Langst: One Shots

Kitchen Sink.

TW: major character death
Also, this is probably my longest one shot yet coming in at 1,800+ words. So, woo for that? Enjoy?

IG: shakesqueerbooks
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If they had only known.
Oh god, if they had only known.
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Shiro glanced around the training arena, doing a mental head count and coming up short. They were one paladin short.

Hunk was here, standing a little ways away with Pidge, who was helping him with something regarding his armor.

Two down, and he was here.
That was three.

Keith stood brooding, his leadership position something that left him in a sour mood. Shiro was back, he should lead.

That was four Paladins out of five.
One color of the Voltron rainbow was missing. A very blue color.

Not yet wanting to cause lots of stress, Shiro walked over to Keith with a hint of worry in his tone. "Have you seen Lance this morning?"

It must have been on the new black Paladins mind as well, because Keith flinched at Shiro's question.

The blue paladin had been last present the night before, but he had been acting very strange. A huge contrast to the typical quiet they had been getting for a few weeks.

Lance had been insisting on Hunk making the greatest Earth-like dinner just for once, so they could feast that night.

They did, it was delicious.
Garlic knots came to the party.

Lance was loud and he was joking; he was a hoard of smiles and laughter. It had made everyone suspicious at this sudden mood change but they were so happy to finally see life in Lance that they blew it off.

Except Keith. Except the leader.

He watched his teammate carefully that night, and saw that behind that laughter there was something forced. Behind the smile, there were cracked teeth.

Behind those bright eyes, something looked like it was dead, dull, and gone.

Keith didn't say anything.

He didn't say anything when Lance took Allura into the blue lion and for some reason decided to tell her all about how to fly her.

Lance showed her the best techniques, told some of the things Blue did and didn't prefer, and even gave her some personal tips.

He just wanted to show his lion off, would have been his excuse if anyone asked. But no one asked.

If anyone had asked...
Oh god if they had only known.

Keith shifted in his spot, uncrossing his arms and looked to Shiro. "No, not since last night. He wasn't at breakfast."

A cold feeling crept through Shiro, but he nodded and patted Keith's shoulder. "I'm going to ask the others. Maybe Lance is sick."

Keith nodded once, before his eyes drifted to land on the door he had been staring at for hours. He waited for his friend to walk through.

"Hunk! Pidge!" Shiro called, jogging over to the green and yellow paladin with a small smile.

"Shiro!" Hunk saluted and turned to face their ex-leader, smiling. Pidge rose a curious eyebrow.

"Have either of you two seen Lance this morning? We are doing something new today and we don't want to start without him." Shiro went straight to the point before the worry settled too hard in his gut.