[fanfic: Voltron] Close to you (6/8) -- Shance
Title: Close to you
Fandom: Voltron Legendary Defender
Characters: Shiro, Lance. Matt, Keith, Slav, etc.
Pairing: Shance (Shiro/Lance)
Language: English (oh God)
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance. Fluff.
Beta reader: Cute Amaranthkick.
N/A: For the Shance Fluff Week (2017). Day 5: Cuddles/Hugs.
Summary:
“According to our data, Shiro and Lance are the most compatible in the test group, plus there's a high chance they'll end up together in the near future,” Slav said.
“Where did we go wrong?” Ulaz asked, looking at the blackboard.
“You have to accept it! You don't have to do anything with the information but it's the truth,” Slav said like Shiro was the one with problems to believe him.
As if.
Shiro was stressed. So much so, that Slav was in serious risk of being punched in the face, especially if he kept repeating the same thing over and over.
“There's a 63 percent chance we don't finish our App before our deadline.”
Yes. That.
“We know, Slav,” Allura responded in a diplomatic voice, her eyes glued to her laptop. “Although we thank you for the update, we’d appreciate it more if the whole of your attention was on creating the algorithm that we need.”
“Yes. Certainly. But the chance that we don't finish the App at all grows exponentially by the hour.”
“Shiro is gonna hit Slav with his chair and call temporary insanity,” Thace said under his breath so only the programmers could heard him.
Shiro didn't react but the tick over his eye grew a little worst.
“Nah. Don't think so,” Ulaz opined, much to Shiro's relief. “I think he would call it 'justice'.”
That traitorous bastard.
“Come on, guys, give him a break,” Matt whispered and Shiro knew that nothing good was going to get out of his mouth. “Besides, I'm pretty sure that there are more that one universe on which Shiro just killed Slav and then went happily to prison.”
See? Nothing good.
“Shut up and keep programming!” Shiro snapped at them earning snickers as answers.
Shiro took a deep breath. He could do this, they could do this. They had been programming and coding for the last 32 hours but they could make it, Shiro was sure.
“There's a 64 percent chance we don't finish our App before our deadline.”
“THAT'S IT!” Shiro screamed, pushing himself up so fast his chair felt to the floor and he didn't even noticed.
“Don't kill him!” Matt shouted dramatically, going as far as throwing himself over Slav as a bad impression of a body guard. “Without him we're screwed!”
“Shiro!” Allura reprimanded him with her tone alone. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing!” Shiro yelled, opening his arms wide. “I'm literally just standing up. Now, if you excuse me, and before I commit mass murder, I'm going out!”
“There's a higher chan-” Slav started but was interrupted by a growl from Shiro.
After a moment in silence, Allura recovered her voice enough to said, “Ye-Yes, Shiro, I think it's for the best if you... Take a break for a few minutes.”
Not a second later, Shiro was out of the door and running on the hallways.
Shiro's blood felt like it was boiling under his skin, his head was about to explode from a overdose of information and codes, his eyes were definitely dry and he couldn't feel his shoulders or his butt but he was pretty sure pain was on its way.
Shiro was overwhelmed. And cranky. And in no condition to finish his damn work.
Fuck college, fuck programming and fuck the relationship app. What the hell were they thinking? Just, why they thought they could complete this massive task as their final project? Why?
Shiro was about to scream again in the middle of a crowded hallway just to relieve some tension -surely the other students would understand him- when his cellphone went off.
Lance was calling him.
Shiro stopped moving and rested his back on a wall, debating about accepting the call or not.
He was in a nasty mood, he knew that much, so it was probably a good idea to leave Lance out of it. On the other hand,... He was in a nasty mood so he seriously wanted to listen to Lance's voice for a bit, suspecting the effect it would have on him.
They hadn't seen each other in two weeks straight, they hadn't even got out on a third date because college and obligations got in the way. Hell, they hadn't even kissed yet, even when Shiro was pretty sure that Lance was going to kiss him back with all he had.
It was an exciting thought. One that lifted his mood just enough for him to answer the call.
“Hi,” Shiro greeted, doing his best to keep the stress on his voice at bay.
“Hi, yourself,” Shiro could guess a sweet smile adoring Lance's lips. “You sound awful.”
Against his will, a laugh escaped Shiro's mouth. “Yes, well. Rough week.”
“Urg, man, yeah! I feel you. Hunk and I just finished a giant project we had together. I'm beaten.”
“You do sound quite sleepy,” Shiro pointed out.
“Mmmhyeah. But Pidge made his really weird coffee that tasted like pure sugar and neither of us fell asleep, like, ever and now that we've finished all of our finals we're waiting for our bodies to dispose out the whole thing.”
Shiro blinked. “That sounds... Awful. And terribly harmful.” A second in silent. “Do you still have any of that left?”
Lance laughed, warming up Shiro's sad and withered soul. Finally, he said, “Don't. Sorry. Keith passive-aggressively drank the whole thing after telling him he shouldn't. It was horrible and I lost 5 precious minutes laughing. But he's the only one of us that had already crashed and is sleeping so...”
Shiro felt alarmed. “What?! Is Keith ok?!”
“Wh-Oh. Yes! Yes, he is. Don't worry, dude,” Lance chuckled. “Hunk is looking over him, anyway. Plus, Pidge assured us that the coffee was safe... If you just drink it once a year or so.”
“Oh my God!” Shiro cackled up without meaning to. “That's-Take care of yourselves!”
“Sure, sure,” And Shiro could just picture the easy-going grin that Lance was probably carrying. The image made Shiro calm down. “So... I hear you almost went all Hulk on Slav...?”
“What?!” Shiro's voice was alarmed once more. “Who told you that?!”
“Hmmm. Well, Matt. But to be fair, Allura texted me first, telling me I should call you. Oh! And also two unknown numbers-that I'm guessing are Ulaz and Thace-sent me two different videos of Slav in a full panicked mood. He's screeching something about a universe where you all suddenly auto combust or something? And how without you there's nothing they can do to pass...?”
Well. Goddammit.
Shiro sighed, loud and unrestricted, feeling both irritated with his friends for calling Lance as if Shiro needed to be looked over, and also feeling highly stressed out again, and just a little bit sad, for some reason.
“Yeah. That sounds like Slav alright,” Shiro sighed once more, shorter this time. “Look, I'm sorry they texted you, they shouldn't have. I'm just-I don't need-I so talking to them when-I'm handling it.”
“I'm sure you are,” Lance said without missing a beat. “Just, hmm... Tell me about it? Please?”
And just like that Shiro was talking. And kept talking until there was nothing else to talk about. He told Lance about how they discovered that their App ran well enough in Slav's tablet but not in other devices, how their algorithm was incomplete and they only had 24 more hours to solve the problem or they all were going to fail.
He told Lance about the fact that he was pretty sure he couldn't turn his neck without almost crying from pain, how Allura and the guys hadn't slept in way too much time to be productive, how Slav just drove him mad.
Shiro's voice was never on the same volume, going up when talking about his team, down talking about himself, sad and depressing while talking about how for the first time on his college life he wasn't sure if he was going to pull it off.
“I'm complaining too much, I know,” Shiro ended his monologue gloomily, “But, seriously? I just want to sleep. Maybe eat a little. I-I... I don't know what else to do, Lance.”
For a moment, Shiro just could hear Lance breathing over the line and he thought Lance had fallen asleep on him instead, but then Lance's voice reached Shiro's ear, full with fondness and happy determination.
“I hope you know I'm picturing your life as an episode of Silicon Valley, just so we're clear.”
Shiro snorted.
“My life would be much easier if I was Richard, that guy is a fictional genius.”
“Yes, he is. You are the one who is a real genius and is working his ass off to prove it.”
That made Shiro pause. “Hm, no. No, I'm not-”
“Yes, you're, Shiro! You're incredibly good at what you do. For what you just told me, you guys finished an entire app that it's based on way too many variables and option in only three weeks. That's amazing! You guys are freaking rockstars!”
“Eh... I wouldn't put it that way...”
“Yeah. You wouldn't, that's why I'm the one being sensible here.”
“No, Lance, I'm-”
“You're amazing, Takashi. I don't care what your overworked brain is telling you. You. Are. Amazing. And you have a great team that got your back when things get rough, plus a weird looking guy that is incredible good at probabilities and statistics.”
Out of nowhere, Shiro laughed. Lance was making him laugh even when Shiro was pretty sure he hadn't be able to smile a couple of minutes ago.
“Yeah, Slav can be... A lot.”
“He's also saying that they need you. And you know why's that? Because you're the best in what you do. That's why you guys are such a great team, because you all are the best of the best.” Lance sighed, voice serious for once. “Go outside, Shiro. Go and eat something, drink some water. Then, go back to your friends and just let yourself do what you do best: lead people to their maximum potential.”
Shiro was speechless, but he tried to talk anyway because Lance couldn't see the way his jaw was all over the floor.
“I... Really? You really think so?”
“Oh, heck yeah! I've known you for years, Shiro. Believe me. I know what I'm talking about,” Again Shiro pictured Lance smiling over the phone; it was such a charming image. “And I'll tell you what. When all of this is over, I let you sleep for a whole day before going to your dorm packing tons of Hunk's food and my DVD collection of Brooklyn Nine-Nine so we can cuddle and finally relax. How does that sound?”
It sounded amazing. It sounded so good Shiro's heart was beating in a double tempo and his hands were arching to just be there, on his bed, hugging Lance warm body, eating delicious food and feeling Lance's full body laugh on his own skin. Shiro wanted that to be real so badly that he literally felt a new rush of resolution entering his body, clearing his mind.
Shiro needed to earn that time with Lance, so he was going to work his ass off for it.
“Shiro?”
“That. Yes. I want that. It's a deal, Lance,” Shiro answered, breathless.
“It's a date,” Lance corrected.
Without him meaning to, Shiro was smiling.
“Hell yes, it's a date.”
Lance laughed.
After the call, and after leaving Keith a worrying text message about his health, Shiro followed Lance's advice and went outside, barely resisting the urge to hug a tree. He bought a sandwich and then ate it by a tree, though. The almost-summer weather calming Shiro's unrestful nerves.
By the time he was at their lab once again, Shiro was smiling, feeling calm and a tiny bit more relaxed. He apologized to everyone with cheap coffee.
“You look better,” Ulaz commented incredulous. “Way better.”
“Yeah,” Thace added. “Like you slept or something.”
“He's right,” Matt boasted in that obnoxious voice of him, the one that he pulled when he was being a little shit. “It's like something has changed you.” Matt wavered his eyebrows. “Magic, maybe? Perhaps, the strongest magic of all...?”
“Oh!” Allura said watching Matt until her eyes found Shiro. Then, she smiled. “That's great.”
Shiro tried to fight his blush for a second but he was too tired to fight lost battles.
“Let's go back to work!” He said.
“There's a 57 percent chance we do finish our App before our deadline now that Shiro is back!”
Shiro cracked a smile and began to work.
A couple of hours later, after they finally created a new algorithm and started coding like possessed people, Shiro's email icon on his laptop popped a red asterisk marking a new email on his inbox.
It was from Lance. It read a short message (“May the force be with you”) and an attached file. Shiro opened it without a second thought.
It was a 2D animation, much closer to pixels than to clay this time. Two characters were on his screen, one dressed like Princess Leia, hairstyle included, with a cut of Shiro's face where Leia's was supposed to be. The other character was, of course, Lance as Han Solo. And they were dancing La Macarena, jumping and everything; every time the characters completed the sequence of the dance cheerful letters spelling YOU CAN DO IT! went off all over his monitor.
Without being able to avoid it, Shiro laughed attracting his team attention to Lance's ridiculous creation. At the end, the were all laughing out loud. Matt was even crying a little.
“I guess our App's results are pretty accurate, eh?” Thace teased him.
“Yes, they are,” Shiro smiled.
“There's a 87 percent chance we finish our App on the next 6 hours!”
Shiro locked his eyes with Slav and nodded, confident on his team skills.
They could do this.
He could do it.
Or AO3.
Fandom: Voltron Legendary Defender
Characters: Shiro, Lance. Matt, Keith, Slav, etc.
Pairing: Shance (Shiro/Lance)
Language: English (oh God)
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance. Fluff.
Beta reader: Cute Amaranthkick.
N/A: For the Shance Fluff Week (2017). Day 5: Cuddles/Hugs.
Summary:
“According to our data, Shiro and Lance are the most compatible in the test group, plus there's a high chance they'll end up together in the near future,” Slav said.
“Where did we go wrong?” Ulaz asked, looking at the blackboard.
“You have to accept it! You don't have to do anything with the information but it's the truth,” Slav said like Shiro was the one with problems to believe him.
As if.
Shiro was stressed. So much so, that Slav was in serious risk of being punched in the face, especially if he kept repeating the same thing over and over.
“There's a 63 percent chance we don't finish our App before our deadline.”
Yes. That.
“We know, Slav,” Allura responded in a diplomatic voice, her eyes glued to her laptop. “Although we thank you for the update, we’d appreciate it more if the whole of your attention was on creating the algorithm that we need.”
“Yes. Certainly. But the chance that we don't finish the App at all grows exponentially by the hour.”
“Shiro is gonna hit Slav with his chair and call temporary insanity,” Thace said under his breath so only the programmers could heard him.
Shiro didn't react but the tick over his eye grew a little worst.
“Nah. Don't think so,” Ulaz opined, much to Shiro's relief. “I think he would call it 'justice'.”
That traitorous bastard.
“Come on, guys, give him a break,” Matt whispered and Shiro knew that nothing good was going to get out of his mouth. “Besides, I'm pretty sure that there are more that one universe on which Shiro just killed Slav and then went happily to prison.”
See? Nothing good.
“Shut up and keep programming!” Shiro snapped at them earning snickers as answers.
Shiro took a deep breath. He could do this, they could do this. They had been programming and coding for the last 32 hours but they could make it, Shiro was sure.
“There's a 64 percent chance we don't finish our App before our deadline.”
“THAT'S IT!” Shiro screamed, pushing himself up so fast his chair felt to the floor and he didn't even noticed.
“Don't kill him!” Matt shouted dramatically, going as far as throwing himself over Slav as a bad impression of a body guard. “Without him we're screwed!”
“Shiro!” Allura reprimanded him with her tone alone. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing!” Shiro yelled, opening his arms wide. “I'm literally just standing up. Now, if you excuse me, and before I commit mass murder, I'm going out!”
“There's a higher chan-” Slav started but was interrupted by a growl from Shiro.
After a moment in silence, Allura recovered her voice enough to said, “Ye-Yes, Shiro, I think it's for the best if you... Take a break for a few minutes.”
Not a second later, Shiro was out of the door and running on the hallways.
Shiro's blood felt like it was boiling under his skin, his head was about to explode from a overdose of information and codes, his eyes were definitely dry and he couldn't feel his shoulders or his butt but he was pretty sure pain was on its way.
Shiro was overwhelmed. And cranky. And in no condition to finish his damn work.
Fuck college, fuck programming and fuck the relationship app. What the hell were they thinking? Just, why they thought they could complete this massive task as their final project? Why?
Shiro was about to scream again in the middle of a crowded hallway just to relieve some tension -surely the other students would understand him- when his cellphone went off.
Lance was calling him.
Shiro stopped moving and rested his back on a wall, debating about accepting the call or not.
He was in a nasty mood, he knew that much, so it was probably a good idea to leave Lance out of it. On the other hand,... He was in a nasty mood so he seriously wanted to listen to Lance's voice for a bit, suspecting the effect it would have on him.
They hadn't seen each other in two weeks straight, they hadn't even got out on a third date because college and obligations got in the way. Hell, they hadn't even kissed yet, even when Shiro was pretty sure that Lance was going to kiss him back with all he had.
It was an exciting thought. One that lifted his mood just enough for him to answer the call.
“Hi,” Shiro greeted, doing his best to keep the stress on his voice at bay.
“Hi, yourself,” Shiro could guess a sweet smile adoring Lance's lips. “You sound awful.”
Against his will, a laugh escaped Shiro's mouth. “Yes, well. Rough week.”
“Urg, man, yeah! I feel you. Hunk and I just finished a giant project we had together. I'm beaten.”
“You do sound quite sleepy,” Shiro pointed out.
“Mmmhyeah. But Pidge made his really weird coffee that tasted like pure sugar and neither of us fell asleep, like, ever and now that we've finished all of our finals we're waiting for our bodies to dispose out the whole thing.”
Shiro blinked. “That sounds... Awful. And terribly harmful.” A second in silent. “Do you still have any of that left?”
Lance laughed, warming up Shiro's sad and withered soul. Finally, he said, “Don't. Sorry. Keith passive-aggressively drank the whole thing after telling him he shouldn't. It was horrible and I lost 5 precious minutes laughing. But he's the only one of us that had already crashed and is sleeping so...”
Shiro felt alarmed. “What?! Is Keith ok?!”
“Wh-Oh. Yes! Yes, he is. Don't worry, dude,” Lance chuckled. “Hunk is looking over him, anyway. Plus, Pidge assured us that the coffee was safe... If you just drink it once a year or so.”
“Oh my God!” Shiro cackled up without meaning to. “That's-Take care of yourselves!”
“Sure, sure,” And Shiro could just picture the easy-going grin that Lance was probably carrying. The image made Shiro calm down. “So... I hear you almost went all Hulk on Slav...?”
“What?!” Shiro's voice was alarmed once more. “Who told you that?!”
“Hmmm. Well, Matt. But to be fair, Allura texted me first, telling me I should call you. Oh! And also two unknown numbers-that I'm guessing are Ulaz and Thace-sent me two different videos of Slav in a full panicked mood. He's screeching something about a universe where you all suddenly auto combust or something? And how without you there's nothing they can do to pass...?”
Well. Goddammit.
Shiro sighed, loud and unrestricted, feeling both irritated with his friends for calling Lance as if Shiro needed to be looked over, and also feeling highly stressed out again, and just a little bit sad, for some reason.
“Yeah. That sounds like Slav alright,” Shiro sighed once more, shorter this time. “Look, I'm sorry they texted you, they shouldn't have. I'm just-I don't need-I so talking to them when-I'm handling it.”
“I'm sure you are,” Lance said without missing a beat. “Just, hmm... Tell me about it? Please?”
And just like that Shiro was talking. And kept talking until there was nothing else to talk about. He told Lance about how they discovered that their App ran well enough in Slav's tablet but not in other devices, how their algorithm was incomplete and they only had 24 more hours to solve the problem or they all were going to fail.
He told Lance about the fact that he was pretty sure he couldn't turn his neck without almost crying from pain, how Allura and the guys hadn't slept in way too much time to be productive, how Slav just drove him mad.
Shiro's voice was never on the same volume, going up when talking about his team, down talking about himself, sad and depressing while talking about how for the first time on his college life he wasn't sure if he was going to pull it off.
“I'm complaining too much, I know,” Shiro ended his monologue gloomily, “But, seriously? I just want to sleep. Maybe eat a little. I-I... I don't know what else to do, Lance.”
For a moment, Shiro just could hear Lance breathing over the line and he thought Lance had fallen asleep on him instead, but then Lance's voice reached Shiro's ear, full with fondness and happy determination.
“I hope you know I'm picturing your life as an episode of Silicon Valley, just so we're clear.”
Shiro snorted.
“My life would be much easier if I was Richard, that guy is a fictional genius.”
“Yes, he is. You are the one who is a real genius and is working his ass off to prove it.”
That made Shiro pause. “Hm, no. No, I'm not-”
“Yes, you're, Shiro! You're incredibly good at what you do. For what you just told me, you guys finished an entire app that it's based on way too many variables and option in only three weeks. That's amazing! You guys are freaking rockstars!”
“Eh... I wouldn't put it that way...”
“Yeah. You wouldn't, that's why I'm the one being sensible here.”
“No, Lance, I'm-”
“You're amazing, Takashi. I don't care what your overworked brain is telling you. You. Are. Amazing. And you have a great team that got your back when things get rough, plus a weird looking guy that is incredible good at probabilities and statistics.”
Out of nowhere, Shiro laughed. Lance was making him laugh even when Shiro was pretty sure he hadn't be able to smile a couple of minutes ago.
“Yeah, Slav can be... A lot.”
“He's also saying that they need you. And you know why's that? Because you're the best in what you do. That's why you guys are such a great team, because you all are the best of the best.” Lance sighed, voice serious for once. “Go outside, Shiro. Go and eat something, drink some water. Then, go back to your friends and just let yourself do what you do best: lead people to their maximum potential.”
Shiro was speechless, but he tried to talk anyway because Lance couldn't see the way his jaw was all over the floor.
“I... Really? You really think so?”
“Oh, heck yeah! I've known you for years, Shiro. Believe me. I know what I'm talking about,” Again Shiro pictured Lance smiling over the phone; it was such a charming image. “And I'll tell you what. When all of this is over, I let you sleep for a whole day before going to your dorm packing tons of Hunk's food and my DVD collection of Brooklyn Nine-Nine so we can cuddle and finally relax. How does that sound?”
It sounded amazing. It sounded so good Shiro's heart was beating in a double tempo and his hands were arching to just be there, on his bed, hugging Lance warm body, eating delicious food and feeling Lance's full body laugh on his own skin. Shiro wanted that to be real so badly that he literally felt a new rush of resolution entering his body, clearing his mind.
Shiro needed to earn that time with Lance, so he was going to work his ass off for it.
“Shiro?”
“That. Yes. I want that. It's a deal, Lance,” Shiro answered, breathless.
“It's a date,” Lance corrected.
Without him meaning to, Shiro was smiling.
“Hell yes, it's a date.”
Lance laughed.
After the call, and after leaving Keith a worrying text message about his health, Shiro followed Lance's advice and went outside, barely resisting the urge to hug a tree. He bought a sandwich and then ate it by a tree, though. The almost-summer weather calming Shiro's unrestful nerves.
By the time he was at their lab once again, Shiro was smiling, feeling calm and a tiny bit more relaxed. He apologized to everyone with cheap coffee.
“You look better,” Ulaz commented incredulous. “Way better.”
“Yeah,” Thace added. “Like you slept or something.”
“He's right,” Matt boasted in that obnoxious voice of him, the one that he pulled when he was being a little shit. “It's like something has changed you.” Matt wavered his eyebrows. “Magic, maybe? Perhaps, the strongest magic of all...?”
“Oh!” Allura said watching Matt until her eyes found Shiro. Then, she smiled. “That's great.”
Shiro tried to fight his blush for a second but he was too tired to fight lost battles.
“Let's go back to work!” He said.
“There's a 57 percent chance we do finish our App before our deadline now that Shiro is back!”
Shiro cracked a smile and began to work.
A couple of hours later, after they finally created a new algorithm and started coding like possessed people, Shiro's email icon on his laptop popped a red asterisk marking a new email on his inbox.
It was from Lance. It read a short message (“May the force be with you”) and an attached file. Shiro opened it without a second thought.
It was a 2D animation, much closer to pixels than to clay this time. Two characters were on his screen, one dressed like Princess Leia, hairstyle included, with a cut of Shiro's face where Leia's was supposed to be. The other character was, of course, Lance as Han Solo. And they were dancing La Macarena, jumping and everything; every time the characters completed the sequence of the dance cheerful letters spelling YOU CAN DO IT! went off all over his monitor.
Without being able to avoid it, Shiro laughed attracting his team attention to Lance's ridiculous creation. At the end, the were all laughing out loud. Matt was even crying a little.
“I guess our App's results are pretty accurate, eh?” Thace teased him.
“Yes, they are,” Shiro smiled.
“There's a 87 percent chance we finish our App on the next 6 hours!”
Shiro locked his eyes with Slav and nodded, confident on his team skills.
They could do this.
He could do it.
Or AO3.