Sparkle Eyes For You (Klance)

Part 13

The lions swept into form, the shield went up on the castle, and the blueish white glow coming from it brightened further and further until it looked like a tiny, shining star. Although, not so tiny when facing the much smaller lions.

"Uh, Allura...?" Lance worried, moving his lion back a bit. "Why is the whole castle glowing?"

"Would Zarkon answer that question?" she snapped, and he groaned.

But before he could even have a second to be grumpy, what looked like millions of blue shots fired toward him, forcing everyone to weave and dodge into crazy positions, just to avoid getting shot straight through. This went on for what felt like forever, and by some miracle Lance was able to stay alive, although his hands were getting numb from gripping the controls so tightly. He was slowly pushed away from the rest of the group, but their grunts and yells told him enough about how everyone else was doing.

Finally, the firing slowed enough for him to regroup with the others, who all sounded pretty tired as well.

"Lance? You good?" Hunk gasped, grunting as a shot hit his side, sending him tumbling back through space. What his lion had in armor, it lacked in speed, meaning this was a terrible drill for him.

"I—" He was cut off by the red lion slamming into him, knocking him out of the way of a particularly large shot he hadn't seen coming. "Thanks, Keith."

"I've got you." The words made his heart jump into his throat and do a little tap dance in there. The red lion's eyes stared into his, and he could almost see Keith in them. He could also see another shot coming his way.

"Watch out!" He spun so that his lion's stomach faced the red lion and kicked its legs out, sending them flying away from each other. The shot flew directly between them, unfortunately into Pidge, who was behind them, sending her spinning away. That left him, Keith, and Shiro facing off against the castle, which was already charging up for another round.

"We need a plan!" Keith yelled, straightening his lion.

"He's right, this isn't working," Lance agreed, shaking out one hand before having to use it to drop beneath another wave of shots. "Shiro?"

"I know, I know," he grunted in annoyance. "Allura, are you sure we can't form Voltron?"

"Imagine something has gone wrong with your lions," Allura instructed. "Or that you are missing someone. Actually, let us just say Hunk and Pidge are both out of action."

"Hey!" Pidge complained. "It was Lance's fault for not protecting me!"

"What?" Lance snapped, turning his lion around to glare at her. "It's not the 'protect Pidge' drill!"

"Yeah, well it's not the 'save Keith' drill either!" she snapped back. He felt his cheeks heat, fueling his anger as well.

"Guys...?" Hunk's voice whispered through the comms.

"Actually, you were supposed to be paying attention. That's why you got hit. It's not my fault you weren't following the rules!"

"Don't fight, you two. We're in the middle of a drill." Shiro sounded exhausted, but he flew over to float between them.

"Are you serious!?" Pidge cried, flying above Shiro to glare down at him. "You can't act like the world revolves around you now just because you've got sparkle eyes for Kei—"

"Guys!" Hunk yelped, and all heads turned to him just as the sound of vomiting filled their helmets. Everyone groaned, and after a few seconds, he chuckled awkwardly.

"I did warn you."

"Dude, every time!" Lance scolded, feeling like he wanted to hug the big guy, even if he had just barfed. He still couldn't believe Pidge had been about to fucking say that, out loud, connected to everyone. Being angry wasn't an excuse. And besides, why'd she been so pissed off? What did he ever do to her? Well, thinking back, there were a lot of things, but still! She'd never snapped like that before.

"Alright." Shiro's lion flew closer to Lance, blocking his view of Pidge. "Hunk, go back to the castle and clean out your lion. You go back too, Pidge."

"What!?" He'd never heard her sound so angry before. "Why?"

"You need to cool off."

"I don't—"

"Pidge."

"Nngh—" Her lion was still for a few seconds, before she silently flew after Hunk.

"Lance and Keith, we're finishing this drill," Shiro finished seriously, his tone of voice leaving no room for debate.

"Actually," Allura interrupted as they flew back into formation, "That will have to wait for later. We've received a distress signal from the nearby planet of Listor. Return to the castle; we're heading there now."

"Got it." Shiro blasted off toward the castle, leaving Lance and Keith alone in space.

"I guess...we should go too," Keith murmured, sounding a little shocked.

"Y-Yeah." Lance agreed blankly. He blinked once, twice, and five more times, trying to force himself back into reality. This was no time to be worried about being exposed. Not when innocent people's lives were at risk. "Yeah. Let's go."