Chapter Text
The day started as any other- pretty normal.
Or as normal as it can be when you’re a paladin of Voltron. Keith’s new normal consisted of fighting off the Galra empire and defending the universe from their terror. Some days, when there was little else to do but travel the team would just hang out around the massive castle ship; the last remaining relic of the Alteans.
Occasionally, the team would need to stop by trading planets to replenish food or just have an off day to really explore and become one with the rest of the universe. Today was one of those semi-not-so-normal days wherein they would plan to visit a nearby planet by the name of Eridania, a simple environment with peaceful inhabitants making ends meet by selling to interstellar travellers like themselves. The entire planet was basically a huge trading post. This made it the perfect stop for the crew.
“The goal here is to restock on food and other necessities humans seem to have, and to chat with locals on any intel we can receive. However, it has been rumoured that this trading post had been known for less than legal things. Keep a constant look out for each other and yourselves.” Coran goes on to explain the familiar task of going to a new planet and not making any scenes.
“This may be adolescent, but because of this we want everyone to at least stay with another member,” Shiro picked up where Coran trailed off.
“Awh sick, i love the buddy system.” Lance exclaimed, blatantly interrupting Shiro’s train of thought.
“You only like it because then you have someone to blame when you get lost.” Pidge interjects with a knowing smirk. Lance tries to respond but is cut off by Shiro in the same manner as he did seconds earlier.
“Moving on- Allura, and I will take care of the shopping business but we want all of you to befriend locals, get information. It is vital that we keep our comms on at all times. Beyond that, stay safe and have fun.” Shiro said in his most fatherly voice, smiling softly. He seemed so sure of his team.
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They landed not too far off from a large area filled with tents of merchants who were screaming and hawking off their goods, almost as if whoever was loudest had the best goods.
“We will contact you all when we have collected all we need. Stay out of trouble.” Shiro ended his phrase curtly leaving no one any room to argue- as if any one would. Him and Allura walk in towards a large building so confidently it’s almost as if they’ve lived here their whole lives. Lance would kill to have an ounce of their assurance.
Coran stayed in the ship to ensure no funny business occurs, which left them with Lance, Keith, Hunk, and Pidge. Pidge takes the lead making a beeline to where she sees shiny metal- probaly new tech she can learn from. Hunk and Lance follow hurriedly while Keith falls behind at his own pace, always one to take up the back to protect his friends even though he’d never admit it’s because he wants to keep them safe but would rather excuse it as ‘someone has got to do it’ He wished he was as trustworthy of everyone as the rest of his team. He ponders that it is probably for the best that he isn’t, else they would have been in more trouble if they all blindly trusted the public.
They arrive at a little humble lemonade stand looking booth with small pieces of tech that just have Pidges name written on them. She easily falls into conversation with the merchant using some translation tech from the Alteans that Allura bestowed upon all of the Paladins. Hunk interjects into the conversation easily talking about the small device Pidge held delicately from the table. It was some mind-melding thing Lance didn’t know or care too much about, really so he wasn’t listening fully. His eyes wandered over to the ever-broody Keith who was vigilant in scoping out questionable characters and giving them the stick eye so as for them to not come near the team.
“Hey man, is it physically possible for you to not intimidate every single person that just wants to come to the same booth as us?” Lance said only half kidding. Keith basically ignores him, only giving him the same look he gives to the strangers along the post. “Listen, it may work on the locals but you can’t fool me. I know you’re made of caramel on the inside- you don’t scare me,”
“...Caramel?” Keith replied with bewilderment
“It’s an odd comparison but it got that snotty look off of your face. I was afraid it was going to freeze that way if you held it too long.”
“I-” Keith was about to answer when Hunk pulled Lance by the collar over towards the merchant man. Keith thinks he heard his name at some point but can’t remember. Keith follows closer to the booth now intrigued with Lance being physically forced into the conversation.
“He has been my guinea pig for so many inventions, man. This thing looks super legit so let’s see how it works…” Hunk and the merchant start attaching this, thing to Lance’s head, he doesn’t seem too bothered by it, as if this is a stunt Hunk pulls on the regular. Keith is horrified at how complacent Lance is with unknown technology being strapped to his head to invade his brain and perhaps give out vital secrets of Voltron. He may also just be worried about Lance, but the other stuff sounded way better. Keith jumps in half-screaming, the opposite of not causing a scene.
“What the actual fuck, Hunk.” Incredulous, he looks at Hunk and damn near shoved the merchant to the ground to get him away from Lance. “Do you even know what this is? How do you know this guy doesn’t work for the Galra? You could be giving out secret information.” Keith wildly gestures while trying to talk sense into Hunk. At this point, Pidge moved on to the merchant’s other items; obviously disinterested with the piece on Lance’s head and Keith’s yelling.
“Woah, dude chill out.” He waves a hand motioning for Keith to quiet down and starts to whisper, “At best these people are half a step above Earth tech. They can’t get past memories, so as long as Lance doesn’t think of ground breaking intel, nobody will know. His name is Baras, and he is super cool. You would know that if you were listening and not scaring the locals for no reason.”
“See? That’s what i was saying.” Lance finishes helping the merchant, apparently named Baras steady after Keith maybe a little dramatically pushed him. “Although, maybe you could tell me what this is before it gets on my head?” He says this so nonchalantly, as if there was nothing totally wild about him being strapped into a foreign object.
Hunk laughed out loud. “Nah, you just have to trust me. It’ll be way better if you don't know.” Hunk continues putting the weird dots on Lance’s head while Baras went over to converse with Pidge about the thing she just picked up. The piece was almost like something on Earth, Keith had seen them in hospitals before but never cared enough to learn the name. He was still utterly and completely suspicious of the tech but decided to let Hunk handle it as he probably knew more than Keith gave him credit for. Hunk lets out an affirmative noise at he finishes the application and presses what seemed to be a button on the back of lances head. “This is gonna be so cool,” Hunk exclaims.
Words spill out of Lance’s mouth almost rushed and definitely not the same tone as he usually speaks, “Hunk is so lucky to have such a willing friend like me. Fuck, he needs to make me some good food after this because it feels really weird.” Hunk claps his hands excitedly, Keith’s face drops as he realizes what the device actually does.
“So what is it supposed to do exactly?” Lance says in his normal tone. Normal, Keith almost has to laugh at that word because this situation is the opposite of normal. Oh what he would give for a slice of normalcy, just for one day. “Oh my god Keith looks so fucking funny but, like, why is he looking at me like that and why is Hunk so excited? Is it like a visual invention that i can’t see?” There’s that tone again.
This is gonna be a long day, Keith finally decides. He reaches up to pull at the cord connecting the dots along Lance’s head, feeling over the novelty of the gadget almost instantly, “Okay that’s enough fun for the day.” Baras Couldn’t get there in time as Keith removes a single dot from Lance’s head before exclaiming “No!”
Baras gives Keith some comeuppance as he pushed his the same way he did earlier and rushed says “You cannot take it off without deactivating it. God knows what kind of issue that would cause. Don’t you know how delicate the mind is, boy?!” Pidge lifts her head to finally notice what her friends were fiddling with.
“I wish i knew what the fuck is going on but it looks like the bandits are incoming at 6 O’clock and no one seems to care,” Lance says almost unknowing. That’d be a good word for how he keeps saying things. Like their meant for just himself to hear. Fuck- it finally clicks or Keith as to what the device does. It reads Lance’s every thought. Keith would say more about Lance not having many thoughts in the first place but now is not the time as Lance has called it- there were bandits and they were here pillage.
Baras collects what he can in his hands before bolting. Keith calls after him- “How do you turn it off then?” Baras didn’t look like he knew where he was going but he knew he was going as far as possible which meant Keith either had to dash for him now or never see him again.
Keith starts to bolt after him but hesitates not wanting to go against orders- being alone but he also didn’t want to leave Hunk and Pidge to fight the bandits. Who knew how helpful Lance would be with that stupid looking thing on his head. Hunk calls over the commotion, “Take Lance to Baras, I have no idea how to take it off we didn’t get that far in the demo.” and pushes Lance in Keith’s direction. “Pidge and I can take these guys.” There really wasn’t time to argue. Baras being a slimy snake looking person is pretty fast and they’d have a hard enough time keeping up as is. Keith grabs Lance by the wrist and pulls him towards the path Baras took.
“Okay now i have no idea what’s going on. The invention must be really subtle if i still can’t see what’s up with it- oh Keith i see you like handling guys rough, kinda hot if i do say so myself.” Lances tone obviously running for his inner dialogue. Keith's face breaks out in red. Lance has a puzzled look on his face for a second before it clicks. Sudden realization covers his face as he clutches his mouth with his hand.
“We don’t have time for this.” Keith decides, still red in the face and continues pulling Lance along the way as he can hear a battle erupting in their wake.
Lance tugs away, yet Keith doesn’t release his grip. “We can’t leave them to fight alone!”
“So you want to be stuck with your inner monologue calling me hot for the rest of your life?” Keith doesn’t wait for an answer as he continues pulling Lance down the alleyway.