He felt himself get shaken, "Lance? Lance! Answer me!" Where was he? He groaned and rubbed his hand, "Oh thank god, you almost gave me a heart attack! What happened, were you attacked? Is there someone else on the ship?" Keith asked question after question, "Hang on, hang on where am I- Black's hanger?" Lance soon got his bearings and looked around, "The kids found you lying unconscious in front of Black and came to get me, what happened?" Lance went to respond but found that he couldn't like he knew why but he couldn't explain it. "I... I don't know, I don't even remember why I came in here," Blue huffed a whine as her tail limply grazed the astral plane where she was next to Green. What was going on?
Keith looked concerned, "Come on, I think you need some sleep," Lance waved him off, "No, I'm fine it's you who needs sleep," He pointed to Keith, "I will be fine, come on," Lance crossed his arms stubbornly. "No. Not unless you sleep too," He said, "Lance," Keith called warningly and the two had a staring contest to see how who would succumb first.
It lasted a good five minutes before Keith deflated and Lance claimed victory, "Come on, sleep!" Lance hopped to his feet and dragged Keith out of the hanger to their room, "And don't try sneaking away to the training room because I won't let you, you need sleep and you haven't slept for nearly a day," Keith couldn't exactly argue because after Shiro went missing, he refused to sleep and ended up worrying Lance the most out of everyone.
"I will be fine," Lance puffed his cheeks and quickened his pace to their room and once they reached the doors he tossed Keith inside and went in himself, locking the door and shuffling off his shoes, once again grabbing Keith by the wrist and dragged him to the bed as Keith shrugged off his own shoes before being pulled down on the mattress with Lance and he cuddled him under the blanket.
"Now your trapped," Keith chuckled, wrapping his arms around Lance's waist and pulled him close.
"Fine, only because you keep me grounded," Damn straight Lance does and now he'll enjoy his heater and fall asleep listening to Keith breathing and heartbeat.
"So, what do we do now? Without Shiro..." Pidge couldn't find the heart to finish her sentence. They all knew what she meant, without a Black Paladin, they can't form Voltron. "We find a new Black Paladin," Allura said, "We are not replacing Shiro" Keith shot that down immediately, "Keith, we don't have any other choice. It's been weeks since Shiro went missing and we're really getting hammered without Voltron," Hunk said, "I don't care! We're not replacing Shiro, no one is replacing Shiro!" replacing Shiro made Keith's skin feel prickly and uncomfortable, Shiro was their leader, their friend, it felt wrong to replace him.
"Keith, please," Keith looked at his mate, he didn't want to replace Shiro. He refused to replace him. "It could be temporary until we find him, but right now we need a Black Paladin until Shiro is located and then we can go back to normal. I know you don't want to replace him, none of us do, but we don't have any other choice. Please, it'll only be temporary" Lance said, and it would be temporary until they found Shiro but none of them could tell the future and if one of them needed to cut their link with their current lion... then they had no choice for whoever Black chose.
Black nuzzled against Lance's mind, she needed to speak to him about this and he told her he would in a moment. She knew who it had to be; it was Shiro's wish after all.
Keith didn't like it, but they were right, he had it set in his mind that it was only temporary, it wasn't permanent. "Fine. But as soon as Shiro is found and takes up his position as Black Paladin again, we're all going back to normal." they agreed and went off the Black Lions hanger as Lance and Black talked about the potential Paladin, and Keith was brought up making Lance realize that the only one who would pilot Black, was Keith.
"Who goes first?" Hunk asked, "I'll try," Allura went first and disappeared into the mouth of the Lion. Lance knew what had to be done, he would be one of the last ones, he'd make sure of it.
One by one, they tried with no results until only Keith and Lance were the last ones.
Lance grabbed Keith's hand and pulled him along with him before lightly shoving him up the ramp as Lance didn't move forward, "What're you doing?" Keith asked, it was supposed to be Lance's turn. "I know I'm not the Black Paladin, I'll tell you later. Go," he nodded forward in Black's mouth, "I-I can't, no, no, no, I'm not replacing Shiro" Keith didn't want to. Lance went up to him and cupped his cheeks, "You aren't replacing him. You will never replace a great man who is our leader and your brother, I promise you that and remember it's only temporary. Now go, we'll be down here when you leave Black," he let him go and stepped off the ramp and went back to the others with an encouraging smile being shot at Keith and Keith walked up the ramp, not at all liking this decision but Shiro's words from when they were temporarily stranded on that planet after they went through the bad wormhole.
Walking into the cockpit, Keith sat in the pilots' seat and sighed. "I know I'm not Shiro, but we need you. Don't make me replace him please," he pleaded in the empty dark cockpit as he took the controls into his hands and tried to bond with Black. Black knew what had to be done.
The cockpit illuminated around him, and Keith didn't want this, Black roared and Lance had a sad smile. They had a Black Paladin now, but now, they didn't have a Red Paladin.
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4/7/24
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❝𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞❞ ||𝐊. 𝐊𝐨𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐞 𝐱 𝐋. 𝐌𝐜𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧||
Adventure- Klance Omegaverse AU - Lance doesn't remember much from around 5 years old to his current age, he can't remember anything from before then but he can remember very evidently the gates of hell that he walked through on a basis. A man by the name "J...
