The Best Klance Fanfictions

WAHPCF Part 2

again, story is not mine! link in story before.
who's ready for angsty?

Epilogue

In the still air of the training deck, there was only sound from Lance's lungs, drawing in deep, laboured breaths. He laid nearly crumpled on the bright floor, armoured legs pulled up to his chestplate and arms reaching up to cradle his head, from both the radiating pain in the back of his skull, and the intense shame that had come from just kicking Shiro square in the chest to get his glowing hand as far away from him as possible.

"Lance..?" Lance could hear Shiro's startled voice a few feet away. Beyond the roar of blood pulsing in his ears, he heard Keith distantly call off the simulation, and his head spun as he took a moment to realize what had just happened.

It was a simple training exercise. It had been some time since Lance returned from inside of his own head, and after a few days of extra rest outside of the cryopod at everyone's insistence, Lance felt better than he had in months. But the idea of diving back into his paladin duties was apparently completely unacceptable to the team, Coran especially, so Lance begrudgingly obeyed his new orders to quite literally take it easy.

He played it off like he was excited to be able to kick back and loaf around, and he really had been content for a few days, but after memorizing the castle halls three times too many, taking up part-time residence in Hunk's workshop, and spoiling himself with more naps than he ever imagined he'd be able to take-Lance was itching to do something productive. He had long adjusted to his fast-paced paladin lifestyle, and didn't know how to handle all of the extra free time. He needed something to do, otherwise his daily spa treatments would burn through his supply before they could stop off at another trader planet.

Other than the frequent times spent stuck in recovery, Lance always had something to do back when it had been just him and Blue-bumbling through all of the minor and major repairs his lion would need, planetary reconnaissance, alien rescue-acting as a real, proper paladin of Voltron was busy work, and with nothing on his plate other than 'focus on getting better,' his days dragged on incredibly slowly.

Until Shiro finally relented. Lance regained the privilege of joining the team combat training, and was eager to get back to it.

The initial setup was straightforward-individually battle the gladiator bots and raise the combat level after each was defeated, to gauge where each paladin was in terms of overall fighting ability. Simple. They separated into different areas of the spacious deck, and Lance felt eyes on the back of his head as he lightly gripped his bayard in his hand. The familiar weight solidified in his palms, and he stood on the lit up marker on the floor indicating where his starting position was.

His body came alive at the sound of the battles around him, and Lance switched himself into a more appropriate fighting stance. A brilliant blue flashed to his left as a gladiator surged towards him. It was fast, and swiftly thrust its spear towards Lance. He was ill-suited for close-quarter combat, but dealt with it often enough that he felt nothing but his strangely quiet pulse as he feinted left, then ducked beneath the spear and twisted behind his opponent, shoving the end of his energy rifle against the nape of their neck and firing without a moment's hesitation. It dropped to the floor before disintegrating into a burst of blue pixelation, like it had never been there in the first place.

The novelty of battle had long since worn off for Lance, but a grin of satisfaction stretched across his face knowing he hadn't gotten too rusty during his time spent stuck co-piloting his own body.

"Nice one, Lance!" Hunk called out before he ducked out of range from a narrowly avoided blow from his own gladiator. Lance gave him a quick thumbs up, before turning his attention back to the next opponent now materializing in front of him.