[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

[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.