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Chapter Text

              He didn’t even think. the energy was speeding towards her and Lance didn’t even think. He and Red acted as one, pushing the other lion out of the way. Taking the blow. Taking the pain. Taking his life.

              He shot up in bed, a scream on his lips. The sweat on his back was sticky, the pain of the blow still fresh on his nerves. His hands tingled where the energy hit him first before it cascaded throughout his body, frying every cell.

              It had been weeks since the day at the shield station. Weeks since he had died saving his friend. Weeks since that same friend brought him back from the over the edge. No one besides the two of them knew. It had never come up in all of the conversations with Keith, filling him in on what happened while he was away with Krolia. Pidge, Coran, and Hunk—his best friend dammit—didn’t know. He had died in that lion on that god forsaken shield station. He had died. Everyone had heard him scream. Heard the silence afterwards. He knew because they all looked concerned when they came back to the castle. They looked him over and checked his vitals. He didn’t need a healing pod, even with the weird lightning shaped scars on his forearms and hands. The princess, it seems, had healed those as well when she brought him back from the Nothing. They looked unsure when the scans came back, and he was mostly fine, some bedrest would be the extent of his recovery care.

              No one asked. No one talked. No one cared.

              Allura was so absorbed in Lotor and his ship that she ignored Lance completely. He hoped the mice hadn’t told her about the things he had said about her but knowing the relationship between the Altean mice and the princess, he knew it was pointless. She didn’t care. He took the rejection and the silence as he always did. Put on his smile and joked around, acted like nothing happened, that he was fine. The stress definitely wasn’t getting to him.

              Then Keith was back. He was back and taller and broader than when he left, and no one said anything. He was back and had brought his mother, an Altean, and a teleporting space wolf with him. A TELEPORTING SPACE WOLF. Lance was still freaking out about it a little. Lotor was usurped, the Altean girl—Romelle—had told her story and Lotor had been ousted as the lying snake he was. Shiro’s betrayal was a shock to everyone’s system. Their leader attacking them, hurting them, and taking off with Lotor, had cut them all down to the core.

              The fight to follow had been hard. Getting back in Red had been terrifying. The last moments of his life playing in his mind again and again as he tried to calm down, push the fear down so he could do what had to be done. They had sent Keith through the wormhole after Shiro. They had fought for their lives against the beast of a machine Lotor had constructed. Luckily there was no real reprieve from the action for Lance to think about what was happening because if there was, he would have lost any sanity he had left. The fear would have frozen him, probably would have killed him. Again. But Keith came back. He came back, and they beat Lotor and they saved Shiro and Keith had this new scar on his face, and they won. They lost the castle, but they won. None of the team had been lost, they had everyone. No one had died. Except him and Shiro, weeks ago.

              They were heading home now. Jumping from planet to planet because they couldn’t wormhole anymore. Camping on the most hospitable ones. Saving as many people as they could along the way. Shiro had started staying awake longer and longer, resting was doing him good. Keith explained what Shiro had told him on the Astral plane. Lance was shocked. After the shock receded, the guilt and pain washed over him. Alone one night in the makeshift tent he shared with Hunk, the guilt swept him up and brought him to his knees. Shiro had tried to tell him, tried to talk to him and he hadn’t listened! He hadn’t heard clearly in those last seconds before they left the shared headspace! He could have helped Shiro, they could have avoided Haggar taking control of Shiro and stopped Keith from getting that massive scar on his face and going through having to fight his brother to save his own life. He could have stopped it all. But he didn’t. He had tried to talk to Shiro afterwards, to find out what was going on, but nothing came of it.

              Shiro didn’t blame him. Keith didn’t blame him. But he blamed himself, the sharpshooter who could do nothing but shoot a blaster and run his mouth. The one who jumped in front of his teammate to save her, died in the process, and no one cared. Even his own sacrifice wasn’t enough. Enough to make him better than the useless seventh wheel. The screwup.

              His breathing had begun to calm down when he heard the footsteps. They were moving fast, like they were jogging towards him. They must have heard him and been worried. Lance laid his arms on his bent knees and put his forehead on his folded arms. Whoever it was, was going to check on him no matter what now so he might as well make it as painless as possible.

              He didn’t expect it to be Shiro.

              Shiro pushed aside the flap of his makeshift tent. They really needed better shelters, these scrounged up tents were barely standing.

              “Lance are you alright? You screamed, what happened?” He asked hurriedly. He was out of breath; he shouldn’t have been out of bed.

              “It’s nothing Shiro, just a nightmare. It’s really nothing to worry about, they happen to all of us at least sometimes now.” Lance said reassuringly. Shiro had enough to deal with along with his own nightmares.

              “Nightmares aren’t nothing Lance. We’re in the middle of an intergalactic war, there’s going to be some terrible things that happen, those leave scars. It’s good to talk about the things that happen, it helps you process them.” Shiro was calm in his explanation, ever the leader.

              Tired of being disregarded by the rest of the team, and with the old Shiro back, Lance considered telling him about all the stuff that happened. Shiro would listen, wouldn’t he? Lance was tired of doing this alone and being alone with his awful thoughts. He opened his mouth to try and tell Shiro at least something when another voice carried into the tent.

              “Shiro you shouldn’t be out of bed!” Keith exclaimed hurrying into the tent with a worried expression on his face.

              “Keith, I’m not overexerting myself calm down. Besides I’m not the only one who needs the rest.” He looked pointedly at Lance, the bags under his eyes must have been more noticeable than he thought. He turned his head away quickly; Keith didn’t need to see them too.

              “Lance didn’t die and get brought back to life Shiro, but you’re right we should all be sleeping it’s been a rough few weeks.” Keith sighed, not noticing how Lance whipped his head back to look at him shocked.

              “Keith you don’t know what Lance has been through, don’t make assumptions.” Lance was surprised by Shiro’s stern tone, there was no way Shiro could know. He wasn’t around for the shield station incident, the clone was and Allura hadn’t told anyone else, he knew that for sure.

              “What are you talking about Shiro? If something that bad had happened to Lance, he would have been in the healing pod when I got back, or someone would have at least told me, Hunk for sure. That’s not something to be kept a secret, it could hurt the team, and everyone involved mentally, and we need everyone in as good of form as possible.” Keith looked confused; Lance couldn’t have been hurt that badly. Hunk at least would have been all over the red paladin if he so much as had a scratch on him from a fight, he was a good friend and cared for everyone’s well being.

              “Hunk was preoccupied.” Lance said quietly, looking at the floor. “He was trying to get the plates back in alignment, he didn’t see it.”

              “See what? Lance what are you talking about? Are you saying something happened?” Keith asked, starting to worry even more.

              Lance sighed heavily, well he was going to tell Shiro anyways and Keith could be trusted. Besides Keith seemed genuinely worried about him right now.

              “We went to a shield station over a planet with a Galra settlement, it was attacked by some of Lotor’s enemies. They knocked the plates out of alignment, we only had maybe a varga to put it back together before the next radiation belt hit. Allura and I were putting a broken plate back together while Hunk fixed the alignment and Pidge and the other Shiro got the power back on.” Lance paused, he looked up at the other two paladins in the room. Shiro looked sad but not surprised, Keith on the other hand had horror dawning on his face. His eyes were blown wide and he was practically oozing concern.

              “Something went wrong, there was a power surge and the plate we had been fixing discharged. It looked like lightning. It went straight for Allura and Blue.” He got quieter as he talked, the memories making him shake. “I didn’t even think. I pushed her out of the way and took the hit. I didn’t make it out.” Tears had come to his eyes. He gripped his knees tighter.

              “What do you mean you didn’t make it out? You’re sitting right here in front of me, you look totally fine.” Keith had started to feel the panic rise in his chest, who could hide this from him? From the team? If Hunk had known, Lance wouldn’t have ever been left alone.

              “I mean, I died Keith. The discharge stopped my heart. It shut down my lion and ended my life,” Lance lifted his arms into the light to show the two men the lightning like scars, “Allura got out of Blue and came to see if I was alright, she found me like that. Not breathing, no pulse. She healed me with her Altean magic, brought me back to life, kind of like with Shiro.” Lance couldn’t look Keith in the eye, but he did look at Shiro with a small rueful smile. “When we got back to the castle Coran checked me out but the only thing wrong with me were the scars on my arms. No other damage, the others probably assumed I’d been knocked out or knocked offline by the energy. Allura knows though, you can ask her if you don’t believe me.”

              Keith looked shell shocked; he had fallen to his knees at some point while Lance was talking. Shiro looked sad, a little angry that no one else had known. He was going to have some serious words with the princess later, this was unacceptable.

              “Why didn’t she tell me? Why didn’t she tell anyone? Jesus Lance, youv’e been dealing with this alone this whole time?” Lance nodded “Allura didn’t try to talk to you at all?” He watched the red paladin shake his head.

              “She was too preoccupied with Lotor and the ship, their project. I was still processing being able to breathe again. I thought she would have told at least Coran, but no one mentioned it and the healing pod said I was fine, so it was dropped.” Lance shrugged sadly and wrapped his arms around himself. Shiro was still adapting to all the sensations of having a physical body again and didn’t like touch so he looked at Keith and gestured to Lance, trying to get Keith to give him the physical comfort he knew Lance needed.

              Keith got the hint and moved over to where Lance was. He got the younger pilot’s attention and opened his arms, an invitation to take if he wanted. Lance looked shocked before his face scrunched up and he collapsed into Keith’s arms. The sobs started when Keith wrapped his arms around Lance and curled around him.

              “You’re alright now Lance, you’re not alone. You’re safe here. For what it’s worth, I’m so glad you’re alive. I don’t know what we’d do without you.” Keith whispered into Lance’s hair, trying to rub soothing circles into the shorter boy’s back. He wasn’t very good at this whole comfort thing, but Lance needed it right now and Shiro couldn’t help.

              The older Black paladin had turned away from the two, lost in thought as to how to deal with this situation from here. They needed Allura in the Blue lion right now because he couldn’t fly Black. Once he was back and healthy though there would need to be some shuffling done. You couldn’t be apart of the team if you weren’t going to work with the team and Allura had shown how much she cared about the team and Lance with this. There had to be some punishment in order, actions like these had consequences and she needed to face what she’d done.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              Keith stayed with Lance that night, holding the younger man as he cried and long after the tears had stopped and they’d both fallen asleep. Waking up in Keith’s arms wasn’t as awkward as Lance thought it would have been, probably because of the exhaustion of crying himself to sleep but also because Keith had mellowed out in his time away and made Lance feel safer. If there was one thing Lance needed right now it was to feel safe.

              When Keith woke it was to Lance’s face nuzzled into his neck and breathing softly but very much awake. He smiled to himself, glad that Lance had calmed down and that he had helped in some way.

              Keith gave the other paladin a little squeeze to let him know he was awake, “How are you feeling Lance? You okay?” he asked.

              “Yeah, doing better. Still exhausted though.” He said, muffled by Keith’s shoulder. “Thanks Keith. For being here. For staying. I really needed it.”

              “Of course, we’re a team Lance. Even with all our fighting and sniping at each other we’re still a team and I’m your friend. I’ll be here whenever you need me.” He paused “And I’m sorry for snapping at you when I got back to the castle, I was in a rush and you were just trying to be cautious. I could have been anyone in disguise especially with the height difference. You’ve been through a lot while I’ve been gone, things I have no idea about. I’ll try to remember that from now on.”

              “We’re not the same people as when you left Keith, you especially. We’ll figure it out, but thanks for understanding. No one has really been taking me seriously lately.” Lance whispered, moving back a bit, making Keith loosen his hold. They looked into each other’s eyes for a beat, then Keith smiled.

              “We should probably get up, scrounge up some breakfast, and definitely find Shiro. He’s probably planning something, and I don’t want it to be a surprise.” They moved reluctantly away from the warm cocoon of safety they had made and got up off the pile of blankets they were using for beds in their camp.

              The two paladins walked out of Lance’s tent and towards the campfire the group had set up in the middle of all the tents. They rotated who shared with who every time they landed to keep space even and to keep possible fights to a minimum. This time it was Lance’s turn to have a tent to himself, something Keith didn’t think should be repeated. He had heard some of Shiro and Lance’s conversation before he had entered the tent and didn’t like the idea of the red paladin suffering from those nightmares alone, especially now that he knew what had happened to the now shorter boy. There was a reason he stuck so close to Shiro, for his own comfort of knowing Shiro was alright and because Shiro was still badly shaken from all that had happened. He needed support and so did Lance, and as the temporary leader of the team and a friend to both, he wanted to be there for them.

              They found a spot big enough for the two of them to sit side-by-side on a rock near the fire. Hunk was already up and making something in a pan with Coran’s help. Pidge hadn’t arrived yet and was probably still sleeping. Matt was tinkering with something across the fire from them with Shiro nearby (looking tired but at least looking like he’d slept). Krolia, he knew was patrolling the perimeter of the camp and had probably been up for hours. Romelle was sitting with Allura a spot or two away from Matt and Shiro. When Keith looked at Allura he frowned, something had to be done about her behaviour, what she had done to Lance was not okay and would not be tolerated. Lance looked up at him when he caught Keith frowning and followed his gaze. Realizing that Keith was looking at Allura, he tensed. Lance didn’t want a confrontation right now.

              Keith felt Lance go rigid and looked over to him. Seeing Lance looking wary at where Keith had been watching brought Keith out of his thoughts. “Lance don’t worry. I won’t do anything to start a fight right now. I want to talk to Shiro first, handle this quietly. You don’t need anymore stress and neither does he, it’ll be okay.” He spoke quietly, trying to get Lance to relax again. Riling him up wouldn’t help his mental state at all. Lance looked at Keith and nodded, a small smile on his lips. Keith really had mellowed out.

              “Don’t you two seem cozy this morning! What brought this on?” Hunk teased when he noticed the two paladins sitting rather close together on a rock near him.

              “We had a bonding moment.” Keith said with a smirk.

              “He cradled me in his arms.” Lance added dryly.

              They looked at each other, making eye contact and burst out laughing. They held onto each other as they laughed, trying not to fall over.

              “At least I remember this one!” Lance exclaimed, laughing even harder when Keith snorted.

              The rest of the group was looking at them oddly but smiling, the two of them getting along was well overdue. With the spectacle over, Coran and Hunk started passing the food around which brought Pidge out of her tent (read; cave) she had shared with Krolia. The team ate in relative silence, enjoying the calm of the morning. Krolia rejoined the group just as everyone had finished their breakfast, to eat her portion which Hunk had set out for her for when she returned from her perimeter check. With breakfast done and the group all together, Shiro thought it a good time to bring attention to the issues he had identified.

              “So, it has come to my attention that some events happened with the team that Keith, Krolia, and I don’t necessarily know about. Keith and Krolia because they were off on their mission and me because I was on the astral plane while the other me was with the team. I was hoping we could spend some time today going over those events so the three of us could catch up on what’s been going on.” Shiro looked at Keith, hoping to get his agreement “I know our battle and loss of the castle ship was a couple weeks ago but better late than, never, right?” The other members of the team all nodded; Keith looked at Lance to check on the other paladin. He seemed to be on board, so Keith nodded at Shiro.

              “Well, who would like to go first?” Shiro asks, looking hopefully at the other paladins, Coran, and Matt.

              “Well we teamed up with Lotor which you guys already know, we helped him ascend the throne with that Kral Zera thing. We found my dad and sent him back to Earth with the blueprints for the castle ship, killed Zarkon in the process. Hunk, Lance, and I reprogrammed a sentry to have fun which was cool. We met Lotor’s nanny, she taught Hunk some stuff about Galra culture that helped us out at the shield station we saved.” Pidge listed, lost in thought as she went over what happened the last couple months.

              “What kind of culture stuff?” Keith questioned.

              “The meaning of Vrepit Sa actually. It was kind of cool. Got the Galra on the shield station to work together again to help us instead of fighting each other. It would have sucked to deal with a mutiny as well as two paladins down.” Hunk shrugged; it was a cool anecdote but not as exciting as it once had been.

              “What do you mean two paladins down?” Keith asked a little too quickly, making Lance flinch and Shiro look at him pointedly.

              “Well the other Shiro was flipping out, that’s why it took Pidge so long to get the power in the station back on because he was essentially out of commission. And when the power cut there was a huge surge that knocked Lance out and shut his lion down. We checked them both out when we got back to the castle and both were fine according to the scanners. You wouldn’t guess it with how Lance screamed though, it sounded like he was dying.” Hunk looked a little haunted at the memory. His best friend in so much pain and not being able to reach him must have been hard on the guy.

              Lance flinched hard at Hunk’s mention of him screaming. He curled in on himself a bit and scooted a bit closer to Keith. No one but Shiro and Keith saw this though as the other paladins were cringing at the memory.

              “How do you know he was knocked out? Did someone go to check on him?” Shiro asked, concerned at where this was going.

              “I did.” Allura said “I was concerned for Lance, so I left my lion after the surge had been cleared. I found him unconscious in his chair with no outward damage and tried to wake him up. He didn’t respond right away but when he woke up, he seemed fine. A bit dazed but fine.” Allure spoke quickly with concern, as if she hadn’t gone over to find their teammate dead and brought him back instead of finding him unconscious.

              Keith couldn’t believe it. There was no way Lance had lied to him and Shiro, not after what happened to their leader. Lance could be annoying, but he would never lie about being so badly hurt. Keith looked at Allura in shock before turning to Shiro, who was barely hiding his anger behind a shocked face. Keith grabbed Lance’s knee gently to comfort the red paladin who had started to shake. He’d let Shiro handle this one, Keith would look after Lance until they got this straightened out.

              “Lance was knocked unconscious by a surge of electricity and no one told us?” It was Krolia who spoke, seeing her son so close to the red paladin right then made her think something wasn’t quite adding up here. For Keith to be so physically close to someone there had to be a good reason and to try and comfort that someone physically was another thing altogether, that paladin must have suffered worse than just being knocked out by that surge to warrant Keith being so protective. “A surge like that could have done some serious damage mentally and physically, that’s something the pilot of the Black lion should know. It could effect the whole team.”

              Keith stared at his mother, she must have known there was something not quite right for her to be pointing that out, she probably noticed how Lance had curled into him once the incident was mentioned.

              “We checked him out with the scanners in the medical bay, they said he was totally fine. Nothing amiss.” Coran interjected cheerfully; he had done the scan himself after all.

              Lance had begun shaking even harder now. How could she lie to everyone like that? He wasn’t knocked unconscious, he knew it. If it weren’t for Keith being so close and gripping his knee, he’d be in full panic mode right then. He was getting close as it was. He wanted to leave the fire, go back to his tent. He didn’t want to hear Allura lie about what happened to him, what she’d done afterwards. He wanted to get up and run away to somewhere quiet and safe. Why didn’t she want them to know? Why was she hiding it? Why couldn’t he say something to correct her? Did it really matter? He was alive, so why would changing the story matter? It would just make everyone worry, just like Shiro and Keith did last night. He didn’t want to make anyone worry. If they were worried about him, they weren’t focused, and everybody needed to be focused in case something happened. He needed to get under control, he needed to go somewhere quiet and focus he needed to—

              “Lance, calm down it’s okay. You’re safe. It’s okay.” Lance’s spiraling thoughts halted as Keith whispered reassurances in his ear. Quietly so no one would notice or hear them, so it wouldn’t draw attention to them. Lance looked up into Keith’s eyes, looking gently back at him.

              Keith was trying not to let his concern for Lance make him cause a scene as his mother argued with Coran that a surge strong enough to knock out the pilot and shut down the Red lion would have left at least some nerve damage and there is no way Lance would have been able to go without a healing pod unless there was some outside influence on his body.

              “Someone had to have helped the healing process for there not to be any lasting effects from the discharge. At the very least he’d have contact burns on his hands from where the energy entered his body!” Krolia was getting mad now, there was something seriously wrong here and she could tell Keith knew about it. He couldn’t say anything though; the red paladin was taking most of his attention. What had happened to shake the usually cheery boy so badly?

              “Why don’t you ask Lance? He’s sitting right there; he could probably give you answers about the burns and stuff.” Matt pointed to the boy who had calmed down a fair bit with Keith whispering in his ear. Lance looked up quickly with wide eyes at the mention of his name.

              “What?” Lance said, looking around for what he’d missed while not paying attention.

              “Seriously Lance, we’re talking about you and you space out? What could you possibly be thinking about instead of explaining what happened like Shiro asked?” Pidge said critically. “What is up with you? You’ve been really quiet this whole time.” Pidge narrowed her eyes at Lance, noticing just how close together he and Keith were at that moment.

              Before Pidge could comment further Shiro piped up from his spot next to Matt, “Pidge, lay off. None of us have been sleeping that well and this was probably pretty traumatic for him to go through, remembering it can’t be easy.” The stern tone in his voice made Pidge pout but back off.

              “Getting knocked unconscious isn’t nearly as traumatic as essentially being brought back from the dead though Shiro. I think you’ve got the ‘worst trauma’ ribbon.” Matt said with a considering look on his face, like he was pondering the nature of everyone’s experience with traumatic events in the last few months.

              “This isn’t a trauma contest Matt, we’re just trying to figure out what happened, not compare someone else’s experience with Shiro’s even if it was worse.” Allura said placatingly from her rock next to Romelle.

              That was the last straw for Lance. He stood up angrily and walked stiffly back to his tent. Keith was hot on his heels, knowing that Lance was in for a major breakdown.

              When the two paladins had left, with wide-eyed stares from everyone other than Krolia and Shiro, all eyes turned to Allura.

              “What the fuck Allura?” Pidge exclaimed. “You say it’s not a trauma contest and then make a dig at Lance? What did he do to deserve that? If I remember right, he took that hit because he pushed you out of the way!” She was getting mad now, Lance was an idiot, but he didn’t deserve to have his pain brushed aside. He had tried to help her when she needed it and tried to save Allura from getting hurt because that was who he was. He stuck his neck out for people, helped as much as he could, he didn’t deserve this ungratefulness.

              “He could have died.” Hunk said quietly, “He could have died on that shield station trying to save your neck and you go and say that? I don’t know why Lance had a crush on you for so long, you definitely don’t deserve him.” Hunk stared accusingly at the princess who just looked confused.

              “Hunk has a point Allura, Lance could have died taking that hit for you. By all accounts he should have died. Usually you’d be worried about something like that, why aren’t you now?” Shiro asked, raising one of his white eyebrows at the princess.

              The princess was squirming. Trying not to meet anyone’s eyes. Everyone was quiet for a moment, waiting. Hunk broke the silence.

              “The mice told you what Lance told them, didn’t they? Because Pidge and I were busy, he told me afterwards that he had talked to the mice, that he had told them exactly what he thought of you, how he felt. Did you ever talk to him about it?” Hunk asked accusingly.

              “I didn’t think it was necessary, I was busy with Lotor and Lance knew that. I have no time for romance especially with a fellow paladin. We need to stay focused and relationships are the last thing we need.”

              “Then what about you and Lotor? From what I heard; you were pretty cozy with him.” Keith snapped as he walked back to the group. The rage was clear on his face, a surprise he wasn’t screaming at Allura.

              Keith had caught up to Lance quickly, he didn’t bother asking if the other paladin was okay, he walked with him to Lance’s tent and held the other boy as he shook and cried. Keith tried to keep Lance from hyperventilating until the physical and emotional exhaustion kicked in and Lance passed out in his arms again. Keith had laid Lance down and carefully put a blanket on him before he got up again and walked quickly back to the group at the fire in time to hear Allura talking about staying focused and relationships.

              “And while you’re coming clean, how about you tell us why you’re lying to everyone? Why you’re lying about healing Lance? Cause that’s why he has those burns on his arms, you healed them and now they’ve scarred over! That’s why he never had to go into the healing pod, not that that would have helped him anyway with the condition he was in when you got to him!” Keith was trying very hard not to scream at Allura, he knew that if he really let himself get angry his yelling would wake Lance up and Keith couldn’t let that happen.

              Shiro had moved in Keith’s direction in case he needed to hold the younger paladin back, Krolia had moved closer to her son as well. The anger rolling off Keith had Krolia ready for a fight.

              “Lance was unconscious Keith; a healing pod would have done the job no problem.” Coran said, getting confused with what the black paladin was implying.

              “Do you want to tell them? Or should I?” Keith spat out glaring at Allura.

              “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The princess said hotly.

              “He was dead. He was dead in his lion. The discharge was so strong it not only stopped Red, it stopped Lance’s heart too.” Keith was shaking. He couldn’t understand why Allura had not only kept quiet about it but had lied to their faces and Lance’s about what happened. He couldn’t fathom what drove Allura to do this.

              “He was dead, and you brought him back like you did Shiro. You brought him back and healed the damage. You saved him, after he saved you. There’s nothing wrong with that, so why would you lie? Why would you leave him to deal with that burden alone? You lied to everyone including Lance.” Keith took a calming breath, he didn’t need to be so riled up right now, it wouldn’t give him answers.

              “Why did you lie Allura?” Shiro asked, giving Keith some time to cool down before he started in on the princess again.

              “I didn’t want to worry everyone. He was alright, there wasn’t any permanent physical damage. There wasn’t a reason to tell everyone. We had a mission to complete and we couldn’t afford another distraction.” Allura said matter-of-factly.

              “Distraction! The well-being of one of our teammates is not a distraction Allura!” Shiro snapped. Everyone went quiet. Shiro didn’t snap, the real Shiro didn’t snap at anyone. Matt stepped up next to Shiro and grabbed his arm lightly. A sign of solidarity and a grounding point. Shiro was beyond rage, so was Keith but Keith had grown significantly in his two years away and even though he wanted to, so badly, he didn’t let it take over.

              “What if it had been someone else who was hit? What if it had been Pidge or me? Would that have changed your decision?” Hunk asked quietly, hoping that she’d say no, hoping she wouldn’t think so lowly of Lance as to care less about him than the rest of the team. Everyone turned to look at Allura, awaiting her answer.

              “Well we need to make sure both your brains are at peak health, you’re our engineers after all so of course I would have tried to make sure you were alright. Lance seemed fine afterwards, I didn’t feel the need to check up on him.”

              Keith saw red.

              Krolia held him back as he tried to launch himself at the princess.

              Hunk gaped at Allura. Disbelief at what she had just said in his eyes.

              A quiet voice from beside Allura drew everyone’s attention, “You sound like Lotor.”

              Gasps rang out. Shock on the faces of all except Keith, Shiro, and Krolia. Romelle glared at the princess she had heard of as a child. The daughter of King Alfor, the first pilot of the Red Lion and creator of Voltron. She was disappointed in this girl sitting next to her, treating a friend and comrade with so little regard. Treating another life with so little regard, just like Lotor had done to her family.

              A muffled cry broke the silence. Keith froze and tried to take off in the direction of Lance’s tent. stopped for only a second before his mother let go and he dashed away from the group. Hunk watched him go with sad eyes, knowing he couldn’t help Lance at that very moment and hating himself for failing him again.

              “Lance is alive, he is physically well, I don’t understand what the problem is. We need him to form Voltron and he is here; His mental state does not affect that as much as it would if it were Pidge or Hunk. I do not see what I have done wrong.” She said very confused as to why her team had suddenly turned against her.

              “Lance has been quiet for weeks, I thought it was just the aftermath of that last fight and the loss of the castle. He’s never good with change like that, but thinking about it, he was quiet before then too. He was more somber, less cheery. Sad even. Like he wanted to talk about it but couldn’t. He couldn’t talk to us because we didn’t know, because we didn’t bother to check up on him after the shield station. He thought we didn’t care. Oh my god he thought we didn’t care that he had literally died!” Hunk was getting hysterical now. His best friend had died. HE HAD DIED! He’d been left to believe that no one cared. The person whose life he saved and who had saved his in return had let him believe that. Hadn’t tried to make it right. Had gone right back to working with Lotor on that damn ship and ignoring him. Oh god Hunk and Pidge had teased him about being down about Allura after that. They thought it was because she was spending so much time with Lotor, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t.

              “Allura, as leader of the paladins of Voltron, I cannot let this go unpunished. You may have saved Lance’s life and for that we are grateful, but you deliberately ignored his well-being, isolated him, and damaged the entire team by doing so. You hurt him badly. Your actions have placed one of our teammates in jeopardy as well as the entire team. For this you do not deserve to pilot the Blue lion.” Shiro gave Allura a grave look, “Unfortunately as I am still not fit to pilot any lion, you have to. But until the time where I am fit to pilot again and you can be relieved of your post, you will be supervised and monitored by another member of the team. You will not be allowed to be alone with Lance until the time we have decided you are not a danger to him. No objections will be tolerated, you’ve all seen how Lance has reacted, how he is fairing in all this, does anyone disagree with this decision?” Shiro looked around expectantly at the rest of the group. No one said anything.

              “Lance won’t like that. Why don’t we wait for everyone to be here before we decide my fate so severely?” Allura asked, eyebrow raised in challenge.

              “A unanimous decision would be a good idea, Hunk can you get Keith and Lance please? They should be in Lance’s tent.” At Shiro’s request, Hunk got up immediately and rushed to the aforementioned tent.

              “Don’t look so happy princess, Lance is loyal but not to the people who hurt him.” Pidge remarked; the princess’s self-assured manner was beginning to really make her mad.

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              When Keith made it back to Lance’s tent his heart broke. Lance was lying where Keith had left him, but he was thrashing and whimpering in the throws of another nightmare. Keith rushed to Lance’s side and began trying to wake him up.

              “Lance! Lance you’re okay. Lance wake up.” He soothed, grabbing the other’s shoulder lightly so as not to pin him down. “Lance, it’s me Keith, you’re okay! You need to wake up Lance.” The thrashing had slowed as Keith talked to him, but the whimpers didn’t stop until Keith moved his other hand to Lance’s cheek. “Lance, wake up. It’s a nightmare, you’re alright. I’ve got you Lance, you’re okay.” He whispered as the whimpering stopped and Lance calmed down.

              Lance’s eyelids began to flutter, as he came out of his nightmare and closer to the waking world.

              “Keith?” he mumbled, becoming more awake.

              “I’m right here Lance, I’ve got you. You’re okay.” Keith kept whispering as he stroked his thumb on Lance’s cheek, trying to keep Red’s pilot calm.

              “What happened?” Lance asked tiredly, sitting up and leaning towards Keith.

              “You passed out on me after talking with everyone after breakfast, you had another nightmare, so I woke you up.” Keith was still speaking in a low, soothing tone, trying to make sure Lance didn’t get too overwhelmed just after waking up. He had had a very rough morning, stressing him out anymore was not something Keith wanted to do.

              “You’ve somehow gotten really good at this comforting thing Mullet. I’m really glad you’re here.” Lance said his voice raspy from all the crying and yelling he’d done.

              Keith smiled fondly at the younger paladin, wrapping his arms around him, and pulling Lance closer. This was a good change to their relationship. “Yeah, my mom and I spent a lot of time just the two of us in the Quantum Abyss, we both have scars and nightmares, so I learned pretty quick how to comfort someone after a nightmare. And how good physical contact can be for calming someone down. I’m glad I’m helping.” Lance nuzzled himself closer to Keith, to bask in the safety of having Keith so close.

              They stayed like that for a while, just feeling each other close and taking comfort in knowing they were safe. It was weird for them, going from heated rivals to begrudging friends and then finding themselves wrapped around each other. Maybe this is what people meant by the closeness of brothers in arms.

              Or maybe it was something else.

              Lance was starting to drift off again when Hunk came rushing into the tent.

              “Shiro needs you guys to come back to the fire pit, he’s made a decision and he’d like your opinions.” He fidgeted in the entryway; Lance looked awful. The bags under his eyes were a deep purple and his eyes were red and puffy from the tears.

              It was kind of awkward for Hunk to stand there and wait for the other two to untangle themselves from each other and follow him back to the fire in the middle of their camp. He didn’t know what was up between the two paladins, but their dynamic had definitely shifted, since yesterday even. The trio arrived at the campfire quickly to find an awkwardly quiet group glaring daggers at each other. Most of the glares were directed at Allura. Lance gulped as he and Keith arrived, and eyes turned to him. Great they know what happened. He’d bet 500 gac that’s what this was all about.

              “Lance how are you feeling?” Shiro asked calmly, like he wasn’t about to make a huge decision.

              “Better Shiro, thanks.” Lance replied slowly, still uncomfortable with the situation and the stares he was getting from his friends. Keith was standing close by which helped keep Lance from freaking out.

              “Good, I’m sorry to drag you into this Lance but I need your input on the situation, Keith’s too. I’d like the decision to be unanimously supported if possible.”

              “Okay, what’s the decision?” Lance raised an eyebrow in confusion. Why would Shiro want his input on anything? Nobody else did.

              “We’re deciding the terms of Allura’s punishment. She lied to the team and put you and the rest of us in danger, that cannot be left unpunished. What I have come up with so far is that currently she is not allowed to be left alone with you, she must have supervision at all times. Once I am able to pilot Black again, she will no longer be allowed to pilot Blue until she has proven to the team that she can be trusted on the frontline with the team. Her actions caused you major mental and emotional pain; it cannot be easily forgiven.” Shiro explained, a hard look in his eyes.

              The terms of the sentence were fair in Keith’s mind, she treated Lance like dirt, so she couldn’t be trusted around him. Keith was more than okay with that. He probably shouldn’t be on guard duty for her for a while though, it could end badly.

              “Everyone else has provided their input, it’s just you two who haven’t had a say. What do you think guys?” Shiro looked at Lance with concern, this would affect him a great deal after all.

              “I agree with these terms.” Keith said quickly, he wanted this over with so Lance could hopefully start to recover.

              “Lance? What about you?” Everyone had turned to look at the red paladin, waiting for an answer. Expecting an answer.

              What was he supposed to say? Serves you right Allura for making me feel like crap? She had caused him a lot of pain, made him feel like less than dirt. She did need to be punished for her actions, but was this the right way of doing it? She had put the team in jeopardy in a way, and if you can’t be a team player you shouldn’t be on the team. He couldn’t handle being alone with her right now, he was far too upset with her and wouldn’t be stable enough after everything to not do something stupid. The twenty-four-hour guard seemed a little much but then again, she could do something in revenge, she hadn’t proven to be violent like that before, but the team couldn’t risk it now either. They had no castle ship anymore so having one person out of commission besides Shiro would be disastrous. There really wasn’t much to think about after that. Lance looked over at Allura, she looked like she was fighting back tears. He felt his heart clench a bit at seeing her look so sad and hurt but what else could he do? She’d done something awful and she couldn’t just get away with it.

              Lance stood up a little straighter and looked Shiro in the eye as he said, “I also agree with the terms.”

              Shiro gave him a soft smile before he turned to address everyone, “It has been decided unanimously. Allura, you are no longer permitted to be alone with Lance, you will be supervised at all times and once I am fit to Pilot the Black lion once more you will no longer be permitted to pilot the Blue lion. Do you understand these terms?” Allura nodded solemnly. “Good your punishment begins now. Krolia if you would be so kind as to take the first shift to supervise her?” Krolia gave a small smile and nodded. Keith breathed a sigh of relief; his mother would keep Allura away from Lance for sure. Krolia led Allura away from the group still around the fire.

              Keith turned to Lance to see how he was fairing, he looked tired but not upset like earlier which Keith thought was an excellent thing.

              Lance turned to look at the others in the group, “If it’s alright with everybody I’d like to go nap now. I’m exhausted and I really would rather not talk about what happened right this minute.” With a look to Hunk, Lance continued, “I’ll be okay to hangout and explain later but right now I just need to chill and wrap my head around it all okay?”

              Shiro nodded, “Take as much time as you need Lance, we’re not going to force you into anything. Go rest, I’m going to do the same, today has been an adventure.” He turned toward the tent he was sharing with Matt and Keith to lie down for a while.

              Lance turned back to Keith when the black paladin cleared his throat “Did you want me to come with you Lance? It’s okay if you don’t but the option is there if you want to take it.” Keith said quietly so mostly just Lance could hear. It was easier to sleep when Keith was around, fewer nightmares so far, so Lance nodded and began walking back to his tent with Keith following behind him.

              The remaining five people around the fire looked at each other and Pidge piped up “So what do we do now? It’s not even lunch time yet,” and the rest just shrugged and started going about their day as close to normal as possible when you’d just had a massive bomb of information dropped on you.

              Hunk decided to give it a few hours before he tried to talk to Lance about everything, his best friend needed the rest and it would give Hunk more time to process exactly what had just gone down. Pidge started brainstorming ideas for how to better keep track of the paladins’ mental states especially with the castle and most of healing pods gone. Hopefully something like this can be avoided in the future by taking better care of each other.

Chapter Text

              They spent the next day on that same planet before breaking camp and heading out. They were trying to hit the edge of that quadrant of the galaxy before the month was out, trying to cover as much ground (space?) as possible. They still tried to rotate who shared tents with who whenever they stayed a night on any of the planets, but a pattern had started to come up. Krolia liked to share with Allura as to keep an eye on the princess and Lance was never left alone. There was always someone sharing a tent with him and Coran got the solo tent more often than not. It was a toss up between Keith and Hunk who shared with Lance most often, Shiro was second to them but the team had decided that that may not be such a good idea anymore as Shiro still needed a lot of bed-rest and Lance had a tendency of getting him to do the exact opposite. Lance had started referring to himself and Shiro as Team ‘Nother Life much to everyone’s (especially Keith’s) displeasure.

              They didn’t talk about what happened much, only in hushed whispers in the dead of night. One night while Team ‘Nother Life was sharing a tent, Shiro told Lance how he learned of the shield station incident while still on the astral plane. Lance had never asked but it had seemed weird that Shiro hadn’t freaked out the same way Keith did the night he told them. Shiro’s essence was tied to Black while he was on the other plain and felt a lot of the things Black did, especially the feelings from the other lions. When Red was hit with the discharge from the shield station, and felt the loss of her paladin, she lost it. Red lost all power because there was no one to pilot her but the sentience that makes the lions of Voltron what they are was going crazy. Black felt the other lion’s pain and loss as it happened and so did Shiro. It had taken Shiro a moment to figure out exactly which lion it was, but his blood had run cold just the same. Allura’s revival of Lance carried less weight on the astral plane then his death because as soon as Red had felt her pilot again, she had calmed down immensely, Black was relieved and left the situation alone much to Shiro’s displeasure. He wanted to make sure Lance was truly okay and he was limited to Black’s senses for information. Keith hadn’t taken the information well at all when he had found out but there was nothing to be done about it and he resigned himself to watching Lance’s back even more.

              Keith and Hunk both had become even more important to Lance and his recovery. Hunk had sought Lance out the same day as Allura’s sentencing to make sure that his best friend was doing okay. He had walked into Lance’s tent to a scene much the one he had interrupted earlier when he had come to get the two other paladins. Keith had his arms wrapped around Lance comfortingly and the two of them were sitting on the blanket bed looking at some of the data Lance had saved on a tablet from the castle. This one had all the game data for Monsters and Mana. Keith was laughing quietly as Lance regaled him with the story of the first time they had all played together. Hunk was so relieved to see his friend laughing and joking around again that he’d started crying, but not as quietly as he would have liked. The sobbing from the yellow paladin had caught the others’ attention and when Lance saw Hunk blubbering in the entryway of the tent, he gave Hunk a small, sad smile and beckoned him over. Hunk flew into the tent and landed on Lance, almost crushing him in a massive hug. The bigger boy had apologized profusely through his tears to his best friend, for ignoring him and not checking on him after the shield station, and ‘just being a terrible best friend and teammate’. Lance forgave him easily and the two sunk into old patterns quickly.

              The group of earthlings had become much closer after they had found out what happened to Lance, they spent more time together over the following weeks and tried to communicate better about how they were feeling. It was hard at first, but they saw how much better it made everyone feel so they kept it up.

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              The nightmares left him alone more often, but they still plagued him. He’d see the electricity and Allura and every time he’d push her out of the way and end up back in the Nothing. He’d see Allura after she had saved him looking relieved but soon after her face would change to disgust, they’d get back to the castle and she’d run to Lotor and they’d talk about him and insult him.

              The worst nights were when he dreamed of the team slowly ignoring him more and more. These dreams had him calling out in his sleep, crying, and screaming and whimpering into the dark, Keith was usually the one to wake him up after these dreams. He held him and spoke soft words of comfort in his ear until Lance could breath evenly again. They’d talk quietly afterwards, about what the dream was about and why it scared him so much. The two grew closer and closer as the group traveled ever towards Earth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              Lance shot up, screaming, out of another nightmare. He looked around the tent to find he was alone. It didn’t happen very often, especially since they’d all realized his nightmares became more frequent when he was alone at night, but this was a special case. Coran was his tent-mate tonight but during a scavenging trip earlier in the day, one of the larger members of the local wildlife had decided one member of the small group would make a great snack. Matt, Keith, Krolia and Allura had suffered some damage fighting the beast off. Matt’s injuries were by far the worst as the beast’s target, and Coran being the groups best medic (with the help of Allura’s magic) had spent most of the day doing what he could to help. The two had gotten Matt more than stable but he needed to be watched overnight just in case so Allura, Coran, and Krolia had stayed to watch over him. Pidge had insisted she stay close by as well, Matt being her brother. Leaving Lance alone. At night. With his nightmares.

              Lance was not okay being alone, it was too much like the nightmare he’d just left, and his mind was going haywire. He began hyperventilating, rocking back and forth hugging himself, when Keith came bursting through the curtain his tent had as a door. Keith took one look at Lance and his glazed over, wide-eyes and rushed to his side, landing hard on his knees next to the panicking boy on the pile of blankets they still used for beds.

***

              “Lance! Are you alright?” Keith asked out of breath, like he had sprinted straight to Lance’s tent. Lance made a choked noise and kept rocking. “Panic attack, right, not okay.”

              “Lance? Can you hear me? I need you to blink twice if you can hear me.” Keith said slowly and evenly, trying not to add more to Lance’s already overwhelmed brain.

              Lanced blinked twice.

              “Perfect, Lance buddy, is it okay if I touch you? Blink if that’s okay.” Keith said in the same tone. Lance didn’t take contact well when he was like that, as Keith found out once when Lance punched him square in the face during a similar situation a couple weeks before.

              Lance blinked again. Keith breathed a sigh of relief; it was much easier to help Lance calm down when he could hold him.

              “Alright Lance, I’m going to wrap my arms around you slowly okay? Make a noise if you want me to stop.” Keith moved off his knees and sat down next to Lance. He wrapped his arms around Lance and pulled the now shaking boy slowly closer to his chest. Lance didn’t make a sound besides his sharp, too rapid breathing.

              “Lance, I need you to breathe okay, just breathe, you’re okay. I’m here, you’re not alone.” Keith reassured, Lance’s head coming to rest on his chest. He was still wide-eyed, staring into nothing and hyperventilating but his shaking had calmed down just a little. Progress.

              With Lances head resting against his chest, Keith started taking slow deep breaths “Breathe Lance, breathe with me. Do what I do.” The instructions were something they had worked out as a way to help Lance calm down. They agreed that just telling Lance to breathe wouldn’t help, wrapped in his mind as he was during these panic attacks, getting him to breathe with whoever was trying to reach him was the best strategy. It worked rather well too, but especially with Keith. There was something about the current black paladin that made Lance feel safe and calming down was easier with him than with anyone else.

              They sat like that for a while, Lance matching his breathing to Keith’s as Keith rubbed soothing circles into his back and shoulder. Slowly Lance started to calm down, his breathing dropping from the measured breaths and into a normal rhythm. His shaking had stopped completely. He blinked rapidly a few times before he came back to awareness, closing his eyes he nuzzled into the space between Keith’s left shoulder and his neck. The other boy squeezed him just a little bit tighter when he registered the change.

***

              “There you go, you okay?” Keith asked, checking to make sure Lance was alright.

              Lance nodded, moving to grip Keith around the waist to help ground himself.

              “Verbal not okay still?” Lance shook his head no. Contrary to his usual personality, talking after a panic attack wasn’t something Lance could do. It was weird for Keith the first time that Lance couldn’t talk right away. “Okay, do you want to lie down again?” a nod. “I can talk for a bit until you want to sleep again.” Keith’s suggestion was met with more nodding. This was their routine for when Lance was nonverbal, Keith picked a topic and talked quietly to the red paladin until he was ready to try and sleep again or he could talk again. Lance liked to talk about his nightmares soon after they happened, so he could process and not dwell on it. His anxiety made the bad thoughts dredged up by his nightmares difficult to manage so talking about them and being reassured headed that off a bit.

              Keith maneuvered them back to lie down, side-by-side on the blanket mattress, facing Lance, keeping his arms around him the whole way.

              “Did I tell you about the time-flash waves in the quantum abyss yet?” Keith asked, and Lance shook his head no, looking up at Keith and raising his eyebrow in question. As if to say, “the what now?”.

              Keith chuckled quietly, “In the quantum abyss there are these waves that come up at random intervals, they kind of look like flashes. When they hit you, they show you different points in your timeline, like memories from your past or the past of whoever’s with you. I saw some of my mom’s memories from before I was born, meeting my dad, me as a baby. It was pretty terrifying at first, but they actually broke the ice for me to ask my mom those big questions. The ones like, why did you leave me? Stuff like that.” Lance was looking up into to Keith’s eyes, a little sad but more so happy that Keith had found the answers he needed. “I saw us at the Garrison again which was kind of crazy, but the weirdest part was when I saw pieces of the future.” Lance’s interest had really been piqued now; Keith laughed at the excitement on his face. “It wasn’t that great in the beginning. I saw bits of my fight with Shiro, it was so confusing. And honestly nothing I saw after that was really exciting, no future spouse or whether we won this war or not. I saw glimpses of all of us though. Together again. That gave me hope. Helped me get through the two years that passed by for us on that giant space whale, knowing I’d get to come back to you all.” Keith looked down to Lance, “I don’t think I could have handled it if you weren’t here when I got back, I’m glad you’re alive Lance.”

              Lance could feel the tears building in his eyes, Keith did a great job of making sure he felt wanted. He tried to remind him at least once a day, not always out loud, but everyday in the little things. It was nice. The others had been trying harder too, he didn’t feel like as much of seventh wheel anymore.

              “Hey, no more crying. You’ve done enough of that today.” Keith gave a small laugh and moved to wipe the slowly falling tears off the other boy’s cheeks.

              Lance snorted, “Can you blame me?” He asked quietly. Some of the tension left Keith’s shoulders at the sound of Lance’s voice. The panic attack losing its last grip on the younger paladin.

              “No, but I still think you’ve cried enough tonight. Now do you want to talk about it, or do you want to sleep?” Keith asked as Lance yawned and snuggled closer to his chest again.

              “I’m pretty exhausted after that, I think I’ll talk about it in the morning. You okay with that?” He asked sleepily.

              Keith nodded and whispered, “That sounds like a great idea. Wake me up if you need me okay? We’ll talk in the morning.” He pulled Lance a little tighter to himself, “Goodnight Lance.”

              “Thanks, goodnight Keith.” Lance whispered back as they both started to drift off.

              No more nightmares came to Lance that night. He slept safe in Keith’s arms until they both woke in the morning. They enjoyed the time they had in each other’s company, no attacks to deal with, and nothing to really worry about.

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              Allura was furious. It had been over a phoeb since Shiro had passed sentence on her so-called dangerous actions. She hadn’t had a moment alone since and it was starting to truly grate on her nerves. Having someone breathing down her neck at all times (usually Krolia) was getting ridiculous. She liked the Galra woman well enough to begin with but now she wanted to strangle her the first chance she got; she was so sick of the woman’s presence. She knew lying about Lance dying at the shield station wasn’t the right thing to do but at the time she really didn’t think it mattered. He was fine. And this punishment was completely unjust. She hadn’t meant to hurt Lance, she rather liked him, but at the time she had had more important things to deal with than the mental state of someone whose brain wasn’t needed to be on the same level of health as their engineers. She had meant to go talk to him about it. She had meant to check up on him. She had meant to do a lot of things. She went to Lotor. She prioritized the project they were working on over the energetic paladin. After the mice had told her about Lance’s feelings for her, she started trying to avoid him. She liked him well enough, but a romantic attachment was not appropriate, first she was a princess and Lance wasn’t exactly of noble birth. Second, they were paladins of Voltron, any such relationship would only be a distraction. They were fighting a war. Her brief thing with Lotor had merely been a lapse in judgement caused by the excitement and close quarters from working on their project. And everyone saw how that had turned out.

              Allura set up her tent viciously. Thank goodness it was Pidge who would be sharing with her that night. She was so angry she didn’t think she’d be able to stop from attacking Krolia at some point. Romelle had been avoiding her almost as much as Lance had. The girl’s comment about Allura being similar to Lotor really got to her. It was probably a good thing they hadn’t shared a tent since. The other’s avoiding her was starting to get to her as well. Coran was a constant as he had always been, but he had a disapproving look in his eyes whenever the topic of Lance or the restrictions she was under came up in conversation. The man really liked Lance and was very disappointed in her behaviour.

              The longer they traveled the better Shiro was feeling too. Pidge, Hunk, Matt, and Coran had managed to make Shiro a functioning replacement arm from some of the supplies they had collected on a couple of the trading planets the group had stopped at. Their leader was participating in more and more of their training sessions and getting back into shape. It wouldn’t be long now before he could claim Black back from Keith and Allura would lose her chance to continue piloting Blue. This was her war not theirs, how dare they take her off the front-lines. She hadn’t done anything bad enough to deserve this treatment!

              She will admit that trying to get Lance to vote no on her punishment had been a bit underhanded. Using his romantic feelings for her as a weakness wasn’t something, she would usually do but the conditions were unfair! She had lied, but that was only to make sure no one would overreact and be distracted by the situation. Her point had been proven with how everyone reacted once they did find out. If Lance was in so much pain from it all he should have said something. It wasn’t all Allura’s responsibility after all. Lance could speak for himself.

              The interesting thing was how Lance had somehow gotten Shiro and Keith involved. Shiro she could understand, they could relate to each other over the things they’d experienced. But Keith. Keith and Lance had never been close that she had seen, always at each other’s throats in some way. She must have missed something. She hadn’t seen much at all of Lance in this last phoeb because of her ridiculous sentence (she wasn’t a criminal), she wanted to talk to him. Find out what exactly had happened that suddenly had everyone aware of the situation. Getting anywhere near Lance would be an issue, neither Hunk nor Keith would let her anywhere near him and her own guard whomever it may be, wouldn’t either. They weren’t even allowed to partner up for training! She’d have to think of something clever to get the red paladin away from them to talk to her.

              Where did the mice run off to?

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              Lance was wandering around their little camp looking for something to do. He hadn’t had very much time to himself lately and as much as he appreciated it, he needed some alone time too. The whole situation with Allura was bothering him. He felt bad that she was being punished after she had saved his life, granted he had kind of saved hers too. But the restrictions seemed a little much. Sure, she had lied to their entire team about what had happened to him and isolated him from his friends (no matter how unintentionally), she had also treated his well-being as worthless because he wasn’t needed for his brain. Now Lance wasn’t stupid, he made it into the Garrison after and getting into a space exploration program, even as a cargo pilot, was not an easy feat. The Garrison didn’t let stupid people in. He wasn’t genius level like Hunk or Pidge or Matt, but he wasn’t stupid. He was a good pilot, a good student, he just wasn’t the best. But the average of the exceptional was still pretty damn good.

              He had a lot of stuff he needed to think about. He didn’t think Allura deserved the severe restrictions, but he didn’t think she deserved to get off scot-free either. She had hurt him pretty badly and he couldn’t forgive her so easily (Hunk and Keith were adamant that she didn’t deserve his forgiveness in the first place), but he also didn’t think it was fair to take Blue away from her. This was her war. It had taken her father from her. Her whole entire planet. She deserved to fight to end it. But he couldn’t trust her. They were all a team and he couldn’t trust her anymore. One of them needed to step down and as much as Lance thought it should be him, she couldn’t be trusted to look out for everyone anymore. Keith would not be happy about these thoughts.

              Speaking of Keith, the two had been getting a lot closer since the black paladin had returned from the Quantum Abyss with his mom and dog in tow. They shared a tent pretty often now since Shiro was handling things a bit better than Lance. Shiro also had Matt, his best friend for a while and fellow Galra prisoner at one point. Keith still looked out for him but was spending more time with Lance than Shiro which Lance found strange. Lance had Pidge and Hunk if he needed support, so Keith didn’t need to do so much for him, he was kind of confused as to why Keith spent so much time with him.

              When the two boys shared a tent, they often shared the same bed too. Mostly because of Lance’s nightmares but Keith had climbed into bed with him before the nightmares could hit increasingly often as of late. This kept the nightmares away pretty effectively but also made Lance think. Him and Hunk were really close, very physically affectionate best friends, but Keith was stepping into uncharted waters. It was intimate in a new way and Lance found that he really liked that idea.

              He shrugged. Maybe it was time to just go with the flow. He’d see where this development with Keith brought them, things worked best with Keith when Lance rolled with the punches.

              A squeak brought Lance out of his thoughts as he passed the green lion’s feet. Looking down, Lance saw three of Allura’s four pet mice squeaking desperately. Like they were trying to get his attention for something important.

              “Hey little guys, everything alright?” He asked the mice, confused as to what would have them so riled up. Why were there only three of them?

              The mice started squeaking even more incessantly, starting to tug at the leg of his jeans.

              “Whoa whoa, okay. Do you guys need my help? Did something happen to your other friend?” Lance was starting to get worried now. After the thing with Allura and Lance’s feelings the mice had been avoiding him. Like they knew they had done something wrong and didn’t want to face him. If they were coming to him something must definitely be wrong.

              “I’ll help you guys with whatever is going on, just lead the way!” The mice took off after that with Lance hurrying along behind them to offer whatever assistance he could.

              He followed the mice towards the trees around the other side of the green lion, away from the camp. They hurried into the treeline. They kept going until they hit a tall tree in a little clearing. It reminded Lance of the big Oak tree he used to climb at the park near his parents’ house. At the base of the tree was a broken rope that had large knots tied into it at regular intervals. A rope someone could use as a makeshift ladder. Lance looked around for anyone who could have used it. He didn’t know if this planet had any inhabitants who lived this close to their camp, Keith was part of the scouting party and they hadn’t left yet. Camp had been set up for maybe an hour and sleeping arrangements had to be decided before the party could leave.

              The mice were grabbing Lance’s pant leg again and squeaking desperately, pointing up into the tree.

              “Is your friend in the tree?” The mice nodded and kept squeaking and pointing. Looks like they had used the rope to get up and down the tree and the last one got stranded when the rope broke. What the mice had been doing this far away from camp was a mystery.

              Lance decided he’d have to climb the tree to help the fourth mouse down, so he grabbed the lowest branch (quite nicely situated at his shoulder height) to begin climbing the large tree. Once he was in the tree, he started looking for the mouse, but all the lower branches were mouseless. He couldn’t see a reason for the mouse to be higher in the tree, but it could have been grabbed by a bird like creature at some point, so Lance worriedly climbed higher into the tree.

              He made it to the very top of the tree and still had seen no sign of the other mouse. There weren’t any nests or wholes in the tree where a predator could hide a mouse either. Lance began to climb down the tree again to tell the mice he couldn’t find their missing friend. As he reached the bottom of the tree, he heard something that sounded like a whispering voice in a one-sided conversation. He peered down the tree and saw a flash of white and froze.

              That was Allura’s hair.

              What was she doing here? Maybe helping the mice find their friend? He hoped that was why.

              Lance started climbing down again, slower this time so he wouldn’t attract Allura’s attention until he wanted to. He wasn’t comfortable being around her yet and he usually had Hunk or Keith with him whenever they saw each other. He slipped quietly from branch to branch, reminding himself that Allura wasn’t allowed to wander around alone so he wouldn’t be alone with her when he got down. He hoped it was Krolia today, Keith’s mom had been nothing but kind to him and he found she gave him a similar sense of comfort to her son.

              Lances stopped when he saw that the low branch, he had used to start his climb into the tree had disappeared. It looked as if it had been cut off at the point it connected to the tree. That was weird. It was a healthy limb; it wouldn’t make good firewood. He glanced at where he had seen Allura and again froze.

              She was staring right at him with a smile on her face and her bayard in her hand. The missing branch at her feet.

              “Hello Lance.” She said calmly.

              “Hey Allura, did the mice ask for your help too?” He asked nervously. Something wasn’t right here.

              “Well, actually I asked for their help. You see I’ve been meaning to talk to you for weeks now and I was having trouble getting you alone. I asked them to fetch you for me since I found a spare moment.” She didn’t seem threatening, but Lance knew she wasn’t happy, with him in particular.

              “What did you want to talk about?” Lance asked, trying to hide his nervousness. He realized that she currently had him trapped in this tree with no way to get down without possibly hurting himself or putting him directly in Allura’s line of fire. Not that she was shooting anything, thank god.

              “Well Lance, I was wondering how Shiro and Keith found out about what happened on the shield station in the first place, and why you didn’t tell anyone else until then.” Allura stated.

              “I uh had a nightmare the night before they confronted you. I screamed myself awake and Shiro came running, Keith wasn’t far behind. I was, um, freaking out and Shiro said some cryptic stuff and Keith looked so worried and I was so tired, so I told them what happened. I didn’t say anything bad, and I wasn’t mad at you or anything I just needed to get it off my chest you know?” Lance gulped; this was not a good situation to be in. He couldn’t see anyone else around which meant he was currently trapped in a tree, in a clearing, alone with Allura. Keith was going to be pissed.

              “If it was bothering you so much why didn’t you tell anybody else?” Allura asked pointedly. Well shit this was not going well. Lance’s breathing was starting to speed up and he could feel the tears pricking at his eyes. He really wasn’t ready for this. He really needed to go back to camp. He really wanted to see Keith.

              “I wasn’t ready to talk about it for a while, th-then I thought you would have said something to Coran, but no one ever tried to ask me about it, so I just assumed no one cared.” He admitted, the tears were starting to well up and his breathing was getting shallower.

              “Well Lance, telling people wasn’t only my responsibility but yours as well. If you had said something earlier, we wouldn’t be in this mess. I wouldn’t be forced to give up my lion and I wouldn’t have a twenty-four-hour guard on me.” Allura was starting to sound angry now. Lance was trying to keep as good a grip as possible on the tree and find a spot to sit. He was starting to panic, and he really didn’t want to fall out of the tree.

              “I thought maybe you would have talked to Coran about having the ability to bring people back to life, seemed like a thing you’d want him to know.” Lance was having a hard time focusing now. He’d started full on hyperventilating and his hands were trying to shake where he had a death grip on the branches on either side of him. His vision was starting to blur around the edges. This was really not good.

              A voice came from the direction of camp just as Allura opened her mouth to retort. He couldn’t tell what was being said but the voice was achingly familiar.

              Allura turned towards the camp quickly with a frown. She waved at Lance and walked away in the direction of the camp.

              The yelling came again, this time closer, and a little worried sounding. Lance’s vision was black around the edges, he couldn’t see anything but his legs in front of him where he had managed to sit with his back to the tree. He still had a death grip on the branches on either side of him. The bark was cutting into his hands, but the pain didn’t register. The tears were running freely now, and he was sobbing in between the quick shallow breaths he was taking. He couldn’t get enough air into his lungs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              Keith swore Lance said he was just going to wander around the camp for a bit. Keith was worried, but Lance needed his alone time and Allura was currently napping so Lance should be totally fine. Lance wanted to be around for picking sleeping arrangements before the scouting party went out to look around. He had asked Keith to give him a shout when it was time. Keith had done that. Where was Lance? There was no way Lance hadn’t heard him, something didn’t feel right. He turned toward the people moving into the circle around the campfire.

              “Anyone seen Lance?” he asked.

              “Not since we finished with the tents. He said something about going for a stroll by the lions though.” Matt said as he sat down on a log, he had rolled towards the fire pit they had all built.

              Just then Krolia rushed into the circle.

              “Allura has disappeared. She wasn’t in her tent or any of the others I checked.” Keith’s eyes widened comically as he registered the frustrated expression on his mother’s face. He couldn’t find Lance. Allura was gone.

              Oh shit.

              “Lance said he was going to be by the lions?” Keith asked quickly, the worry was growing. If Allura was alone with Lance, there’s no telling what could happen. He didn’t think Allura would hurt him, but Lance wasn’t ready for that encounter. And with his panic attacks recently, he could be catatonic by now.

              Matt nodded. Keith rushed towards the lions, calling Lance’s name in hopes the boy would be able to answer him.

              The other members of the group looked at each other. Hunk and Pidge went running after Keith to try and find Lance while Krolia and Coran ran to find Allura. Shiro and Matt stayed by the fire just in case Lance came back.

              Keith ran headlong towards Red first, thinking if Lance would be near a lion it would be the one, he was flying but the boy wasn’t there. Keith stopped and turned in a circle, trying to figure out where else he could be. Blue? No. Yellow? Nope. Green and Black didn’t have anyone hanging around their ankles either.

              “C’mon Lance, where are you?” He muttered as he began to scan the treeline behind the Lions. It least they had parked the lions in a straight line on this planet.

              “Any sign of him?” Pidge called as she and Hunk caught up with Keith.

              “No, there’s nobody here. He must have gone into the trees, but that’s too much ground to cover with just the three of us.” He was getting frantic now. They needed to find Lance fast. They had no idea what the wildlife was like on this planet and if Lance wasn’t responsive, he could be in serious danger.

              Just then the three paladins heard a crash followed by a cry from the treeline to their right. Past the green lion. They took off in the direction of the noise, calling Lance’s name.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              Lance couldn’t breathe. In an effort to comfort himself, he had pulled his hands off the branches he was using to stabilize himself, to wrap around his torso. The haze of his panic making him forget that the branch he was sitting on was definitely not wide enough to balance on sitting down, without help.

              He was brought sharply back to reality as he fell the too many feet to the ground.

              He landed harshly on his left arm, making him cry out in pain. Taking a breath to fight back the pain before he tried to move. Lance clenched his teeth as he rolled onto his back, supporting himself with his right elbow.

              “Quiznak, that does not feel right.” he thought. He didn’t want to look at the damage just yet, his anxiety was still running high and seeing a broken bone or a dislocation might throw him over the edge again. He laid back on the ground and stared up at the tree he had just fallen out of. Not the highest he’s fallen from but definitely the one he was least prepared for. A twinge from his battered arm, brought him back from his thoughts to hear people calling his name. Worriedly calling his name.

              He pushed himself slowly up onto his elbow again before pulling himself into a sitting position to cradle his injured arm. Lance looked around the little clearing, trying to figure out where the yelling was coming from. He could tell it was Pidge, Hunk, and Keith now. They must have noticed he hadn’t come back before the meeting. From his seat on the ground Lance tried to call out to his friends.

              “Over here.” He tried, not much louder than his regular speaking voice.

              His friends were getting closer, he could tell they were split up now. Pidge was somewhere to his left and Hunk was somewhere more to the right of him. Keith seemed to have picked the lucky route because he was heading straight for him.

              “Lance! Can you hear me?” he heard Keith call as the other two echoed his name.

              “Keith! Over here!” This call was louder, almost an actual yell. He tried again louder, “Keith! Keith over here!”

              “Lance! Guys I hear him!” A rustling in the trees twenty feet in front of him as Keith presumably ran toward him.

              “Keith!” Lance yelled again to give the other paladin a better idea of where he was.

              Keith burst through the treeline, looking frantic until he spotted Lance at the base of the large tree.

              “Lance! Oh my god are you okay?” He rushed forward, landing hard on his knees in front of the red paladin.

              “Not really, I fell out of the tree. Not my best landing. I haven’t tried to move it yet.” He gestured with his chin towards his injured arm and flinched as pain shot up it.

              “Shit Lance. What were you doing up there?” Keith asked concerned as he looked Lance’s left arm over.

              “It’s a long story that I would much rather get into back at camp. I am not doing too hot man.” Lance felt a little lightheaded from the pain and the exhaustion that followed on the heels of panic attacks, the adrenaline from the fall was wearing off now.

              “I think that’s a great idea. Do you think you can walk?” Lance didn’t look like his legs were hurt, but he did just fall out of a tree so better safe than sorry.

              “Probably, I’m going to need some help getting up though.” Keith moved around Lance and put his hand on the red paladin’s right shoulder blade, grabbed his hand and pulled to help Lance off the ground and onto his feet.

              Lance’s legs felt a little wobbly and he leaned into Keith for support. The other boy crowded a little closer. There was more rustling from the trees in front of them, where Keith came from, Pidge and Hunk came running through the trees.

              “Lance!” “Lance oh thank god!” the two said over each other, relieved their friend was found.

              “Lance is hurt, we need to get him back to camp and get Coran to look him over.” Keith said seriously. He started guiding Lance gently in the direction of camp. “Can someone run back to camp and let Coran know so he can be ready when we get there?” Pidge nodded and darted off.

              “Lance, buddy, you doing okay?” Hunk asked, hovering around Lance’s left side as they walk.

              “Besides the arm, the exhaustion and the near overwhelming anxiety, I’m actually doing pretty okay big guy.” Lance responded with a strained smile. The other two boys just looked at the red paladin like he was insane.

              “You sure you didn’t hit your head buddy?” Hunk asked cautiously as the three boys walked towards the camp.

              “Besides a like all-over ache, nothing but my arm is really standing out pain wise.” Lance answered. He was tired, the adrenaline had worn off and the pain in his arm was making him a little nauseous.

              “I think I’m pretty okay though Hunk. It wasn’t too far to fall, only like seven feet.” Lance said attempting to keep his friend from worrying further.

              “Thirteen.” Keith said quietly.

              “What?” Lance looked confused.

              “The lowest branch large enough to support your weight is thirteen or so feet above the ground. How did you even get up there anyway?” Lance was a tall guy, but even at six feet there was no way he could have reached that branch. The bark on the trunk wasn’t rough enough to grip onto either, he would have had to grab onto something to help him up the tree.

              “There was a branch lower down that I could reach. I used that to help me up.” Lance said quietly, avoiding looking at Keith and Hunk.

              “I didn’t see a branch like that, and there was nothing like that on the ground either.” Keith said looking at the pinched look on Lance’s face. He wasn’t telling them something. “What happened to the branch Lance?” Keith was getting mad; it was looking like Allura had found Lance after all. And trapped him in a tree!

              “Uuuh…someone…cut it?” He was really trying not to look at Keith’s face. He really didn’t want to get into this before he got his arm dealt with and they had just come up to the back of the green lion. “Can we save the interrogation until after I see Coran? Please?” Lance begged tiredly, his arm was almost numb it hurt so bad and the nausea was getting worse.

              Keith’s eyes softened from the hard look that had crept into them as they walked. They were almost back to the circle of tents anyway; the questions could wait until they could make Lance more comfortable. He nodded.

              “Yeah, let’s get you looked at before we do the question thing. Shiro will probably want to talk to you too, since Allura was gone too. Just to make sure everything is okay.” Hunk said brightly, not seeing the incredulous look on Keith’s face and Lance’s eyes wide with fear. The group fell into silence after that, passing the front paws of the green lion and finally hitting the edge of their camp.

              The six rectangular tents were arranged in a single layer with the fire pit in the middle, surrounded by logs and boxes the group were using as seats. The medical supplies were kept in a separate tent from the ones everyone slept in. The tents were all of a similar size, one of the sleeping tents was larger than the others and slept at least three people. The men got this tent and two others for the six of them while the women got the other two tents. The men liked to use the whole space of the three-person tent and arranged it to be three in one tent, two in another and one in the last tent with some of the extra supplies (Keith shared with his wolf when he got the solo tent).

              As the three approached the fire they noticed the rest of their companions (minus Coran) clumped together near the pit. They surrounded Allura, Shiro looking just this side of enraged as she said something to him. Pidge looked up from the conversation and spotted the group of boys, she slipped away from the cluster around Allura and walked swiftly towards the boys.

              “Coran is waiting for us, let’s go. You don’t want to be around here right now.” She explained quietly before leading the three to the med-tent.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              Allura had managed to make it back to camp without being spotted by Keith at the lions. She wasn’t so lucky after she had reached the camp. Krolia had found her almost immediately as she tried to slip back into her tent. The Galra woman looked furious. Krolia had grabbed her by the arm and escorted her to the fire pit in the middle of camp. Shiro, Matt and Romelle were waiting at the fire as the three approached. Shiro looked almost as angry as Krolia, Matt looked concerned and Romelle just looked confused.

              “Princess. Nice of you to join us. Enjoy your nap?” Shiro asked tersely.

              So much for giving them the slip.

              “Want to tell us where you went?” He continued when she didn’t respond.

              “I went for a walk. It was lovely to have some privacy for the first time in four movements.” She said haughtily.

              “You’re being punished, you don’t get to have privacy. This is a direct violation of the terms of your sentence.” Shiro was furious now.

              “What are you going to do, it’s not like you can put anymore restrictions on me. You’ve played all your cards.” Allura exclaimed flippantly. There wasn’t anything they could do to her now. She was necessary for their mission going forward so they couldn’t abandon her. As far as she knew Shiro still couldn’t pilot and there wasn’t exactly a cell they could put her in. The paladins were too good to resort to torture. They could do nothing.

              Pidge walked away from the group. Shiro’s eyes followed her and widened. When he turned back to Allura there was murder in his gaze.

              “Do not presume to know what I have and have not done. We’ll decide what to do with you once we know how Lance is doing.” He looked at Krolia, “Take her back to her tent please, and take Matt with you. She doesn’t leave until I send for her.” Shiro turned away from the princess and walked to the med-tent.

              Krolia and Matt came forward and grabbed one of Allura’s arms each to march her back to her tent.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              Hunk, Pidge, Lance, and Keith entered the med-tent to find Coran fiddling with some equipment on one of the boxes on the right side of the tent. On the left side of the tent were two empty, grey cots. Keith who was now supporting a fair bit of Lance’s weight, led the other boy to the closest cot and helped him sit down gently. Once Lance was situated, Keith sat down on his right, his hand still on Lance’s waist.

              “Alright Lance let’s take a look at you. I’m going to do a full body scan first just to be sure there isn’t any severe damage besides you arm alright?” Coran explained as he grabbed a little handheld device and swept it over the red paladin’s body slowly.

              “Looks like you arm is the worst of it my boy, everything else is just some moderate bruising and scratches. Though the cuts on your hands are pretty nasty looking, they’re not too deep. Now let’s take a closer look at that arm, shall we?” Coran gently grabbed Lance’s left arm where he was holding it tucked close to his torso.

              The Altean gently took hold of Lance’s wrist and elbow and slowly pulled the boy’s forearm away from his body. When Lance didn’t react, Coran began to slowly extend Lance’s arm forward, watching Lance for any sign of pain. Coran once again grabbed the small device and ran it over the half-extended limb.

              Keith could feel Lance shaking from the pain, he was trying to keep it from his face. Keith gave Lance’s waist a light squeeze, to try and help keep him grounded through everything. Coran finished his scans and pondered over the results for a moment. He looked up at the two boys on the cot.

              “Well the good news is that all your joints are badly bruised but otherwise alright. The bad news is that all your long bones have fractures in them, the worst being your forearm. The smaller of the two bones is fractured in three places while the larger has only one.” Coran explained, frowning.

              “We have a healing pod that could take care of this rather quickly, unfortunately since Shiro left it, it’s been malfunctioning slightly. That’s why we didn’t put Matt in it after the incident a movement and a half ago.” The Altean man looked at Hunk and Pidge, “If I could have the two of you help me, we could get it up and running in a quintant or two and complete Lance’s healing. Unfortunately, the best I can do right now is provide you with some painkillers and anti-inflammatories and immobilize it until we get the pod working again.” Coran said worriedly. Lance had gotten paler as the man talked. Two days of not moving his arm.

              He couldn’t fly.

              Shit.

              “He can’t fly with one arm…” Keith started.

              “So, we’re staying on this planet for a couple more days while Coran, Hunk, and Pidge fix the pod.” Shiro interrupted as he walked into the tent, “How long will Lance need in the pod once it’s ready?” Shiro asked the mustachioed man.

              “A few vargas at the most, healing some fractures is nothing like what the pod had to heal for him on Arus.” Coran assured. A few hours wasn’t too bad, especially when healing fractures like that would normally take weeks.

              “Alright, that’ll give us a couple days to figure everything out as well. We need to decide what to do with the princess. But first, Lance, can you tell us what happened?” Shiro asked the boy hunched in on himself on the cot.

              Lance was still shaking lightly, his eyes wide and looking far-away. He was slowing them down. They were already moving so slowly back to Earth and he had made them stop. The journey would be even longer now. Everyone had to wait even longer to see their families and it was because of him. The guilt was flooding his system. His breathing was getting quicker, getting harsher. The blood was pounding in his ears.

              Keith squeezed his waist and pulled him closer.

              Lance blinked once. Twice. Turned and looked at the paladin sitting next to him, cradling him close. Keith gave him a small reassuring smile. The panic took its claws out of his chest. He gave Keith the tiniest smile of gratitude, more of a quirk of his lip. He turned back to Shiro and nodded.

              Shiro blinked confusedly at the two paladins on the cot. That was a new level of close for them, the holding and non-verbal cues. Something was up there. But that was a puzzle for another time. Shiro continued.

              “You said you were going to be walking by the lions, how did you end up so banged up?” Shiro asked, looking at Lance’s hurt arm.

              “I was walking by the lions, just thinking about stuff. I was just reaching Green when Allura’s mice came scampering to me. I didn’t notice at first but there were only three of them. They started squeaking and gesturing towards the trees. They seemed pretty panicked, so I followed them. We got to the bottom if this huge tree. There was a rope on the ground, like one of those knotted climbing ropes. The mice were still upset, but this time they were pointing up the tree. With the rope gone, the other mouse couldn’t get down, so I went up to investigate. The mouse wasn’t in the tree. When I came back down the branch, I had used to get up had been cut off…” Lance trailed off. He looked down at his feet.

              While Lance was talking, Coran was moving around the tent gathering up all the supplies he needed for Lance’s arm. He brought a roll of bandages, a sling, and some flat pieces of what looked like metal back to the group of paladins.

              The group of paladins was silent. Expectant looks being shot toward Lance. The silence was heavy and awkward.

              “Alright, sorry to interrupt but I need to immobilize Lance’s arm so out of the way.” He shooed Shiro over from where he was standing directly in front of Lance, “first things first, we need you out of that jacket. Keith would you lend me a hand?” Coran and Keith moved Lance’s signature jacket slowly off his shoulders and pulled it down his arms. Keith put the jacket in his lap and moved his hand back around Lance’s waist.

“Now Lance I need you to sit up as straight as you can and let me know if anything hurts too much. Unfortunately, this is going to get a little uncomfortable.” Coran explained firmly, knowing the red paladin had a tendency to downplay pain.

              “Lance.” Pidge said quietly, “Do you know who cut the branch?”

              Lance was struggling with the information. He could hide it, say he didn’t know, but what if it happened again? Allura could be persistent when she wanted, and judging by how this interaction had gone, he couldn’t handle another. He looked at Pidge, angry and worried for her friend. He looked at Shiro, the concern of a friend and the guilt of a leader etched into the lines on his face. He looked at Hunk. Hunk his best friend in the world, with so much concern and anxiety for him oozing off the yellow paladin. He didn’t need to look at Keith, he could feel the concern and anger on his behalf radiating off the black paladin. These people cared about him. They wanted him safe. Not telling them would put himself in jeopardy again, he could have died from that fall, there’s no telling what could happen next time. He couldn’t do that to them.

              He looked in Keith’s eyes and nodded.

              “Who?” Keith asked.

              “…Allura.” Lance breathed.

              “Did you see her do it Lance?” Shiro questioned.

              “No, but when I was coming down, I saw her standing at the base of the tree. She had her bayard out and the branch was at her feet.” Lance paused, “she wanted to talk to me. She said she had the mice lead me to the tree, so she could get me alone. She wanted to know how you and Keith found out about the shield station and why I hadn’t said anything to anyone else. She told me it wasn’t her fault no one knew; I could have said something. She said it was my fault she was being punished. We heard yelling and she left.” Lance said quietly. The tear tracks down the sides of his face had dried but his eyes were burning. The guilt was back, and he had to swallow back the tears.

              “Her being punished isn’t your fault Lance. She had a responsibility to tell someone and she didn’t. That’s on her not you.” Shiro responded, trying to reassure the younger paladin.

              Keith had tightened his grip on Lance’s waist and had grabbed his right hand while Lance was talking. Trying to offer as much support and comfort as he could. He was furious with Allura. She had cornered Lance when no one knew where he was, had made it difficult for them to find him. She had left him alone in a state where he wasn’t able to look after himself. He could have DIED falling the thirteen feet from that tree branch.

              Keith was interrupted from his silent tirade when Pidge spoke up.

              “Does Allura’s behaviour seem weird to you guys?” She asked, her eyebrows lowered in thought, “Allura normally wouldn’t corner someone like that, or place them in a situation where they could easily be badly injured.”

              “Voltron and the fight against the Galra are too important to her for her to jeopardize a team member like that.” Coran added from where he was wrapping the bandages around Lance’s forearm that he had braced on both sides with the metal-like material.

              “Allura cares about Lance, we all do, why would she put him in that position?” Hunk asked, suspicion arising. Something wasn’t quite right there.

              “Why would she keep what happened at the shield station a secret in the first place? There isn’t any reason that the princess would have normally. She doesn’t think Lance is less important, why would she use that as an excuse?” Shiro asked of no one in particular.

              A confused look comes over Keith’s face, he turned to Coran, “Do we have a device that can detect the signatures of an individual’s quintessence?”

              “Not something specifically for that but it’s something we could make out of a modified scanner. We’d need to scan and identify the individual signatures in order to identify them, but it could most certainly differentiate between two of them.” Coran explained.

              “How long will it take?” Shiro asked, catching onto the idea Keith had.

              “Well it will have to wait until after we get the pod running, but it shouldn’t take more than say three vargas to modify and test the scanner. Especially with three of us working on it, we could probably get it done while Lance is still in the pod.” Coran says excitedly, now wrapping Lance’s upper arm which is also braced with the metal-like material.

              “Excellent, that’s what we’ll do then. Hunk, Pidge, help Coran with the healing pod and once that’s finished help him recalibrate the scanner. If mine and Keith’s suspicions are correct, Allura might not be entirely herself.” Shiro directs. He looks at Keith and says, “until we get this scanner done, we have no idea what is going on with Allura. Until we do, she could try to corner Lance again and since the pod won’t be ready for a couple days, he can’t defend himself. I’m going to need you to look out for him Keith.” Keith nodded assuredly; Lance wasn’t going to leave his sight.

              “You know I’m sitting right here.” Lance said, a little miffed that he was being talked about like a child. “You don’t have to talk about me like I’m not. I’m not eight.”

              “Sorry Lance, you’re clearly the target of the princess’s ire right now. We just want you to stay safe.” Shiro said placatingly. Lance grumbled quietly, acquiescing.

              Coran finished wrapping Lance’s arm and grabbed the sling. He took the sling and placed Lance’s bent arm into the pouch-like shape. He took the long ends, lead one across Lance’s torso and up to his right shoulder. He took the other end and lead it behind Lance’s back and also up to his right shoulder where he tied the two ends together tightly so that the injured limb was supported and held relatively stationary.

              “There you go my boy, now no strenuous activity or extraneous movement. The flat pieces are there to keep the limb as straight as possible. Even though it is only fractures, they’re still cracks in your bones and with so many of them your bones could shift causing a full break. The splints are to help minimize the potential for that while we wait for the pod. Now let’s get you some painkillers to make things a little easier to deal with.” Coran said as he headed back to the pile of supplies, he pulled out earlier to find the aforementioned pills.

              He came back with two green pills and a water pouch. He offered the pills to Lance and Lance had to untangle his fingers from Keith’s hand so that he could grab the pills and put them in his mouth. He reached for the water pouch next and took a sip to swallow the pills down.

              “Okay, now that you’ve got some drugs in your system how about we head to your tent and see about a nap? I’m pretty tired from the trip here and you must be drained after everything you’ve been through today.” Keith suggested and Lance nodded tiredly. A nap sounded like a great idea.

              Keith helped Lance stand up from the cot and lead him to the front of the tent with his arm still firmly around Lance’s waist and the other boy’s jacket held in his other hand. Once they’re out of the tent Keith realized they didn’t pick the sleeping arrangements for the night. He turned his head and cocked a questioning brow at Shiro who chuckled.

              “Matt and I kind of just threw stuff in tents while we were waiting for you guys to come back. Yours and Lance’s stuff is in the next tent over to the left. Last time I checked Kosmo was taking a nap in there.” Shiro shrugged. There wasn’t a point in waiting to choose tents when two people were missing so they took the liberty of assigning tents themselves.

              They had given Lance and Keith one of the two-person tents and put Coran in the solo-tent. Hunk would share with the Shiro and Matt and they were one tent over from Lance and Keith. The girls’ tents were left up to Romelle, but it looked like she had put Krolia and Allura in the same tent and put them on the opposite side of the fire to Keith and Lance. A good decision it turns out, Allura would have to go by multiple tents to get anywhere near Lance’s and have to get by Keith and Kosmo. Hopefully nothing would happen over night so Lance could relax a bit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              The two paladins entered their tent to find Keith’s teleporting space wolf Kosmo, in the middle of a pile of bags and blankets with his eyes closed and his tongue lolling out. His tail was wagging though so they knew he was awake.

              “Kosmo, up.” Keith told the wolf to which the animal responded immediately. The wolf got up quickly and headed over to the two boys. He sniffed curiously at Lance’s bandaged arm and whined quietly.

              Keith took Lance’s jacket and placed it over the boy’s shoulders before he let go of Lance and walked over to the pile of luggage and began unpacking the blankets and mats, they had picked up at the last trading planet they visited. He placed the two mats side-by-side on the ground, making one big mat for the both of them to sleep on. He grabbed the thickest blankets and laid them on top of the mats, then grabbed the largest pillows from Lance’s collection. Lance had a lot of pillows, he made nests out of them when he was uncomfortable on the castle ship and had kept as many as possible when they left.

              Keith grabbed the thinner blankets and laid them out on the makeshift mattress he had built before pulling down the top left corner and covering the large pillows with some of the smaller ones. He walked back to Lance and grabbed his right hand to lead him over to the bed. He helped lower the red paladin down to the bed, then moved to help the boy take his shoes off.

              “You don’t need to do that Keith; I may be injured but I can take my own shoes off.” Lance huffed, he appreciated the help, but he didn’t like having to rely on Keith for that kind of stuff. It wounded his pride just a little bit.

              “I know you can, but I want to help. Please let me do this?” Keith pleaded quietly. He just wanted to take care of the not-normally-fragile boy in front of him. He’d been through enough that day, Keith just wanted to make things just a little easier for him.

              Lance didn’t mention the panic attack to anyone, but Keith could still see how it weighed on his shoulders. The puffy eyes from sobbing, the cuts on his hands from clenching at the tree too hard. The hunch of his shoulders and the shakiness that surrounded him. Keith just wanted to pull him close and hold him until he was okay again.

              Lance looked at Keith, saw the concern and desperation in his eyes. Keith needed this just as much as he did. He needed to take care of Lance right now. He nodded and let Keith finish pulling off his shoes before removing his own. The black paladin pulled the jacket from Lance’s shoulders, folded it neatly and placed it by their shoes, pulled his knife from his belt and placed it on the pile, then grabbed the blankets and held them up so Lance could slide underneath before sliding in himself. He whistled for Kosmo to keep watch by the door, no one could come in unless Keith gave the okay, though the wolf wasn’t allowed to attack without the go ahead either.

              Lance was laying on his right side with his hand on the pillow, so his injured arm was off the ground and he was facing Keith. Keith turned to face Lance and wiggled closer so there were only a few inches between them and grabbed Lance’s right hand where it rested on the pillow with his left.

              “I’m really glad you’re okay Lance, and I’m happy you’re alive. We wouldn’t be the same without you.” Keith whispered as Lance let the exhaustion of the last few hours and the effects of the painkillers overtake him, and his eyes drift shut.

              “I wouldn’t be the same without you.” He heard Keith whisper, and he smiled as sleep overtook him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              Keith woke up to Kosmo growling lowly in his throat. The wolf was on his feet, teeth bared and facing the doorway of the tent. Keith turned and looked at Lance curled up against him and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the Cuban boy still fast asleep. The older paladin slowly disentangled his legs from Lance’s and slid out of Lance’s grip, taking care not to wake the other boy.

              Once free, he took his luxite blade from where he put it near his shoes. He slid slowly up to Kosmo and crouched next to the wolf who stopped growling. He slid his hand over the edge of the right flap and with his blade ready in his other hand he slowly moved the flap aside to see who was waiting outside.

              Keith peered out from the small space he’d made between the flaps. He didn’t see anything at first, it was too dark. A few hours had passed since he and Lance had fallen asleep. Keith didn’t move and let his eyes adjust and saw a silhouette off to the side of the tent, far enough to not be suspicious to someone passing by but close enough to clearly be loitering outside of their tent.

              The silhouette wasn’t tall enough to be Shiro or his mother, but they weren’t short enough to be Pidge or big enough to be Hunk. It had to be Matt, Coran, Romelle, or Allura and he really hoped for her sake it wasn’t Allura.

              Keith watched the figure for a moment longer, trying to figure out who it could possibly be. He didn’t see any light from the fire or anywhere else around the camp. He slid the flap back further and waited to see if the figure noticed. No movement or any indication that Keith had been spotted. He moved the flap further still and crept out of the tent, staying close to the ground. He needed to thank Kolivan for all the stealth training because the figure outside the tent didn’t seem to hear anything until Keith was right next to them and only because he spoke.

              “Is there a reason you’re hanging around my tent in the middle of the night?” he whispered right near the person’s right ear.        

              The figure, Matt it seemed, jumped at Keith’s voice, and shrieked.

              “Relax! It’s just me!” Keith said quietly. He really hoped the shrieking hadn’t woken Lance up.

              Kosmo whining and a worried whisper of “Keith?” came from the tent.

              Damn it.

              Matt was looking at him sheepishly as Keith moved back to the doorway of the tent. He moved the flaps aside and saw Lance half sitting up, his right hand resting on the floor propping him up. The blankets were pooled around his waist and he looked at Keith’s silhouette in the dark with concern.

              “Is everything okay?” he asked carefully.

              “Yeah, everything’s fine. Promise.” Keith said reassuringly, “I’ll be back in a second okay?” he said before he stepped back out into the night to talk to Matt.

              “Alright. What the hell are you doing?” Keith asked forcefully, “why are you hanging around our tent in the middle of the night Matt?”

              Matt’s shoulders slumped in defeat, “Shiro asked me to check up on you guys, just to make sure you’re okay. Your mom is watching Allura but Shiro was worried about you. We’re all worried about you guys, especially Lance after what happened. Shiro wanted to check up with you guys and since he’s lost enough sleep recently, I volunteered. I just peeked in on you, did a sweep of the perimeter of the tent and was just going over everything and was about to go back to bed when you snuck up on me. How did you know I was here anyway? Do you have super sensitive hearing or something?” Matt rambled. Keith sighed.

              “Kosmo was on guard, his growling told me someone was outside.” Keith sighed again, dealing with a hyper Matt so late at night was draining.

              “He just growls? Great warning system but what if someone came in the tent?” Matt’s curious brain was taking over.

              “If you had come in the tent, he would have jumped on you, pinned you to the ground and growled at you directly.” Keith explained. He just wanted to go back to bed.

              “He wouldn’t just straight up attack me?” Matt asked confused.

              “Not without my say so. Now Matt, you’ve done what you were supposed to.  We’re fine. Go to bed.” Keith said turning and heading back through the tent flaps, Kosmo hot on his heels.

              Lance was still propped up on his right hand watching him come into the tent. He scooted a bit further back onto the makeshift bed to make room for Keith to slide in again once he’d replaced his knife on the pile of jackets and shoes.

              “What was that about?” Lance asked tiredly as Keith re-situated himself under the covers and close to Lance.

              “Shiro was worried about us so Matt volunteered to come do a quick sweep.” Keith whispered as he grabbed Lance’s right hand in his and tugged the red paladin gently back down to the pillows. “Kosmo alerted me that he was lurking around, so I went to check it out.”

              “Kosmo makes a great early warning system. Matt’s lucky he was only on guard duty.” Lance snickered

              “It would have been even better if Matt hadn’t have woken you up.” Keith muttered under his breath.

              “You probably scared the living daylights out of him with your Blade ninja skills, besides I started waking up a little after you left. His manly shriek did freak me out a bit though.” Lance said, yawning hugely as he snuggled closer to the comfort that was Keith’s presence.

              “Did I move around too much? Were you in pain?” Keith frowned in worry.

              “I’m okay Keith, the drugs Coran gave me are still working really well. I think my subconscious picked up the fact that you weren’t next to me anymore, I’m not as comfortable without you near me.” Lance admitted quietly, sleep roughing up his voice.

              Keith felt his cheeks warm at the admission that Lance felt better when he was beside him. He had to admit, even if just to himself, that he felt better with Lance beside him too.

              They drifted off quickly in the silence. Comfortably wrapped around each other as much as Lance’s injuries would allow.

Chapter Text

              Lance had spent a lot of the last few days sleeping. Between the exhaustion from all of the stress, the injuries caused by the encounter with Allura, and the time spent in the healing pod after the trio of engineers fixed it, Keith thought Lance had spent more time unconscious on this planet than he’d spent conscious.

              He was looking forward to being able to spend more time with an awake and uninjured Lance once he came out of the pod. But until then, Keith had other more pressing matters to attend to.

              The scanner had been successfully recalibrated to differentiate between individual quintessence. They had scanned everyone in the camp save Allura just to make sure. They had even scanned Lance in the pod and the scanner had registered the quintessence of the pod mingling with Lance’s own to help speed the healing process. Pidge and Hunk had been fascinated by that whole process.

              But now, the moment of truth was at hand. Keith hadn’t been sure what he was getting at when he had asked about the scanner and individual quintessence signatures, but there weren’t many explanations for the behaviour Allura had been exhibiting recently. She had been acting oddly for a while if the situation with the Omega shield was any indication. Keith suspected that Lotor had had a hand in it. The scanner was to see if his hunch was right. Shiro’s support in his suspicions was incredibly welcome.

              Keith made his way out of the medical tent and toward the fire once more at the centre of their camp. The others had already gathered around the fire pit, Allura standing with Krolia beside her and the rest of the group around them in something that resembled a circle.

              “Keith! Glad you could join us. I trust Lance is doing alright in the pod?” Shiro asked pointedly. The hinting tone was not lost on Keith, he knew Shiro would be questioning him on the red paladin later. He was not looking forward to it.

              Keith nodded in confirmation.

              “Good, now that we have everyone, less Lance, we can begin.” He turned to Allura who stood defiant and angry in the midst of the other members of the group.

              “Allura, we as a team have some compelling evidence that you might not be entirely in control of your actions due to an outside influence. The device Pidge is holding is a scanner meant to pick out and differentiate between individual quintessence signatures. We believe someone has tampered with your inner quintessence and caused you to treat Lance the way you have been in order to weaken the team and therefore Voltron. We will be scanning you to either confirm or deny this hypothesis.” Pidge stepped forward, scanner at the ready.

              The scanner was booted up and run up and down the length of Allura’s figure twice before Pidge paused to look at the readings more closely. A shocked look came upon her face before she looked up at Shiro and nodded.

              The scanner was passed over to the once black paladin for him to see for himself. Shiro frowned at the display.

              “Coran, you have a base level for everyone’s quintessence correct?” the mustachioed man nodded, “Would you say this is Allura’s normal quintessence reading or not?”

              The advisor stepped forward quickly to gaze upon the display. He too frowned at the readings.

              “These numbers are not in accordance with my records. The pink here is the princesses own quintessence, but the purple colour is most definitely not.”

              Keith watched the confusion on Coran’s face. His suspicions had merit it seemed.

              “What does that mean Coran?” Matt asked from next to Pidge.

              “Well, in the life cycle of an Altean, the quintessence is expected to change to some degree. It grows and changes as the individual grows and changes, but not to this extent. The fact that there is obviously her original quintessence underneath the other one indicates to me that someone has somehow managed to overlay her essence with something much more sinister.” Coran explained.

              Allura remained rather unaffected by the entire affair. Odd behaviour in and of itself.

              “Have you ever encountered something like this before Coran?” Shiro asked pensively.

              “Not personally but the act of manipulating someone by tampering with their core quintessence was a blight we faced in the underworld of Altean alchemy. It can be reversed and unfortunately it will take some time. Though I think it important to mention that with this technique, the victim is entirely removed from their usual morals and essentially is not themselves. The princess did not hurt Lance deliberately, she has been forced too. It seems as well that the perpetrator has taken an interest in Lance in particular.”

              “So, what do we do then? Just because she isn’t doing it of her own choice, doesn’t mean she’s not still a danger.” Keith pointed out.

              “Until we can confirm that Allura is in her right mind again, I think we should continue as we have been. She is clearly being forced to target Lance and with him in such a vulnerable state still, they cannot come in contact. If this gets any worse, we may have to look at restraining her, which is something I would truly rather not do.” Shiro said decisively.

              “Okay, we continue how we have been. But this whole situation raises the question, who’s quintessence is messing with Allura? I don’t know of anyone who’s spent enough time close enough to her to be able to manage this outside of the team and we know that’s impossible.” Keith wondered aloud.

              “Allura spent an awful lot of time alone with Lotor before you came back Keith. He’s the only one I can think of that would have had the time and the ability to do this.” Pidge added.

              “But what reason would he have to manipulate the team that way? He already had us all fooled. If Keith hadn’t come back with Romelle when he did, we’d have fallen for his act without any questions. Any manipulation of Allura at that point wouldn’t have made a difference.” Hunk reminded.

              The group fell quiet at that. Lotor was their only real suspect. No one else of dubious intent had had enough access to Allura to have been able to plant the corrupted quintessence in her system without raising suspicion.

              Allura herself remained unfazed by the events happening around her, quiet as the grave. The group, on some level, forgot she was even sitting there.

              The tense silence reigned for a few more moments before Shiro finally broke it.

              “We’ll put our suspicions on the backburner for now. We need to focus on helping Allura fight the corruption and keeping Lance safe. For right now that means taking Allura back to her tent and keeping her under twenty-four-hour watch. We need someone to stay with Lance at all times as well as an extra measure. Allura isn’t herself right now and we don’t know what she’ll do or how she’ll react.” Shiro commanded.

              “Interesting choice you’ve made Shiro, placing so much effort into the safety of the weakest member of the group.” Allura smirked coldly, and very not Allura-like, up at Shiro from where she was still sitting next to the fire.

              Keith froze abruptly. He turned to stare at her, shock, and anger on his face. Keith held himself in check, breathing deeply through his nose to stop himself from launching at Allura. She was not herself. She would never say something so hurtful about Lance. Never.

              The smirk disappeared from her face as she realised that no one was reacting the way she had planned.

              “Lance is not weak.” Keith said quietly before turning and walking quickly back to the tent that Lance’s pod was in. The other boy was going to be out soon, and Keith refused to let him wake up alone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              It took another varga in the pod for Lance to be fully healed from his injuries. Keith was right there to catch him when he came tumbling out, shivering from the cold of the cryopod.

              “Hey Lance, how you feeling?” Keith whispered into the younger boy’s hair. He held Lance tightly, knowing Lance’s legs would be shaky and just to give himself piece of mind.

              “’m cold. But I think okay. Everything is still a little fuzzy and numb.” Lance slurred into Keith’s shoulder.

              Keith chuckled and gave Lance a light squeeze, “lets get you lying down then so that the numbness can wear off.” He led Lance over to the cot next to pod and moved a couple pillows from some of the other cots so that Lance could recline without having to lie down the whole way. Afterwards he pulled a chair over from the edge of the room so he could sit next to Lance’s cot.

              Lance hummed in content once he was resting against the pile of pillows. His eyes slipped closed and he just rested there for a moment.

              “That better?” Keith asked amused.

              “Mm hm.” Lance hummed in reply.

              They sat in silence for a few minutes before Coran walked brusquely into the tent. He didn’t even look at the two boys, just grabbed his scanner off of the cart in the corner and moved back toward the pair.

              “It’s wonderful to see you out of that pod number four. Now, I just want to do some quick scans just to make extra sure that you’re in tip top shape and then you can be on your merry way.” Coran stated cheerfully. He waited for Lance to nod before getting into the scans.

              They made no noise while Coran ran the scanner up and down Lance’s body a few times. Lance laid there, eyes closed and just letting the numbness fade from his limbs and the warmth from being out of the pod and knowing Keith was there next to him, seep into his body.

              Moments later the scanner beeped, and Coran looked at the results and smiled. “Well Lance, it looks like you’re back to 100%. I’d take it a little easy for the rest of the quintant but otherwise you’re perfectly fine to start regular activities again.” Coran explained brightly.

              “Awesome, I’m getting pretty tired of being bedridden so much lately. I’ll take it easy for today but tomorrow I want to start training again.” Lance said, eyes open and bright if a little exhausted too.

              Keith couldn’t help the little smile that worked it’s way onto his face when he looked at Lance finally being able to relax.

              “I think getting some training in would be a great idea.” He added quietly, still looking at Lance with a soft expression. Lance looked over at Keith and smiled back.

              Neither boy noticed Coran making his way out of the med tent quickly and quietly with a small smile of his own.

              “So, since you’re taking it easy, what do you want to do for the rest of the day? We won’t be packing up for another day at least so we can do just about anything.” Keith asked.

              Lance didn’t say anything right away, pondering his options. What did he want to do? He had spent so much time sleeping lately, between the exhaustion from all the emotional shit and being injured, he didn’t really want to sleep. But at the same time, he was exhausted from the pod.

              The healing pods were amazing. They healed you right up from any injury and left you in top shape. The only issue was that they used your quintessence and energy to do so which meant that you’d be tired as hell afterwards. Especially if your injury was severe, coming out after the explosion that left him in a coma had been awful.

              Back to the matter at hand, what did he want to spend the rets of the day doing? The only thing he really knew was that he wanted to spend it with Keith and maybe Hunk.

              “To be honest, I’m exhausted from the pod, so I’d be down for a nap for a bit, but after that? I don’t really have anything in particular I want to do. All I know is I don’t want to be alone.” Lance shrugged noncommittally.

              “You don’t have to worry about being alone Lance. After the crap you’ve been through the past couple days, you’re going to have someone by your side constantly.” Keith assured, trying not to say that he would be by Lance’s side at all times. “As for stuff to do after your nap, I was thinking a nice walk around in the sunshine might make you feel better. A pretty easy activity and if you want, Kosmo can go too! That way you can feel extra safe and have a good time with whoever is with you.”

              Lance raised a brow in confusion, “You’re not coming with me?” he asked quietly, on the verge of hurt.

              “I can if you want me to! I just wanted to make sure you knew that you didn’t have to spend all your time with me if you didn’t want to!” Keith rushed to make sure that Lance didn’t think he was being a burden on Keith’s time.

              He still remembers the conversation they had about Lance’s insecurities and the last thing Keith wanted was to drag those into the emotional turmoil that Lance was already going through.

              “I know I’ve been all over you lately because I’ve been worried sick, and I get really protective and hover when I’m worried. I just didn’t want you to feel smothered or trapped by how I’ve been acting lately. I want you to be happy Lance, and if that means letting you out of my sight for a few hours than so be it.” Keith explained quietly.

              Lance huffed fondly, “Keith, I feel safest and most comfortable when you’re around. I thought I told you that. Besides, after years of trying to get your attention with that stupid rivalry, it’s nice to have it entirely focused on me for a change. Even if the circumstances are pretty awful.”

              Keith started when the implications of what Lance had just said finally made it to his brain. Had Lance--? No way. He shook his head to clear the nonsense thoughts from his mind. This was not the time to entertain such thoughts.

              Lance giggled at Keith’s wide eyes.

              “How about you help me get back to our tent for a nap and then we take Kosmo on a little stroll around the area before whatever major meal is next, huh?” Lance smiled.

              “Y-yeah, sounds like a great idea. It’s only like 10:30 in the morning so a short nap will take us to lunch probably. Nap, lunch, walk?” Keith asked the younger boy.

              “Sounds like a plan Samurai. I wanna get up now but I think my legs might be a little useless still, mind helping me up?” Lance looked at Keith a bit sheepishly. He didn’t want to make Keith help him, but he also didn’t want to end up face first on the floor of the med tent. Though if he had to pick, the med tent would be the best place to do so.

              Keith snorted in amusement before moving forward to hook his arm under Lance’s so that he could be a stable point for Lance to lean on.

              Lance got up off the bed with little issue, his legs were a bit unsteady still from the pod, so he leaned a bit of his weight on Keith. They moved slowly but surely toward the tent flap and out into the camp proper.

              Everyone was attending to tasks within the camp and didn’t pay the two paladins any mind. Thankfully, Allura was not in sight at that moment so Keith didn’t have to worry about Lance’s reaction. He hadn’t told the red paladin the team’s decision or discovery, electing to let Lance be comfortable for a bit before unloading that bomb on him. He knew that Lance would ask eventually though, he knew about the meeting and scanner after all.

              They made their way through the camp and into their shared tent. Kosmo was laying on the bed when they came through the flap of their door. The massive wolf boofed at them before vacating the bed. Keith helped Lance sit down, but he let Lance handle his own shoes and comfort. They crawled under the covers next to each other and settled down for a short nap.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              Keith found himself wandering the camp alone later that day. Hunk and Pidge had grabbed Lance for some time together and as much as Keith wanted to be around Lance as much as possible for his own piece of mind, he couldn’t keep Lance from spending time with his best friends. So, he left Kosmo with the trio to help give Lance some piece of mind and went to wander around to find something to do until Lance came to look for him.

              “Keith!” he heard come from ahead of him. He wasn’t exactly looking where he was going and Lance would definitely call what he was doing sulking, but Lance didn’t need to know.

              “Shiro? What’s up?” Keith asked as his older brother figure moved towards him.

              “Not much, we just haven’t spent much time together since the whole thing with Lance and Allura. I was hoping we could hang out for a bit.” Shiro shrugged, hope in the smile on his face.

              “Sure, Lance is with Hunk and Pidge right now anyway and I’ve always got time for you.” He smiled back.

              “You sure about that? Lately all of your time has been dedicated to Lance.” Shiro smirked knowingly.

              “Someone needs to look out for him Shiro and since I don’t really have a designated task anymore, I figured I’d be the best person.” Keith retorted, blushing.

              “Right and your red face says nothing about that does it?” Shiro said, crossing his arms, and leaning in, embarrassing Keith like only an older brother could do.

              “The colour of my face has nothing to do with it Shiro. I’ll admit, I’m worried about him. He went through a lot while we were gone and even though he’s trying to mend the relationships with everyone else, I’m the only one who didn’t hurt him that way. I’m the only one left who he doesn’t associate with the exacerbation of his insecurities and I want to give him that comfort.” Keith huffed. He knew he was getting defensive, but he wasn’t going to let Shiro just get what he was looking for, that’d be too easy and Keith’s pride as a little brother would not stand for that.

              “Oo exacerbation, big word.”

              “Shiro!” Keith snapped at the older man’s teasing.

              “Fine, fine” he put his hands up in surrender, “You’re providing Lance with the comfort you think he needs right now so that he can heal, but have you thought about what you want after he doesn’t need that comfort anymore?” the pout on Keith’s face told him that he had.

              “I know you don’t exactly want to talk about it, but we both know you’ve got a thing for Lance and even though we’re hip deep in an intergalactic war and stuck on a really stupidly long space-road trip, I think you should take any chance you’re given to make your feelings known to Lance. We both know it takes a lot for him to open up to someone about what’s really bothering him and for how touchy he is, he doesn’t really do physical affection and neither do you. You’re something special to each other outside of just being teammates.

              “You’ve been a source of comfort, safety and familiarity for him in all this upheaval, but I don’t think it’s for those things that he wants you around so much. I think he genuinely wants you Keith. He wants to spend time with you and be close to you, not just for what you’ve been doing for him these last few weeks.” Shiro explained.

Keith stared at his brother, eyes wide and brain trying to catch up.

              “So, what you’re telling me is that you think I have non-platonic feelings for Lance, and he has non-platonic feelings for me, and I need to do something about that? What makes you think that any of that is true? Or even that I want to do something about it if it is? Maybe I’m totally fine with how things are between me and Lance! We’re comfortable with each other and moving him too fast in any direction emotionally could hurt him more! I’m more than happy to let things go at their own pace and move in Lance’s comfort zone. Especially when it comes to physical affection. He’s really touch-deprived and that isn’t something I’m willing to push.” Keith replied, not noticing his lack of hypotheticals halfway through.

              Shiro picked up on it though.

              “That’s very considerate of you Keith. I’m proud of you for communicating with Lance so well about your feelings and boundaries. I didn’t know you guys were already at that stage.” Shiro fought back the smirk trying to make its way onto his face.

              Keith squinted suspiciously at him.

              “What are you—Shiro! Lance and I aren’t a thing! I’m worried about him and I want to protect him! That doesn’t equate to romantic feelings!” Keith yelled at his brother who was snickering and steadily backing away with his hands up in a placating manner to avoid Keith going all whoop ass on him.

              “Your protective instincts are strong when it comes to that boy.” Keith whirled around to look at his mother walking up behind him.

              “He is good for you Keith.” She added proudly. Keith gaped at her.

              “Not you too! Shiro being on my case is bad enough and now my mom is in on it! I’m never going to hear the end of this!” Keith gestures in frustration.

              “We just want you to be happy Keith, and whether you admit it or not, Lance makes you happy.” Shiro tried to assure in a calm tone.

              “Of course, he makes me happy! He’s my friend and I care about him! But if you two are going to keep going on about this craziness then I need you to make sure that Lance never hears you. He’s been through enough, has second guessed everyone and everything around him for too long. I refuse to be another stressor for him, so keep it to yourselves.” Keith warned lowly. Just because it was his mother and his brother, didn’t mean he wasn’t entirely willing to throw them across camp if they made Lance uncomfortable.

              “Keith, we’re not going to say anything to Lance. We are merely teasing, if you are not comfortable telling him then we have no reason to make you. We are not here to attack you or meddle in your relationship with Lance.” Krolia explained gently.

              “Yeah Keith, we’re just giving you shit. It’s okay, you don’t have to worry so much, Lance isn’t going to find out.” Shiro added.

              “Lance isn’t going to find out what?” Keith froze at the voice.

              The three whipped around quickly to see Lance and Kosmo coming towards them. Lance looking confused but still with a smile on his face.

              “Nothing important Lance, I promise. Are you all done with Hunk and Pidge?” Keith glared at Shiro and Krolia before walking over to Lance trying to distract him from the conversation.

              “Okay?” Lance looked at Shiro and Krolia confused before turning back to Keith, “Yeah they wanted to start work on something they think is going to help us with powering the Lions and it was all going right over my head so I figured, instead of pulling them away from their project we could go fort hat walk you promised?” he looked at Keith hopeful.

              “Of course.” Keith smiled, leading the trio towards the edge of camp, away from the lions and the tree where Lance broke his arm.

              They walked in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Lance broke it.

              “What were you talking to Shiro and your mom about back there?” he asked curiously.

              Keith sighed, of course he wouldn’t let it go. “They were giving me shit about something I don’t want to talk about yet and went too far. I didn’t want you to know because I’m not ready to talk, not because it’s something bad or anything, I’m just not ready and I didn’t want you thinking it was me saying stuff about you behind your back. You’ve got enough on your plate without me adding something stupid like that.” he admitted, that was all he was willing to say at the moment.

              “So, you’re not ready to talk about whatever it is, and they were busting your balls over it? I’m guessing it’s something that you want me to find out from you and not someone else, and that’s why you said not to tell me? And you don’t want me to worry that you’re talking about me behind my back because I overheard that?” Keith nodded in answer.

              “Okay.” Lance replied simply.

              “Okay?” Keith looked confused at the shorter boy.

              “Yeah, okay. You aren’t hiding something from me, you’re just not ready to talk about it yet. You’re allowed to not be ready and if it was something bad, you’d tell me. I trust you Keith, I know you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me.”

              Lance’s soft smile made Keith’s heart skip suddenly in his chest. Oh god this boy was really going to be the death of him.

              “Besides, I know how older brothers and nosy moms get, one thing about being in space I don’t really mind is not being picked on all the time by my siblings for stupid stuff like crushes.” Lance grinned.

              Keith knew Lance meant what he said but he also missed his family dearly and he’d probably have given anything to be back with them in that moment.

              “Older brothers are the worst. I only have one and he’s not even related to me by blood. I can’t imagine what it would be like to grow up with that everyday.” Keith grimaced at the thought before a thought occurred to him, “I don’t think you’ve ever said how many siblings you have? You’ve mentioned you have a big family but exactly how big is big?”

              Lance’s grin turned bittersweet for a moment before he chuckled, and it was bright once more.

              “I am the youngest of five. I have two older brothers and two older sisters. Well two older sisters and a sister-in-law who might as well be added to that list. She and Luis got married when I was like eleven, so Lisa’s been essentially my sister since I was nine. They’ve got two kids, Nadia, and Silvio, who were five and three when we left Earth. Plus, my parents and my grandparents, makes twelve of us total, including me.” Lance grinned as he counted out on his fingers.

              “Holy shit, twelve people? In one house? That’s crazy Lance!” Keith blurted.

              “Not all in one house Mullet, we have a big farm and it’s got like four houses on the property. Mama and Papa have one with Marco, Veronica, Rachel and I, Luis and Lisa have one and Abuela and Abuelo have another. The other one is kind of the guest house right now for when any of the extended family comes to visit.” Lance explained, giggling at Keith’s growing expression of disbelief.

              “I should have expected the farm thing with how you handle Kaltenecker.” Keith muttered, trying not to let his cheeks catch fire at the sound of Lance giggling.

              “Yeah, hopefully we have room for her too. She’ll like having so much space with the other cows.” Lance smiled softly.

              Keith didn’t notice his expression soften when he looked at Lance and neither did the object of said affections. He was startled out of his soft thoughts by Lance.

              “Oh! I meant to ask you how the whole thing this morning went. Did the scanner find anything?” Lance paused his walking to ask.

              Keith hesitated, Lance needed to know, even though Keith knew it would hurt.

              “Yeah actually it did. We scanned everybody for a baseline and let me tell you, Pidge and Hunk were fascinated by the interaction between the pod and your quintessence…” Lance gave him a half-hearted glare to cut the stalling, “The scan Pidge did of Allura’s core quintessence produced very abnormal results.” Keith sighed.

              “Her normal quintessence has been badly corrupted. It’s almost unrecognizable as hers at all. Coran said it’s fixable but right now, Allura essentially isn’t herself. Everything she’s done since she was corrupted hasn’t been Allura’s decision but the effects of the way that she’s been fucked with.” Keith explained, meeting Lance’s eyes.

              “How long has she been like that? Who’s quintessence is it that’s messing with her?” Lance asked, worried for his friend’s well-being over the fact that whoever had done it was targeting him personally.

              “We can’t tell exactly how long she’s been like this but apparently the effects get worse the longer she’s under its influence. The only thing we really know is that whoever did it had to have access to Allura for long periods of time. The only person the rest of us could think of was Lotor but there wasn’t any reason for him to use this kind of manipulation. Knowing who did it would probably help us help Allura fight this shit off too.” Keith was frustrated.

              They’d long since stopped walking and Lance’s hand had somehow found Keith’s and interlaced their fingers to help ground the older boy in his frustration.

              “So, it’s probably safe to say that she’s been effected since before the Omega shield thing?” Lance smiled ruefully.

              “Either that or she was corrupted close to that.” he sighed, “I’m sorry Lance. I want to give you good news but all you get is that you’re still someone’s target but now we don’t even know who. And after all the shit that’s happened the last little while, this is just another shitty thing.”

              Lance’s grip tightened on his hand until he looked back up to meet Lance’s eyes.

              “This is actually pretty good news.” Keith looked at him incredulous, “It makes far more sense then Allura suddenly hating me and it means that I don’t have to reconcile the Allura I know and care about with the Allura who left me in a position where I almost died because she trapped me. She isn’t in control of herself right now which means that all the things she’s done to hurt me haven’t actually been her. She hasn’t done anything to me of her own choice. It’s like how things went down after we got Shiro back and found out that the other guy was a clone sent to destroy the team…from the inside out. Keith!” Keith jerked at Lance’s sudden exclamation.

              “The clone! The Shiro clone!” Realization finally dawned on him at Lance's exclamation.

              “The Shiro clone was trying to tear the team apart from the inside! He wasn’t doing it directly like Lotor he was trying to be sneaky which would be the perfect reason to use corrupted quintessence! So that we wouldn’t notice until it was too late!” Lance nodded furiously in agreement. “He probably started really close to the Omega shield mission and that’s why Allura never told anyone! The effects wouldn’t be strong enough to stop her from saving you, but they would have been strong enough to keep her from telling anyone.” Keith reasoned excitedly.

              They had their perpetrator! Now, how did they use that information to help Allura?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              “The clone had the access to Allura and a reason to use those kinds of tactics! Plus, the clone was already targeting Lance!” Keith explained to the rest of the group after he and Lance had run full tilt to the middle of their camp to relay the breakthrough.

              “But the clone was trying to be me, I don’t have the ability to control or manipulate quintessence in any way so it stands to reason that neither could he.” Shiro argued.

              “Well who was controlling the clone? Who planted him in our team?” Hunk pointed out.

              “Well, according to what Keith said of his fight with the clone, there was a massive facility of Shiro clones, that Keith destroyed. So, who could possibly have been able to create such a massive operation and who would center it around Shiro?” Pidge asked.

              “Haggar.” Matt said casually from his seat on a rock near the fire.

              Everyone turned to stare at him in confusion.

              “What? She’s the head of the Druids, likes to do weird experiments and has a weird interest in both Shiro and destroying Voltron. She’s crafty enough to have figured out how to clone Shiro and to realize that Lance is an integral part of the team. Without him, you guys fall apart and with Keith gone, if Shiro was the cause of Lance’s issues, you’d never even notice because it’s Shiro.” He added with a shrug.

              The team gaped at him. Keith felt nauseous with the sudden onslaught of guilt and he could tell that Shiro did too. Lance looked pale so Keith reached out and grabbed his hand tightly to offer any comfort he could.

              Keith swallowed down the bile climbing his throat, “So Haggar is behind all of this?”

              “I mean, that’s our best bet. She’s got the means, the motive, there’s really no other explanation.” Matt said, counting points on his fingers.

              “Okay. Okay, so what do we do with this information now?” Hunk asked, shaken.

              “Well, there’s nothing we can do for Allura at the moment except wait out the corruption and surround her with uncorrupted quintessence to help encourage her own to fight back. Getting rid of Haggar would be helpful because removing the source of the corruption would remove their quintessence from the victim as well.” Coran added.

              “As much as we’d all love to go kick Haggar’s creepy ass, we still need a ship like the Castle of Lions in order to be able to combat her and the remains of the empire. Which means we still need to get to Earth before we can take out the nasty old hag.” Keith reminded everyone.

              “Well, at least we know the person trying to kill me isn’t someone new.” Lance joked half-heartedly. Keith moved to wrap an arm around Lance’s waist to offer a solid body to ground Lance in the sea of stress he must have been feeling. Not having a new enemy was a small comfort compared to knowing Haggar was actively trying to kill Lance.

              The others in the group gave the pair an odd look before returning back to the topic at hand. The discussion lasted for a few more minutes, no one really coming up with anything substantial to add to their predicament.

              They would have to make it to Earth before anything could be done about the witch. It was a long road ahead.

Chapter Text

             Training resumed the next morning. Lance, having had more than a few days rest, was in top shape much to the other paladins’ exasperation. Well, besides Keith. Keith was ecstatic to see Lance up and kicking ass as he should have been.

             They’d set up a target range and some training dummies out of tree stumps and stuff they’d found in the woods around their camp. They were leaving the next day for a very long stint in the lions and everyone was in agreement that getting some energy out would be for the best.

             Lance had tackled the targets with practiced ease, not missing a single shot. Krolia had decided to test her skills against their sharpshooter and come out the loser of their little competition. Keith and Shiro both warned her not to, but she didn’t listen. Suffice to say she was thoroughly impressed with Lance’s skills which warmed Keith’s heart.

             He did not appreciate the look she shot him after her loss though. Meddling mothers.

             Hand to hand combat was next. Just because they were on a road trip across the universe, didn’t mean they shouldn’t be ready for anything. Shiro actually took over here, leading the group in sparring matches and managing to even knock Krolia on her ass once, not an easy feat.

             Things took a turn for the weird when Pidge suggested armed close-quarters combat. It wasn’t something they’d done much of since the loss of the Castle and since they were doing everything else, they figured they might as well work on it too.

             “Alright, Hunk and Lance since you’re weapons are long-range this exercise is especially important for you two. We still need to figure out how to make it easier for you two to fight this way with your guns.” Shiro instructed. Hunk and Lance nodded along.

             “I mean, my bayard is huge so it’s kind of all hand-to-hand for me at that point.” Hunk pointed out.

             “You’re right Hunk, why don’t you work with Krolia on it? She might have a better way of coming up with a solution then either of us.” Hunk nodded and headed over to Krolia, they exchanged words and Hunk showed her his bayard’s form. Her demonic smile meant Lance did not envy his best friend.

             “Lance? How about you work with Keith for a bit and then we’ll switch around.” Lance nodded and headed over to Keith’s side. Shiro grabbed Pidge and Matt and moved further away from Keith and Lance. the pair of boys smirked at each other in challenge.

             “You ready to get your butt kicked Sharpshooter?” Keith goaded.

             “You never know, I might have some tricks up my sleeve there Samurai.” Lance winked. Keith felt his cheeks burn but didn’t let that phase him.

             Shiro called the okay and Keith launched himself at Lance, sword materialising on the run.

             Considering Lance had been unable to train for several days, his reaction time was truly impressive. He had his rifle materialised and blocking Keith’s downward swing in perfect timing. With the way their matches usually went, Lance would keep up for a while, but eventually Keith’s stamina from doing almost nothing but close-quarters combat the entire time they’d been in space won out. Lance held out for several blows with just his sniper rifle, but he could feel himself getting tired from using the gun in a manner it was not made for.

             Well, now was as good a time as any.

             Keith pulled back to make another swing when Lance’s rifle began giving off the bright light that signaled a form change. He smirked; victory was his.

             “Your blaster isn’t going to help you Lance!” he cried as he launched into another downward swing only to be met with a solid object longer than Lance’s blaster.

             “Who said anything about a blaster Keith?” Lance grinned from behind the red blade now in his hands.

             Keith’s eyes widened in surprise, Lance took advantage of the moment to push Keith back and began his on onslaught of attacks.

             “When the hell did you get a sword!?” Keith demanded, holding Lance back with more difficulty than he would have if Lance were using his rifle.

             He wasn’t used to Lance being able to take the offensive in these kinds of matches.

             “I’ll regale you with the tale after I wipe the floor with you Mullet!” Lance verbally jabbed, laying into another solid attack with his blade.

             Keith, beyond his confusion, was impressed. Though Lance’s form wasn’t perfect, it was solid and clean. His blows were balanced and fierce without being reckless, unlike Keith’s own sometimes. Not to mention the sight of Lance with a sword and a smirk was doing things to his insides that he really didn’t want to think about right then. The questions was, where the hell the sword came from and who had been teaching him to use it?

             A particularly hard blow rattled through Keith’s arms and brought him back to the task at hand. He needed to beat the shit out Lance and then he could admire his…skills…Yeah.

             Keith pulled back from his clash with Lance to give himself some space to reassess the situation. Lance had more reach and an ability to go offensive that he never could have managed with the blunt force use of his rifle. Lance’s sword had a two wicked edges and a reach marginally longer than Keith’s own. But Lance obviously wasn’t as experienced with the weapon in combat, and that was what gave Keith the most advantage.

             He ran at Lance again, weapon in position to strike from the right. Lance caught the motion and went for the block on that side, leaving his other side wide open for Keith’s kick to his side. Lance crumpled with a startled cry and Keith pinned the other paladin with the tip of his blade at his throat.

             “Nice trick Sharpshooter, but I think you’re gonna need a little more practice before you can really take me on.” Lance groaned at Keith’s victory.

             “Dammit, I really thought I had you there!” Keith offered his hand down to help Lance up.

             Keith chuckled, “You definitely surprised me that’s for sure. To be honest, you gave me more of a run for my money than I expected. Who’s been teaching you to use that thing?” Lance’s grin faltered a bit and Keith knew he’d stepped on a sore spot.

             “…Allura was teaching me. Before everything happened with Lotor and the Omega shield. It’s an Altean broadsword, the same kind her father used. She offered to teach me before it all went down, and her father left some programs in the training room that I took to using once Allura started spending all her time with Lotor.” Lance smiled ruefully at Keith, “I kind of turned into you for a bit there, spending all my free time training.”

             Keith’s own smile disappeared at the obvious sadness in Lance’s voice. Having someone you cared about turn on you like that, put you in a position where they were actively trying to hurt you, it hurt. Keith knew how much it hurt. Even if he had fought a clone, he hadn’t known it at the time and genuinely believed the closest thing he had to a brother was trying to kill him.

             Keith had had enough of sadness though and so had Lance, “You know I never would have guessed you’d spent all your time in the training room with how twiggy your arms are still.” He joked, badly.

             Lance looked at him with wide eyes, before he realized what Keith was trying to do and giggled softly at the terrible attempt at humour. Keith chuckled in return until they were both giggling uncontrollably.

             “What’s got you two so giddy all of a sudden? I thought we were training?” Shiro interrupted with a grin. He, Matt, and Pidge walked up to the pair, sweat on the brows of the Holt siblings but both smiling.

             “Keith got distracted by my awesome skills and just couldn’t contain his curiosity.” Lance claimed. He missed the proud look Keith gave him, but Shiro didn’t.

             “Keith? How did Lance do?” he asked.

             “Wha-? Oh yeah, he actually did really well. He held his own on the defensive with his rifle for a bit, but he really threw me off when he pulled out the broadsword. Almost had me for a bit but I kicked his ass in the end. Can’t say I wasn’t impressed though.” Keith shrugged. He could feel the burning in his cheeks rising. Lance looked at Keith surprised.

             “Wait, sword? When did you get a sword Lance?!” Hunk asked excitedly from behind the pair.

             Keith looked at Hunk in confusion, didn’t the team know?

             Lance flinched at the question, “I-uh-I got it after we took down Zarkon. I didn’t really know how to use it all that well for a while so I wanted to wait to show everybody until I could actually use it. I wanted it to be a surprise.” He tried for a reassuring smile, but it came out a little brittle.

             Keith’s brows lowered in suspicion. He’d talk to Lance about it later, in the comfort of their own tent.

             “Whoa! That is so cool!” Hunk exclaimed, bumping Lance’s shoulder.

             “That is pretty cool Lance, but can you actually use the thing?” Pidge smirked; Lance squawked indignantly.

             “Did you not just hear Keith? He said he was impressed with my performance!” He cried.

             “Keith’s biased, he can’t be trusted.” That snapped Keith back into the conversation.

             “Hey! What does that mean!?” Keith demanded. He glared at Pidge who smirked.

             “I just mean you’re not the most impartial when it comes to Lance.” She snarked.

             “Pidge, that’s enough.” Shiro said. Pidge looked up at their leader in confusion, but he just shook his head.

             Lance looked confusedly at Keith who was still glaring at Pidge.

             “I think I’m good on the training for the day.” Keith said darkly before turning and stomping back to camp.

             Lance watched him go with concern, “What just happened?”

             “Keith can’t own up to his own feelings that’s all.” Pidge muttered. Lance looked at her, still very confused.

             “Pidge! Drop it.” Shiro ordered.

             “Why?! It’s not like he’s good at hiding it! If he would just tell Lance that he lo—” Shiro covered Pidge’s mouth with one hand.

             “I said enough Pidge. It is not your place to say anything on the topic. Don’t take the choice away from him.” Shiro said gently, trying to get the point across to Pidge.

             “…Okay, this is weird. I’m going to go check on Keith, he seemed more broody than normal.” Lance said before following Keith back into camp.

             Pidge threw Shiro’s hand off if her mouth, “What the hell Shiro!?”

             “Keith’s feelings for Lance are none of our business Pidge! Keith made his position very clear to Krolia and I yesterday about why he hasn’t said anything, and you have no right to disregard his feelings on the matter of his, well, feelings.” Pidge cringed at Shiro’s dad voice.

             “He’s right Pidge, we don’t know why Keith hasn’t said anything so we can’t make the decision for him.” Hunk said from across from the green paladin.

             “He’s not saying anything because he’s scared! He’s scared of rejection when he shouldn’t be. Lance wouldn’t ever turn him down.” Pidge argued.

             “He is afraid, yes, but not of rejection.” Krolia spoke up from Hunk’s right. “He does not want to add his feelings for Lance into an already turbulent situation. Lance has been under a lot of stress and is suffering from serious trauma, Keith does not believe revealing his feelings at this time would be the best thing for Lance. He is afraid of hurting Lance even more than he has been already.”

             Pidge and Hunk stared at Krolia with wide eyes.

             “He doesn’t want to say anything because he’s afraid that telling Lance he’s in love with him, will damage Lance’s mental state?” Hunk clarified. Krolia and Shiro both nodded.

             “How does that even work?” Pidge asked confused.

             “Think about it like this Pidge, Lance is only now coming to terms with the fact that he died a few months ago, added on to the fact the one of his friends is actively trying to hurt him, a clone of his leader did hurt him and his best friends ignored him for weeks on end. Not to mention the battles you’ve been through, through all of that as well. He’s seen a lot of emotional upheaval the last little while and Keith is the one thing he can cling to from before all that happened. Keith is a constant that Lance can find comfort and safety with right now and changing that dynamic could throw Lance over the edge, even if the feelings are mutual. Keith doesn’t want to risk it until he knows for sure that it won’t hurt Lance in any way.” Shiro explained.

             “So, what you’re saying is that Keith is burying his feelings for Lance, that Lance definitely reciprocates, to makes sure that Lance has a safe place to heal?” Pidge clarified.

             “Yes.” Krolia nodded.

             “Well, I didn’t need a reason to know that Keith was going to be the best thing to happen to Lance but knowing that Keith cares so much and is willing to do so much for Lance’s health and happiness, makes me feel a lot better. I wasn’t worried before but now I’m definitely not worried.” Hunk mused outload. He knew Keith wouldn’t hurt Lance, but having the proof made any possible doubts fizzle before they could even come into existence.

             Hunk did his best for Lance as a friend, tried to make up for what he’d done to his friend and tried to protect him as best he could. Lance’s family was going to love Keith and Hunk was going to make sure they knew what Keith had done and would do for Lance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

             “Keith! Wait up!” Lance called as he caught up to Keith just outside their tent.

             Keith stopped and turned to look at Lance, a scowl on his face.

             “Are you okay? Pidge was saying some weird stuff, but I don’t know what made you so upset.” Lance huffed, he’d jogged to catch up to the taller boy and his cardio had suffered from his days of inactivity.

             Keith’s expression softened, “I’m okay Lance, just Pidge sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. I didn’t want to stay and listen to her talk about things she doesn’t understand.” He explained.

             “Is this about that thing you’re not ready to talk about yet?” And god Lance really was their sharpshooter, even his questions hit their target dead center.

             Keith sighed, “Yeah. I just wish people would mind their own business. I will tell you when I’m ready and I just want them to respect that.”

             “I gotta be honest dude, I’m getting super curious about what it is. It seems like everybody knows but me.” Lance grinned, but Keith could see the hurt creeping into his eyes.

             He grabbed Lance’s hands and squeezed gently, “Lance, I promise you that I will tell you when I’m ready. Okay? I swear to you it’s not bad and I didn’t go around and tell everyone except you. I haven’t outright told anyone; they’ve all just made lucky guesses. You’re the only person I want to tell, I just need some time okay?” he looked into Lance’s eyes to try and convey how sincere he was.

             Lance nodded, trusting Keith.

             “Okay. How about we relax for a bit? You did really well in training today and I know you got the all clear from Coran, but I think some downtime would do us both some good, yeah?” Lance nods again and Keith pulls him into their tent.

             They’d forgone the armour for training that day, just to avoid putting it back on for as long as possible since they were about to spend so much time in it while in the lions. Lance pulled off his jacket and kicked off his shoes. He dropped his jacket in a haphazard pile on top of his shoes before climbing under the covers of the bed.

             Keith watched Lance with fond exasperation as he toed off his own boots and folded his own jacket to place on top. His knife and belt followed shortly after before he climbed under the covers next to Lance.

             “You know, when I said relax, I didn’t automatically mean nap.” Keith chuckled.

             “I know, but I figured it could mean nap and I kind of need one after that hours long training session.” Lance yawned.

             “You should tell me when you’re tired like that Lance, we could have ended sooner so you wouldn’t have exhausted yourself.” Keith scolded, worried he’d pushed Lance too hard.

             “I’m okay Keith, it was just more exercise than I’m used to. Besides, I got to impress you with my sword skills and that’s really the only reason I wanted to do training today.” Lance said, sleepily.

             “You wanted to impress me?” Keith asked, shocked.

             “Yeah, why else would I keep the broadsword a secret? I wanted to surprise you with it.” Lance yawned again. He snuggled closer to Keith so that they were almost touching.

             “Me? Why would you want to surprise me with it? I thought you wanted to wait until you could use it to show it off?” Keith laid his arm gently on Lance’s waist, a familiar position for the two of them and one that brought Lance comfort while he slept.

             “I wanted to wait until you came back to the castle, that way you could teach me.” He mumbled, “But you didn’t come back, so I wanted to surprise you with a sparring partner instead. But the others don’t need to know that.” Lance smiled softly, sleep steadily pulling him under.

             Keith just laid there, mouth agape at what Lance just admitted. He’d wanted to surprise Keith with the sword. He’d wanted Keith to teach him how to use it, not Allura. He wanted to surprise Keith with someone other than the gladiator bots to fight with. He was both elated and guilty.

             “I’m sorry I didn’t return sooner Lance. I would have loved to teach you.” He whispered quietly.

             “’s okay Keith. We can still spar t’gether. It was good surprise?” Lance mumbled, sleep’s claws dragging him under.

             “It was a great surprise. Thank you, Lance.” Keith mumbled right back.

             “Welcome.” Lance sighed as his breathing evened out and he slipped into sleep.

             Keith pulled Lance closer, revelling in the warmth of Lance against him. He fell asleep with a smile on his face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

             “With Shiro finally able to fly again, we need to make some changes to our current lineup.” Pidge said one-night in front of the fire, weeks after they’d discovered the corrupted quintessence.

             “You’re right Pidge. First order of business is that Allura needs to be relieved of duty.” Shiro agreed. “Lance, Keith, if it’s alright with the both of you, you’ll be returning to your original lions for the remainder of our trip to Earth.”

             Both boys nodded, both rather excited to have their original lions back.

             “That’s the obvious part, but what do we do about Allura? She can’t be anywhere near Blue and I’d rather her not be in Red with me.” The fact that it was for her own safety more than anything else, was not mentioned.

             “Agreed. She needs to remain under watch still and that requires more than one person in the lion. With Red and Blue off the list that leaves us with three possible lions for her to ride in. Hunk, Pidge, what do you two think?” Shiro asked.

             “Well, Matt usually rides with me so that shouldn’t be a problem but Green is the smallest lion so I don’t really know how well that will work with the space I have available.” Pidge rested her hand at her chin in thought.

             “I have more than enough room, but I don’t usually have any non-animal passengers other than Romelle and I don’t know if she’s up for that.” Hunk shrugged, looking at Romelle for her opinion.

             “With the way that the princess has been acting lately, I’d prefer not to have to spend any length of time with her in close quarters.” Romelle replied from her place next to Pidge.

             “Alright, I have no problem with her riding in Black with me. Coran, do you want to be in a particular lion?” Shiro turned to the older man.

             “If it’s alright with you Shiro, I’d like to join you in the Black lion. I’d like to keep tabs on Allura’s status.” Shiro nodded his assent.

             “Alright with that decided, I think we should all get some sleep. We’ll be leaving bright and early tomorrow so we can cover as much distance as possible.” Shiro suggested, standing up from his seat next to the fire.

             Everyone nodded before they all started dispersing back to their tents. Lance stayed sitting in front of the fire for a little bit. Matt had stayed as well, leaving Lance feeling comfortable sending Keith to their tent first.

             The pair sat in silence, comfortable to just exist. Or at least Lance was.

             “Hey Lance?” the paladin hummed in acknowledgement, “I know you and I aren’t close or anything and we haven’t had much chance to talk since this whole road trip started, but if there’s anything you want to talk about, I’m here. You did so much for Pidge when I was gone, you were the brother she needed when I couldn’t be there, and I want you to know that if you need a someone to be a brother, I’d be more than happy to hold the spot for a bit.” Matt smiled softly when Lance looked up at him with wide eyes.

             “Thanks Matt. I have two older brothers, so I know how Pidge felt. It’s hard being away from family like that. It might be nice to act like the little brother again.” Lance smiled back.

             “Awesome. First order of business, as acting older brother, what’s up with you and Keith?” Matt asked, eyebrows raised suggestively.

             “What do you mean?” Lance said, confused.

             “Well from what I know of Keith and what Pidge told me about you guys, you’re not usually so touchy. Like apparently you used to hate the guy and now you two sleep cuddled up together. I guess what I’m asking is, are you two a thing? Like romantically?” Matt scratched his cheek awkwardly.

             Lance was silent for a moment, processing Matt’s words.

             “I never hated him. For the longest time I just wanted to be his friend and then the Kerberos mission happened, and he disappeared. All the teachers made sure to let me know that I was only doing so well because Keith had washed out and when we finally saw him again…I’d been told for a year that I was only any good cause Keith wasn’t there. I thought I had to prove to him and myself that I was good enough. I made him my rival and it worked better then I thought it would. We competed and made each other better, even if it did end with us both doing stupid things pretty often.

             “I never doubted him though. Not once. I knew from the beginning I could trust him, even when he left. Even when he was with the Blade, I knew if I ever needed him, he’d have my back.” Lance explained quietly.

             “When the clone Shiro came to the team and Keith left, the team started…Leaving me behind. Pidge and Hunk stopped hanging out with me, losing themselves in things I couldn’t even begin to comprehend. Not-Shiro started treating me like shit, yelling at me and making me feel useless and helpless. He never physically hurt me, but I’m not the most mentally tough. Allura, the girl I thought I was in love with, chose Lotor. The only one who had any time for me at all was Coran and he was so busy most of the time that I stopped asking. The only person who still talked to me without me having to initiate was Keith. He messaged me sometimes from the Blade base, it made me feel better. When he came back, it wasn’t the best reunion, but he still had my back. He was still Keith no matter how harsh his greeting was.” Lance sucked in a breath.

             “A lot happened while Keith was gone. A lot happened to me specifically. I know you’re aware that I died on one of those missions, that left me with some pretty cool scars and some really bad nightmares. When Keith and Shiro came into my tent that night…When Keith found out? He looked devastated. He held me while I cried for hours, until I had cried myself to sleep and he still held me. He’s the only one who’s given me the comfort I’ve needed without tiptoeing around me. He makes sure I know that I’m wanted and safe. And honestly, I really like falling asleep in his arms.” Lance chuckled wetly.

             “It must have hurt to know that someone he loves got hurt when he couldn’t protect them, it must be worse knowing they died. I think half the time I indulge more for his sake then my own. He makes the nightmares easier to handle but I don’t need him with me all the time, all I really need is the comfort and the knowledge that everyone really does care that I’m alive. The support and the love from everyone is enough.

             “So, to answer your question, no Keith and I aren’t a thing romantically. I know he loves me, and I know he wants to be with me like that, but I think he’s waiting until I’m ready before he takes any steps to even think about changing the relationship we’ve got now. I know I love him, but I also know that I’m not ready yet, but when I am, you can bet I’m going to tell him. He makes me feel safe and loved and happy; I’m not going to let that slip through my fingers if I can help it.” Lance looked up at Matt and grinned.

             “None of the people in this camp besides Keith and Coran ever give you nearly enough credit.” Matt shook his head in disbelief. “For what it’s worth Lance, I’m proud of you. You’ve come back from something unimaginable and I’m sorry for making light of your pain when I didn’t know any better. That wasn’t fair to you and I will be more conscientious in the future.” Lance smiled up at him in thanks.

             Matt stood up from his spot near the dying fire. “I think it’s about time we both head to bed, Keith’s probably fighting with himself to come out here and get you.” They both snickered. “I’ll walk you over to your tent.”

             Lance stood and followed the rebel. They quickly made their way through the scattering of tents, not the usual circle formation, and over to the tent Keith and Lance shared.

             Lance turned to face Matt, “thanks for listening Matt. You’re a damn good big brother and I’m glad you’re here.”

             “You’re more than welcome. I’m happy to help.” He paused, before moving to pull Lance into a hug. “I’m glad you’re alive Lance. And I’m happy for you, I know you’ll be ready, and I know you two will be happy together.” He gave Lance another squeeze before stepping back.

             Lance waved as Matt walked over to his own tent. He turned and opened the flap of his tent to see Keith standing up with one boot on, the other in his hand halfway on his foot.

             “What are you doing?” Lance giggled. Keith blushed and put his boot down.

             “You were taking a while; I was going to see if you were okay.” He grumbled.

             “Keith? I’m okay, you don’t need to worry so much. I’m doing a lot better; and I can take care of myself. Besides, Matt wouldn’t let anything happen to me. You’d rip him to shreds if he did.” Lance grinned. He moved over to the bed, toeing off his shoes gently.

             He walked over to his bag in the corner and grabbed his pajamas out. In the little time they’d had to evacuate the castle, Hunk had been the one to grab all of their sleep wear. Lance had grabbed as many pillows as he could and Kaltenecker (the stubborn cow took forever to get into Red), which didn’t leave him any time to grab anything else. Hunk had surprised him with his pajamas and his Earth clothes, earning one of the tightest hugs of his life.

             Keith watched Lance move, still standing there with one boot on and the other hanging from his hand. The small smile on Lance’s face calmed him far more than the younger boy’s explanation did. He smiled to himself before dropping his boot back to the ground.

             “You’re damn right I would.” He whispered quietly to himself.

             The two got ready for bed in silence, comfortable in the other’s presence. They curled up together as had become their new norm and let their breathing sync in the darkness. Kosmo curled up at the end of their bed and was snoring away already.

             Keith waited in the silence as Lance’s breathing evened out into sleep. He smiled to himself again. Lance seemed calmer lately, more open and after what Keith assumed was a heart-to-heart with Matt, Lance seemed a little lighter. As if the universe weighed just a little but less on Lance’s shoulders.

             In that moment Keith knew for sure, they’d get that damn witch. They’d get her and save Allura and once Allura and Lance were both finally safe, Keith would make sure that Lance never carried that heavy of a burden alone again.