Devil's Advocate (Voltron: Legendary Defender Fanfic/ONC Entry)

Receding

Lance found himself scared.

He feared facing Allura, yet deep down didn't want to admit as much. Everything, since he woke up after Keith brought Allura back, was a nightmare, yet in a very different manner than everyone else. The events happened so fast his mind struggled in keeping up, or perhaps he wanted to deny the truth behind everything happening.

Yet he needed to face Allura.

Everyone he'd encountered since waking up that morning was now gone, killed off by either Allura or himself, yet he'd not found anyone else despite looking for someone other than Allura. He came to the point where finding and facing her was better than being alone, yet in the back of his mind even being alone seemed like it happened quickly.

He didn't want to find Allura.

Instead, she found him once he decided to just give in to fate, but she seemed far from happy at seeing him. He tried giving her one of his charming smiles in hopes she'd find pleasure in seeing his beautiful smile as she had before. "Allura."

"I hate you."

"Don't tell me that." Lance jutted his lip out and gave her the best puppy dog impression. In the back of his mind, he focused on the fact Keith felt he was the one meant to save her and be her knight in shining armor."

"I don't need a knight in shining armor."

Lance felt his throat tighten but felt himself pinned against the wall by an unknown power. "Allura, what are you doing? You love me."

"I don't."

"That's a lie. You said you loved me when you left. You kissed me and gave me these marks."

Allura suddenly appeared right in front of him and her eyes were inches from his and he imagined kissing her and breaking the curse. "You're right. I lied. I lied about loving you."

Lance felt his throat tighten. "Keith said you wouldn't go out with me if you didn'"

He found himself flung painfully against another wall and let out a groan while Allura whispered into his ear. "I did not."

"Yes, you did, and Keith said you wouldn't agree if you didn't like me."

She grabbed him by the throat and thrust him onto the ground and choked him. He saw tears welling in her eyes. Her voice shook uncontrollably. "What? When did you talk to Keith?"

"Right before our date."

"He didn't try to stop it?" Allura's voice continued trembling.

"Why when he approved?" Lance found himself suddenly thrown, but he landed in such a manner he felt his wrist snap painfully. He let out a groan.

"Of course, he would. He didn't reciprocate my feelings when I confessed."

He felt his stomach lurch. Hearing Allura liked Keith from her own mouth rather than others who simply speculated was different. Yet, something confused him. Keith specifically said Allura rejected him. "I don't really understand this love thing beyond the fact Allura told me I was family and I knew my feelings would never be reciprocated."

"Wait." Lance sat up. "You confessed to Keith? When?"

"Right before he snuck onto the Galra ship, but that's really none of your business."

"I..." Lance wanted to blurt out it was his business because she was his girlfriend and he was her boyfriend, yet that no longer seemed real like it had before. "What did you say to him?"

"I said all of you had become my family." Allura's words made Lance suck in his breath deeply. "I told him I wanted to hate him because he was Galra, but I couldn't. I told him I realized what was important wasn't what he was, but who he was. I told him I wanted him to come back."

Lance slowly lifted himself up while avoiding his broken wrist. "So you called him family?"

"No. That's what you did."

"If you were bothered by my confession, why didn't you say anything?" Lance felt hurt. He turned and looked at her.

"You kissed me without asking if I reciprocated my feelings." Her hand reached out.

"You never said you had an issue with me kissing you."

"Have no issue? You didn't tell me it was a date, but I was told it was socially unacceptable to recant my answer. I then met your family and they made a big deal about me becoming your girlfriend. I was told you're not a ladies' man despite the fact I know you are, but I was expected to accept that as truth when it's not."

"All..." Lance felt his mouth covered.

"Shut up. You never let me say anything. You confessed to me and promised to be my family, but you were already that. But what else was I supposed to do? Keith rejected me, Lotor turned out to be manipulating me and there was nobody else."

Lance's eyes widened at the thought of being Allura's last choice.

"I was desperate to have something, and I told you what I wanted and thought that's what I wanted from a lover, but that's what I wanted from a friend. You then kissed me without asking if I reciprocated your feelings, but I couldn't say anything after because we got called back."

Lance's good hand reached up and pushed her hand away. Despite her strength, she let him do so. "You didn't object the second time I kissed you."

"You mean the time you confessed you were in love with my pain and that it made me stronger? That you wanted to ride on the coattails of my pain but didn't care about doing anything about taking it away? Were you not the person who said you might not understand how I felt what was happening my people, but that you understood what it felt like to have someone you cared about hurting? Yet you did nothing to try and alleviate that pain."

"You apologized."

"For what? The way I felt?" Allura gripped onto his shoulder and yanked. Lance found himself thrown again, but felt his shoulder yanked out of place. He let out a groan. He pressed his forehead against the wall. "I was hurting, but you did nothing."

"I'm..." Lance almost said he was trying to do something now, but stopped short when he realized he'd never done anything. He found himself turning in time for Allura to grab his throat so she could throttle him. Somehow, he was still able to speak. "You're right."

"What?"

"I know this is too late to say this..."

"I don't want to hear you say you love me! You've already said that!" Her grip tightened and he gasped.

After what felt like forever she loosened her grip. "No." Lance closed his eyes. "I didn't treat you right."

"That doesn't change what happened."

"No, it doesn't." Lance felt her grip tighten again. "I know it's late for this as well, but I should never have made you feel as if you didn't have a choice. I need to let you go."

Lance's vision began to blur, but in the back of his mind, he wished there was a way to fix everything, yet there was no way to fix things when everyone was dead.