The Monster in the Sky. Klance AU

Chapter 43: The Promise

"Is James okay?" Hunk randomly asked over dinner one night. Lance and Keith both jolted their heads up, wide eyes adorning their colour-drained faces. "I mean, he's not here and the other day I..." Hunk trailed off as he recalled James begging him not to tell anyone. It didn't take a genius to realise how desperate he had been.

"He broke up with Keith," Lance blurted out whilst Keith tried to fathom what Hunk may have seen. His mind was filling with the worst possibilities which did, in fact, include Hunk stumbling across James taking or buying drugs. No one touched their dinner as Lance's statement bounced around each of their heads. Similar looks of shock covered all of their faces: many pairs of eyebrows raised up high and many mouths forming objectively perfect 'o's. "James kind of figured out Keith liked someone else so... yeah."

"Oh," Shiro murmured, poking at his food with his fork. The shock on his face morphed into an expression that could only have been read as disappointment. Lance didn't even have to be the most observant of people to realise that Keith was refusing looking in Shiro's general direction at all. "I'm sorry."

"Where did you see James?" Keith asked. Despite Keith and James no longer being together, Keith still cared about James; just as a little brother as opposed to a boyfriend.

"The back of the school? I think he was with a friend?" The way Hunk's tone raised in intonation suggested his own skepticism at his words. That certainly didn't put Keith's sporadic mind at ease.

"Oh my God, do you think..." Everyone's faces seemed to register the implied ending of Keith's question at the same time as their lips each moved to form identical frowns. "I need to go." Keith shoved his plate forward and pulled himself up with such speed that the entire table was impressed that he didn't give himself whiplash. Lance reached out and grabbed his arm, sending him a pair of wide eyes.

"I'm going with Keith to check on James. Sorry we had to cut the dinner short."

"No, no, it's fine. We all hope James is okay."

Lance nodded before he let Keith drag him in the direction of James's dorm. When they reached their destination, they knocked. After receiving silence as a response, Lance could only imagine what was spiralling through Keith's mind. He was staring at the door with a blank expression on his face but the image of finding James on the floor was glued in his mind without any intention of leaving until he saw James alive.

In the end, Lance took it upon himself to open the door himself and step into the dorm. James was sat at his desk with headphones on his ears, staring down at his notebook with tear-filled eyes. He turned around and nearly jumped out of his skin when he noticed Keith and Lance standing in the doorway.

"What the hell are you doing here?" He snapped, pulling his headphones down so they were hanging around his neck. The sound of heavy music faintly filled the air until James pressed pause on his phone.

"Hunk told us he saw you at the back of the school with someone." Lance cut to the chase because Keith sure wasn't going to. He still looked like he was in a state of shock.

"I told him not to tell anyone. It was nothing!"

"Then why don't you want people knowing, huh? Did you get drugs from him? Is that what you were doing?"

James's face blossomed a dark red colour as he glared at the blank page in front of him. "No."

"Then what were you doing?"

"Alright, fine! I was trying to get drugs off of him but he didn't give them to me. I didn't get any so you two can leave me alone. Get away from me!" James was shaking and his voice was gradually getting louder but neither Lance nor Keith could tell whether that was a result of sadness, desperation, anger or a combination of all three.

Keith stepped forward and started to speak, surprisingly enough. "Just because we broke up doesn't mean I don't care. I still want to look after you. As a friend. You can talk to me whenever you need to. You don't have to do this on your own."'

"Yeah, I do." James stood up, breathing heavily. Anyone would have thought he had partaken in an Olympic race and hadn't just been sitting at his desk. "I have to do it on my own because I don't have anyone. My dad's dead. My boyfriend was in love with someone else. All my friends are better than me which makes me feel like shit whenever I'm with them. I'm all alone, Keith. You wouldn't understand."

"Of course I fucking understand!" Keith hadn't anticipated himself to shout; it had just happened on its own accord. It was loud enough to make James stumble back, eyes wide and legs trembling. "I had never had a secure family until I met Shiro! I was tossed from foster family to foster family without anyone!"

"Yeah but now you have Voltron. Voltron is your family." James spat, eyes hardening into a glare. "I don't have anyone anymore."

"You have us!" For a moment, the only sound in the room was Keith's heavy breathing. "I love you. Lance loves you. The rest of team Voltron love you. We don't want you to suffer and we care about you with all of our hearts. Don't you get it? You aren't alone. Yes, Voltron might be my family but it's automatically yours now that we're friends."

"He's right," Lance chipped in as tears began to drip down James's pale cheeks. "You're our friend."

"I'm so sorry."

"Promise us you won't get in contact with the dealer again?"

"I can't-"

"Promise us, James."

"Fine," James swallowed, though he refused to make eye contact. "I promise."

"And promise us you won't isolate yourself anymore?"

"...I promise."

"Now come and give us a hug." Lance forced a smile as James jumped up and enveloped both him and Keith into a hug.

-

"Guess what!" Shiro exclaimed, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. Lance jumped and placed a hand over his heart whilst Keith glared at Shiro. "We're going to space again!"

"Are the aliens back?" Keith questioned, eyes wide all of a sudden. He hadn't even considered the fact that Shiro had seemed so happy about it, only choosing to jump to the worst conclusion (as usual).

"No, clear day is coming up in a few days time and I thought we could head out there to celebrate again. I've already spoken to someone on the planet and they said we could come, as long as we work on security again."

"I don't think-" Keith began to argue but Lance cut him off with a wide grin.

"That sounds good. I think we could all do with a break. Things have been stressful for a while, haven't they?"

"That's exactly what I was thinking! We could invite James along too, maybe some others in his class as a reward for finishing exams. Don't they get their results tomorrow?"

"Yeah, James is freaking himself out about them..." Keith murmured, making both Shiro and Lance nod in agreement.

"It's settled. We're going to clear day again!"

I'm so terrible at uploading these days lmao. I'm sorry. I hope you are safe and well though!