[closed]

[secondnature]

CHARACTERS: Keith, Lance, and Pidge.
DATE: 8/30
WARNINGS: N/A
SUMMARY: Shiro's been transferred, so the other paladins are meeting to deal with it.

[It's only after Pidge messages him that he sees the completely innocuous message for himself. Shiro's gone. Shiro's gone, and it's being treated like it's nothing. The good thing is that the news doesn't come like it did with the Kerberos mission, complete with reports of certain doom for the three who had gone missing. No, this is just normal: sometimes people are transferred off team. Sometimes, they go on other missions. That's the gist of it. Keith doesn't like it, but knowing that Shiro's okay in some way means that things could be worse.

Still, it's not the first time that Keith's lost him. Maybe it won't be the last. It could be worse, yes, but it still sucks. Thinking of Lance and Pidge, he can't help but wonder how much harder it's going to be for the three of them. He'll deal. They'll deal. If anything, they have to do that so he doesn't feel bad. But, once again, here's the deal: it really sucks.

Because he stops to respond to Pidge along the way, he gets to Lance at the sixth minute into the "give me ten minutes or worry I got lost" message. No, that wasn't the exact words, but Lance's instructions sucked. As he looks up toward the statue and squints, he still insists on this single fact: they were awful.

He tucks his magitek necklace under his shirt and looks at Lance.] The head is the thing that stands out the least about this statue. [Just getting that out.]

Anyway—[continued a beat later, before Lance can even get out a response]—Pidge got back to me. They transferred Shiro. I don't know if or when he'll be back, but we all got a message. [He motions to his magitek, because he assumes Lance will understand where the message came in at.

(If roles were reversed, Keith would wonder why Lance was motioning toward his shirt vaguely.)]

Comments

[competing]

[ lance makes a face at keith's opening statement, his eyes swinging back up towards the statue beside him out of instinct. the head is so the thing that stands out about the statue. look at it! look how... abnormally large and strangely shaped it is! keith's crazy, man.

but before he can even make his case, keith is moving on to the actual matter at hand here.

and the way lance's expression falls is telling enough that he hadn't thought to check any messages either. ]

Transferred? [ the word echoes in his mind. he didn't realize they could just — do — that. ]

Why? We're a team — don't they know that??

[secondnature]

We're a part of a different team now. A much bigger team. [Keith may be countering what Lance is saying, but he doesn't sound all that thrilled about it. No matter what their purpose is as a part of this team, he can't help but feel like their energy would be best used trying to stop the Galra. After all, if they can just be pulled through to this place, how long until Zarkon shows up, too?

Keith doesn't want to think about that, but he can't help it: it seems like a very real possibility. And if Zarkon shows up, then what? What if he strong arms them into giving him all the power? Isn't that what he's been doing throughout all the galaxies in their universe? He doesn't like it.]

I don't think they care about us as individuals.

[This is Keith's cynical side showing. He's not great at making people feel better, even if he's not trying to hurt Lance with his words.

If anything, he looks hurt by how much he believes in the reality of them.]

[competing]

[ lance folds his arms, trying (and failing) to hide the pout on his lips at that. not that he isn't a team player or anything, but he had just started getting used to his own, smaller team. and now he's expected to start all over again?

at least he isn't alone, he supposes. as aggravating as it is to be stuck anywhere with keith, he's glad the other boy is here. and with pidge around, it's that much closer to feeling a little more like his second home. ]

We should write a letter of complaint, [ he says, with wry humor. he's really only half-serious. he doubts they'd be able to do much of anything, given they can't even do anything about the rifts in the first place.

he pushes off the wall he'd been leaning against and starts making his way down the hall towards pidge's room. ]

How'd Pidge sound when you spoke to her?

[secondnature]

A letter of complaint, huh? [Keith almost misses Lance's question because he gets caught up in the notion. As someone who seems to have a negative take on things rather easily, writing a letter of complaint would be a manifesto for him. Losing Shiro, losing their lions, having them turn out to be too incompetent to keep up their translation technology, having them be unable to get into a room that's probably really important—the list goes on. It's definitely hard to believe that they can screw up things as badly as it seems like they're passing things off, so they definitely want to cause problems.

Life inside Keith's head: not always a pretty place. Sometimes it's comically pessimistic, at least. So, harmless.

He shakes off the thought.]

Oh, uh, she sounded ... solemn? Like Pidge? [But not know-it-all-y, except for that first bit. Wait.] Resigned. That seems like a good word for it. I think she knows as well as we do that he wouldn't just take off on us.

[competing]

[ in retrospect, it was probably a pretty stupid idea to ask keith about pidge's well being, considering that kind of perception tended to require a lot more... finesse. intuition outside of where to hit someone most effectively.

still, keith seems to manage, which is right on par to what lance had been expecting in the first place. if nothing else, it urges his pace to quicken even more. thankfully, the statue with the guy and the head isn't too far from pidge's room, so before long lance is planting himself right in front of it, banging his fist against the door a few times, and shouting, in his most obnoxious voice: ]

Yo, Pidge!! Keith and I are gonna head down to the kitchens for some food. Wanna keep a tally on who gets sick the most??

[reverseengineer]

[Pidge cracks her door open just wide enough to glare.]

I can't think of anything less fun.

[secondnature]

I didn't agree to getting sick either, Lance. [It feels necessary to assert himself on that particular matter. Spending time with his teammates is ideal. Doing it while cleaning vomit off of his shoes? He'll pass.]

I think we can just eat normal food without getting sick. Come on, Pidge. [While the getting sick part is optional, the "doing team stuff" is not.]

[competing]

[ hey it got you both engaged, didn't it? lance just grins in that 'what can you do' kinda way, holding up his hands in a careless shrug.

when pidge doesn't really make any attempts to come out of her room, though, lance just shoves keith out of the way so he can lean in and down, meeting her eye for eye. ]

I guess it can be kinda boring to see me beat Keith again....

[reverseengineer]

[She opens the door fast enough to ding Lance in the face because she is a good friend.] Food and not getting sick sounds like a good plan.

[secondnature]

Besides, we all know that Lance has never won anything. [Not failing out of school doesn't count.

Then again, they all would be failures now, wouldn't they? Is that Keith's actual devious plan? To make everyone fail out of school?]

If there isn't anything ready, I might be able to cook something up. I'm no Hunk, but it won't be pond scum. [They call it goo but they all think it's pond scum or have wanted to think it's pond scum, let's be real.]

joins the icon matching train

[competing]

Sounds like something a sore loser would say, [ he scoffs... before suddenly eyeing the other boy dubiously.

speaking of sore losers— ]

Hang on — since when can you cook?

paladin shade

[reverseengineer]

[Pidge sidles out into the hallway, shoving her hands into her pockets.]

Best I can do is reheating, and even then there's a thirty percent chance something blows up.

[On purpose or by accident?? The world may never know.]

[secondnature]

I didn't say it'd be all that good, but they don't exactly deliver to the middle of nowhere. I had to make do with what I had. [It often meant going into town and finding microwavable foods, but over time, that would get to any overly active teenage boy. No matter how much he might have remained skinny, it still did a number on him to eat so unhealthily.

... So, he can do basic meals. Basic. "Fry up piece of meat. Or eggs. Or mac and cheese." That basic.

Only no one fries mac and cheese, but the point stands!]

[competing]

[ ...

lance sighs, turning to walk past pidge and lead them back down to the kitchens. ]

Guess I'll be cooking, then.

[ sure, he was no hunk, but he couldn't afford to be a slouch in the kitchen either. when you've got younger siblings with appetites bigger than yours, and older siblings who liked to needle you into doing their bidding, you kind of had to learn to survive... ]

[reverseengineer]

[Pidge shrugs and glances up at Keith before following Lance towards the kitchen. She doesn't really care who cooks past planning on mocking both of them.]

[secondnature]

Maybe there'll be something in there already made up. They can't expect all the recruits to cook, can they? And it's been a rough few days.

[Being able to walk into a room without being on guard or ready to dive into a bowl of water (or find a bowl of water, okay) has been nice. Keith doesn't mind fighting a lot, but like with what happened in the castle, even he has his limits.]

[competing]

Last time I saw some oven-ready corn dogs!

[ lance finds this to be thrilling news, obviously, turning to the other two with bright, wide eyes. shiro who?? hahahahah yep it's like their fearless leader never left ha haha hahah.. ha. ]

[reverseengineer]

Do you really want to trust corndogs you find here? What do you think is even in them? [They're sketchy enough on Earth.]

[secondnature]

Pidge, I don't think we can really judge after all the stuff that we let Coran feed us. [Even the rations on the last mission were better than the green globby grossness that they've become accustomed to in the castle.]

[competing]

I mean, if we're gonna go with that logic, who's to say we can trust anything in the kitchen?

[ BUT LET'S NOT THINK ABOUT THAT, because lance has already eaten... so much from there.... ]

Whatever, they were delicious. You guys'll like it, trust me!

[reverseengineer]

Just saying. [But complaints or not, she'll eat it too because eating is... a thing they all have to do to stay alive.]

[secondnature]

[The fact that he's agreeing with Lance on this is Strange. Keith wonders if Lance notices. Does he? He casts a glance over to him and then looks away quickly.]

I bet it'll be fine. It's better than trying to guess what we or the squidges could eat.

[competing]

[ gosh keith he doesn't think about you 24/7 or something okay!! he has a life outside of you!!1

actually he just got hella distracted by corndogs ]

The what now?

[reverseengineer]

Oh yeah, you missed all of that, didn't you? [Pidge adjusts her glasses as she looks up at Lance.] They were these small creatures we were taking care of for our last mission. And... first mission.

[secondnature]

Apparently my squidge is doing pretty well. I didn't expect it, but ...

[Said casually, like he doesn't expect Lance to not believe this was a thing.]

[competing]

[ look at this face ]

Are you trying to tell me that you [ finger points between pidge's brow ] and you [ watch it swivel not to keith ] were put in charge of raising alien babies?

And they didn't die?

[reverseengineer]

Hey, what's that supposed to mean? [Insult Keith all you want, but Pidge is very responsible!]

[secondnature]

[Keith is both defensive because of himself and because Pidge really liked the squidges! He glares at Lance.]

Goo did just fine, thanks. [A beat.] And Pidge made sure to show up and take care of the squidges that didn't have caretakers. It was too late, but she tried.

So, no ... no, there was no dying.

[competing]

[ deadpan eyes fall on keith for a second. ]

You named yours Goo?

[ ok but how did it not commit suicide. ]

You guys are definitely yanking my chain here, no way was that a mission.

[reverseengineer]

Yes, Lance, we got together and decided the best way to mess with you was to make up a story about taking care of small animals.

[Cause that's totally something Pidge and Keith would do as opposed to, say, Hunk and Lance. Pidge could probably be talked into it, but she doesn't think Keith actually has a sense of humor.]

[secondnature]

[He has a sense of humor! Gosh.

After a beat, he takes out his magitek and brings up his squidge feedback and shows it to Lance.]

Here, proof.

And Goo is a great name. He loved it!

[competing]

[ lance squints at the text.... wondering if it's possible to forge these things.... ]

Yeah, well, he also happened to be incredibly impressionable, so.

[ he leans back, not knowing how to Feel about this. ]

Is this the kind of thing we're going to be doing? Babysitting?

[reverseengineer]

Seems like our responsibilities vary a lot situationally. [Pidge adjusts her glasses.] And Goo is an okay name at best, sorry, Keith.

[secondnature]

Well, it's not like he changed it once we were gone. He could have.

[But Keith doesn't know how to explain their responsibilities.]

As for our missions ... I think they're usually a lot harder than this.

[competing]

[ they finally get to the kitchens, the door of which lance opens with one hand and stepping aside to let the others walk in before him, his expression still screwed up in something torn between confusion and disbelief. ]

Were you just given a crash course, or what?

[reverseengineer]

Pretty much. The mission had already been going on for a while when I joined in. I'd say they didn't give me much time to adjust, but honestly, it's been way more relaxing than training to form Voltron was.

[But she'd still rather she was doing that instead of this.]

[secondnature]

Not all of the first missions are that easy. Most ... are a lot harder than forming Voltron. [He remembers Haise's words.] I don't know most of it, but I guess they're more ... ethical. Does that make sense?

[Keith might be the worst person to have to explain this.]

[competing]

[ keith may be the worst person to explain anything.

which is why lance promptly turns to pidge. who he's content to believe is the smartest one of them all here. ]

So more good versus evil stuff?

[reverseengineer]

[That's cool. She also believes she's the smartest one of them all here.]

Sort of. Their main priority seems to be defending the timeline, which... doesn't always line up with helping good succeed. From what I've read, anyway.