Lance was in his usual position by the stove when he noticed the time. In the years since the war had ended, Keith and Lance had fallen into a routine. They went into work at the Garrison together in the mornings. Lance taught strategy at the boarding school in the beginning of the day, and then went in as a consultant in the afternoon. Keith did combat training with anyone who was assigned to him. He started as a teacher for the older students, but he became someone sought out by those with the ambition to get better. He did this in the evenings and was an ambassador to the Blade of Marmora the rest of the time, so his schedule was more flexible. 

It became routine early on that Lance would make sure to cook dinner every night because he loved reminiscing on something he did with his family growing up, and he wanted to be able to sit and eat and talk with his Husband every night.

Keith normally came home around 7 O’ Clock. That was their schedule. If he had something to do off world or was working late he always let Lance know. Tonight it was 8:17 PM and Keith still hadn’t walked through the door. Lance was reaching for his phone to send a text when he heard keys jingling outside. 

The second Lance is able to look at his husband’s face, his expression hardened and he pointed to the stool near the counter. “Sit.” 

Keith knew exactly what he was in for. He did as he was told and waited patiently for Lance to get the med kit out of the nearby bathroom. He’d come home beat up many times and Lance’s reaction was always the same. Intense worry and affection.

When he returned, Lance still didn’t say anything. He only unzipped the red pack that all of their emergency supplies were kept in and pulled out what he would need. Disinfectant wipes, sticker stitches, bandaids, neosporin, etc. 

He tilted Keith’s chin up to get a better look at his face and the evidence of a fight. He delicately thumbs away a streak of blood by Keiths mouth, saying nothing as he examines it. After a brief pause, Keith’s heart skips a nervous beat as Lance looks him dead in their eyes. His voice is quiet and tense, their anger barely restrained. 

“Who did this to you?” 

Keith took a deep breath. “Lance, you have to understand. It’s only been a few years. Things aren’t going to change in an instant.” 

“What are you talking about?” 

“People still blame the Galra as a species for what Zarkon did. You know that. That’s not something that can be fixed by winning a war.” 

“You’re telling me, someone found you and attacked you, because you’re part Galra?” Lance spoke incredulously. 

“Yes. That is what I'm telling you.” 

“And what did you do about it?” 

“I didn’t hurt him.” Keith said. “He may have been an asshole but I wasn't about to kill someone for that, lance. It wasn’t-”

Lance cut him off. “It wasn’t a big deal?! Keith this is a hate crime! You could have fought back and it would have been self defense!” 

“Yes, but-”

“I’ll go and fucking fight back! I thought we were over this bullshit! We went off into the world as children to fight a war while these people had no clue what was going on until the very end, and they have the nerve to be Racist?? To you of all people? Where is the respect, or gratitude, or human decency!?”

Keith tries to interrupt but can’t get through. If there’s one thing that Lance is passionate about it is the safety of his family. Especially the family he has fought and died (momentarily) for. Nothing would stop lance when it came to protecting them. Whether it was Keith, Rachel, Veronica, Marco, Luis, his nieces and nephews, Pidge, Hunk, Shiro, even Axca. Lance would fight. 

“Fighting isn’t the answer!” Keith finally shouted, really hoping that this didn’t turn into an argument between them. 

“What?”

“If we fight, or kill, or do anything physically violent to the people who think differently than us, are we any better than Zarkon? Zarkon was insulted once and decided the solution was to commit genocide. Do you want to stoop down to his level?” 

Lance was silent for a long time. Keith was right and he knew it. He knew he was being irrational, and that in any other situation he would be saying the same thing. He also knew that in saying this himself, Keith had grown from the reckless hotheaded kid he’d once been. 

“You’re right.” Lance said as he slumped down into the chair next to his husband. He was silent while he worked. Patching up the cuts and cleaning up the blood. Making sure everything was in order. 

It was a long time before Keith spoke again. “We have to go about this the right way.”

“We do.” 

The next morning went as usual, with only a slightly larger amount of wincing and sighing on Keith’s part. 

Dressed in their Garrison uniforms they were permitted through the strict security system after only a flash of their badges. If voltron was worth anything it was not having to wait an hour to get through security checks. 

This time instead of parting to go to their respective departments, they both headed to Legal. Since they didn’t go there often there were alot of people stopping them to talk. The usual things.

‘Haven’t seen you around here before’

‘You get into trouble?’

‘Goodness! What happened to you, Paladin Kogane?’

‘Paladins!’

‘My kids are huge fans’

It wasn’t long before they had made it through the pleasantries and dropped off the paperwork. It was when they were heading out that the chaos ensued. 

Not long after they left the legal department and were heading towards their car did they run into Pidge. And Matt. And Shiro. And Curtis. And Coran. And- You get the picture. 

They all immediately jumped into fussing over Keith.

“What happened?”

“Did you get into a fight?” 

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine!” Keith shrugged away their touch. “It’s not that bad” 

They took a moment to stay and explain to their friends what had happened and how they were dealing with it. They all agreed it was the right thing to do. Those things would be okay. 

It was only a week later when they started to worry. They still hadn’t heard back from the garrison about their complaint. Things as simple as this should be pushed through relatively quickly. Why weren’t they? 

They decided to give it another week, because things happen, but when they still didn’t hear back they took a day off work and went to speak to the head of the Garrison’s Legal Department. 

This time, since they were there not that long ago, they didn’t have to filter through the pleasantries as much so it went significantly faster. They went straight to the very back of the building to meet a man named. Mr. Thomas. 

Mr. Thomas was a large man in a barely fitting three piece suit. He had no hair and a beard that had seen better days. He welcomed them in and gestured for them to sit down on the two brown leather chairs in front of his cluttered mahogany desk. “Well, Paladins. What can I help you with today, on this rare visit.” 

Lance spoke first, as always. “We sent through a complaint a couple weeks ago, but we haven’t heard back once. We were just hoping to see about that.” 

“Oh, well we get a million complaints around here. It takes time to sift through them all.” 

“I’ve heard about quite a few getting through in less than a week. Ours isn’t very complicated.” Lance said, deceptively eloquent. 

“There’s no reason for it to take this long.” Keith spoke for the first time, startling Mr. Thomas. 

Mr. Thomas smiled a fake smile and opened the laptop sitting atop his desk. “Well, let's take a look at this then shall we?” 

He browsed for a moment, asking some questions to find the file in what had to be an unseemly large database of files. When he finally came across it his expression fell. “Oh.” 

Lance tilted his head, “Oh?”

“Things like this happen all the time. If we caused a fuss every time someone assaulted a galra we would never get a break. It’s really not a big deal. I suggest you move on with your life.” 

Silence. For a long moment no one spoke. Lance, for once, was at a loss for words. Keith was only dejected. He’d known a long time ago that he would face adversity for this, even though he had no control over it. It was just the luck of the draw, and Keith had always had the worst luck. 

Keith looked over at Lance, ready to let this all go and, like mr. Thomas said, move on with his life. However, he didn’t see a face that would be receptive to that idea. 

Lance’s facial expression had hardened, and his eyes had that stiff laser focus that was only seen when there was a rifle in his hand. All his attention was on Mr.Thomas as though he was a direct physical threat. In lance’s mind, he was. 

Lance stood up calmly and walked towards the desk, making complete eye contact with Mr.Thomas. “How often do ‘things like this’ happen? Do you get many complaints? Complaints that you overlook because of your own bigoted beliefs?” 

Mr. Thomas’s eyes widened. He didn’t dare speak. 

“Did you know that this is how Zarkon acted before he became a bloodthirsty dictator intent on genocide? He believed that anyone different than him deserved to die, along with anyone who got in his way. Is that what you believe? So much so that you would knowingly allow people to hurt others for that reason knowing that you have the power to stop it?” 

Thomas sputtered, trying to get out some excuse but lance didn’t give him a chance. “Push our reports through. And any like ours. Or i will make your life a living hell.” 

“Lance.” Keith spoke. He wouldn’t let this get any farther. He knew what would happen otherwise, and he learned that this wasn’t how things should be done. With threats and violence. He knew that in order to keep the peace they all worked so hard to create he had to be peaceful as well, and so did everyone else. “He’s not worth it.” 

Lance looked over at his husband’s solemn expression and all the tension in his body dropped. “You’re right. Let’s go.” 

This time they didn’t try to go straight home. This time they found an empty meeting room and gathered everyone they knew. They were going to make this right, and they were going to do it properly. 

Once everyone was there and the situation had been explained Pidge was the first to take action. They found all of the complaints similar to Keith and Lance’s in the last few years since the war. They filed through them together one by one. Sorting them by severity and time passed. It took hours. 

Shiro and Sam Holt used their high rank and large amounts of pull with the higher ups to plant some information about what’s been going on and Mr. Thomas. They even got a bunch of the legal team to help out. 

They personally contacted everyone who filed a complaint and was ignored. They explained the situation and they made sure everyone knew that they would do their best to get them recognized. 

In the next weeks they brought each case including their own against Keith’s assaulter, and against Mr.Thomas. They made sure everyone was seen, and everyone got the closure they deserved. This wouldn’t happen again. 

They won both of their cases. Keith’s assaulter was found guilty and was sentenced to reasonable time. Mr.Thomas was removed from his position and Keith and Lance got some say in who was hired in that place. They put in good words for the people in the legal department who helped and stood up to Mr. Thomas. 

They fought a war as children. They rebelled against a man intent on universal genocide. And they won. They weren’t going to let all of that go to waste. Things wouldn’t go back to the way they were if Keith and Lance had a say in it. 

Things would change.