The Stars Between -- (VLD)

[4] What's your speciality?

"Anyone there?"

Lance straightened in surprise at the voice, hitting his head on the underside of the control panel as he rushed into a sitting position. He couldn't quite reach the comms from his place on the floor, and he didn't want to struggle in getting up again.

"Sir- I mean Matt!" Lance corrected himself hastily, waving over his friend. "Matt, get in here!" A mildly puffed Matt stepped into the cockpit, just as the comms crackled to life again.

"Hello? Does anybody hear me?"

Matt looked down to Lance, who tilted his head to the side in a 'go on' motion. He raised an eyebrow, aware of the malfunctioning communicator. 

"I think I've fixed it," Lance said, pulling himself out from under the console. "Just try."

"Okay then," Matt shrugged, obviously still sceptical about it. "who is it?"

"Keith," Lance mumbled, fiddling around with the tools beside him. "Besides Shiro, he's the only paladin I hadn't heard yet. How -how far are we from where you found me?"

"About two systems... why?"

"Nothing." he didn't quite meet Matt's eyes. Matt understood regardless, flipping the switch to open the communications channel.

"Keith, can you hear us?" Matt asked, suddenly formal. "This is the Blue lion, do you copy?"

No reply. Matt leaned against the console, tapping his fingers lightly in a quiet rhythm. "Keith, can you hear us?" he repeated after a brief pause.

"Keith, come in!"

"Allura!" The comms filled with Keith's sigh of relief. "It's good to hear you! Have you found anyone else yet?"

"Not yet, but we have coordinates for Hunk and Pidge."

"What about Shiro?" Keith asked after a second of silence. "I thought the wormhole would've shot us out close to each other, but I'm not picking up his signal."

"I'm sorry, Keith. We've got nothing. Maybe his lion was damaged."

"... I've got visuals on the castle. I'm coming in."

Matt flicked the communicator off entirely, shutting out any more transmissions. Lance gave a weak smile, looking down at his hands again.

A warm hand rested on Lance's shoulder and he turned, the same sad smile reflected on Matt's face.

"Come on kid, back to work."

Dinner was always a very loud affair at the resistance base. It was Lance's favourite part of the day, when nearly everyone was able to come together and just relax. During dinner, missions were forgotten and people let loose. It was a mass of species, all speaking a mix of their own languages and basic.

The first dinner Lance was able to actually attend (being restricted by Matt for the first few days as he learnt the ropes) was chaotic, but that didn't off-put him. In fact, it made him feel nostalgic, missing home. A full table in a bright-lit setting was calming for him, no matter how much was going on around him.

He was particularly fond of the alien with reflective head... bobble... things. It kind of looked like the alien was wearing a disco ball as a hat, and Lance loved it. 

And the disco ball alien- Lance couldn't pronounce their name, so he called them Vi- made the best jokes. Some didn't translate very well, but that didn't bother him.

Another favourite was the blue unicorn-ish medic, Kelaan. She was kind, if a little stern. Lance would never say it out loud, but he found her presence comforting, like his own mother. Kelaan had a tendency to give him treats whenever they passed each other in the hallways, a hush and wink of her owlish eyes as she pushed them into his hands.