Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lance didn't mind being on his own.

Ok, maybe that was a lie, but he was more accepting of it now that he really didn't have the choice.

Well that may be a lie as well, but Lance was going to pretend till it wasn't anymore.

He sighed, rubbing his face into the pillow. One of the better ones he had found, obviously.

Red purred in the back of his mind and her abnormal heat allowed Lance to only have a blanket or two compared to the 6 or 7 he had back in his room.

What can he say? He performed the warmth. It was what he knew. What he grew up with.

He couldn't help the sign that passed his lips once more.

Lance had been trying to get a good night's sleep ever since he had come off that stupid mind altering spell that Druid had hit him with.

Luckily his previous training had kicked in and kept everyone alive while he wasn't fully in control of his moods and how he handled situations. Nonetheless he could only imagine what would have happened to his teammates had that small bit of self control not been slammed into him since he was 3 years old.

He shivered at the thought. Though they were nothing more than his mind messing with him, he would dream of their blood on his hands. Of the bodies that would be laid out along the Castle’s hallways.

He gave a small whimper trying to push the images back. He hated that side of himself, the trained soldier who was used to combat in his native tongue only to be sent to a different, more structured military base.

One that did not use Guerrilla Warfare like he was used to. One that only spoke English. One where he was seen as the weak link.

And now he was in space fighting a war and still seen as the weak link.

Rubbing his eyes he blinked and looked to the Reds council.

He wouldn't say he loved being back in the fray of things. But it was comforting knowing he still had it. It was hard to remember that he knew what he was doing in war, when everyone thought he was nothing more than a goofball who flirted with anything that moved.

Sorry he had built up defensive mechanisms to deal with the horrors of war.

Red snorted in the back of his mind and he huffed at her.

“Well at least I'm trying.” He muttered, now sitting up. Sleep was once again not going to drag him under.

He didn't know how much longer he could go like this, but his record was 3 days in a snipers pit.

At least he got to move around and use the bathroom this time.

Red suddenly moved, making him jolt and look out the front panels to see Keith walking towards the Red lion.

Great.

“Don't let him in here!” Lance hissed but it was too late as Keith entered the Red lion.

Lance groaned and wrapped himself in his blanket, putting his back to the door.

That had taken a long time for him to allow, but he knew it was just Keith and Lance, despite what it may look like on the outside, trusted Keith with his life no matter what was going on.

“Lance.” Keith grumbled as he entered the cockpit. “How many times do I have to tell you to sleep in your own room?”

“I don't know…..how many times have you told me already?” Lance huffed out burying his face into the pillow again.

“I lost count 2 days ago.” He could hear Keith shaking his head. That mullet gave small hissing noises as it brushed up against Keith’s jacket.

“Then why ask for a number?” Lance replied blankly.

Keith sat down on the mattress, which was nothing more than maybe an inch and a half of horrible space memory foam. Lance was working on that.

“You can't keep sleeping in Red.” Keith said softly.

“Sure I can. It's warm. She's safe. I'm safe.” Lance replied easily.

“Lance….” Keith spoke with that worried tone that he sometimes used. It wasn't necessarily disappointment, but it was as close to it as Lance thought Keith could get. “At least talk to me.”

Lance turned to face that Black Paladin. “Are you asking me to talk to you?”

Keith hesitated then nodded. “If you need to.”

Lance eyed him suspiciously before flopping back into his pillow.

“Don't worry about it.” Lance replied.

“You're not sleeping Lance. I need to know you are ok.” Keith replied.

“I'm fine.” Lance muttered out.

Keith sighed and shook his head again. Lance could listen to that soft whooshing noise all day long. He knew he couldn't. How close had he been to tearing Keith apart just a few days ago? Did Lance even deserve to have good things?

No. And he knew that.

“Lance please.” Keith tried again.

“You're not going to drop this are you?” Lance hissed, turning around again. Keith shook his head.

“I'm going to keep asking till you tell me.” Keith replied stubbornly.

Lance was about to kick him out, like he had so many times previously, but Red gave him a gentle and reassuring nudge.

So he sighed and sat up, wrapping his arms around his knees.

“I keep having nightmares. What would have happened if I hadn't been so well trained in self discipline.” Lance muttered not looking at Keith. “What would have happened to all of you.”

Keith hummed next to him. “I think I could have taken you.”

Lance snorted. “I can outlast you in a fight any day.”

“Well as much fun as that would be to test,” Keith replied, side -eyeing him. “You need a proper night's sleep.”

Lance snuggled deeper into the blanket. “Pretty sure I can get a good sleep here.”

“Lance, your routine is no longer hiding the bags under your eyes.” Keith replied, shaking his head.

Lance didn't reply to that. He knew Keith was right and unfortunately he had yet to find his proper shades in space, which he was determined to do. Despite his skin routine, even Lance had the rare skin blemish pop up.

“Why are you so against sleeping in your own room?” Keith asked, glancing over to Lance.

Lance hesitated but rolled over so he was at least facing Keith, even if he wasn't looking at him. He didn't know what was making him tell Keith, but he trusted Keith enough to inform him of all the nightmares.

“I am having nightmares.” Lance whispered, still not looking at his fellow paladin. “About what happened. I keep dreaming about killing you guys, and it scares me.”

“But you didnt. You saved us.” Keith replied.

“I know. But I could have. And that scares me more than anything. What if the Druids hit me again with that stuff? I don't think I could go through that again.”

Keith sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I'm sorry. I'm not good with comforting.”

Lance snorted and rolled his eyes. “Everyone knows that.”

But Lance decided to give Keith the benefit of the doubt and sat up. He crossed his legs as he moved to sit next to Keith and proceeded to wrap the blanket around both of their shoulders earning him a look of confusion.

Lance ignored the look.

“I know you're trying. But I don't think a few words of encouragement are going to help this one.” Lance replied softly. “I really could have killed you. And that scares me.”

“But you wouldn’t.” Keith reapplied with a raised eyebrow.

Lance gave him an ``are you dumb look, “But I could have. And still can. I don't want to feel that way again.”

Keith looked down at his hands before allowing one to curl into the blanket and play with it. One of Keith’s many nervous habits. Lance had given him a way to not become a live wire. Whether Keith realized it or not.

“Well I can't help with that obviously. But I will always have your back.”

Lance gave him a soft smile, which Keith returned. “I know. I just need some time on this one.”

He was about to go back into his cot and try to get an hour or two of sleep. But Keith grabbed his jacket collar and pulled him back.

“That starts with sleeping in your own room.”

Chapter Text

Lance hated early morning roll calls. There was no reason for it. But here he stood slumped over the back of the Black paladins chair which Keith hardly used anyway, while everyone talked around him.

He was fine for the most part when they did this. Honestly he didn't really care about the planning this early in the morning. If he needed to change something he would just mention a better idea to Keith or Hunk then casually play it off.

Like always.

Or make a snap decision in whatever situation they were about to be in when this was all said and done.

He was hoping for an easy day, but he knew that was a long shot.

Lance pulled his hood up and slid into Keith’s seat. No one said anything, so maybe he could get a few moments of rest as he closed his eyes.

They never asked him what he thought anyway and Keith would tell him later. More for Keith’s own mental capacities than to tell Lance, but Lance listened nonetheless.

“....ance….Lance!” Lance blinked back into reality though he didn't feel like he actually left it in the first place and looked around to see the others looking at him with different levels of expectation.

“Huh?” Lance asked, not sure why they were looking at him like that. Hunk would have woken him up if it was important or Keith would have thrown something at him if the meeting was over.

All very normal things that took place. However Hunk looked expectantly at Lance like he thought Lance wasn't going to need him to poke Lance awake. And Keith looked exasperated.

“What do you think we should do?” Shiro asked calmly. Though he looked like he wanted to demand. Shiro despite his constant patents had a hard time holding it together. Lance tried not to push him too hard. But sometimes Shiro needed to let off a little steam and he had too many triggers for Lance to just go around poking at him.

“About what?” Lance asked pulling his hood down a bit but not seeing any reason to remove it or get out of the seat that was most certainly not his.

“The mission?” Pidge pointed out. Though not as condescending as normal.

Flashes of Shiro and Pidge dead on the ground made Lance look away only to find Keith’s eyes. The images changed to the black paladin and Lance couldn't breath for a second. He couldn't even look away from Keith.

Black spots appeared but there was nothing for him to do.

Then a warm hand was placed on his chest. And his own was lifted to something solid.

Something to connect to. He followed the rhythm of it till he saw Keith kneeling down next to him talking easy breaths.

“Back with me?” Keith asked softly.

Lance nodded. Not wanting to see the others' faces he kept his eyes locked on Keith.

“Good. Now we have a mission to run. Would you like to look it over and see if there's anything you want to change?” Keith asked calmly.

Lance kind of wanted to ask who was in front of him and where the real Keith was, but the panic attack had taken a lot out of him.

Lance would most certainly be sleeping in Red later.

He nodded and Keith handed him a tablet like he had been expecting Lance to agree. Maybe Keith was reading him just as much as Lance was reading Keith. That was a strange thought, though not necessarily a bad one.

He took the tablet and Keith stood. “I'll be right back.”

Lance nodded and watched him walk back to the others in a way that Lance couldn't help but think he would die for that mullet.

So the Red paladin looked over the Tablet.

It wasn't that big of a mission. Nothing they hadn't done before. But there was one thing Lance was worried about. So he patched in Red and filtered in the system he had for when he was on missions.

Lance looked up from the install screen to see that everyone was talking amongst themselves. But not about the mission. Odd.

Why wouldn't they be talking about the mission? Did he not need to be up at the first hour? Could he have stayed in his blanket cocoon just a bit longer?

He wanted to groan at that.

But the tablet vibrated and he looked back down.

He hummed as he scrolled through the program. He spotted some irregularities but that could be inconsistencies between the programs that Pidge and Coran made and the one he created for Red. Still they were worth looking into.

He filtered through three and found he was right, assuming the programs were not fully compatible. However it was the fourth one that made him a bit nervous.

He looked over the problem and couldn't exactly tell what about it was bothering him so much about it.

Lance flipped back to the base's schematics and lined the two up. The problem did not exist on the original map. Could be a new addition since the schematics were taken. Or it could be a major problem.

Lance decided to flag it just in case. He would rather everyone be on their toes in that particular area then completely caught off guard.

“Keith.” He muttered and the Black paladin paused his conversation with Shiro to walk over. “I don't know what that is.” He pointed to the spot.

Keith nodded and removed the tablet. He stood and pulled Lance’s hood back up. “Go get some sleep.” And then walked away.

Lance didn't really know what to say to that but he listened. Hesitantly, he looked back and without looking up from the tablet Keith gave a shooting motion.
“Go sleep Lance.”

Lance eyed the others. Allura looked ready to protest. Shiro looked like he was about to join her. Hunk and Pidge were weary but seemed to be following Keith’s lead perfectly. Coran followed Keith’s shooting motion.

Lance didn't know what to do but Keith looked up and raised an eyebrow. Silently asking Lance why he was still on the Bridge.

Was he trying to get rid of Lance?

Lance was so unsure what to do he just walked out. He stood outside the bridge's door blinking in confusion.

What the hell just happened?

But Lance trusted Keith with his life so he started the walk towards Red. Only to be intercepted.

“In your room.” Keith’s voice rang through the halls making Lance stumble.

He rolled his eyes and turned on his heel.

Maybe Keith wasn't trying to get rid of him then? Maybe he was trying to take care of Lance?

Lance pulled his hood over his face as he walked in case they were watching him. He didn't want any of them to see the heat rising on his face.

Because he liked that thought so much more than he thought he ever would.

Chapter Text

Keith hummed as he looked through the tablet. The halls were nice and quiet, the way he tended to like them.

But that was because the rest of the team was gearing up for the mission. Coran and Shiro going over last minute preparations.

Hunk was in the middle of restocking the lions with water and provisions. Something he did every so often just in case.

Keith thought that was nice of him.

But right now he was on his own mission, well sorta.

He hummed as he walked to Lance’s room. Hopefully forcing him out, allowing Lance to get a bit more sleep.

Though if the nightmares Keith had walked in on where anything to go by, he doubted it.

Keith sighed as he knocked on the door gently before opening it.

It was dark, and Lance was curled up in the bed. Both good signs. But the real test was when Keith shook his shoulder.

Keith placed the tablet on the bed side table Lance had adopted a few days into their stay on the ship, before setting his open palm on Lance’s shoulder.

“Lance…” He whispered. He didn't want to jar Lance.

He knew how much he started when he woke. He had practice with Shiro. And now Lance was in the same boat. All because of some drug the Druids made him breathe in.

Lance whimpered in his sleep. One half of Keith was happy, Lance was asleep. The other wanted to tear every last Druid apart for making someone so happy and free of fear of what he was capable of.

Lance didn't need help with his lack of positive self image, he did that to himself enough.

“Lance…time to wake up.” Keith tried again.

Lance’s grip on his blankets tightened and he groaned again.

Keith shook a bit harder hoping to get Lance to wake up a bit quicker without causing too many problems.

Lance gave a grain as his eyes tightened and then softly opened. Blinking the sleep from them as he looked around for the source that woke him.

“We are getting ready to go.” Keith mumbled. “I have breakfast.” He held up a food goo packet.

“Those things are gross.” Lance grumbled.

“Hunk found a planet with real food on it. So let's hope he can make something for dinner.” Keith replied with a small smile.

Lance huffed but sat up. He took the packet and slurped on it as Keith sat down next to him and grabbed the tablet.

“We went over the area you found. Pidge wasn't sure what it was. So we are going to be careful about it.” Keith explained.

Lance nodded as he looked it over again. Then in a small voice, “Did I do something wrong?”

Keith blinked at him. “What makes you ask that?”

“You sent me away.” Lance reapplied still quite. Still small. So unlike the Lance who took out an entire Galra cruiser by himself. But so much like the Lance he had gotten used to.

The two sides did not mesh well in Keith’s mind, yet they both worked. It was a bit strange.

“Lance,” Keith said with a sigh. “You had a panic attack. You haven't been sleeping. I didn't want you to get hurt on the mission. So I sent you to rest. Did you?”

Lance hesitated but gave a small nod.

“Really?” Keith asked, hoping to all that was out there that Lance had been sleeping for longer than the few moments prior to when Keith walked in.

“Yes.” Lance replied a bit more firmly.

Keith narrowed his eyes, but finally nodded. “Alright. Well let's get going then. Tonight I want you to get more sleep.”

“Why do you care so much?” Lance asked as they stood.

Keith didn't have a good answer beyond the, because I love you, which where the hell did that come from? He would unpack that thought process later.
“Because I have your back.” Keith replied instead.

Lance looked at him for another moment before shaking his head and going about getting ready without worrying that Keith was right there and holy shit Keith could not do shirtless Lance right now.

“I'll see you out there.” Keith muttered getting a ya ya wave in return.

Keith stepped out of Lance’s room and had to take a moment to breathe.

Lance was going to end up being the death of him. Weather in a gay way or in a literal way. Either way, it might be.

Black was pretty happy to be out flying again. After the whole attack with Lance they had to take a few days off just to decompress and allow Lance to fully heal from the poison that had been forced into his system.

Plus Hunk, Pidge, and Allura had been injured when they had gotten captured. The lions needed to be looked at as well. So Black hadn't been out to fly much lately.

And Keith didn't blame him. Keith missed flying as well. Though he hid it better than Lance who loved flying.

Red zipped out a few tics later with a barrel roll or two. Pidge had always said it was Lance showing off.

But Keith had the feeling it was Lance and Red simply reacquainting. She liked to get the jitters out before a battle after all.

They moved quickly and as quietly as they could to land near the base. Hunk and Allura stayed behind in the lions just in case. While Pidge, Lance, and Keith all made their way to the base on foot.

Keith and Lance held Pidges flank as she unlocked the door.

“We are blocked that way.” She said motioning down one walkway. “I think we should leave.”

“Why?” Lance asked, confused.

“The other way leads us to the place we are trying to avoid.” Pidge replied, pulling up the map.

Lance eyed it. “We need that information right?”

Pidge hesitated but nodded.

“I'll go. And I will send a single when it's all clear.” Lance said.

“No. Lance we either go together or we leave.” Keith hissed back.

“I say we go for it. Lance has more than proven that he can handle it.” Pidge tried.

Keith grit his teeth. He knew how important that information was. It was meant to give them all the new locations of important bases. It was a fully updated version of the Galra’s movements. Better than anything the Blade had given them in a long time.

“Fuck. Fine. But if you're not back in an hour. We are coming in hot and heavy.” Keith hissed.

Lance winked. “I'll relay information once I know more.”

Pidge gave him the required chip to grab information and with a two finger salute Lance disappeared down the hall.

“He will be fine.” Pidge reassured them as they made their way out of the base. Lesson the chance Lance would get caught.

Keith growled. “He better be.”

Chapter Text

Lance took out a few guys along his route. Not many. Far less than what he was ready for.

He wasn't worried about the amount of guards or lack thereof, he was worried about where they were and why they weren't coming after him.

“Keith?” Lance whispered as he pulled up a diagram of the base. Except he got static and nothing came up on his screen.

“Shit.” Lance muttered.

He should definitely turn back. Be back in safety and regroup.

He looked forward and at the small map that was not being distorted, or at least he hoped it wasn't. Lance grit his teeth. He was closer to the extraction point then the exit.

He forged ahead. Now being overly cautious with every single-

“Looks like we have a little rat.” Lance stopped when he felt the bump of a blaster on his helmet.

Shit.

Lance didn't get the chance to retaliate when the world went dark around him.

__________________

Keith paced in Black. He couldn't sit still. He hated the fact that he even agreed to this. It was ridiculous!

He should have never allowed Lance to go by himself! He knew Lance could handle himself in any situation, but the fact that Keith allowed it to happen at all!

Keith growled and slammed his head on the back of the pilot's seat.

He then pulled up the monitor he had on Red and saw she was getting twitchy. Well as twitchy as a giant 1000 year old space lion ship could be.

Keith definitely didn't like this. No matter how good Lance had shown he was, if he got jumped or outnumbered it was all over.

He was only proven right when a massive explosion ripped through the air.

“What the hell was that!?” He all but screamed as he slid back into his seat.

“Don't know! Readings show it came from some upper levels.” Pidge cried out.

“Was it Lance?” Allura asked concerned as she moved the Blue lion ready to take off.

“If it was, he was way off the mark.” Hunk replied just as worriedly.

Keith growled and pushed Black into moving but then stopped, and looked back to Red. But before he could make any move towards her she took off on her own.

“Where is she going!?” Hunk cried out.

“I don't know.” Keith huffed. “But we need to get Lance out of there.”

As they dove into action the base firing upon them he radioed Shiro.

“Red took off.” He snarled as he took out a blaster. “We don't know where Lance is.”

“We have Red on the radar.” Shiro replied, Keith hadn't bothered explaining the situation to him, and the younger knew he was going to get scolded at best for that.

He was already beating himself up over it.

“Shouldn't she, I don't know, be helping!?” Keith shouted angrily as he took another blast before covering Pidge so she could get up from the blast she just took.

“She is!” Corn chipped from behind Shiro.

“Explain. Quickly.” Keith grit his teeth as Black’s jaw ripped apart a watch tower.

“Something took off from the base, not 10 ticks before it exploded! The Red lion is currently chasing after it!” Coran explained and a radar map loaded on Keith’s screen.

Fuck.

“Everyone pull back!” Keith yelled. “Lance isn't here anymore.”

So despite probably losing the information which Keith was not looking forward to hearing from Pidge later, and being under heavy fire the 4 lions moved away from the base.

Red was long gone, to the point where her signal no longer showed up on the radar, but they were still able to track her. Which was a good sign.

Keith wouldn't say he was jealous, but Red seemed like Lance a lot more then she had liked him. Lance hadn't even had to jump out of a Galra ship and almost die for her to accept him.

Once again, Keith wasn't jealous. He may be a little bitter though. But Lance had fallen perfectly into the Red paladin role, much to many of their surprises. Though after single handedly taking out an entire cruiser, Keith could see why.

He was hoping that Lance could get out of this one by himself. Jump out and have Red catch him. Blow up the ship and come back asking what color food good they were having for dinner that night.

But he also knew being attacked out of nowhere and possibly being injured could definitely have an effect on that ideal.

Setting Black down in her hold, no matter how much he wanted to chase after Red on his own, the Castle was much faster and had better defensively than a lone lion.

Something Keith was only now getting used to the thought of. No matter how much it angered him over all.

He wished he could also have the sweet satisfaction of slamming the door to the bridge.

But no, he had to wait for it to slide open before marching in and tossing his helmet into his designated seat, which Lance sometimes took possession of.

“How long?” Keith asked as he walked up to where Shiro and Coran were looking over the map. Allura and the others were just now joining them.

“The Red lion is still moving. We can't get a lock on Lance yet, but we have already started moving after the Lion.” Shiro replied. Then placed a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “We will get him back. For all we know he could have already taken control of the ship and is just waiting for Red to pick him up.”

“Then why hasn't he called out yet?” Keith huffed, crossing his arms.

“Actually!” Pidge piped up as she slid into her own seat. “I have an answer for that one.”

Keith raised an eyebrow.

“The ship they zipped off on, actually is interfering with the com systems. The base we just left had the same thing.” Pidge explained with a grimace.

“Why didn't we know that before?” Allura asked slowly.

“Because I didn't know that before. I was only able to gain that information by running scans the entire time we sat there waiting. I only now got the results. If I had known that, I would have never let Lance go alone.” Pidge reasoned.

Keith knew Pidge would have said something, but he still wanted to punch something.

“How long?” Keith asked again.

“The Red lion has a pretty good lead on us. Should be a little while as she has yet to stop.” Coran replied.

“I'll be in the training deck.” Keith huffed out grabbing his helmet again. Once again missing the satisfying slam of the door.

Chapter Text

Lance blinked back into reality. Red was roaring in his mind, which surprisingly was not the reason he woke up.

No that honor went to the rough landing whatever ship he was on, was having at the moment. He rolled his head around lazily as he tried to figure out what was going on.

The answer? Not much.

But he also found, in his mellowed out state, that he was cuffed.

His brain needed to start working faster.

After shaking it a few times, his mind began to focus a bit better to the point where he was able to fish out his cuff pick. Unfortunately it was too late as the door to the cell he was apparently in slid open and a Galra grabbed him by the army to drag him out.

“Let me go!” Lance huffed trying to get free.

The Galra ignored him and kept pulling/dragging him down the weird walkway they were on.

Lance would have loved to get himself free, however he could only do so much with no knowledge. And what he was discovering was a broken leg!

Great! He just won the free lotto!

He grimaced as he tried to fight back. But he also knew information as key. And there was nothing to go by at the moment.

So instead of continuing his efforts of fighting back and losing energy, he became dead weight. Making sure he snagged on every corner, lip and crack. If they went to a lift he didn't move his leg out of the doors, causing the Galra to move it for him. If they walked through a door he made sure his foot snagged.

But the fifth snag he was angrily dragged up to the Girls shoulder. Lance just smirked.

“You know if you let me go, none of this would be a problem.” He snarked.

The soldier grumbled underneath him.

After a few more moments, Lance was unceremoniously shoved into a cell and the door slammed.

Ok, now he just needed to get his leg to not be its own dead weight.

But there was no way he could get out by himself, his leg busted the way it was. He huffed.

Great.

Lance huffed and fiddled with his gear. First, he needed to get the cuffs off. Then he could work on the whole broken leg thing.

Popping out his lock pick system was fairly easy, as they say practice makes perfect. Not that a boy from Cuba on a grant to the Garrison should know how to pick space locks even halfway close to how he actually did.

Oh well.

Feeling the release he dropped the cuffs and scanned his leg. Seeing the real damage.

“Clean break. Upside no splinters. Down side….can't fix it on my own.” Lance grumbled. But it was his lower leg which ment if he could get at least strips of something and a splint of some kind going at least he could limp out of here.

He called out for Red, but either due to jamming singles which how? Or she was simply too far away and was on her way without him calling. He hoped for the latter.

Lance took a deep breath and made his way to the door. Using the wall as support he pulled himself up. Releasing a sonar pin out the grates he slid back down and watched on his wrist the traffic pattern.

Nothing too crazy, nothing he hadn't seen before. Mostly centuries which made one wonder how many soldiers the Galra actually had if most of them were robots. Lance didn't care one way or another, he just needed to get out.

Once the rotation was starting up again he was able to track the longest by simply a few ticks and reached up to drop another pin. This one was a little bit more functional and picked the lock for him.

Honestly, whoever said Pidge was the only tech genius didn't realize how much time Lance spent with Croan and how fast he could pick things up. It was a real shame.

Once the door hissed open Lance all but crawled to an actual open cell, shutting the one he had been behind him. He waited for the next guard to pass and grabbed the bot. Dragging it in the cell he now was residing and separated its head from his shoulders and quickly disarming the tracking signal to falsely send out readings.

Again, a boy from Cuba on a grant.

Lance didn't pounder too long as he separated metal legs and wires to make a semi functional brace. He had to perfectly time the nose and guards. But after the fourth round, Lance had a pretty good set up.

And without the alarm being raised, which he did not count his chickens just yet, he found the now much longer time frame and headed for where his things were, this time not in the armory.

Talk about a switch up.

But with trackers he was able to easily locate his Bayard and helmet. Slapping his helmet back into his proper potion, which it needed to stay and protect him for once, he pulled his sword out and made good use of it as a cane.

Not like he would be able to blast and walk unless he found a good alcove.

But then how would he escape? Wait for backup that may or may not be able to find him? Hope that Red got to him before he got taken out?

Please.

He had already gotten this far. Next was an escape pod. At least then Red could find him without having to deal with heavy fire.

Just as he was turning the corner to head to the pods, his luck ran out.

Because why not, right?

Gritting his teeth he actually did find an alcove, which he supposed was good luck? But at this point it wasnt so much good luck as putting off the inevitable.

Chapter Text

Keith could say with fair certainty he did not handle not being able to handle a situation he couldn't control very well.

He couldn't make the castle go faster.

He couldn't contact Lance.

He couldn't contact Red.

He couldn't fight anything to change these things.

There was literally nothing for him to do yet.

Which the Black Paladin was not handling well and was in polite terms, turning rather feral because of it.

He snapped at Shiro. He snapped at Hunk. At Pidge. At the Mice. And even Black.

All of whom had tried to calm him down, which worked as well as it normally did.

It wasn't until Red came back onto radar that Keith felt somewhat better. Except Red wasn't moving, which stopped his hope dead in its tracks.

Gritting his teeth he glared at the screen.

“What now?” He demanded.

“We are coming up on her location pretty quickly now that she isn't moving.” Coran explained. “Except as far as I can tell the Red Lion is not damaged. So I am not sure why she has stopped.”

Keith rolled on his heels, Black was going to be far more useful out there then the Castle at the moment anyway.

Ignoring Shiro calling his name, because what else was he supposed to do? Keith boarded the Black Lion and took off from the castle. Moving faster towards the Red Lions location.

He found her on an asteroid stiff as a bore.

He called over to the other lion hoping to get a semblance that she was alright, even without a pilot, but got nothing in response.

“We have located a Galra ship nearby!” Coran hailed.

Keith located said ship and found Red was locked on it. “That's where Lance is.”

He called out for Red, and she replied with pride and found him.

She was waiting for them to show up. She was saying it was their turn to save Lance.

Keith listened. “I want heavy fire brought down on that ship. I am going to pull Lance out. If we are not out in half an hour take the ship out.” Because he was not going to be able to handle being alive if Lance wasn't with him.

There was an obvious hesitation from everyone involved, but when Red gave a roar, it showed she was more than happy to pull them out herself.

“Alright. Get our boy out of there.” Coran said.

And Keith did. He made sure to keep all tracking abilities on as best he could. Red was able to guide him to where Lance was fairly easily.

Unfortunately, Red could not help him when he found Lance backed into a corner as hordes of centurions came towards him. And from what Keith could tell Lance was injured pretty badly.

Keith moved in from the back taking out Galrani bots methodically till the last one stood. He was about to take it out when a fire shot out past him and hit one he hadn't even been aware of as he took out his own target.

He ran to Lance who grinned, but was in obvious pain, his leg had centurion armor on it. Probably a makeshift splint of some kind.

“Even when you're rescuing me, I still have to have your bad.” Lance chuckled.

“It's why I can't ever leave you behind.” Keith replied, shaking his head. “Ready to get out of here?”

“I was ready when I first arrived.” Lance agreed, heaving himself up.

“Then let's go.”

Chapter Text

Lance hummed as he rubbed lotion into his skin. Enjoying the feel of his masks back to doing their jobs. The lack of nightmares were certainly helping his lack of sleep as well, but that could only do so much for bags so deep.

The nightmares weren't gone completely obviously, they were still in a war against giant purple space cats. But he had coping mechanisms now.

The rest of the team listened to his ideas more often than not. He wasn't left to be alone on missions anymore. And he was able to work out the kinks of messing his personal system with the one Coran and Pidge had created.

So he was in a pretty good space right now.

“You're almost done?” It also helped that Keith had told him he loved Lance not too long after his own personal capture.

“Almost, 2 more minutes.” Lance replied as he continued to add the moisturizer.

“You said that 20 minutes ago. You're fine. Let's go to bed. It will do you more good than some lotion.” Keith replied with an eye roll.

“It's the combo of the two that makes me look so perfect looking.” He replied firmly.

Keith huffed out a small laugh then reached out to grab Lance’s hand. “Come on Sharpshooter, let's go to bed. I even got a warming blanket all set up.”

“You're a heater on your own!” Lance hissed.

“But I can't warm up a bed on my own. So let's go.” Keith tugged his arm.

“Ugh, fine.” Lance rubbed the last bit in while he walked to the bed, being led by his boyfriend.

Lance smiled to himself at that. He supposed there was one good thing about being in an intergalactic war.

No one judges you based on who you love. Well gender wise that is. He had a feeling that if it was widely known that Keith was half Glara that would cause far more arguments.

Back home he had been so used to the homophobic terms that were used that he never got to be himself and like who he wanted to like. Not that one really could while being trained to be a deadly killer. But it would have been nice to have that little bit of himself.

Now, he had them both. And as he snuggled closer into Keith’s chest, the warming blanket now turned off, he smiled and enjoyed the warmth and safety that he provided.

All because his helmet did its job and a sword that never stopped.