Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Lance has been home for Christmas break for approximately one full day before both of his parents have left, and all of his siblings have once again reclaimed their home in full rambunctious McClain fashion. Luis had brought his two babies while Lisa was at work, and Sylvio sat in their living room playing with his big legos while Nadia was currently strapped to Marco’s chest as Luis took a break to fix the stair rail their dad had been meaning to get to. All five siblings were hanging out in the kitchen and playing their parents’ old CDs that they’d had their entire childhoods. Veronica and Lance were cooking dinner for everyone, while Rachel and Marco kept Nadia occupied by cooing at and dancing with her. Lance had set up his camera in an empty space by the island and was recording to hopefully have usable content for his holiday vlogs.

“Oh! Oh my god! You guys! ¡Escuchen!” Rachel flung herself across the counter to turn the stereo up, and all the siblings laughed.

“Ahhh I remember Papí playing this every time Mamí left us for the day!” Marco sighed, making a silly face at Nadia as she looked up at him.

They all started singing along as Soy Un Desastre played through the kitchen. They weren’t trying to take it seriously, and devolved into the parts and roles they had taken as children, Luis coming into view of the camera to dance with his younger siblings.

Lance and Rachel were holding wooden spoons as microphones, and laughing and pointing at the camera as if serenading it — at least this time there was a real camera and they weren’t just pretending to be on on. Veronica and Marco were back to back, hands flung dramatically across their foreheads as they pretended to be heartbroken. Luis had his head thrown back, his arms stretched out to the sides, and slowly turned in a circle.

Soy un desastre cuando tú te vas de casa…(1) They sang, their dramatics increasing through the chorus

Ya estoy cansado de comidas enlatadas…(2) Each of them broke their previous acts to snap their faces toward the camera and sigh after the line, their performance clearly rehearsed, and having well-worn edges that showed the viewers it had remained the same for years and years.

When the song ended, they all broke into raucous laughter, all bent over, pure joy radiating in the kitchen. Sylvio had toddled into the room during the song, and Luis hoisted him up into view of the camera to spin him around, his and Nadia’s squeals joining in the merriment.

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Lance is a very musical person, so it doesn’t take a lot for him to tune into the music that his housemates play, and try to gauge their moods through that. He can pick up on their highs and their lows, especially after getting to know them better. So he knows, after Keith has been playing the same song multiple times a day for over a week, that something is up. He sets up his workstation near Keith when they’re both in the house several times, making himself available for Keith to talk to, and listens to the soft notes of the song play from the headphones that rest around his neck.

After the first couple days of Lance’s attempts, Keith stops hanging around the house as often, and Lance has to sort of creep him to find him in the workshop and in his different corners of the library. But Lance doesn’t want to stalk his friend, so he turns his efforts inward and starts practicing the song. At the end of the second week since Keith became even more moody than usual, Lance posts a cover to his channel.

His lighting is cheery, and he’s propped on the stool he has against his and Hunk’s blank back wall. His guitar rests on his knee, and he smiles at the camera. After his intro plays, he greets the audience. “Hey Laniacs, today I’m covering a song that really reminds me of one of my friends. I think he’s been having a rough time lately, and I wand to understand him more, and,” Lance chuckles, and runs his right hand over the back of his neck, “I understand people best through music sometimes. Anyway, this is Should Have Known Better by Sufjan Stevens. And this goes out to you, dude. you know what’s up.”

He starts plucking at the guitar, a soft crease forming between his eyebrows as he concentrates. It’s clear that he’s thinking even as he performs for the camera. ”When I was three, three maybe four, she left us…” His voice is soft as he sings, but over that song, it becomes even more breathy, as if he came to a realization.

Lance works through the song, and his expression softens, looks more fond, his lips quirking a little, though now his eyes look a little sad, and he remains distant, lost in thought. When he gets to Frightened by me feelings, I only want to be a relief, his eyebrows pinch again, taking on a worried look, which turns bittersweet, and ends back on fond.

When he finishes playing, Lance looks up at the camera and smiles, scrunching his face and holding a peace sign up to his viewers. “Thank you all for letting me figure stuff out on here all the time. I hope you all enjoyed this. I love doing something a little different. See you all next week, or on my vlog channel, Lance A LOT. As always, everything is linked down below. I’ll also be doing a collab on Pidge’s channel sometime next week, and you’ll find a link to her channel below as well. Thanks for joining me today, Laniacs. This is your minstrel Lancelot signing off.” He blows. a kiss to the camera, and the end card plays.

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“You guys should do a cover of this together.” Shiro suggests one night, having no idea the can of worms he has opened by presenting this idea to Allura and Lance who have been crooning to each other throughout the halls yet again. Their heads pop into the common room, where Shiro is reading a book while doing press ups as part of his PT with his new prosthetic. They meet each other’s gaze with devious grins which go unnoticed to their house president as he continues his exercise. They don’t go unnoticed to Hunk, who has a bit of a sinking feeling, because only chaotic things happen when Allura and Lance share that look.

To Hunk’s great relief, the only thing to come of it is for the two of them to throw themselves into practicing the song, perfecting the duet, and allowing Allura to gain a little more practice on the cajón, as she had never really played an acoustic drum before. This actually afforded the rest of their friends with a little bit of a reprieve since the two had been scream/singing the song to each other since Allura had learned all the lyrics as part of her and Lance’s Spanish tutor lessons several weeks before.

After a couple days, they feel like they’re in sync enough to film, and Lance sets up his stool and Allura’s cajón in his and Hunk’s room where he normally records. The camera has to be set a little farther back to offer a wider frame and to allow Allura to be in frame, since the cajón is shorter than Lance’s stool. She’s a tall goddess, but her torso is averagely proportioned, thank you very much.

The title card fades to Lance and Allura both smirking at the camera and pointing finger guns. Allura begins, “Welcome Laniacs,” and Lance squawks,

“Hey! That’s my line!”

Making Allura throw her head back in laughter. She steadies herself, and pulls her silver ponytail over her shoulder. “Lance, please focus on the video. This is a very serious matter.”

Lance shoots a playful glare at her, while she smirks at him. He turns to the camera, “Hello Laniacs, and welcome to today’s video. As you can see, we have the lovely Allura from alluringadvice here with us. We will be performing a duet of one of our currently favorite songs, and we hope you enjoy.

They begin, and they don’t try to disguise that they’re having a good time. Their performance is good, but not entirely professional. They miss notes or beats, and laugh their way through some lines. They look at each other often, and Allura makes a face at Lance as she sings Yo sé que tú a mí me quieres un poco con tu carita posada en me hombro (1) which makes him duck his head and chuckle through the next line.

They’re winding down the song when Lance and Allura face each other to joke their way through the lines, Tiene un ángel su sonrisa, tiene un corazón y yo a mi persona favorita (2). They have to turn away from each other to keep from bursting into disruptive laughter, and finish the song.

In the end, they agree that the first performance was as good as it was going to get, and that they had both had fun. Lance tells Allura he’s going to post it without editing since he’s running behind on his schedule, and she tells him that’s fine as long as he tags her in everything, which, of course, he’s not a horrible person. He posts it without even watching it once. Which…in retrospect…may have been a mistake.

Hunk is the first to hear the shriek from Lance’s bed, obviously, since it was about three feet from his own. He groans and turns over, and Lance is sitting straight up in bed, with wide, fearful eyes. “What’s up, buddy?” He asks. Lance turns to him slowly.

“People…people think that Allura and I are dating” He says, horror leaking into every word. Hunk pushes himself up on his elbow, looking at Lance in complete incredulity.

“What would have ever given them that idea? Allura is like your third sister or something.”

“Fourth! If you count Pidge! Which, I guess I shouldn’t seeing as she’s a gremlin…” He groans and pulls his hair, “Irrelevant, yes! Allura is like a sister to me! I guess those weren’t the vibes people got from the duet we did!” Lance all but screams. He turns to Hunk, helpless.

“Did it look like you were into each other?” He asks. Lance’s mouth drops open.

“Buddy! You didn’t watch our video? The betrayal!”

Hunk laughs at his antics, “Dude, I have my own life. I was gonna do it today. Calm down. I still love you.” This appeases Lance. “But seriously, let’s just call a house meeting and watch the video and plan damage control.”

In less than twenty minutes all six members of the Voltron house are sitting in the common room, and Coran has been called in and stands in the door to the kitchen, observing the chaos that is a frazzled Lance McClain.

As the video plays, Lance and Allura turn to each other, grim looks on both their faces. “Well, guys, I hate to say it, but I can kind of see where your fans are coming from.” Shiro breaks it to them as the song comes to an end. They all grimace.

“We honestly didn’t think it was that bad!” Allura asserts, turning to the rest of the group to plead. They all shake their heads at her.

“I know neither of you have those kinds of feelings for each other, because we live together, but like if I didn’t know either of you, or even one of you, I probably would be thinking the same thing.” Keith adds. “I don’t know how you would deal with this.” He shrugs. Lance groans and throws himself back across the floor, his limbs in a starfish.

“I think the only thing to do is both address the rumors separately, and then comment on each other’s posts.” Coran offers, which is uncommonly reasonable coming from the eccentric man, but is ultimately what the group agrees on. After Lance and Allura’s post, each of the other members of Voltron comment as well. And Pidge, the ever-helpful, and not-devious-at-all, comments on the video itself, saying it’s way more likely Lance was just thinking about Keith, which does, actually turn the fans’ attention.