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Lance looked longing out of the big windows in the observation room. A sad smile spread on his lips as it reminded him of something his Mami had told him.
“Shoot for the stars, mijo, and you belong with them.”
Dios, he missed her. Lance shook his head and checked the clock. 11.58 pm. Only 2 minutes until he officially turned 18. He had planned his 18th birthday for a long time, and last year he almost couldn’t wait, but that had changed. Lance sighed heavily. At his 17th birthday, he had thought that on his 18th, he would see his whole family, also the ones that lived in Cuba, but now he wouldn’t even see his Mami or siblings.
Lance looked at the clock again. 11.59 pm. Lance kept starring at the illuminated numbers. It seemed like forever before the clock changed. 12.00 am. The Cuban boy took out the piece of paper and pencil that he had brought with him. He used a few seconds on drawing an ugly cake, 18 lights on top, and write Lance inside the cake.
“Happy birthday, Lance, make a wish” Lance whispered. He held the paper up as he blew lightly on it, pretending that he blew out the lights. Lance sighed again and folded the paper so he could put it in the pocket of his signature jacket. He wrapped the jacket more around himself and leaned against the cold wall. Lance turned his eyes out to the stars again, quietly wishing he could go back to Earth.
XXX
Lance jerked awake when the castles alarms started screaming. “Paladins, get to the bridge” Allura’s voice sounded. Lance shook his body, not wanting to do whatever it was Allura wanted him to do, today all he wanted to do was sit here or in his room. But even with that feeling, Lance started to run to the bridge. Now he was kind of glad that he had fallen asleep in the observation room, and even luckier in his regular clothes.
Lance arrived at the bridge the same time as Pidge. Shiro and Keith were already standing at the bridge with Allura. Coran and Hunk weren’t there, but that was because they were on a mission to help a planet with some mechanics. They had been gone for a week and would be away for at least five more days.
“Finally,” Allura said, sounding a little annoyed. “We have a diplomate meeting. This planet, Maqui,-” A planet appeared on the screen. “-is considering to join the Voltron collation. We are going to discuss terms and so on” Allura said, looking them all in the eyes. Lance could feel her eyes lingering on him longer, and somehow that was irritating him more than usual today. The Cuban took a deep breath. “Who inhabits Maqui?” Lance asked, looking closer at the planet.
“Maqui is inhabited by the Qu-qu’s,” Allura said, and a few pictures of some Qu-qu’s showed on the screen next Maqui. They looked human other than four horns on their heads and their neon coloured skin. Lance looked at the screen where there were some facts about the Qu-qu’s and Maqui in general.
“Now Lance, I know that they are beautiful, but remember we are there on a professional so, no flirting. Okay?” Lance heard Shiro say behind him. “Whatever” Lance answered with a very irritating voice that none of the others had ever heard, not even Keith. “Allura, send me that and all other information you have on the Qu-qu’s and Maqui,” Lance said and began to walk out. He could feel three sets of eyes in his neck but didn’t care — not today. Today was going to suck.
“What was that about?” Pidge asked behind Lance, and that was the last thing he heard before the door closed.
XXX
Lance held a bowl of goo in one hand and his space-phone in the other, reading about the Qu-qu’s, as he walked to his room. He had 3 hours until they would land on Maqui, so lots of time to eat, read and be sad in his room.
Lance was unsure whether or not he was happy Hunk wasn’t at the castle. Hunk would have known that it was his birthday, but he was also the only one who knew. They had been in space since late April, so Lance was also the first one to have a birthday in space. Lance sighed again. Space had been his greatest wish since his third birthday was his Abuela gave him a little spaceship and told him that he was meant to do something great. And now he had accomplished it, only 15 years later.
“I did it Abuela, thank you for believing in me” Lance mumbled and turned around a corner. Or he tried to turn around a corner but bummed into something. Something named Keith. “dios, careful, I almost dropped my goo,” Lance said, looking at Keith. “You are at as much at fault as I am,” Keith said defensive. “Let’s say that,” Lance said and walked passed Keith.
“What’s wrong with you?” Keith yelled after him. “Bad day” Lance answered without turning around or stopping. He could hear Keith sigh up giving.
XXX
Lance would be lying if he said that the Qu-qu’s wasn’t fun to read about. Their society was very much like a human one. But unlike human’s they didn’t have big cities, but lots of small villages. They are vegetarian as their stomachs can’t handle meat. They are also genderless in a way kind of like snails.
But what Lance found the most interesting was that they could sense the aura of a person and the day they were born. From what Lance could read, the most common aura was from the spectrum yellow to red whereas a pure blue aura was very rare.
After reading all he could, Lance decided that wearing armour would be a bad idea if the goal was to earn the trust of the Qu-qu’s. But going in without armour would be plain stupid. Lance walked to the armoury, looking for something that could help him. After a little while of looking around, he found the perfect equipment. A bulletproof west (Or more accurate, an all-kind-of-weapon-proof west) that followed the body perfectly so it was almost unnoticeable under a shirt and a bracelet that could hold his bayard.
After getting his new things on, it was time to get back to the bridge.
XXX
The first thing Lance noticed when he walked in was that Shiro, Keith and Pidge were wearing their armour and Allura was wearing her fighting suit or whatever it was. “Careful that you don’t scare the Qu-qu’s,” Lance said, and everyone whipped their head towards him. “Lance, why are you not in armour yet? We land in 5 doboshes” Shiro asked shocked. “I read up on the Qu-qu’s, and they are a peace-loving species and gets easily scared when it comes to big weapons and armour,” Lance said with a shrug. “So you decided to not any?!” Keith exclaimed, confused. But before Lance could answer, they felt the ship land on the hard ground underneath them.
“We are going to talk about this after the meeting,” Allura said with a stern voice before putting her diplomat smile on, and they walked out to the village.
As Lance had predicted, the village was little, but he could see his teammates surprise. The king of the Qu-qu’s stood ready to greet them but hesitated for a moment as his eyes landed on Lance. The king’s brows furrowed for a tick like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, but soon it was replaced by a big smile. “Greetings, paladins of Voltron, it’s a pleasure to have you here,” The king said excited, quickly shaking hands with Allura, Shiro, Keith and Pidge.
When the king got over to Lance, his smile somehow widened. “Congratulation, it’s a big day in our culture” It took a second before Lance realised what he was talking about. His birthday. “Thank you, sir,” Lance said and smiled politely. “And may I say, what a beautiful aura. A little sad, but nothing the less beautiful” The king said. “It suits you, eh?” “Lance McClain” “It suits you, Lance” Lance smiled by the words, knowing that it was one of the biggest compliments a Qu-qu could give.
The king turned towards the other, still smiling big. “I’m king Fazwi the second of Maqui, and please let me escort you to the decision-building” Fazwi turned and showed them down a street, it looked like the main street. At the end of the road was by far the biggest building in the whole village. The houses looked like half-timbered houses, almost like an old-time village. But even with the old look, the town had a lot of technology around.
“So, I read up on how the king is chosen, and I’m a little confused. So you vote on who should be king and have a little council that is also voted on. Isn’t that just like democracy?” Lance asked as they walked down the street. “Oh, it’s like democracy because it is a democracy. When we changed from monarchy to democracy, we all still liked the title ‘king’, so we never changed that” Fazwi said excitedly.
They small talked the rest of the walk but got interrupted a lot, as almost everyone who saw Lance said congratulation. Lance smiles and thanks to them every time, ignoring the weird looks his friends give him.
XXX
“Paladins of Voltron, welcome to the council of Maqui. Each member is a representative of a village” Fazwi said. And it took at least ten minutes of saying hi to them all, especially since they all had to say something extra to Lance.
When they finally got to sit down, Lance quickly took the word and talked about how joining the collation would help Maqui in many ways. It was almost like he was prepared for everything, both the for and against questions.
“Voltron only brings death. If we joined, the galras would be all over us the second we leave. It would be much safer to swear loyalty to the galras” A raspy voice said from the other end of the table. “That’s Tut-ma, he is very against joining you” Fazwi whispered in Lance’s ear. “Why should we listen to this young person, because his aura is cornflower blue?” Tut-ma said accusing and stood up aggressively, but Lance got an idea.
“What’s his aura?” Lance asked Fazwi quietly. “Carry yellow” Lance nodded slowly. “You’re right, you shouldn’t trust me because of my aura, nor should you trust me for my age or reputation. You should trust me because I came in casual clothes instead of armour. You should trust me because I did my research. You should trust me because even when I have a shitty day, I do this for you and would do it again. And jealousy isn’t a good colour in you, Tut-ma, it’s tainting your carry yellow aura” Lance said, now also standing up.
Tut-ma stood stunned and looked at Lance, not sure what to say. “You will regret that cornflower” Was what he finally said, and you could hear the anger in his voice. “What will I regret, having the guts to stand up to you, or saying your aura out loud?” Lance said calmly.
Tut-ma got even angrier. Lance was close to sitting down again when Tut-ma pulled out a handgun. “Both, you little arrogant child” Lance could feel the nervousness creep down his neck as the gun pointed at him. “Wow, calm down, this is nothing we can’t solve. Just put down the gun, and no one will get hurt” Lance said, holding his arms up defencelessly. This was defiantly the worst birthday ever.
“Yes, Tut-ma, please put the gun down. Violence is not the way” Fazwi said also standing up. “You were also always so weak. You shouldn’t run the planet” Tut-ma yelled. Lance heard a familiar click and jumped in front of Fazwi. He could feel the bullet hit his back, but it got stopped by the west. As he and Fazwi landed on the floor, he quickly tapped the bracelet summoning his bayard and sniped Tut-ma in the shoulder, so he dropped the gun.
It all happened so fast that no one registered what had happened until it was over. “Holy fuck, are you okay Lance?” Keith asked, kneeling next to Lance. “Yeah, bulletproof west and the guy luckily has an old gun,” Lance said, pulling up in his shirt to show the west. “What about you, Fazwi? Are you okay?” Lance asked, concerned. “That… that was a thrilling experience, but I hope I will never try that again” Fazwi said with a light chuckle.
“I think we are joining the collation after this, you did dive in front of a bullet for me” Lance nodded also laughing lightly. “I think that is a self-written rule” Lance joked. As security got Tut-ma out of the room, Lance helped Fazwi up from the floor.
“So, anyway let’s talk terms and other things for joining the collation,” Lance said as nothing had just happened.
XXX
“I look very much forward to see you again, Lance,” Fazwi said, shaking Lance hand even more. “Likewise,” Lance said, pulling the pink alien into a hug. “Also I’m sorry for disturbing such an important day, and so you getting shot at, I’m very sorry,” Fazwi said, looking apologetic. “It’s fine, I needed a nice distraction, I can’t be with my family, and that sucks,” Lance said feeling a lump build in his throat. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realise,” Fazwi said sympathetically. “It’s fine. I’m just trying to forget today and get on with ending this war” Fazwi nodded understanding.
“Anyway, I got to go, see you at the next collation meeting” Lance waved as he walked up to the castle. “Yeah, bye, try to have a good life-day” Fazwi yelled. Lance smiled as he walked into the castle. As soon as the doors closed behind him, he noticed the confused looks his teammates gave him.
“Okay, explain yourself” Shiro’s voice was stern. Lance squirmed a bit before telling them everything. Well, almost everything. He told them about his birthday, his 18th birthday to be exactly how he had read everything about both the planet and species. And so on.
“Why? Why didn’t you tell us?” Pidge asked after Lance was done talking.
Lance shrugged. “I don’t know, because I didn’t want to reminded that I was missing my family,” Lance said, looking away. “I know we are not your family, but we will still celebrate you. Tonight we are going to watch a movie, and when Hunk gets back, we’re going to have a birthday dinner” Keith said, and the others nodded.
Lance couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Thank you,” Lance said, smiling, pulling them all into a group hug. Even if he missed his family, this could still be a good birthday.