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Gunshots. Destruction. Chaos.
Men and women fleeing for their lives. Mothers calling out to their children in the midst of catastrophe. Corpses littering the streets. Blood. So much blood.
They were too late. Voltron was too late.
They had so foolishly let their guard down and now Galra fleets were attacking Earth. Civilians who were complacent were being led onto to ships to be enslaved and those who put up a fight were shot dead where they stood. Many of the Galra troops were pursuing anyone who was making an attempt to get away. Some Galra soldiers were, quite literally, dragging away people who were screaming and crying and thrashing around in attempt to break free or trying to make a last attempt to find a loved one who went missing in the midst of all the ruckus.
That’s when he saw her. His mother. His sweet, beautiful mother.
Her hands were being held negligently behind her back by a drone as she was being led onto a ship. The grip on her arms was bruising and a stark contrast to all the times those same arms had tenderly wrapped around Lance as she went in for a hug or when she would sweetly place a hand on his shoulder at random as a sign of affection.
Just as she was about to be marched onto the ship, both her and the drone stopped abruptly in their tracks and turned to face Lance. Now that they were facing in his direction, he could see the tear stains running down his mother’s cheeks.
“Why, Lance? How could you let this happen? How could you have just sat there and done nothing while all of us got captured or worse?” she spoke in a strained tone Lance had never heard from her before. He’d seen his mother distressed before, sure, but never like this. Not in a way that was so painstakingly directed at him.
No. No, she had it all wrong. Lance had no idea that this was happening until only a matter of minutes ago. Sure, Voltron had showed up a little late, but they were here now, right? That’s what mattered. They could form Voltron and take down the Galra fleet that had inhabited Earth. Yeah, that’s what they’d do. Form Voltron.
Lance looked around for his team to tell them that they needed Voltron, but when he glanced around and tried to get a hold of his teammates through the comms, he heard and saw nothing. Where was the rest of the lions? Did they leave Lance? Did the Galra capture them? Were they all dead too?
No. No, this can’t be right. His eyes filled with tears and he began to hyperventilate. They all made it to Earth. Lance was right there with them, they should all be here? Where had they gone?
While Lance frantically tried to piece together where his team had went, the blaring sound of missiles, gunshots, and people screaming for their lives persisted.
“Lance, why?” his mother cried, “why did you abandon us?”
*
“—ance, Lance, Lance?”
Lance shot up into a sitting position, gasping for breath. His body was covered in a sheen of sweat and he was shaking. Despite the tears blurring his vision, he looked around and noticed that he was not, in fact, in his lion looking down at the wreckage formerly known as Earth, but in a dark bedroom. He felt a hand on his arm and quickly ripped it away. Where was he?
“What’s going on?” he asked. He cringed slightly at the sound of his own voice, it sounded raspy and fragile.
The hand on his shoulder moved to a nightstand beside the bed and turned on a lamp.
“Lance, baby, it’s just me.”
Lance looked over to see none other than Keith. Lance didn’t know why, but that just made him cry even harder. He had no idea what was going on.
“My mom, where’d she go? Is she okay? What happened? Keith, I’m so confused,” he sobbed. “I don’t know what’s happening. Mi mamá, I saw her, she was crying, I watched the Galra take her, I was too late, Keith, it’s all my fault. It’s all my fault!” Tremors wracked through his body and he buried his face in his hands. God, his mom was out there somewhere and he had no idea where. She could be dead for all he knows. And what about the rest of his family? He didn’t spot any of them in his lion? What if they were dead? What if the Galr–
“Hey,” Keith said affectionately, “your mom is fine. We took down the Galra, remember? Your mom’s in Cuba with the rest of your family and she’s doing well. It was just a dream, Lance. There’s no one else here. It’s just me and you. You’re safe and so is everyone else.”
“Keith?” Lance asked, exasperated. He was still confused. Was it really all just a dream? It felt so real. So painstakingly real.
Keith tentatively shifted closer to Lance. He placed a soothing hand on Lance’s shoulder while Lance cried. Keith took in Lance’s features. His eyebrows were drawn tightly together and his face was flushed from crying. Even though there was agony written all over his features, Keith couldn’t help but think he looked beautiful. Sometimes, he couldn’t believe that Lance ever asked Keith to be with him and actually wanted to spend his life with Keith. Keith wasn’t ugly, per se, but he wasn’t captivating in the way that Lance was. Keith wasn’t like Lance, he was an ugly crier and too standoffish for people to even want to get close to him in the first place. Hell, Lance probably wouldn’t have even gotten close to him to begin with had they not been thrown into an intergalactic space war together against their will.
“Sweetheart,” Keith broke the silence, “it’s okay. Calm down.” Keith began to rub the shoulder he had placed his hand onto gingerly.
“Keith, it hurts. We were thrown into a war at such a young age. I didn’t even get to tell my family goodbye, I never thought I’d even see them again. I was always constantly worried about the endless possibilities of what could have happened to Earth while we were gone. If anything ever happened to Earth, to them, god, Keith,” he sniffled, “I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. Not only that, but knowing that if anything were to have happened, it wouldn’t all been my fault. I was a paladin of Voltron, it was my job to defend the universe and keep planets safe. What if I couldn’t have followed through with that job? I worried so much about all the different scenarios and what-ifs in space, the anxiety was debilitating. I don’t think that fear ever really went away. After watching so many planets lose control and so many lives be lost, especially as a so called defender of the universe, it’s hard to not think back to it and feel sick to my stomach. I wasn’t ready to deal with all of that. I wanted to be a space ranger and go on expeditions and have a content life, not be a soldier in a war.”
Keith frowned at that. Keith had no idea Lance was suffering this much until after the war was already over. He knew that Lance missed Earth and his family and worried about the safety of the universe, but at the time he never knew to what extent. When he and Lance finally got together a few years after the war had ended, he started realizing how bad the problem truly was. No one really suspected Lance to be the one so distraught over his experiences in Voltron, he was always so upbeat and seemingly self assured, but Keith now knew that it was all merely deflection. Deflection from the fact that deep down, Lance was hurting just as much as everyone else, but never dared to admit to what degree.
“Lance, I know it may seem like you’re alone in this, but you’re not anymore. I know what you’re going through. Although I never really had much to come back to on Earth, I was always constantly worried over when and where the Galra’s next move would be and how much longer I could keep fighting. Frankly, I didn’t think I’d make it out of Voltron alive. Hell, I’m just shocked I made it out with a nasty facial scar and a few minor injuries.” Keith humorlessly laughed to himself.
“Your scar is badass. Really pulls together the whole dark, brooding bad boy with a tragic backstory ensemble.” Lance smirked.
Keith rolled his eyes in response, but deep down, he was just happy that Lance was joking around again and had, for the most part, stopped shaking and crying.
“The bottom line is, even though we basically went through the wringer and back in Voltron, we’re here now and we won. All the misery and violence we witnessed, it wasn’t for nothing. We’re all safe now and we’re free to do whatever we want with our lives because the Galra aren’t here to keep us locked down in a virulent game of cat and mouse anymore.” Keith moved his hand from Lance’s shoulder, down his arm, to his hand. He looked up at Lance and intertwined their fingers. “As ridiculous as it may sound, I’m kind of glad I went through all of that. Had we not been launched into space in the blue lion that day a few years back, I would still be living in a shack in the middle of the desert and you’d still be at the Garrison under the impression that we were rivals and nothing else. We never would have gotten to know each other. I won’t say I’m happy about all the death and destruction and anguish that comes along with being in a war because I’m absolutely not, but if there’s anything that I can take from this experience, it’s ending up the legendary red paladin.” Keith wiggled his eyebrows playfully. At that, Lance laughed and wiped away the last remnants of tears around his eyes. Keith giggled back in response and they fell into a comfortable fit of laughter.
After the laughter died down, Lance took a good look at Keith. He really did have the prettiest boyfriend in the whole universe, huh? Keith may not have realized it, but he was a total catch. Behind his hard exterior, he was just a normal guy with a huge heart. God, Lance was absolutely fucking enamored.
“Keith?”
“Hm?”
“I love you. So much. Keith, I don’t know what I’d do without you. You mean everything to me. I never realized it back then, but it doesn’t matter. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe that you’re here with me and that everything I feel is reciprocated.” Lance said, giving their still conjoined fingers a squeeze for good measure.
At that, Keith started to get a little teary eyed. The feeling goes both ways. He couldn’t believe it either, that in this obscure clusterfuck of events, that he had finally met someone who loved him; who wanted to be with him.
“God, you’re so corny.”
“Hey! You love me!” Lance retorted.
After a little while longer of playful banter between the two, Lance told Keith that he was starting to feel tired again. Keith flipped off the light on their nightstand and settled back in with lance under the duvet. Lance later down on his side facing away from Keith and Keith scooted up behind him and snaked an arm around him and placed a tender hand on Lance’s tummy just as a reminder that he wasn’t going anywhere and nothing was going to happen to them.
Once Keith heard the soft sounds of Lance’s breathing being evened out by sleep, he smiled into his neck and tenderly began to comb his fingers through Lance’s soft hair.
“Yeah,” he whispered, “I love you, too.”