Winter Tree (Voltron: Legendary Defender Fanfic/ONC )

Crash Landing

The very thought Allura might call out to Keith instead of him honestly rubbed Lance the wrong way. He purposefully convinced himself Keith was compensating for something, yet in the back of his head, Lance felt an inkling this wasn't true. The fact Keith wouldn't let go and stop butting in where he wasn't wanted also didn't sit well with Lance, nor did the idea Keith might rescue Allura and not him.

He went with Keith because he wanted to be the one rescuing Allura, not the one hurtling through a wormhole towards an unknown location. He didn't ask for something to crash into their spacecraft. He didn't ask for the pilot being sucked out of the cockpit either. He didn't expect a situation where he would crash in one of the spacecraft he dreamed since childhood of flying and shut his eyes tightly.

Lance expected a loud boom and fire burning his skin painfully along with a multitude of broken bones. Instead the sound of wind rushing by while the spacecraft fell from the sky, he heard the sounds of branches breaking, but he found himself lurching forward. Lance's blue eyes snapped open and he let out a couple of deep breaths. He felt his throat tighten and his hands reached for his seatbelt and quickly unbuckled himself from the craft.

He stood up yet wobbled slightly before toppling out of the craft onto the ground. Lance hit the ground hard and let out another breath. He pushed himself up from the ground and sat with his back against the craft. He took a deep breath and looked up at the blue sky wondering if anyone would look for them, and yet in the back of his head he knew they'd entered a wormhole yet had no access to the lions.

"Maybe..." Lance looked up at the sky before running a thumb over the Altean mark under the eye Allura left him. He wanted for some kind of miracle which would allow him to be a paladin of Voltron again, yet also have Allura in his arms, but the miracle didn't seem within the realm of possibility. His mind drifted to the reason he was in the situation he was currently in and Lance closed his eyes.

The vision of Keith getting sucked out of the spacecraft was etched into his brain but thinking about that exact moment made his stomach start curdling. Lance lurched forward onto his hands and knees. The putrid vomit landed in front of him and Lance took another deep breath while his hands clenched the ground tightly. His teeth ground together and his eyes closed painfully.

"Keith, if you're alive I am so going to kill you when I find you." Lance pushed himself up from the ground and leaned against the spacecraft. Mentally he checked himself over for any injuries. The pain he felt wasn't major and came from when the seatbelt prevented him from flying forward into the shattered class of the spacecraft. "Quiznack. I'm lucky to be alive. I've got to find Keith, though I'm not sure I want to."

A deep sigh escaped when Lance thought about his best friend and the Space Mice. He felt having someone to chat with while traversing the alien terrain might pass the time faster. Hunk, of course, might complain every so often about how the unknowns regarding the alien terrain scared him, but he and the Space Mice would listen to Lance's personal woes and follow up with attempts at cheering Lance up. In the back of his mind Lance knew he needed such cheer, but every time his thoughts wandered towards having a more cheerful attitude he found himself remembering what happened to Keith.

A shiver ran down Lance's spine when he wondered what would happen to him. Glancing around, his mind drifted towards wondering what exotic plans Hunk might find on the planet, but what kind of new dishes would think up as well. Thinking about Hunk's love of cooking calmed Lance down, yet he didn't stop and think about how he was weaponless. In the back of his mind, the universe was at peace, for peace was the reason Allura sacrificed herself.

"Ugh. More unhappy thoughts." Lance closed his eyes as he continued in the random direction he chose. "She sacrificed herself so the universe would be whole again, but without her..." He liked thinking he wasn't whole without her in his life. "Anyways, no use pondering that beyond the fact Keith was stupid enough to think he could find her. I mean, really. I'm the one she chose. Me! Not Keith!"

The sound of a branch snapping made Lance stopped. His blue eyes darted down and looked at the ground, but no stick lay under his foot. "Quiznack."

He slowly lifted his arms up into the air in an act of surrender. Mentally he cursed his luck of not having a weapon, but also the lacked the kind of hand to hand combat training Shiro and Keith had. He watched an alien who looked like an almost human step out from the forest and pointed a gun at him. His eyes widened upon seeing they looked almost human except for their pointed ears. "Wait. Are you Altean?"

Yet these aliens lacked the markings he knew marked the face of an Altean, but in fact, now marked his own face. Soon a few other's appeared and pointed their guns upon his personage. Lance continued standing with his arms in the air.

"Look..."

"Who are you?" The leader of the group asked. Lance couldn't help but notice the leader was female.

"I could ask the same thing. You look like Alteans, but you're missing the Altean marks on your faces. Otherwise, I'd think I landed on Altea."

"You are on Altea, but Alteans do not have any kind of marking."

Lance let out a sigh of annoyance. "Okay. So not the planet Altea I know, but definitely an alternative universe. I guess I should be grateful that this isn't the universe where Alteans are evil and rob people of their free will. Scratch that. Alteans may still be evil in this universe."

"Would you shut up." The leader of the group let out a deep sigh but rolled their eyes.

"Well, I'd certainly like to shut up. Shut me up with you of course?" Lance let both eyebrows go up a couple of times in a flirtatious manner, but his mouth twisted into a grin. "What do you say we..." The tip of the gun shoved into his chin and Lance swallowed. "Okay. Shutting up now. I promise I'll behave."