Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Allura, relax. It's gonna be fine." Lance chuckled, watching the Princess fuss with her notes in front of her bedroom mirror. "Honestly, you're acting like you've never given a speech before."

“This one is different!” She whined, eventually tossing her notecards onto the vanity and dropping down next to him on the bed. “It can’t sound too tacky or unrealistic. The people might think we- I don’t actually care about them if its not… good enough.”

“You are basically the leader of this entire coalition, Allura. I don’t think the people will care that much if you mess up slightly.”

“Yes, but I care.” Allura dragged her hands down her face and let out a sigh. “This whole thing seems like it’s going to be a mess.”

“Everything has been carefully planned out to a fault, I’m pretty sure the only unpredictable factor is Myrhin and if he decides to be fussy.”

Allura sighed again, nodding in agreement. Despite her son being almost three months old and still small for his age, he was certainly very excitable.

“Where is Myrhin anyway?” Lance hummed, poking and prodding at the princess until she sat up so he could sit behind her and braid her hair.

“He’s with Shiro and Coran at the moment, they’re trying to decide which of them will get to hold him in his sling during the presentation.” Allura chuckled, starting to glance back at Lance but getting her head quickly repositioned to the front. “Though it’s more like they’re arguing about it at this point.”

“That usually happens with babies.”

“I’d believe it,” Allura smiled, rubbing at her neck. “It would make sense for Coran to hold him as you all will be standing at attention behind me, around the podium, but Shiro has been quite protective of Myrhin and I do bring up the point of new and future generations.”

“That makes sense too, I mean he did miss a week with him.” Lance sighed, finishing up the braid quickly and tossing it over Allura’s shoulder. He scooted over to the side of the bed and kicked his legs slowly. “I’m glad he’s doing well otherwise though.”

Allura nodded in agreement, running her fingers over the braid slowly. “I never thought having a child would be so exhausting.”

“Babies are that way,” Lance chuckled “I have plenty of experience with my huge family, all of us were expected to help out with a new baby. Also, I never expected Shiro to be such a dork with your kid, he’s like… the perfect example of being tied around Myrhin’s finger.”

Allura laughed “You are definitely right in that aspect, human baby talk is much different from altean but I think I prefer it.”

“I’m kind of scared to ask what Altean baby talk is like.”

“You are correct to be,” Allura looked over at Lance with a specific look, raising an eyebrow with a sly smile. “Our children were much fiercer than yours are.”

“You know I should expect that at this point.” Lance laughed, shaking his head slightly.

“Probably, I’m surprised Myrhin hasn't cried as much as I’ve been told human children do, Altean children rarely cry, and with the few missions we’ve had to deal with, i’m surprised he is this calm at all.”

Lance frowned at the comment and sighed softly, picking at the edge of his armor. There was part of him nagging at the back of his skull that something was going to happen today but he didn't know what.

“Hey Allura…?” Lance sighed, glancing up at her, watching her stand up and walk back to her mirror. “Are you sure this… thing is gonna be okay? Like this is a high profile event, it’s going to have at least someone with nasty intentions looking at it. I’m just worried someone is going to attack and we won't have any way to fight back since we would be so far from our lions.”

He had dropped back against the bed, pressing his palms into his eye sockets. Whenever Lance had gotten a bad feeling, something was going to happen, it didn't matter what it was. It was always just something. He didn't notice the soft look on Allura’s face as she walked back over and sat once again on the bed next to him.

“I am glad that you have thought about the logistics of this event and the risk factor, Lance,” Allura sighed, placing her and on his thigh “but I think you needn’t worry about it. Last I heard from Ryner, Keiria was heavily fortified and they had finally gotten the planetary barrier functional, there would be no way for an outside attack to happen.”

Yes, because that was entirely reassuring.

Lance sighed, moving his hand slightly to meet Allura’s gaze. Though it seemed that arguing further would be pointless and he didn't exactly want to stress the princess either, being only hours before the celebration.

“Alright,” He sighed softly, sitting up with a soft groan. Allura smiled at him and slapped his back playfully.

“Alright my paladin, you need to be heading to your lion for the procession.” She ordered, standing up way too quickly for someone of her age. Lance rolled his eyes with a breathy laugh.

“Alright alright,” he stood, stretching his back slightly. “Do you have your note cards?”

“In my hand and in my head,” Allura said with an annoyed huff “now get going before the others start wondering where you are for the procession!”

“Okay Mom. ”

“I am a mother, I will not hesitate to adopt you.”

“Now that’s just weird.”

Allura just shook her head and shooed him out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Lance sighed and looked down the empty hallway, only illuminated by the small fixtures evenly spaced along the wall.

They really had about two hours until they were actually processing, at least within distance of Keiria. So he didn't know why he was being kicked out right now, he certainly didn't need to go over the plan again, he practically memorized it at this point.

He sighed softly and decided to head to the kitchen, half because he hoped Hunk was in there and half because a small snack before the extremely long celebration was probably a good idea.

As he got closer to the kitchen entrance, voices echoed from within.

“I get that it makes sense for you to hold him the entire time, but he is my kid , and I want to hold him.” He heard Shiro say. Lance just raised an eyebrow and walked inside, to find out what he was even talking about.

Inside, he saw Shiro sitting in a low chair, holding the small child in his arm while he held a bottle up for him. Coran was standing across from him, arms folded and an unreadable look on his face.

“I don’t think you can fly while holding a baby, number one.” Coran huffed, shifting on his feet. Shiro just glared at him, opening his mouth to say something else when he caught sight of Lance in the corner of his eye.

“Hey Lance.” He sighed, turning towards the newcomer.

“What are you two arguing about?” Lance asked straight out, walking up to them. Even with the slight bit of the conversation he had heard,  it was certainly an interesting one.

“Shiro here wants to keep Myrhin with him the entire time during the procession and event.” Coran explained, not at all trying to keep the indignant tone out of his voice. Lance’s eyebrow cocked up higher than it had been. This is seriously what they were arguing about? Lance only sighed and shook his head, rubbing his temple.

“While I understand the sentiment, I don’t think that having Myrhin with you during the procession with you is such a good idea.” Coran gave Shiro a very I-told-you-so look, while the black paladin held his son much closer to him, a dark look on his face.

“BUT” Lance huffed, rolling his eyes at their looks. “It would make sense for Shiro to hold Myrhin during the ceremony, since it is his child and Allura does make mention of the next generation where she basically simba’s Myrhin. Okay, maybe she doesn't exactly simba him, but she is going to present him.”

He ignored the quizzical look on Coran’s face and stepped closer to Shiro, holding his arms out in the silent question if he could take the small child. Reluctantly, Myrhin was passed up to the blue paladin, a small coo coming from the babe as Lance shifted him up in one arm and offered the other to Shiro. He pulled the other up quickly and hummed, starting to bounce the child in his arms. It was at that point that Lance finally got a look a Shiro, and made a small disgusted noise.

“Dude, you look like you haven’t slept in a few days, and you have spit up on your shirt. You know the procession starts soon, right?”

“Yes I do know, I know I have spit up on my shirt, and I really haven't slept well the past few days.” Shiro said, giving Lance a pointed look, but sighed as the look was given right back at him. “Yeah, I should probably go take a shower…”

Lance smiled in approval at him and patted his shoulder as he walked out of the room. A few small noises came from the babe as Shiro left, looking up at Lance with a wobbling lip, threatening to start crying. While yes, that face was quite adorable, none of them wanted to listen to a child wail only hours before a stressful event. Lance tutted his nose and grabbed the pacifier attached to his clothing and offered it to him with soft offers. Myrhin quieted down and sucked on the binky before stretching out in Lance’s arms.

“Shiro and Allura are lucky to have such a cute kid.” Lance chuckled, looking over at Coran. “I think my mom would be jealous at how pretty their baby is. Hey, even I’m jealous.” The older gentleman just shook his head softly with a chuckle, twirling his mustache with a fond look on his face.

“Myrhin looks very much Allura did when she was a child. Well actually, he reminds me more of Alfor, except for having dark hair of course.” He sighed softly, looking affectionately at the relaxed baby as if he was lost in memories of the past. “I remember when Allura was born of course, Romelle had waited so long and just wanted to get it over with, but said it was worth it as Allura was placed in her arms.” Lance listened to Coran explain, eventually taking the seat where Shiro had sat only moments before. It was nice hearing Coran talk about the past, but it tugged at his heart strings to see the loneliness in the others eyes as he continued.

“My husband was quite jealous of Romelle in reality, but he was with her every step of the way. He fawned over Allura when she and Alfor had to leave her in our care, he even went so far as to whine at me about not having one of our own when she was gone. We actually had a child on the way, we were both overjoyed with the fact that we ourselves would be parents. Then the fall of Altea happened, and that hope was ripped away from me.. But enough about my life, we have to look to the future now, it’s the thing keeping us going and of course someone has to be a grandfather to Myhrin, who else would spoil him?”

Lance fought down the urge to respond that the rest of the paladins would, but he just shook his head with a sad smile, rubbing at his eyes. He slowly stood and handed Myrhin off to Coran and took a step back.

“Thanks for telling me about that Coran… I’m… sorry about your husband… “ He took a deep breath. “I think I might want to go find my own now, though.”

Coran nodded, shifting Myhrin up in his arms better until he was properly held. “I have to go get this little one bathed and all dressed up for the procession, can’t have him looking all mucky like.” He joked, giving the other a playful smile.

Lance chuckled at it and waved to Coran quickly before jogging out of the room. It was most likely that Keith had gone to Red’s hangar in the short while they had before needing to take off. There was a likely chance that Keith was pacing about at the thought of trillions of eyes staring at him, whether in person or on a screen. If he wasnt, Lance would have been severely worried about it as he knew Keith did not handle large crowds, or being the center of attention, well.

---

The only sound in Keith’s head at the time could only be described as unintelligible screaming. Currently, he was laying on the floor of Red’s hangar as he tossed his knife in the air with his fingers and caught it with practiced ease.

Direct attention has never been an easy thing for him to deal with, even indirect attention wasn't good. After being scolded profusely for drawing attention to himself as a child, being thrown out of the garrison for bringing attention to himself after refusing to believe Shiro was dead, and countless missions where drawing attention to himself meant death, having people looking at him usually left a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach and anxious energy thrumming through his veins.

So now he stimmed, he didn't exactly know how long there was until they were supposed to be in position for the procession and since he was told that he wouldn't waste time and blow off steam fighting the gladiator, so he played the dangerous game of of tossing his knife in the air and catching it by the blade with his fingers. It was dumb, he just needed to do something-

“Keith what the fuck are you doing?”

He flinched slightly and caught the knife before arching up to see who had walked into the hangar. With seeing his husband standing there with a slight horrified look on his face, Keith laid back down and continued tossing the knife back into the air.

“I dunno”

“You know you're gonna stab your face while doing that”

“No im not”

“Yes you are”

“How do you know that”

“Because you've done it before.”

“That was one time”

“Keith”

A low noise came out of his mouth as he caught the knife for the final time and ended up just splaying out like a starfish. He was too restless for his own good. He stared up at the ceiling as he heard Lance walk over slowly, the clack of his boots sounding loud against the almost silent hangar. Keith could feel Red brush up against his mind pacing in the back of his head. It seemed that even his lion was restless, or his restlessness was rubbing off on her, either way they were itching to do something.

“Nervous i'm assuming?” Lance sighed, plopping down next to him.

“Yeah” Keith sighed, reaching up and rubbing at his eyes. “I want to do something to blow off steam or just get rid of this stupid energy but i was told i wasn't allowed to fight the gladiator”

“Well, i can understand why. You get lost in fighting that thing for hours.”

“I do not!”

“Last time you were fighting the gladiator, i had to come get you because you missed both dinner AND Lunch”

“Not my fault.”

“That is exactly your fault” Lance sighed and flopped over Keith's stomach, letting out a soft ‘oof’ while Keith whined and pushed lightly at Lance’s side, not exactly wanting him  to get off but needing him not to crush his ribs.

“When did you get so heavy” Keith groaned, eventually just resting his arm over Lances back.

“When did you get so weak” The other sighed, shifting just a bit so he could look up at Keith whose face was now scrunched at that comment. “I'm joking, i'm joking”

“You better, I could throw you over my shoulders.”

“I know you could, you've done it before.”

“Hpmh”

Lance rolled over across keith, ignoring his grunts until he was resting his chin at the top of Keiths chest.

“So why were you tossing the knife?”

“Pidge calls it stimming so i guess that's what it is “ Keith said, carding his fingers through Lances hair.

“That makes sense”

“I guess”

“So you're fidgety, which explains why you wanted to go train”

“I mean-”

“You’re nervous about the procession i'm assuming?”

“...yeah”

“I don't blame you” Lance sighs, leaning forward slightly and kissing Keith softly. “I think this whole this is being overhyped”

“it's dumb, why can't we just fly down.” Keith sighs, wrapping his arms around Lance and pulling him closer.

“Cause people are saying it needs to be special or something, i don't really know either, I'm just going through with it” Lance shrugged, pressing his face into Keith's neck.

“Its dumb”

“Yep”

“I don't know if i can physically stay still for Allura’s entire speech” Keith huffed, glancing over at Lance pushed himself up out of his husbands arms. “What are you doing?”

“Standing up, you should stand up too”

“I don't want tooo” he whined

“Keith”

“Fine”

WIth a bit of help from Lance, Keith stood up and stretched, shuddering at the feeling and sound of his back creaking and popping.

“Allura’s speech isn't going to be that long, unless she freezes or intentionally draws it out.” Lance explained, stretching his back as well. “Which i doubt because she doesn't want to be up there for longer than she needs to be. Its like most of us hate crowds.

“Do you blame them? The only one without real social problems is you” Keith snorted, crossing his arms.

“Hey, i've performed in front of lots of people for years, it comes with the territory” Lance chuckled, but let his face fall as he thought about the others legitimate problems. Shiro being reminded of the screams and cheers of the arena, Pidge not being able to handle tons of people and noises, Keith the same, and Hunks all in general anxiety and thinking about all the things that could happen. Their eyes met and Keith's face soured as he realized what Lance was thinking about. He didn't want to admit his problems most of the time, hoping to just be able to slide by without many people noticing.

“If i can hold something behind my back to fidget with ill be fine, Lance.” Keith assured, stepping forward and pulling Lance forward to press their foreheads together softly.

“Alright” Lance sighed, nuzzling his forehead back. “In other news, Coran told me about his husband.”

“He had a husband?”

“Yeah, im pretty sure you were there when he went into one of his long winded stories about Altea.”

“When?”

“A few weeks ago?”

“It might've been when i got back from a blade mission and tired as hell.”

“Yeah it might've been then.”

“But what about it.”

“I didn't realize how much seeing Allura and Shiro playing with their kid and subsequently Coran talking about his husband wanting a kid, made me want to have one eventually too.” Lance chuckled softly, pulling back and brushing his fingers through his hair.

“Lance…” Keith started, reaching out hesitantly to him. He was still unsure about the whole concept and even approaching it was still a touchy subject.

“Yeah yeah i know” He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “You have your reasons for being iffy about it and we've talked before about not starting a family until were more mature or some shit. I’ve just been thinking about it okay?”

Keith flinches back and looks down, rubbing his arm. Now he just felt guilty about it, he thought back to when Myrhin was being laid on his chest and the anxious energy he felt with just being with him.

“Sorry…” Lance sighed, his hand brushing over his face one last time before looking at Keith. “Bout of homesickness after talking with Coran.” Lance knew if felt like a lame excuse but it was the best one he could give at the moment.

“It's fine-” A loud alarm came from the phone in lances pocket. Keith tried not to flinch at the sudden irritating noise and visibly relaxed as it was turned off. “And that was…?”

“Thirty minute warning until we need to be in position for entering the atmosphere.”

“Oh”

“Yeah”

“So that means..?”

“I should head to Blue’s hangar and you board Red? Yeah.” Keith nodded and looked at Lance as he came over and kissed Keith's cheek softly.

“Love you” Lance smiled, pulling back and letting their fingers linger in each others before Lance left to head to the other hangar, leaving Keith alone with red in the large empty hangar.

Chapter Text

The Blue Lion landed on its designated launch pad and Lance couldn't shake the feeling of dread in his chest. The procession had gone fine and well, so why he still felt like something was going to go wrong was completely beyond him.

After exiting Blue, he made his way up to the room they were all supposed to meet in. Each sound that wasn't his own made him flinch. It was frustrating feeling this anxious.

He sighed as he opened the door to the room and looked at the others already there. They were all sitting on various couches aside from Pidge, who decided to sit on the floor, and Coran, who stood behind the couch Allura was sitting on.

“Well now you finally show up” Pidge teased, sticking their tongue out at him.

“Oh shut up” Lance sighed, walking over to his husband and plopping down next to him. He relaxed a bit as Keith wrapped his arm around Lance’s shoulders, letting him lean into his side.

Even with the others being calm about the whole event, he couldn’t convince himself that everything was going to be alright.

“You good, Lance?” Hunk asked, looking over at the male.

“I don’t know, I have this feeling that something’s going to happen” He groaned, dropping his head back against Keith’s shoulder.

“I assure you, everything is going to be okay” Allura said, standing up. “There is security everywhere. If something were to happen, they will be quick to subdue it.”

Lance sighed and watched her smooth her dress out, nursing his bottom lip for a few seconds.  

“Can you guys just promise me to be on your guard? Something always happens when I have this feeling.” He pleaded softly, hanging his head. The feeling in his chest didn’t dissipate as he heard the others make small agreements and nods.

He kind of felt bad for making them possibly more stressed than they already were. A sigh left his mouth as he stood up and ran fingers through his hair.

“Sorry..” he mumbled quietly, walking over to the rather large windows to look out to the crowd.

“Don’t be sorry” Hunk said somewhere behind him. He heard a couple of the others get up and shuffle over to the window as well, the familiar and warm hand of his husband snaking around his waist and pulling him closer.

Outside the window, they saw just how many people had shown up in front of the building to see this live and in person. The mall was filled of peoples of all sorts, eagerly waiting for the chance to see the last Altean princess and the saviours of their universe.

Lance felt Keith stiffen against his side and watched as Pidge started to gnaw on their bottom lip. Even to him, the size of this crowd was daunting. He took a deep breath and squeezed Keith’s side with one hand and placed the other atop Pidge’s shoulder.

Even if he was nervous about something happening, he didn't want the others to be worse. He didn't pull away from the two until he felt them relax a little bit.

Lance walked over to the couch and sat down next to Shiro, looking down at the child laying in Shiro’s lap, too preoccupied with the stuffed caterpillar in his hands to noticed the presence of the newcomer coming into his vision.

“How’s he doing?” Lance asked softly, rubbing his finger over Myrhin’s cheek slowly.

“He’s been alright so far, wasn't fussy with Coran.” Shiro hummed. “I can only hope he won’t start to get fussy in the middle of the speech.”

The babe finally looked up from the caterpillar to Lance, starting to smile brightly. He couldn’t help but smile back and booped the babe’s nose softly, making him giggle.

“Fussy baby, fussy baby, no no no!” Lance said, wagging his finger down at the child, tapping his cheeks and forehead with each ‘no’. He looked up at Shiro after a few seconds and chuckled at the perplexed look on his face.

“What was that?” Shiro asked, reaching down and picking up the toy from where it had fallen onto the floor and placing it back onto Myhrin’s chest.

“Just a thing my family does.” He shrugged. “It’s a superstition thing but it’s worked for all the McClain kids.”

Shiro hummed softly and looked back down to the babe. He picked up the binky attached to the onesie and gently coaxed it into Myrhin’s mouth.

Lance smiled and smoothed his hand over the back of the babe’s head, smoothing over the little hair there.

“You ready for this?” He said, turning his head to look at Shiro.

“As much as I can be.” Shiro sighed, shifting his son into a better position in his left arm before he stood slowly.

Lance decided that the motion was his cue to stand as well, looking to the others getting up as they noticed Allura’s motion towards the door.

He took a deep breath and followed her out into the corridor, reaching his hand out behind him, waiting for Keith to take the message and grab his hand. After a few seconds he paused and looked behind him, giving Keith a look before grabbing his hand and linking their fingers together.

“Sorry” Keith mumbled softly, walking up next to him.

“It’s fine” He sighed, smiling softly as Keith rubbed his thumb over his own.

It was quiet as they walked down the rest of the hallway. The only sound their footsteps echoing and bouncing against the walls and Myhrin’s small coos as he started to fall asleep.

Lance frowned and squeezed his husbands hand as the dread resurfaced, building a lump in his throat.

“Keith-” He whispered, looking over slightly.

“Hm?”

“Normally I’m the one saying that everything is fine… but can you tell me that…?” He sighed. “Something just feels… off…”

“Everything is gonna be fine Lance.” Keith said. “There are blades everywhere just in case.”

“You sure they notice a threat when it shows up?”

“Yeah.”

“Hm…”

Lance sighed and shook his head, slowly to a stop as they reached the entrance to the balcony. Keith’s hand slowly slipped from his as the he stepped in front of Lance, Pidge standing next to him, Hunk stepping back to stand next to Lance, and Allura and Shiro, heading the front.

Lance watched as Allura pressed a quick kiss to her son’s head before the doors opened.

Bright sunlight filled the corridor, blinding each of them before the roar of the crown below.

Allura’s silhouette stepped through the doors slowly, making her way up to the edge of the balcony. The team followed out behind her, their eyes adjusting to the light slowly.

The sound the crowd made did not justify the actual size of it all.

There had to have been over ten thousand people in person watching, who knows how many more just watching from their own homes.

Lance tried to swallow around the lump in his throat and found he couldn't. The sound of the crowd pulling back and forth, clashing with the sound of his own blood coursing through his ears. He didn't realize that he had gotten to his position and Allura had started until she was part way through her first sentence.

“Six years ago, Zarkon ruled the universe with a tight fist. There seemed to be no hope in sight, Voltron a legend lost to myth, and the days growing darker as time went past.“ She started.

Hearing the rehearsed words put him slightly at ease, but looking out across the crowd only made the feeling worsen.

“Three years ago, he crumbled along with his empire. The universe was free of his grasp and we began to rebuild.” He watched Allura take a deep breath, stealing whatever nerves she had left before continuing. “Today we stand here in the capital of the coalition, thousands of planets and trillions of people that have come together to restore the universe to its former glory.”

The crowds roar grew in volume, cheering at Allura’s message. Lance looked down to the crowd, at all the civilians and bystanders. Even from that great a distance, Lance could tell there were very few galra scattered about, not even making up two percent of the people there.

Allura waited for the crowd to quiet, licking her lips in preparation for a longer piece.

“At this moment I wish to celebrate the unity we have created, from the work it took to get to this point, from coming together to rebuild our cities and homes.” She smiled, gesturing out to the city beyond. “Without the cooperation of everyone and the dedication most put into it, none of this would have been achieved, I congratulate all of you for making this happen.”

“Do not take my message as one to stop, to no longer work together, or believe the work is done. ”

Novira sneered at the speech broadcasted across the city. This ‘princess’ was no princess of hers, or any of theirs. She had served the galra empire faithfully for so many years, and for Lord Zarkon to just be taken down by a mere six children was blasphemous.

Ten thousand years of work towards the empire only to come crashing down by a handful of people, truly disgusting. She spat on the ground in the direction of the nearest holoscreen projecting the speech.

“Oh, it's not done, Princess. Not as long as loyal Galra still draw breath.” Novira hissed below her breath, pulling down her hood before walking back down the alleyway to the other three in her group. Unlike her, they had only been civilians upon Zarkon’s defeat but all had their lives ripped from them with Voltron’s path of utter destruction.

“Are the others in place?” Novira asked, standing above the three who were huddled around a small device.

“Not yet, a few of the groups have been slowed down by crowds and one has been stopped by security” Denomar huffed, covering the mic in front of his mouth as he listened to the radio chatter of both their own groups and the security of the city.

“Tell me when they get into position.” Novira ordered, glancing back to the crowd outside the alley, too entranced with the screens above with images of their ‘princess’ to notice that they were in grave danger.

“I encourage you to continue, to keep pushing forward. Together we are strong! We are but all parts of the same whole, without one another we would crumble.”

“Pathetic fools, they will see the true might of the galra empire. They are not strong, they crumbled so long ago.” Novira chuckled to herself. After leaning against the alley wall, she pulled back her sleeve, checking the rendezvous time. The others still had a few minutes before they were to launch their assault.

“This bond we have created is stronger than that of voltron.”

She glanced to the side as Tofierh walked up slowly beside her, looking out across the crowd. There was a subdued look on her face, which Novira brushed off as only nothing more than pre-battle worry for their victory.

“Each part of this whole is equally valuable in its own right, the humans, the olkari, the unilu, the balmerans, and even the galra, each are crucial in this experience.”

Tofierh frowned in the middle of the Princess’s sentence, returning the glance towards the former commander.

“Do you think that it is actually a good idea for us to do this?” She asked, rubbing her elbow in uncertainty. There would be no room for such thoughts now, not when they were so close.

“It is the only way to get back what is rightfully ours.” Novira snapped as she completely turned toward the other. “If this is not done we will only continue to be persecuted and hated by all. Any hope you had of taking revenge for your family will be a hopeless endeavor.”

The smaller woman backed up as the former commander crowded into her space, towering over her.

“We are all made of the same cosmic space dust and one cannot exist without the others.“

“We are nothing like them” Denomar growled, standing from his huddled position. “We were the ones who were stronger, who kept everyone in line for so long. Without Zarkon’s empire, everyone else would have dissolved into chaos without interference.”

“I don’t know if I want this either-” Emmer spoke softly. “I mean, I just want my farm back...”

“If you want your farm back, you must fight for it!” Denomar hissed, baring his fangs and making Emmer flinch. “Yet here you stand, pathetic and full of cowardice!”

“Being wary of killing people is not cowardice Denomar!” Tofierh hissed back, grabbing the others shoulder and shoving him to face her.

“No one in service of the empire would even toy with the idea of hesitating!”

“Not all of us were in service of the empire!”

“Save it you two!” Novira interrupted with a growl. “Save your rage for those who deserve it. Instead of bitching about the past, secure your revenge by taking it into your own hands.” She picked up one of the bombs from the napsack at her hip, shoving it into Tofierh’s hand.

“I wish you all to think about the future, how, as we continue, it would grow safer for our children and the generations to come.”

Tofierh stared at the bomb in her hand, taking a deep breath and gripping it tightly. She looked up to the screen projecting the princess. The Black Paladin had stepped forward to stand beside her. The infant in his arms giggled and grabbed at the Princess, his features an unmistakable blend of both adults as they smiled fondly at the child before Allura turned her gaze outwards once more.

“I… miss my family… and I want them back desperately…” Tofierh said shakily, wiping her eyes with her free hand. She took another deep breath and pressed the bomb against Denomar’s chest, making him take it. “But murdering innocent people, and ripping apart families… will never bring them back.” She looked up and met Novira’s eyes, returning the harsh glare with a determined look of her own.

“Their lives are in our hands and we must do what it takes to make it a world safe for them and for ourselves.”

“I refuse to take part in this senseless attack”

“Then you are faithless,” Novira growled, fingers beginning to twitch. “Faithless and pathetic, there is no space in this universe for galra who refuse to fight.”

“Then we never belonged in the first place.” Tofierh said as she stepped back, prepared to walk away. “The Empire died with Zarkon.”

“I wish you also to think of the people who were almost completely wiped out, how now that Zarkon is gone.”

“Then you are a fool!” The ex-commander yelled. “A coward who wants to believe a princess who cares nothing for you!”

“I don’t believe her! I want her to hurt and suffer as I have! But killing her child and those who have done nothing, is nothing I will do!”

“they can begin to thrive and survive on their own, their populations beginning to rise and having a chance to continue on.”

Something snapped in Novira, she lunged forward and grabbed Tofierh by the collar, picking her up and pressing her against the alley wall. The rough brick of the wall dug into Tofierh’s back, making her whimper and squirm as the fur was scraped off with the skin underneath.

“You are even more pathetic than I thought, you worthless half breed” She growled, pressing the other into the wall further. “A weakling like you should have been killed decapheobes ago”

“I know my own planet is gone, my people genocided in Zarkons war path, but I wish it to be different for everyone else, to not be distraught over losing their people and their culture with no way to pass it on. “

Tofierh pulled up her legs and pressed them against Novira’s chest, pushing hard until she was released and dropped to the ground.

“Weaklings like me are the people who will succeed our race.” She hissed and stood quickly, rushing to grab Emmer’s wrist and pulling them to the alley entryway. “Those like you will only make the view of us worse.”

Novira growled and watched as they left. She spun towards Denomar and picked up the bag of bombs.

“We begin in two minutes.” She sneered, tossing a few bombs to the other. “These people will learn the true might of the former galra army.”

The bombs were designed to detonate under pressure or if the allotted time had passed. Novira pulled off the pin from the bomb and tossed in her hand, looking out to the crowd.

“See you in hell princess” She hissed and threw them into the crowd.

“There is hope in my heart, and in voltron-”

It flew through the air, towards the center of the crowd.

“That you all will continue to work together-”

The smirk on Novira’s face grew as she tossed another, watching the the unrest in the crowd grow.

“to create a better universe-”

There was terror on the crowds face as the realization of what was thrown came to them.

“to strive for greatness-”

Three...

“and to live in this universe-”

Two...

“In harmony-”

One...

“and peace.”

“THERE’S A BOMB!!!”

And then it was chaos.

Chapter Text

Lance stared down at the ensuing chaos. Frozen in place he felt his fingers go numb, panic rising in the back of his throat. Distantly he heard Allura’s yell for them to head down and help as many as they could.

Most of the others had already jumped off the ledge, racing towards where the bombs were starting to go off.

But Lance couldn’t move, the panic blocking his throat and narrowing his vision.

Echoes of explosions ringing in his ears.

Pain in his back growing hot.

He couldn’t breath.

He couldn’t

Shiro’s mind began to race as soon as the bombs went off. His first instinct to follow the other paladins who had already jumped off the ledge but the sound of the infant in his arms beginning to wail stopped him. Instead, he reached forward and pulled Allura back by her wrist.

“Take Myrhin and get out of here.” He said quickly, none too gently pushing the infant into her arms. “Get to the castle, set up defenses. Make sure any civilians in need of immediate medical attention get to the pod room.”

Coran nodded and left immediately racing through the doors and down the hall. He was only met with a worried look from Allura, the wails of the infant in her arms louder than the echos beside them.

“Everything’s going to be okay, just get out of here and make sure Myrhin is okay.” Shiro said, kissing Allura quickly, then his son’s forehead. “I’ll see you soon.”

Shiro watched for a second as Allura frowned then ran from balcony with a small look over her shoulder.

He hoped they would be alright.

He turned back, looking toward the plaza and about to head down, but the strike of blue caught his eye.

“Lance?”

The blue paladin hasn't moved from his position, his eyes wide with terror as his hands shook. Lance hadn’t even responded to his name being called.

“Lance,” Shiro said again, hurrying over to him. “What’s going on?”

He only needed to see the distant look in Lance’s eyes to understand what had happened.

Shiro took a deep breath and tentatively reached out towards the blue paladin.

“I’m going to touch you, is that alright Lance?”

After seeing the small head nod, he gripped Lance’s shoulders, moving him only slightly to be facing him better.

“Can you look at me?” Shiro asked, glancing back for a second at the ongoing terror and swallowing the lump in his throat. He couldn’t take too long with this. He needed to get down there to help the others.

Only after he put his hand on Lance’s cheek did the Blue paladin truly look at him, his eyes still wide with distant fear.

The screams behind them only got louder as a building started to collapse.

“We have to go down there and help.”

“I-i- c-can’t Shiro, I can’t.”

“You can’t do this right now” Shiro said softly, wincing at his own word choice. “I know it hurts, I know it’s painful, and debilitating, but there are people who need our help.”

“-hurts..” There were tears freely flowing from Lance’s eyes now.

“Come on, breathe for me, okay? Breathe.”

‘Shiro, where are you at? We could use your arm right about now!’ Pidge’s voice crackled in his helmet.

“Give me a second.” Shiro said into his comm. “Lance is panicking.”

‘Fuck, do you want me to come back there?’ Keith asked quickly.

Shiro could tell he was itching to drop everything and get back with them.

“No, I got this.” Shiro sighed, steeling his nerves. “Keep helping the civilians”

There was a reluctant sound for a second but the comms quickly shut off as the others went back to the mission at hand.

Lance was shuddering with each breath he took, but it looked like he was focusing on doing so. After a few more seconds and Lance flinching after another bomb went off, Shiro had to pull away, looking out behind them at the destruction.

“Shit…”

“I’m sorry,” Lance said, his voice breaking. He took a final deep breath and wiped his eyes, letting it out with another shudder.

“Better?” Shiro asked,  glancing back at him.

“I guess.”

“Let’s go then, we still have to help everyone.”

“Yeah…”

Shiro sighed as he watched Lance sluggishly put his helmet on and walk to the ledge.

Without a second look back, Shiro stepped up to the ledge and jumped over, sliding down the side of the building and into the smoke.

Pidge tripped and stumbled over something, they didn’t dare look down. They knew that it wasn't just rubble beneath their feet.

“Fuck…” they wheezed, pushing themself off the ground and regaining their balance.

Everything had mostly calmed down by then, everyone was also running on their last reserves of energy.

Hunk was making trips back and forth from the medical bay to the base of the castle taking the worst of the injured to the few pods they had available, Lance helped tend to the injured that didn’t need a pod, Shiro had gone into buildings to cut the structural supports that had trapped people, and Keith was running around with the Marmora, rounding up all those suspected of causing the bombing.

Which only left Pidge to roam around the rubble, searching for people who may still be alive, trapped under the broken buildings, unconscious or awake.

It wasn’t the first time they had seen disaster, it wasn't the second, or third.

The entire team had seen destruction thousands of times but dealing with it emotionally never seemed to get any easier.

Pidge sighed and pulled their helmet off, pushing their hair back. Their eyes had begun to water but they wiped them quickly, trying to keep the composure they currently had.

As much as they wanted to hide from the world and its atrocities; there wasn't enough time to be torn down by horror and grief, not with the amount of people dead, injured, or missing since the attack hours ago.

Pidge glanced back towards the castle, wondering how far they had gone in their search. It looked as though they hadn't gone too far, and looking back they still had further to go.

The sound of rubble shifting and falling had them jerking around, looking to locate its source.

They walked forward, still looking intently for the source of the noise.

“Where are you” They hissed quietly, no longer seeing any movement. “I just want to help-”

A hand shot out from the corpse next to them, gripping Pidge’s ankle tightly as they struggled to pull their charred and blackened body.

Pidge screamed and almost kicked the hand away, breathing harshly as they ripped their ankle from the persons hold.

“Paladin” The person rasped, crawling and struggling to pull themselves up. “Help”

It took a few seconds for Pidge to register the plea before they knelt down quickly and hooked their hands under the persons armpits.

“You’re gonna be okay” Pidge tried to assure, struggling to pull them up, but it seemed they didn’t need much other help, practically crawling up Pidge’s body and gripping at their shoulders.

“Uh… sir?” They whimpered softly, trying to pull away from the person who was now breathing heavily in their face. The smell of burnt flesh invaded the green paladin’s nose, only making their instinct to pull away worsen.

“Paladin…” The person hissed again, clawing at their armor and a vicious smile rising to their face. “You’re going to die…”

“What?” Pidges brow furrowed and struggled to push them off, suddenly feeling the need to get far away from this person.

“Glory…” They wheezed, gripping the paladin tightly close. Pidge’s eyes widened as they saw the person reach behind them and pull out what looked to be another bomb. “To the galra empire…”

“Stop-!”

Another explosion.

Pidge felt their body burning, a ringing in their ears, and darkness that had no end.

Lance felt sick. They had all heard the final explosion. It came out of nowhere, in the middle of the already broken and crumbling plaza.

Keith had come running up the steps, clutching Pidge to his chest.

Lance only needed to see the blood smearing against Keith’s armor to realize that Pidge had been near the final explosion.

His heart was racing faster than it already had been, pulling away from what he was doing to follow his husband as he raced up to the pod room.

Hunk came over and helped Keith clean Pidge up, getting them into the white medical suit and into an open pod quickly.

There wasn't much for them to do after that. Keith had gone to clean the blood off of his armor and Hunk went back to helping the people waiting for a pod.

He felt so useless.

Lance took a shuddery breath and looked around at all the pain and suffering around him.

He should have been more insistent about being careful. He knew something was going to happen but he didn’t do anything about it.

He only shook his head and walked out, planning to head back to doing what he was before.

That was when everything had become a blur.

Bandage, pass out water bottles, pass out pain killers, repeat.

He fell into that repetition for the next several hours, body working on muscle memory instead of consciously thinking about it.

Lance didn't realize he had been pulled away until he was being sat down on the castles couch with a water bottle in his face.

“Hm..?”

“Water bottle, drink it.” Oh, Keith.

“Okay” Lance sighed and took the bottle from the others grip, popping the lid quickly before starting to drink. He hadn't realized how thirsty he had been.

His eyes closed and flinched as he felt hands starting to undo the latches on his armor.

“Sorry...” Keith mumbled, still pulling off the armor piece by piece.

“It’s fine” Lance sighed, shifting so it was easier to get his armor off. He stopped drinking and groaned as he let Keith take his chest plate off. God he was sore.

“Maybe you should buy me a couple drinks before trying to get me out of my clothing” He tried to tease, though his own voice betrayed how tired and not into it he was.

Keith frowned at him and curled up against his side, wrapping his arms around the other.

It was warm, almost relaxing.

They all needed a break like this, including Pidge when they got out.

Lance opened his eyes and looked around the lounge, seeing Hunk starting to curl up on the opposite and Shiro next to him, going through something on a tablet.

Something was missing.

His eyes opened wider, sitting up slightly.

“Hey Hunk?” He asked quietly.

“Hn?”

“Is Shay okay?”

“She’s fine, the attack didn’t interrupt her from getting ready for brumation.” Hunk mumbled, sitting up with a groan. “The castle is surprisingly soundproof.”

“That’s good…” Lance said quietly, laying back and resting his hand on Keith’s head, carding his fingers through his hair slowly. “...What are you doing Shiro?”

“Going through the reports the Blades gave” He said quietly before shutting off the tablet and setting it aside. “They’re going to start interrogations soon and want me to be there.”

“Why you?”

“Technically it's all of us but...I figured you all wouldn't want to go.”

Lance only shrugged. Interrogations really weren’t his thing, but now? He didn't know.

“What are the interrogations for?” He asked, his eyes meeting Shiro’s.

“To find the people who organized the attack”

“Oh.” An uncomfortable silence fell over the lounge, but Shiro only shook his head. “Don't worry about it, i’ll handle it while you guys rest up.”

“Thanks Shiro...” Lance said, watching him leave with an uncomfortable tension in his shoulders.

Why did these things always have to happen to them.

Chapter Text

Pidge had been released from the pod only a few hours ago. They weren’t actually in any shape to be raring to go but it was better than being on Death's doorstep. As Hunk had caught them as they fell out of the pod, everyone noticed the scarring all over the left of their face, which looked like it traveled down the side of their entire body. Once they were on their feet and changed out of the sterile white medical suit, Pidge said they were going to rest up a bit in their room. Though Lance figured out pretty quickly it wasn't just because of that. Scars brought attention and questions, Shiro’s already had to deal with much of it already, and Pidge really didn’t do well with much attention directed at them.

Lance had decided that he wouldn’t check up on them, at least for now. While Keith went to blow off steam in the training room, Hunk checked up on Shay, Shiro organized the interrogations, and Allura tried to console her child, Lance just stayed in his and Keith’s room relaxing with a face mask and all in general body care. He kind of needed it after still being so emotionally worn down.

The old scars on his back ached, leaving him wincing as he laid back on the bed, letting his lotion soak into his skin and the face mask dry on his face. Lance started up at the ceiling, letting his mind drift. The interrogations had been delayed a few more hours than expected. The Blade had issues with collecting the rest of the suspects and really none of them were up to doing it so soon after the attack.

So Lance just had a few hours to relax and think by himself. It was quiet, he had decided not to wear the headphones he had borrowed from Pidge so many years ago and just never gave back. He could hear the silence starting to ring in his ears. Part of him wished that they hadn't fixed the vent so that it didn't make any noise. The ringing reminded him so much of the ringing from blast after blast. His ears hurt, why did they have to hurt.

A sudden knock on the door pulled him from his thoughts and upright.

"One sec!" he called, sliding out of bed and into his slippers before walking over to the door, sliding it open with a quick touch.

There was Pidge, shifting slightly from foot to foot without looking up at the other. They had the hood of their hoodie drawn over their head, hiding the mess of their hair and face that was there.

"Do you need something Pidge?" Lance asked quietly, knowing that they rarely sought comfort in him.

""Can you... fix my hair so its even and... do you have any creams to help with scars...?" They mumbled, still not looking up.

"Yeah, come on in." He smiled softly, moving to the side so that Pidge could walk in. "What do you want me to do?"

"I dunno... shave the sides I guess? I haven't really measured how much is left on that side but the tips are blackened so... yeah..." They said, hesitating as they pulled the hood down.

Lance could see their shoulders tense as the hood finally dropped and showed what was left of the hair they had. It would definitely need the razor, but at least he had enough experience with trimming his siblings and his own hair that it wouldn't be a problem.

"You going to be okay with the shears buzzing next to your ears?" Lance asked, shutting and locking the door before grabbing the chair they usually kept to the side for various things. He would apologize to Keith later for locking him out but Lance was mostly sure he would forgive him. This was something that Pidge trusted him with and he would make sure it stayed that way.

He set it down in the middle of the room and moved his skin care products aside. It was times like these that he was thankful for Allura allowing them to choose a bigger living space. They had all gotten one at this point as there was no real use for all the giant political guest chambers other than just sitting there.

"Sit down" He said, searching through the drawers to find the shears they had. "Do you wanna take off your hoodie so it doesn't get hair all in it?"

"I don't think...."

"I won't stare, if that's what you're worried about."

"No, uh... it's something else." Pidge hesitated, glancing back at Lance who had not turned to look at them. "You remember that I'm.... Afab, right?"

"Yeah, so am I." He said it without an ounce of regret, like it was a fact Pidge was supposed to know prior. They stared at him for a few seconds more before turning back and slowly pulled off their hoodie.

"I didn't know" They said quietly.

"It's not something I advertise." Lance sighed and walked over behind them. He frowned slightly at watching Pidge try not to flinch. "I don't feel the need to tell anyone, and the only people who do know are Allura, Hunk, and Keith, and they wouldn't tell anyone else without asking me first."

"Oh"

"You good for me to start?"

Pidge took a deep breath and nodded. "Go for it"

"Tell me if you need me to stop" He said and turned on the razor, gently pressing it to the side of Pidge's head as he started.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, the only sound being the razor buzzing.

"Are you going to go to the interrogation?" Pidge asked, finally breaking the silence of the room.  Even though Shiro said that they all didn't have to go to it, a few of them felt compelled to, just to know why people would do such a thing.

"...Yeah" Lance didn't know what he expected to find out when he heard the confessions, but he wanted to hear it for himself.

"I... am too"

"Why...?"

"I don't know."

"You don't have to if you don't want too."

"I know, I... just want to know we're justified in what were doing."

"Pidge..."

"Whatever, lets just get off this topic" They snapped, gripping the chair under them tightly. Lance only nodded and sighed, continuing the carefully shave around the green paladins head.

"I'm about to go around your left ear, okay?" Lance said, feeling the need to state that before going ahead and doing so.

"Okay."

He slowly brought the razor around their ear and scalp, trimming up the edges. There wasn't even really a lot there, part of it was just too short for the razor to have an effect on it and the rest was singed so bad on the edges.

Lance finished up a bit faster as he noticed Pidge slowly growing more tense.  The shaving part was done and all he had to do now was trim up the rest of it. He shut off the razor quickly and set it aside, patting the younger's shoulder softly.

He was about to turn back to get the scissors when Pidge called him. "Hey Lance?"

"Mhn?"

"Thank you."

"No problem." He smiled lightly, returning with the scissors and comb.  "Once I finish your hair, do you want to use my shower or head back to your room to, then come back."

"I can just use yours" Pidge said. "Unless you and Keith have some gross stuff in there that my tiny child eyes shouldn't be seeing."

"Tiny child my ass," Lance laughed. "You're nineteen"

"Still a teenager"

"Anyways. No, we do not have any scandalous items in our bathroom."

"Good."

Lance finished trimming up the rest of Pidge's hair and shooed them up off the chair and into the bathroom so he could put it back and sweep up the remnants. He heard the shower start running a few minutes and smiled softly to himself. It was nice to be so domestic every once in a while. He quickly disposed of the hair and picked up a few bottles out of his basket.

They emerged a few minutes later, rubbing a towel against their hair to dry it at least a bit more. Lance noted that they decided to only wear boxers and a tank top.  Lance smiled, heart warming that they trusted him enough to be so vulnerable like this.

"So, I have a couple different creams" Lance hummed, gesturing to the few bottles, each with labels written in english over them, saying what they did as the text underneath wasn't anything either of them could read.

"Do they work?"

"Does my skin look horrible and dry to you?" Lance asked, quirking his eyebrow up just enough with a look to the other.

"Yeah- okay okay! just kidding!" Pidge screeched as Lance launched himself at them, starting to tickle them mercilessly. Lance didn't stop for a bit, just letting both of them laugh until Pidge's laughs started to die, replaced with hiccups and actual struggling to get away from the other.

Lance didn't notice, already starting to pull away until Pidge physically punched him in the nose.  He recoiled immediately, letting Pidge tumble back to the ground, curling up on themself while he pushed himself back against his bed, covering his nose with his hand.  It hurt like hell and when he pulled his hand away, it was smeared with blood. He hissed out a slew of curses before looking up at Pidge and going quiet. They were curled up around themself, whimpering and letting out small sobs as they shook.

"Pidge?" Lance called, starting to right himself.

The only response was a slew of 'I'm sorry's as Pidge just started to sob harder.

Lance slowly crawled over, kneeling next to them. He reached out hesitantly to touch their shoulder but stopped as they flinched away.

"Pidge, may I touch you?" He asked quietly, starting to piece together their reaction.

He waited until they nodded with a hiccup before gently lifting them enough to pull into a hug. Lance hoped the blood dripping from his nose wouldn't get into their hair.

"I- 'm sorry, I didn' mean to" They hiccuped, gripping his shirt tightly. "Ididnt mean to h-hurt you"

Lance shushed them quietly and rubbing their back.

"It's okay," Lance said. "I messed up."

"h-how, I'm- I'm the one who p-punched you" They whimpered, not daring to look up.

"I didn't think you would react badly, but you did."

"It's so fucking stupid"

"No, it's not"

"It felt like the g-guy was cr-crawling up me again and- and-"

"Hey... Shh.. shhh..." Lance hushed, petting their hair softly. "It's okay, Pidge. you're not there, you're here with me."

"Its so fucking stupid I reacted like that."

Lance frowned and huffed, trying not to wince as it shot of pain raced through his most likely broken nose. "Would you tell Shiro or I that we were stupid for reacting like that?"

"N-no... you guys are allowed to react like that."

"And you aren't?"

Pidge went quiet after that comment, just hiccuping and sobbing quietly.

Lance didn’t know how long they sat there, him just rocking back and forth while Pidge calmed down. Though he knew they had fallen asleep when they had finally gone completely quiet and a dead weight against him.

Lance sighed softly and slowly picked them up in his arms, walking over to the door and opening it quickly.

He was met with Keith jerking back in surprise, opening his mouth to say something but Lance quickly shushed him, walking out of their room.

"Lance, what happened?"

"Pidge asked me to cut their hair."

"I mean your body nose!"

"It's nothing, I messed up, okay?"

"Did Pidge hurt you?"

"Keith, drop it." Lance hissed, turning enough to glare at his husband but not jostle the person in his arms.

Keith frowned but stopped, though still following next to Lance as they walked to Pidge's room. They were all just exhausted at this point, and sleep probably wouldn't help all of them.

Lance sighed as they reached Pidge's room, barely glancing at Keith as he opened the door and brought Pidge over to their bed.

Only a few minutes later did Lance emerge from the room and shut the door quietly behind him. Keith was still there waiting for him, a mix of worry and anger apparent on his face.

"Can you please tell me what happened?" Keith asked softly, reaching up and cupping Lance's cheek gently. He smiled a bit and leaned into the hand with a soft sigh.

"It's dumb, I messed up and hurt Pidge."

Keith only nodded, brushing his thumb against Lance's cheek, who pulled from the hand and leaned into Keith's shoulder.

"I think my nose is broken."


"You guys didn’t have to come to the interrogation." Shiro sighed, looking over at the three who had just entered the room. "I know you're all tired."

"Tired isn't as excuse to leave you to do everything." Pidge said, a hint of agitation in their voice. They rubbed a hand through their hand through their hair quickly before flopping into the seat next to where Shiro stood. "So might as well listen to these guys."

Shiro frowned and glanced between them, taking note that something had definitely happened.  With Lance having a bandage and gauze over his nose with bruising in the surrounding areas, and Pidge's hair being much shorter and cleaner than it had been earlier, making the still pink scars visible against their skin.

"I like your hair, Pidge" Shiro smiled softly, ruffling their hair quickly. Which earned him a squawk in response and batting at his hand.

It lightened the mood at least a little bit, though Shiro could still see Keith fussing over Lance quietly. He only sighed and turned his attention back to the interrogation happening on the other side of the glass.

He had already heard several so far, most of them being similar in origin and unsurprising. All former soldiers or commanders from Zarkon's army who wanted to see Voltron destroyed and the galra empire take back over.  Shiro didn't know why he expected anything else.

"So how many guys are gonna be talked to?" Lance asked, glancing over at their leader.

"About a hundred, we've parsed together that were definitely a lot more than that in the actual attack, but a lot of them fled or..." Shiro made a careful glance to Pidge before clearing his throat. "thought death was better than being caught."

Lance nodded and hummed quietly. "How many have you guys gone through?"

"About twenty I think, I haven't been keeping count" Shiro sighed, rubbing his temple as he watched his wife demand answers inside the interrogation room.

Sometimes he forgot how scary Allura could be when she was livid, but she had a right to be. Having been forced to retreat with a terrified infant in her arms without the ability to engage without hurting any innocents involved. She kept her hair pulled back and tight as she demanded answers and motivations from the terrorist before her.

Shiro couldn't forget how long it took them to finally get Myrhin to stop screaming and crying after everything. Even as they all wrapped up their duties for the night, any too loud sound started the infant’s wailing all over again. It took too long for him to settle even after that, only falling asleep after he completely exhausted himself out.

"Hey, wait a tick." Lance said, looking over at Shiro, perplexed. "If you're here, and Allura is in there. Where's Myhrin?"

"Either with Hunk or Coran." Shiro shrugged. "They said they would take turns watching him during this. Be quiet, a new person is coming in."

On the other side of the glass, a Blade escorted another person in, forcing them to sit at the table. The person had a rueful stare on her face, glaring through the false mirror. She certainly looked like the usual commander they had seen so many times before. She pulled against the restraints as the Blade pulled away, though was unsuccessful in her attempt to break free.

"State your name and occupation" The Blade growled out, rounding the table to the other side, next to Allura.

"Eat a weblum's ass" The woman snapped out, leaning back in the chair with a low growl of her own.

"State your name and occupation."  The Blade said again, leaning over the table.

"Novira Comsere, Former galra commander" She spat out, physically spitting in the Blades face, earning a harsh backhand from them.

"Why did you attack?" Allura demanded, pushing the Blade back. Having their person be unable to speak was not their intention.

"Why else?" Novira deadpanned, acting like it wasn't obvious already. "You Paladins think you're so high and mighty when you're nothing than filthy half breeds and cretins."

Allura looked unfazed by the comment and only glared harder. "How many of there were you?"

"Only one of me princess, but I couldn't tell how many there were." The woman snapped.

"Who organized the attack?"

"Like I would tell you something like that."

"I will not ask again, Who organized your attack?"

Novira sat forward, meeting Allura's glare with one of her own. "I could care less of your coalition, and whatever bullshit you make everyone believe. You are nothing, hiding behind your walls." She sneered. "So kill me now, for I give my life in the name of the Empire."

Allura pulled back with a huff and motioned to the Blade, realizing that they would get nothing more from this woman. She was escorted out quickly, thrashing against her restraints and screaming curses towards the princess.

Keith clenched his fists on the other side of the glass. How could Allura just stand there and take such insults from these people without even flinching. He personally wanted to go back to where they were being held and punch every single one of them. But he was distracted from that thought as Lance wrapped his hand around Keith's fist and held it tight. Punching people doesn't stop their problem at hand.

The next few people interrogated were nothing like they expected. Civilians with little or no connection with the Empire, some told tales of how Voltron had killed their family and they wanted revenge, or had everything they owned taken from them when Voltron supposedly liberated their planet. Almost all of them wanted to cause pain on Voltron and the paladins and the coalition for what they had done and said their lives were better under that of the empire.

A Blade brought in one of the next to last people to be interrogated, a somber looking woman who did not object to the manhandling.

"State your name and occupation." Allura sighed, clearly tired of this and the nowhere they were getting.

"Tofierh Westavor, no occupation." The woman said quietly, looking down at the table.

"Why did you attack?"

"I didn't go through with the attack" She responded, still looking down. Allura faulted slightly at that comment, hearing that for the first time throughout all of this.

"Why did you do that?" She asked hesitantly, slowly sitting down in the chair to be eye level with the woman.

"Because it would have been pointless to do so."

"Oh?"

"Hurting you and your family wouldn't bring back my own." Tofierh sighed, finally looking up at the princess. "Not to mention it would have and hurt so many people like me who wanted nothing to do with the war and its repercussions."

Allura was quiet for a second, at a loss for words for once. "What do you mean?"

"My family didn't care for the war, we were forced into it. My wife was drafted by the planet we lived on and we were forced to relocate to the civilian housing on the base. She worked on the base while I stayed home and cared for our children."

"I didn't realize people were drafted."

"Most people were."

"Oh... You said your family died? How so?"

"Five decapheobes ago, my wife had gone to work while my six year old son and three year old daughter were at the education facility with all the other children. Sometime around midday, Voltron attacked the base we lived on in name of liberating the original inhabitants of the planet. I thought we lived peacefully together... but apparently not. Most of the base was destroyed, the only place left barely intact was the residential area, everything else was... gone..."

Allura watched as tears welled up in the woman's eyes and felt tears fill her own. She quickly wiped them and took a breath, waiting for the woman to continue.

"I hated voltron then, I still hate you, for taking everything I loved away from me, but nothing I do will ever bring them back," Tofierh took a shuddery breath. "And the loss of a child is not something I would wish upon anyone."

"I'm... sorry for your loss" The princess said quietly, unsure if she would comfort the woman or not. "Do you think you can tell me who organized this attack?"

"Right, sorry..." Tofierh wiped her eyes quickly. "I am... unsure, there were multiple people who lead the actual attack but there was a man in the shadows who truly ran the operation."

"Did he come here?"

"No, he wanted to stay out of everything as much as possible. Us civilians weren't allowed to really meet or see him, but I think he went by the title Harbinger..."

"Thank you, for helping us." Allura said quietly "You know I can't... just let you go..."

"I know" Tofierh sighed. "Just ship us to Velekrathol, its already a prison of sorts."

Allura frowned and stood up. "We will see..." She said and helped the woman up, escorting her out of the room herself.

On the other side of the glass, Pidge had already stormed out of the room as they headed up to the lounge.

Lance and Keith decided it would be a good idea for them to leave as well, heading out the door a few minutes after the green paladin. Shiro assured them that he would join them once the last interrogations were over.


Lance sighed as they made their way up to the lounge. Having found out that they too did awful things to people, even if they weren't on purpose, was a horrible feeling. He squeezed Keith's hand tightly and glanced over, seeing that he had a hard look on his face, shoulders tense.

"You good?" Lance asked quietly, brushing his shoulders against Keith's for a second.

"I'm fine." Keith said, clearly lost in thought.

"You sure?"

"Yeah"

"...alright" Lance sighed and dropped his head slightly, going silent the rest of the way to the lounge.

Hunk was already sitting in the lounge, bouncing the infant on his leg while Pidge sat in one of the corners, deep in thought. Lance made his way over to his best friend and the gurgling boy. At least they seemed happy in all of this.

The yellow paladin looked up and gasped slightly. "Lance! What happened to your nose!?"

Lance tensed and let out a pained laugh. "It's nothing, don't worry about it."

"But-"

"Hunk, please."

Keith flopped down into the couch directly across from Pidge, only a little bit away from Lance.

The tension in the air was thick, leaving Hunk only slightly bewildered as to what had gone so wrong with the interrogations, but something told him that it wasn't just that.

Pidge took a breath and let out a long groan, dropping their head back against the couch.

"Something up?" Hunk asked, allowing Lance to take Myrhin from his hold.

"Are we any better than Zarkon?" They said, still staring at the ceiling. The tension got thicker from there, thick enough to be cut with a knife.

"Of course we better than Zarkon." Keith snapped, glaring at at the other. "We aren't exactly the people who enslaved the entire universe for ten thousand years and were not doing that!"

"But we were still murdering innocent people!" Pidge snapped back, meeting Keith's critical gaze with one of their own.

"We haven't murdered anyone! People die on accident! It's something that happens in war! Innocents get hurt!"

"We're the defenders of the universe! What's the point in protecting it if we kill all the people in it!?" Pidge shouted, rising to their feet with their fists curled, like they could punch Keith at a seconds moment.

"But we haven't! We didn't! Because of what we did, the rest of the universe is free to live without oppression!" Keith shouted back, practically launching to his feet.

"If we keep dragging more innocents into this, they'll be under a new oppression! Who's to say that we can decide that for anyone else!?"

"There are no bystanders! Everyone was dragged into this war the moment it started! Just look at, Matt, Shiro, your dad. They had nothing to do with this, yet they got dragged into it and they have no choice but to live with the consequences! Hell, we still don't know where your dad fucking is!"

"Don't talk about my dad! It's not like you know how I felt that whole year he and Matt were gone!"

"Guess fucking what! I did! Shiro was the only family I had! You forget that my dad is dead! You at least had a house and your mom! I had nothing! I didn't have anyone!"

"Guys, calm d-"

"Shut UP Lance!" Keith yelled, waving his hand back angrily and inadvertently hitting Lance in the face right at the bandage across his nose. A loud screech emitted from Lance's mouth not even a second later. Hunk took it as his cue to take Myrhin, who was starting to whimper, back into his arms as Lance’s hands flung to Keith's own, grabbing the hand that hit him tightly and squeezing it harshly while the other covered his nose, pressing against the spots where pain raced behind his eyes.

"That is enough!" Shiro yelled from the doorway, walking in quickly to defuse the situation. "We have made mistakes! All of us! And some of those mistakes end in people’s lives being taken. So even if we were unwillingly dragged into this war, we still have to clean up this mess!"

No one argued with Shiro's comment, leaving the room quiet aside from the small whimpers from the infant forced to listen to it all. The black paladin walked over and gently took his son from Hunk's arms, holding him close.

"Sorry you had to listen to that buddy..." Shiro mumbled quietly before looking to others once again. "It's been a tense few days, why don't all of you... just take a break for a bit. We all need it."

There was a strangled noise of frustration from Pidge who still had tears streaming down their face from the argument. They only shook their head before storming off to who knows where.

Hunk took one look at the others before rushing off after their friend.

Lance only let go of Keith's hand after the pain slowly receded, his breath coming in shallow pants. A few tears had fallen from his eyes as well, though mostly from the pain.  

"Lance.... I'm-" Keith started, faltering back slightly.

Lance only raised his now free had to his husband, pausing him before he could say anything more.

"Just wait a second, please." He said, making sure his nose wasn't bleeding again before looking up at the other with hurt eyes.

Keith's lips drew into a thin line before he turned and quickly left the room in direction of the training hall.

Watching him go, Lance only sighed and pressed his face into his hands. Oh what a mess this was.

"You okay?" Shiro asked quietly, moving to sit next to the blue paladin.  

"No." Lance said miserably.

"Keith gets like this, he just needs to cool down some first." He offered, shifting the infant into his other arm so he could rest a hand on Lance's back.

"I know that! I've been married to him for almost a year! Known him even longer!" Lance huffed, sitting up slightly and rubbing his eyes. "I'm just being dumb as usual..."

"You're not being dumb, everything's gonna turn out okay."

"I hope so..."

Chapter Text

Allura received a message from another planet nearby, who offered to aid them in bolstering the planets defenses and possibly giving them information as to who this Harbinger was and why he so desperately wanted to destroy Voltron. They left only a few days after that, knowing that it would take them almost two weeks to reach the planet.

Keith also left around that time, heading on a blade mission with Thace and Ulaz to look for intel on Harbinger separately. He left with barely a goodbye to the team, leaving in the middle of the night, let alone his husband who was still irritated at him for blowing him off a few days prior.

They were two days out from the planet when Keith returned, battered up enough to require the pod. Lance sighed and helped him get into the sterile white suit before getting him into the pod. According to Coran's medical scans, he had 3 broken ribs and lacerations along his thighs. Lance had seen the cuts of course, so all he could do now was wonder what had happened on the mission.

He sighed and shook his head, he didn't exactly want to leave Keith while he was in the pod, but Allura required them to come down for a briefing about the planets culture and what was going to happen while they were down there. Lance didn't know how long they would exactly be planetside, but he guessed Coran would bring Keith down if he didn't get out of the pod in time.

It seemed the others were already in the room by the time Lance walked into the briefing room, Pidge and Hunk talking about some sort of new gadget they were working on and Shiro starting to doze off in a chair with Myrhin in his arms while Allura looked over a few pieces of paper before they started.

She looked up upon noticing Lance walking into the room, a smile on her face as she sat up straight.

"Well look who finally joined us," Allura teased. Lance only stuck his tongue out at her as he took a seat at the edge of the table. "Anyway, now that you're here, I can start the briefing."

"You don't have to start on my account." Lance said, pointing finger guns at her.

"That does not make any sense" Pidge said, glancing over at Lance with an upturned brow.

"...I know"

Allura only shook her head with a breathy laugh and sat back. "Are you ready for me to start?"

"Yeah, yeah. go ahead."

"The planet is called Des-Tivk, they weren't really under galra rule during the war but there was heavy 'trading' going between them and by that I mean the galra took most of their resources without giving them anything. They are technically advanced, similar to the Olkari. Their leader is a... person named Irrumabo Aureli, Irrumabo is the title. Xe and Xem are the pronouns to use. Oh also Aureli has a young child, that does not have a name because they don't name their offspring until a year after birth" Allura explained, glancing to Pidge and Lance for a second.

"So xyr Irrumabo Aureli, and we aren't allowed to be informal and just say Aureli unless Xe permit us too." Pidge confirmed, resting their upper body on the table.

"Yes, just like you human's would call your... European royalty?"

"Yeah yeah"

Allura nodded and continued, switching the papers around to the next one. "We will be heading down for a banquet where we will discuss terms of helping each other. The basic possible agreement as of now is we help them replenish their resources and give them medical aid, while they will help us bolster the castles force field and also the force field on Keiria."

"Sounds easy enough." Hunk hummed, leaning back.

It was at that moment that Shiro snorted and sat up quickly, eyes wild and dark bags under his eyes. None of them noticed that he had actually fell asleep.

"Did you get any of that Shiro?" Allura laughed quietly, reaching over to touch Shiro's arm lightly.

"Most of it" He mumbled, rubbing his eyes with a free hand.

"Go take a nap, hon" She sighed, standing up quickly and walking over to her husband. She guided him up and wrapped an arm around his waist before turning to the others. "We meet mid morning castle time tomorrow before heading down, alright?"

"Got it, princess" Lance said, slipping down in the seat next to Hunk.

After the princess and the paladin left, Hunk finally turned over to Lance and ran fingers through his hair.

"Well you look like shit"

"Thanks a lot, Hunk" Lance said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"You doing alright?"

"As alright as I can be."

"Still upset at Keith?"

"What do you think?"

"Yes."

"Wow! You guessed the obvious!" Lance said, thrusting his hands in the air and sat up completely, dropping his torso onto the table. "He's stupid"

Hunk sighed and ran fingers through his own hair, trying to find the best way how to approach the situation. Though he just said nothing and placed his hand on Lance's back, rubbing it slowly.

"He has a new scar" Lance mumbled. "On his cheek, going down his neck... I think its a burn..."

"He's in the pod right?" Pidge asked, looking around the big man between them. "I knew he just got back but I didn't know if he's asleep or what."

"Yeah, he's in the pod." Lance sighed, keeping his face in the table.

"Did Coran say when he was getting out?" Hunk asked, still rubbing Lance's back.

"It's either a couple hours or the next two days, he's not sure."

Hunk hummed and pulled back. "Come on, get up. We're gonna make cookies."

"Why?"

"Why not? Also it'll help you feel better."

Lance groaned and slowly sat back. "Fine"

They were about 10 minutes into the cookie's actually baking when Coran called Lance down to the med bay since Keith was about to get out of the pod. He whined and handed Hunk back the bowl with leftover dough and slid off the counter.

"I will be back for those cookies." Lance huffed, pointing to Pidge. "Don't eat or steal them all."

"No promises" Pidge smirked, dipping their finger into the leftover dough.

A distressed noise left Lance's mouth as he walked out of the room, chuckling lightly afterwards. He quickly walked to their room and grabbed a spare set of Keith's clothes before heading to the med bay, who knows what happened to his old clothes at this point. At least he still had his weird half jacket.

"I'm here Coran!" Lance called as he walked into the medical bay, dumping the clothes onto a nearby table before stepping over to the pod.

"He should be waking up any minute now, number three"

"Jerk better get out here soon" Lance grumbled, crossing his arms as Coran checked the display next to the pod.

Lance could tell that Keith's eyes were moving underneath his eyelids, twitching and searching even though his eyes had yet to open. The familiar sound of the pod hissing as the door opened made Lance shiver as it released the cold. Keith started to fall out, stumbling like a newborn deer. Lance rushed forward and caught his husband quickly, helping to steady him as he shivered and came to his senses.

After a few seconds, he looked up and hummed quietly, pressing his face into Lance's shoulder. "Hey babe..." He mumbled quietly.

Lance couldn't help but roll his eyes and smile slightly. "Hello dummy"

Keith pulled away and shivered again, looking around. "Right, pod room."

"I brought you some clothes that isn't your blade uniform." Lance said, stepping away to get the bundle, tossing it at Keith.

"Thank you" Keith excused himself and changed in the bathroom quickly before walking out and sliding up next to his husband.

They walked out of the med bay and casually walked through the halls towards their room. Neither of them spoke, Lance was still upset at Keith but he didn't exactly want to voice it yet.

"So uh.... your nose is looking better" Keith coughed awkwardly, trying to fill the empty space of noise.

"Thanks" Lance said coldly, not turning to look towards the other. Keith bit his lip and let them walk in silence for a few more minutes.

"Are you... mad at me?" Keith asked, staring down at the floor beneath his feet.

"Why should I be mad at you?" Lance said, even colder than before. He absolutely did know why he SHOULD be mad at Keith, but that was for him to find out.

"I uh... didn't even call you for those two weeks?"

"And?"

"And I.... left without even telling you goodbye...?"

"And?" Lance finally looked over at Keith, his critical glare boring into his skull.

"I don't.... know." Keith admitted, curling up on himself slightly underneath Lance's stare. "Tell me?"

"Let's see," Lance started, stopping dead center of the hallway. "You wouldn't let me take care of a delicate situation, demanded I tell you what was wrong when I clearly didn't want to talk about it, hit me in the goddamn face and didn't even apologize before running off to train, and to top it all off, you practically blew me off for three days until you had to go on the blade mission! That's why I'm pissed at you!"

"I'm sorry! Alright!?" Keith growled, uncurling and meeting Lance's harsh look. "I was worried about you! That's why I kept asking you what was wrong and fussing over  you afterwards! It was an accident that I hit you! I just move my arms when I'm angry or frustrated! Then you didn't even let me apologize! You know I'm not good with words, not good with telling others how I feel! And I TRIED to wake you up before I left but you wouldn't, so I left!"

"You could have at least called me while you were in the transport!"

"No! I couldn't! First with the fact that there were too many blades on that ship to actually give me the privacy to do so! I couldn't do it on the mission either because all transmissions were being tracked!"

"I'm still mad at you!" Lance yelled, furiously wiping at the tears that had formed in his eyes. Keith paused, letting the frustration leave him for a moment, reaching out to his lover.

"Lance...."

"Don't touch me." Lance hiccuped, slapping Keith's hand away before it could even touch me. "Ask Pidge or Hunk to fill you in for tomorrow, I'm going to go to bed."

The blue paladin turned sharply, walking down the hallway quickly, leaving Keith standing alone. Once Lance rounded the corner and was out of sight, Keith Let out a frustrated sound and kicked the wall.



They were greeted by the leader and xyr entourage as the Black Lion touched down on the planet. Lance figured the person in the front of the small group of people was the leader at least. They exited the lion quickly, Allura leading them out. The princess and the leader walked closer to each other while the groups stayed back.

Irrumabo Aureli really wasn't much of a person too look at, Lance thought. Xe had what looked like a burqa on, a long black covering draping to the ground, each step sent the garment shifting in iridescent colors. When the princess was finally in front of the leader, Lance finally realized how giant xe actually were, towering at least four feet over the princess.

"Greetings, Irrumabo Aureli." Allura smiled. "It is an honor to meet you"'

"Princess Allura" Xe purred, "Thank you for taking up our offer. Please, let us retreat to the shade." Xe gestured towards the building.

Allura nodded and walked in stride with the leader, their group walking through the entourage and into the grand marble palace in front of them.

Lance noticed that the princess had shifted to be slightly taller than normal so she wouldn't have to strain so much to look up at the leader. They talked quietly amongst themselves and apparently they were just touring the building for a little bit as the respective leaders talked about the situations.

They passed through a hallway on the ground, with large marble arches instead of walls, allowing occupants to walk out into the courtyard filled with an wide array of plants and flowers. The group ahead of them veered off into the left side of the courtyard but Lance found himself drawn to the right side, touching the soft plant life and being engulfed by the not quite right green of the foliage. It reminded him of home almost.

He found himself walking towards the edge of the garden, near the fencing that looked over the planets sea. Lance breathed deeply, almost hoping that he would smell salt that reminded him of home.

Instead, he found the smell of something hot. Not like temperature hot, but spicy hot. Lance's brow furrowed as he looked around, trying to find where it was coming from. Walking along the fencing he soon found himself in another section of the garden that was clearly not just for show, looking more like an herb garden than anything else.

Lance knelt down next to one of the plants and inspected it carefully. Bright red berries that smelled suspiciously like peppers.

"No way" Lance chuckled, picking off one of the berries and rolling it around in his fingers. "It's a pepper, a round, berry looking pepper!"

He popped the berry thing into his mouth and chewed it slowly, letting the taste float over his tongue. Definitely a pepper, at least some kind of one, it kind of tasted like a ghost pepper.

"Lance! Where did you go!?" Hunk called somewhere from the other side of the greenery.

"Over here buddy! I want you to see something!"

Hunk forced his way through the plants and groaned as he stumbled over next to Lance. "What did you find?"

"Pepper!"

"Pepper?"

"Here! try one." Lance handed over one of the red berries and practically forced it into Hunk's mouth.  After a few seconds, Hunk's eyes lit up.

"Holy shit! it is a pepper!" Hunk gasped before looking at the other plants in the small section of the garden. "I think those are similar to sage and thyme! You think these guys would let us take some of this with us when we leave?"

"I hope so" Lance laughed, poking at the other plants. The smile from his face slowly fade as he realized something. "Hey Hunk?"

"Yeah?"

"Isn't capsaicin, like, a dead poison to most aliens?"

"I think so, maybe these guys aren't?"

"I hope so. At least we and the altean's aren't"

"Oh! I meant to go get you cause we're about to go to dinner" Hunk said, standing up quickly. "Let's go man"



Lance slid into his place at the table next to Allura, glancing around at the other paladins. Shiro was situation the infant into a small high chair next to him. He could tell that the servants were tense, everyone other than their team looked tense.

Lance frowned and shrugged it off initially, watching as Irrumabo Aureli sat in the seat across from Allura, pulling xyr the hood of their cloak down and off, revealing their pale blue skin and the twin tentacles draping down from the side of xyr head. Lance gasped for a second, realizing that they looked like the twi'lek from the Star Wars franchise.

Irrumabo Aureli shifted uncomfortably and glanced at the paladins, trying to keep any betrayal of emotion from xyr face. Xyr eyes met Lance's for a second before quickly looking away.

Servants came around and passed out glasses, filling them a blue-ish liquid before backing away, holding the pitchers tightly.

Lance picked up his glass and swirled the liquid around for a second before smelling it. He kept his eyes trained on the Leader who only watched Allura, sipping xyr drink slowly. He took a sip and hummed quietly, letting it drift over his tongue as he realized that it tasted like it had ethanol traces inside of it, then he realized that it was fermented, so ethanol was definitely in the process.

"Allura?" Lance hummed quietly, still watching the leader. "I would not drink the wine they have offered, I do not think it is to your taste."

Allura gave him a confused look and glanced between him and the liquid. "Why do you say that?"

"I think it’s just a bit too fruity for your liking" he said, meeting Allura's eyes. "If you know what I mean."

"I see" The princess frowned, turning to look at the Leader. "I do not like the taste of fruit very much, would it be alright if I had water instead? I do not wish to be rude"

Aureli tensed, forcing a smile on xyr face. "Of course, water will be provided shortly."

"Pidge, you should drink water instead too" Lance glared at the green paladin.

"What why-"

"Pidge."

"Fine."

Lance earned looks from the rest of the team, which he ignored as he met Aureli's eyes once again and drank more of the wine. The leader frowned but made no comment.

Shiro hesitantly took a drink of the wine and let out a quiet whistle, understanding now why Lance made the comment. He couldn't help but let out a quiet groan with how good it was.

"So, Princess" Aureli spoke after a few seconds. "Do you think it wise for us to enter the alliance?"

"I do believe that there it potential for good to come from it."

"My people have lived too long with this plague that ravages our lands. I fear without your help there may not be many of us left." Aureli said. "Especially with our world still recovering with most of her resources being stolen by the galra"

Allura nodded. "I know that your people are technologically advanced and would certainly help us bolster our defenses."

Aureli genuinely smiled at the understanding but tensed once again as the servants began to bring out the dishes of food to the guests and leader. Lance frowned at seeing a few of the red pepper berries from earlier littering the plates and a fine red powder dusted heavily over what looked like some kind of meat.

'So these guys are trying to poison us,' Lance thought, picking up the fork to his right and poking at the food. There was some kind of noodles and broth with it too, so it couldn't be so bad. 'too bad they don't know ethanol and capsaicin aren't dangerous to humans in these small amounts'

Lance hummed as he happily ate the food provided, turning to glance as the rest of the team had reactions to the spicy dish. Allura looked like she was doing fine with it, Shiro as well. Hunk knew about the heat from earlier but also did not have much of a reaction. Keith was starting to have a reaction, his eyes starting to water as he coughed and sputtered, trying not to make a comment. Pidge was just gone, waving at their mouth and groaning and complaining that they couldn't feel their tongue.

He just shook his head and drank more of the wine, watching the unease grow on their host's faces.

By the time they were finished eating, Lance felt surprisingly light and fuzzy, letting his thoughts tumble over each other. Pidge had already excused themself to head back to the ship. Too bad they were too weak to enjoy the spice.

"So, Aureli" Lance said, causing all the attention to focus on him. "What's the deal with calling us here for aid then trying to kill us with capsaicin and ethanol, which I feel the need to inform you,  aren't exactly lethal to humans and alteans."

The look on Irrumabo Aureli's face turned sour and xe almost seemed to shrink back from the table. Allura turned and looked at the Leader, quirking up an eyebrow, waiting for a response.

"I did not mean you all harm." The leader said hesitantly, holding up xyr hands in surrender.

"Well you kind of did mean to harm us, trying to poison us and all" Lance spat.

"My... hand was forced." The leader winced, letting their hands drop to their lap. "Our plague is not natural"

"Hmph" Lance sneered, casting a look to Allura. "Do you even believe this guy?"

"Let xem talk Lance" Allura said softly, raising a hand to his face. Lance only huffed again and drunk more of the wine.

"This plague was introduced to us and my child stolen." Aureli started. "I was told if we were to kill you all and present you that we would gain a cure for the plague and my child returned. I reluctantly agreed, and seeing as we are the largest producer of herbs lethal to many others, it seemed like an easy choice. My child was returned yesterday, deathly ill and injured." It was by that point the leaders voice had gone shakey. "If I do not do as they ask and receive the cure, my child will not have long to live."

Lance frowned and curled up in the chair, listening as the leader spoke and xyr hands grow shakey. He didn't exactly know how to go against these people, whether to sympathize or to be upset.

"Who is this person who has forced your hand?" Allura asked calmly, too calmly for Lance's taste.

"Someone of the title Harbinger" The leader spoke, wiping xyr eyes with a hand quickly. "I have no seen him at all, only see messages and threats he sends to us."

"Harbinger again..." Allura frowned, thinking about possible leads this would now give them.

"I am deeply sorry Princess, but you know how it must feel to make such a decision." The leader pleaded.

Allura hummed for a second and rubbed at her cheek in thought, before turning back to Aureli. "The conditions we spoke of earlier, whether they were your intent are not, are still valid. Your engineers and scientists will help bolster our defenses while we help you with your sick and this plague that befalls you."

"We want some of your herbs too!" Lance but in, feeling his words begin to slur together. "As reparations for trying to kill us in the first place even if you didn' want too."

"Lance please be quiet." Allura scolded, touching the side of Lance's arm lightly. He jerked away and stood up, mumbling a quick 'whatever' before leaving the room quickly, wobbling on his way out.

Allura sighed and watched him go for a second before turning to the leader once again. "We will talk more of this in the morning so my paladin's have time to recover from the ailments caused by these herbs of yours."

The leader nodded and stayed seated, watching as Keith practically shot up and raced after his other half and the others slowly followed out.

Keith rushed down the hallway, following where Lance had quickly walked off. It only took him a few seconds to catch up to his other half who was still walking down the hallway, hiccuping loudly. Lance had ignored him most of dinner, even though he hadn’t talked much, Keith had still tried to get the others attention and at least talk to him a little bit. But with Lance still being upset at him and then the revelation of the assassination attempt, the stiff silence had only gotten larger.

“Lance!” Keith huffed, reaching forward and grabbing the blue paladins shoulder, stopping him from roaming further.

“What!?” Lance yelled, turning on a dime towards Keith quickly, face red and wet with tears. “What do you want!?”

“To make sure you’re okay!” Keith huffed, wrapping an arm around Lance’s waist as he stumbled forward.

“Why would I be okay!?” Lance pulled away, rubbing furiously at his eyes. “Nothing is okay! You’ve been gone for two weeks, leaving me alone while I’m hurt. T-then you come back and you’re back and and you’re hurt, and I was scared. Then we get h-here and they try to poison us-!”

Things were silent for a moment, Lance’s breath hitching in his throat as he was pulled against his husband tightly. His hiccuping breath tickled Keith’s throat, only making the other hold him tighter. He slowly slumped against him, letting his arms fall over the others shoulders and pushed his face into his neck.

“You’re so stupid” He hiccupped quietly, slapping Keith’s back weakly. “I miss you… i-i miss you so much… and you’re dumb… and stupid…. And you don’t remember a-anything… you big idiot…” His weak insults devolved into sobs, slumping against the other heavily.

Keith only held him up, trying to keep him grounded until he calmed down, running his fingers through the back of the others hair slowly. They stayed there for a few minutes, Lance’s cries the only thing being heard in the empty hallway. If anyone did hear them, it was clear they knew better than to interrupt their moment.

Lance quieted after a few minutes, keeping his face tucked away in his husbands shoulder. Slowly his hands gripped the back of Keith’s shirt, trying to keep himself steady and upright.

“M’ sorry” Lance mumbled quietly, letting himself be picked up by Keith and taken back to the ship.

Keith sighed, turning and nuzzling into Lance’s head. “It’s okay.”

“But it’s not...”

“It will be… eventually.”

“I love you.” Lance slurred, relaxing against his husband further, closing his eyes and letting his head roll to the side.

Keith paused and bit his lip, hugging Lance tighter against himself. He pressed his lips to the side of his husbands head, breathing deeply.

“I love you too.”

When they returned to the castle, Keith didn’t bother to go find the other paladins knowing that they were most likely already in their own rooms or off doing something else. Keith got the both of them ready for bed to the best of his abilities and began thinking. He had to do something, find more information on who this harbinger was.

Keith crawled into their bed and curled around the practically asleep Lance protectively. He would contact Kolivan in the morning, see if they could launch another mission to find this guy, Harbinger. He would make sure to tell Lance before he left. He knew he had to be better, with their relationship and many other things, but he would at least try. That would be all he could do for now.

Chapter Text

The low lights tinted purple shone against the black hood of Keith's blade uniform as he and the other blades snuck through the halls of one of the mafia's bases. Their footsteps near silent as they melted into the shadows.

An informant had told them that this base was working with the one called Harbinger. Hopefully it would have records of where this guy was and who he exactly was.  

Keith was about to pass across a doorway when a large hand came onto his shoulder and dragged him back quickly, pressing him to the wall as a few re-purposed drones marched out of the door and the opposite direction from them. Keith froze and watched them walk away for a second before Kolivan snuck around him and into the room, incapacitating the rest of the drones in the room before motioning for the other blades to enter the room.

Keith and the blade behind him got in quickly, the blade behind him watching the door as Keith got up next to Kolivan, watching the other exit while their leader gathered their necessary data. It felt like his heart was hammering in his chest. They couldn't mess up this mission. He needed this information-

"You have been distracted." Kolivan stated quietly, not bothering to look up from the tablet still downloading their data.

Keith glanced over, cursing quietly under his breath. "It's nothing."

"I would argue that it is not nothing if it is distracting you on a mission."

Keith cursed again and deactivated his mask, rubbing his hands over his face quickly. "It’s fine Kolivan, I swear."

"Do you wish to talk about it?"

"...maybe… later"

Kolivan looked over, the blank look of the mask hiding his disapproving look. Keith could feel it anyway and curled on himself, looking back to the door.

"After the mission then."



Once they were back on the transport, Kolivan let another blade drive as he pulled Keith aside to the back of the ship, forcing him to sit across from him.

"The mission is over, so speak. What has been bothering you enough to jeopardize missions?" The leader asked, letting his mask deactivate and his hood fall back, revealing the mix of concern and agitation on his face.

"Lance and I are fighting?... kind of."

"Do you wish to elaborate?"

Keith fidgeted for a few seconds, rubbing at the fabric covering his wrists and looking away, clearly ashamed of what issues were bothering him "Lance is.... upset that I have been 'blowing him off' for missions..."

Kolivan quirked an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "Have the two of you been communicating?"

"Not really. I've been going on missions too often to talk to him and he doesn’t want to talk to me because he is mad at me."

"You need to properly communicate with your mate," Kolivan scolded. "Misunderstandings and arguments can lead to even worse events."

"Says you." Keith scoffed, rolling his eyes and turning away from the blade. "Antok literally doesn't speak and Keena is blunt about her feelings. You guys either always talk about things or don't at all. Plus there are three of you. Our shit is going to be a lot different than yours."

"Communication is important in all relationships, Keithka." Kolivan rubbed his forehead with a sigh, leading back against the transport’s wall. "I am starting to question how your relationship has survived all these years."

"Well before we were married, he didn't expect that much with me, but now that we are, he expects so much ore of me and I don't know if I can keep up with that."

"Having a mate, or what you humans call a spouse is difficult, and it does require much more effort put into it."

"You three make it seem easy." Keith mumbled, curling up on himself.

Kolivan sighed and shook his head, trying not to rub at his eyes in frustration at the younger blade "Believe it or not it was much more difficult to get to the place we are now with my other mate."

"You have a mate other than Keena and Antok?" Keith asked, raising a brow at the comment.

“Well we are still mates.”

“But you’re still mates with Keena and Antok.” Keith frowned

“We are all mates.”

“That’s unconventional.”

“Your human standard for relationships are not conventional.” Kolivan grumbled, rubbing his forehead again. “Frankly, they’re even irrational”

“Hey, I didn’t decide what was the standard for them.” Keith shrugged, letting his head fall back against the transports wall, letting out a long sigh, pulling his knees up to his chest.

“But the point of this is that no matter how many mates you have, there is a level of dedication you are expected to maintain.”

“I have been trying to maintain it! I want to do better! But no matter what I do, he always expects more out of me.” Keith exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air with another groan before dropping his head to his knees. “I'm fucking stupid.”

“You are not stupid, you are simply learning.” Kolivan said, resting a hand on Keith's shoulder and rubbing it assuringly. “I had the same issues with Brenna when we were younger.”

“I doubt it.” Keith mumbled “you're better at dealing with people than I am."

“Hush.” The blade scolded “I was not always the man I am now. When I first entered my courtship with Brenna, I was foolish and assumed everything would be fine. Antok and I hadn't argued much but we knew each other and when we were troubled we learned how to deal with each other.”

Keith watched him, listening intently. There were probably things back there to learn from Kolivan’s story. His shoulders dropped as he sighed, not saying anything to let the leader continue.

“Brenna is much like Keena in her attitude, but was more closed off when something was bothering her. She thought it was a sign of weakness to reveal she was bothered. And considering that she had lead a rebellion against the empire on her planet, it made sense.”

“Is she a part of the blade now?” Keity asked quietly. “She seems like someone the blade would want in its ranks.”

“No, I had asked but she refused, she had said her planet and people needed her more. Even if she ran it in the background.” Kolivan sighed. “But it took lots of poking and prodding to eventually get her to open up. Simply knowing each other wasn't an option in communication.”

Keith nodded slowly. “Lance says I'm kind of like that, except mine just boil over until I shut down or explode.”

“I am not able to see my mate often, but we make do.” Kolivan flicked at a small device on his wrist, pulling up a contact list and opening the one labeled under Brenna. It showed a picture of a galran woman with short blue hair and a light braid tied at her throat leaning over a balcony and watching the sunset. “She told me she felt like we were growing distant, like she didn't know me anymore because of the long periods of just radio silence… so I made sure I would visit her as often as I could and call her even more frequently, even if we had nothing to talk about.”

Keith nodded, rubbing over the device on his own arm that could call Lance any time he wanted to.

“Lance did ask if I could call him more often while I'm on missions.” Keith admitted, glancing down at the watch looking device. “And with Shiro’s kid, he's tried to talk to me several times about having kids of our own and I'm just…. I don't really want to talk about it, it scares me, the thought of having kids.”

“Us blades usually avoid having kits." Kolivan said, shutting off his device. “We don't know if we are going to die at a moment’s notice, and leaving a kit behind and alone is less than ideal.”

Keith nodded, fiddling with his wrists as he thought over his next words. “I can see that way of thinking…. But.. I don't know.”

“The choice is yours to make Keith.” Kolivan said, moving to rest his hand against Keith's shoulder. “Whether you choose to live by our mindset is up to you.”

“All these choices are so hard to make.” Keith groaned. He leaned into the hand only slightly and pressed his face into his hands. “Life is difficult.”

“Talk to your mate. Communicate with him and discuss what's bothering you and how you can work on your relationship to make it better.” Kolivan actually smiled, before standing slowly.

“Alright.” Keith sighed, rubbing at his forehead and pushing his hair back.

“Video call him now, talk a bit now. I will make sure no blades bother you.”

Keith nodded and rubbing over the device on his arm slowly before opening it up and letting the call screen ring for a few minutes. Kolivan smiled at the younger blade as he curled up and waited.

“Hey Lance…”

Kolivan turned away, walking up to the front of the ship behind the other blade piloting. It would be best to leave Keith to his privacy.

 

Lance groaned quietly as he rolled over in bed and picked up his ringing phone. It was entirely too loud at this time of night and he really didn’t know who was calling him in the first place. He glared at the caller ID until his eyes focused enough to see Keith’s name waiting for him to pick up.

Warmth spread through his chest and unlocked the phone, answering it video as looked at it. So Keith did want to try and make things better. This is why Lance loved him.

“Hey Lance…” Keith’s voice came from the small device.

“Hey” Lance purred, curling up in his bed and watching the screen. “What’s up?”

“Nothing, I just missed you.”

“Awh, you missed ole lancey Lance?”

“Yes I did, you big dork.” Keith laughed quickly. Lance couldn’t help but stare at him, fondness blooming over his face as he relaxed further into his bed.

“So when are you coming home?” Lance asked quietly, curling under the sheets.

“We just got finished with this mission, so after we get back to the closest base, I’ll be clear to head home. Which hopefully should be within the day.” Lance nodded with a soft sigh.

“Hey Lance..?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry.” Keith said quietly. Lance watched him curl up on the other side of the screen, a look of guilt on his face like he had done something wrong. It sent a chunk of ice towards Lance’s heart.

“What are you saying sorry for baby?” He tried not to whimper, gripping his phone tightly.

“I haven’t talked to you much, haven’t explained why I’m doing things…” Keith took a deep breath, pausing as he gathered his thoughts. “I’m… scared… of what can happen, to you, or to… anyone. After what happened on Keiria and Pidge being hurt… and the panicked look on your face…”

Lance could see the tears starting to form in Keith’s eyes as he frantically rubbed them away. “Keith…” he tried to start, but found no words to accompany the name.

“I don’t want people to get hurt… I want everything to be safe, so that there aren’t more kids like me whose families were torn apart by our war. I want it to be safe so that-...” Keith hiccuped. “ So that.. We can start a family like you want… eventually…”

Lance reached out and touched his phone screen, trying to imagine that he was touching his husbands face. “Keith.. Babe-...”

“And I’ve been dumb because I just go off on missions without telling you and I don't talk really to begin with. But then you got mad at me and I didn’t do much about it which only made it worse-”

“Keith, Keith!” Lance interrupted, listening to Keith’s shaky breath on the other side. They both stayed silent for a few seconds before Lance worked up the nerve to continue. “What you’re doing is really sweet, and it’s good that you found something that you want to fight for, to achieve.”

“I’m sorry” Keith croaks out, rubbing at his eyes again.

“No more apologizes… okay?” Lance murmured. “I love you.”

“I love you too..”

Lance smiled, letting them sit in silence for a bit before coming up with something. “Do you want to stay on call with me until I fall asleep again?” he asked quietly.

Keith looked at him and softened, curling into the side of the transport. “Yeah, I miss you… I can't wait to hold you again…”

“You're adorable" Lance laughed and set his phone propped up so he could properly be covered by his blankets. He sighed and glanced at Keith looking like he would fall asleep as well.

There was a low noise that Lance couldn't place for a few seconds. Looking up, he found Keith's lips moving and suddenly he found that he recognized that Keith was singing.

“ Wise man say… only fools rush in…. But I can't help… falling in love with you..”

It pierced his chest, melting Lance's heart with a contented smile. He relaxed further and closed his eyes. Just listening.

“ Shall I stay? Would it be a sin? If I can't help… falling in love with you….”

Lance cracked his eyes for a second as he heard quiet shuffling. He saw Keith starting to fall asleep as well, someone, probably Kolivan, had picked up his device slowly and draped a blanket over the blade, depositing the tablet back as Keith moved into the next verse.

“ Like a river flows… gently to the sea…. Darlin so it goes… somethings… are meant to be… ”

Lance sighed and closed his eyes again, humming along to the final verse.

“ Take my hand

Take my whole life too

For I can't help

Falling in love with you

For I can't help, falling in love with you .”

“I love you, Keith"

“Love you too Lance.”

Chapter Text

Keith slipped into the castle sometime during the middle of the night. He figured everyone would have been asleep by this time of night but he assumed wrong as Shiro was waiting for him as the transport ship docked.

“Shiro- hey…” He sputtered, rubbing at his arm slowly.

“Welcome back, Keith.” Shiro smiled, pulling the other into a quick hug. “Glad you’re back, no injuries to report?”

“Nope” Keith sighed quietly, hugging the other back tightly and pressing his face into his shoulder. “No injuries.”

“Good,” Shiro sighed as he pulled away, patting Keith on the shoulder lightly.

“Did I… wake you?” the red paladin asked quietly, shuffling awkwardly.

Shiro only shook his head. “I was already awake, nightmare… but I'm glad I was, Lance said you weren't going to get here until later.”

“Kolivan dropped me off, said it was easier or something.” Keith sighed “Though I think he was just trying to get me back with Lance sooner.”

“Did you call him last night?” Shiro asked, resting his hand against Keith's back as he escorted him out.

“Yeah, why?”

“He was just really smiley this morning and wouldn't say anything else.” Shiro shrugged. Keith just nodded, letting Shiro guide him towards the kitchen.  

It was only after a few seconds that Keith's stomach finally let out a low growl and was suddenly glad that he was being taken to the Kitchen.

“Hunk made sure to leave some leftovers in case you came back early.” Shiro hummed.

“What did he make?”

“Potato soup, or the equivalent thereof with the ingredients we have in space.”

Keith's stomach chose that moment to growl even louder and his mouth start to water. Potato soup sounded really good at the moment, the nutrition bars given as rations for blade missions weren’t fulfilling at all, at least to him.

“Did the blade not feed you while you were on the mission?” Shiro joked, squeezing Keith’s shoulder, failing to notice how the younger became tense under his touch. “...Keith?”

“Yeah?” He squeezed out, taking a deep breath. Shiro rounded him slowly and got a look at his face, suddenly frowning as he saw look the painful expression on Keith’s face.

“Sorry, bad topic?” Shiro asked quietly, rubbing down the others back and trying not to wince as he felt Keith try not to flinch away from him.

“Yeah… kind of.” Keith gulped, rubbing a free hand over his face.

There was a tense silence between them for a few minutes as Keith sat down at their table, trying to force himself to calm down and not give in to the panic that always came with bad memories being dredged up unexpectedly. Shiro bit his lip and busied himself with heating up the soup, giving Keith space to decide what he needed from his adoptive brother after that accidental blunder.

“Do you… want to talk about it?” They never really talked about things, at least Keith didn’t. Opening up was not a thing he even liked to do. Shiro occasionally opened up about his own nightmares and hoped that talking about it would help Keith as well.

“I don’t know.” Keith mumbled, pressing his palms into his eye sockets. He heard Shiro walk back to the table, setting a bowl down in front of it. “It’s dumb..”

“It’s not dumb.” Shiro said, taking the seat next to Keith. “Don’t ever call your trauma dumb.”

Keith glanced down at the bowl as his stomach let out another growl. He sighed and started eating the soup, resting his face on his fist.

“I had some shitty foster parents if you remember.” He said in between bites, not looking up at the other. “One of the ones I stayed with the longest thought I was eating too much, which was weird on their part because I was technically underweight for my age. So they decided it was a good idea to feed me less and less to ‘get me to a sensible portion size’. Needless to say I started hoarding food because of it. Lance finally got me to stop doing that but making jokes about starving are kind of still a no go for me.”

Shiro nodded, watching Keith finish most of the bowl during his explanation. The black paladin found it a minor victory that Keith was able to open up to him like that and made a mental note to add it to their list of triggers for the team.

“You want more?” Shiro asked when Keith finished the bowl, inwardly cringing as Keith wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

“I’m good.” Keith yawned, standing up slowly.

“You sure?”

“I’m fine, Shiro.” He smiled towards the other and walked his bowl to the sink. “I’m just tired, so I’m gonna go take a shower before getting into bed with Lance.”

“Alright.” Shiro sighed, watching the other start to walk out. “Night Keith.”

“Night Shiro.”

Keith hummed softly as he walked out of the bathroom, fresh and clean from the shower. It was dark in their bedroom, as to be expected since Lance was still sleeping peacefully in their bed, curled up in their massive amount of blankets.

He walked over quietly and sat on the edge of their bed, purring quietly while he admired his husbands sleeping face. The soft sounds of his breathing being the only thing heard in the room aside from the quiet hum from the castles engine.

He rested his hand on Lance’s side and hummed quietly, tracing his side slowly.

“Mhn…” a low groan came from the sleeping man, turning his head slightly as he started to wake up. Keith continued the motion and purred a little louder as Lance's eyes opened and looked at him.

“Hey..” Keith said, resting his hand on Lance's hip.

“Hey" Lance smiled, sleep still evident in his voice. “Are you actually here or am I dreaming..?”

“I’m here, Lance.”

“Good… then get in here and cuddle the fuck out of me.”

Keith laughed quietly and pulled the covers back to crawl into the bed behind Lance. He wrapped his arms around his waist tightly and pulled their bodies flush together. He felt safe, holding onto Lance and in the protection of their room.

“I’m so glad my portable heater has returned to me.” Lance giggled, shifting enough in the others hold to press a soft kiss against his lips.

“I am not a portable heater” Keith mumbled against Lance and pulled back, pressing his face into the others neck. Keith could feel the bubble of laughed in Lance’s chest and gave the other a questioning look.

“You are literally warmer than anyone I have ever met. I think your body temperature is higher than a regular human too.” Lance commented and sighed when Keith rubbed his face into his neck.

“Okay fine, I will give you that.” He relented and let them fall into a comfortable silence for a few minutes. Keith listening to Lance’s soft breath and feeling the slow rise and fall of his chest.

Keith was almost asleep when he felt Lance shift again and turned enough to look at him, a slightly nervous look on his face.

“Do you want to do something special next month?” He asked quietly, like Keith was supposed to know what was happening next month.

“What for?”

“...I dunno, we haven’t done anything special in a while.” Lance sighed, looking dejected. “And I don't know know when you’ll be going on a blade mission next.”

“We’ll see…” Keith mumbled, sighing softly as Lance rolled back over, pulling the blanket more over the two of them. He pressed a few kisses to Lance’s shoulder as they fell into silence once again.

“I love you, Keith.”

“Love you too.” He mumbled softly and sighed as they fell into silence once again. He figured there was something he was supposed to remember, but it could wait until the morning for him to think on it more.

Keith stayed awake until he heard Lance’s breathing even out and relax against him. He too, soon fell into the embrace of sleep, curling more around him protectively as they slept.

Keith fell into the castle’s routine with only a little bit of difficulty, training in the morning, lunch, team bonding in the afternoon, a bit more training, dinner. It was nice to finally have a routine after being so long with the chaotic schedule of the Blade of Marmora, and great to finally be around his friends again.

A few nights after he got back, Pidge had missed dinner again, though the rest of the team just figured that they had gotten deeply invested in some coding again. Hunk only shook his head in disapproval and filled up another plate as he asked if Keith minded delivering it to Pidge for him tonight. Keith agreed easily and took the plate from him, escaping out of the kitchen towards the Green Lions hangar.

“Piiidge,” Keith called when he entered the hanger, “I brought you food.” He looked over towards the workbench and frowned when he found it was abandoned. There was only 4 of those fluffy caterpillars struggling to fly a blanket across the hanger. Keith frowned further and walked over to them, picking up the blanket off of them with his free hand.

The caterpillars looked up at him, flashing the lights on their cheeks a few times before nudging Keith back towards the door. He figured he might as well let them lead him, they always seemed to know where Pidge was in the castle. Two decided to perch on his shoulders as he walked through the halls, the remaining two buzzing down the hall. He looked to the perched ones in mild confusion but shrugged it off, letting them sit there as the others lead him into the observatory.

It was dark in the observatory, the only light shining through being from the open windows showing the cosmos beyond. An outline of a figure sat close to the windows, watching out them silently.

“Pidge?” Keith called as the swarm of caterpillars left him and flew over to the figure, who at this point he knew was Pidge.

They turned and looked at him for a second before turning back and curling up tighter.

“Hey Keith.” They mumbled, not moving as he walked closer. “Someone looking for me?”

“Just me, you missed dinner.” He said, standing awkwardly behind the other for a bit.

“I did? Oh, I didn’t think it had been that long.”

“I brought you food, courtesy of Hunk.” Keith sat down next to them and offered up the plate of food that had cooled down quite a bit. “Also your caterpillars were struggling to bring your blanket so I have that.”

Pidge nodded and took the blanket first, wrapping it around their shoulders before taking the plate from Keith, only picking at the food.

The dejected look on their face was evident even to Keith. They both stayed quiet for a few minutes as Pidge ate bits and pieces of their dinner. Keith scratched at his cheek and pursed his lip, debating if he should actually start up a conversation or leave them to solitude like they had been before.

“Do you want me to go?” Keith asked quietly.

“...Not really” Pidge sighed.

They looked back out the window, watching stars pass slowly by. The caterpillars curled up against Pidge but one decided to retake its perch on Keith’s shoulder. It made a few bubbling noises before going quiet. Keith figured it went to sleep but he couldn't really tell.

Conversation, right, yeah. Kolivan told him that he needed to communicate more with Lance, there was probably underlying messages telling him that he needed to communicate more in general. So there wasn’t an issue with attempting to communicate with Pidge. He hoped.

“Hey Pidge…” Keith started, wrapping his arms around his knees. “Do you… remember the fight we had about three weeks ago…?”

Pidge frowned and looked over at Keith, almost curious as to what he was getting at. “Yeah?, why?”

“I’m… sorry about the stuff I said… about your dad.” He said cautiously, not daring to look at his friend. “I’m just… kind of numb to losing people?”

Pidge stayed quiet, waiting for him to continue.

“My dad died when I was ten, no one told him to go back into that building but he did anyway, to save innocent people, but after that I was alone for a long time, ya’ know?” Keith sighed “Bouncing around foster families in arizona wasn’t fun, and I missed my dad which didn’t help…”

“Keith..”

“And then I got accepted into the Garrison because of Shiro, and he basically became my older brother. I felt like I had a place to belong for the first time in a long while.” Keith took a shaky breath, pressing his face into his arms. “Then Shiro was gone and I was alone again.”

“You don’t… have to tell me this if you don’t want to-”

“I need to,” He said quickly, “I just need to… but like… we got here, I got Shiro back, but then there was the whole mess of the Blade of Marmora and finding out that I was half galra. I felt alone again even being here with you guys. I mean yeah it got better, but then we Voltron got bigger and we started saving more people, but I couldn’t help but see the children we left who were like me and no matter what I did, I couldn’t do anything to help them, Pidge.”

When the hand came down on his shoulder, Keith couldn’t help but flinch, curling up on himself tighter as he tried to will his breathing to go back to normal instead of the quickened pace it had gotten to.

After a few seconds of sitting in silence, Keith finally uncurled, breathing heavily as he rubbed at his red wet eyes with his sleeves, trying to dry them.

Keith looked over at Pidge, noting that they looked absolutely panicked, unsure if they should reach out and comfort him or leave him be to get through it on his own.

He sucked in a slow breath and pushed his hair back before continuing. “I’m scared. About losing all of you. About possibly dying. I feel so bad for all the people we can’t save, the ones who die because we weren’t there in time, or the ones caught in the crossfire. I’ve had people die in my arms… It all hurts, and I close off because that’s all I’ve ever known to do. When it gets too bad, I lash out, and I hurt people.”

Keith licked his lips, taking another few breaths. He hadn’t actually meant to talk this much. “It wasn’t… it wasn’t okay for me to yell at you and say that your pain isnt okay because I ‘have it worse’. Your pain and circumstances are different than mine, and I shouldn’t seem like I don’t care about the people who die carelessly.”

“I was no worse than you in that argument,” Pidge admitted. “I knew that you’re close to Shiro, and that you don’t have a dad, I also should not have said the stuff I did, I’m sorry.”

Keith stared wide eyed at Pidge. In no way had he expected them to apologize for anything, he had figured that he was in the wrong. He opened his mouth in an attempt to say something, only a soft whine coming out. He pouted when Pidge chuckled at him, pursing his lips.

“We’ve both fucked up, said stuff we shouldn’t have.” Pidge said, pulling their blanket tighter around their shoulders, smiling over at him. “Thanks for that Keith, apology accepted.”

“...yours too.” Keith said, smiling after a few seconds.

"You know…” Pidge hummed, giving keith a small smirk “I don't think I've ever heard you say that many words in a day, let alone five minutes." they only laughed louder when Keith stuck his tongue out at them.

They went back to silence, neither knowing where to go in conversation, but mostly enjoying the quiet.

“Do you think I’ll ever find my dad?” Pidge asked, barely above a whisper.

“We can only hope that we will.” Keith sighed, “We just have to keep searching.”

“I wish Matt would come back, that he would help and just be here for me.” Pidge frowned, resting their cheek on one of the caterpillars backs.

Suddenly his eyes flew open as he scrambled through his pockets, looking for something. “I have a thing!”

“A thing?”

“A thing! For you!”

It was Pidge’s turn to frown at him as he procured a small flashdrive from his pocket, raising it to the sky like it was glorious.

“And that is…?”

“It’s a flashdrive,” Keith explain, a hint of ‘duh’ in his tone. He sat down next to them and shoved it into their palm. “It has stuff, about galra prisons that were repurposed or taken over by other guys. Most of them are places we haven't checked out.”

Keith almost panicked when he saw the tears start to well up in Pidge’s eyes but sighed in relief when they smiled and held the flashdrive close.

“Thanks, Keith.” They said quietly.

“You’re welcome.“

Keith whined and squirmed as Lance dug the heel of his palm into a bruise on his back. He pushed his face into the pillow and groaned loudly.

“Stop whining and hold still, you’re gonna end up knocking the cream off the bed and wasting the rest of it.” Lance huffed, already sitting on Keith’s butt to keep him from bucking up.

Bruises were littered across Keith’s entire body from a botched training attempt with a higher level on the gladiator. He had also not decided to tell anyone that he was going to a further level and got his ass royally handed to him.

“But it hurts!” Keith complained, kicking his legs against the bed, yelping loudly as Lance slapped down another slab of the cold healing cream.

“You are the one who did this do yourself.” Lance sighed, not pressing his palms into his husbands back as hard this time as he moved the stuff over the other bruises.

Keith groaned again but this time in pleasure instead of pain as Lance worked out the tight spots in his muscles around the sensitive bruises. He practically melted into the sheets until Lance’s hands passed over one of the more sensitive bruises.

“Fuck!” He whimpered, tensing and gripping the sheets tightly. “It hurts.”

Lance pulled his hands back and frowned worriedly. “Do you want me to go get a couple painkillers from Coran? Or see if he has a different cream that numbs stuff?”

Keith whimpered softly and shook his head. “I can deal with it” he mumbled into the pillow.

“Keith…” Lance sighed rubbing over a nonbruised spot slowly. “You keep yelling that it hurts…”

Another whimper came out of Keith’s mouth before he relented with a nod and slumped into the sheets. Lance could only sigh and slid off of Keith’s hips and kissed his head before walking out of the room.

Keith closed his eyes and breathed slowly, trying to divert his attention away from the sore pain in his limbs. He dozed off for what he thought was only a minute but turned out closer to twenty when Lance finally returned to their room.

“I’m back,” Lance sighed, walking back over to the bed. “Coran spent like five minutes trying to find it and another ten explaining to me how to use it.”

Keith hummed in acknowledgement and wheezed as Lance climbed back over him. “What’s with you and sittin’ on me.”

“It’s easier to reach your extremities this way.” Lance teased, popping off the lid to the tube of the honey looking cream. “This smells good”

The cream was cold for a second when it touched Keith’s back, making him jump slightly. It soon warmed as Lance spread it over his bruises. He began to purr lowly after a few minutes, warmth worming its way into his muscles, the pain slowly dissipating.

Lance’s hands ventured further down, pressing lightly at Keith’s hips, making him shiver. After a few moments, he slid of of Keith again and smacked his thigh lightly.

“Roll over” Lance ordered, rolling the remnants of the cream over his fingers before rubbing it over his arms.

“Not worried about residue on the sheets?” Keith mumbled, struggling to make his very relaxed limbs cooperate enough to roll onto his back. Everything felt heavy but warm and nice, so Keith wasn’t exactly complaining.

“Nope” Lance said, popping the ‘p’ in the word. Keith shrugged at him and finally turned over, electing to sit up so he wouldn’t fall asleep. He sighed as Lance climbed back into his lap and wrapped his legs around his waist.

“Seriously,” Keith said, leaning back slightly with his palms pressed against the bed. “What’s with you and sitting on me?”

“I earned the right to sit on you when I married you.” Lance sassed, sticking his tongue out at his husband.

“I didn’t realize becoming your personal chair was in the marriage requirements.” He snorted, blushing slightly as Lance got comfortable in his lap.

“Then you should have read the fine print.” Lance chuckled, before scooping up more of the honey cream in his fingers. “Now hold still so I can get your front.”

“Alright, alright.” Keith relented, shuddering slightly as Lance smeared a gob of cream over his chest.

Lance took his time working the cream over Keith’s torso, running his fingers along each divot that sculpted Keith’s musculature, cupping his biceps and working his thumbs into the knots in his muscles. There was a fond look in Lance’s eyes as he worked meticulously to work the cream over his bruises. It made a warmth bloom in Keith’s chest that was definitely not from the cream.

Lance hummed quietly and pressed a soft kiss to one of the bruises across Keith’s shoulder before trailing a line of soft kisses up his neck and jaw. Keith turned a little bit and cupped Lance’s cheek, kissing him softly.

“I’m supposed to be taking care of you” Lance whispered softly, resting his hand against Keith’s chest as leverage against him.

“We can take care of each other.” Keith mumbled back, letting his other hand brush under Lance’s shirt, resting as his side.

Lance pouted slightly but shrugged it off. “Alright” he sighed and traced his fingers against the other’s neck.

Keith fumbled slightly for the container, searching for it with his hands since he couldn’t move his head. Eventually he grabbed it and spread the cream over his fingers. He smirked slightly as Lance shivered when Keith’s hands returned to his sides, thumbs digging into his hips.

It was sensual, Keith figured, just the two of them exploring each other with their hands and fingers, and letting warmth from many things fill them. He left soft kisses against Lance’s neck while Lance kissed his bruises in the guise of wanting to kiss them better.

Blushes spread across both of their faces when the touches drifted a tad too far, brushing against sensitive places. Lance pushed Keith back slightly to easier kiss the bruises down his tummy and sides.

Keith’s breath hitched and gripped Lance’s jaw when his kisses went even further down. “I hope you realize what you’re doing.” He said, breathing heavily to focus and control himself.

Lance looked up from the dark bruise on Keith’s abdomen with a smug look on his face. “I always know what I’m doing when I’m with you.” He purred, flicking his tongue out to lick his lips.

Keith let out a hot huff and moved his hand to curl into Lance’s hair. “Let’s go then”

Keith frowned at the wall and pulled Lance closer, tilting his head up slightly for where the other’s head rested under his chin. His thumb rubbed against Lance’s shoulder absentmindedly as he figured out the best way to bring something up.

Lance grumbled lightly and tangled their legs further, pulling back a little bit to look up at his husband. “Somethin’ wrong?” he asked quietly.

“Kolivan contacted me earlier today.” He said, pressing his face into Lance’s neck. “He wants me on a big mission soon.” He heard a small gasp from Lance and hugged him tighter.

“Do you have to go…?” The blue paladin whimpered, wrapping his arms around Keith’s neck.

“They think it might go bad so they want as many blades there as possible…”

“But you don’t have to go” Lance wheezed and Keith held him even tighter, “Don’t tell me you have to…”

“I...want to go” Keith sighed, not looking up from Lance’s shoulder.

“...why…”

“I want to keep the people I care about safe.”

Lance couldn’t come up with a response, just frowning sadly and clinging to Keith tighter. “Promise me you’ll come back.” He finally got out.

“I… promise” Keith mumbled, pressing a kiss under Lance’s ear. The other hummed in approval and relaxed slightly, curling into Keith and the bed.  

Keith waited to fall asleep, listening and feeling for when Lance finally went completely relaxed, breathing deeply.

“I promise.” he mumbled again, closing his eyes slowly and soon falling asleep as well.

Chapter Text

Lance let out a big yawn as he walked down the halls of the castle early in the morning, the cool regulated temperature making him shiver. He hummed quietly and walked to the medical bay, pulling his robe tighter around him. Keith had left three weeks ago for the blade mission and thankfully sent messages every once in a while even if Lance couldn’t initially tell that they were from his husband. The messages had to be sent through anonymous signals since they were in an area where transmissions could be tracked. Either way, Lance was happy with the knowledge that Keith was doing alright.

The other residents of the castle were asleep at this time of the morning, or at least he thought so. He figured there was the possibility Pidge was still awake but they would be too focused on what they were doing to make an appearance in the halls.

Lance yawned again and walked into the medbay, walking over to the terminal to input the code Coran had come up with that most emulated human testosterone. It was the same process it was every month; get up early, input the code, let the machine prick his finger to check the chemicals in his blood to see if any had changed, wait for it to process the testosterone, and then let it poke him in the thigh before he could go back to sleep for the rest of the day and pamper himself with various skin care products.

He let the machine take the sample of his blood before moving over to the small bed, sitting on it heavily. Lance swung his leg’s and hummed to himself quietly, waiting for the telltale beep that the injection was ready. He was so ready to have his self care day, his muscles were sore and had been for a couple days. They had an intense training session a few days prior so he figured it was from that.

The console made a different beeping noise than usual and Lance frowned, sitting up he moved back over to see what it was yelling at him about. It was now that he was very glad that Pidge had installed a partial translation for the machine.

“This injection will terminate your pregnancy, do you wish to continue?”

Lance stared at the words and started to laugh awkwardly after a few minutes, needing to lean on the console to keep himself from falling.

“G-good one, computer. No way that can happen.” Lance laughed awkwardly, staring as the words didn’t change or move. He bit his lip and hit ‘No’ on the prompt screen. Navigating through the terminal he found the procedure labelled under ‘Tests’.

The terminal took another sample from his finger and started its analysis. Lance couldn’t help but pace in front of the machine. There was no way he could be pregnant . He just couldn’t be! He thought T was supposed to not let his body do shit like that! He even took the off brand space meds that was supposed to be a birth control! Curse Keith and his galra genes.

The terminal beeped again and Lance froze, slowly turning towards it. His answer would be on the screen. Did he really want to look? He probably should. He needed to.

Lance gulped and looked down at the screen, reading over the result slowly. He read it five times before the information find registered.

A nervous laughter bubbled up from his chest, still staring at the screen. Oh god he felt like he was going to be sick. Lance sunk down the terminal and sat on the cold floor, pressing his hands to his face as the nervous laughter wouldn’t stop.

The sound of footsteps coming down the hall outside the medbay made Lance jerk up, muffling himself as he slapped at the terminal, hoping to erase the history of his visit. It moved off the result screen and Lance could only figure it did what he wanted.

He pulled his robe tight around himself and walked out quickly, knocking into Coran in his rush to get out.

“Sorry my dear boy!” Coran gasped, steadying Lance before he could fall over. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine Coran.” Lance wheezed out, relaxing just a bit as Coran patted his shoulder. “Sorry for knocking into you.”

“It’s quite alright! Are you sure you’re okay? You look pale.”

Lance couldn’t meet Coran’s concerned look and shook his head. “It’s nothing, I’m just tired.” He lied. “I’m gonna go back to bed.”

Coran frowned but sidestepped, letting the paladin move around him and quickly walk down the hallway towards his room. He did not believe the boy was alright and hummed to himself quietly, walking into the med bay. He was heading there anyway to procure the medication for the other paladins, but now he was side tracked. Coran checked the terminal history, nodding slowly as he read over the results, making sure to truly clear them from the system.

“Don’t worry, Lance,” Coran murmured to himself “Your secret is safe with me.”

“Lance, can you please watch Myrhin for a couple hours?” Shiro asked tiredly, dark circles under his eyes.

Lance stared up at the ragged looking paladin who stood in his doorway, his disheveled hair, and almost gaunt looking face. He definitely looked like he needed a twelve hour nap, and since Lance had no idea where Allura was at the moment it wasn’t like he wouldn’t accept.

“I- uh yeah sure.” Lance sputtered, accepting the four month old without a second thought. “Go take a nap Shiro, or some food. You look like you need a TLC day.”

“Several nights of no sleep.” Shiro grumbled, rubbing at his head. “Between nightmares and Myrhin crying, it’s been difficult.”

Lance nodded slowly, shifting the infant up in his arm. “Yeah, go take a nap. Myrhin’ll be fine with me.”

“Thank you so much.” Shiro wheezed and walked off. Lance just shrugged and mostly closed his door, leaving it open just a crack in case someone needed him. He walked back over to his bed and plopped down.

Myrhin squirmed in his arms and gripped at Lance’s shirt, letting out a stream of gurgles and babbles. Lance let him bounce a bit before rolling over and holding Myrhin up like an airplane.

“I wonder how Shiro and Allura deal with you.” Lance hummed, “Or at least with having you.” He set the infant down on his bed and rolled onto side, watching the child.

“I know that they were both ecstatic at first and for most of it, but then there was the imploding planet and Shiro getting injured that indirectly caused you to happen. I knew Allura was panicky then but she also had all that shi- stuff happen.” He rambled, rubbing over Myrhins back. He chuckled lightly at the stream of gurgles he got in response and sighed. “I wonder how you would react to having a little friend around, they’ll definitely be younger than you, by about a year.”

Myhrin gurgled again and gummed at Lance’s sheets, seemingly enjoying being talked at and trying to response in his infant ways.

“Are you starting to teeth?” Lance wondered, allowing the infant to gum at his sheets. They needed to be washed anyway. “It would make sense for why you’ve been fussy at night.” He hummed quietly and brushed over Myrhin’s head slowly.

“I don’t know buddy” The paladin sighed. “I might talk to your momma about this, I’m kind of scared, and nervous. How would the others react? Hunk would probably be ecstatic to be an uncle again, Pidge might be put off a little bit, I don’t really know how Allura and Shiro would react, but I know they would be supportive, Coran too. But Keith?” Lance let out a sad laugh. “The unpredictable dummy, I don’t know at all how he would react. I know he’s even scared of the thought of becoming a dad, at least the last time I checked. What if he just says no, what if he leaves me? I can’t exactly walk up to him and say ‘Surprise! I’m pregnant! You’re gonna be a dad! Hope you’re okay with that!’ I don’t know what I’m going to do…” Tears welled up in Lance’s eyes as he ran over his thoughts over and over, getting stuck in his head.

As if the infant could sense his distress, Myhrin’s lip wobbled, a tiny cry coming from his mouth, soon getting louder. Lance jerked and snapped from his thoughts, pulling Myhrin into his arms and shushing him softly, bouncing him slowly until his cries quieted.

“Sorry Myhr…” Lance sighed, securing his arms around the infant. “I just don’t know what i’m going to do.”

Lance laid back and rested his head on his pillow, keeping the infant on his chest as his eyes started to droop.

“I can keep this to myself a little while longer.”

Outside Lance’s door, Allura quickly backed away. Her eyes wide fron the information she heard that she was definitely not supposed to hear.

“Do you need something Lance?” Pidge sighed, sitting up from their workbench. They would have really liked to get back to the delicate wiring they were working on, but with Lance standing there silent and looking over their shoulder, they couldn’t work like that.

“Not really.” Lance said quietly, shifting back slightly at his presence being addressed.

“So you’re in here for no reason?” Pidge glared, setting their tools down and crossing their arms. Their glare softened when they saw Lance flinch back and wrap his arms around his middle.

“Sorry…” Lance mumbled, turning to walk out. “I’ll leave.”

“No, Lance.” Pidge sighed, running a finger through their hair. “You can stay. Just don’t hover over my shoulder.”

Lance looked up sheepishly and nodded, moving back towards the wall, leaning against it heavily. Pidge could tell he looked tired, probably hungry to, since his hand kept straying to rub over his stomach, but something told Pidge that those touches probably weren’t out of hunger.

“You okay dude?” Pidge asked, “Do I need to castrate someone? Does Keith need to get castrated.” They realized they had said something wrong when Lance paled at the mention of specifically Keith being the one to be castrated, which only further added to their suspicion.

“No, he doesn’t.” Lance sighed, sinking down to sit on the floor. “I kind of just… need to be with someone so I don’t get stuck in my own head…”

Pidge nodded sympathetically before turning and opening a drawer in their workbench. They pulled out a soft blanket and tossed it over at Lance. A muffled yelp came from him as it hit him in the face. He pulled it off his head and looked over at it, before smiling and wrapping himself up in it, mumbling a quiet ‘thanks’.

“You should get some food eventually. Healthier stuff than the junk food you normally eat” They commented, turning back to their work and picking up the delicate tools.  

“I have been eating healthier!” Lance protested.

“I mean stuff with protein and calcium,” Pidge hummed, casting their eyes over to Lance with a knowing look. “I think you’ll be needing it soon.” Lance stared at them, going a bit pale as realization dawned.

“You know-!?”

“From nothing more of the powers of deduction, Lance.” They said, turning back to their work. “I won’t tell anyone, only if next time you and Keith do stuff, you make sure your door is completely shut.”

Lance blushed for a second but sighed and rubbed at his face, leaning back against the wall. “Everything's going so fucking wonderful.” He sighed. “But thanks… for not saying anything. And sorry about scarring your poor child ears.”

Pidge laughed and rolled their eyes. “You’re welcome, Lance.”

Hunk sighed and rubbed his eyes slowly as he walked down the quiet hallway to the kitchen in the middle of the night.

He couldn't sleep, he was restless. Lance hadn't really come out and even talked to everyone openly the past three days. He said he wasn't feeling well and became closed off when Hunk asked him if he was alright privately. Hunk knew that something was upsetting Lance and it hurt to know that his best friend wouldn't confide in him.

Hunk let out a yawn and stretched slightly, he might as well start some dough so they could have bread in the morning.

Light coming from the kitchen made Hunk pause, he didn’t think anyone else was awake at this time of morning. Cautiously, he moved forwards to the entrance, peeking around the arch to see who was in the kitchen.

Hunk saw Lance sitting in front of their refrigerator, chewing on something that Hunk couldn’t make out while also pulling out and looking over some of the non perishables they had.

The yellow paladin frowned and cleared his throat, making Lance jump and hide the food he had taken behind him.

“You don’t have to sneak food in the middle of the night, Lance.” Hunk said, trying not to raise his voice. “You could have taken more at dinner.” He crossed his arms and looked down at Lance, keeping his face neutral.

“I wasn’t hungry then.” Lance mumbled and started to gather the food up so he could carry it all at once, shutting the refrigerator door with his foot.

“You don’t need to take so much.” Hunk frowned, a touch a worry in his voice. He stepped forward and finally got a good look at Lance’s face. He faltered at seeing the dark circles under the others eyes and reached out. “Lance please… Are you okay? You can talk to me if you need to.” The look on Lance’s face darkened and he picked up all the food he had collected into his arms.

“It’s none of your business.” He snapped, brushing past his friend quickly. “I’m fine.”

“No you’re not, Lance talk to me-” Hunk’s hand reached out and gripped the others arm loosely.

“Don’t touch me! Leave me alone!” Lance yelled, pulling out of Hunk’s grip tightly and rushing out of the kitchen.

Hunk stood there for a couple seconds, watching Lance go. A few tears welled up in his eyes but he brushed them aside quickly, moving over to his station and pulling out his needed ingredients.

He didn’t remember the last time Lance had yelled at him like that. Had he ever yelled at him like that? They were supposed to be best friends, but right now it didn’t feel like that at all.

Hunk busied himself with setting the yeast and honey water aside and bringing out their flour like stuff. Lance probably didn’t mean to yell at him, he was probably just stressed about something.

He poured the yeast water into the bowl with the flour and began folding and mixing them together, trying to not let his mind wander further into the abyss of thinking Lance suddenly hated him.

Fold, knead, fold, knead. Hunk pulled back and rubbed at his eyes with his arm, he shouldn’t be crying about this, but he was. God, he felt stupid. He wished Shay was awake right then so she could talk to him.

The bread was done by the time morning came, along with several other pastries. Hunk yawned and set the baked goods out on the counter for the others to take when they came in.

Over the next hour, the rest of the team trickled in steadily, yawning as they helped themselves to the array of baked goods. As they ate and started to wake up more, the usual morning chatter picked up around the table.

The truth about what happened that night came out once someone asked why Hunk looked so dejected. It was then that the rest of the team collectively decided that they needed to talk to Lance about how he was acting, even if most of them knew why he was doing so.

The chatter in the room died down as Lance walked into the room, everyone looking to him quickly. Lance curled in on himself and gave a curt ‘good morning’ before grabbing his own breakfast.

“Lance,” Allura said cautiously “We need to talk.”

Lance looked to her, then to the rest of the team who gave worried looks. He gulped, unease settling in his stomach.

“Okay” He said, sitting down at the freespace of the table. “Whats up?”

“We’ve noticed that you… haven’t been doing okay.” Pidge said, not looking up at the blue paladin.

“You’ve been irritable and avoiding us.” Shiro sighed, rubbing at his temple. “Are you okay? We’re worried..”

Lance bit his lip and curled up, refusing to look at any of the other paladins. His heart was thundering in his chest, he could feel everyone’s worried looks on him. It made his cheeks burns, he didn’t know how they would react to him telling the others what was wrong. He didn’t want them to see him any different, he didn’t want them to see him as a girl or a burden. Would they think he was a burden? He felt like he was going to be sick.

A warm hand coming down on his back made him flinch forward and suck in a tense breath.

“Lance-” Hunk tried

“I’m pregnant.” He blurted, holding his breath as he waited for the ridicule. After a few seconds of silence, Lance nervously continued.

“Pidge… already knows about it…” He sucked in. “But Keith and I’s anniversary is next week a-and I don’t know if he’s going to be back in time and… and I don’t think he even remembers it. I-... I want to be mad at him but I’m scared… I’m terrified.” Tears had bubbled over without his permission, trailing down his cheeks as he took shaky breaths.

Hunk’s arms came around him and pulled him into a tight hug, rubbing his back slowly. Lance couldn’t help but lean into his best friend’s warmth and let out a shuddery sigh. He finally looked up at the others at the table, chuckling weakly to himself at seeing at least Shiro’s shocked face.

“Congratulations on your pregnancy, Lance” Allura smiled softly. “And I’m sure Keith will be back in time.” Lance only shrugged at the comment.

“I’ll cut his dick off if he breaks your heart.” Pidge threatened, stabbing their cinnamon roll to emphasize their point.

“Please don’t.” Lance mumbled. “I happen to enjoy his d-”

“TMI, dude.”

Lance laughed and looked over to Shiro, waiting for his response, his laugh turning nervous. Shiro stared at him for a few seconds, clearly seriously confused at what Lance had said.

“Uh… congratulations?” Shiro stumbled through his words, still confused about something but with the look on his face, Lance figured he would work it out eventually.

Reluctantly, Lance pulled from Hunk’s hug and rubbed at his eyes. “I think… I’m going to go lay down, I didn’t sleep well last night.” He gave an apologetic look to his best friend before scooting away from the table and excusing himself quickly.

The others exchanged quick glances as soon as Lance had left the room.

“I’m going to contact Kolivan.” Allura stated, standing up quickly.

“I’m coming too.” Pidge said, joining the princess in walking out the door.

“Wait for me!” Hunk sputtered, stumbling away from the table to catch up with the two.

Shiro stayed at the table for a second, still thinking. He soon decided to head after Lance, wishing to speak with him privately.

“Lance! Wait up a second.” Shiro called, jogging to catch up with the blue paladin.

The black paladin let out a sigh of relief as he saw Lance stop and turn to look at him, confusion evident on his face. He finally caught up to him and panted for a few seconds.

“You need something Shiro?” Lance asked, crossing his arms shortly after.

“I uh… didn’t know that you were trans.” Shiro flinched as he saw Lance bristle uncomfortably at his statement.

“I didn't feel the need to tell you.” Lance started, maintaining strong eye contact with his leader. “Is there a problem with that?”

“No, no. Not at all.” Shiro said, raising his hands passively. “You're not required by any means to tell me.”

“Then what do you want?”

Shiro took a deep breath and rested his hand on Lance's shoulder reassuringly. “I can tell that this is stressing you out, I want to know if there's anything I can do to help.”

Lance stared at him and glanced uncomfortably to the side. “I mean… I’m kind of worried about how Keith is going to react to… this” He gestures to his stomach. “He’s told me before that... he's not sure if he wants to be a dad, because of his past with his own parents.”

Shiro frowned and squeezed Lance's shoulder. He honestly didn't know how Keith would end up reacting to such news.

“It'll take some time but I'm sure Keith will come around and be happy and excited about the idea.” He assured.

“But what if he doesn't?” Lance said, his voice rising in panic. “What if he doesn’t want it, or me once he finds out?”

The air caught in Shiro's throat. He hadn't realized how much this actually weighed on Lance's mind. All he could do was pull Lance into a tight embrace, rubbing Lance's back slowly.

“No matter what happens, we're all going to be there for you, support and care for you, whatever your decision may be.” He said softly, closing his eyes for a second, squeezing Lance assuringly. He smiled softly as he felt Lance's arms came around him. “Everything’s going to be alright. I promise.”

A low sigh came out of his mouth as he felt Lance go slack against him, whimpering quietly into the shoulder. They stayed together as long as Lance could stand, pulling away from their leader with a soft hiccup and rubbing his eye with his wrist.

“Go get some rest, Lance.” Shiro said, giving one last squeeze to Lance’s shoulder. “I know you need it.”

Lance met his eyes with a somber smile and patted Shiro’s hand. “Thanks”

As Shiro watched him continue down the hall. All he could do was worry about the eventual choice that Lance might have to make and how the choice would affect him mentally. At this point he hoped he was right about how Keith would react as well.

“Princess, I hope you have good reason for contacting me.” Kolivan’s staticky voice came through the speakers. Allura, Hunk, and Pidge huddled close around the communication panel.

“I can certainly say-”

“Listen up you hulking furry.” Pidge interrupted, ignoring the quiet scolding from Hunk. “We need Keith back at the castle like, within the next few days.”

“...You do realize we are currently on an important blade mission?” The Blade deadpanned.

“Yeah, I do.” Pidge huffed. “But Keith’s been an ass and we need him.”

“What Pidge means to convey,” Allura sighed, side eyeing the green paladin. “Is that there is an important event that is coming up which requires Keith’s presence.”

“He has not told me of any event that is supposed to occur.”

“It’s because he doesn’t remember,” Hunk piped up. “I’m chalking it up to being on so many blade missions recently.”

“If you don’t send him back to us, I’m going to shove your sword so far up your as-”

“ANYWAY, we request that Keith leave your mission early if entirely possible.” Allura coughed, elbowing Pidge hard.

“What event is even going on?” Kolivan sighed, irritation hinting in his voice. Hunk had to hold Pidge back and slap a hand over their mouth before they could insult the Blade Leader again.

“He and Lance’s anniversary is in a movement.” Allura said, lowering her voice just a tad even though she knew Lance was not close to the bridge.

There was a soft gasp on the other side of the line. “How could Keithka forget such a thing?” Kolivan hissed softly.

Pidge at that moment had licked Hunk’s hand to make him release their mouth.

“Lance is also pregananant and freaking out about how Keith is going to react.” They said quickly before Hunk could pull them back again.

Kolivan gasped again then whined softly, going quiet for a few minutes.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Chapter Text

Things were not alright. The intense aching pain in the center of Keith’s chest making him struggle with short breaths. His head knocked into Kolivan’s chest with a painful sob as he was jostled, whining lowly as the Leader held him tighter and broke out into a run.

They were on a mission, it had gone on for about three weeks so far. The mission was only supposed to be simple extended recon on a heavily fortified base, but Keith and two younger blades had been discovered after they had been moving to a different location and were not informed the patrol schedule had changed.

Keith had quickly leapt down and incapacitated one of the guards, turning to fight the next when a barbed ball lodged itself in his side, tearing through his blade uniform. He screamed as it was dragged back and tore his skin. He was hit twice more with the barbed mace before he finally killed the guard. He was about to grab the other blades with him when a blaster shot hit him squarely in the chest, right below where his chestplate ended.

Next thing he knew, Keith was being picked up by the Leader and rushed back to their temporary base. He was gasping softly and shivering, trying to focus on the low rumbles he felt through the Leader’s own armor.

Everything hurt. It seeped into his core and made him cold. Even though his chest was burning and aching he still felt like he couldn’t get warm at all. Keith knew the leader was talking to him, but it just blurred to much from the pain and blood that roared in his ears.

Keith couldn’t tell how much time had passed but he saw it get darker, whether from it getting later in the day or from entering the temporary Blade base. He found it was the latter as he was deposited onto a cot and let out a strangled whine as the jostling aggravated his wounds.

A set of hands pet at his head frantically in attempt to calm him and only a deep rumbling purr succeeded in that. A grip at his arm and a pinch made him flinch and let out a small sob until it felt like his pain was being melted away and replaced with cold nothingness.

Cold hands pinched and pulled at his fingers before pressing at his wrist, Keith wanted to whine but he had no energy to fight back.

“...-ificant….-ood loss…” One voice came, he thought it was Ulaz’s voice but things were fuzzy and he couldn’t focus on the voice. “Poss-....-xin, as well.” The hands against his head, Kolivan’s hands, shifted and pulled him up enough so that the Doctor could assess the actively bleeding wounds on his sides. Keith shivered as a thick salve was spread over his wounds and barely whimpered at the wraps tightly bound against him to staunch the bleeding. Great care was taken when wrapping the giant burnt and wound on his chest, trying not to aggravate that wound further.

Ulaz and Kolivan talked quickly over top of him, their voices to low and too rushed for Keith to focus on what they were saying but he caught few words.

“...-resources to tak-...-fection-....-too great-...-operly treat-...-ere” Ulaz’s voice came back and forth.

“...-nact the castl-...-ey have pods.”

“...-est option…” Kolivan sighed, brushing his claws through Keith’s hair. Keith’s eyes finally met his and the leader frowned, pushing the hair sticking to Keith’s forehead back.

“Kolivan…” Keith wheezed softly, shakily reaching for the Leader’s hand.

“Shh Keitka” Kolivan said, letting out an assuring purr. Keith relaxed slightly into it and coughed wetly. “It wi-...-kay”

“K-kolivan, please” Keith wheezed, feeling tears start to well up in eyes.

“...-llura has gr-...-d transport-....-warp to our sector-....” Ulaz rushed, pulling the hover stretcher next to the cot where Keith lay. The two tried carefully to pull the Red Paladin onto the stretcher without aggravating his wounds, only to pull a loud sob from his throat as pain flared up at the barest brush at his covered wounds and a slight twist of his chest.

“Keit-....-kay, its okay-...” One of their voices came, petting and brushing through his hair while the other secured him to the stretcher. “It-...-e alright”

“Koliva-... please- it hurts-” Keith sobbed, squirming under the restraints. “I wanna go home”

“You will…” Kolivan said softly, brushing his fingers through Keith’s hair more.

There was another pinch to his arm, making Keith whine again. Darkness crept at the edges of his vision, draining the energy from his body. He slumped back against the stretcher and sighed, coughing wetly.

Keith’s body felt heavy and let his eyes start to fall shut. The outline of Ulaz and Kolivan leaned over him, he thought they were talking to him but he couldn’t focus on what they said. Exhaustion pulled him further down, forcing his eyes closed and finally falling into darkness.

Pidge’s heart pounded in their chest, drowning out their heavy panting and their fast steps. They needed to find Lance, they didn’t know where he was. They raced down the halls to the first place they figured he might be.

They had asked for Keith to come back to the castle.

None of them expected him to come back like this.

Battered and bruised and broken- in need of an emergency healing, on the brink of death if they hadn’t gotten to him when they did.

Those of them awake at this time of night were confused at the sudden warping of the castle. Converging in the bridge, Pidge and Shiro asked what was going on. Though the distressed look on Allura’s face was the only answer they needed, following without question as she dashed to the hangar.

Pidge had watched Shiro’s heart practically stop as they reached the hangar, they understood why as they saw Keith on the stretcher being offloaded from the pod. Shiro had weakly told them to get Lance, they almost didn’t want to leave Shiro in the autopilot state he was in but they knew Lance had to be informed.

That was where they found themself now, running to Lance’s room with the image of the grievously injured Keith stuck in their mind.

They stumbled and landed against Lance’s door, banging on it loudly while they tried to catch their breath.

“Lance!?” They yelled, still leaning against the door. Pidge nearly fell forward as the door was quickly opened revealing a tired and worried Lance on the other side.

“Pidge?” Lance rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “What’s going on?”

“Keith- he-” Pidge whimpered. “-Injured.”

Lance paled, staring back at Pidge. “Where is he.”

Pidge barely answered before Lance pushed passed them, racing down the hall to the infirmary. They ran back, the green paladin only a few steps behind the blue. Pidge didn’t know how Lance would actually react to the state Keith was in but they knew it wouldn’t be good.

They knocked into Lance’s back when he suddenly stopped in the center of the doorway to the infirmary, letting out an ‘oof’ of air before they peeled themself away from him and glanced around to see what was happening.

Coran was fiddling with two large bags of red liquid connecting to one of the bulkier pods while Ulaz and Shiro were setting Keith up into the pods bed and attaching the final wires and tubes into his body, connecting to the inside of the pod.

There was blood smeared across too many medical instruments, across the paleness of Shiro’s skin, highlighted against the dark blade armor Ulaz wore.

Pidge gulped and reached for Lance’s arm, holding onto it tightly. Keith looked even paler against the white of the medical suit.

The blue paladin walked forward silently towards the pod and his teammates, unintentionally pulling out of Pidge’s grasp. He didn’t notice their arms falling from his, or that they had even latched onto him in the first place.

“Keith…?” Lance barely got out, sucking in a shaky breath as he crossed the room and looking like he could break down any second.

Shiro turned quickly towards him, murmuring something to Ulaz just out of the others hearing range, who took over the final prep to get Keith into the pod. The leader moved back towards Lance swiftly, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and guiding him out of the room quickly.

“He’s going to be okay, Lance.” Shiro assured as soon as they were out of the infirmary.

“H-he’s hurt again.” Lance whimpered, sucking in another shaky breath and leaning into Shiro’s warmth. “Wh-why does he always come back to me hurt.”

Shiro hugged him tightly and rubbed the back of his head soothingly. He honestly had no answer for why every time Keith returned, he was hurt in some fashion.

“I promise he’s going to be okay.” Shiro whispered, trying to convince himself of it as well. “Ulaz and Coran have done everything they can to make sure of it.”

“He looked so bad Shiro, he looked like he was gonna die, there was blood everywhere” Lance rushed out, letting out a shuddering sob right after, pressing his face harshly into Shiro’s chest.

The older paladin didn’t know how to comfort Lance further but let the two of them sink to the floor against the wall with Shiro rubbing Lance’s back slowly as he sobbed.

“It’s going to be okay, Keith is strong, we got him into a pod quick enough.” Shiro’s voice was barely a whisper.

“I said I wanted him home but not like this!” Lance sobbed. “I want him to be here with me, instead of that stupid pod that’s basically become his third bed! He’s probably even going to miss our anniversary because he’s hurt and he’ll be in there for days!”

Shiro frowned and pushed Lance back slightly, looking directly. “No matter what happens, I’m gonna make sure that Keith is okay and that you two have time together for your anniversary, even if its the day of or day after.”

Lance stared back at him and sniffed sadly, rubbing at the edge of his eye with his wrist. He slowly nodded and rubbed at his face, trying to calm down in some sense.

Shiro helped him up slowly and made sure that Pidge went off to their own room before escorting Lance back to his own room, keeping a comforting hand on his back.

They bid each other a quiet good night before Shiro turned and started back to his and Allura’s room with a plan in mind, one that he would need Hunk for.

The cold refused to leave Keith’s lungs, even after the healing pod opened and let him leave. A few sets of warm hands eased him away from the pod and wrapped a blanket around his shoulders. Keith shuddered and pulled the blanket tight around him, looking up to see Shiro and Hunk as the ones around him. He let out a sigh and let Shiro pull him into a tight hug, trying to let his warm seep into his skin.

“How long-?” Keith asked, pulling back enough to look at the two.

“About four days.” Hunk said quietly. “It’s the middle of the night right now.”

Keith nodded slowly and shivered again, biting at the insides of his lips. His hand rubbed over the center of his chest, over where the wound used to be. It felt tight and he winced slightly at the phantom feeling of pain deep inside.

“You’re probably hungry,” Shiro started, resting his hand on Keith’s shoulder. “It’ll be good to get some food inside you before shooing you off to Lance.”

Keith only nodded slightly and let himself be escorted out by Hunk and Shiro. There were looks on their faces that he couldn’t exactly determine what they were but he brushed it off, letting out a yawn. Despite being in a sleep like state for days, it seemed to not be enough and he was genuinely tired.

They walked in silence until they got to the kitchen, when Hunk placed a bowl of food goo in front of him. Compared to the hard bland rations the blade provided, he was not complaining.

“So,” Hunk cleared his throat. “I’m gonna give you the rundown for tomorrow.”

“Rundown..?”

“Nothing politically important is happening tomorrow, so you and Lance are able to sleep in tomorrow and hopefully you’re gonna wake up before him or something like that. I’m gonna be making breakfast early since Pidge and I are gonna be going out to the space mall for the day, so that’s probably when you’ll be able to get it and bring it to him in the morning.”

“Hunk, what is going on… what about my mission...”

“Your mission is over, and you two are going to have a date day because Lance has been worried fucking sick about your dumb ass for the past two weeks and even more so the past four,” Hunk glared pointedly. “So letting the both of you have down time together is recommended and will be enforced.”

Keith blanched and snapped his mouth shut, nodding along as he tried to forget the partial guilt about worrying Lance.

“In the afternoon, roughly sometime after Pidge and I get back; Shiro is gonna pull you aside under the geisue of training but he’s gonna help you get nicely dressed-”

“You really have all of this planned out, don’t you.” Keith deadpanned, looking over with a furrowed brow at the Yellow paladin.

“Yes, -anyway, Allura is gonna pull Lance aside, i don’t know what she’s using as her excuse but yeah. You two are going to have a nice dinner and after that it’s up to you two what you’re doing.” Hunk finished, taking a deep breath. He set down the spoon he had started to waving around in Keith’s direction.

Keith nodded again and looked between the men sitting on either side of him. Confusion apparent on his face as he worked through his own thought process and wracking his brain for information.

“Something’s missing, I feel like I’m forgetting something” Keith said quietly, glancing up at his brother to see if he would fill in the blanks as to what he was missing.

“Lance has just been… worried about you, and I know that you haven’t been around that often so we figured it would be a good idea to let you two have a nice relaxing day for once.” Shiro sighed softly and rubbed at his brow.

“Okay…” Keith wasn’t exactly sure that was the entire story and it seemed that he would not be told if he actually forgot something so he just dropped it only to hope he would remember it later.

Keith gnawed at his lip and pushed away from the table with a low groan, stretching out his back. “I think,” He sighed. “I’m gonna go crawl into bed with Lance now.” He stood slowly and looked over at Shiro who only gave him a slow nod.

“Thanks for being there when I got out of the pod.” Keith said quickly before he started to back out.

“You’re welcome, Keith”

Lance let out a low groan and curled up deeper under the covers where the body that used to lay next to him no longer lay. At least there was a warm spot where Keith was sleeping and was ever nicer to curl into because it smelled like him. That’s right, Keith got out of the pod last night and joined him sometime around midnight.

The door to their room opened and the light came on, only making Lance further curl under the covers. Though he was soon roused by the wafting smell of pancakes and sweet syrup.

“Mornin’ baby blue” Keith hummed as he walked over to the bed.

“Nhmm…. Morning…” Lance sighed and slowly sat up, rubbing at his eyes before focusing on what his husband had brought. “Food?”

“Hunk made breakfast this morning before he and Pidge left, so I figured I could bring you some in bed.” Lance sat up further, propped up against their pillows and pulled their blanket smoothly across his lap. He held out his hands and wiggled his fingers.

“Give me the food.” Lance demanded with a small laugh, moving his hands back as Keith snorted and pushed the tray onto his lap before sliding in hip to hip with Lance.

There was a single large stack of pancakes in the center plate and several strips of space bacon around it, as well as two sets of silverware and a glass for the each of them, orange juice for Lance and apple juice for Keith.

“So, are you planning to go off and do anything today?” Lance asked quietly as he picked up his fork and started to munch on the first pancake in the stack, sweet enough that syrup was not required.

“Nope” Keith purred, slowly wrapping an arm around Lance’s middle and pulling him closer. “You have me all to yourself for the entire day.”

Lance licked his lips and purred back, leaning heavily into his husband. “Really now~ all day~?”

“All day~”

A fond smile found its way onto Lance’s face as he leaned up and pressed a soft kiss against Keith’s cheek. “I have the perfect idea of what to do today then, and i’m sure you won’t be that upset with it.”

That plan of course, was to let Lance get many of his products out and have a full out spa day. At first, Keith was reluctant to having any of these clay masks smeared over his face, with the weird cooling texture and how when it dried it got completely stiff and made it hard to move his face, but soon enough he sat patiently still as Lance brushed a hydrating clay mask around his face. It still felt weird but he allowed Lance to continue on with it.

After Lance put his own products on his face, he dragged Keith out to the lounge where they put on some of the Altean romance movies that still had yet to get actual translation subtitles. Lance made up his own dialogue for each of the characters, also making up the story along the way.

It was really dumb, but Keith kept laughing at some of the dialogue Lance came up with, occasionally adding some commentary of his own.

They stayed like that for a couple hours, not even noticing that they had soon gone through about four movies and Keith started to doze off against his husband, jaw hurting from laughing too much in the past couple hours.

He barely noticed the sound of the door opening behind them and the movie’s audio being turned down drastically.

“Need something, Shiro?” Lance hummed through a yawn, wrapping an arm around Keith.

“Sorry Lance, but do you mind if I steal Keith for a bit? Shiro said, walking over and resting his arms on the back of the couch. “I wanna get a couple laps in and need a spotter for the weights.”

Lance stiffened and whimpered quietly. “Do you have to?”

Keith sat up slowly and rubbed at his eyes, sharing a knowing look with the black paladin before yawning and moving to sit up. “It’ll be fine Lance, only be an hour or somethin’.” he yawned.

Lance whined again but sighed softly. “Alright, go,” he huffed, pulling his arm off of Keith and crossing them loosely. Keith kissed his cheek softly before standing up with a groan and stretch, scratching at the dry face mask still on his face from hours previous.

He and Shiro walked out of the dark lounge quickly and walked in the direction of Keith’s room instead of the training room.

“Hunk and Pidge got back a little bit ago,” Shiro hummed, “They got started on dinner stuff, you ready for your part?”

Keith nodded. “Get dressed up nicely, get shoved into a dining room, have dinner with Lance.” He recited, scratching at his face again.

“Good, I can get your clothes out while you take a shower or wash your face, whichever you want to do.” Shiro slid the door open and stepped in first before looking back to Keith. “Anything I should be worried about finding?” He teased.

“Ugh, no, Shiro.” Keith rolled his eyes, brushing past him quickly to get to their en suite. “Why does everyone ask that.”

“I- nevermind.”

Keith only shook his head and shut the door behind him. He looked into the mirror and glowered at the green mask on his face, ultimately deciding a shower was in order since only washing his face would leave a gross green residue around where the edges of the mask were.

He still couldn’t remember if something special was supposed to be happening. The team normally wouldn’t be that invested in getting him and Lance going on dates, or even really get them to go on dates. Yeah, Lance had been very clingy today but he normally was after Keith got out of the pod. His birthday wasn’t even for another month and Lance’s was a few months ago, so he knew that he wasn’t forgetting either of their birthdays.

Keith let out a low groan and finished his shower quickly, hopping out and quickly drying off with the towel. Shiro apparently wasn’t going to tell him which was frankly getting very irritating, maybe he should just ask Lance straight up if no one else was going to tell him anything.

The room seemed much colder than when he initially left it but that was most likely from the steaming shower he had taken and also since he was only in his boxers. Keith kept the towel around his neck and walked over to where Shiro had laid out a suit for him, an old altean one heavily modified to look like traditional earth ones. Apparently his brother ducked out of the room while he was in his shower which wasn’t concerning at all, just frustrating.

A sigh came out of his mouth and quickly fussed with getting the red shirt on and pulled the pants over his hips, which seemed only a little bit tight. The jacket was thankfully easy and only required him pulling it over his arms and buttoning up to his chest.

“You decent?” Shiro called from the other side of the bedroom door.

“Yeah!” Keith called back, brushing his fingers through his still damp hair, hissing at a knot that caught on his fingers.

Shiro came back into the room and hummed slightly at the sight of Keith all dressed up. There was a brief moment of silence as the older walked over and straightened the jacket hanging over Keith’s shoulders.

“Very handsome.” He commented, smiling softly. Keith only flushed and picked at the knot in his hair, unsure of how to actually respond to the compliment. “Do you want me to brush your hair for you?” Keith only nodded again, picking up a small comb from the nightstand and pressing it into Shiro’s palm.

The black paladin got quick to work on brushing the knots out of Keith’s hair, being careful not to tug harshly at any of them. Keith of course didn’t make any sound even if Shiro accidently did painfully tug.

“Hey Shiro?”

“Hm?”

“I know something is today but I honestly can’t think of what it is.” Keith said quietly, staring off into nothing. “It’s neither of our birthdays, it’s not valentine’s day, and I know I'm not the best with dates, but I'm pretty sure our dating anniversary isn't for a couple more months…”

Shiro let out a low sigh and set the brush down, tying Keith’s hair up into a ponytail before walking around in front of him.

“Just know that it’s supposed to be a special day between you and Lance.” Shiro assured, resting his hand on Keith’s shoulder.

“I just want to know what it is!” Keith groaned in frustration, rubbing at the bridge between his eyes.

“Think about the other anniversary you two share.” Shiro sighed, ushering Keith out of the room and down the hall.

Keith frowned and furrowed his brow, not understanding what ‘Other Anniversary’ Shiro could be talking about. He opened his mouth to retort but only squeaked as he was pushed into a room.

“What was that for- woah” Keith’s jaw dropped as he looked at the room he was pushed into. The walls were covered in chains of carefully folded paper roses in red and blue and a vase full of real actual flowers on the counter pressed against the right wall. There was a two person table in the center of the room, covered with a soft white tablecloth and set already with plates and silverware. The only light source in the room coming from a few candles and fairylights strewn up around the edges of the room.

Keith turned to look at Shiro questioningly but only got a sly wink in return before being left alone in the room. He sighed and shook his head, moving to sit in one of the chairs, leaning back and twisting the gold ring on his finger, waiting for Lance to arrive.

He wondered if Lance knew about anything that was being planned for them. Keith knew that Allura would have stolen him to get him ready for this as well but if he actually figured out what was going on, Keith didn’t know.

A low sigh left Keith’s mouth and he looked down at his hand, inspecting the ring that sat upon his finger, how it reflected the little light in the room. He smiled, remembering their-

Wedding.

Fuck.

Their wedding anniversary.

“THAT’S WHAT HE FUCKING MEANT!” Keith yelled, tossing his head back. “I am so fucking stupid! That’s what Lance kept hinting to! And I’ve been an oblivious piece of shit!”

“Keith?”

Keith started and jolted in his seat, quickly looking up to the entrance way. Lance stood there in a white and blue version of the suit Keith was wearing, with an honestly confused face.

“Uh- Lance! Hey...” He sputtered, sitting up in the chair.

“Do you know what’s going on?” Lance asked with a sigh and slowly walked over to the table, taking his seat in the other chair.

“Anniversary dinner?” Keith offered, giving Lance a shy smile.

The look on Lance’s face shifted from shocked to confused to delight in the span of a few seconds.

“You remembered?” Lance asked, settling on the soft smile as he settled into the seat.

“I honestly didn’t remember until about a minute before you came in…” Keith admitted softly, rubbing the back of his head and glancing away, ashamed of himself.

“I always knew you were a scatter brain but I’m glad you remembered,” Lance chuckled lightly and reached over, taking Keith’s other hand in his and rubbing over his knuckles slowly. “Even if it is last minute.”

Keith looked up cautiously and met Lance’s eyes, slowly getting the courage to smile softly and squeeze his hand back.

“I didn’t get you anything.” Keith said softly.

“You didn’t have to, but I uh- got you something” Lance coughed slightly, turning a bit red.

“You did?”

“Are you still… opposed to the idea of becoming a father?” He said slowly, swallowing around the lump in his throat that wouldn’t budge.

“I mean, not really?” Keith said, watching Lance start to fidget nervously.

“Well, you’re going to be one… if you’re okay with that.” Lance breathed out, squeezing Keith’s hand tightly.

Keith stared at his husband. He was going to become a dad? Was he even ready for that? He was a Blade, and with the dangers of the job they didn’t have children. He wouldn’t even be near Lance that much if he continued with his current rate of missions. But honestly, he didn’t want to be away from his husband that much anymore.

Kolivan told him that the choice was his if he wanted to be devoted to the Blade mindset or not. He didn’t have to make his decisions with what they would think, it would only be affected by him and his past. Keith figured he might take the Blade leader up on moving away from the blade mindset-.

“Keith…?” Lance asked, worry apparent in his voice.

“That’s… great, Lance.” Keith breathed, smiling honestly at his husband. “That’s great, I’m just-... it’ll take me getting over a couple issues, but… I’m gonna be there for you. Promise.”

Lance let out a choked sob from the other side of the table and quickly rubbed at his eyes to keep the tears in his eyes from spilling out. Keith almost asked what was wrong but he knew for once that they weren’t tears of grief, but tears of gratefulness.

“Thank you, Keith.” Lance said softly, squeezing his husband’s hand tightly once again.

“Why don’t we enjoy the anniversary dinner Hunk cooked up for us?” Keith offered soothingly, rubbing his thumb over Lance’s knuckles.

“That sounds like a wonderful idea.”