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Chapter Text

Lance sighed on his way to training. It wasn't like he could control it. He and the other Paladins had been away from Earth for a few weeks now. Things had settled down and they were currently planning their next move against the Galra. At the moment Lance was more preoccupied with the dragging weight and sleeplessness that seemed to have settled in during his time in space. There wasn’t much that he could do about it. It had started back when he had started Garrison and had moved to the dorms. At first it was excused as homesickness but subtly and slowly it became worse and worse. It wasn't til Lance was able to go swimming, even for such a short time, as part of a exercise program the Garrison had set up for the students that he was able to calm down and get through the rest of the year. But now that he was in space, a long long way away from Earth, he had no way of relieving the sluggishness that was very much becoming a huge part of his day and life in general.

Halfway through the sparring match against Hunk Lance pulled off his helmet and literally threw it across the training arena. Hunk took a startled step back and let his bayard deactivate. Sweat dripped down Lance's face and frustration clouded his mind. He was about to let out a scream of anger when a large hand places itself on his shoulder. Lance looks up and sees Shiro's worried face look down at him compassion can also be found in his face.

"Lance," Shiro begins. "are you alright? You seem to have something on your mind and it's distracting you from your training." Shiro's voice is low so that none of the others can listen in on their conversation.

Lance jerks away from Shiro and starts to walk to the exit. "There's nothing wrong Shiro. Just leave me alone." Lance spits out, his voice just below a normal conversational volume.

He leaves the room in a huff and returns to his own quarters to try to calm down before having to face his teammates again. Ripping off the rest of his paladin armor once he had entered his room, Lance threw himself on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. Lance sighed again and closed his eyes. Thinking back to when he was living with his family on the coastline. Back before he had been accepted to Garrison and was forced to live in such a horridly dry place. Back before Blue had claimed him as her paladin. There was a familiar presence in the corner of his mind. Blue was always there, always. She knew everything about him, even some that he didn't know at the moment. Lance had a feeling that Blue knew why he was feeling the way he was at the moment.

Blue purred a soft, wordless lullaby and Lance felt himself being pulled from the conscious world to join her in a more soothing and isolated one. His eyes closed and he drifted off to wherever Blue was taking him. He felt his own quintessence mingle and mix with hers. Dancing to a melody that represented both of them. It was beautiful and breathtaking. At least it was until he was rudely awakened by an insistent alarm that was summoning him to the bridge. Grumbling as he completely changed out of his armor and into his civilian clothes, he headed to the bridge. After the short nap and a bit of bonding with Blue, Lance felt considerably less aggravated at everyone and everything that he came in contact with. Of course he wasn't quite back to his normal happy-go-lucky self but it was a good start.

Stepping onto the bridge Lance saw everyone else was already there and waiting. Allura caught sight of him and went into her spiel of why they had all been summoned.

"I know that we have been more careful when it comes to distress signals and answering them," Allura said in her lilting accent. Coran was by her side and adjusted the data pad in his arms to pull up a map of the surrounding stars and their systems. "But there has been one that has caught our interest and I would like to send you all down to investigate where the signal is coming from."

Lance stared at the planet's holographic image. It looked like the surface was ninety percent water the other ten percent were small islands scattered about the planet's surface. Staring at the planet gave Lance this pulling feeling deep in his gut. This feeling set off an alarm in his head.

Pidge stepped up to the hologram, pushing up their glasses. "What's so interesting about this planet? It looks like there's not much for us to do there. Most of it is just water, meaning we can't really land the lions, let alone the Castle of Lions."

"Actually, there's an island in this part of the planet that should be large enough to support the lions." Allura answered manipulating the image so that it showed a small group of islands near the equator of the planet.

"I guess there's no threat to us if we just take a quick look. As long as we all keep an eye out for one another there shouldn’t be any problems. Is that clear?” Shiro said in an authoritative tone.

Everyone agreed and headed off to their lions. Lance still had an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach, almost as if when he and the others landed on the planet’s surface everything was going to hit the fan. Now in the cockpit of Blue, she purred in his mind trying to comfort her paladin. Lance sighed and got ready for departure.

There were no problems with landing on the islands or even getting there in the first place. The problem was trying to find the origin of the distress signal. As far as they could tell there wasn’t any sort of sentient life on the islands So they turned to the oceans. Not long aster Pidge started a deep sea scan of the planet the sun set over the horizon.

Shiro looked off into the horizon at the setting sun that had dyed the sky blood red and deep orange. “I guess we should set up camp here. We can’t leave the planet until we find the source of the distress signal.”

“Wait. We have to stay here?” Hunk squeaked. He was not comfortable with that idea. He laughed a bit nervously.

Keith had been strangely quiet for the day but broke his silence now. “Might as well get used to it. From what Pidge said it looks like it’s going to take some time before this mission is going anywhere.”

There was a bit of an argument amongst the other paladins but Lance paid them no attention. Instead he turned to face the ocean lapping at the shore. A soft warmth settled over his mind. Everything blurred and his only thought was to get to the ocean. He was rudely awoken from the dreamlike haze by Keith pulling him back up to the surface.

"You idiot!" He sputtered. "Don't you know how to swim?!"

Lance's head was pounding and his thoughts were sluggish. His limbs had turned into dead weight yet they buzzed with energy from contact with the saltwater. Everything around him was still slightly blurred and muffled but it didn't do much to block out the panic when Keith finally got them ashore.

Shiro was demanding that he stayed awake and Hunk was clinging to Lance's left arm while Pidge took his pulse on his right. Lance could just barely keep his eyes open, all he wanted to do was float down into the welcoming darkness that was sleep. It was then that he felt Blue's presence in his mind. She beckoned for him to surrender to the sleep that tugged at the edges of his consciousness. And with little convincing Lance submitted to the darkness.

Chapter Text

Lance could feel every single current that ran through the oceans of the planet. They all sang a different tune to him. The warm melodies and chilling key changes mingling in his mind and weaving their way through his very being. But there was a lilting song that could be heard just above the currents' own songs. This one sang of a home long forgotten, one that Lance couldn't quite put his finger on.

Lance opened his eyes, still caught up in his dream he could see darkness for as far as his eyes let him. Through this darkness were ribbons and dots of colored light. Somehow he knew which ones were the currents and which were the sea life. When he looked back over his shoulder he could see the lions and the other paladins. Each with their own special light. Lance turned his attention back to the ocean and the melodies that it sang to him. Reveling in the deep bass of the currents closest to the ocean floors and the smooth notes cresting waves, not to mention the lively tune the sea life added to the mix. It was the most beautiful thing Lance had heard other than the chatter of his home back on the coast of Cuba on Earth or the sound of his Mama calling out to him and his siblings telling them that it was time for dinner.

Lance stood there, basking in the glory of the oceanic symphony. Then there it was, that lilting song that he couldn’t quite place. It seemed to beg him to come to the ocean, it captured his very soul and pulled him to the water. His dream self wanted so much to go with the song and let it take him wherever it wanted, but his body was still asleep and he wasn’t able to move from the shore where his body resided. Suddenly there came a violent shove and Lance was back in his own body.

Lance woke with a start, breathing elevated and eyes wide. He slowly sat up and looked around. He saw Hunk and Keith sleeping to his left while Shiro was on his right. Pidge must be off tending to their machines and what not. Taking in more of his surroundings, Lance saw that they had moved off of the beach and were now in the somewhat sparce vegetation that took up a great portion of the island. Then he could hear it, just above the quite snores and soft breathing was the lilting song calling him back to the ocean.

Slowly Lance stood, careful of the others around him, and walked towards the beach with the song as his guide. As he walked he passed the pile of his armor, the others must have taken it off of him to help him dry faster and keep warmer. This left him in just the black skintight jumpsuit that each paladin wore under their armor. He walked past the sleeping lions toward the waves lapping at the sandy shore. As soon as the water touched his feet Lance could hear the song crisper and clearer as the volume increased significantly.

'Welcome home o Great One.' A voice whispered in the back of Lance's mind.

~~~

Keith had been awoken by Lance moving. At first he thought that he was just asleep and shifting his position into something more comfortable. So Keith fell back asleep, not even a moment later he realized that Lance had gotten up and left. In a flurry of slight panic, Keith stood up and ran towards the beach.

“Lance! I swear if you’ve disappeared just for a joke I’ll drown you myself!” Keith shouted as he continued to run. As he came to the darkened beach he could see Lance waist deep in the water. “Lance!”

Lance turned and met Keith’s eyes with his own. Keith stopped short of the surf, Lance’s eyes…they were glowing. They weren’t completely consumed by the glow but just enough to give anyone the chills. Lance looked graceful and serene, ethereal even, standing in the water with the greenish moonlight shining down upon him. A light breeze ruffled his hair, the entire setting made Lance look like a sea god that had been lost to the ravages time.

There were other shouts coming from behind Keith. The others must have noticed their missing presence. Lance and Keith continued to stare at each other. Shouts came from the vegetation and soon Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge sprinted out into the open. When the three panicked Paladins were maybe two steps away from Keith, Lance closed his glowing eyes and disappeared under the surface of the water. It was then that Keith finally unfroze from his spot just inches from the surf to dive in after Lance. Through stinging eyes and blurred vision Keith witnessed Lance being pulled out farther to sea by....

Keith couldn't hold his breadth any longer and hurriedly swam to the surface to gasp for much needed air. Ducking back under the water Keith vainly searched for Lance. But there was nothing, not a thing was moving which was strange seeing as Keith was floating above coral reef. He would have searched for Lance longer but he was pulled up by a strong hand gripping his upper arm. As soon as his head broke the surface Keith made a sound of frustration.

"Keith! He's gone." Shiro shouted as he wrapped his arms around the shaking red paladin.

Why did he care so much? Keith questioned himself. Why did he care if Lance was gone? He may have been the Blue Paladin but Lance was stubborn and flirtatious and had a stupid obsession with a rivalry that wasn't actually there. So why does it feel like there's a part of Keith that disappeared along with Lance?

~~~

Lance floated along with the currents, two sets of hands gently guided him along. The water around him the perfect temperature for a leisurely swim. He didn’t know where he was going and neither did he care. His closed eyes felt like they would never open for the next millennium. There were soft chattering sounds around him that seemed to make words and sentences but before he could decipher what the sounds said he was pulled back into the darkness with the ribbons and dots of colored light. It was as if nothing could touch him there in his dreamland of colored darkness.

~~~

Everyone was in a panic now that Lance was missing. Lost at sea if you would. Keith sat by the fire they had erected and listened to everyone else run around trying to get a lead on where Lance had disappeared to. Pidge was on their communicator talking with Allura and Coran, telling them what had happened since they had landed. Hunk was nervously babbling to himself as he watched the scanners they had set up earlier. He paced every so often when he couldn’t sit still any longer. Shiro was the calmest of the three as he sat on the opposite side of the fire.

“We shouldn’t have come here.” Shiro finally spoke up, pinching the bridge of his nose with his left hand before dragging it down his face. He looked extremely tired and drained in the weak firelight.

“You couldn’t have known Shiro.” Keith said in a low tone. “I should have grabbed him when I saw him.” Anger present in his voice but only toward himself.

Shiro looked up at Keith, his face softened. “I guess that means neither of us are to blame. If Lance wanted to go it’s nearly impossible to stop him. I haven’t known him long but I know that much is true.”

Keith snorted. “He’s so thick headed sometimes I wonder how he can flirt so openly with strangers.”

Shiro gave Keith a tiny smile. “It sounds like someone’s jealous.” He teased.

Keith’s face became bright red but luckily the dark of the night kept it concealed from prying eyes. “Shut up.” He muttered then turned his attention back to the fire in front of him. After a moment Keith closed his eyes. Something deep down told him that Lance was just fine and he was waiting for them to find him. Keith sighed and opened his eyes again to stare at the flickering light of the slowly dying fire. “Where are you Lance?” He murmurs softly to himself.