Oneshot - Fairy Tales Don't Stop After Happy Endings

Oneshot
Fairy Tales Don't Stop After Happy Endings

It should’ve been different. It shouldn’t have gone this way. She wasn’t about to lose the boys she fought so hard to keep for the past six years. She wasn’t about to let it happen. But she couldn’t do anything.

This wasn’t her planet, and the boys weren’t her people. She had no jurisdiction over anything except for the ultimate resting place of the icon that had brought them all together. Suddenly she was a child again, herded around and powerless to stop everything from happening all at once.

First, the lions had gone rogue. They only attacked if they or the pilots were under threat, but they fired onto the buildings nearest to the grateful crowd in front of them. Pidge and Hunk tried their best, but something was wrong with the lions, and they were certain someone had forced them to fire.

Then they were each treated like criminals, minus herself. Being royalty gave her leniency. They went through thorough questioning, as if they didn’t just save the universe from being enslaved not too long ago. It cleared none of them of suspicion, even after spending hours in isolation.

And now Keith left. Leaving behind personalized notes for each of them, saying that he was the best choice to ‘go rogue’ out of the team. That conversation never should’ve happened. The talk about one of them leaving the team, leaving their family, left a nasty taste in her mouth. No matter what she did, Allura couldn’t get it out of her mouth. And now it was starting to be more than she could take.

“Oh god- please don’t cry.”

She turned around but hid her face from the familiar voice. Then quickly hugged him close like she was stopping him from leaving her, leaving the team, the same way it felt like everything did.

“This shouldn’t have happened.”

“No, it shouldn’t have, but it did, and we’re gonna fix it.”

If you asked anyone that knew Lance, they’d say his best friends were Keith and Sven. And they’d be right, but nobody ever gave the full answer. He’s close to all of his team, but Allura took that other spot as best friend, even if she had known him for almost the least amount of time out of everyone who knew him.

That was exactly what Lance was going to be for her, her best friend, especially after she got hit the hardest from everything that happened. She lost the legend that restored her planet and freed the universe. Her boyfriend effectively ran away with all but her support. And now she was about to be separated by the family she gained from the same people that sent them to her.

“What went wrong, Lance? Tell me honestly, how could your own home treat you like a bigger enemy than the Drule Empire?” Allura asked.

“The Empire never hit so close to home, Princess… Honestly, they didn’t hit home ever, at least ours.”

“But nobody got hurt! If anything, maybe just a good scare, but… The lions are sentient, and we’ve told the Garrison that multiple times! They’d never attack unless provoked, so something must have triggered them to fire!”

“Allura, you’ve got to understand that there’s never been anything like the lions on Terra before. They’re a new and old mystery that even someone as genius as Pidge can’t figure out! They’re scared, and what just happened out there only made them terrified.”

She pulled away from him and gave him a stern look,

“They’ve seen what he can do- what he did do for them!”

“Princess, there is a reason why I actively hate the military while still being in the military. But to some people, there is no reason not to fear something like Voltron. What Voltron did for them won’t change the fact that he did something against them just now.”

The two were in Allura’s suite, so Lance headed for the complimentary snacks she always got when staying in a hotel. He tossed a bag of peanuts at her, figuring it’d help focus her anger on something. Of course, he was right, and she tore into the thing like it was her last meal. The crunch of the peanuts satisfying her rage instead of telling her to punch a hole into the nearest wall. She could easily pay for damages, but nobody needed to get into any extra trouble.

“I just can’t stand it!” She yelled, pacing back and forth in front of him, “How can Terra spit in our face after we did most of the work to help them?”

“Welcome to Terra, or as the locals call it, Earth. We’re our own enemy, just like the universe is to itself,” he shrugged.

“Is that why Keith ran off without us agreeing?!”

“Feels like it, but no, princess, you know why he left.”

“Don’t pretend those stupid letters of his helped anything, Lance! We are a team! He just put more suspicion on us by leaving!”

Lance heavily sighed. He couldn’t lie and say he didn’t think the same thing, but he also couldn’t say that Keith wasn’t right, either. Even before the letters, during their initial conversation, Keith made a good point of saying someone had to leave to get more sources of information on what happened to the lions. More importantly, Black Lion had gone missing too. That’s Keith’s lion, the body of Voltron, the leader of the legend. Nobody else made sense to go off after Black, and nobody else would look the least suspicious if they did.

“And what? You’d make it less suspicious? If you left the team behind, your planet behind, or even left the alliance behind, everyone would automatically know we were up to something Allura! Hunk and I couldn’t go because the Garrison expected us to leave. We’ve lashed out multiple times, and our anger issues don’t help our case! And Pidge? He may be eighteen now, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s still a kid. He’d have more trouble being alone out there than being stuck here with the rest of us!”

She gave him the coldest glare she could muster, which was icy cold to the point where it could match Krydor, Lance felt. Everyone on the team was stubborn, but she put them all to shame with how hard she dug her heels into something and could actively pull them to her side if she so chose. But now, she chose to let the topic go instead. Everything Keith did while on the team was logical. Well, almost everything. At that moment, though, he made sure he was nothing but logical in choosing to leave everything he’d known behind for the benefit of the universe, for the benefit of the team… for the benefit of her.

“I just… We could have worked something out together! All five of us and then some, if we include the allies that stuck with us!”

“We are still together, princess, obviously not in person, but Keith went off with the idea of making sure the rest of us can actually set the plans in motion. Y’know that thing Pidge and Hunk made for the keys recently? The Voltcoms? He has one, just like the rest of us do, and that means he’ll never be too far away for us to know he’s out there, no matter how far he has to run to find Black.”

Allura threw away her empty peanut bag and composed herself. If everyone had to deal with Keith running away to do what was best, then she would have to roll with the punches, too. By ruling her planet as Crown Princess and doing all she can for the boys who’ll be stuck on Terra. She didn’t stop being mad at Keith or the situation they were in, but she could yell later when she got back home.

“You’re right, Lance, thank you. Do you know where those two are now? If we’re going to have to deal with this, I’d like to have a way to contact you boys as regularly as possible. I’m going to do everything in my power to help you out.”

He grinned, “Aw, gonna miss your personal jesters after we get recalled?”

“Oh please, none of you are as funny as you think. Plus, who doesn’t want to get updates about how their favorite animals are doing?”

“Hah, trying to be a Disney Princess, I see. I think Pidge has that role covered with his animal whispering.”

“I don’t need to try to be a princess. I am one, and this princess wants to get out of this room and get back to work,” she sassed.

Lance rolled his eyes, “Ugh, fine. Let’s go find those two gluttons, but you at least could’ve told me fairy tales don’t stop after happy endings, y’know.”

“We’re not at that happy ending yet. Think of it as another chapter of the story book!”

“Nah, I think it’s funnier if we’re fighting against the author for doing this to us.”

Their talk wouldn’t calm them down entirely, but to each other they’re the best damn distraction they’ve got. Walking out that door, they let themselves forget about what the situation tied them to. But they weren’t about to get put down without fighting like hell first, even if they had to dismantle a government to do it. Again.