Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Hey, Hunk, what’s that?”

Lance’s best friend and bodyguard glanced out the car window into the ally that Lance was pointing to; lights and loud noises were emanating from it.

“Oh. Street fight.”

Lance cocked his head to the side. “Street fight? Like, as in the shadier citizens gather around to bet on two people pummeling each other?”

Hunk nodded with a shudder. “Nasty things.”

“We should go see it!”

Hunk gaped as he looked at his friend. “Are you kidding?! If you so much as slightly redden your perfect movie star face, Allura will kill me!”

Lance rolled his eyes. “She’s my manager, not Satan incarnate.”

“Yeah, and as your manager, she makes sure that your famous movie star body is in famous movie star shape! That includes many aspects, but especially firing and or killing incompetent bodyguards who let said famous movie star body get out of said famous movie star shape!”

“Well, you better come with me, then,” Lance said cheerfully, opening the door and hopping out of the slow-moving car before Hunk could stop him. Hunk cursed and slammed on the brake, parking the car on the curb and locking it.

“Lance! Get back here!” he whisper-shouted.

“Better come get me, then,” Lance whisper-shouted back, pulling his hood up and melting into the crowd. He almost immediately bumped into a short boy with glasses, who gave him a glare.

“Hey! Mind watching where you’re going?!”

“Sorry. Aren’t you a little young to be at a street fight?”

“Aren’t you a little too model-citizen to be at a street fight?” the boy shot back, then let out a deep breath. “Sorry. The name’s Pidge. Care to make a bet?”

Lance looked up at the impromptu stage at the two competitors. A massive man and a skinny teenager with a- was that a mullet? “Uh, I’m betting on the big one. Want to take me up on that?”

Pidge shrugged. “I’ve got enough bets to cover it. Sure. How much you want to bet?”

“Uh-” Lance subtly rifled through his pockets. “How about fifty?”

Pidge gave him a look. “Wowww, you show great faith in your champion.”

“A hundred, then.”

Pidge shrugged. “Sounds good.”

Hunk finally caught up to him, panting and apologizing to all of the people he’d pushed past. “Lance! We shouldn’t be here!”

“Pipe down! I’ve gone and bet and the fight’s about to start!”

“Sendak! Kogane! You know the rules? Knockout or stage throw!”

Sendak smirked. “Shouldn’t be hard. Want to bail now, kid?”

Kogane’s gaze stayed level and defiant. “Nah, I’m good. You feeling lucky?”

Sendak laughed. “Obviously I am if I’ve got a slip of a kid like you to fight.”

“Enough trash-talk! Fists ready! Fight!”

Sendak immediately landed a heavy hit to Kogane’s ribs and sent him flying across the stage. Lance sucked in a breath, wincing. That looked painful. Sendak marched across the stage to where Kogane was struggling to get up and kicked him in the ribs. Lance heard people upping their bets against him to Pidge quietly.

“Stay down.”

“No- way-” Kogane hissed, attempting to push himself up.

Sendak hauled him up by one arm, clearly intending to dump him over the edge of the stage.

He never got the chance. Lance didn’t see how Kogane moved, it was too fast, but one instant he was dangling helpless, and the next moment he was behind Sendak, head-locking him and throwing him off of the stage before he had a chance to recover. The crowd went quiet in shock, and Lance quietly handed Pidge one-hundred dollars, his eyes wide as he looked at Kogane.

Pidge started collecting other bets from people, grinning to himself. Up on the stage, Kogane offered Sendak a hand. Sendak ignored it and stormed away. Kogane shrugged.

“Hey!”

Someone shoved Pidge, and the small boy stumbled back. “Whoa. Hey. You lost. Fair and square.”

“There was nothing fair about that fight!” he growled, “You hustled us!”

“No, you’re the ones who- oh- my- there’s an awful lot of you. Heh. Keith!” he shouted, “Time to go!”

Up on the stage, Kogane looked around and saw Pidge, backing away slowly from the people threatening him. He jumped lightly off of the stage, making his way easily through the crowd. Pidge ducked behind him, and Kogane gave all of them a quietly bored look. “Move.”

They moved.

Pidge shot them a smug look as he passed, safe in Kogane’s shadow. The instant they were out of the alleyway, Lance saw them bolt for it, disappearing into the night.

“Well that was… weird,” Lance commented to Hunk. His bodyguard nodded.

“Yeah. This is why we don’t go to street fights.” He glanced around nervously. “Can we go back to the car now?

Chapter Text

Allura glanced at Lance suspiciously. “You look tired. Were you up late?”

Lance stifled a yawn. “Y-yeah.”

Allura shot a glare at Hunk. “Why didn’t you make sure he went to bed at the right time?”

Hunk held his hands up defensively. “Hey, that’s not in my job description. I’m his bodyguard, not his baby sitter.”

“I’m fine, Allura. We’ve got a new contract, right?”

Allura nodded. “War movie franchise. Good writer and director, if a bit… eccentric.”

“You sound like you know him personally.”

“An old friend. Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe.”

“Great. What’s the premise?”

Allura glanced at her clipboard. “Let’s see… world war three. You’re a Garrison soldier, a sharpshooter, and we follow your story through the war. You survive the war, but during the course of it, your arm is blown off saving your general, and you can’t stay in the army any more. There’s a romantic subplot with an air force pilot, class differences in the army splitting you… your best friend is captured and presumed dead… your hometown is nuked in the process of the war…”

Lance gulped. “I don’t have an easy time of it, do I?”

“No, you sure don’t.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

Allura looked up at him. “What do you mean?”

Lance shifted uncomfortably. “Well, world war three ended only nine years ago. I see veterans around town. Should we really be messing with the topic?”

“Of course!” a cheerful voice behind them proclaimed, “We have to strike while the iron is hot! Dredge up tears and appeal to those who lost something in the war! It’ll entice the audience!”

Allura smiled at the orange-haired man standing in the doorway. “Coran! Good to see you! Have you found actors for the other roles yet?”

Coran nodded cheerfully. “For the air force pilot, I contracted Nyma. She’s a few years older than Lance, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem; she’s very beautiful. And for the best friend, I contracted a…” he consulted a small notepad. “Ah, yes! Lotor!”

Allura let out a little squeak, and Lance felt his ears redden with anger. “You hired Lotor?!”

Coran blinked. “Yes. He’s a very good actor. Is something wrong?”

“Lotor and I… don’t get along very well,” Lance said stiffly, “Also, he flirts with my manager. And if he’s cast as my best friend…”

“Well, pretend, then!” Coran said cheerfully, “You’re an actor; that’s your job. If you’ll excuse me, I have a few more auditions to judge.”

He bounced back out of the room, still grinning, and Lance put his head in his hands. “Lotor?!”

Allura patted his back gingerly. “Maybe- maybe it won’t be so bad.”

“Yeah, and maybe in the movie our guns will shoot rainbows instead of bullets. This movie is going to get so much hate already, and I hate one of my coworkers!”

“You know what you need?”

Lance looked at Allura questioningly.

“You need a day off. Go out, get a milkshake or something. You’re not old enough to drink, right?”

“I can in England.”

“But not here. So, yeah, go get a milkshake, see a movie- whatever it is that boys do on their days off. You and Hunk just go… do stuff.”

“Stuff?”

Allura waved a hand. “Yes. Go out and do… something. Have fun.”

Lance raised an eyebrow. “So, what exactly are you suggesting that I do?”

“What you should do,” Allura said firmly, “is fun.”

“Fun?”

Allura nodded emphatically. “Yes. Do fun.”

“When was the last day you had off, Allura?”

Allura thought about it. “Um- when I had the flu.”

“You should come with us,” Lance suggested.

Allura blinked. “But- but what would I do?”

Lance grinned. “Fun.”

Allura gave him a wane smile. “Sounds great, but I can’t. I have to see the costuming department, and the stunts department and contact your stunt double, and…”

“I get it,” Lance said gently, “You’re busy. I know. Just maybe… take a break sometimes.”

Allura nodded distractedly. “Yeah, yeah, sure, now go! Have fun and stop moping around the office because you’ll have to socialize with Lotor.”

“Okay, okay!”

Lance and Hunk exited the building, Lance sighing dramatically.

“Alas, my lady love does not return my affection! She is devoted to her one and only true love, work.”

Hunk sniggered. “Oh, stop it. I thought you stopped crushing on her agesago.”

Lance grinned. “Yeah, but it’s still fun.”

Hunk stretched. “So, day off. What should we do?”

Lance grinned. “We should do fun!”

Xxx

Lance slurped a milkshake happily. “Movie?”

Hunk grinned. “I can’t believe we’re doing the exact things that Allura suggested we do.”

Lance shook his head. “Ah, but of course! We must do fun! Allura’s words exactly! So fun is what we will do! Now, are there any movies out right now that don’t star me? I have those movies memorized. Literally. Also, people in the theatres for those movies are more likely to recognize me.”

“I think there’s a superhero movie out,” Hunk suggested.

Lance wrinkled his nose. “Don’t all of those have the exact same formula just with different characters?”

“Yes, but somehow, watching superpowered people beat up villains with doomsday devices never gets old.”

“Fair enough. Superhero movie it is!”

A groan from an alleyway startled them both, and Hunk tugged on Lance’s arm. “Looks like someone got drunk early. We should go.”

A dark-haired teen staggered out of the alleyway, holding one hand to his head. Blood streamed from his temple, and a dark bruise was forming on his forehead. Lance paused. 

“Wait- it’s- it’s you! The street fighter!” he snapped his fingers. “Kogane!”

“Yep,” he agreed shakily, “That’s me.”

Then he keeled over, eyes rolling up in his head. Lance and Hunk jumped backwards.

“Ohmygosh he’s dead!” Lance yelped.

Hunk nudged Kogane gently with one foot, and he let out a groan. “No- no, he’s just unconscious. What should we do?”

“Take him to a hospital?”

“He’s a streetfighter! You think he has the cash to pay for that?”

“Well, we can’t just leave him here! He’s probably got a concussion!”

Hunk nodded. “Okay. Yeah, you’re right. You can pay for it, right?”

“I’m an actor! Of course I can pay for it! My salary is ridiculous! And if I say it was like a donation to charity, I can get a tax deduction.”

Hunk shrugged. “Fair enough. Do we just- like- carry him? Should we call an ambulance?”

“We have a car, Hunk!”

“Oh, yeah.”

Ten minutes later they handed off the unconscious Kogane to a nurse. Another beckoned to them from the reception desk.

“Name of patient?”

“Um- Kogane?”

“First name?”

Hunk snapped his fingers. “Pidge said something- Keith?”

The receptionist gave them an exasperated look. “You don’t know his name?”

“We don’t know him!” Lance protested, “He just stumbled out of an alleyway and collapsed in front of us!”

The receptionist sighed. “Do you know if he has any family? Friends?”

Lance shrugged. “There was this person named Pidge- short boy-”

“Pidge was a girl, Lance,” Hunk interrupted exasperatedly.

“What? No, Pidge was a guy!”

“No. No, she wasn’t.”

“Well- whatever! Short person, big old glasses, kind of weird hair- curly and all over the place?”

“Pidge. Do you know his or her phone number?”

“Uh- no. Oh, hold on a second,” Lance added as his phone rang. “Hello?”

“Lance, we need you to come back,” Allura told him urgently, “There’s a problem in the costuming department. Something about the wrong size? I don’t know, but I’m sorry, your day off is going to have to end early.”

“Yeah, okay. I’ll be right there, don’t worry.”

“Thanks. Bye.”

“Bye.” Lance hung up the phone. “Hunk, we have to go. There’s a problem.” He leaned over and scribbled a number on a pad of paper. “That’s my phone number, please just text me if you have any more questions, I’m sorry, but I have to go, bye!”

He tore out the door with Hunk behind him, scrambling for the car.

“Geeze,” he grumbled, “So much for fun.

Chapter Text

Keith felt something… soft? A mattress and a pillow… where was he? One of the people who’d bet on Sendak had jumped him in an alleyway. He’d nailed Keith on the head with a baseball bat… then he’d run into those people…

He opened his eyes with some difficulty, his head throbbing. Ow. That hurt.

“Hello! How are you feeling?”

Keith eyed the-nurse?- with confusion. “What- where-?”

She smiled at him. “You’re in the hospital. You passed out on the street, and a couple of citizens brought you in. What happened to your head, do you remember?”

“Um- I got hit with- something. It was an accident,” he lied, “Someone was carrying a beam or something, and it- yeah.

“Ah. Do you have someone to call? The doctor will be here in a minute, but I think you’ll be released. You’ve got some bruised ribs and a concussion, but those are both relatively minor.”

“Yeah- hold on- do you know- my phone-”

She handed to him. “Here.”

Keith hit callon the one out of two contacts that he had and waited as the phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Pidge, it’s Keith.”

“Oh, hey. Where have you been?”

“Uh- the hospital, apparently.”

“Oh- wait, what?!”

“I passed out in the street. Got hit on the head. Concussion, apparently. You’ll probably have to sign for me or something.”

“Okay. I’m coming. See you.”

“Bye.”

Keith hung up as a cheerful woman walked in, smiling at him. “Hello, I’m Dr. Star. I’m just going to check out how bad your concussion is, but I think you’ll probably be alright. Do you have a job?”

Keith thought of the streetfighting. “Um- no.”

“So this Pidge-”

“Step-sister,” he lied.

“I see. And she has a job?”

“Yeah. She looks young, but she’s got a job. Is the hospital bill-”

“Paid for.”

Keith blinked. “Uh, the concussion might be worse than you think. Did you just say that it was paid for?”

Dr. Star nodded. “By the person who brought you in. I guess he’s rich or something and can just… do that.”

Keith whistled softly. “Wow.”

Dr. Star made a wry face. “You’ve got that right. Now, let’s see. Follow this pencil with your eyes, okay?”

Keith focused with some difficulty on the pencil nearing his face, but he quickly lost it. He was still a little dizzy, and the bright yellow- why was a normal, #2 Ticonderoga pencil so bright, they’d never been that bright before- was making his head hurt.

“Keith?”

“I’m okay.” Dr. Star shined a light into his eyes, and he batted at her hand. “Ow!”

“I’m trying to see if your pupils are dilating properly. Stop fighting.” Dr. Star clicked the light off. “Alright. You look like you’re fine, more or less. Take it easy for the next few days, okay? Don’t try any sports, drink lots of fluids and stay away from bright lights, they’ll just aggravate your head. If you have any really bad headaches or if you get dizzy to an extreme, call a doctor.”

Keith nodded, knowing that he never would. “Okay.”

Dr. Star checked her phone. “Okay, it looks like your step-sister arrived and is making a bit of a ruckus- someone asked where her parents were and if they needed to call someone- and she’s a bit angry.”

“Sounds like Pidge.”

“Alright. Well, a nurse will show you out- Pidge has already taken care of the paperwork. Pidge- such a strange name.”

“Nickname. Thanks.”

“It’s my job.”

Keith followed the nurse from before to an elevator, and then Pidge was tugging on his arm. “Alright, come on, you’re not that badly injured, right? You’re allowed to leave?”

“Yeah. You brought the bike?”

“Nearly ran a couple of red lights and forgot the blinker a couple of times, but it’s undamaged. You get to drive on the way back.”

“I’ve got a concussion.”

“And you can probably still drive better than I can. Let’s go.”

Keith revved the engine of his motorcycle, Pidge perched precariously on the back, arms wrapped around Keith’s chest. “Please get this over with,” she moaned. 

Keith roared out of the parking garage, wincing at the sunlight. He had them back to their apartment within ten minutes, where he promptly went to the bathroom and threw up.

“I hate this,” he muttered, pulling the shades shut and flopping on the couch-bed.

Pidge sat on the floor nearby, typing away at her laptop. “Mhm.”

“What are you doing in here?”

“The doctor said to keep an eye on you. Make sure you took it easy.”

“Okay.”

Keith rolled onto his back, absentmindedly throwing a ball up and down. “Wonder why that guy paid for all my hospital bills.”

“Because the rich enjoy doing magnanimous favors for us little peasants,” Pidge said sarcastically, not taking her eyes from her laptop screen, “It makes them feel better about themselves and their sad, uneventful lives.”

“Yeah, but he probably lost a bet to you because of me.”

“It was probably Good Civilian and his big friend.”

“Huh?”

“One of the guys who bet. Coughed up right away, no questions asked. Didn’t seem like he’d ever seen a streetfight before. Probably just lived nearby and wanted to be a ‘rebel.’”

“You have a picture?”

“Of course. I have a picture for every sucker we fleece.”

“Let me see.”

A tan face blinked up at him from Pidge’s phone screen. Keith grunted. “Yeah, that’s him. He look familiar to you?”

Pidge shrugged. “A bit, I guess. You want me to run his face through the database?”

“Nah, you just keep finding out where the people who refused to cough up live. I can figure it out.”

He’d seen him on the street, maybe on a newspaper? Or a movie poster? Keith scrolled through recently released movies, looking away from the glowing screen when it started to hurt his eyes. Then a tan face caught his eye, and he clicked on the link.

“Lance McClain,” he read, “Actor.”

“Hm. Play in anything good?”

Keith kept scrolling. “Nah. Just a bunch of those society movies, you know, the ones about overcoming class differences and the like.”

Pidge snorted. “Give me sci-fi and fantasy over those any day.”

“Yeah.”

Pidge brightened. “You know what this means? We have footage of an actor going to a streetfight! That’s tarnish on his good name! We can blackmail him!”

“Pidge, that’s not nice.”

“Yeah, neither are college prices.”

“Pidge…”

Pidge sighed. “Yeah, yeah, okay. He paid off your hospital bill and didn’t leave you crumpled in the street. I’ll be nice. Hey, I never asked, how come you were crumpled in the street?”

“Tried to take a shortcut. Got jumped in an alley by someone mad about you hustling him. He had a big old baseball bat.” Keith fingered the stitches on the gash in his head. “You think the scar will raise my credibility as a streetfighter?”

Pidge snorted, still running faces through her database. “Yeah, a losing streetfighter.”

“Good. People bet more if they’re sure you’ll lose.”

“That they do. You hear anything about that Sendak guy?”

Keith shrugged. “It was a streetfight. If he expected to win every time, he was an idiot.”

“I really thought he had you for a minute.”

“That’s my strategy.”

“Yeah. Get their guard down and then hit them while they’re complacent. Still, that had to hurt.”

“Not as much as getting whacked upside the head with a baseball bat.”

“Fair enough. How’s it feel?”

“Like I’m stuck on a rollercoaster and someone inside my head is smacking my skull with a little hammer.”

“Ow. You feeling up for coercing some people into paying their debt?”

“Not really.”

“Okay. You gonna be okay?”

Keith nodded, and Pidge left, probably to work on one of her pet projects, or maybe to vlog. Keith looked at the picture of Lance McClain one more time before turning off the phone with a snort. Actors. Who could figure them out?

Chapter Text

Lance forced a smile as Lotor shook his hand. “Hi.”

Lotor looked about as pleased as Lance felt. “Morning.” He glanced behind Lance with a bit of a smile. “Good morning, Allura.”

To Lance’s annoyance, Allura blushed. “Good morning.”

Lance glanced beyond Lotor and his face brightened. “Holy moly, who is she?!” He was referring to the blonde beauty behind Lotor, a girl with brilliant violet eyes.

Allura spared a glance from her suitor to look at the girl- no- woman, Lance thought dreamily, she was a woman. “Oh, her? That’s your co-star, Nyma.”

Nyma gave him a dazzling smile. “It’s good to meet you, Lance.”

“Great meet to you,” he stuttered, then shook his head to clear it. “Uh- I mean- It’s good to meet you too.”

Nyma laughed, although not unkindly. “You’re cute. Oh, there’s Mr. Smythe! I have a few questions to ask! Sorry, have to dash!”

She tripped after Coran, her blonde hair swinging behind her. Lance’s eyes followed her back, watching that blonde hair swing back and forth across the bare skin of her back, exposed by her crop-top.

“Uh, earth to Lance?” Hunk snapped his fingers under Lance’s nose a couple of times. “Come in, Lance.”

“Wow,” Lance said dreamily, “Nowthat’sa girl.’

Behind him, Allura giggled at something Lotor said, and Lance’s previous bad mood returned. He made a face. “Hey, Hunk, come on, let’s go to the costume department.”

“But you spent all day there yesterday! And they don’t expect you back until tomorrow!” 

“I know, but staying around here is making me uneasy. Come on.”

Xxx

Going to the costume department didn’t make him feel any better. Lotor arrived not long after, smirked at Lance, and went straight to the costume designer, announcing that he was ready for his fitting.

“Come on,” Hunk said with a roll of his eyes as Lance started to glower, “Let’s go outside. Fresh air. I think Nyma went out too.”

At the mention of his co-star’s name, Lance perked up and followed Hunk out of the building. They didn’t run into Nyma, however.

“Hey, watch where you’re- oh! It’s you!”

Lance blinked at Pidge. “Oh- hey. What are you doing here?”

“Uh- trying to find an address. They owe me money. Um- what are you guys doing out here?”

“I work here,” Lance said flatly, “And I doubt that anyone who owes you money lives in this part of town.”

Pidge flinched. “Um- no- probably not.”

“What are you doing here, then?”

Pidge blushed a deep red. “Hoping- to see- some filming-” she (he? Lance still wasn’t 100% certain) muttered.

“What?”

“I like computers, and I’d really like to see the inside of the movie set’s special effects area, so I was hoping to catch a glimpse of it from the outside,” Pidge pushed out in one breath, “Happy?”

Across the street, a girl screamed. “Is that Lance McClain?!”

Lance pulled his hood up, hiding behind Hunk. “Oh, Lordy, don’t let the fangirls see me!”

“Too late,” Hunk said glumly, “Make a break for the doors!”

“We won’t make it!”

“It is!” the girl across the street squealed.

“No,” Pidge shouted to her, “I thought so too, but it’s just his stunt double.”

The immediate hoard of fangirls that had appeared groaned in disappointment, dispersing. Lance heaved a sigh of relief.

“Whoo, boy. They can get scary.”

Hunk nodded fervently. “They scare me, and I’m supposed to be your bodyguard!”

Pidge gave them both a searching look. “Hey- I want to say thanks.”

“For what? You’re the one who pushed off the fangirls.”

“No- for helping Keith. If you hadn’t stepped up- we’d be in some pretty serious trouble.” Pidge pushed her (his?) glasses up her (his?) nose sadly. “We’re all we’ve got, and he’s our source of income. If he hadn’t gone to the hospital- We were ready to go to another fight that night, and he would’ve pretended that his head wasn’t all that bad. He could’ve really gotten hurt. So… thanks.”

Lance rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. “Uh- no problem. Really, it wasn’t.”

“Uh, Lance?” Hunk tugged on Lance’s sleeve. “Um, the fangirls have blocked off the studio.”

Lance looked and saw that his friend was right. “Oh, boy.”

“It isLance McClain, you liar!” the girl from before shouted. The horde of fangirls turned to face him. Lance gulped.

“Run!” Pidge yelped, grabbing both boy’s arms and tugging them along the road.

“Where are we going?!”

“Anywhere but the angry horde of fangirls!”

“Fair enough!”

Pidge shot through the streets with the two of them, weaving in-between cars. The fangirls weren’t far behind. They skidded to a halt in front of an apartment building, and Pidge held open the door, ushering them up the stairs and fumbling with a door as the fangirls sped up, trampling each other in their attempt to be first to Lance.

Pidge finally opened the door and let them in, slamming and locking the door behind her.

“Pidge?” a voice called from an adjoining kitchen, “That you?”

“Nah,” Pidge called back, “I’m a serial killer.”

“Okay, wipe any blood on your feet off on the mat before you track it on the floor.”

“Ooo, someone looked on the Internet for witty comebacks today.”

The streetfighter Kogane peered around the corner with a grin that quickly faded. “Uh- why are there strangers in the apartment? When you said that you were a serial killer, I thought you were joking.”

“They’re not strangers, Keith, you know them. You passed out on the street in front of them.”

He grinned. “Nope, sorry, that knock on the head must’ve made me lose my memory.”

“Ha, ha. Okay, entertain them a bit, I need to lay a false trail about how Lance McClain is downtown. Get them out of the apartment building.”

Pidge disappeared into the adjoining bedroom, and Keith fidgeted awkwardly. “Um. Hi?”

Lance waved awkwardly. “Uh- hi. I’m Lance.” He sniffed. “Is something burning?”

Keith cursed violently and shot back into the kitchen. Lance and Hunk followed to see him waving away smoke from an oven as he yanked out what looked like a loaf of bread, blackened on the edges. “Ah, quiznek.”

Hunk sniffed. “Is that pasta?”

Keith nodded glumly. “Pidge’s comfort food. Pidge’s been a bit depressed lately- anniversaries of bad things happened recently- and I thought- maybe- but I’ve screwed it up.”

Hunk surveyed the burned bread critically. “It’s not that bad. I can fix that for you. It’ll be a little toasty, but it’s salvageable. I’m Hunk by the way, nice to officially meet you.”

Keith moved aside and let him take over. “Okay, I guess.”

Lance glanced out the room. “Is Pidge a… or…”

Keith smiled wanly. “She’s a girl.”

“Told you,” Hunk commented without looking up from the stove.

“Why do you…” Lance gestured vaguely. “Why do you two hang out? I mean, why the streetfights?”

Keith shrugged. “Easy money. We’re trying to get Pidge to college. She’s only fourteen, but she already graduated high-school, so we figure that we can get her through on scholarships and what we scrape from the fights.” He pulled a cucumber out of the refrigerator and started to peel it with a dagger. “She deserves it.”

“And what about you?”

Keith spared a glance from his cucumber at Lance. “Hm?”

“What are yougetting out of it? What’s yourmotive?”

Keith shrugged. “Roof over my head and food.”

“Really? Because, I mean, you could get a job at fast-food or a supermarket.”

“Streetfights pay better when you’re partners with a gambler.”

“Yeah, but if you just want the basics-”

“I don’t have an ulterior motive!”

Pidge snorted from the doorway. “Yeah, sure you don’t. You two ready to go? The fangirls are chasing a tip that a certain Lance McClain booked a very expensive restaurant and is going there right now.”

Keith gave her an amused look. “You didn’t actually book him at the restaurant, did you?”

“Nah, I just posted fake photos of his schedule on every single social media I could find. Come on, you two, I’ll show you out.”

As they walked down the stairs, Lance glanced at Pidge. “So, Keith doeshave an ulterior motive for streetfighting?”

“None of your business.”

“But he does. Ooo, is he a druggie?”

“Keep your perfect actor nose out of our business or I’ll break it for you.”

“Alcoholic. Smoker. Oh, ew, don’t tell me he hires girls!”

“No, no and no. What Keith uses his share of money for isn’t any of your business, so shut up before I reveal to the fangirls exactly where you are.”

Lance shut up. Pidge led them back to the studio. “Bye. Have fun filming, I guess.”

Lance and Hunk walked into the studio. Allura was waiting for him, arms crossed. Lance winced. She glared at him.

“Where have you been?”

Chapter Text

ura paced in front of Lance and Hunk angrily, both of them seated in her temporary office, too scared to say anything. “I can’t believe you ran off! We needed you, Lance!” She wheeled on Hunk. “And you! Letting him do it!”

“We got chased by fangirls,” Hunk protested, “We had to lay low!”

“Isn’t that what you’re here for? Keeping the fangirls off of him?”

“Which I did! By bringing him to a place without fangirls! I’m just one man, Allura, and I can’t hurtthe fangirls for crying out loud! I’m just supposed to block them from Lance, which is a littlehard when they’ve surrounded you on all sides!”

“Not. Another. Word.” Allura threatened in a low voice, “Your job depends on it.” She turned to glower at Lance. “You need to behave yourself. This is your job, Lance, not some side hobby. It isn’t a game. You need to be here.”

Lance sighed. “I know. I’m sorry, Allura, and it won’t happen again.”

Allura softened a bit. “Good. Now go back home.”

Lance tilted his head. Allura lived in the same house as he did, with her own set of rooms separate from Hunk’s and Lance’s. “Aren’t you coming?”

Allura blushed. “No. I- I have an appointment. I’ll be along soon.”

Hunk frowned. “An appointment? With who?”

“A friend,” Allura snapped, “I’ll come see you soon. Now beat it!”

They beat it. They drove home in relative silence until Lance broke it.

“You think she’s seeing someone?”

Hunk shrugged. “Probably.”

“Why wouldn’t she tell us?”

“It’s probably Lotor.”

“Lotor?!” Lance screeched.

Hunk slammed on the breaks. “Don’t-do- that!” he yelped, “You gave me a heart attack!” 

“Sorry. But Lotor?!”

Hunk nodded as he continued down the street. “Makes sense. He certainly flirts with her enough.”

“But I hateLotor, and she knowsit!”

“Hence why she’s keeping it a secret,” Hunk said mildly, “And it’s just a theory. Don’t sweat it.”

“Lotor,” Lance muttered, “Sheesh.”

Once he was back at his house, he started pacing the kitchen. “Lotor. What would she see in Lotor?!”

Hunk yawned. “I don’t know. Like I said, it’s just a thought. She could be meeting up with Coran to discuss the script for all we know.” He yawned again. “I’m going to bed. Don’t stay up too late.”

Lance nodded distractedly as Hunk went upstairs. “Lotor,” he muttered again, “Geeze.”

He glanced out the window at the street, hoping to see Allura’s car pulling up. Instead, he saw Keith edging past, glancing around nervously. Lance frowned.

Where is hegoing?

Lance quietly slipped out of the house, following silently after the streetfighter. Keith glanced all ways before continuing on, and Lance’s frown deepened. Why was he being so secretive? Was he doing something illegal? Lance felt a sudden certainty that he was about to see whatever Keith did with his streetfighting money.

Keith led him through the city, into the slums. He seemed to be looking for someone, but Lance couldn’t think of who. Keith’s gaze zeroed in on a spot, and he beelined for it, less cautious of his surroundings. Lance ducked behind a dumpster as Keith stopped in front of a sleeping bag, obviously where a homeless man was sleeping. Keith gently set down a wad of cash on the sleeping bag and then slipped away. He kicked a car, activating its burglar alarms, and darted into an alleyway before anyone could see him.

The sleeping bag fell away abruptly as the person inside sat up, immediately on guard. His bangs were pure white, and a scar stretched across his nose. Lance froze, hoping the shadows would hide him from sight. They did, and the man with white bangs didn’t see him. His attention was caught on the money in front of him. He stared at it in disbelief for a minute, and then his eyes teared up. He looked around again, as if trying to pinpoint where the money had come from, before giving up. He grabbed it with his left hand, and Lance realized that his right arm was gone.

Oh. He was a veteran. Lance knew that they often had trouble getting jobs- especially if they were missing body parts- but the government was supposed to provide for them, right?

The one-armed man hid the money deep within his massive coat, pulling a hood up and sliding back into his sleeping bag. 

“What are you doing here?”

Lance jumped, whirling around as a voice sounded right behind him. He was face-to-face with Keith. Geeze, the guy was like a ninja! “Um- I could ask you the same!”

One of Keith’s eyebrows rose. “Uh, I do street fights in alleyways? This is exactlythe kind of place you would expect to find me.”

“Not without Pidge, you wouldn’t!”

“You never answered my question. What are you doing here?”

“Now you’redodging myquestion!”

Keith glared at him. “I asked first!”

“Fine! I was following you!”

Keith blinked, face more confused than angry. “I thought I heard someone, but I figured it was a cat. Why would you follow me?”

Lance crossed his arms, more protect himself than to try and look intimidating. “Because- I don’t know, you looked really secretive and shady, and I wanted to know what you were up to.”

Keith’s eyebrow rose again, this time in amusement. “And if I hadbeen doing something shady? What if you saw me doing something illegal? Would you report me? What if I saw you? Did you think that I’d just let you go?”

“I don’t know! I just- I had a bit of a rough day, and I didn’t really care! Do you often go around secretly giving money to homeless veterans?”

Keith’s expression became guarded, and he started walking away, slipping into the darkness of the alleyways. Lance suddenly realized how cold and dangerous this part of town seemed, and he also realized how lost he was.

“Hey! Wait up!” He ran to catch up with Keith, who determinedly ignored him. “Hey! Keith! Wait!”

“Nose out of my business, Lance, or I’ll break it for you!”

“No, seriously! I kinda- I don’t really know where we are!”

“Should think twice before you follow total strangers halfway across town then,” Keith said briskly, upping his pace and turning sharply a few times down different streets.

Lance was practically running now trying to keep up as they emerged in a park. “Why are you so sensitive about it? Is it just that guy? Is he- I don’t know- your dad? Uncle? You guys didn’t look very alike, but I don’t know, maybe—”

Keith stopped suddenly with a sigh. He sat down on the edge of a dock, swinging his legs aimlessly above the water, staring out over the smooth surface. “His name’s Shiro. He’s… he’s my friend, but we’re practically family.”

Lance sat down next to him. “The war?”

“The war,” Keith agreed, staring moodily into the water. “I know that you’re starring in that movie, but- that was a real event. Real people were injured. Real people were killed. Real people went missing. Real people were left behind by the war, people whose families never came back.”

“Lose someone?”

Keith didn’t answer, and Lance sighed.

“I’ve got two older sisters. Veronica and Rachel. They were both drafted into the war pretty early on. Veronica’s younger, but she was a bit of a genius, and they put her in communications. Rachel… Rachel was a sniper. She sat up in a nest and provided cover for her squadron.”

Keith still said nothing, only stared at the water.

“Veronica came out of the war without a scratch. No injuries, no psychological issues, at least none that we know of. A suicide bomber came at Rachel’s squadron. Rachel missed her shot, and…” Lance mimed an explosion with a bitter laugh. “Whole squadron was decimated. Few of them survived, and none of them without a few limbs blown off. Rachel was lucky. She was up in her sniper nest, and she didn’t get the worst of it. Still, the bottom part of her left leg is gone, and when she got back…” Lance shuddered.

“When she got back, she wasn’t quite… Rachel. Not the Rachel that left, anyway. She didn’t talk much, and she lost interest in a lot of her old hobbies. She only cared about her kids. They were her light and life. Young. Innocent. Untouched by war.” Lance sighed again. “One day we found her bleeding in her room. She had ground her dog tags into sharp blades and was cutting herself with them.”

Next to him, Keith started, eyes wide and sympathetic.

“We stopped her, and then we were watching her, 24/7. She kept saying that it was her fault, and that she shouldn’t be alive and she needed to make up for surviving while they didn’t.”

“Survivor’s guilt,” Keith said hoarsely.

Lance nodded. “Yeah. She’s doing better now. Veronica and I built a prosthetic for her. Well, Veronica built it, and I screwed around with various parts pretending to help. And… well, she’s not quite as depressed. I think she’s mostly just trying to hold it together for her kids. But, well, yeah. I know that the war- it took a lot out of all of us. I know what we’re messing with.”

He looked at Keith expectantly, and the streetfighter sighed.

“My dad was a firefighter. He was drafted when I was about five and was sent into occupied territory. He saw a burning building with civilians trapped inside, and, well, he didn’t hesitate.” Keith’s shoelace trailed in the water, making ripples. “They said he was a hero. I just knew that he wasn’t coming back.”

“And your mom?”

“Ran off when I was a baby. Police came by sometimes to ask my dad about her. She was probably in debt or a druggie or something. It doesn’t matter. Shiro- he took care of me. Pestered his parents until they adopted me. They died of cancer after about a year, and Shiro- the instant he was fifteen, he was drafted. He came back a year later minus one arm, but he still tried to take care of me, even though he couldn’t even take care of himself. So, I ran away. I figured he’d be better off without me dragging him down.”

“Where did Pidge come in?”

“That’s not my story to tell. That’s hers. If you want to know, you’ll have to ask her.”

“Guess I’ll never know, then.” Lance glanced around. “Hey, I know this park!”

Keith stood up. “Great. We had a heart-to-heart, now go home. Go back. And do yourself a favor. Forget about me, forget about Pidge, forget about Shiro. Just go home, go act, and forget about us.”

“What? Why?”

“Because you’re better off without us. People like us- we just drag you down. We’re social misfits. Don’t go looking for us. If you see us on the street, act like you did before we showed up in your lives. Ignore us, just treat us like another face on the street. It’s better that way. For you and for us. Our classes don’t mix. What happens in the movies you star in- that’s not like real life.”

“Oh.”

“I’m leaving. Count to one-hundred before you get up, and don’t turn around.”

“What?”

“You’ve got to start now. Forget that this ever happened. One-hundred.”

Lance sighed and counted. When he glanced up at fifty, Keith was gone. Lance slouched back to his house, grumbling, and saw Allura’s car in the driveway. Lotor’s car was behind it. Lance had to climb a tree and clamber in through Hunk’s window to avoid getting caught by Allura. Today had not been a good day, he thought, and he doubted it would get any better tomorrow.

Chapter Text

Allura shot Lance a look as he yawned. “Did you have a good time staying up late?” she asked waspishly.

“Did you have a good time out with Lotor?” he shot back.

“I did, actually. We went up to the observatory-”

Lance made a noise of disgust.

“-and we visited his mother, who’s an old family friend,” Allura finished, shooting him a glare, “Is something wrong?”

“When are you going to stop lying to me, Allura? When are you just going to admit that you started something with my worst enemy?!”

“I haven’t started anything! You get like this every time I do anything with Lotor! Just because youchase after everything in a skirt doesn’t mean that other men and women can’t have nice, platonic relationships!”

“No, I know that, but I also know that’s not the case with you and Lotor!”

“I’m not lying to you, Lance! You’re lying to yourself!” Allura let out a puff of breath and leaned against her desk. “Just… go act, alright? They’re expecting you in ten.”

Lance wandered down to the costume department and got into his uniform, which he used in all of the military scenes. He poked his head out and looked at the set. Nyma, now in her uniform instead of her skirt and crop-top, and Coran were waiting for him.

“Alright, Lance, remember, you’ve just found out that your hometown has been nuked. Your whole family is on the casualty list. You’ve never met Nyma before. She just runs into you. Or, really-”

“I run into her.”

“Exactly.” Coran moved off stage. “Action!”

Lance ran from the “military information” tent, forcing tears. Then he slammed into Nyma, and they both fell backward into the “mud” (because, of course, it had to be raining). Nyma yelped.

“Hey, look out! Watch where you’re- hey- are you okay?”

Lance shook his head as if trying to clear it. “Um- fine.” He “shoved back” his tears and offered Nyma a smile. “I- I’m fine. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m alright.” She started picking folders out of the mud. “These are water-proofed, so they should be alright.”

Lance helped her pick up a couple of folders. “Hey, what’re these?”

Nyma shrugged. “Forms. I need a mechanic for my plane; the bomb-bay doors aren’t working right, and if they jam while I’m flying…” she made an explosion gesture with one hand. “Boom. No more Luna.”

“Want me to take a look at them?”

“Why?”

“I did a bit of mechanic work back home. If it’s just a jammed door, you might not need to fill out so much paperwork.”

Nyma tilted her head to one side. “Why would you do that?”

Lance offered a quick smile. “Let’s just say I want to occupy my mind with something. Plus, I feel kinda bad about knocking you over.” He stood up and offered her a hand. “My name’s Sol. I’m a sharpshooter. You?”

Nyma took the hand, hauling herself gracefully to her feet. “Luna. Pilot, but I’m guessing you already figured that one out.”

Lance offered Nyma his arm. “Right, then, shall we go?”

She giggled and hooked her arm in his. “That we shall.”

“Cut!” Coran waved his arms with a grin. “Alright! Excellent! Now, let’s do that about fifty more times, shall we?”

xxx

Lance grinned at Nyma as she shook her blonde hair out of the bun it had been in for the shooting, replacing it with her headband and separating it into her ponytails. “Hey, great acting!”

She smiled, slightly distractedly, Lance thought. “It’s my job. You’re not too shabby yourself. See you tomorrow.”

She flipped her blonde hair and strode out the door. Lance watched her disappear with a sigh of contentment.

“Not too shabby,” he said happily.

Hunk rolled his eyes. “Pull yourself together, Lance. She’s your costar, not your girlfriend.”

“But she couldbe!”

They heard some shouting from the lights crew. “Hey, watch out!”

One of the massive spotlights was crashing from the ceiling. Hunk didn’t hesitate. He knocked Lance out of the way, taking the brunt of the spotlight himself. 

“Hunk!”

Lace crawled over to his friend, shifting the broken spotlight, which had knocked him over from slamming down on his shoulder. Hunk hissed in pain, cradling his left arm, Lance nearly threw up. Arms were… not supposed to bend that way.

Coran pushed over to them. “What happened?!”

“The light…”

One of the light crew was examining the light. “Someone messed with it. The whole thing came crashing down when we tried to move it.”

Allura knelt next to Hunk, stabilizing his arm with a piece of wood and her own tie. “Can you walk?”

Hunk nodded shakily, and they made their way to Allura’s car, Lance on one side and Allura on the other. Lance climbed in shotgun as Allura revved the engine, maneuvering through traffic to the hospital.

“So, sabotage?”

“It’s looking like it,” she replied grimly, “I don’t know why.”

“I bet it’s Lotor.”

Allura sighed. “Lance, please-”

“Well, what? It could be!”

“Lance, Lotor doesn’t hate you. Your hatred of him is completely one-sided.”

“Hm.”

“And it’s his movie too; if you get injured, either you’ll have to be replaced-”

“See?! He wants my role!”

“-Or, more likely, knowing Coran, we’ll have to wait for you to recover. Not to mention that there was no way of knowing that you would be under the light. It was likely just general sabotage to delay the movie.”

“Why?”

Allura shrugged as they pulled into the hospital, ushering a pale Hunk into the building. Lance started filling out contact and insurance information with a sigh. Allura was explaining the situation to a nurse, who nodded along and told them to wait a few minutes, because their doctors were occupied right now.

Lance’s foot tapped restlessly on the floor, waiting. The doctor took Hunk and Allura away, and Allura returned about a half-hour later.

“They’re going to set his arm, and they’ll have to re-locate his shoulder, too. It’ll take a bit. Lance, I know you probably don’t want to talk about this, but- well- Hunk isn’t going to be able to carry out his job.”

“Allura-”

“I know that we hired Hunk because you knew him and were comfortable with him, but Lance, I don’t want you to be unprotected. We need to hire a new bodyguard. A professional.”

“Allura, please,” Lance pleaded, “You know I never wanted a bodyguard!”

“I know, but Lance, instances like these show why you need one.”

Lance sighed. “I know, I know. Just- give me twenty-four hours to find someone who Iwant, okay?”

Allura grudgingly nodded. “Twenty-four hours. Starting now.”

Chapter Text

Lance knocked frantically on a door. No one came, and he knocked again. A grumpy voice sounded on the other side.

“Go away! I don’t want any!”

Lance knocked again, and the door finally opened. “Alright, Alright! Pidge, did you forget your-” Keith sighed. “Lance, what are you doing here?”

“I know you said that I should get out of your life, but I need some help.”

Keith started to close the door, but Lance stuck his foot in the way. He winced as Keith jerked on the door harder, clearly attempting to either chop Lance’s foot off or get him to move it.

“Hey, wait, hear me out! Also, you owe me one for the hospital!”

Keith stopped yanking on the door and opened it again. “Fine. You have five minutes. Go.”

Lance explained the Hunk situation to him, with much gesturing. “Anyway, Allura thinks that I need a new bodyguard, and so- I thought- maybe you’d give it a try?”

“No.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“But-”

“Lance, I don’t need a job.”

“But-”

“But Shiro does.”

Lance’s protest died in his mouth. “Oh.”

“His full name is Takeshi Shirogane. He’ll probably be hanging out near the business district. Just- uh- don’t tell him that I sent you, okay?”

“Why not?”

Keith toed the ground. “Um- well- Shiro kind of- he always wanted me to do better for myself. Better than living a hand-to-mouth life as a streetfighter, y’know? He never liked taking any money from me, because he always wanted for me to save up and do something with myself- go to college, I guess. That’s why I gave the money in secret. And- if he learns that I turned down an opportunity for an actual job for him- well, he might refuse and tell you to go back to me.”

“Got it. Takeshi Shirogane, business district, hire him, don’t mention you. How am I supposed to have heard of him, then?”

Keith shrugged. “Tell him that you were looking through lists of ex-military for possibilities as bodyguards, and his name showed up. Think of something. Improvise. That’s what actors are good at, right?” and he shut the door in Lance’s face.

Xxx

Lance pushed through the crowds in the business district, scanning and discounting faces. He caught sight of a black leather coat, and he ran towards it, tapping the person wearing it on the shoulder.

“Takeshi Shirogane?”

The person whirled around, a shock of white bangs greeting Lance. “Who are you? What do you want? How do you know my name?”

Lance held his hands up peaceably. “I have a job for you.”

Shiro took him in, his expensive clothes and his stature, and stiffened. “I don’t sell myself out. I’m not thatdesperate.”

Lance shook his head frantically. “No, no, not that kind of job. I just- I need some muscle.”

Shiro shook Lance away. “I don’t get involved in gang wars. Back off.”

“Ah- no! That came out wrong! I want to hire you as a bodyguard! I’m an actor! Not a gang member, not some shady person, just… it’s a completely honest job, I promise.

Shiro stopped. “A job? Why me?”

“Uh…” Lance hadn’t really thought this part out. “Well, I didn’t want a professional, because they’re very stiff, and, um- I figured that a military man would be more experienced in things like this, and you were listed as unemployed, so I figured that you were open.”

“And you’re serious?”

“One-hundred percent.”

“Just like that, I’m hired?”

Lance winced. “Well, first we have to get past my manager.”

Xxx

Allura cast a cool look at Shiro. “I gave you twenty-four hours to find a suitable bodyguard. So you come to me with a homeless veteran who’s missing an arm. No offense,” she added to Shiro. He gave her a nod. She turned back to Lance. “You’re desperate, aren’t you? What would be so bad about hiring a professional?”

Lance shrugged. “I just don’t like the idea of someone I don’t know and didn’t personally hire watching me.”

“But a stranger off of the street is fine?”

“Uh… yeah.”

“He doesn’t have qualifications.”

Lance gave her a winning smile. “Who better to protect me than someone who fought so valiantly to protect our country? Can’t get better qualifications than that.”

Allura raised an eyebrow, but she turned to Shiro. “Do you think that you can do this?”

He nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Have you ever done anything like this before?”

“No ma’am, but I can do most things I set my mind to.”

Allura gave a short nod. “Understand something. This is a trial for you. If you make a bad mistake, then I won’t hesitate. You will be back out in an instant. We’re experiencing minor sabotage, and if I think you can’t protect Lance, then I won’t keep you. Understood?”

Shiro’s grey eyes leveled with Allura’s. “Understood.”

“Great. Let’s go draw up a contract, then, shall we?”

Xxx

Keith felt his pocket vibrate, and he fished out his phone, answering the call without glancing at caller ID. “Hello?”

“Hey, Keith. It’s Shiro.”

“Oh, hey! What’s up?”

“I just- I wanted to tell you, I’ve got a job.”

Keith pretended to be surprised. “That’s great! Is it a permanent job, or…?”

“It’s not a temp. Solid, paying job. Not working briefly in a food bank.”

“Great! What is it?”

“Bodyguard.”

“Bodyguard?”

“Yeah. Some actor just came up to me on the street and asked if I wanted to be his bodyguard. Apparently, he had an issue with professionals? I don’t know, but anyway, I just thought you might want to know.”

Keith held the phone to his ear by pressing it to his shoulder as he pulled athletic tape out of he and Pidge’s medical cabinet. “Uh-huh. That’s awesome, Shiro.”

“What about you? Found a solid job yet?”

Keith paused in the middle of taping his wrists and fists. “Uh- yeah,” he lied casually, “I have.”

“Not streetfighting?”

“No, no, a friend- um- she got me set up in a- what’s it called- it’s a culture thing.”

“A culture thing?”

“Mhm. We do- we do street demonstrations. It’s temporary, really, not actually a solid job. I’m looking for another job, I promise, Shiro. I’ll find one, I swear.”

“Well, I’m proud of you, Keith, even if it is just a temporary job. Those fights are awful, and I’m glad you got out of them.”

Keith felt guilt rise in the pit of his stomach. He hated lying, especially to Shiro. “Thanks. That means a lot, Shiro.”

“Alright. I’ll see if I can visit, okay? I don’t know if I can- this actor’s manager has got me tied to him 24/7. But I’ll try.”

“Be seeing you, then.”

“Hopefully.”

“I have to go. We’ve got a demonstration in fifteen minutes. Bye.”

“Bye. Good luck.”

The line turned off, and Keith sighed, finishing up his tape. He hated to lie, but he would hate dragging Shiro from his job even more. 

Pidge poked her head into the room. “Culture thing?”

Keith shrugged. “No need to tell him it’s street culture.”

Pidge shook her head. “Come on. We’ve got a fight to catch."

Chapter Text

Lance ducked behind a set piece as an explosion went off. “Nick!” he called, “Nick, where are you?!”

From off set, Lotor’s voice called faintly, and Lance stormed across the “battlefield,” dodging “bullets” and taking cover every so often as more “explosions” went off. He came to the crest of a hill and gasped, eyes widening in horror. “No…”

“Cut!”

Shiro frowned at the set as Lance came off of it. “What was that, up there?”

“What, you mean my acting?”

“What? No, your acting was fine. I meant the pyrotechnics.”

“Oh, the explosions?”

“Yeah. They were- off. Way off. Real explosions- nothing like that. And if you’d actually been that close to an actual explosion, your skin would’ve been melted off of your flesh.”

Coran cleared his throat behind them. “Excuse me, sir, did you just insult my pyrotechnics?”

Shiro shrugged. “I’m just saying that they could be a little more accurate to real life is all. The explosions are fine, they’re just… not accurate.”

“Do you think that you could show us what they would really look like?”

“Do you have paper and a pencil?”

xxx

Allura wandered over to Lance, frowning. “Is there a particular reason why your bodyguard is with Coran?”

Lance kicked his feet up on a chair, sipping a lemonade. “They’re in conference.”

“Conference?”

Lance shrugged. “Coran wants the movie as accurate to the war as possible. Shiro can give him insight. So, conference.”

“What if something-”

“Nothing is going to happen to me, Allura! Shiro is literally five feetaway!”

“I know, I know. Do you think this will halt production much?”

Lance shrugged. “Depends how much Coran decides to change.”

Coran approached Lance and Allura, towing a bewildered Shiro behind him. “Ah! Allura! Lance! I know that you hired Takeshi to be your bodyguard, but his insight is highly useful! Would you mind if perhaps I hired him as a consultant?”

Lance shrugged. “That’s up to Shiro. It probably pays more, right?”

Coran nodded. “Certainly.”

“Well, Shiro?”

Shiro glanced at Allura and Lance. “Do you mind?”

Allura shrugged. “Not horribly, no.”

“She wants to hire me a professional,” Lance said gloomily.

“Oh. Lance, if you want me to-”

“No, take the job if you want it. I have a couple of people in mind to hire before she gets me a professional.”

Shiro’s face looked relieved. “Thank you, Lance. You don’t know what this means to me.”

He trotted off happily after Coran, and Lance sighed. “Twenty-four hours?”

“Twenty-four hours,” Allura confirmed.

Xxx

Lance knocked on a door. “Go away!” a voice inside called.

Lance knocked again.

“Lance, I swear, if it’s your stupid actor face again, I’m going to break your nose!”

Lance gulped. “Shiro kind of… got stolen by my director.”

The door swung open, and Keith glared at him. “This doesn’t look like forgetting about us!”

Lance shrugged. “I have a good memory.”

“What do you want?!”

“Um… wanna work for me?”

“Lance, I told you no!”

“I know, but Shiro’s now a consultant, and Allura’s on my case again, so can I talk to Pidge?”

“Pidge?”

“Yeah, did you actually think I wanted to hire you? Pidge is far scarier.”

Keith’s face remained flint, and Lance gave a tentative laugh.

“Ha, ha? Friendly joke?”

“No.”

“Come on, man!”

“Just hire a professional!”

“I don’t want to! Allura will have them babysit me!”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “And who’s to say that I won’t?”

“Please?”

Keith sighed. “Lance, I can’t leave Pidge. I am literally her source of income.”

Lance grinned. “Actually, I really didwant to talk to Pidge.”

Pidge appeared behind Keith. “Why?”

Lance handed her a packet of papers. She scanned them, and her jaw dropped.

“No way.”

Lance’s grin got even wider. “Yes way.”

Keith peered at the packet. “What? What is it?”

“It’s an offer for a paid internship,” Pidge said, starry-eyed, “For film! On the tech crew! Keith, I can be on an actual movie set! It’ll be so good for my rep, and I’ll get some more money, and… oooo!”

Keith narrowed his eyes at Lance. “Well played.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lance said breezily, “I saw the open space and thought of Pidge.”

Keith snorted. Pidge’s face fell. “Wait, but I can’t leave you, Keith! I know that the fights themselves bring in cash, but the betting is what provides for us!”

“Actually,” Keith told her, shooting Lance a glare, “Lance just offered me a job. As a bodyguard. So, you don’t have to worry about me. Go and do your internship. I’ll be there too.”

Pidge tilted her head. “Won’t you have to stay with Lance all the time? How am I supposed to get there every day? Walk?”

“You could stay with us,” Lance offered.

Pidge brightened. “Really? Great! I’ll go pack. Keith, I’ll get your stuff too, you probably have to have an interview with Lance’s manager or whatever.” She whirled off back into the apartment.

Keith glared at Lance even harder. “That was a dirty trick,” he snapped.

“What dirty trick?”

“You knew this would happen. You knew I’d take the job so Pidge could take the internship.”

“What do you mean? We had an opening for an intern. I had an opening for a bodyguard. It all worked out. Now, come on, you still have to make it past my manager.”

Xxx

Allura gazed icily at Keith. “Lance, who is this?”

“New bodyguard,” Lance said nonchalantly.

His manager sighed. “Do you just go about picking up every homeless person you can get your hands on?!”

Keith bristled. “I’m not homeless,” he snapped, “I’ve got an apartment.”

“You’re listed as unemployed.”

Keith hesitated. “I take odd jobs.”

“Do you have any experience with this?”

“No.”

Allura sighed. “Lance, I’m hiring a professional.”

“No, Allura, come on, please?”

“Lance, I’m not going to hire- to hire traveling handymen to protect you! End of story! No other option!”

There was a shout from outside, and Lance glanced out, his eyes widening in horror. “The explosions- they shouldn’t be going off!”

He bolted for the door, Keith on his heels. “Lance, watch out!” Keith yanked him to a halt as an explosion went off in front of them. “Hit the sprinklers, okay? Some fires are starting- the explosions must’ve been put near a script or something. And be careful.”

Lance nodded. Keith headed towards the control area, where the explosions were typically detonated from. Lance slammed his hand on the sprinklers, and water hissed from the ceiling, putting out fires. Keith was returning, waving his arms.

“EVERYBODY, OUT!” he roared. He grabbed Lance’s shirt collar and dragged him away, also catching Allura’s arm and pulling her out of the room. “Down!” Keith sheltered them with himself, his back to the set.

Behind them, there was a louder explosion, and a window shattered, peppering them with bits of broken glass. Lance yelped as a bit of glass cut his hand, and Allura let out a similar cry. Keith moved off, opening the door to the set. “Anyone in there?” he called.

“Help,” a faint voice called back. Lance could see one of the techies trapped under a fallen set piece

“Lance, Allura, help me.”

The three of them heaved the set piece off of the techie, and Keith dropped down next to her, checking her over for injuries.

“You’re okay,” he decided, “Nothing looks broken, just bruised and scraped. What happened?”

The techie shrugged, pushing herself to her knees. “Too many of the explosives in one place, I guess. Thank goodness no one was here except for us.”

“Sabotage,” Allura hissed, “Again?”

Chapter Text

Pidge blinked incredulously at Keith. They were sitting in the small first aid room off-set, Pidge with a supply of Band-Aids and cleaning alcohol. “What, she said no?”

“Yeah.” Keith hissed as Pidge pulled a piece of glass out of his back. “I guess she’s tired of Lance picking his own bodyguards.”

Pidge pulled another glass shard out, throwing it into the trash can. “That’s dumb.”

“Yeah, well. Ow!”

“Hold still.” Pidge plastered a smiley-face band-aid on Keith’s arm, pasting more on his bare back. “Ow. That’s gotta hurt. It probably won’t get infected, right?

“Hopefully not.”

“Well, that’s the last of them.”

Allura strode in, and Keith blushed, hurriedly pulling his tank top over his head. She bit her lip, as if holding back laughter, and sat down in a nearby chair. “How are you?”

He shrugged. “Fine.”

“Um- what you did earlier- saving Lance and I from the explosion- that was brave of you. I wanted to say thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“Um- also- I wanted to apologize.”

“For what?”

“For- for thinking that you were subpar. I’d like to rescind my earlier rejection, and reinstate the offer for your position.”

Keith blinked. “I’m sorry, you’d like to what?”

“She’s reoffering you the job,” Pidge translated, “And saying sorry for rejecting you earlier.”

“Oh. Um- I accept, I guess.”

Allura brightened. “Great! It’ll probably take a few days for that mess to be cleared up, but I’d still feel better if you were to stay with Lance.”

“Um- sure.”

“Wonderful. I’ll be seeing you, then!”

She bounced off, and Keith blinked. “I guess I’ve got a job.”

Xxx

Lance bounced around the street, going quickly from one bright attraction to another. Keith chased after him, regretting his decision to go along with Allura’s offer.

“Slow down, you maniac!”

“Run faster!” Lance stopped in front of a street magician. “Ooo, magic!”

Keith squinted at the magician, then tugged on Lance’s sleeve. “Yeah, maybe not that one.”

“Huh?”

“Bad rep for people’s stuff ‘magically’ disappearing when they stop to watch him.”

“Oh. Hey, they’re having a rodeo! Come on!”

“Whoa, hey, wait up! How do you get so easily distracted?!”

“Uh, I’m ADHD, and also I never get out when we’re filming a movie, come on!”

Keith shifted uncomfortably as they roamed the stock show grounds. “I shouldn’t be here. This isn’t right.”

Lance spared a glance at him. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t belong here. I- I’m a streetfighter. Running around the good part of town and going to rodeos- it’s not something that I should be doing.”

“Hey,” someone shouted, “Isn’t that Lance McClain?” Immediately, most people’s heads whipped towards them.

“This loser?” Keith hollered back, “Stars, I wish!”

 The curious onlookers dispersed, grumbling. Lance grinned. “If I’d known it was that easy, I would’ve hired you a lot sooner.”

“I still wouldn’t have belonged.”

“Where is this coming from?”

Keith shifted from one foot to the other. “I- I don’t know. I just look around, and I know that they can all tell that I’m not supposed to be here.”

“Well, you are supposed to be here now! You work for me, so this is exactly where you’re supposed to be. And if you’re not, Allura will kill you.” Lance looked across the street and started to glower. “Ugh. Lotor.”

Keith looked across the street to see a dark-skinned man with four women. “Who?”

“Another actor. He’s trying to start something with Allura, I know it.”

Keith sucked in a breath. “Speaking of whom…”

“Oh, no,” Lance groaned, “Don’t tell me…”

“Yup.” Keith watched her stride to Lotor, laughing and greeting them. “I mean, maybe they’re just friends.” Lotor gave Allura a quick hug. “Or maybe not.” He glanced at Lance, who was running his fingers through his hair, upset. “I mean. People can hug platonically. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Ugh.”

“Why does it matter?”

Lance sighed. “It’s just… I was all set to get a lead role in a movie of a very popular franchise, like, I was on the verge of being cast in the role, and then- Lotor showed up and took it. So- I don’t know- it feels like betrayal to see my manager/agent with him.”

“Oh.”

Allura caught sight of them, and her face dropped to a panicked expression that she quickly smoothed over into a happy expression. She waved to them. Lotor looked up, spotted Lance and gave a little smile and a short wave of his own. Lance forced a smile and waved back. Keith saw Lotor lean in and question Allura, angling his head ever so slightly towards Keith. Allura whispered something to him, and he nodded in understanding.

“Let’s go,” Lance said miserably, walking towards the gate, “I don’t want to stay anymore.”

They walked in relative silence, then Keith felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. He glanced around subtly, trying to find what was giving him that sense of unease. There- someone was following them. It was hard to spot- in the crowd, anyone could be just trying to get to the gate. But Keith didn’t doubt it.

“Hey, Lance, hold on a second.”

Lance stopped abruptly. “What?”

The person following them quickly started to browse a stand. Keith’s eyes narrowed.

“We need to get to your house. Or the studio. Now.”

Lance blinked. “Um- okay.”

They exited, going back to Lance’s house. Keith was paranoid the whole way back.

Xxx

 “What was wrong?”

Keith glanced at Lance. “Someone was following us.”

Lance shivered. “What?! Are you sure?”

Keith crossed his arms. “Positive.”

“W-why?”

Keith shrugged. “Maybe just paparazzi. Maybe someone who thought you’d be easy pickings. Maybe something worse. Who knows?”

Lance shivered again. Suddenly, the house seemed a lot more sinister. He wished Hunk were here, but his friend had gone to visit his parents, and it was just him, Keith and Pidge. 

Keith flipped on the burglar alarm. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. Might just be me being paranoid.”

Still, Lance slept with one eye open.

Chapter Text

“Shiro?!”

“Keith?!”

Keith shook his head. “Wait, when you said actor, you meant this actor?!”

“How do you know Lance?” Shiro asked at the same time.

“Wait, you two know each other?” Lance yelped. Inwardly, he kept in a smile. Everything was going as he and Keith had planned it.

“We- we’ve known each other for ages,” Shiro sputtered, “Keith- how-?”

“I- I met Lance a while ago- I kind of passed out in the street in front of him- wait- so Lance hired you to be his bodyguard?!”

“I- yeah!”

Coran’s head poked into the room. “If you’ll excuse me, I believe we have a movie we’re supposed to be filming? Social conversations can be made off of the clock?”

Lance grinned. “Right. I gotta go. You two catch up I guess.”

Xxx

 “Luna!” Lance jogged to keep up with Nyma. “Luna! Where’re you going?”

“My wing’s being deployed,” she said tightly, “We’re going to the front lines.” She faltered, and a tear ran down her face. She threw herself at Lance, crying into his shoulder. “I’m so scared, Sol!”

Lance patted her back. “Hey, don’t be! You’re a great pilot! You’re going to be fine!”

She pulled back and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “In case I don’t come back,” she whispered, and ran off, leaving Lance behind, staring at her go, frozen in place.

“Cut! Okay, we’re done for today. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

Lance nodded and went to his dressing room, peeling off the costume. He pulled back on his street clothes and exited. Keith and Pidge were waiting for him, and they left together.

“Pidge!” Another girl ran out. “I’m sorry, Pidge, but I need a little help with some of the video editing, and you’re just such a whiz at it- could you lend a hand?”

Pidge smiled warmly. “Sure. I’m coming.” She waved to Keith and Lance. “You two go ahead. I can walk back by myself.”

They nodded. Lance shivered. “Maybe we should’ve driven here.”

Keith glanced around. “Yeah. Maybe so. Too late now.”

They walked in relative silence, joining the late-night workers who were either going back home or getting to work. Keith was the first to break the silence.

“So,” he said, “is that dopey look you get on your face when Nyma gives you the kiss acting or not?”

Lance blushed. “What?!”

Keith grinned. “Like this.” He gazed adoringly into the distance with a slack jaw.

“I do not look like that!”

Keith snapped his mouth shut with a grin. “Oh, yes you do.”

Lance crossed his arms, fuming. “I don’t,” he muttered.

Keith didn’t say anything, just grinned to himself, looking anywhere but Lance. Then the grin slid off of his face. Someone was following them again. And there was more than one this time. “Lance,” he whispered urgently, “turn into this alley. Now, now, now!”

They bolted, sprinting down the alley. There was a curse, and feet pattered behind them.

“It’s a dead end!” Lance said frantically, facing a fence.

Keith kicked at the bottom of the fence, and a section flipped up like a pet door. “Go under!”

Lance dropped to his belly and army-crawled through the panel, dragging himself through and immediately getting up. “Come on!”

Keith started to follow, but halfway through, started to slide backwards. He cursed and turned onto his back, kicking violently. “He’s got my ankle!”

Lace grabbed Keith’s arms and started pulling, trying to drag him away, but he wasn’t strong enough. Keith slowly but steadily slid backwards.

“Lance, let go!”

“They’ll get you!”

“They’re going to get me anyway! There’s nothing you can do that will stop them, and there’s no sense in letting them get you, too. Run back to the studio and call the police.”

Whoever was on the other end gave a massive heave, and Lance was forced to let go of Keith. His bodyguard put his arms out to block himself from sliding through the panel, grunting as whoever was there yanked harder. “Lance, go!”

Lance nodded and bolted, sprinting around the buildings and back towards the studio. He tripped and fell over someone’s foot, and tumbled to the ground, skinning his hand. He pushed himself back up, panting, looked around, and kept running, the warm lights of the studio promising safety. He skidded to a halt inside, panting. Pidge gave him an odd look. “Um- Lance?”

“Police,” he panted, “Call. Now.”

“Lance, are you okay?” Her concern shifted to panic. “Wait, where’s Keith?!”

“People- alley- got him- police.”

Pidge yanked out her phone, immediately dialing 911. “Hello? Yeah- I- hold on.” She turned to Lance. “What do I tell them?”

“Tell them I just got attacked, and I left my friend behind!”

“Okay. Yeah. Um- a friend just came in- told me he and another friend got attacked, and his friend was left behind.” She covered the mouth of the phone and mouthed where?

“Walsh road. Down an alley.”

“Um- it was in an alley down Walsh road. Why- I assume they were taking a shortcut?” She gave Lance a questioning look, and he waved his hand in a so-so gesture. “Yeah. They were taking a shortcut. No, he’s not hurt. Uh- This is studio 3? You know the one? Great. Yeah, we’ll stay right here. Thank you.”

Pidge hung up. “Lance, what is going on?!”

“We were going home, and then- I don’t know- Keith said to turn down an alley, and suddenly someone was chasing us.”

Pidge’s brow creased. “Why?”

Lance shrugged. “Search me.” He glanced out the window. “Do you think he’s okay?”

“Keith is tough,” Pidge assured him, although her voice was worried, “I’m sure he’s fine.”

A few minutes later, police cars pulled up, sirens wailing. A cop entered. “Which of you called?”

Pidge raised a hand. “I called. He’s the one who was there. I was just the first person he ran into.”

The policeman took Lance aside, asking him questions about whether he’d gotten hurt and what had happened.

“And you’re sure you’re fine? You’ve got a scrape on your hand. Did anything else happen?”

Lance shook his head. “No. No, I just tripped while running away. It’s not- I’m okay. But Keith-”

“We’re doing everything we can to find him,” the policeman promised, “Do you have someone you can call to take you home?” Lance nodded shakily. “Good. Do that. You shouldn’t be walking around, especially not alone. I’ll have a cop on your street just in case.”

“Thanks.”

The cop nodded. “Don’t be surprised if you get some calls from the police, or if we come to talk to you.”

He left, hopefully pulling off to join the cops at the scene itself. Lance pulled out his own phone and shakily dialed Veronica.

“Hey- yeah, I need you to pick me up.”

“What? Your swanky limousine or whatever you drive isn’t good enough?” Veronica teased.

“I- it’s not here, and-” Lance broke off, biting his lip.

“Hey, what happened?” Veronica’s tone switched immediately from teasing to concerned. “Is everything okay?”

“I- I’ll explain it when you get here,” Lance promised, “Just hurry, please.”

In only a few minutes, Veronica’s car pulled up to the studio. “I probably broke about ten traffic safety laws getting here, little brother.”

Lance flinched. “Try not to get arrested, okay?”

He climbed into shotgun, and Pidge was in the backseat. Veronica backed out of the parking lot and roared down the highway. She turned to Lance, still keeping her eye on the road.

“Now. Tell big sister everything.”

Lance spilled out what happened, and sighed. “I shouldn’t have pushed him into working for me. It just got him in trouble.”

Veronica shrugged. “Seems to me that they were after your buddy, not you.”

Lance blinked. “What?”

“There was more than one of them, right? They could’ve come around and nabbed you while you were running, easy-peasy. Or just ignored Keith completely and gone for you. But they grabbed him. Not you.”

“Why would someone want to kidnap Keith?”

“Did he have any enemies?”

Lance looked back at Pidge. “Hey- Pidge- enemies?”

“Hold on a second, I’m trying to track his phone,” she said crossly, “Pull over! Right here!”

Veronica swerved, and Pidge jumped out of the car. Lance and Veronica followed, and they ran down an alley. Pidge stopped abruptly, eyes widening in horror. “No,” she whispered, “No!”

Lance delicately picked up the broken phone, the screen shattered, and the battery draining. “He was trying to call someone,” Veronica commented, “Who’s Shiro?”

Xxx

“We found it in an alley,” Lance explained to the police officer in front of him, “Pidge tracked the signal- Pidge? Are you okay?”

“He’s gone,” she said shakily, “I can’t- I can’t do anything to track him.”

“Pidge, that doesn’t matter right now! You found evidence!”

“Which you shouldn’t have touched,” the cop reprimanded him, “You’ve compromised it.”

“We can vouch for him,” Veronica put in, “He was with us the whole time, Officer…”

“Kolivan. Officer Kolivan.”

“Right. Well. Anyway, we can vouch for him. And he definitely wasn’t kidnapping anyone. But- can you tell anything?”

Officer Kolivan sighed. “I can give it to the team actually investigating. What did you say the name was?”

“Keith,” Pidge said desperately. Kolivan started to type the name in. “Keith Kogane,” Pidge specified. Kolivan froze. 

“Keith Kogane?” he asked casually.

“Yes. Keith Kogane.”

“Ah.”

“Veronica thinks- she thinks they might have been after Keith, not me,” Lance blurted. He felt like he could trust this officer, at least with this. “She thinks that he was the target.”

Kolivan got up. “Show me where you found the phone.”

Chapter Text

Kolivan examined the area. “Just- right here? On the ground?”

“Yeah. Why- when we said it was Keith, you were suddenly interested. Why?”

Kolivan hesitated. “Keith’s mother is… on a watchlist, you might say. As such, we’ve taken a bit of interest in her son. We’ve been keeping an eye on him, making sure he’s not getting into trouble.”

“Fat lot of good it did him,” Pidge remarked gloomily, “He still ended up getting kidnapped.”

“Yes.” Kolivan got up from where he’d been kneeling. “As far as I can tell, I’d hazard to guess that he broke away and tried to call someone, but they caught him again, probably knocking the phone out of his hands. We’ll check the phone for fingerprints, just in case, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up if I were you.”

Pidge sighed. “What are the police even for?”

Kolivan shot her an irritated look. “We’ll do the best we can under the circumstances. You three need to get home, though.”

Veronica nodded. “Yes sir. Come on, you two.”

Pidge gave a little sniffle as she climbed into the backseat. “I’m never going to see him again.”

“Nah, Pidge, don’t say that! They’ll find him!”

“No,” she muttered thickly, “Once people go missing, you never get them back.”

“I still think that it was an attack on Keith,” Veronica stated.

Lance’s face lit up. “Oh, yeah! Pidge, did Keith have any notable enemies? Not just old fight opponents, but fight opponents that would be likely to try and get revenge?”

Pidge sniffed. “Yeah. I’ve got a list. We- well- I- kept tabs on them, in case they tried anything.”

Lance twisted around in his seat. “You kept tabs on them?”

“Y-Yeah. I knew where they lived, and I can run their faces through my database to find any traces of them on security cameras.” Pidge’s eyes lit up. “Oh! I can cross-reference their locations with the time that you got attacked, and see where they were at that time last night!”

Veronica frowned into the rearview mirror. “But what if they were just at home?”

Pidge clicked her fingers. “Most of them live in apartment buildings. Most of those apartment buildings have security cameras at the doors, although not anywhere else. It’ll be tricky, but I can also set up the system to record who went into their apartment and didn’t come back out. Of course, they could just climb out their window, but in the busy street? Too many people to stop and stare. It’d be easier to walk through the doors; none of them would figure that just walking out of their apartment building at the right time could incriminate them.”

Lance tilted his head. “What about travel time?”

“I’ll have to factor that in as well; I can combine the programs with maps to see who could’ve left their apartments in time to reach the scene of the attack. And the studio’s got cameras as well; maybe I could get a couple of their faces on tape as they started off after you.”

Veronica whistled. “Sounds like you’ve got this well in hand.” She pulled up to Lance’s house. “Oh, nice place, little brother.” She squinted at the doorway. “Who’s that?”

Lance froze in place as a huge, shadowy figure moved off of the porch. He breathed a sigh of relief as the person stepped into the light, and he hopped out of the car to wave. “Hunk! You are not going to believe everything that’s happened!”

Xxx

Hunk blinked. They were sitting in the kitchen, the burglar alarm switched on, and all of the downstairs lights turned on.

“Okay. Let me get this straight. In the past…” Hunk counted on his fingers. “five days since I was gone, you hired Keith’s friend to be your bodyguard, had him snatched away by Coran, managed to hire Keith and get Pidge an internship, nearly perish in a fiery explosion and then Keith got kidnapped?!”

“That about sums it up,” Lance said with a nod.

“Wow. I can’t leave you alone for five seconds, can I?” Hunk threw his hands (or, well, his hand and his casted arm) into the air. “You’re a trouble magnet!”

Lance winced. “I know. Pidge, how’s that program coming along?”

She shot him a glare. “What, you think that these things just make themselves? This’ll probably take me all night just to set up, and then I’ve got hundredsof faces to run through the database!”

“I could run the faces for you,” Hunk suggested, “You’ve got the internship, so I could get the faces on, if you just get the program set up.”

Pidge considered for a minute. “Well… I suppose… but don’t touch any of my tabs! Don’t touch anything but the program and the pictures!”

“Okay.”

“I mean it, Hunk!”

“Okay! I won’t touch your tabs! Why not, anyway?”

Pidge gave a little cackle. “There are things not meant for mortal eyes.” She yawned. “I’m beat. It’s been a day.”

“That it has,” Lance agreed, stretching, “Shouldn’t you finish the program first, though?”

“I’ll do it in the morning,” Pidge yawned, “I feel too sick to do it right now.”

Lance looked her over, concerned. “Sick? Are you coming down with something?”

She smiled sleepily at him, although it was a sad smile. “There’s more than one way to be sick, Lance.”

Xxx

Lance yawned, and Allura gave him a glance, although it was a pitying one. “Lance? Maybe you should go home and rest.”

“I’m f-f-iiiine,” he yawned, “Let’s get to work.”

Shiro pushed the door open with a smile. He glanced around, confused. “Where’s Keith?”

Lance was suddenly wide awake. “Oh. Oh, no.”

Shiro blinked. “Oh no, what?”

“Shiro?” Lance said hesitatingly, “Have you gotten any calls from Keith lately?”

Shiro shrugged. “My phone was powered off, so- hold on- yeah, I’ve got one. Missed call. No message, though. Why? Has he gone somewhere?”

Lance let out a deep breath. “Keith’s been kidnapped,” he said in a rush.

Shiro blinked. “No. What? Keith can’t get kidnapped. No one could make Keith do anything he didn’t want to do.” He looked uncertainly at Lance. “Right?”

“I’m afraid it’s true, Takeshi,” Allura said gently, “They found his phone in an alleyway. He was trying to call you.”

Shiro put a hand to his mouth. “Stars… no…”

“I’m sorry,” Lance whispered, “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have pushed him into this. It’s my fault, I’m sorry.”

Shiro marched towards the door. “Tell Coran I’ve gone to the police station,” he ordered, “He’ll just have to deal without me.”

Xxx

Hunk yawned as he plugged yet another face into the database, which started running it through. He’d gone through three-hundred and fifty-two faces so far, but who was counting, right? Only a few of the faces hadn’t had an alibi, and Hunk still had about one-hundred-fifty faces to go. He glanced at the pictures. Wait a minute.

He clicked on one, and it came up. That person, though… he looked like Pidge! Definitely male, and definitely older, but a lot like Pidge. He put the face into the database after the one he was running finished (another dead end), and it came up with one option:

Matthew Holt. Infantry. MIA.

Hunk frowned. Who was Matthew Holt, and why did Pidge care about him?

Xxx

“Five faces?”

Hunk nodded. “Out of all of them, only five.”

Lance squinted at the options. “Hey, wait, I remember him! I bet on him!”

Pidge gave it a glance. “Oh, Sendak?”

“Yeah. He seemed pretty chill about losing, though. Not happy, definitely, but not in a kidnapping mood, either.”

Pidge shook her head. “When Keith got attacked- you know, when you guys ran into him- the person who whacked him with the bat? One of Sendak’s crew. Bets on Sendak the same way that I bet on Keith; they partner. Sendak sent him.”

Veronica frowned. “But why would they wait until now? And why attack Keith? You’re an easier target.”

“Take out the opposition,” Lance supplied, “They could coerce Pidge into coughing up a lot of money in return for her champion, and then injure him enough to take him out of the fights.”

Pidge paled. “That’s what I was afraid of. We have to find him. Now, before he suffers a debilitating injury.”

Veronica held up a hand. “Wait. Hold on. That’s a good theory, but no one’s approached Pidge. Wouldn’t they have called by now?”

Pidge shook her head. “They only nabbed him last night. They haven’t had the time; they want me to believe that the police can’t find them.”

“Why don’t you wait, then?” Hunk suggested, “We’ll investigate these people, but do it subtly. If they contact you, you might be able to track them down.”

“Keith might not have that long!”

“I know, I know,” Hunk soothed, “Which is why we’ll keep looking into it.”

Veronica squinted at the screen. “Have you tried running Keith’s face through there?”

Pidge froze, then smacked herself in the forehead. “I’m an idiot!” She pulled out her phone and sent a picture to her email. “Keith doesn’t like having his picture taken,” Pidge explained, “So the only shot I’ve got of him is a quick candid that I took when he was distracted.” She dragged the picture into her database, changing the time.

“We’ve got a result! They ran a red light, and Keith was in the backseat.” Pidge squinted at the picture. “Kinda grainy.”

“But did you get the license plate?”

“Yeah.”

Lance pulled out his phone, texting Shiro. 

Pidge and Veronica found a shot of Keith.

Where?

In a car. They ran a red light. We have a license plate.

U told Kolivan?

Don’t know how to get in contact. # is 24601.

Thanks. Tell Pidge and Veronica that they’re geniuses.

“Shiro says that you’re a genius,” Lance told Pidge, “You too, Veronica,” he added. 

Pidge nodded, face still worried. “I just hope that they can find him.”

Chapter Text

"They blew us all out of the sky,” Nyma said shakily, leaning into Lance, “We flew in, and they just- they decimated us! I- I don’t even know how I got out alive! Why am I alive, Sol?” Her voice was muffled against his jacket. “Why am I still here? I shouldn’t be here, Sol!”

Lance stroked her head gently. “No, no, Luna, you aresupposed to be here!”

“I’m useless,” she wailed, “I should’ve died with them!”

Lance’s spine stiffened. “Don’t say that. Luna, please, don’t say that.”

“Then why am I here,” she whispered again, “Why am I alive, when all of them are dead?”

“Because I need you,” he murmured into her hair, “And you need me.”

She drew back, and they kissed. Lance felt his stomach turn to butterflies inside of him, despite this being the twentieth time they’d done it.

“Cut! Lance, Nyma, good work, we’ve almost made up for the time we lost when the set nearly blew up! Excellent!”

Allura smiled at Lance. “Come on into my office, would you?”

He followed her, and she shut the door. She took a deep breath. “I know that things have been… stressing, recently. And… I didn’t want to talk about it, not right away. But it’s been nearly five days now, and…”

“And you think that I should find a new bodyguard,” Lance finished dully.

“Exactly. I know… I know it’s hard. And I know you want to think that he’s coming back. But their chances of finding him… they decrease every day.”

Lance sighed. “I know.”

Allura bit her lip. “Lance… I really think that we should hire a professional this time. I’m not saying it’s because they’re inexperienced, but first Hunk, and then Keith… you have to admit, this movie is a trouble magnet, and I feel that if we hire someone more professional… well, either they’ll handle themselves better, or they’ll scare off whoever’s sabotaging the set.”

Lance sighed again. “Yeah. You’re right.”

“I’m glad you see it my way,” Allura said gently, “I promise you, as soon as Hunk is better, you can hire him back, right away. But with his arm the way it is… I’d feel safer for you to have a professional.” She reached for her phone, stopped, and looked back at him. “And… I… I’m sorry about Keith.”

The door burst open, startling both of them. Pidge puffed, hands on her knees. She held up a hand as she regained her breath. “Shiro- phone call- Kolivan—” 

Lance frowned. “What is it? Spit it out, Pidge!”

“They found him,” she panted, “They found Keith!”

Allura set her phone down. “Well, I’ll be,” she whispered.

Xxx

Shiro’s knuckles were white on the steering wheel. “Yeah. Kolivan said that he was in the hospital. Has been for the last three hours, apparently. They had to put off calling because of everything that was going on.”

“The hospital? Why?”

The others echoed Lance’s sentiment.

Shiro bit his lip. “They said- they said he got banged up pretty badly.”

“How badly?” Pidge asked quietly.

Shiro didn’t answer.

Pidge’s face hardened. “Takeshi Shirogane, how badly is he injured?”

Shiro sighed. “Broken jaw,” he said hoarsely, “Broken nose, Broken fingers on his left hand, and his right knee is messed up, like, needing surgery messed up. Plus, you know, bruises. Scrapes. And… they said that there were signs of asphyxiation.”

Lance blinked. “Sorry, care to dumb that down for the idiots?”

“Suffocation,” Pidge whispered, her eyes filling with tears.

Shiro’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Kolivan suspects waterboarding.”

He pulled into the hospital parking lot, all of them piling into the waiting room. The receptionist gave Lance a little wave. “I remember you.”

He nodded distractedly. “Keith Kogane?”

“He can have visitors. He’s a little groggy from the pain meds, just a warning, so if he doesn’t recognize you or is a little dopey, that’s why. Room 412.”

They all flooded up the elevator, knocking quietly on the door before streaming in. Keith blinked groggily at them from a hospital bed, his face- Lance sucked in a deep breath. His face was a mess. His eyes- both were black, like someone had punched him twice, and his jaw was swollen. Not to mention the bandages on his nose and the splints on his fingers. Lance had a sneaking suspicion that if he pulled the bedcovers back, he’d see more bandages wrapped around Keith’s knee.

They all gathered around the bed. “Hey,” Shiro said softly.

“Hey,” Keith croaked.

“You know who we are?”

Keith blinked. “Shiro. Lance. Hunk.” His eyes slid to Pidge. “Katie.”

Pidge stiffened. “No, Keith,” she said gently, “My name’s Pidge.”

“No ‘s not,” he slurred, “’s Katie.”

Pidge gave him a sad smile. “Okay. You’re the boss.”

“I am?”

“Sure.”

“Oh.” Then, “Lance didn’t get caught?”

Lance offered a shaky smile. “Nope. Right here. Thanks to you.”

The ghost of a smile flitted across Keith’s face. “D-don’t owe you one anymore.”

“Oh, no,” Lance challenged, “No, no, you don’t get out of it that easily. See, that’s what I’m paying you for, so it doesn’t count.”

Keith’s head went back against the pillows. “Quiznek,” he muttered.

Shiro smiled at him. “How are the hospitals, huh? I’ve only ever been in army hospitals. How are civilian hospitals?”

“Mmm… okay, I guess…”

“You guess?”

“They won’t let me leave,” Keith said irritably, “Last time, they let me leave.”

“Oh, no, buddy,” Shiro said quickly, “You are not leaving this hospital. No, sir.”

“…ugh.”

A nurse poked her head in and tapped her watch. Keith didn’t see her. Shiro sighed.

“Hey, Keith?”

“Uh-huh?”

“We’ve gotta go now, okay?”

Keith blinked at them, lost. “Where are you going?”

“Hospital won’t let us stay,” Shiro said lightly, “We’ll be back tomorrow, okay?”

“’K.”

“You need to rest, you hear me?”

“Yessir.”

“Goodnight, Keith.”

“’Night.” Keith leaned back on the pillows as they exited, watching them go as his eyes drifted shut. As Pidge shut the door, he was already asleep.

Chapter Text

The receptionist barely glanced up as Lance, Pidge, Shiro and Hunk came bursting through the doors. “Police are talking to him,” she said flatly, “Stay out.”

Lance sat down in a chair. “How long do you think that’ll take?”

The receptionist shrugged. “They’ve been at it for nearly an hour now.”

Lance blinked. “How do they have that much to talk about?”

Xxx

Keith made an attempt to sit up when Kolivan entered, but the policeman held a hand up. “Don’t.”

Keith settled back down. The pain meds had worn off, mostly, leaving behind a dull ache practically everywhere, but he was grateful that he could think clearly, more or less.

Kolivan took in a deep breath, sitting in a chair next to Keith’s bed. “I need to know anything you can remember.”

Keith shuddered. “I broke away from them, when they first grabbed me, and tried to call Shiro. They cornered me in an alleyway, though, and they knocked the phone out of my hand. Then…” he let out a shuddering breath. “They took a crowbar to my knee. To keep me from running again. Then- I don’t know, I think I passed out because we were suddenly in a dark room, and- they- they kept hitting me, and they stomped on my fingers- that’s why they’re broken- and they broke my jaw. Then—” Keith shuddered again. “I felt like I was drowning,” he whispered. 

Kolivan leaned in. “Did you see faces? Can you name anyone?”

Keith shook his head slightly. “It was dark. They were all wearing hoodies. They were careful not to let me see them.”

“What about voices? Would you recognize them again?”

“I- I don’t know. It’s all a little fuzzy.”

“Do you know what they wanted?”

Keith looked down at his hands. “They kept… they kept asking me where my mother was.”

“And what did you tell them?”

“That I didn’t know. That I’d never met her.”

“And they didn’t believe you?”

“No. They insisted that I had to know.”

“I see.” Kolivan got up to go. “I’ll let you rest now.”

“Kolivan?”

Kolivan looked back from the door, which was open slightly. “Yes?”

Keith looked up from his hands. “Why- why are they after my mom?”

Kolivan hesitated, then shut the door. He sat back down next to Keith. “Officially, I shouldn’t be telling you this. Unofficially, I think you need to know. But you can’t tell anybodyabout this. Not your actor buddy, not your computer friend, not Takeshi Shirogane. No one. Got it?”

Keith nodded. 

Kolivan sighed. “Your mother… she’s an undercover cop. I believe that she might have infiltrated the gang that attacked you and betrayed them to the police. They call themselves tha Galra.”

“She…”

“She was never supposed to get married and have a child. Once she did, I had to contact her. She was putting you all in danger just by being there. She’d gained enemies, and if she stayed with you… you might not have lived to see your first birthday.”

“So she left us.”

“Exactly. Remember, you can’ttell anyone.”

Kolivan left, and Shiro, Lance, Hunk and Pidge all piled in through the door. “Hey! Keith! You’re more awake!”

“Hi.”

Shiro smiled at him. “Anything we can do for you?”

“Yeah, actually. Can you hand me that cup of water? My right hand doesn’t reach, and my left hand is kind of…”

“Here, I’ve got it,” Lance declared. He picked it up, coming towards Keith, and then his foot slipped, and he went crashing into the hospital bed. Keith’s face whitened in pain, and his hand clenched on the blankets.

Lance popped right back up. “Stars, I’m sorry!”

“It’s okay,” Keith gasped, although his knee felt like it’d been smacked with a crowbar again. He pressed a button a couple of times, and an IV line dripped more painkiller into his arm. It didn’t go by Shiro, who winced sympathetically. 

Pidge sat down in the chair that Kolivan had vacated only minutes ago. “Hey, I know you probably told Kolivan already, but… why did they kidnap you?”

“They were looking for my mom.”

Lance frowned. “Kolivan told us that your mom is kind of on a watchlist. Does that have something to do with it? Do you know why she’s on a watchlist?”

Keith hesitated. Should he tell them? He’d promised not to, but he didn’t really want to carry this knowledge alone. He took a deep breath.

“She was just a druggie who owed them money.”

Chapter Text

Keith cursed quietly as his leg buckled. His knee had been put in a brace, and they’d given him a crutch to steady himself, but he was still wobbly.

Lance glanced at him. “Need help?”

“No.” Keith steadied himself, hobbling down the hallway and back. He could get used to this. He’d have to use the crutch and the brace for at least six months, the doctor had told him, but his knee should recover.

Emphasis on the should, Keith thought wryly. With his track record, he’d probably end up wearing the stupid brace for a year and still not be fully recovered.

“You’re getting better at that,” Pidge commented from the kitchen table, where she was on her laptop, “How does it feel?”

Keith grimaced. “About as good as it’s going to get.”

Pidge winced sympathetically. “Ouch.”

Keith turned his head towards Lance. “Has Allura fired me yet?”

“Nah, you’re on ‘sick leave,’ so you’re not fired, but she’s definitely hiring someone else until you’re better. Hunk’s leaving us for college; he has enough money saved up, and he’s too smart to be a bodyguard for his whole life. Looks like you’re stuck with me.”

Keith plopped down on a recliner, pulling it up and elevating his leg. “Have to say, the job does have its perks.”

Lance glanced at him. “Hey, do you remember much about the first time we visited you?”

“No, not really. It’s all kinda fuzzy.”

“You called Pidge Katie.”

At the table, Pidge stiffened slightly, and a brief expression of panic crossed Keith’s face before he smoothed it into a charade of nonchalance. “Did I? My bad.”

“Who’s Katie?”

“Just an old friend.”

“How come you thought that Pidge was her?”

“I was confused. Stop pressing, Lance.”

“Or what? If I ran, you’d never catch me.” Lance glanced at his watch. “Pidge, we need to go.”

“Okay.” She shot Keith a look and followed Lance.

“So,” Lance asked casually as she climbed in the backseat, “Who’s Katie? You know her? Have anything to do with Matthew Holt?”

Pidge stiffened. “Who’s Matthew Holt?”

“You tell me. It’s your computer that Hunk found a picture of him on.”

“Gah! He went poking!”

“It was in your picture base. He didn’t go anywhere he wasn’t supposed to. Who’s Matthew Holt?”

Pidge crossed her arms, fuming. “None of your business.”

“He looked like you. Brother? Alter ego? No, wait, your alter ego is Katie! Or is Pidge the alter ego? I’m guessing Pidge. Weird name. If you were going to pick an alternate name, you could’ve at least made it believable, Katie.”

“Stop it, Lance!”

“What’s wrong, Katie? Your name is nice. I like it. Pidge is pretty cool too, though, don’t feel pressed to change it.”

“If Keith were here…”

“But he’s not, Katie.”

Pidge didn’t respond. She folded her arms and glared out the window.

“Aw, c’mon. What, were you Keith’s girlfriend?”

Pidge made a gagging noise.

“Okay, fair enough. How’d you two meet, then? As Katie and Keith?”

Pidge smiled out the window. “I ran away at age ten. He was about fifteen, and already streetfighting. I had a bit of cash- my savings from before I ran away. I got mugged. He was basically living under a bridge at that point and got annoyed when he heard me crying. He came out, showed me how to get back to the good part of town, then left.” She chuckled. “I followed him back.”

“Bet that pleased him.”

“He let me stay, telling me that he had to go somewhere, and for me to just be gone by the time he got back. I followed him to a streetfight. He got the tar beat out of him. His first opponent he beat, but his second opponent decided to go for ‘unconscious’ instead of ‘stage throw’ and was much bigger than him. I was crushed, because he’d seemed so… invincible.”

She sighed. “I sat next to him, waiting for him to wake up. When he did, he didn’t seem fazed at all. Just collected his winnings from the first fight and wandered back to his little spot. Then he passed out. I played nurse for him for the next couple of days, and he just… never told me to leave.” She chuckled. “It was another couple of days before he realized that he couldn’t just call me ‘you’ and asked my name.”

Lance chuckled too. “That sounds about right.”

She shrugged. “Next fight we went to, I bet on him. He won, against overwhelming odds, and I got twice the amount of money we’d started with. That’s when the wheels started turning, I think.”

“Then what? How did you become Pidge?”

Her lip curled. “I got attacked by people who knew me from before. Keith rescued me before anything really bad happened, but we decided I needed to go through a change. I cut my hair. Stopped wearing the dress I’d run away in and put on glasses. Changed my name. So now…” she spread her hands. “Now I’m Pidge.” 

“How’d you come up with that?”

“Childhood nickname.”Her phone pinged, and she grinned at it. “He’s having trouble opening doors and staying upright at the same time.”

Lance snorted as the studio came into view. He’d forgotten about Matthew Holt

Chapter Text

Shiro grinned at Keith as he came through the studio doors, still on his crutch. “You’re looking better.”

Keith shrugged. “Swelling’s gone down, anyway. And most of the bruises faded.”

“Hey, always look at the positive.”

Keith frowned at Lance’s new bodyguard as the two entered Allura’s office. “Does something seem… off about that guy to you?”

Shiro’s brow creased. “I don’t know. A bit, I guess, but it might just be the new face. Does he seem off to you?”

Keith’s eyes narrowed. “He looks at Lance weird. Like he’s going to eat him or something. And I keep catching him glaring at me.”

Shiro shrugged. “Not too weird. You’re going to replace him once your knee’s better. And, well, hate to say it, but he’s probably just acting like a professional bodyguard. You only ever saw Lance with Hunk and later yourself.”

“Maybe. But Lance thinks so too.”

Shiro chuckled. “Lance has never met a professional bodyguard that he likes.”

“Yes, I know,” Allura commented as she entered, “Just getting him to hire one took all of his friends getting hurt.” She gave Keith a smile. “Glad to see that you’re doing better. Just out of curiosity, what are you doing here?”

“He was going stir crazy being kept cooped up at Lance’s house,” Shiro said with a roll of his eyes, “We took him for a change of scenery.”

“I’ll stay out of the way,” Keith promised.

Allura shrugged. “Alright. Just don’t sabotage anything or leak anything.”

Keith nodded, and she left, running into Lotor, who was passing by. Shiro leaned in to Keith. “So are they a…”

“Lance thinks so, but he hates Lotor and is a paranoid git.”

“What do youthink?”

Keith shrugged. “Have you met me, Shiro? I’m literally the last person you would want to ask about feelings.”

Xxx

Lance sat in his “sniper nest,” Lotor next to him. “Here comes another one,” he grumbled, and began “sniping” enemies. Lotor let out a strangled yelp, and Lance whirled around. Lotor was being dragged out of the sniper nest.

“Don’t shoot,” the enemy general growled, “You’ll probably hit him. You leave me alone. I’m going across the no-man’s land. You can’t stop me.”

He moved across the set, still dragging Lotor behind him.

“You can hit him, Sol,” Lotor told him, “Don’t worry about me!”

Lance put the scope to his eye, closing the other one and letting out a deep breath. He squeezed the trigger. The enemy general screamed, letting go of Lotor and falling to the ground. Lance let out a sigh of relief. 

“Cut!” Coran grinned. “Sorry to keep you this late, I wanted to get an extra scene in.”

Lance heaved a sigh of relief, this one genuine, and changed quickly back into his street clothes. “You ready to go?”

Keith stood up. He’d moved to the set to watch, and now he put his hands in his pockets. “Ah, hold on, I left my phone in Allura’s office.”

“I could get it,” Lance offered.

Keith shook his head. “Nah, I’ll grab it. Be back in a second.”

He hobbled down the hallway and Lance’s bodyguard came up behind him. “Let’s go.”

“Hold on a sec, we’re waiting for Keith. Pidge is staying late, so it’ll just be the three of us.”

“No. Let’s leave now.”

Lance glanced at his bodyguard and saw a gun. “Whoa- wait- what are you doing?”

“Get in the car, McClain. Now.”

Lance backed up. “What- I don’t get it—” 

“Let’s get moving!”

Lance whirled into the security feed room, slamming the door behind him and locking it. He fumbled for his phone before cursing as he realized that it was out of battery. His bodyguard pounded on the door. “Open this door!”

“Nuh-uh. Not happening.”

“Open it, Lance!”

“Nope.”

Lance heard the sound of a gun being cocked. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to blow the lock if you don’t open up before three! One! Two!”

“Hey, what’s going on?”

Lance cursed, sprinting to the feeds and watching Keith hobble towards the door. His bodyguard quickly hid the gun.

“McClain is being stupid. He’s locked himself in.”

Keith knocked on the door. “Lance? What are you doing?”

“He’s got a gun,” Lance yelped, “He’s trying to kidnap me, I think!”

On the feed, he watched Keith’s eyes widen, and he turned awkwardly, trying to bring his crutch into the bodyguard’s head. The man grabbed it and yanked, throwing Keith off-balance. Keith’s leg went out, and the bodyguard swept one leg under him, knocking him flat on his back. Before Keith could get up, he put one foot on his injured knee.

“Come on out, Lance.”

“No!” Keith yelled, “Don’t!”

The man stepped down on Keith’s knee, making him yell. “Come on, Lance, I’m getting tired of holding. This. Foot. Up.” He ground his foot in, ignoring Keith’s strangled scream. “You’d better come out before I. Accidentally. Break. His. Knee.”

“Okay! Okay, stop, stop it! I’m coming out!”

“Good.”

His bodyguard didn’t lift his foot until Lance was out, hands up in surrender. Lance knelt next to Keith, who had gone pale, sweating and panting. His eyes were squeezed shut, and his fingers were clawed, as if they’d been trying to push into the floor.

“Keith,” Lance said quietly, “can you hear me?”

Keith gave a short nod, eyes still closed.

“Okay. Good. You’re going to be fine, hear me?”

Lance’s bodyguard nudged him with one foot. “Haul him up on his feet and let’s go. He’s coming with us now.”

“You’ve destroyed his knee! You can’t make him walk!”

“Yes I can. Now.”

Lance slung one of Keith’s arms around his shoulders and struggled up to his feet. Keith attempted to help him and stand up, but his face turned an even paler shade, and he let himself droop, relying on Lance to hold him up as he limped awkwardly on one foot.

“Alright. Move. To the car.”

“We’ll have to pass the reception desk! You can’t get away with this!”

“You better do some good acting, then, and pretend like nothing’s wrong, or there’ll be a dead receptionist.”

Lance gulped and struggled to haul Keith out. Pidge was at the door, talking animatedly to another techie. She immediately rushed over. “What happened?!”

“He fell,” Lance lied, “His knee got twisted.”

“Do you need any help? Should he go back to the hospital?”

“No, I’ve got him. I’ll keep an eye on him, Pidge, don’t worry. You do… whatever it is that you’re doing.”

She nodded and stepped back. Lance struggled through the door, his bodyguard not far behind. Lance deposited Keith in the backseat, where he leaned back, clutching his knee tightly, eyes still shut.

“Get in shotgun,” the bodyguard said harshly, “You always do.”

Lance climbed in, shaking. “What do you want?”

The man didn’t answer, only climbed in the driver’s seat and drove carefully out of the parking lot. Lance cursed. He couldn’t hope for a street cam catching them. They pulled up into a derelict house at the edge of the city.

“Get him out.”

Lance extracted Keith from the backseat, hauling him out of the car and through the door of the house. They staggered through the door into a dark living room, and Keith sank to the ground, leaning against the wall, his breath shallow. Lance knelt next to him. “How is it?”

“I think something’s torn,” Keith hissed, face tight, “It feels like it did when they took a crowbar to it.”

The door slammed and locked. Lance’s ex-bodyguard stormed through. “Don’t try to leave,” he ordered. He grabbed Keith’s phone, throwing it out the window. “Leave, and I’ll shoot him,” he told Lance, angling his head towards Keith. “He can’t make it far.”

“What do you want? Why are you doing this?”

The man chuckled. “Why does anyone do anything? For money. I have debts, and you’regoing to help me pay them off.”

Chapter Text

Allura hovered over Pidge’s shoulder, watching her plug faces into her database. “Anything?”

Pidge shook her head, eyes red. “Nothing. No red lights run, nothing on security feeds- it’ll alert me as soon as a new sign of any of them shows up. The cameras at the studio were all on the fritz- someone messed with them.” She rubbed her eyes. “The police turn up with anything?”

“Car was found in a ditch,” Allura said hoarsely, “Lance’s phone was out of battery, Keith’s was totaled and the bodyguard’s we found waterlogged. No sign of any of them.”

“That’s good, right? It means that they’re all alive.”

Allura sighed. “Yes. But I don’t know for how long.”

Pidge bit her lip, looking out the window. Where are you?

Xxx

Lance glanced at Keith, who had never moved from his spot on the floor. “How’s it feeling?”

Keith didn’t answer.

“Keith?” Lance dropped down next to him, poking his friend in the shoulder gently. “Keith?!” He extracted the brace from Keith’s knee and rolled up the leg of his jeans. He sucked in a deep breath. Keith’s knee was swollen, the stitches from surgery red and angry, a few of them ripped open and bleeding slightly.

“Keith,” Lance said exasperatedly, “Why didn’t you tell me that it was this bad?!”

Keith, of course, didn’t answer. Lance gently poked at the swollen knee, and Keith’s eyes shot open. He let out a hiss, his breathing speeding up.

“Sorry!”

Keith let out a sigh, closing his eyes again. “Just… leave…”

Lance blinked. “What?”

“Just… walk… out…”

“Nah, I can’t do that! He’ll shoot you!”

A woman with a purplish scar on each cheek walked in the room, emitting a short scream when she saw them. “Ranveig! Why are there two teenagers in your living room?”

“I told you, Krolia,” the bodyguard said aggravatedly, “They’re hostages! Well, the Cuban one is. The other one is baggage.”

“I thought you were kidding! You actually kidnapped someone?!”

Ranveig poked his head in, holding his gun. “You want to back out?”

“No,” she said quickly, “No, not by any means.” She knelt next to Keith, a flash of recognition in her eyes. “What’s wrong with him?”

Lance felt tears come to his eyes. “He- his knee was already messed up- and- and- Ranveig stepped on it.”

Krolia touched the knee gently, and Keith hissed, batting at her hand. “Ranveig! Torturing him wasn’t necessary!”

“Yes it was, Krolia! Besides, that’s the brat that ruined me in the first place.”

Krolia shook her head, standing up. “Be right back,” she whispered. She spared a glance at Ranveig, making sure that he wasn’t watching before stalking to another room and coming back with a couple of pills. “It’s just pharmacy painkillers,” she told Lance apologetically, “But it should help a little. He’ll have to swallow them dry, though.”

Lance nodded and gently shook Keith’s shoulder. “Hey. I’ve got something for you. Come on, open up.” Keith glared at him crossly but swallowed the pills.  After a few minutes, his face relaxed slightly, and he let out a sigh. Lance gave Krolia a grateful look. “Thank you.”

Krolia nodded distractedly. “I’m sorry. Ranveig heavily bet on Sendak in street fights, so… I think that he might in part blame Keith for his debt.” She sighed. “That knee doesn’t look good. If he doesn’t get help soon… I don’t know what will happen, but he might not be able to walk.” She raised her voice. “Ranveig, I’m going to the grocery store, be back in half an hour.”

“Yeah, fine. It’s raining. Don’t crash.”

The instant Krolia was gone, Lance swarmed up to Ranveig. “You have to let Keith go!”

Ranveig barely spared him a glance. “I don’t have to do anything.”

“But his knee is really messed up!”

“Why should I care?”

“Because you made it that way! Comeon!” Lance tugged on Ranveig’s arm. “He doesn’t even know which way is up and which way is down! He doesn’t know where we are!”

“Let go of me or I’ll shoot you.”

“Oh, you’ll shoot me. I don’t even think that gun is loaded. I think that it’s loaded with the same thing you’re loaded with; bulls—” 

Ranveig discharged a bullet into Lance’s shoulder.

From his place in the living room, Keith heard the gunshot, despite the muffler on the gun. He sat straight up. “Lance?!” He cursed quietly, seizing the edge of the couch and hauling himself up. His vision went spotty from the agony in his knee, but he blinked the spots away, ignoring the blinding pain and limping towards the sound of the gunshot.

His knee gave out as he came into the kitchen, and he crawled the rest of the way to his friend, one leg dragging behind him uselessly. Lance was bleeding, his blood staining the tiles. “What- why-?”

“Keith?”

“Lance, hold still, you’ve been shot!”

“Uh-huh. I know. Ow- Keith- it- ow-ow-ow-ow—” 

“Hold on, Lance, just- I need to get your jacket off.” He pulled it off as quickly as possible, trying his hardest not to aggravate the gunshot wound more. He sucked in a breath.

“That didn’t sound- ow- good.”

“It’s not,” Keith said tersely, “The bullet’s stuck in bone.” He yanked on Lance’s shirtsleeve, ripping through the weakened stitches. He fumbled with the cloth, tying it tightly around Lance’s shoulder and pressing his hand to the wound, trying to stem the bleeding. Lance moaned.

“Keith- ow- stop it- it hurts—” 

“Sorry, can’t stop.”

“Keith,” Lance whispered, “run.”

Keith chuckled humorlessly. “Little impossible. Besides, I’m not leaving you with this psycho.”

“No- his gun isn’t loaded- if you move fast enough- you can get away. He won’t shoot me- not fatally anyway- but he’ll shoot you if I leave. I know your knee is- messed up- but he’s busy trying to get a new cartridge in the gun- you can do it.”

“What about you?!”

“I’ll be fiiiine. I’m always fine,” Lance told him unconvincingly, “Go, now!”

Keith nodded and limped for the door. Lance watched him go. At least one of them could get away. Upstairs, Ranveig cursed, and Lance heard the window open, and the gun go off. There was a yelp from Keith, but larger amounts of cursing from Ranveig, and Lance leaned back, satisfied. Keith had gotten away.

Xxx

Keith held one hand to his arm, which was bleeding. Just a graze. Not serious. He stumbled on in the rain, dizzy from pain. He stopped for a couple of minutes, leaning on a fence, then continued. He heard a siren, and he ducked out of sight, his delirious mind telling him that if the police caught him, he’d be arrested; fights were illegal, and he shouldn’t be going to them, let alone having Pidge bet ridiculous amounts on him.

He slid down into a sitting position, leaning against the wall, breathing heavily and shallowly. It wouldn’t hurt to rest for a minute, would it? An overhang protected him from most of the rain, and he doubted that he’d find a more comfortable spot. His old street instincts kicked in, informing him that he was well hidden, at least well enough to keep anyone from attacking him. His eyes drifted shut. A quick rest wouldn’t hurt.

Keith was woken up by a door slamming, and he blinked sluggishly at his surroundings. There was a dull throbbing in his head, arm and knee, and his stomach was now loudly telling him that it desired to be fed. He glanced up and saw the sun high in the sky. Noon? He cursed, struggling to his feet. Six hours. Six hours of time wasted while Lance was bleeding out. He limped onward, faces passing by in a blur, the ground under his feet becoming less and less steady.

“Wait, Lotor, isn’t that McClain’s bodyguard?”

Keith blinked, Lotor’s face swimming in and out of focus. “Help,” he croaked, and pitched forward, his eyes rolling back in his head.

Xxx

Lotor blinked in surprise as Kogane passed out in front of him. Acxa leapt forward and caught him.

“Lotor, should we bring him to the hospital?”

“Too far. The house is closer.”

“We should call the cops.”

“Hold on. Not yet.”

Xxx

Allura yanked her phone out of her pocket as it buzzed. Lotor. She heaved a sigh of disappointment before checking the message.

You should come over. Something that you should see.

Busy right now, Lotor.

There was a moment’s silence. Then, it has to do with Lance.

Xxx

Lotor waited with bated breath, glancing at the unconscious Keith, who Acxa was tending to. Then, his phone buzzed again.

I’m on my way.

Chapter Text

Allura got up from Keith’s side with a sigh. “Poor boy. He must be exhausted.”

“He passed out in the street in front of Acxa and I,” Lotor explained, “No explanation. He’s been asleep ever since. I wanted to tell you before I told the police.”

“What do you think happened to his knee? And his arm?”

“I’d guess that his arm was grazed by a bullet- it’s the right size. As for his knee- his crutch was left behind, wasn’t it? We don’t know how far he had to walk without it.”

“…’llura?”

Allura shot back to Keith’s side. “It’s me, Keith. I’m here.”

Keith struggled to sit up. “Allura- Lance got shot- it was Ranveig- there was a woman there- ngh- my knee- my arm—”

“Just don’t move,” Allura told him, “We’re calling the police, okay? Is that okay?”

“…they going to arrest me? What’d I do?!”

“No, no,” Allura soothed, “They’re going to help us find Lance.”

“…Oh.” Then, “Where’s Katie? Why isn’t she here?”

“You said that in the hospital, too. Who’s Katie, Keith?”

“Katie- Katie Holt? She- she should be here! Did she get hurt? Ugh- shouldn’t have left her alone—” 

“I’m calling Pidge,” Allura told him, “We should’ve called her first.”

He relaxed a little. “Oh. Okay.”

Allura pulled her phone out, waiting anxiously as it rang.

“Allura, what’s going on?”

“Pidge, Lotor found Keith. He’s a bit out of it- his knee’s worse, and Lotor thinks that a bullet grazed his arm. He kept asking for a Katie Holt. If you can find Shiro, tell him to come too.”

“I’m coming, don’t let the police in until I’m there.”

She stormed in moments later, Shiro and Hunk not far behind. “Keith, I’m here.”

“…Katie? You’re okay?”

“I’m fine,” she told him, “Perfectly okay.”

There was a knock on the door, and Acxa opened it for Kolivan. “Ah. Hello, sir.”

“You are…”

“Lotor’s sister. Adopted,” she added at Kolivan’s glance between her pale skin and Lotor’s dark skin.

“Ah. Keith, do you know where Lance is?”

Keith shook his head. “I dunno- it was really hard to tell- out from the city, a bit, I think. There was a woman. Krolia?”

Kolivan stiffened. “Krolia? You’re sure that was it?”

“Yeah. Know her?”

“Possibly.”

“’s not a common name. Who is she?”

Kolivan hesitated. Axca, Lotor, Allura and Shiro all took the hint and left. Pidge stayed. “I’m not leaving him alone.”

“Admirable. But this is for his ears only.”

“’s okay, Katie.”

She gave Kolivan a suspicious glare, but left. Kolivan sighed. “That,” he told Keith, “was your mother. Lance is as good as found.”

Xxx

“Aw, look, he’s sleeping again! He’s so cute and small!”

Acxa glanced at Ezor, who was peering at Keith, asleep again on the couch, leg propped up on pillows. “Leave him alone, Ezor.”

“I am! But lookit, he’s so cute and less grumpy!”

Axca likes him, Narti signed.

“I do not, Narti!”

I can see it, and I’m blind.

“Acxa and Ke-eith, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

“Ezor, stop it! I’m just taking care of him because he’s a person in need!”

“He was a streetfighter,” Zethrid grunted, “Pretty good one, too, from what I hear. Shame his knee is messed up.”

“You never faced him?” Ezor asked curiously.

“Ezor!” Acxa scolded, “We don’t talk about that! We’re normal members of society now, and if anyone found out…”

Lotor’s reputation would be ruined.

“Exactly, Narti. That’s past. We don’t bring it up.” Axca gave Keith’s knee a worried glance. “That really doesn’t look good. We need to take him to a hospital.”

“But Officer Kolivan said not to move him, because that would make it worse!

“I know, Ezor, but what if he really needs it?!”

Wouldn’t matter. We don’t know insurance or anything.

Acxa sighed. “I know. But I don’t want him to be hurt.”

Call a doctor. See how bad it is first.

“You’re right.” Acxa gave Keith a sad glance. “I hope he can keep a job, because I don’t think he’ll be streetfighting anymore.”

Chapter Text

Keith blinked at his surroundings. Where… couch… house… oh, yeah.

“Hello?”

The girl from before- Lotor’s sister?- walked in from another room. “Hello. How are you feeling?”

“Where’d everyone go?”

“They’ve found the house. They’re going now.”

“What?! I have to go- can you take me?”

“You shouldn’t move. Your knee is messed up. I’m under orders not to let you hurt yourself.”

Keith swung his legs over the edge of the couch. “Fine, then. I’ll walk.”

“No! You can’t do that!” she sighed. “Fine, fine. I’ll take you. Here, I’ll help you out to the car. But after this, I’m taking you to the hospital,” she warned, “I am going to get you medical help if it killsme.”

Xxx

Keith struggled up to the police barrier next to Allura. “What’s going on?”

“Keith?! You shouldn’t be here! This is dangerous!”

“Dangerous isn’t a stranger to me.”

“Your knee is messed up, Keith! Acxa shouldn’t have even let you off the couch!”

“I had to.”

“They’re trying to get Ranveig to let Lance go and put down his gun. It’s not going well. He keeps asking them who betrayed him.”

Ranveig caught sight of Keith and his expression hardened. “Fine! I’m letting your precious actor go!” He pushed Lance towards them, and he staggered into Shiro, who grabbed him, holding on tightly. Keith recognized that embrace from when he was younger, and Shiro had coaxed him out of a fight. Shiro hustled Lance to paramedics, who bustled him away.

“Put the gun down.”

Ranveig started to set the gun down, and then his eyes shifted. Allura saw it, and she swept Keith’s legs out from under him. “Get down!”

The bullet punched right through where Keith’s head had been, slamming into a police car. Keith yelled in pain as he went down, clutching his knee. The world seemed to slow as he hit the pavement. He could see the police subduing Ranveig, and Allura was kneeling next to him, asking him something, but he couldn’t tell what. His head swam, and all he could tell was the pain in his knee.

In a daze, Shiro carried him to an ambulance, talking to him the whole way, his words a blur, and then he was moving, sirens in his ears. There was a doctor, then, floating over him and telling him that it was going to be okay, and it would just be a little pinch. Then everything floated into blackness

Keith woke up in a hospital bed. Again. There was something sticking out of his arm- an IV line?

“Hey, you’re awake too!”

Keith turned his head to see a grinning face in another bed. “…Lance?”

“Yep. Had to have surgery to get the bullet out. And you… your knee is totaled, man. As in, ‘you will have a permanent limp’ kind of totaled.”

 “…gah…”

“Yeah, it was bad from the stomping, then you went tramping across town, and then Allura knocking you over put the final nail in the coffin. It’s history. The doctor said that it was so bad he nearly had to replace the whole knee- you know, put metal plates in it and stuff?”

“… ow.”

“You nearly got your brains blasted out, man!”

“Uh-huh.”

“Geeze. You’re out of it.”

The door burst open, Pidge, Shiro, Hunk and Allura all tumbling through. Pidge and Shiro made an immediate beeline for Keith, Allura and Hunk hesitating before moving to Lance’s side.

“Keith, you idiot!” Pidge yelled, “Why didn’t you stay on the couch?! Why couldn’t you, for once in your life, stay where you were supposed to?!”

Keith muttered something, and she leaned in closer to hear what he was saying. “Don’t want to make a habit of it or anything.”

“If you weren’t injured, I’d punch your lights out, you idiot.”

Shiro gently patted Keith’s head. “You did good. We got Lance. Ranveig is in jail. I just wish you hadn’t come out.”

“Had to make sure,” Keith mumbled.

“Had to make sure that Ranveig was caught?”

Keith nodded. “Bad enough that others are out there. Had to see them get him.”

Allura approached with tears in her eyes. Shiro and Pidge switched to Lance’s bed. “I’m so sorry,” she wailed, “I took out your knee- I’m the reason that it won’t ever be normal again!”

“’llura. You saved my life.”

She looked at him with a sniffle.

“I shouldn’t have been there. And this is the consequence. I’ll live with it. But it’s not your fault.”

The door opened again, and Krolia walked in. Lance’s jaw dropped. “You! Wait- what?!”

Allura looked at Krolia, then at Keith, and understanding dawned in her eyes. She closed the curtain in-between Keith and Lance’s beds, separating them. Krolia sat down in a chair next to Keith’s bed.

“So. Kolivan told you…”

“Yeah. He did.”

“Okay. So… um… Yes. Hello.”

“Hi.”

Krolia let out a sigh. “I’m sorry. I didn’t ever mean for this to happen. I never wanted to drag you into my job and into the mess I’ve made. I asked Kolivan, and he said… he said that it was still too dangerous to interact with you. He’s barely allowing this.”

“Okay. I- uh- thanks. For helping with Ranveig.”

“Y-yeah. No problem. Um. Kolivan… he’s assigned me to kind of… watch out for you and Lance. Just in case. So… you might see me around on the street. But, uh…”

“Don’t interact?”

Krolia sighed again. “I’m sorry it has to be this way.”

“Yeah. I know.”

She smiled wanly at him, standing up and moving to the door. “Goodbye, Keith.”

“Bye, Mom.”

Chapter Text

“Nice and cozy?”

Keith crossed his arms. “I’d be more cozy if I could get up and move around.”

Pidge pushed him further into bed. “Oh, no you don’t. No sir. Not on my watch. You are staying right there, and not moving. Understand me? Hunk is staying, and if he hears so much as a peep out of you, I will come myself and strap you down to that bed!”

“Why is this just happening to me?! Why isn’t Lance getting the death penalty?!”

“Because Lance didn’t injure his shoulder so badly that it won’t work the same anymore! Stay. In. Bed!”

Keith nestled down. “Fine. What am I supposed to do all day, then?”

Pidge handed him a phone. “Allura says not to break it this time. Get it set up and scroll social media or something.” She gave him a brief smile. “You’ll be up and about in no time.”

Xxx

“We’re filming the scenes where you’re missing your arm,” Coran told Lance cheerfully, “That way, you won’t have to move it around too much.”

Lance nodded. Then his direction was caught by a man standing across the set with off-white hair. “Who’s that?”

Coran barely spared a glance. “Oh, Rollo? He’s Nyma’s manager. Didn’t really want her to take this part, and I’m not sure that she wanted to take it either, but, hey, money is money.” He raised an eyebrow at Lance. “And time is also money.”

“Right.”

Xxx

Lance ran to catch up to Nyma after they were done filming. “Hey! Wait up!”

She paused, looking behind her. “Oh. Hey.”

“Allura and I were going to go out for milkshakes. She’s probably inviting Lotor as we speak, so I thought maybe we could make it a cast thing? Plus Allura, of course.”

Nyma gave him an icy smile. “No, thank you. I’m busy tonight. It was sweet of you to offer, though.”

She walked to where Rollo was waiting, and Allura tapped Lance on the shoulder, Lotor behind her. “Hey, you ready to go? Lotor’s tagging along, if that’s okay.”

Xxx

“Alright,” Allura sighed, “What’s eating you?”

Lance sipped his shake. “What do you mean? Nothing’s eating me.”

“Liar.”

Lance kicked back his chair. “Fine. I’ll tell you what’s wrong. How about how you keep lying to me and telling me that there’s nothing between you and Lotor?! You two know each other waytoo well!”

Lotor blinked. “You never told him?”

Lance pointed. “I knew it!”

Lotor sniggered. “Lance, we haven’t dated since we were sixteen.”

Lance deflated. “What?”

“Allura and I were in a relationship when we were both sixteen,” Lotor explained.

“It… didn’t work out,” Allura admitted.

Lotor raised an eyebrow. “I seem to recall you judo-flipping me and swearing that you would hate me forever.”

Allura blushed. “I was emotional! And that’s behind us!”

Lotor leaned forward with a small smile on his face. “Anyway, point being, we’re not together anymore. We’re just friends.”

Lance sat back down with a whump. “Oh.”

“And besides, what about Nyma? Have you caught her fancy yet?”

“No,” Lance grumbled.

“Must be a bad kisser.”

Lance blushed furiously. “Am not!”

“Yes? Then why aren’t you two dating yet?”

“Because—” Lance stuttered, “Because—”

“Because sometimes girls think more of a boy than his kissing abilities,” Allura interjected, rescuing Lance, “Some girls like boys for their personalities instead of their looks.”

Lotor chuckled. “You must not have been one of them, if you dated me.”

Allura blushed furiously. “You have a very nice personality, Lotor!”

He leaned forward. “Then why did you break up with me?”

She turned an even redder shade and got up, stammering something about needing to use the bathroom. Lotor watched her go and turned back to Lance, suddenly serious.

“I needed to talk to you. Allura is a wonderful person, but she worries.” Lotor took in a deep breath. “I’m worried about all of the sabatoge going on. It halted when Keith got kidnapped the first time, but I’m not sure how long it will stay that way. And I’m also worried… I’m worried about Ranveig. Or, more importantly, who he was connected with.”

“You mean Sendak?”

Lotor glanced around nervously. “Don’t say it so loud. But yes. And beyond that… the thugs that kidnapped Keith. I believe that Ranveig was involved with them.”

“Speculation?”

Lotor sighed. “Unfortunately, no. I’ve got a bit of a stain on my name, although I’ve kept it hidden from the media. My father… he’s mixed up with that particular gang. He’s the ringleader. My mother is a researcher, but my father…” Lotor shook his head. “I’ve tried to sever myself completely from him. Occasionally I’ll get a message from him through my mother, telling me to stay away from certain areas of town on certain days, but for the most part, we leave each other alone.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I think you need to know. And because your friend may be in danger from him.” Lotor glanced around again. “I’ve stationed Acxa near your home. She knows what to look out for. Keith and Hunk couldn’t be safer, I promise.”

“Why would you do all of this?”

Lotor sighed. “I’ve tried to distance myself from my father. This is an extra way to do it. And, of course, for Allura’s sake. If you were to be harmed again, she would be distraught. I don’t like seeing her in pain.”

Allura herself appeared from the bathroom, and Lotor leaned back, a finger to his lips. “Remember. Not a word to her.”

Allura reached them, smiling cheerfully. “You two ready to go?”

Lotor smiled at her, standing up, “Yes, I believe so. Thank you for inviting me.”

She smiled back. “Of course.”

They drove Lotor back to his house and then started for their own, Allura driving back to the studio for a little more work. When Lance walked inside, the first thing he saw was Keith, sitting on the couch with a book in hand, leg propped up with pillows.

“What are you doing here?!”

Keith barely glanced up from his book. “And hello to you too. Hunk’s in the kitchen. Stress-baking, I think.”

“Stress-baking? Why is he so stressed? And why are you down here instead of in your room?”

“Someone chucked a rock through my window. Answers both questions.”

Lance wandered into the kitchen. Rows and rows of cookies were laid out. “You okay, big guy?”

“No,” Hunk grumbled, scooping out cookie dough, “I spent all day jumping at the slightest sound, thinking that someone was going to burst in the house to kidnap both of us, and then some stupid kids threw a rock into Keith’s window—”

“You know who did it, then?”

Hunk shrugged. “No, but they didn’t stick around, so I’m assuming it was just some idiot teens. Moved Keith down where I could keep an eye on him, just in case. Did you know that he is driven insaneby sitting still? Seriously- all day. If you don’t give him something to do, he will literally drive youto insanity.”

Lance’s phone buzzed in his pocket. Unknown number.

It’s Lotor. Acxa told me that someone threw a rock through your window.

Yeah, Hunk thinks that it was just a couple of kids.

Hunk is wrong. Acxa is following them right now. She thinks it was either the saboteurs or my father.

Hunk glanced at Lance. “Who’s that?”

Lance shoved his phone back in his pocket. “Coran.” He yawned. “I’m beat. Going to bed.”

He wandered upstairs, passing by Keith’s room on his way down the hall. Wind blew through the broken window, and Lance shivered. He grabbed a blanket off of his bed, heading back downstairs. 

Keith raised an eyebrow. “Back already?”

“Creepy up there. I’m sleeping down here.”

“’Kay. ‘Night.”

Lance flipped the light off. “’Night.”

Chapter Text

“Go back to your romance movies! You don’t have a right to write about this!”

Lance scanned the crowd that was gathering around the studio. “Um- Allura?”

“Ignore them,” she said tiredly, “They’re just- they don’t like the idea of a movie about world war three.”

“Coran was wrong, then?”

“I wouldn’t say wrong. Just… perhaps a bit exaggerative. What happened with the window, by the way?”

“Protestors like these,” Lotor grumbled, joining them, “Acxa tracked them down. They’ve got a little cult going or something.”

“Lovely,” Allura said faintly, “I hope this cult doesn’t involve sacrifices?”

Lotor’s nose wrinkled in amusement. “Not so far as I know.”

Pidge yawned. “Don’t envy you guys. You’re the faces of the movie. I’m just a techie who no one knows about, and who no one will bother. Who got the worse end of the deal?”

Lotor chuckled. “Whoever has to babysit the actors, that’s who.”

Lance spotted blonde hair, and he ran after it. “Hey- Nyma! Have you seen the protestors?”

“They’re hard to miss.”

Lance chuckled. “Yeah, that’s true.”

“Maybe they’re right.”

“Huh?”

Nyma looked at the ground. “Well- I mean- maybe they’re right that we shouldn’t be making this movie. Not for the reasons that they’re stating, but because of all the sabotage. Someone could really get hurt.”

Rollo loomed over Nyma’s shoulder. “Nyma?”

Her eyes widened. “Oh! Hello! We were just talking about the protestors and- and about the sabotage.”

“That so? What was the conclusion?”

“That- that maybe we shouldn’t be filming the movie.”

Rollo put a hand on Nyma’s shoulder. “Nyma, I know that neither of us wanted to start filming this movie—”

Nyma pushed his hand away. “But they made a good offer and we were out of options. I know. I’m the one who said that we should do this. I just need to chin up and finish the job. It’s the last day of filming. It’ll be fine.”

Xxx

Lance sighed, stretching and moving off-set. Done. All of the setbacks, all of the sabotage and the filming was finally done. He went towards Allura’s office, looking for his manager. She wasn’t in the office.

“Allura?”

Lance frowned. Where was she? She was normally right there! He wandered the quickly-emptying studio, searching for his lost friend. Someone caught his eye.

“Nyma? That you?”

She whirled around. In her hands was the production of the film. “L-Lance?!”

“Nyma- what?!”

She started to run, shooting through the doors.

“Hey! No, wait, come back!”

Lance ran after her, reflecting bitterly on all of the times he’d chased after that same bit of blonde hair. He ran through one last doorway, and something smacked him in the back of the head. He fell forward, Rollo’s feet hovering in his vision.

“You didn’t kill him, did you?”

“Relax, Nyma. I know my own strength.”

Lance woke up handcuffed to a chair, head throbbing. Nearby was a recent-looking picture of Nyma, Rollo, another girl, and some boy who looked vaguely familiar sitting in a picture frame.

“Me and a few friends a couple of years back,” Nyma told him, turning the photo face-down as she walked by it, “Not that it’s any of your business. How’s your head?”

“Oh, no,” Lance groaned. “No, tell me that you didn’t.”

“I’m sorry, Lance.”

“Nyma, why?! All of that saying that you wanted the movie to end- lying? Why?!”

“Lance, you don’t understand! I’m not a famous actor like you are! I’m C-list at best! Jobs like these, where I’m given a co-star role- they don’t come often. Actually, this is the firsttime that one has ever been given to me. I don’t get paid this muchever. The most that I can hope for is a nice role as a minor side character. I don’t want it to end! If the footage goes missing- then, well, we’ll have to re-film. I’ll be there longer.”

“Nyma, you don’t have to do this!”

“Yes I do! But you’ve ruined it. You saw me.”

“Nyma, let me go. Please, please, let me go. We can put the film back. No one ever has to know!”

Nyma shook her head. “It’s too late. Someone will find out- you’ll let it slip. Or someone will find out…”

“Will find out what?” Lance’s heart sank down to his feet. “No, Nyma, you didn’t.”

“I didn’t think that anyone would get hurt! I didn’t think that you would be under that light when it fell! I didn’t think that anyone would be in that room when the explosives went off!”

“Who else knows?”

“Rollo. He caught me at it the first time and said that he’d help me out. And one of the techies; Beezer. The one that Pidge is always helping or hanging out with. She helped with the pyrotechnics. She depends on this movie continuing as much as we do.”

“Nyma. Please, rethink this!”

“I’m sorry, Lance.”

There was a noise outside, and Nyma’s head shot up. “I’ll be back,” she warned, and went off to investigate, snatching up a baseball bat on her way out. There was a tap on the window, and Lance looked over, surprised to see- what had her name been, Krolia? Yeah, Krolia- tapping on the window. She held up three fingers, then two, then one, and then drove her fist, with steel strikers on them, through the window. She slipped in, quiet as a cat.

“What are you-?”

“I’m Keith’s mother, hold on, we’re getting you out of here.” She started working on the handcuffs.

“Who-?”

“Keith nailed Rollo with a rock, and Nyma’s chasing after him. We have to go, go, go!”

Krolia got the handcuffs off and grabbed Lance’s uninjured arm, pulling him up to his feet. They ran into Beezer on the way down.

“Buzz off,” Lance snapped at her, “Or I’ll tell Pidge what you did.”

She lunged at him with a snarl. “I’m willing to risk it!”

Krolia pulled Lance to the side, yanking him down a flight of stairs and outside. “Time to go, Keith,” she yelled.

He cursed, limping after them on his crutches as best he could, muttering minor expletives the whole way to a red car. Lance slid into shotgun, Keith clambering in the backseat.

“Did you get it?” Krolia asked.

Keith held up the film, panting. “Yeah- had to- take it off- of Rollo. That guy was sketchy. Ow— “

Lance glanced at him. “Did you screw up your knee again?!”

“No,” Keith replied sullenly, “But what was that all about?”

“Nyma, Rollo and Beezer were the ones sabotaging the set. I caught Nyma trying to steal the film, and Rollo whacked me upside the head with a baseball bat.”

Keith chuckled darkly. “Join the club. We need to tell Coran. And the police.”

“No.”

Keith glanced at Lance in surprise. “What?!”

Lance shifted uncomfortably. “I mean… they just wanted to have a living. And all of Nyma’s future chances will be ruined if we squeal.”

“Lance, what they did was illegal!”

“Yeah, so is streetfighting, but I didn’t call the cops on you.”

Keith snapped his mouth shut, glaring out the window. “That was different.”

“How so?”

“For starters, I didn’t kidnap anyone.”

“What about Matthew Holt?”

Keith twisted in his seat so fast Lance thought he might get whiplash. “What did you say?!”

“Matthew Holt. I guess you know who he is?”

Keith blinked. “Yeah- Pidge’s- brother- hang on, how do you know about Matt?!”

“What happened to him?” Lance countered.

“He- he disappeared. In the military.” Keith’s steady gaze locked onto Lance’s. “No one’s seen him since.”

“Really? Then why did Nyma have a picture of him that she took only a couple of years ago?”

Chapter Text

Lance knocked on a door. “Nyma?”

“Go away!”

“Beezer? That you?”

“Are you the cops?”

“No. It’s Lance.”

“Oh, even worse! Look, we screwed up, we’re going to pay for it, you don’t have to rub it in our faces!”

“I didn’t tell the cops. Or Coran. I put it back, and Pidge helped me erase the footage of Nyma stealing it and knocking me out.”

Silence. Then, “What do you want?”

“I just want to talk to Rollo or Nyma.”

“Can’t. They skipped town.”

“What?!”

“They left. I’ve still got work on that film, but they figured that you snitched. ‘Least, that’s what they said. Personally, I think that they’re still here.”

“Well, great! How am I supposed to find them?”

Beezer chuckled. “You have Pidge, don’t you? Shouldn’t be hard to find them.”

Xxx

“Pidge, can I borrow your laptop?”

“Not in a million years.”

“Pidge, it’s important.”

“So is me working on this film! Go away!”

“I will as soon as you let me borrow your laptop.”

“Fine! Hunk knows the password! Shoo!”

Lance ran back to where Hunk and Keith were waiting for him. “Hunk, you didn’t tell me you knew her password! Here, here, type it in!”

Lance excitedly dragged a picture of Nyma from the movie poster into the database, and it quickly told him where she was. “Let’s go!”

“Uh, Lance?” Hunk glanced out the window. “The protestors are still there. And so are the fangirls.”

“We’ll go,” Keith said quietly, “We can do it. Me and Hunk. C’mon.”

“You really shouldn’t be… walking,” Hunk grumbled as Keith swung himself out the door. “Okay, great. See you soon.”

Keith faced off a protestor. “This movie is an insult,” the protestor screamed at him, “You people have no right—”

“My father died in that war,” Keith said quietly, “My best friend had his arm blown off. One of the actors had two sisters who fought in that war. Why are youprotesting? Did you lose anything in the war? Or do you just have so little of a life that your only joy is screaming at people, even people on crutches?”

He pushed past the open-mouthed protestor, Hunk following behind him. “Um- so.” the big boy stated nervously, “Lance told me that you two met his mother?”

“Yes.”

“What’s she like?”

“Currently, she’s attempting to quit her job. Also currently, Lance is trying to convince Allura to hire her as his new bodyguard.”

“Oh. Is she nice?”

“I suppose.” Keith rounded a corner. “Got them.”

Nyma and Rollo spotted him and attempted to turn around. Keith cursed and hobbled faster. “Hunk! Catch them!”

Hunk sprinted forward, stepping in front of the actress and her agent. “Whoa! We just have a couple of questions!”

Keith took a shaky few steps forward. “Matthew Holt. Where is he?”

Nyma shrugged. “Dunno. He went off on his own a year ago. Never answers his phone. I can give you his number, I guess. But- why do you care about him?”

“He’s Pidge’s brother,” Hunk informed her, “Thanks for your help.”

“His number is 123 456-7891. Can’t guarantee that he’ll pick up.”

“Thank you,” Keith told her genuinely, “and by the way, you’re safe. We didn’t rat you out.”

They nodded and split ways. Keith and Hunk walked slowly back towards the studio. Someone on the way bumped into Keith’s left crutch, nearly knocking him over.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going!”

“Stop taking up so much of the sidewalk,” the man growled back, continuing on his way.

Keith froze, eyes faraway. Hunk tapped his friend on the shoulder gently. “Keith? Are you okay?”

“That voice,” he murmured dreamily, “I know that voice! Hunk, we have to follow him!”

He whirled around, nearly falling over again, and hobbled after the man. Hunk followed him. “What?! Why?! How do you know him?!”

“I think he was one of the people who attacked me!”

“And we want to follow him?!”

“Yes!”

They tracked him through the streets, dodging out of his sight every so often. He turned into an alleyway, and Keith and Hunk followed. The man stopped suddenly.

“Did you think I didn’t know you were following?”

Keith and Hunk froze.

“Really, I’d have to be dumber than that air-headed actor you hang around with not to notice.”

“Lance isn’t dumb,” Hunk said hotly.

“Hm.”

Three other people closed off the alleyway entrance.

A door opened, and someone advanced on them. Hunk and Keith pressed closer together. The man they’d been following chuckled. “Well, Keith Kogane, where is your mother?”

“None of your business.”

“Not ‘I don’t know’? I guess that you’ve learned a few things since we last spoke. Now, really. Where is she? My disappointing son’s little friend can’t help you. She’s not following you.”

“I told you. It’s none of your business.”

The person who’d come from the door reached them. Hunk sucked in a breath. Sendak. The ex-streetfighter chuckled.

“Care for a rematch?”

Before Keith could answer, Sendak had swept his legs out from underneath him, knocking him to the ground with a clatter of crutches and a yelp of pain.

“Not to fast now, are we?” Sendak put one booted foot on Keith’s injured knee.

“Get off of him!” Hunk rammed Sendak off of Keith. He stood protectively over his injured friend. “Leave him alone!”

“You can’t protect him,” Sendak hissed.

“Like hell I can’t. I’m a bodyguard.”

Chapter Text

“Nobody needs to be hurt,” the man they’d followed said softly, “So long as Kogane tells us where his mother is.”

“Like he said,” Hunk said firmly, “It’s none of your business.”

Keith yelped on the ground. While Hunk had been distracted with the man at the end of the alleyway, Sendak had taken a kick at Keith. Hunk shoved him up against the wall, his normally friendly features twisted in anger. “Don’t you touch him!”

Sendak smirked, grabbed Hunk’s recently-broken arm and twisted it. Hunk yelped in shock and pain. “You can’t protect him,” Sendak hissed, “You can’t even protect yourself!”

In response, Hunk headbutted him in the face, hard enough to break his nose. “You leave my friends alone!” He knelt next to Keith. “Can you walk?”

“I think so,” Keith whispered, face ashen, “At least, if you can get me back on my feet.”

Hunk hauled him up, setting him back on his crutches. “We’re leaving. Don’t you try and- argh!”

Hunk flailed backwards as one of the people who’d ringed them in jumped on him, attempting to put him in a strangle-hold. He slammed backwards into a wall, trying to dislodge his assailant. His vision was getting spotty now- and were those police lights? No. Surely he was seeing things. But no, that was Shiro’s voice, wasn’t it? And…

Someone yanked his attacker off of him, and a man with a ponytail offered him a hand. “Hey. Can you stand?”

“Keith—” Hunk gasped.

“Keith’s fine,” the man promised, “Shiro’s got him. I’m Matt, by the way. Saw you guys getting attacked and called the cops.” Matt pulled Hunk up to his feet. “Easy. Get your breath back before you do anything else.”

Hunk gaped. “Wait, wait, wait. Matt?! As in Matthew Holt?!”

Matt jumped. “How do you know my name?!”

“Where have you beenall of this time?!”

“Um- Just- just living out there- I barely escaped a POW camp- barely made it back- been keeping an eye on Sendak and the rest of his gang- hang on, who are you?! How do you know who I am?!”

“Your sister’s been looking for you.”

Xxx

Keith fidgeted in his seat as Kolivan entered the room. “What’s happening?”

Kolivan smiled at him. “We got them all. Every single one. Some of the weaker ones broke down and pleaded guilty. They gave out names, too. We’re rounding them up.”

Keith breathed a sigh of relief. “So, they’re over?”

“They’re over. You don’t have to worry about them anymore. You’re safe.”

Keith mouthed the word. ‘safe.’ It seemed too much to hope for. He hadn’t been safe for a long, longtime, and not just because of the Galra. “You- you’re sure?”

“I’m sure. Is your knee alright?”

Keith nodded numbly. “Yeah. It’s fine.”

“You and Hunk are free to go.”

Keith hobbled outside, taking in a deep breath of air. Safe.

Xxx

“Pidge. Pidge. Hey, Piiiiidge.”

“Go away, Lance! I already gave you my laptop!”

“But now I have something for you! Or- Well- Keith and Hunk have something for you, but I helped a little, and they’re not here right now anyway!”

“I’ll look at it later, Lance, now go away!”

“You should really, really, reallycome take a look. You won’t regret it! Please? Come on, please? Pretty please? Pretty please with a cherry on top?”

Pidge sighed, pushing her chair back from her computer. “Fine! I’ll come see your surprise!”

“Great! Come on, come on, come on!”

“This had better be good,” Pidge grumbled. Her eyes widened as she stepped outside. “M-Matt?!”

“Pidge!”

Pidge launched herself at her brother, wrapping her arms and legs around him in a full-bodied hug. “Matt!”

Lance felt a ridiculously large grin spread across his face. “Do you like your surprise?”

“Shut up Lance,” she told him, her face muffled by her brother’s hoodie.

“Katie, Lance told me that you ran away!”

“I didn’t want to stay. Not while you and Dad- and Mom was so sad all of the time- and I just- I couldn’t stay.”

“It could’ve gone so, somuch worse for you,” Matt mumbled.

“I was lucky. I had Keith.” Pidge broke off of the hug, looking around. “Where is he? And Hunk?”

“They got detained by the police,” Matt told her, “They’ll be fine.”

“What?!”

Lance bounced up and down. “That gang- the Galra? They tried to mess with Keith again! Hunk protected him, and Matt saw them and called the police- and helped Hunk out. The police got the whole gang though! Kolivan looked so happy, and, honestly, so did Keith, which I guess makes sense since he can stop looking over his shoulder for them. You should’ve seen Shiro when the cops called to tell him that Keith got in danger again! He flipped!”

“That idiot! Was he looking for trouble again?!”

“Um… Maybe.”

Pidge sighed, then brightened. “Oh! Matt! I’ve got a paid internship for film, and- oh. I should probably get back to work. But then I’ll take you around everywhere! And I’ll tell you everything!”

She hummed happily as she went back towards the room. Then she stopped, and gave Lance a hug. “Thank you.”

Chapter Text

Lance bounced excitedly up and down in his seat. “You ready?”

Hunk nodded. “Yeah. Red carpet time! ‘Bout time, after all of the production time. Pidge? You ready?”

“I guess. But Lance, I thought you were supposed to only have one guest…”

“I’m the lead role,” Lance replied, “I can do whatever I want. Let’s see… Allura and Shiro are with Coran, and- Keith?”

“Why am I here?”

“Because I wanted all of you guys here with me! You guys were there with me for all of the filming, so you should be here with me for the showing.”

Pidge punched him in the arm. “You big sap.”

“You guys ready?”

They all nodded. Lance opened the door, his brilliant actor smile on his face. A roar greeted him. Behind him, Hunk and Pidge clambered out, followed by a slower Keith, still on crutches. They walked into the theatre, Lance smiling the whole way.

Once they were in the showing room, Keith loosened his tie, unbuttoning the top button of his shirt.

“Never wearing one of these again.”

Pidge kicked off her heels. “Yeah, ditto. Although actually being the average height was nice.”

Lance sighed. “All of my friends are heathens.”

“Sorry,” Keith said sarcastically, “but if I’m going to die from asphyxiation, it’s not going to be because a flimsy tie strangled me.”

“And I dare you to wear heels,” Pidge hissed at him, “You’d kick them off too.”

“Matt was taking pictures outside; I could see him,” Hunk informed her, “Let’s see… yep. All over social media. ‘Look at my little sister’ ‘so proud’ ‘aw, she’s normal sized now’.”

“I’m going to stab him with my heel.”

“Can we go sit down?” Keith begged.

Lance bounced to his seat, the others following a little more slowly. Keith cursed as he missed his seat, and Hunk picked him up by the back of his suit jacket, plopping him in the theater seat.

“You okay?”

Keith smiled, face clear for the first time. “Yeah. I think I am.”

“Sh,” Lotor hissed nearby, “It’s starting!”

Lance settled into his seat, glancing at his friends around him. It was nice, being with all of them. He leaned back, and watched the opening scene begin to play. The movie almost seemed too short- the ending was on him before he’d really begun, despite the run time of two-and-a-half-hours. But, he thought, the friends he’d made along the way would go a lot further than the movie.

He sat back.

And watched the credits roll.