Voltron One Shots

Blame

Prompt: Heard you wanted langst prompts. How about a fic where Lance always volunteers to tell bad news or take blame for little things that go wrongs so the others won't get scolded or yelled at

A/N: hate making the Shiro the bad guy, but I mean who are we kidding at this point we know it's either Haggar is controlling him or its Kuron.

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Shiro had been strange lately, touchier. Every little thing seemed to set him off. Lance couldn't stand him yelling at the others. So, he decided to do something.

Every time the others made a mistake or made the wrong call during a mission, Lance was there, claiming responsibility. And Shiro was always there to tear him down.

At first the others tried to prevent Lance from taking all of the blame, telling them that they were able to stand up for themselves. They threatened to tell Shiro that Lance hadn't actually done anything wrong, but Lance convinced them that this was for the best. That he was protecting them.

Every time he took the blame, every time he held himself up in front of Shiro and absorbed his yelling, the disappointment dripping from his every word, Lance felt heavier. Like another stone being dropped in his bucket. At first it made him feel good, knowing that no one else was getting yelled at for mistakes that they couldn't have prevented. But after a while it grew tiring.

"Lance, can I talk to you?" Shiro asked, based on his voice, Lance knew what was coming next. "Alone" Lance ducked his head and followed Shiro away from the other and into the empty kitchen.

"If this is about the training accident earlier—" Shiro put his hand up.

"Lance, we have to talk about your behavior lately" Lance sat down on the edge of the counter. It was better if he braced himself. "I don't know what's been going on with you lately, but whatever it is, you need to fix you. If you don't get your shit together you might seriously hurt the team" After that Lance shut down. He hunched his shoulders and let Shiro's words wash over him, trying to ignore them, but absorbing each one. Reckless. Childish. A screw up. These were words that Lance had heard his whole life.

"I'm sorry" his voice was small. Shiro stared at him with his arms crossed. He was so much bigger than Lance, not just height wise, but physically. Lance was ashamed to say that he had become afraid of Shiro. He was sure that he would never hurt him, but the fear was still there.

"Don't. Let it happen again" Shiro said, and then he turned and walked off.

"What'd he say?" Hunk asked nervously as Lance walked into his room. Everyone was waiting for him in there. He had intended to be alone, afraid that he was going to cry, but he pushed it down.

"Nothing bad" he lied. Hunk and Pidge were sitting on his bed, and Keith was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"Really?" Keith pushed. "Because I could hear him yelling from here" Lance looked away. "Why do you keep doing this? It was my fault. Everyone knew it was my fault. I'm the one that ran into that training robot and knocked it into Allura. You weren't even in the room when it happened"

"Yeah, but he doesn't know that. And Shiro thinks that I was messing around and knocked it over, okay?" Everyone slowly nodded. As much as they hated Lance sacrificing himself, they hated being yelled at by Shiro even more. Pidge sprung off the bed and wrapped her arms around Lance. She hated being yelled at the most.

"Thank you" she whispered. He smiled thinly and held her close.

It was two days before he was yelled at again. This time it was none of their faults. One of the machines in the kitchen broke, spraying the whole room from top to bottom in goo. They had all turned the malfunction into a food fight. Everyone was having fun until Shiro walked in.

"What happened in here!?" he demanded to know. The room went silent, as everyone stared at Shiro. "Who did this!?" Lance pushed down the urge to cry as he stepped forward.

"Lance, no" Keith said softly. Lance clasped his hands behind his back and waved Keith off. He had to do this. It was for the good of the team.

"It- it was me" he said, praying that his voice would stop shaking. Shiro's eyes flashed with something that Lance couldn't quite place.

"Of course it was" Shiro growled. "It's always you" Hunk took a step forward.

"It wasn't him!" Hunk said. Lance shot him a look. "Lance, I can't let you do this" he pleaded. Shiro turned to Hunk and squinted his eyes, as if he didn't understand what he had said.

"Don't cover for him, Hunk. He did this, so he should clean it up" Lance lowered his head.

"But he didn't do it!" Keith shouted, he stepped forward as he did and slipped on a pile of goo, falling to the ground. He flailed his arms out as he fell, knocking Pidge down with him.

Shiro stared at the scene in front of him, his face turning red. Lance knew this was not going to end well. He knew that look from experience.

"Everyone out!" he shouted. "Lance, clean this place up!" Hunk started to protest, stepping towards Shiro again. Lance knew that look in Shiro's eye. He knew what was coming next.

"Don't touch him!" Lance jumped in front of Hunk as Shiro moved to shout in his face. Instead, he was nose to nose with Lance. Before Lance could even close his eyes, he felt a sharp sting on his cheek. The sound resonated through the room. No one dared to move. No one dared to look at Shiro.

"Everyone. Get. Out." Shiro repeated dangerously. Keith and Pidge scrambled to their feet and followed after Hunk. Lance stayed rooted in his spot. He didn't know if could move even if he wanted to. "Lance, I want you to clean this room until it's spotless" he hissed. "And the next time you make a mistake" he emphasized. "The consequences will be far worse" with that, he turned and left the room.

As Lance sat on his hands and knees scrubbing the floor, his cheek still stinging from the slap, he thought about his friends. He was doing this for his friends. As long as he did this, they wouldn't get in trouble.

He would do anything for his friends.