Red's Adopted Son (WIP)

Part 17

"Has anyone else noticed Lance is a bit... off?" Shiro asked, forgetting no one else had seen or talked to Lance.

"Shiro-" Keith cut in, ready to correct him.

"I can't really place it. It's quite odd..." Shiro continued to ramble like an old grandpa.

"Shi-roo..." Keith called, attempting to gain his attention.

"I mean, his hair has white in it now... Coran told us it was from a planet, but I highly doubt it... Also they both seem closer. I can't help but feel like we've offended them both. I have no clue how though." Grandpa continued to talk.

"Wait, wait, wait... Lance has white hair?" Hunk cut in, and Shiro responded to him. This earned him a look of playful betrayal from the current black paladin.

"Well no, it's more like white strands near the roots." Shiro clarifies, a look of confusion.

"Well, in all my time, I've never heard of a planet affecting a person's appearance that much... Coran what do you-" Allura paused her current statement, realizing that her faithful companion that had followed her through thick and thin was no longer there. A look of compassion passed through the group directed at Allura. Oh wow. Consequences.

"Well, it could be that they're lying to us..." Pidge pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, thinking. She felt guilty for not figuring out the spy mission was a fib for vacation, and she didn't know how to apologize to Lance. Considering she had happily gone along with it, she assumed he hated her. Pidge really just spoke up to feel useful, considering everyone else was either too old to be fun or too edgy to talk to. Hunk was ok, but she felt he clung onto Shiro after they ditched Lance a little too much.

"Why would they do that?" Hunk questioned, trying to figure out why Lance of all people would lie to them. Lance pretty much was open about everything, including the mermaid thing!

Everyone sat in silence, uncertainty in the air.

"Apparently all of our allies have pledged allegiance to Lance, and only Lance." Shiro mentioned, thinking back to the conversation from earlier. Allura started to cough from shock, a few seconds later she recovered.

"What." She deadpanned. "They're our allies! Why are they only agreeing to one of us! One or none!" Allura said in a slightly bratty tone.

"We don't know why. But apparently Lance has been liberating planets and fighting the Galra while we were... on our spy mission." Shiro provided the information, before starting to look guilty. He brushed off the guilt though. If Lance wanted to leave Voltron he could, they had more than enough paladins and he was the worst one.

"I bet that was a lie." Hunk chuckled, and off handedly insulted his old friend. Pidge stayed quiet, the feeling of guilt was blooming in her chest.

"Yeah! We don't need him... Why don't we retire for the night." Allura sighed in exhaustion, and left for her bedroom. The rest followed, leaving Pidge alone.

"I'm going to apologize!" Pidge muttered to herself, pumping herself up.

-

"So you have the secrets to Altean magic and chemistry? I thought it was just chemistry." Coran muttered as Lance showed the marks. This situation was odd, he knew his son was special, just not this special.

"Yeah, it's like the information is just in my brain!" Lance grinned, his first actual happy grin since he knew the other paladins were coming back.

"You said the lion jumped into your chest? Perhaps you merged some parts of your soul to... Hey Lance, can you still shapeshift?" Coran suddenly came to a realization.