Chapter Text
The castle was a mess. It had been a week since Lance had been thrown out, and none of them knew what they were doing without him. They all fell into habits that Lance was usually there to pull them from, and none of them (except for Keith, of course) had trained in several days.
Keith had started training endlessly, only stopping if he absolutely had to. He was grumpy and didn’t interact with the others, instead choosing to stay on his own in his room or in secluded spots in the castle.
Pidge worked on various projects, not even talking to Hunk as they dove into their work and ignored all reminders to keep up their health. They were sleep-deprived, dehydrated, and snappier than ever.
Hunk cooked obsessively, but he found it difficult to eat the food itself, especially when he made dishes or used ingredients that Lance enjoyed. Hunk seemed to be taking it the hardest, a mixture of anger and disbelief that Lance would actually do something like that, and an unwillingness to acknowledge Lance’s existence at all.
Shiro walked around the castle, checking on the other’s periodically, but he seemed to have no idea what to do. Occasionally he’d attempt to gather the team for training, but he was always met with harsh resistance.
Coran ran around fixing and cleaning things, even if they no longer needed it. He just worked wherever, trying to keep busy as the rest of them were. None of them wanted to think about the situation, anything about it. Shiro had sent a short video to the girl saying that Lance was gone from the castle and that if she ever needed anything or had further problems having to do with Lance and the paladins.
Allura hadn’t spoken to any of them almost all week, so it came as a shock when she finally came out of her room and demanded they all practice forming Voltron with Allura piloting Blue. The group dared not to protest with the princess, who’s hair was unruly and eyes were red with lack of sleep and what seemed to be tears.
The group made their way into the hangar, each walking over to their lions. Keith reached his first, making his way towards Red’s mouth. He went to take a step closer and promptly bounced off of Red’s shield. Hunk and Pidge across the room bounced off of the shields on their lions as well. Shiro stopped before the shield and put his hand out, feeling the solid blue of the barrier under his hand. Allura gently poked the shield covering Blue but was met with the same resistance.
“Black? What’s going on, girl?” Shiro knocked gently on the blue material in front of him but was given no response. Keith reached out to Red through their bond, only to find a hostile barrier put up there as well.
“Red?” he whispered. The lion gave no response, not reacting to anything.
“Let me in!” Allura demanded from where she stood in front of Blue. She smacked her palm against the shield but earned no response. Allura turned back to the others. “What are they doing?”
“They’re shutting us out, obviously.” Keith glared at Allura. This had to be her fault, she was the only one who wasn’t a real paladin.
“Yes, I understand that. Why?!” Allura said, crossing her arms and frowning back, seemingly just as mad as Keith.
“Why would any of us know, Allura?!” Pidge spoke up from next to their lion, one hand on their hip.
“They’re your lions!”
“That doesn’t mean we know what’s going on!” Keith hisses, eyes flashing softly. “We haven’t dealt with this before!”
“But you have more experience with the lions, you should have at least some understanding of what’s going on!” Allura stalked up to Keith, hands on her hips as she started to shout.
“Just because you’ve never flown one doesn’t mean you haven’t been with the lions for longer! You should be telling us what to do!”
“Well, I don’t! I have no idea what to do! I have no idea what I’m doing at - at all!” Allura finished her sentence with a muffled sob, and Keith pulled back a bit. Pidge walked closer to the two and looked up at Allura, seeming unsure of what to do.
“Allura, you know we don’t expect you to fix everything, right?” Hunk’s voice came from across the room, surprising everyone. Hunk usually wouldn’t be the one to speak up in this kind of situation. “We’re all a mess right now. None of us know what to do without Lance, but we all feel guilty for needing him because we just found out he was a - a rapist.” Pidge let out a little gasp at what Hunk had called Lance. None of them had been able to say the word yet, not wanting the finality of labeling Lance. “I know that it’s wrong, but there was proof. It’s a real thing, and we have to - we have to know that. We can’t keep pretending that it isn’t something we don’t know how to deal with, something that changes so much. It’s real. It happened.”
Shiro inhaled and swallowed, crossing his arms as he started to speak. “This is going to be hard, for all of us, and it’s going to take time to get used to the idea that someone we all loved so much was something that terrible. But we can’t skirt around it anymore. Lance played a huge role in this team, and he was a part of taking care of all of us. I don’t really know how you all are feeling right now, but I think that’s a bad thing. I think we should talk about this.”
“Talk about what, Shiro? The dude I thought could be one of my best friends was a criminal, a fucking rapist, and nothing anyone says can change it or make it better. We let someone terrible in, and we let him have control in so many parts of our lives. That’s not something just - just talking about can make better! I’m leaving!” Keith growled, his voice cracking as he spoke the last few words. A tear slipped down his cheek and he ran out, ignoring Shiro’s cry of “Wait, Keith!”
--
“What do you want?” Keith crossed his arms and glared down at Pidge, who was standing in his doorway with a determined expression.
“Do you think Lance really did it?” The question caught Keith by surprise, and he raised an eyebrow.
“Yes. The girl had proof.”
“But… what if there’s something else going on here? Lance looked so confused, and could you ever imagine him doing anything like that?”
Pidge looked so hopeful, and while Keith didn’t think anything would come out of this, he’d humor them for now. He knew how they were feeling, wanting to believe that maybe - just maybe, the team had gotten it wrong. Besides, if Pidge was right, maybe he’d get to see Lance. He could hug the lanky boy and apologize and know that Lance would forgive the team because Lance was Lance, and he always understood. Keith sighed internally, realizing he wasn’t the only one hoping for this to be more than a small thing. “What do you mean by something else?”
“Well, what if the video is fake? What if Braelyn was lying?” Pidge tapped their fingers on the side of their leg absentmindedly.
“Wouldn’t Shiro have recognized if the video was fake?”
“I don’t know, would he have been able to? If the video was robots or advanced holograms, they might be able to perfectly recreate a scenario that showed - um, that showed something like that. Last time I checked, Shiro doesn’t have built-in features in his eyes that let him recognize shit like that.” Pidge crossed their arms, stopping the tapping and creating a surprisingly intimidating air for one so small.
“We can check it out, I guess. But Pidge? Neither of us should get our hopes up.”
“I know. I just,” Pidge’s voice broke, and they swallowed hard. “I don’t want to believe that it’s possible for someone so kind, and cheery, and amazing to do something like that. He’s one of my best friends.”
Keith didn’t know how to respond, so he hugged them. Normally hugs weren’t something he’d initiate, but both of them needed it. They both knew exactly what the other was feeling, and it hurt, and it was hard. Pidge pulled away after a minute, and Keith frowned again.
“Alright, how are we doing this?”