#plot swap

 “I mean, you could have asked for my help, you know, with coming up with material and such…” Hunk continued to babble as he moved back to the van.

 Lance turned to see the Altea museum and wondered what it was like in there. The doors were only open to everyone tomorrow, including News channels and Journalist. It was a weird thing to do but Lance didn’t really question it.

 He hadn’t even realised the sound of a car pulling up beside him, the crowd being too loud, until he went to turn back to Hunk and got sprayed in the face with some sort of liquid instead. He didn’t even feel it as he collapsed, his world going dark in a second.

 ~~~

 Keith finally felt like himself again, back in his Marmora clothes. His native Galran ears were the only thing visible passed his mask. He made sure that everything was set up properly while Pidge had been grabbing their hostage. Now she was on her way back, he could hear her grumbling over the comms about having to get the news anchor without her pets. It wasn’t his fault, she’s the one that forgot to bring the Rovers, so he didn’t know why she’d be grumbling at him. Maybe she just needed to work on her body’s muscles, instead of only her brain. Not that Keith was game enough to tell her that.

 Keith sighed, he really hoped it worked this time. Sure, Pidge was the brains of the operation but Keith was the face, the brawn, the one that always seemed to get his arse handed to him. He had almost been hoping that Pidge would leave him in the prison this time but she was determined and pretty much forced him from the prison. He would never admit it to her but he did love the smell of fresh air and being out of the horrid prison clothes that pulled at his fur.

 Maybe he could talk Pidge into doing less battles, though he did kind of like the fighting. Okay, maybe less elaborate battles then. He heard the car pulling up and moved to stand up from his chair. He’d never admit this either, but he kind of liked the vibrant news anchor they always took. It was too bad that the guy was in a relationship with Altea.

 He scoffed at his thoughts as he moved over to Pidge. She gave him a raised brow before motioning with her hand to the other car door. Keith stood and stared her down for a total of two seconds before he caved and went to the other door to grab Lance. He carefully pulled him from the car and walked over to the lone chair that sat in the centre of the room. He tired a rope quickly around him and pulled back to admire his work, or that’s what he told himself.

 Pidge’s pointed cough brought him out of his appreciative stare, he flushed under his mask, extra thankful that he had put it on before she had arrived, and turned to Pidge. She was pointing at his chair and he let out another sigh as he moved to sit back down.

 “Try to look somewhat like a villain, would you,” Pidge said as she checked calculations and whatever else it was that she did, Keith never really had any idea of what she actually did.

 Keith rolled his head as a sign that he was rolling his eyes at Pidge and she scoffed in return. He wasn’t too much of a talker but he and Pidge had a whole system for when Keith had his mask on and didn’t speak, which was often. It was one of the reason they worked so well together. Keith looked back over to Lance, he was still out for the count but Keith knew it would only be a few more second before the knock out spray would wear off. Keith got into a comfortable position, one he thought was probably imposing, and started to count the seconds out of boredom.

 ~~~

 Lance woke with an ache in his neck, he could pretty much guess what was happening. God, he was such a damsel in distress. Or well, he wasn’t really a damsel and he wasn’t all that distressed either, so really he was just a guy in a situation. He groaned as he rolled his stiff neck, lifting his head up to and coming face to face with Marmora. He wasn’t surprised, the guy had been capturing him for about a year now.

 It had started when he’d pulled Lance off the road and into his car. It had happened so quickly it had made Lance’s head spin. Marmora had had his mask on at the time but he had seemed to freeze once in the car. It didn’t seem like he’d meant to pull Lance off the road but he had and Altea had noticed. It had been a quick and simple rescue and Lance had been flustered, his head was spinning still and he had just met the infamous Marmora and Altea. Some journalist had happened to be nearby and had caught the moment Altea had pulled Lance to herself. That was all the news outlets had needed, apparently, for everyone to think he was dating a hero, a hero he didn’t even know might he add.

 To be frank, he knew more about Marmora than he did of Altea and he wasn’t quite sure how he felt about that.  Marmora hadn’t ever been seen without his mask on, which intrigued Lance. So he had always been curious about what Marmora looked like underneath. He really needed to stop thinking about that though.<em>I’m in a situation,</em>Lance tried to reason with himself,<em>get your head out of the clouds, Lance.</em>

 “So, what’s your plan this time,” Lance asked raising an eyebrow and putting on his most charming smile, “what kind of diabolical plots do you have this time?”

 Marmora stood up and stalked over to Lance, he felt slightly embarrassed by the flush that creeped onto his cheeks. Marmora stopped within arms-reach of him and looked down at him in silence.

 “What? Cat got your tongue?” Lance said with a chuckle and deliberately looked at Marmora’s ears. He wondered briefly how they felt? Were they soft? Did he liked having his ears scratched? Oh, god, would he purr? He was brought out of his pondering by the growl coming from Marmora’s chest and Lance just laughed louder. “Aw, did I get the little kitty angry?” Lance said, pouting his lips and talking to him like he was a kitten. “Is the big bad kitty going to get mad?”

 Marmora leaned forward toward Lance, grabbing the back of the chair with one hand. It made Lance’s breath catch in his throat. Marmora moved to purposely bring his other hand between them, examining his clawed fingers right under Lance’s nose. He pointed a clawed finger toward Lance and used it to trace a pattern around where Lance’s heart was, he used enough pressure to rip the top layer of fabric before he picked up the left over fabric and walked back to his chair.

 Lance looked down at his now useless shirt, a stupid heart shaped hole just off to the left. He chose to ignore his rapidly beating heart, and blushing face. Why did bad boys just have to be Lance’s type?

 A beeping came from behind Marmora and he turned to look at the large monitors, “Your girlfriend seems to have finally noticed.” Marmora spoke quietly as he accepted the communication.

 “Marmora.” Altea spat, the venom and hate in her voice was evident and Lance wondered what Altea as a villain would be like. The city would be doomed that’s what, the thought caused a shiver to run down Lance’s back.

 “Altea,” Marmora said in a dead tone.

 ~~~

 What happened next had Lance in a daze, he didn’t quite remember much after mocking Marmora and calling to Altea for help like the good little damsel they wanted him to play. And play it he did. But after watching as Altea got caught in the typical trap, Lance thought that she’d be able to get out easily. What he hadn’t been expecting was for her to be powerless. Powerless against copper no less, it just didn’t seem right to him, but how was he meant to question it properly when the evidence was plain to see. He just couldn’t seem to wrap his head around the idea that she was now gone, that Marmora had won, that the city was pretty much doomed.

 He lay in his bed, he wasn’t even sure on how he got home but apparently he was. He felt as if his brain had been moving slowly through molasses since yesterday. He couldn’t even remember if he had slept that night, all his thoughts just didn’t seem to moving. He turned to his alarm clock, it was blinking at him and as he concentrated on it he could hear the usual thrilling the thing let out to wake him up. 6:42 displayed on the clock.<em> It must have gone off and set itself to snooze when I didn’t turn it off</em>, Lance thought as he moved slowly over to the stupid thing.

 He still needed to work. He knew that Shiro would probably let him off for today considering he had been right there when it happened. But lance needed the distraction of work, of thinking about what had happened as if it hadn’t occurred right in front of him, he would just be relaying news that everyone already knew anyway.

 Today was going to be hell, he knew that and he wanted it over with as soon as possible. He started to get ready for work and was out the door by 7:15, even if he was having a brain dead day he wasn’t about to be someone that comes to work late.

 ~~~

 Keith, and Pidge, had had control of the city for the last week. Keith wasn’t sure if he was happy about that or not anymore. He had defeated Altea, finally, and he had everything he had ever thought he wanted but he couldn’t figure out why he didn’t feel like he did. It was making him angry, feelings were complicated and made no sense.

 He needed some air and maybe to go for a walk. He proceeded to go look for Pidge, he knew that the girl would be around here somewhere. Probably making some kind of diabolical device of mass destruction, she really loved making those. He walked down the silent corridors, thinking of what could help clear his mind when he finally spotted Pidge, blowing up a statue of some guy.

 <em>That’s it</em>, Keith thought excitedly,<em> I’ll blow up the statue of Altea</em>. Blowing up stuff always made him feel better. He walked up to Pidge and grabbed her shoulder to get her attention. She only turned and glared at him before going back to what she had been doing prior, trying, no doubt, to ignore his presents.

 “Pidge,” Keith shook her to get her attention, “I need dynamite, C4, or some other kind of explosive device.”

 Pidge looked up at him with a smirk on her face, “What are we blowing up?”

 “<em>I</em>,” Keith emphasised, “am going to blow up the statue of Altea.”

 Pidge pouted at that but still handed him the switch, “I’ll get the Rovers to set the stuff up for you. Press the button, you’ll have 30 seconds to get out of the way.” She turned to get back to her task but looked back when a thought occurred to her. “And I mean <em>out</em> of the way, Keith.”

 Keith rolled his eyes as he took the switch, “That was one time, Pidge.” He was just about out the door as Pidge called him back.

 “Here,” She had some sort of watch in her hand and he took it gingerly. He looked at it silently for a minute before Pidge sighed and turned to face him. “It’s so you can walk around looking normal. Or well, human.”

 Keith stared at her wide-eyed then looked back at the watch. He had said absentmindedly that he would like to be able to look like everyone else. Even for Altea it was only her slightly pointed ears made her look different and Keith was a little jealous of that. Whereas Keith was an ‘obvious purple fluff ball’, as Pidge liked to call his Galran looks, and it always made him feel a bit lonely, being the only Galran on Earth.

 “You, actually did it?” Keith asked, he hadn’t wanted to get his hopes up but they already were, it seemed.

 “Yeah, like months ago,” Pidge said with a shrug. Keith glared at her for not telling him sooner but then again he was really happy to finally be able to look like everyone else. Not that he’d tell her that, the little shit. “What? I forgot!”

 Keith wrapped the watch around his wrist and stared down at it. it looked like a normal black watch and it seemed to actually have a working clock face which was kind of handy. He turned his eyes back to Pidge but instead of explaining she just turned the watch face as Keith observed. There was a small flash and when his eyes adjusted he saw pale human skin in place of his usual purple fur.

 He ran his hands over the skin and was surprised to find that it actually did feel like skin. His mouth was gapping as he looked at Pidge but she was already trying to push him out of the room. He planted himself where he stood so his brain could caught up. “How?”

 “Complicated science that would go over your head so there is no point in telling you,” Pidge grunted as she continued at her attempts to push Keith from the room, “god, I gave you the watch. Now leave so I can get back to my work!”