Archive of Our Own ^beta

It all happened when he was on a mission with Lance.

Actually, it shouldn't have been much of a deal. Just checking out a planet that was known for being in no way dangerous or harmful.
Apparently, the Altean records weren't updated in a while. The two paladins were walking over the vegetated surface of the planet, always keeping an eye on their surroundings.

The further they walked, the higher were the plants they passed. To their surprise, they haven't met any species so far. Nothing but plants.
“Don't you think it's a bit weird that a planet this diverse in vegetation without anyone living here? Like, this would be a perfect place for herbivore species, don't you think?” Keith squatted down next to a plant and took a closer look at it while the blue paladin looked down on his companion, raising an eyebrow.

“They're probably sleeping or hiding somewhere. I don't really see anything odd here. Just some plants chilling and doing plant stuff,” Lance said, one hand on his hip, the other up at his chin. Keith got up with a groan. “Let's just hope that you're right,” the red paladin mumbled.
He still had a bad feeling about this planet. But he just hoped that Lance was right. By now the plants reached way over the paladins' heads and stood closely together. Another thing that worried Keith.

“Keith, are you guys alright?” Shiro asked over the chip in the red paladin's ear. “Yeah. I just don have that good of a feeling about this planet.” The further they walked into the forest, the worse got the connection between them and the castle.

“The trees are blocking the connection,” Keith managed to say before he was cut off again. Lance was walking right behind Keith and next to the bad feeling he had about the planet, Keith now also had a bad feeling because Lance wasn't talking. He knew that he and the blue paladin didn't have the best bound of all the paladins but it still worried him when Lance wasn't talking.

“Hey Lance, are you alright?” Keith asked and took a quick glance at Lance over his shoulder. Startled at the concern of the red paladin, Lance stopped walking and almost got hit by a branch in the face. Keith worried about him? That definitely was something new.

“Huh? I'm fine. Just admiring the beauty of nature, you know?” The red paladin wasn't quite convinced but he knew that Lance would probably not tell him anything more, so he nodded and continued his way through the thick forest. Plants neither of them had ever seen before surrounded them. 

Suddenly, Keith came to a halt as they reached a glade in the middle of wild growing plants. It was a perfectly shaped circle and the only plant growing there was a white one that smelled like the ocean, pineapple, and coconut. Keith closed his eyes and took in a deep breath.

It smelled so incredibly heavenly but also very familiar.
Almost like home.
Or rather like a person that felt like home to him.

Before he was able to follow his thoughts more, he opened his eyes again and turned around to see that Lance had quite the same reaction as him.

Without the trees and plants, Keith finally had a chance to get back in touch with the others.

“Hey Allura, have you ever seen flowers like this before? Like on any other planet?” Keith asked as he kneeled down to take a closer look at the flowers.

“What flowers? As far as the recording goes there are only green plants known on this planet. They also don't blossom.” Keith frowned. “They are white and kind of shiny, I guess? They also smell extremely like-”

“Like leather, wood and a bonfire,” Lance said. The red paladin shot his companion a confused look. “What?” Lance asked, shrugging.
“To me, they smell like coconut, pineapple, and the ocean,” Keith whispered, the words rolling over his tongue slowly as the realization hit him.
Keith could feel the tension built up. Even though no one said it, he knew that something was definitely wrong here. He gently cut one of the flowers. Maybe they could get more information based on a sample.

While Keith waited for an answer and further instructions, Lance started to roam the place until he suddenly shrieked, covering his eyes with his hands. The red paladin immediately jumped up, drawing his bayard.
“What's wrong? Keith?” Shiro asked through the connection but Keith was too busy running up to Lance that he didn't have time to answer.
He came to a halt next to Lance and couldn't believe his eyes. In the middle of the glade was a pit filled with bones.

As he took a closer look, Keith figured that it wasn't only a pit. It was a hole completely filled with bones to the brim. “Keith? Lance?” The other paladins sounded worried but neither of the boys could find the right words to explain their finding.

“Allura, are you sure that no one lives on this planet? Because we just found a huge hole that is completely filled with bones from apparently different species. Some of them even look human. And when I mean a huge whole, I mean super huge,” Keith told the others.

Lance stood next to him still in shock. Outside of movies, he had never seen real bones and he actually never wanted to either. And definitely not that close.

“The last record of living species on this planet was way too long ago for their bones to still exist. Even considered You guys should get out of there and head back to your lions, now. We've seen enough of this planet to update our records. Come back to the castle as fast as you can,” Allura ordered, trying to hide her own worry and panic.

“I knew it,” Keith mumbled, grabbed Lance's wrist and pulled him away from the hole. The blue paladin stumbled after Keith as he tried to keep up with him.They managed to make it half through the forest when the ground beneath them suddenly started to shake and hell literally broke loose.

“Lance, run!” Keith shoved the blue paladin in front of him. The blue paladin finally realized that they had to get away from here and started running as fast as he could. Probably faster than he ever did. Keith was close behind him, throwing a glance over his shoulder every few seconds.

Crevices released gas and hot hair as the two paladins sprinted past them.

Both of them tried to contact the other paladins but they got no response. Lance was the first to reach his lion and was in safety as a bright light suddenly erupted from the center of the forest. Keith wasn't.
The pure pulse of energy followed by the brightness caught the red paladin off guard and set him stumbling over the shaking ground, falling onto his knees. Lance had his eyes covered and tried to communicate with Keith over their lions' communication system but the other wasn't answering.

Red wasn't even online.

He carefully opened his eyes, still shielding his eyes from the light. Thanks to Blue's darkened windowpane he was able to see his companion on the ground, clutching his head. Something definitely was off. “Keith, buddy!” But Keith wasn't answering. Luckily, the light and the whirled dust quickly faded and allowed Lance to leave his lion.
Which wasn't the safest thing to do but he had to get to Keith.

He still was careful so it was okay.

The red paladin tried to stand up and get to his lion but there were two major problems with that. First, he couldn't see anything and secondly, the ground started to shake and break violently. Blindly, Keith stumbled back and forth, calling out for help.

“Lance?!” For the first time in many years, Keith actually felt scared.

And not only scared but freaking afraid.

He never felt that way. At least not in a situation like this (I mean, you don't get swallowed by a planet any day but you probably get the point here).

The ground beneath his feet started to crumble and with a jolt, Keith landed on his stomach as the surface under him started to part like it was nothing.

He tried to hold onto something, anything. With all his strength, he tried to pull himself back up but there was nothing he could prop his feet on to support himself.
Next to that, not seeing made this even more complicated. Since one of his senses was disabled, he had to trust his other senses. But being able to clearly hear the surface breaking and cracking everywhere around and under him wasn't much of a gift, really.

Also, there was this strange voice that made the paladin shiver and sweat at the same time. Keith could feel his arms getting weaker and weaker, his muscles close to rioting. “Please, please, please,” Keith begged quietly, tightening his grip again.

He had to hold on.

His knuckles turning white, his fingertips soon starting to bleed. Great. 

When Lance exited his lion, he immediately started to run. He had to get to Keith before the ground turned his friend into its next meal or whatever. “Hold on, buddy,” Lance shouted. His legs felt like jelly and his head was spinning, his heart beating fast in sync with his heavy breaths. The adrenaline rushed through his body.

He had to save Keith.

If he wouldn't be able to get there in time, he wouldn't be able to look any of the paladins in the eye ever again and never look at himself again either. Losing Keith wouldn't feel like losing 'just' a teammate. It would feel like way more. Something even more painful that Lance wasn't even able to name.

Shoving all these negative thoughts aside, Lance reached Keith as the red paladin couldn't hold on any longer. Just in time, Lance managed to catch Keith's right arm, holding tight. “I got you, buddy. Don't worry, I'll get you out of there.” Keith looked up at Lance and wished that he could see the other paladin but hearing his voice did have a calming effect on him as well.

“Please don't let me go,” Keith barely managed to say, his voice shaking.
“I won't. Trust me, alright? I'll get your cute ass up here in seconds, just stay with me, okay? Trust me, I won't let go.”
“I swear, if you're going to kill me I will kill you right back.” Lance chuckled. “Shut up and trust me, mullet.”

Lance did his best to pull Keith up as fast but also as gentle as possible and wrapped his arms around the red paladin's upper body as soon as he had the chance to and pulled him up completely.
Keith was shivering, his hands shaking violently.

When Lance didn't say anything, Keith reached out and tried to find Lance's face.

“Keith? Are you alright? Wait … y-your eyes,” Lance whispered in shock. Still cradled in Lance's arms, Keith freed himself.

“Can we please get out of here before the planet tries to swallow both of us?” Lance nodded, not quite aware of the fact that Keith couldn't see it, and took Keith's hand into his own.

“I'll guide you to the lions, okay?” The blue paladin asked. Lance knew that there wasn't time for that but he had to be sure. Keith nodded.

“So you trust me?”

“Probably more than I thought I would,” the red paladin answered, his voice low and steady. With a smile, Lance wrapped his hand tighter around Keith's own and started to kind of walk and run at the same time, trying to find a way Keith could move forward without the danger of him tripping or whatever.

“You should get with me in Blue. Flying a lion in your condition is probably not the best,” Lance suggested as Blue already opened her mouth for her paladin to enter. “No, I'll pilot Red. Blind or not. Don't worry Lance, I'll be fine, okay?”

Even though he wanted to stay close to Lance (for no apparent reason obviously) but he needed to get back to his lion. Lance sighed. Stupid Keith and his stupid stubbornness. “Alright. But I won't let you out of eyesight,” Lance said, realizing too late what he just said. The red paladin grinned.

“I'll keep an eye out for you too,” Keith joked.

Perfectly in time, Red landed close to the other lion and Keith walked over to his lion, patting her before getting inside.

“Good girl,” he praised her before he groped his way to the cockpit. “We've trained for his, right girl?” He sat down and started his lion. And while he and Lance left the planet behind them, Keith could feel how exhausted he was. He probably wasn't physically tired but piloting without being to able to see anything was quite boring. “Turn on autopilot,” Keith mumbled before he fell asleep, Red's gentle purring calming his tired and exhausted body.

While flying their lions back to the ship, Lance kept an eye on Keith just like he had promised. Red was flying before Blue and this way Lance made sure that the lion went in the right direction, watching a peacefully sleeping Keith on the display.

When they finally arrived at the ship, the blue paladin quickly left his lion to get to Keith. Red willingly opened her mouth for the other paladin. Keith was asleep and Lance gently picked him up and carried him out of the lion were the other paladins greeted them.

“What happened?” Shiro asked, moving closer to take Keith away from the Cuban but the blue paladin wasn't having any of this.

“The freaking planet is alive and litereally tried to swallow Keith also there was this insane light explosion which blinded Keith, I guess?” Lance chatted happily or as he put up a pretty amazing act. His eyes were fixed on the sleeping paladin while he spoke and when he reached the common room Lance gently put Keith down.

Then, he took his and Keith's helmet off. Not only Keith's helmet had dust and dirt on it but also his pale face and his suit were covered in remains of what happened back on the planet.
Lance also checked for the red bayard and was relieved that it still was were it belonged – with Keith. There was no way he would returned to the planet to get either of their bayards.

Lance stripped himself out of his suit before undressing Keith as well, leaving them both in their thinner black suits.

“Will he be alright? I mean, he's not dead but like blind. Can we fix that?” Lance asked Coran who roamed around the sofa and did some checks on Keith while the others just stood around, eyes filled with worry. Hunk got Lance something to eat and drink as well as a wet towel so he could clean the dust off of himself while Shiro did the same to Keith. “Did you bring one of these flowers with you? Maybe we can get some information on its components and origin,” Allura uttered.

For a second, Lance panicked. Did they even think about taking one of the flowers? “Keith has one in his suit, look,” Pidge (thank God for this girl) exclaimed and got the flower out of the suit's pocket and handed it over to the princess. “I really haven't seen anything like this before. Have you, Coran?” The Altean stopped his investigation on Keith for a second to take a look at the flower.

Lance, however, took the opportunity to gently dragg his thumb over Keith's peaceful face. “We should put Keith into the healing pot for a bit and you, Lance, should get some sleep. It was a long day for the two of you,” Shiro ordered. “Whatever,” Lance mumbled, got up, looked at Keith once more before going to his room accompanied by Hunk and Pidge.

The other paladins had of course noticed the way Lance treated Keith, even before this mission. All of them wondered when something more would happen between them but non of them wanted to force the boys into anything they didn't want to be in.

While the yellow and green paladin made sure that Lance got into his room, showered and was properly tucked in, the black paladin picked Keith up with ease and went with Coran and Allura to the healing pots.

Then, Coran walked off to do some scientific tests on the flower, leaving Shiro and Allura behind to do whatever.
Pidge and Hunk stayed with Lance a bit until the paladin fell asleep (or in this case pretended to be asleep). He laid awake and thought about Keith with his stupid mullet, stupid laugh and stupid smile. All of his stupid comebacks, his stupid braveness and his stupid trust in Lance.

Why was that guy trusting him anyway? They were rivals, right? It always had been their rivalry that made them bound but what else? Was it possible that Keith liked him too in the way Lance like dhim? Like, like like him? Yes? Maybe? No? Lance needed answers but the only person able to give him those answers was currently blind and in a healing pot.

Stupid Keith.

Lance burried his face in his pillow with a big grin on his face thinking about the red paladin before he finally fell asleep.


The next morning, Lance didn't waste anytime at breakfast and directly went to check on the red paladin, who still was in the healing pot. “What is taking so long?” Lance mumbled, standing close to the window of the healing pot. He admired the proportion of Keith's face. He was perfect on the inside and outside. Lance knew that by now.

It took a long time for him and Keith to finally get along but all the time spent was definitely worth it. Even though they still had their differences, they made a pretty good team by now and Lance wouldn't give that away. “Hey, buddy. It's me, Lance.

Just wanted to let you know that I trust you too, you know? And even if you wouldn't be able to see properly anymore, I'll guide you, okay? And I'm also pretty sure that you still would kick all our asses blindly. Which doesn't mean that I don't want you to get better, I promise! Just … please come out of there soon.” The last sentence was nothing more than a breath of air. Lance looked at Keith for a bit longer as suddenly the barrier parting Keith and him got down and Keith stumbled out of the healing pot. Quickly, the blue paladin caught him.

“Keith, buddy,” the Cuban greeted him. Keith only groaned. Maybe because he was annoyed to see Lance or because of pain. Both would work perfectly. Keith's fingers dugged into Lance's jacket and he lifted his head and looked up. The paladins eyes were still not back to their usual color.

They rather looked opaque in the middle and then seemed more translucent.
It was weird but Lance kind of liked the color. Keith's eyes looked insanely awesome but they didn't look like Keith.

“I-I still can't see,” Keith whispered, his voice shaking. Lance had a flashback where he craddled Keith in his arms, shaking as hard as the earth beneath them. “I'm here, Keith. I got you, okay? You still trust me, right?” Keith nodded,”Yeah. I think so at least.”

Lance put Keith's arm around his shoulder and supported him with his own arm around the other's hip. “Let's get you some food and something to drink. We can eat together if you like. I haven't had breakfast yet. Or maybe lunch. Space and its time still confuse me.” Lance was rambling but Keith didn't mind.

He liked to hear Lance talk. It was calming and assured Keith that someone was there and cared for him. As soon as the two paladins reached the kitchen, they were surrounded by the other residents of the ship, trying to seperate the two and getting them each to their sear.

“No way, no one's touching Keith, okay? Poor guy can't see who's doing what to him.”

Wow, Keith thought, Lance really got his head in the game. “It's okay,” Keith said, his voice hoarse but less shaky.

The others exchanged a quick glance and then let Lance do his thing. Once Lance realized that Keith wasn't able to feed himself without getting goo everywhere, he simply started to feed the other paladin with giggled from both Pidge and Hunk. “Here comes the airplane,” Pidge giggled, trying to hide it behind her hand. Keith was trying to stare the green paladin down but not being able to see and starring someone down was quite the contradiction. Shiro shooed the others out of the kitchen and left Keith and Lance alone.

There was silence between them until Coran stormed into the kitchen.

“I may have found the cause for Keith's blindness.” Lance dropped his own spoon of space goo. “And that would be?” Answers. Finally. Not the kind of answers he wanted to hear and also from the wrong person, but answers. The other paladins walked into the kitchen, curious about the news Coran had for them.

“The flowers consist out of specific molecules that are highly sensitive to light and absorb it, then somehow process it into pure energy and store it inside their cells. It's like a rechargeable battery as you might call it on earth. And it seems like the planet is thriving from that exact energy. I couldn't figure out how it works yet. Further research and samples would be necessary to-”

“The planet is alive? Like, alive alive? Alive like Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy or how alive?” Lance asked, his jaw dropping to the floor as Coran nodded with a confused rise of his bushy eyebrows. “The planet is alive, exactly, blue paladin. And even further, the smell the flowers produce attracts the planet's actual prey,” the Altean explained further, twirling his moustache between two of his fingers.

“So, the light explosion was basically pure energy? I mean, light is basically nothing but energy but why waste it like that? I mean, it's bright one second and then it's gone? This doesn't make any sense,” Keith considered.

“That's because it's not gone, paladin. The energy is transmitted into the planet's atmosphere where it is used to trap its prey by blinding it or allowing the planet to fall apart and then stick the pieces back together. Quite an interesting technique, don't you think?”
The two paladins grumbled, the others expressing their discomfort as well.

“More deadly than interesting,” Keith said, rubbing his eyes. He could still feel the same burning he felt yesterday. This whole blindness thing made him crazy. “What an evil planet,” Lance exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. “But I found another interesting molecule,” Coran continued, still twirling his moustache between his fingers.

“It is possible that it continues a substance which can heal all kinds of injuries. I'll try and extract it but I can't promise if it will be efficient in any way.” Lance's eyes lit up.

“Keith, did you hear that?” The red paladin laughed bitterly. “I might be blind, Lance, but my hearing is just fine.” They both managed to crack a laugh as everyone had already existed the room. And neither of them noticed Shiro still standing in the door, watching them with a soft smile.

The days passed by and Coran was still working on the possible cure for Keith's blindness. Meanwhile, Keith started to adapt to his current handicap. He learned how to walk, eat and drink without either running into others or any walls as well as not making a mess of himself. The red paladin even insisted on training without eyesight. It gave him the opportunity to concentrate completely on his instincts rather than on what he saw. He usually failed at level three of the training sequence but was slowly getting better.

And Lance watched him the whole time. Not for his own pleasure, of course not.

Lance watched in admiration how well Keith seemed to handle everything. Except for the showering, which usually turned into a disaster. Mostly it was Shiro helping out there. Luckily, they didn't need to go on any missions during that time. Lance knew that Red would take care of everything if Keith told her to but in the heat of battle, it was safer if he was able to see.

Which didn't mean that Lance wouldn't trust a blind Keith in battle, you know? He just would be more worried than usual. Probably selfish but Lance didn't care much.

If he was honest, Keith sort of liked the attention he got from Lance. Not that he would use his handicap in order to be admired by Lance, never. It was just that the blue paladin was always there for him, waiting and encouraging him, calling out if he was about to hit a wall or take a wrong turn. Was it weird to say that they bonded even more? Ironic that it took such an incident for something like this to happen. But Keith wasn't complaining at all.


After about two or three weeks, Coran finally had the substance he was looking for. Everyone gathered in the common room around Keith and watched closely as he, with Lance's help, swallowed the substance. The red paladin closed his eyes, groaning in pain. “Come on, it has to work,” Lance whispered as his hand gently closed around Keith's own. The others noticed the act but didn't comment on it. After a while, Keith stopped groaning and opened his eyes carefully and blinked at his team.

His eye color was still adjusting but he was able to see again. Now, his usual dark eyes were still a bit opaque and translucent which looked a bit weird but also kind of adorable?

“Glad to have you back with like functioning eyes and stuff,” Lance said awkwardly, letting go of Keith's hand quickly. The others welcomed Keith back as well and Lance felt like he wasn't needed anymore. Keith-and-Lance-time was over. The blue paladin stood up and quietly walked out of the room.

He walked aimlessly around the castle as suddenly someone grabbed his hand and stopped him in the middle of his tracks. Confused, Lance turned around and directly looked at Keith. “Where do you think are you going?” Keith asked, causing Lance to frown. “What do youmean? I thought that I was free to got where ever I want to.”

The red paladin sighed.

“That's no what I meant but anyway, there's something I want to tell you.” Now it was Lance's turn to frown. Keith gently pulled Lance closer, pushing him against the wall and caging him with his arms on either side of the other. “Basically I just want to thank you for everything you've been doing for me lately. I really appreciate that,” Keith said, his eyes holding contact with Lance's blue ones. “Was that everything? Because I really would like to continue my little walk,” Lance lied. There was actually no place he would rather be right now than here with Keith. “I have something else to tell you which is … how do I put it? A bit harder for me than thanking you, I guess?”

Lance had to suppress a laugh.
Typical Keith, he thought.

“Please just don't laugh, okay? I'm serious. I've never done anything like this before.” The red paladin stopped himself for a few ticks and took a deep, shaking breath. “I really like you, okay? And back on this freaking planet with those crazy flowers and I smelled everything that reminded me of you, I just realized again how much we've changed. Not only on our own but also as a team. And when I wasn't able to see and had to totally put myself into your hands, it was more than I ever trusted anyone else before. Even Shiro. I didn't trust you because I had to but because I really did trust you. And I still do right now. I'm probably making a fool out of myself right now but I just can't keep all of this to myself.”

Lance was overwhelmed. He had never heard Keith talk so much and talk so much about his feelings. But it was also overwhelming that Keith actually liked him.

“Wait, you like me like like me like me or?”

Keith rolled his eyes before he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Lance's mouth.

Wrapping his arms around the other, Lance pulled Keith closer, moving his lips in sync with Keith's. It didn't work out as good as both of them wanted it to but it was good. Actually more than just good. With a soft smile, Lance leaned back against the wall and admired the pure beauty of Keith's face.

“I do trust you as well, you know? Like, you can rely on me any damn time. Count to three and I'll be there and if you are on the other side of the universe, I will get there and take you home. Over and over again if I need to. You can count on me and you definitely deserve that,” Lance said, voice low.

And Keith smiled.

“Home is were you and the others are.”

Lance blushed.

“And you can count on me too,” the red paladin added before embracing Lance tightly.

If Keith did learn anything in space than that reliance was key. Especially at war.

“Be the lightning in me, that strikes relentless,” Keith whispered before burrying his face in the crock of Lance's neck and just breathing in.

Coconut, pineapple and the ocean.