Together (Klance Oneshots)

Chapter 2 - Mask (Fluff/Angst)

Author Note

     Is it bad that I'm writing this instead of studying for finals? 😂  Thank you guys for reading! 

⚠Warnings:
     - Involves self-harm
     - Depression
     - Possible eating disorder
     - Some language

Voltron AU
~~~
     Everyone has an outer identity. A front they put up and present to others. Kind of like a mask. You put on different ones when you need everyone to think you are okay. They use that mask to hide the part of themselves that feels like a burden, that part that the person feels no one will understand. But masks aren't permanent, and some people will always be able to see through what is designed to keep most away. Some might even call it a gift, being able to see the scars and truth held within the eyes that connect to a person's soul.

 Lance understood this concept. His exterior image was a confident, flirtatious, and badass sharpshooter. So what is on the inside? The self-doubt, anger, pain, a void when the emotion was pushed away. 

     Lance hated himself. He goes through day-to-day feeling useless and unneeded. Where did this feeling start? The day he was pulled into an intergalactic war and was told to fight, pulled into something he didn't choose to be a part of. Lance had never been as far away from home and his family as he was the moment the blue lion took the paladins through the wormhole and he missed his home and his family deeply. How could he be so selfish as to be homesick, it was idiotic. 

     Lance missed everything about Earth, about Cuba. He missed his big family and the huge dinners they had every Friday night. Where they would all pile into the family trucks and head to the local ice cream store. He had everyone's orders memorized. He missed the big blue ocean that was a 10 min drive from his family home. He missed the tire swing they had hanging from the big tree that had been in their yard longer than his town had been, well a town. The smell of salt in the air and the suns blistering heat hit his neck when he was outside helping his Mama in the garden. God, he missed his Mama. 

     Lance was angry at the Galra for taking all that away, for taking his home away, his Earth, his big blue ball of life. He was angry that he was never enough for the team. He was in pain because he had fallen for a guy that would never love him back. He was tired, exhausted, and done with it all. His mask was starting to crack...

[Time skip]

     It was late in the afternoon when the Galra had felt an obligation to attack. A giant battleship cruiser had approached the Castle of Lions in the middle of nowhere. The purple light set an eerie atmosphere as they approached. Red lights flashed and alarms started to sound inside the castle.

     "Paladins get to your lions!!" Allura yelled over the intercom.

     Everybody dropped what they were doing and rushed to the hangers. Keith and Shiro had been training and sprinted out from the training deck as the alarms continued to blast. Hunk had just finished putting his macaroons into the oven and started to leave as he quickly realized he forgot to set the timer. Pidge was asleep on her computer in her room and bolted awake, she ran out and to her lion with the indentation of a keyboard on their cheek.

     Lance... well Lance was bleeding. He was cutting another white line on his perfect tan skin. He heard alarms blaring as he sat on his bathroom floor arm in the tub. Allura yelled that this is not a drill and he grabbed the towel above his head and pressed it to his arm. Standing up he grabbed the gauze he had already laid out and wrapped his arm. Putting on his armor he headed for the hangers.