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Lance McSAME @LNCMCLN tweeted:
Can’t wait to see y’alls beautiful faces at the Paladins panel today!
Keith took one look at his fiancé’s face and sighed.
“I don’t have a choice, do I?” He said. Lance broke into a grin and shook his head.
“Of course you don’t. You loooove meee.” He replied, putting on a pleading face.
“I am going to hate this.”
“I’m sure you are. Let’s go, before we’re late.”
--
Acxa piled into Lotor’s car, squished between Zethrid and Ezor. Narti always got the front seat, perks of being Lotor’s favourite. She didn’t blame him for playing favourites, though. No one could hate Narti, she was a sweetheart.
Next to her, Zethrid was holding the map. Upside down. Acxa quietly reached out grabbed the map off of her taller friend, and Zeth gave her a grateful smile.
“Let’s get going before my dad catches us and skins me alive!” Lotor yelled. They cheered in response, and he pulled out of the driveway of his intimidatingly fancy house.
Acxa was focused on yelling directions to Lotor, but beside her, Ezor was reading her twitter feed out loud.
“Pidge says there’s going to be a garrison trio panel!” She read out. “And Shiro’s bringing Adam: He says it’s going to be Adam’s first time as a creator at convention.”
“That’s adorable.” Acxa said. Lotor, from the front seat, laughed.
“What about Allura? Is she going to be there?” Narti asked, eagerly.
“Yup! The whole squad are doing a panel, something about a big announcement?” Ezor said. She frowned. “People are trying to guess what the announcement is. I bet it’s to do with Shiro’s secret project.”
Narti fiddled with her hands anxiously. Acxa lent forwards and took one of the other girl’s hands in her own. “They’re going to love you, Narti. I promise you’ll be fine. We’re all here with you, aren’t we?” She said. The others chimed in with words of support as well.
Narti was blind – something she wore like a badge of honour most days. Acxa and her friends had known Narti since they were toddlers, and the five of them were extremely close. It wasn’t often they could get Narti out of the house, though, and they were all excited that she was prepared to go to the youtube convention. They just hoped their heroes were as accepting of her as they had been.
Lotor pulled into a parking space with worrying speed, and they all tumbled out of the car laughing and grinning. Ezor subtly slipped her hand into Acxa’s, and the five of them made their way indoors.
--
Shiro ran a shaking hand through his hair. Conventions got no less intimidating, and he got no less self-conscious about his appearance, no matter how many times he did this. Especially today, going in front of everyone one-armed, as his prosthetic had malfunctioned. He turned his head and caught sight of Adam’s excited grin. Suddenly things didn’t seem as scary.
Asian Bucky Barnes @cyborg_soldier tweeted:
Meet and greet starting in five! Next to the Voltron booth, come and say hi!
Shiro stepped out in front of the line of fans and was met with a wall of excited screaming. He couldn’t help but smile, especially at his fan’s reactions to Adam, who looked like an excited puppy.
“Let’s get this party started!” He said with a cheer. The crowd screamed.
Several photos and autographs later, the last people in the queue, a group of five teenagers all around seventeen, approached him. One of them, a boy with long white hair who looked to be Altean, stepped forwards with a smile.
“I’m Lotor,” That was definitely an Altean accent, “And these are my friends. Acxa, Zethrid, Ezor and Narti.”
Shiro’s eyes lingered on Acxa for a few seconds. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew her from somewhere. He then focused on Narti. She looked terrified and stood a little way behind her friends.
‘Do you guys want a photo?” He asked. They looked thrilled. “Okay, come over this way a bit. Narti, do you want to come a bit closer?” The way she moved, her behaviour, it suddenly clicked; she was blind. Glancing at Adam, he saw his husband had noticed as well. He moved to accommodate her, and saw her friends giving him grateful looks. “Narti, is it okay if I put my arm around you?” He asked quietly. She nodded rapidly, and he laughed.
Once the photos were done, the teenagers lingered for a minute. Shiro had seen the way people act around their heroes, shy and in awe, and these kids were no different.
Acxa cleared her throat. “Thank you.” She said. “For inspiring us and for helping us through everything. I don’t know what I’d do without you to cheer me up some days.” She said. Shiro smiled softly.
“You showed me that even with a disability, people can still lead happy lives.” Narti said. She tugged on her hijab. “And that you don’t need to be white and straight to be perfect.”
Shiro blinked back tears. He’d had emotional experiences at cons before, and he never dealt with it well. “Thank you, Narti, for showing me that what I do is worth it.” He replied. “Can I hug you?” She nodded quietly, and Shiro took her in his arm. Her friends grinned, and he looked up to see Lotor mouth “thank you’ at him.
“Anyway,” He said, pulling back. “I hope I’ll see you guys at the rest of the con!”
When he went into the backroom, Shiro buried his face in Adam’s shoulder and cried.
--
“Lance, it’s too busy.” Keith said, arms folded tightly against his chest. Pidge, sat on the other side of the room, leaned forward in her chair, examining him with critical eyes. She pushed her glasses up.
“Keith, you’ll be fine. What are you even worried about?” She said. He sighed.
“What if any of my students are out there?”
“Let’s see. No glasses, Hair isn’t tied up, you’re wearing a red leather jacket and fingerless gloves, your fringe hides your whole face, and you’ve got blue nail polish on.” Keith looked down at his hands in surprise.
‘I forgot I let Lance do that.” He murmured.
“It’s not like you and Lance will be sucking face in front of his fans or something anyway. He won’t let you.” She shrugged. Keith went scarlet.
‘Hey now.” Hunk mediated. Lance, sat on Hunk’s lap, shrugged.
“My fans would love it.” He said, taking a huge bite of his chocolate muffin. Keith glared, and Lance flipped him off, engagement ring sat on his middle finger. Lance had gotten into the habit of keeping the ring on that finger to keep it hidden from the fans.
“You guys have a panel in a few minutes, shouldn’t you be getting ready?” He asked. Hunk glanced between his colleagues.
“This is as ready as we get.” He said. “Lance is still riding off the high of meeting Shane Dawson, so he’ll be out of commission for the next hour or so,”
“He said he wanted to collab…” Lance whispered with a gleeful grin, hesitated, and took another huge bite of muffin.
“and Pidge is just… Pidge.” The girl was bent over her phone, thumbs moving rapidly over the screen. Keith threw a pen at her.
“Katie. Katie. Kaaatieeee.” He sighed. “Why does she only talk to me to make fun of me?” He said.
“Because it’s way too easy. Also, we all got famous and you’ve ended up as a fucking high school teacher, so you probably deserve it.” She said.
“I might be a teacher but at least I don’t look like I should still be in school.” Keith said. Pidge stuck her tongue out at him. He flipped her off.
“True friendship.” Hunk muttered dreamily. Lance stroked the Samoan man on the cheek fondly.
“We beat them every time, buddy.” Lance said proudly. Hunk nodded. “And you two can suck it.” Keith and Pidge simultaneously told Lance to ‘fuck off!’, making the man laugh even harder.
The door opened, and Allura walked in, side-by-side with Romelle, voice actor of one of the main characters in Voltron. They were good friends, bonding over their Altean heritage and shared interests. Keith looked at Lance with a resigned face, as both Hunk and Pidge blushed scarlet. He sighed and mouthed ‘Altean girls’ at his boyfriend. Lance shrugged, fighting a laugh.
Allura sat herself next to Pidge, who immediately latched onto her girlfriend, sloth-style. Romelle sat next to Hunk and Lance, causing Hunk’s already red face to get even redder. Lance subtly manoeuvred out of his friend’s lap, plopping himself in the seat next to Keith. Keith intertwined their hands under the table.
“So, what’s the final plan for the panel?” Lance asked. Allura paused.
“We should probably wait for Shiro and Adam…” She said.
“Their fault for being late.” Lance said. “We can fill them in later.”
“I suppose. The announcement for the paladins’ channel should be our first order of business; I’m pretty sure most of the fans have figured it out by now anyway.” She said. The others nodded. “Then we have our q&a, then we have the Garrison Trio’s announcement, then Matt is doing his thing.” She listed.
“What about Klance? Are they doing their thing today?” Romelle asked. Keith squeezed Lance’s hand.
“We have a plan but, it’s not happening today. If you guys could avoid mentioning it, that would be great.” Lance said. Keith focused on the table, feeling guilty.
“Actually, Keith, whilst you’re here do you mind checking over my script for the Mothman video?” Pidge asked. He nodded eagerly, and she pulled a battered notebook out of her bag. She tossed it to him, and Keith caught it just before it smacked him in the face. Pidge cackled.
‘What’s going on?” Adam and Shiro stood in the doorway, hand-in-hand, matching looks of bafflement on their faces.
“Friendship.” Hunk sighed.
--
Abducted by aliens @mattata tweeted:
Running late to the con because SOMEONE told me the wrong times for the panel :))
Of course, because Matt was just THAT unlucky, he burst into the backroom and barrelled directly into Keith. A Keith that was holding a cup of coffee. A Keith that was decidedly unamused at having his cup of coffee spilt over both him and Matt.
“If you weren’t my brother’s best friend I swear to god…” Keith muttered, tossing paper towels everywhere in an attempt to clean up the mess. Matt gave him a guilty smile. “You’d better get on stage, the panel started like 20 minutes ago.” Keith said, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh shit.” Matt rushed out of the room, coffee-stained shirt and all, ignoring Keith’s amused look.
He walked onto stage looking decidedly dishevelled. At Pidge’s raised eyebrow, Matt flopped onto his chair besides Shiro.
“Sorry I’m late, Keith decided to pour his coffee on me.” He sighed, sinking lower onto his chair. Hunk snorted, but Lance gave him a deadly glare.
“Something tells me that’s not why you were late, Matt.” Shiro said, patting him sympathetically on the shoulder.
“No, it’s not. Pidge told me the wrong time for the panel.” Matt said. Pidge stuck her tongue out at him.
“How about we get on with the questions, yeah?” Allura prompted. Matt attempted to hide in his hoodie, but to no avail. He would just have to deal with it.
--
Halfway to Queen @princessallura tweeted:
How many announcements did we fit into one panel? Well done crew @official-paladins
--
After the panel was over, Keith’s friends piled into the backroom and promptly collapsed onto every available surface. Keith glanced up.
“So, it went well?” He deadpanned. Lance shot him a thumbs up.
“They’re super excited about the paladins’ channel.” Pidge said. “And the Garrison Trio stuff went down well. Not sure what people think about Matt starting a channel, but he can deal with that himself. Now,” She hauled herself off the beanbag she had settled into. “I gotta get myself to a meet and greet.”
Lance grabbed Keith’s arm and pulled him to his feet. “Keeeef…”
“Yes?” Keith sighed.
“Please come with me!” Lance pleaded. Keith nodded curtly, and the vlogger squealed. “You’re the best boyfriend everrrr!”
“Don’t forget it next time I drag you to the gym with me.” Keith said with a smirk. Lance pretended to ignore him.
--
The meet and greet was going smoothly. Keith stood a little way to the side, ignored by the fans who clamoured to take photos with Lance, Hunk and Pidge. Every now and then, Lance would shoot him a wink, or finger guns, and Keith would act like he wasn’t watching him like a hawk.
It was going smoothly, that is, until a group of familiar teenagers approached the youtubers. Keith recognised four of them; students that he’d taught for years and recognised by the sound of their voices – they were probably his most chatty students. Lance caught his eye and seemed to immediately understand why Keith was freaking out.
Just as Keith had conveyed to Lance that he would leave for a while, until the teens had left, Ezor caught sight of him.
The girl looked him up and down thoughtfully, before nudging Lotor. Keith mentally cursed and hoped that his unruly hairstyle and unusual fashion sense would be enough to throw them off the scent. It was not.
‘Mr Kogane! Hey! What are you doing here?” Ezor asked lightly, oblivious to Keith’s mini freak out. He glanced at his fiancé, who’s mischievous smile betrayed him. Keith forced himself to be civil.
“I- uh – I’m a fan?” He offered. Pidge snorted, and Keith shot her a threatening look. Ezor was, unfortunately, undeterred.
“I didn’t know you were into youtube! That’s awesome!” She said. “How long have you been here?”
“Uh… all day?” He offered. “My fiancé dragged me here. He’s around… somewhere? I should probably—”
“Nuh-uh-uh.” Lance strode over and yanked Keith towards Pidge and Hunk, who looked altogether too amused. “We haven’t got a picture yet.”
Keith leaned in to whisper to his gleeful boyfriend. ‘What the fuck are you doing?”
“You know I said we should troll them?” Lance hissed. Keith vaguely remembered the conversation and let the dread seep into his expression. “This is me trolling.”
Lance threw his arm over Keith’s tense shoulders and snapped a few selfies on his phone. He cast a glance in the direction of the teens, to make sure they were still watching, and kissed Keith on the cheek, taking a selfie at the same time. He pretended to look at the pictures thoughtfully.
“What’s your name?” Lance asked cheekily.
“Akira.” Keith said coldly, raising an eyebrow. Lance gave him a shit-eating grin.
‘Okay, Akira. If things don’t work out with your fiancé, give me a call.” He said flirtatiously. Keith scowled.
‘I’ll keep it in mind.” He said tensely, and whirled around, almost walking into the group of wide-eyed teenagers.
“Mr. Kogane, you just got hit on by Lance McClain!” Ezor hissed. Lotor stared, mouth agape, and Acxa seemed entirely lost. Zethrid was whispering urgently to the other girl, who nodded slowly, enraptured.
Keith was going to beat the shit out of Lance for this.
Maybe. If Lance could stop being adorable for two seconds.
Lance watched his boyfriend retreat at incredible speeds, hearing the other two thirds of the Garrison trio snigger behind him. He greeted the group of Keith’s students cheerfully, although they looked a little shell-shocked.
They introduced Narti, who was practically vibrating with excitement at meeting her heroes. Lance suggested they take a video together, something she could listen to when she got home, and the girl almost cried with excitement. He loved meeting them, particularly because they were Keith’s students, and Lance loved any chance to get involved with his fiancé’s life.
--
Nyma and Plaxum had finally managed to wrangle a place in line for Allura’s meet up when Ezor joined them.
“Guess what!” She hissed, grinning. “We just met Lance, and MR KOGANE was there! And Lance flirted with him! It was so weird!”
“What the hell?” Plax said, slightly too loudly. She blushed and quietened down. “Are you kidding?”
“Not even a little. But he didn’t act like they were a couple though, so I guess we were wrong about that.” Ezor said with a sigh. “Anyway, we were going to try and track down Adam. He was on the panel, so we know he’s at the convention somewhere. Apparently he’s with Shiro’s brother? I guess they’ll look similar. What to help?”
“Not right now. We want a photo with Allura first!” Nyma said. “Rolo might help though.”
The queue moved forward, and Ezor stepped back out of the way. “I’ll catch you guys later, then! I need to go find my idiot of a girlfriend before she gets lost and punches someone.”
The two girls laughed as their friend ran off and were content to chatter happily as they waited to get their chance to meet Allura. Before that happened though, they notice the man leaning against a wall nearby. He was wearing an eye-bleeding rainbow tank top, and a battered VidCon hat.
It was, of course, Nyma’s favourite youtuber (and probably person in the world, don’t tell her brother) Lance McClain. She elbowed Plax violently until she spotted him too.
“What do we do? Do we talk to him? Ask for a photo?” Plax was whispering hysterically. Nyma shrugged.
“I don’t know? Is he waiting for someone?” She asked. It was only a few seconds before her question was answered though, as a tall, very familiar man walked around the corner and greeted Lance with an over-zealous hug. “Dr. Smythe??”
Plax and Nyma shared a look of utter confusion. Not only was the Altean man acting entirely out of character, but he was acting very familiar with Lance McClain. It was he weirdest thing they’d ever seen.
--
“When does Slushie’s met-and-greet end?” Lance asked, once Coran had released him. The older man checked his watch.
“In about twenty minutes, my boy. She’s been looking forward to today for months, so best let her enjoy the moment.” He said, beaming.
“I think the plan is to get the paladins, plus you, Shay and Romelle, to dinner at mine and Keith’s tonight. Conventions tend to wipe us out. Keith’s somewhere around…” Lance scanned the crown around him. “He’s wearing my jacket because Matt managed to spill coffee all over his. I think he’s still a bit pissed.”
Coran nodded thoughtfully. “That man is exceedingly hard to decipher. I don’t know how you do it.” He said. Lance shrugged.
“Years of practice. And, y’know, I’m in love with him. Always helps.” Lance replied with a self-assured smirk.
“Speaking of, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t encourage your fiancé, who is supposed to be an authority figure for a large number of teenagers, to come to school wearing clothes that are certainly not under dress code.” Coran said sternly, but his mildly amused smile gave him away. Lance laughed.
--
It took Ezor a while to find her girlfriend, who had left the convention centre and was hidden near a wall in the parking lot. She was in a worse state than Ez had expected. Acxa was sitting outside, curled up against the wall, her face pale and fist tightly clutching her phone. There were fresh tear streaks down her face, and Ezor immediately moved to gather the other girl in her arms.
“What happened?” She said. "What is it?" Acxa studied her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, trying to calm her heaving chest.
“It’s my mom. She’s just got out of jail. She wants to see me.”