shining like the stars

3

"Hunk!" Lance called as he hurried down the corridor behind his best friend and the pilot of the Yellow Lion. "Hunk, c'mon man, wait up!"

Hunk was walking determinedly forward, completely ignoring Lance and heading back toward the Castleship's kitchens. He was staring straight ahead and almost didn't stop when Lance darted in front of him, both hands out and braced a little in case Hunk didn't stop. "Hunk, stop! Let me explain!"

He did stop, hands still gripping the dessert tray and staring at Lance. "Explain what?"

Lance, who had closed his eyes and braced for impact, opened them but didn't drop his hands. "It's ... not what you think?"

"Not what I think," Hunk's voice was very calm and it was scary. Lance couldn't think of the last time he'd heard Hunk's voice this calm - usually it was the opposite, pitched up frantically. "What is it that I think, Lance?" Hunk looked around suddenly, as if checking to see that they could be overheard before leaning in toward Lance, his eyes narrowed. "Is it that you're taking advantage of an omega in heat?"

Lance slapped his hand over Hunk's mouth and said loudly, "SHH I'M NOT TAKING ADVANTAGE OF ANYBODY IF ANYTHING HE'S TAKING ADVANTAGE OF ME-! " Hunk recoiled almost instantly away from Lance and shook his head, balancing the tray expertly in one hand and wiping the back of his other hand over his mouth.

"I don't even want to know where your hands have been!"

"I'm not taking advantage of him!" Lance said again, insistently but not as loud. "How could you think I would do something like that!?" He had backed up a step away and was aware of how fast his heart was beating, and how strangely terrified he was of Hunk and his knowledge.

Hunk inhaled and held it for a moment, before letting out a long, slow sigh. "I know you're not a bad person," he said, and then thought a second before clarifying himself. "Well, not that kind of bad person..."

" Hey!"

"But, you know, it's kind of hard not to be suspicious when I see a guy that you've been complaining about constantly and declared your rival on his knees in front of you with a face full of..." Hunk screwed his nose up and closed his eyes as if he was trying to dump his short-term memory files. "Well, you ."

"It wasn't my idea," Lance huffed, folding his arms. He looked away, unaware of still how flushed he was, stomach roiling. "How did you that he's ... well..." Lance looked around again but it wasn't like the Castleship was wall to wall with passengers. "You know."

"An omega?"

"Dude, don't say it."

Hunk shrugged his shoulders loosely. "The only way that you're getting a blowjob is from someone in heat who doesn't know any better." That said, he stepped around Lance and kept on walking toward the kitchen, leaving Lance standing there with a stunned expression on his face.

"What? Hunk!" 

#

"You have to swear not to tell anyone," Lance said, two steps behind Hunk as he walked into the kitchen. "Swear it, man!"

"Not tell anyone what?" Allura asked, standing at the counter against the wall and holding a mug in both hands full of a steaming purple liquid. Lance pulled up short and gaped at her for a moment, his brain shooting off the rails at lightning speed and groping for something, anything to tell her that wasn't The Truth.

"Keith and Lance were working on team-building exercises," Hunk said as he set the dessert tray down.

"Oh!" Allura beamed. "Lance, that's wonderful , will you be sharing those exercises with the rest of us? I know how tumultuous your relationship with Keith can be, I'm glad to hear that you've put aside your differences to work together on something."

Lance not only continued to gape wordlessly for a long, painful moment; he also turned one single, vibrant shade of pink from his forehead to his chin. "They're, um," he said, struggling valiantly and failing miserably all in one go. "They're..."

"...not ready yet?" Hunk helped, a wicked gleam in his eye.

"Not ready yet," Lance repeated, far too quickly. He glared at Hunk, who gave Lance an over-sweet smile and started putting away the tray.

"How is Keith feeling?" Shiro asked from behind Lance, and Lance went absolutely stock-still. For a split second everything was silent and muted, except for the overwhelming, confident presence of Shiro behind him in the doorway. Then, Lance moved faster than he thought possible; getting out of the way and putting Hunk between him and the door as nonchalantly as he could for someone who appeared to have teleported across the room.

"He's fine," Lance said, almost tripping over the words and not making any eye contact with Shiro at all. "Or he will be fine, he's just exhausted and wore himself out you know how he is, hahaha..." The nervous chuckle at the end made Hunk look at him and snort.

"I still think he ought to spend the night in the cryo replenisher," Allura said, and the mouse who was sitting perched on her shoulder nodded its head in firm agreement. "He would feel much better in the morning, especially if he's been ill and pushing himself past his limits, which he seems prone to do."

"That does sound like a fine idea, Princess," Shiro said. "I'll go check on him and see if he's up to it."

"NO," Lance said loudly, and ducked his head when everyone looked at him, startled. "Um, no, that's a bad idea because he had just gone to sleep when Hunk and I left. Right, Hunk?"

Allura and Shiro were both giving Lance a strange look, but Hunk nodded his head after a moment. "It wouldn't be nice to disturb him," he said to Shiro. "Let Keith sleep for a while, we can suggest the medical pods if he still feels bad when he gets up." After a stretched silence, he added, "he looked really worn out by the team-building exercises he and Lance were doing."

"HUNK," Lance hissed.

Shiro shrugged and put his hands on his hips. "It's fine, as long as he's not actually sick with anything that could go around. The last thing we need is the entirety of Team Voltron being laid low with the space flu."

"...is that actually a thing?" Lance said. "Space flu."

Allura frowned thoughtfully. "I've never heard of a 'Space flu' sickness before. Of course there are a whole host of illnesses your could bring back from any of the planets and cultures we visit, but the Paladin suits especially have a built-in filtration system that helps cleanse the atmosphere you breathe and works almost as a secondary immune system. Otherwise, non-native pilots would be getting sick near-constantly."

"Makes sense," Hunk said. "All this alien tech is so weird, but it's also really kinda cool."

Lance nodded his head in agreement, but he was also aware that Shiro had continued to stare at him with a very perplexed expression. He had fully entered the kitchen by now but he hesitated, his attention divided between Allura's words and Lance himself; and that was making Lance uncomfortable. "I'm gonna go," he said, but Shiro blocked his path, walking toward him with a purpose and that uncomfortable feeling unspooled in his belly, shifting rapidly into something else entirely.

He had been standing back against the counter beside Hunk and had nowhere to go. "Shiro?" Lance said, but Shiro didn't seem to hear him, his brow drawn together in concentration. Lance realized in a panicked moment as Shiro stepped into his personal space that Shiro was scenting.

Shit.

He couldn't make himself move. All his muscles locked up as Shiro put his hands on Lance's shoulders, one hand distinctively heavier and cooler. He lowered his head and inhaled deeply in the space where the fabric of Lance's clothes sat bunched, between his shoulder and neck. "Shiro!" Allura said from far away, shocked.

Lance's heart was going approximately a million miles an hour, his entire body ramrod straight and arms pinned to his sides, trembling. "You smell like Keith," Shiro murmured, his voice gone an octave lower and huskier. Lance's brain finally overrode everything else in flat-out emergency mode and he planted both his hands on Shiro's chest and shoved him away.

Shiro took a step back, his eyes wide and surprised as he seemed to come back to himself, blushing slightly. "Why did I - Lance, I'm sorry , that was inappropriate-"

Lance was still standing with his arms extended, staring at Shiro with a terrified expression on his face. "I have to go," he managed to get out before he bolted from the room. 

#

In the safety of his own quarters, Lance slammed his palm on the wall control that closed the door behind him and locked it. He was panting, more winded than a run down the winding halls of the Castleship ought to leave him, and Lance braced himself back against the door, trying hard to catch his breath. With a surprised noise Lance realized that his legs weren't going to hold him for much longer, and sank to the floor, back still to the room's door. 

He could still feel the brush of hot breath along the side of his neck, but the voice in his head wasn't Shiro's. Lance folded his arms over his head and curled forward, trying to keep it out, the voice that said softly, you're an omega, you'll enjoy it, private...

Focus on your breathing. One breath in, one breath out.

Lance jumped when he heard someone bang on the door, heart in his throat. "Lance, are you all right?" Hunk's voice. The relief is palpable.

"I'm fine," Lance said, lowering his arms but not moving from where he sat, his back to the door. "Is Shiro out there with you?"

"No. I think he's still trying to explain what just happened to Allura." Hunk's voice lowered just a bit, conspiratorially, but still enough to be heard through the bulkhead door. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah," Lance said, because if he wasn't, Hunk would never go away. After a long moment of silence, he spoke again. "Hunk?"

"I'm still out here, man."

"Can you keep Shiro away from Keith? It's ... it's his first heat."

Another long moment, and Lance felt the weight of it between them. Finally, he heard Hunk smack an open palm against the door. "Of course I will. Shit, what a bad time to present."

"Yeah. Sucks to be him." Lance closed his eyes and exhaled.

"You know, I didn't really think you were taking advantage of him."

"I know."

Hunk asked, quietly, "will you open the door?"

Lance shook his head and didn't realize right away that Hunk couldn't see it. "I'm fine," he said. "Really. Will you go check on Keith though? He really needs to eat something, he hadn't touched the dinner tray when I left."

"Yeah, sure thing. You know you can come talk to me if you need to, too." Lance heard Hunk smack the outside of his door one more time, a parting noise, and after a moment there was no other noise from the hallway.

Lance tilted his head back against the door and closed his eyes, and then took a long, deep breath. He could still feel those fingers, than breath, that scent; trapped against the wall of lockers in the changing room and terrified....

And then Hunk, ripping an upperclassmen off of him, slamming him back into the bench so he tripped and sprawled back...

Lance groaned and shuddered. He was going to make certain that Keith made it through his first heat safely. No matter what.