My stomach drops as the dream runs through my mind for the thousandth time this morning.

Heavy rain restrained my vision from seeing any further than three feet ahead at most. My clothes sticking to me like a second skin as my bare feet sank deeper into the damp sand with every step.

On my side, Lance was standing there with one of his most genuine smiles. The kind he reserved for the things that made him truly happy. This boy had an infatuation with the rain I could never fully comprehend. It felt like icicles were pelting my naked skin so I didn't really understand the appeal. But I had one question: 'Why was I here?'

I was about to ask when all movement in my legs ceased. The rain cleared ever so slightly so I could make out Lance's figure pull ahead. When he was maybe fifteen feet away he began to wobble.

Time slowed as he disappeared.

"Keith!" a blood-curdling scream belonging to none other than Lance sliced through the air.

I was still stuck in my spot as my own screams made an appearance. No reply came as I struggled to move, unable to fix the damage that had just occurred. I didn't realize I was crying until I tasted the salt at the corners of my mouth.

I sink lower into my chair as I push a piece of pancake around in maple syrup. Mamá McClain made pancakes for breakfast and insisted I stay for breakfast. I wasn't about to refuse her delicious cooking so I stayed a little while longer. Thankfully Lance hasn't come downstairs yet cause I'm not fully equipped to deal with him at the moment.

I shove a piece of pancake into my mouth as a sleep deprived looking Mateo takes the seat across from me clad in neon pink booty shorts that stand out against his plain black T-shirt. The shorts looked to be quite tight on him which also meant they were extremely revealing. Let's just say his future partner is a very lucky woman.

"What's with the shorts? I thought you were, let's see how you put it, straight," I smirked while wiggling my eyebrows.

"Ha, ha, very funny Kogane," he laughs dryly. "I was doing my laundry and I needed something to wear so Luna graciously offered these to me." Enough sarcasm dripped from his words to fill a few buckets.

I watched as he drowned his small stack of pancakes with ketchup. Ew, I swear this family has some of the weirdest food combinations. I mean they practically put ketchup on anything. Chips, sausage, pancakes, eggs, pasta, mac n' cheese, you name it.

I spend enough time with this family to know them probably even more than my own. That fact would send any normal person running for the hills but I'm not even close to normal.

"You've been here for breakfast a lot lately. What's with that?" Luna questions as she takes a seat beside me.

"I like your moms cooking," I unattractively force an entire pancake into my mouth, keeping intense eye intact with her. "Sue me." My words are muffled by the fluffy pancake.

She pushes at my face, shaking her head and laughing awkwardly at my antics. After a moment she composes herself with a deep breath, focusing all her attention on the food in front of her. She picked one up with her bare hands and began chowing down like there was no tomorrow.

I finished my food quickly and dropped my plate in the sink. I bid everyone in the house goodbye and a few yelled goodbyes were thrown back at me.

Their entryway was home to a few homemade shoe cubbies and jacket hooks that lined the walls on either side. I swipe Lance's favorite jacket off its respective hook. It's a green hoodie with a yellow stripe running across its middle that our friend Pidge had gotten him last year for Christmas. Then I scavenged around in the cubbies for a pair of his shoes. I snatched up the black work boots he always wears during winter. I throw on the articles of clothing, each a little too big, but I don't really care.

Upon opening the front door I was bathed in the cool winds of late November. My teeth chattered as I pulled the jacket tighter around my body. I jogged the few feet over to my house and unlocked the door using the spare key hidden under the ceramic bunny that sits out on the porch.

I softly closed the door behind me, trying my hardest not to alert Shiro I ever left. Then I slipped off the shoes because they'd create too much noise on hardwood flooring. The pads of my feet swiftly glided across the floor until a light being turned on caught my attention.

There shrouded in the dim lights of our kitchen was my older brother Shiro with a cup of coffee in hand. Well, adoptive older brother. His expression was unreadable until his lips widened into a sadistic smirk.

"So, have you banged him yet?"

Heat flourished against my cheeks as the mental image of Lance writhing underneath me rose to my mind. I delved further into the fantasy without thinking. I shook my head furiously, trying to remove the picture.

"Why would you ask something like that?" I stormed into the kitchen and stood directly in front of him. "We're just friends . . ."

Shiro leaned back against the counter sipping intently from the mug. "You have been crushing on that poor boy for months. It's becoming sad and pathetic watching you."

The embarrassment from earlier fades, easily replaced by annoyance. Siblings tend to have an uncanny ability that allows them to push your buttons without even properly trying.

"Says the man who wrote fucking poems about his girlfriend before she asked him out because he was too scared," a satisfied smile rises to my face as his cocky expression melts into that of embarrassment.

"We promised to never bring that up again!" his words fall on deaf ears as I retreat from the kitchen, running for the stairs.

I bound up the steps two at a time, only tripping once in the process. Once I was safely locked away in my room I let a chuckle slip past my lips. Shiro becomes a mess if you bring up his old poetry journal or how his birthday's on leap year.

I clearly remember the day when Pidge had asked me when his birthday was. I was about to tell them Shiro suddenly came out of nowhere and tackled me. We fought each other for a good few minutes until Lance came in and told them. Then Shiro jumped off me and tackled Lance without a second thought.

He had that black eye for a week.

I throw Lance's boots in the direction of my closet and pull on a pair of fluffy socks to compensate for the loss of warmth. I fall onto my bed with a huff, Lance's jacket still wrapped tightly around me.

Next to me, I hear my phone ding, signaling I've been sent a text. With a groan, I unplug the phone from its charger and see a text from Allura in the group chat.

SpaceMom - Is anyone up for a Voltron mission??

Me - Sure. Sounds fun

Mega Asshole - Yeah I'm game

Pigeon - Yes. I can't stand family time. I need to shoot something

Personal Chef - I'm in too. Also, Pidge calm down, killing isn't always the answer

Pigeon - Oh Hunk u naive child

SpaceDad - Really Pidge? But I'm in too

SpaceMom - Okay. See u guys in a minute

After putting my phone back on the nightstand I hop out of bed. I scurry over to my dresser and grab the sensitive headgear for virtual reality games. After sitting down on my bed again I place the helmet over my head and lay down on my pillow.

My eyes flutter shut almost immediately and the darkness is soon replaced by a blinding white light. It takes a moment for multicolored particles to generate and fuse together creating the play button for Voltron. I reach out and hit the button and soon I find myself in the alternate universe that is Voltron.

I watch as my health bar forms in the bottom right corner with my name Keith hovering over it. As everyone else begins logging in their health bars begin forming under my own. It's actually really convenient to be in a guild when you go on missions because you can trade over equipment when you aren't near each other and know when someone's lying about their health.

I jump off the spawning platform and take in the rotting concrete structures surrounding the center. A cobblestone loosens under my impact, it really sells the fact that everything is falling apart around you.

Lance touches down on the ground beside me and lets out a huff as he cracks his knuckles. "Feels go to be logged in again."

I'm no longer taken back by his character's species type after a couple years of looking at it. Lance chose to be an Altean over being human. The differences aren't major but still quite noticeable. It swaps his normal chocolate brown hair out for snow white locks. His ears grow pointer and become adorned with a few more piercings than usual. It also paints blue markings under his eyes alongside with a few other places on his body.

"You and me both buddy," Pidge leaps down and lands directly on Lance's back, latching their short limbs around his body. Lance's reflexes are quick as he hooks his arms under Pidge's knees.

I hear a soft thud behind me which is probably Allura. My suspicions are confirmed as she walks forward to address our group.

Similar to Lance she also chose to be the Altean species. Her usual white hair was unchanged and stands out against her dark skin tone. And instead of blue for her markings, they were replaced with a faint pink.

"Let me give you a quick briefing before we go. We're fighting a plix or as Lance would say 'a slime monster'. Its weak points are the chest, feet, and its forehead. But you can't hit its forehead unless you're in close proximity to get the full critical attack so it's off limits," Allura eyes Lance as if the warning was solely meant for him.

"What? I'm not gonna do anything stupid, I swear," Lance gave her a cocky grin to finalize his argument.

<><><>

"'Not gonna do anything stupid' my ass," Pidge's voice sounded through our coms as they dodged another glob of acid spit. The liquid sizzled until it seared a whole into the trench wall.

The plix closely resembled a lab experiment gone wrong that'd become sentient in the process. You also couldn't get too close it or else it would encase you inside its body, eventually suffocating you. The majority of us were on the ground working on immobilizing it while Lance was situated at the top of the trench aiming for its forehead.

"Don't you dare think about jumping Lance. We don't need you dying on us," Allura grunted as she flung her laser whip toward its chest, hitting it straight on. The health bar resting at the top of my vision diminished slightly past the halfway mark.

It wasn't hard to whack the first half of its health out seeing as it hadn't engaged in defense tactics until the health bar hit the halfway mark.

"But if I jump down and get the shot it should give us enough attack points to kill it," Lance whined through the coms. I could tell he was trying to hide that childish aspect but failing.

"I don't think so Lance," I heard Hunk's voice make an appearance on the channel. "Let's play it safe for now. Cause I'm all about that safeness, you feel me?"

The channel was silent until Lance's determined voice filtered into my ears. "I'm gonna do it."

A chorus of groans rose from everyone that there was no talking him out of it now. All we could do now was watch it play out and hope this wasn't another one of his dumbass plans. I mean sure sometimes they worked out but then there were times where they'd burst up in flames. Quite literally.

My eyes trailed up the steep walls landing on where I could vaguely make out Lance's figure standing. He dipped out of sight for a moment until he came back into view sprinting with his rifle clutched securely in his arms. Then he was falling. I could hear the slicing of air through the coms along with the sound of Lance sucking in a sharp breath.

I don't know exactly when he shot the bullet. All I know is the health meter dropped to zero and faded away as the plix disappeared in a plume of black smoke. In its wake, the rewards were left. 200,000 Gac and a few blue vials containing health points.

But Lance was still falling. It took a moment for my instincts to kick in before I was running to where I thought he would land. Apparently, Allura and Shiro also had the same idea. We held out our arms and Lance crashed into us knocking all four of us into a dog-pile on the ground.

I snuck a glance at the health bars to see Lance's falling into the red zone. Man, he really is an idiot.

But I do admit it was kinda cool.