his feet and glared at her, "Because if you really cared, you'd understand that you guys, aren't the only one's with problems here and I need some time to think about things alone!"

"Like what?" Pidge scoffed, "How your attempts of flirting with girls keep failing?"

Lance snapped around and for a second he could've sworn he'd seen fear in her eyes.

"No." Lance said with a level tone, "Things like how you and Hunk have been ganging up on me. Things like how my hero was cloned and kept putting me down. Things like Keith leaving for the blade, coming back two years older and ignoring me when I thought we could've been friends. Things like finally building a friendship with Allura only to have Lotor come in and ruin it. Things like having all my friendships fall apart! Things like being treated as if nothing I say matters! Things like us being stuck in space, trying to get back to earth only for it to be too late when we actually get there! Things like my family being dead and me being too late to save them! Things like being too late to save Shiro when he reached out to me!"

Lance didn't want to think about what Shiro's current expression looked like.

"Things like being completely useless to this team and things like me caring about you guys when none of you actually care about me!"

He didn't realize he was yelling until he found his throat dry. There were tears forming in his eyes which he was trying to blink back and he felt like he had a lump in his throat.

"Lance..," it was Keith who spoke up first, "I didn't mean to ignore you when I came back. Things were just tense and we didn't have time to talk about things. I do care about you."

Keith walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"That's one of the reasons why I left for the blade." he looked him in the eye, "I wanted you to stay on the team, because you bring so much more to it than I ever could."

It was Allura who walked over next and placed a hand on his other shoulder.

"I'm sorry for not seeing your feelings sooner." she said, "I'm sorry I let Lotor blindside me. I shouldn't have abandoned our friendship like that. And Keith's right. You're not useless you bring a lot to the team."

"Yeah without you we'd probably be at each other's throats." Hunk was next to speak, "I'm sorry for not being a good friend. I've known you for so long I should've known you'd feel bad. I'm sorry."

He didn't get a chance to say anything before Pidge jumped at him and burried her head in his chest, wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

"I'm sorry too." she mumbled, "I know I make fun of you a lot, but they were only meant to be jokes. I promise I'll stop them if it hurts you. You're like a brother to me."

Lance opted for patting her on her back as he returned the hug.

"Lance, you're the bravest boy I've ever met on this side of the galaxy." Coran said from his log, "You've saved mine and other people's lives countless times and I'm thankful for that. I'm proud to have you as one of the paladins. Putting others above yourself isn't a bad thing, but I wish you'd put yourself first too sometimes."

"Thank you, Coran." Lance sniffled, "And thank you guys. It means a lot. I'm sorry I blew up on you like that."

"It's alright, Lance." Allura reassured him, "We needed to hear it."

It was Hunk who pulled them all in, that started a group hug. The last time they'd had one it was when Keith left for the Blade. It was then that Lance realized that something was off about it. He opened his eyes and noticed that Shiro wasn't with them. He quickly looked around and noticed a white tuft of hair disappearing behind a tree.

"Guys." Lance pulled back, "I need to go talk with Shiro."

"Are you sure?" Keith questioned, "You both have a lot to deal with, maybe someone else should go?"

"No." Lance shook his head, "It'll be fine. Besides there's something I have to talk to him about. You guys carry on we'll be back soon."

The team nodded and Lance went into the direction where he saw the white tuft of hair.

"Shiro?" Lance called out as he walked in and couldn't see him anywhere, "I wanted to... Apologize for bringing it up."

"Do you know why I reached out to you on the astral plane and not anybody else?" a voice came from behind a boulder.

Lance walked over and noticed shiro sitting against it on the ground,so he joined him.

"Not really, why?"

Lance risked a glance and noticed a smile on Shiro's lips.

"Because I believe that you have potential." he replied, "If anyone could've helped me get out of there, I knew it could be you. You would've come up with a plan and you would've executed it perfectly. The team was right when they said you're important. You take on a leader role when nobody else can, Lance, and you hold them together."

Lance wrapped his arms around his knees and burried his face in his arms.

"How come black didn't accept me then?" he muttered more so to himself than to Shiro, "How come I couldn't hear you in the astral plane?"

Shiro chuckled at that.

"Lance, I was just like you when I was younger, believe it or not. The reason black didn't accept you, was because you still need to grow." he explained, "It's true that you have greatness within you but you also need your team to listen to you if you want to be a leader. And currently that's what you have to work on. That and self confidence."

Lance contemplated it and nodded in agreement.

"As for why you couldn't hear me in the astral plane... It's because our connection was too weak and that's..." Shiro whispered, "That's my fault. I was too focused on trying to get you to grow as a leader that I forgot entirely about bonding and becoming your friend."

Lance peeked at Shiro again to see that he was looking at him with a grin.

"Lance I know that you're our best sharpshooter. I know that you can be a great leader. And I also know that you're the greatest friend anyone could ever have." Lance wasn't sure what to say but Shiro's confident smile told him that he didn't have to say anything yet, "Will you consider becoming my friend too?"

Suddenly Lance felt like his twelve year old self. His hero was asking him to become friends. It felt like a dream.

"Of course I would!" he exclaimed, "Shiro you're literally my hero I'd be stupid if I turned down that offer."

"Good." Shiro turned his face away and looked up at the starry sky, "Friends then."

"Friends." Lance smiled as he looked up at those same stars.

"Lance?"

"Hm?"

"I'm sorry for how that clone treated you." Shiro said, "And we'll definitely make it back to earth on time. I'll make sure we do."

"Thank you, Shiro." Lance said as he got up, "Now let's get back to the team. They must be worried sick about you running off like that."

Shiro smiled and they both made their way back.

Everyone was sitting around on the logs again and this time Lance walked over to sit next to Keith.

"So, you left for the blades because of me, huh?" he nudged him in the ribs earning a soft glare.

"Ha, ha very funny." Keith rubbed at his side and stared at the ground, "Yes I did."

"Why though?" Lance questioned, "I mean I know why but... How did that happen?"

Keith looked up and there was a glint in his eyes.

"Remember how you came to me talking about stepping down?"

"You mean that time you told me to leave the math to Pidge?" Lance smirked, "A+ advice cured my self doubt."

"Lance!" Keith dragged his palm across his face, "Please."

"Okay, okay, Mr. Grumpypants." Lance chuckled, "So that's why you left, huh... You know... You could've stayed with us even if you weren't piloting a lion?"

"I know, but I wanted to learn more about myself, and the Blade Of Marmora we're the perfect opportunity." Keith looked over at Krolia for a short moment before turning back to Lance, "Besides I wasn't going to let the heart of Voltron step down and leave the team."

"That's Allura's title, Keith." Lance smiled.

"She might be the robot's heart with all her powers and stuff, but the actual heart of Voltron, the team... that's you Lance." Keith smiled back, "You hold us all together."

"Thanks Keith." Lance leaned over and gave him a peck on a cheek.

"Lance!" Keith yelped and a crimson blush dusted his cheeks.

Lance just let out a laugh.

Maybe he still had things to work on, but at least he had the team- his family, with him.