Chapter Text

Keith and Pidge sat a few feet apart. They were sprawled in whatever positions they found comfortable on the cold hard floor. Keith was laying flat on his back, casually twisting his knife between his fingers while he watched Pidge fiddle with some lightly used robot she found and scooped up on their last mission. It was a bit rickety, but Pidge had no doubt she could fix it and program it to her own liking. It was pretty quiet in Green's hanger. Neither of them seemed to have much to say right now, but Keith liked it that way. More often than not he found himself drawn to Pidge’s lion’s chamber when she was there. They were the few on the Castle of Lions that didn't necessarily have to fill the silence wherever they were. They could just sit in each other’s quiet company and enjoy it while they had it before the others barged in and disrupted the temporary peace... Or that damned siren sounding off and alerting them an attack. That seemed to be a pretty normal occurrence lately, but at least right now they had a little leisure time to themselves. And the room was almost eerily silent apart from the soft grazing of the knife’s handle on Keith's gloves, the soft purring-like noise from the Green Lion behind them, and of course, Pidge's tinkering on the old scrap metal and wire. It was pretty nice for it to be so quiet, even if it was just for a moment. Occasionally she'd throw out a swear and shake her head. Keith just snickered to himself for having heard the little green Paladin drop the F-bomb every five minutes or so.

“So, what’s this robot gonna do?” Keith asked, finally disrupting the minute of silence between them and turning his head towards the short girl he questioned. He peered down the length of her hair, which had grown out past her shoulder blades now; much longer than it had been the first time they had met seven years ago. She had only kept it cut shorter for the better part of their first year as a team, and after that, she just decided to let it grow back out. She kept saying that she missed her long hair, and she looked lovely with her long golden brown hair. “You’re not gonna try to make some kind of tic-tac-toe robot again, are you?”

Pidge grimaced and shook her head. “No, that was, unfortunately, not one of my better plans... I think this one might do the dishes for me.” she said with a determined glint in her eye as she peaked back over at Keith mischievously. 

Keith huffed and turned his head back to look up at the ceiling. He knew that she mostly only fiddled and tinkered with the robots and trinkets to keep her hands busy, but sometimes she was kind of a wildcard, and her robots were always a complete unknown. Even she was unsure if they’d work properly or not. Only about half of them actually did what they were supposed to, or at least what she said they would do, but that wasn't too big of deal. They've all had better days, and seven years was a long time for wear-and-tear on all of them. They weren't shy to admit that things didn't always go to plan. Keith picked at the cord wrapped around the hilt of his knife, trying to keep his own hands busy as well in the moment of actual boredness. He hadn't felt bored in a while, nor with anything too particular not being in mind. It was nice not having anything to do at the moment, but he knew that this wouldn't last too long. Not around here- especially not if Allura found them doing nothing of the necessary. “Well, you know what Allura would say about being bored here...”

Pidge stopped her tinkering and raised a finger above her head, her other hand on her hip and she lifted her chin just like Allura did when she was irritated with the team. “Being a Paladin comes first!” she exclaimed in an imitation of Allura’s thick accent. “A Paladin’s duties are never lax! There’s training, keeping up with maintenance of the castle, cleaning, keeping the bond with your lions strong, and bonding with your fellow paladins! You should never be bored !”

They both broke out in giggles by the end of her imitation of Allura, and Pidge reached for the tool she dropped in the process of her giggling. “... Thanks for keeping that a secret from Allura by the way. I’m sure she would’ve made me do more training or something if she knew what I was picking up parts for.”

Keith smiled broadly and nodded. “‘Course, Pidgeon. Plus, with my luck, Allura’d make me do the same. It’s in both our best interests to keep quiet about that.” he paused and twirled his knife once in his palm before blurting “What were you even thinking with that robot?!”

She groaned and fell back against Green’s giant paw with a thunk. “I don’t know! I needed someone who was up to my level of tic-tac-toe, and I wasn’t going to put up with Shiro getting huffy about losing to me… again. I got a little desperate!”

Keith chuckled and sat up. “Actually, I’m pretty sure Shiro loses to you on purpose…” Keith said, finally sheathing the knife behind his back. He stood up, absentmindedly dusting off and fixing his twisted and wrinkled up clothes as he did so. Not that he cared that they were wrinkled at all, but someone around here had gotten him into the subconscious habit of brushing out wrinkles in his clothes and fixing his hair before walking out of the door. “Well then, I’d tell you to be responsible with your robot, but I fear it’d go over your head.” he said with a smirk.

Pidge grabbed a random hunk of metal and hurled it at him, narrowing her brown eyes. “That’s rich coming from the pilot of the Red Lion, Keith.” she huffed, and turned back to the robot in front of her. “If that’s how you’re gonna be, go bug your closet boyfriend Lance or something.”

Keith flushed at hearing the boy’s name and boyfriend thrown in the same sentence.  Thoughts of their times spent alone together over the past couple of months flashed through his head briefly. Remembering the feeling and sensations of Lance's hands and breath all over him-- He quickly turned his head away from Pidge so she wouldn’t see the colour that rose on his cheeks. Pidge knew about their affair he and Lance were having, Keith had told her about it shortly after their first time together. It was probably too much and more than she ever wanted to know, but he didn’t really have anyone else to tell. And he knew Pidge would keep the secret of the affair between the Red and Blue Paladins, but she still teased him about it and how much he was infatuated with Lance. “Yeah, I wish, but he’s not my boyfriend…”

“Sure he isn’t…” Pidge drawled out the ‘sure’, and rolled her eyes at the red cheeked Keith. Didn’t matter if he turned his head or not, she knew him well enough to know it was there. It always popped up when Lance’s name was mentioned. He was completely head-over-heels smitten for Lance. “How long have you two- uh-- been a thing or whatever? Three months?” She asked.

“Four months…” Keith said slowly, having to think about the answer for a moment. It had been going on for a while now, though, to Keith's knowledge it supposedly ended recently.

“Four months and some change, huh? Why don’t you just tell him how you feel already? I don’t think Lance would keep this up with you if there wasn’t something there.” Pidge commented nonchalantly. She didn't have much wisdom in the relationship department but she tried her best to be truthful about what she thought.

Keith frowned and fidgeted in place, and rubbed at the nape of his neck awkwardly. He didn’t tell Pidge about his last ‘ date ’ with Lance and how it went. He didn’t really want to dwell on it anymore than he already had. But he figured he didn’t have anything to hide from Pidge now that what he had with Lance was probably over anyway. Having made a mistake and letting his feeling slip out for Lance-- while they were having what they agreed to be no strings attached sex, no less. If you wanted to talk about a perfect moment gone awkward... then that was it. Keith could remember the details that he'd probably rather not now that that whole scenario had played over and over in head since that night. How they had both practically froze in place with equally rosey red cheeks, and how he stuttered profusely trying to find a way to take it back before Lance got up and left- before Lance told him that they would have to stop this. Though, Lance never said that; he didn’t say anything. Lance just covered his own face with his hands and shook his head. Acting utterly flustered before he got up and awkwardly shambled out of Keith’s room in his underwear, because he apparently couldn’t get his clothes back on fast enough, before he left without uttering a single word back to him.

Keith cleared his dry throat. “Uh, i-it kind of already slipped out. I don't think there's anything there for me, Pidge. He ran out on me...” He mumbled, making a face at the returned mental image of that awkward and ruined moment.

“Ran out on you? Like, physically ran out and away from you? I wouldn’t have guessed anything like that happened by how much you two have eye-fucked each other this past week…” Pidge said, before adding, “I guess that’s the only fucking you’re getting now,” she snorted and Keith whined, throwing his hands up exasperatedly at his teasingly mean short friend.

“Pidge!! I don’t tell you these things for you to be an ass to me!” Keith barked, his cheeks burning red, and Pidge quickly apologized with a shake of her head and giggle, hands thrown up in a pitiful surrender.

“Sorry, sorry! Couldn’t miss the opportunity!” Pidge exclaimed, snickering still.

Keith huffed and threw his head back with a groan. “I swear- you’re getting just like him -” Keith complained and raked a hand down his face.

Pidge finally contained her giggles and let out a sigh when she looked back at Keith’s expression. “Keith, I don’t have any advice for you about this, but you know you don’t have to stay strung up over Lance if he doesn’t reciprocate the feelings, right? That’s about all I can offer you in terms of advice.”

Keith furrowed his brows with a frown, nodding slightly to her. She was right, and he knew she meant well, but she didn’t quite understand what it was like being infatuated with someone. Being strung up was all he had right now. He had it bad for that one boy. “Uh… Whatever. Thanks… I’ll… See you later, Pidgeon, okay?” he said lamely, turning and shambling out of the Green Lion’s hanger. Pidge called a ‘buh-bye’ and Keith spared her a half-hearted wave before he disappeared from her sight out of the doors.

He stopped just on the other side of the hanger doors, slumping back against the wall and he rubbed a hand over his face tiredly. He didn't need to be thinking about Lance right now- or at least he shouldn't be. He was trying to get over that- get over Lance- and maybe it would have been easy if he hadn’t lived in such close quarters with him; but that couldn’t really be helped. Close quarters and few people aboard the ship was probably part of the reason for their fling to happen in the first place. They never stayed in one place too long for them to mingle and things got lonely for them after so long. Lance didn’t seem to handle the loneliness well, and Keith couldn’t stand to see him looking so sad. Pulling Lance into his room that night four months ago and shoving his tongue down his throat was still one of Keith’s best impulse decisions to date. It didn’t even matter at the time that Lance didn’t like him back, because it felt like it. That night and every other night Lance crawled into his room. And that was enough for Keith's crush on the soft-golden faced Cuban boy to develop into what it was now; being full-out in love with him.

Keith knew Lance was only there in his bed most nights to relieve tension and stress from the day- and that's all he'd probably ever be there for, but growing attached to Lance was inevitable. Lance always seemed too eager to get together- and he seemed so happy and comfortable the more often it happened. Lance was incredibly sweet and affectionate , despite him swearing everything was no strings attached. Lance seemed like such bullshit- or at least Keith was sure Lance was being bullshit about not feeling the same way. So of course Keith let himself think it had started to become something more than just some loveless secret affair… But after what happened during their last hook-up, Keith realized Lance really must not have felt the same way after all. He told himself that he should’ve known better- he should have listened and stopped being blinded by his own crush for Lance, because they’ve discussed it. Over and over again. And Lance never stopped swearing it was no strings attached, but it was still hard convincing himself of that.

You’re so bullshit, Lance-

Maybe not. Maybe it really didn’t mean crap to Lance. Not as much as Keith was believing for it to have meant, and Keith knew he couldn’t get upset with Lance over it as much as it hurt him to have been led on like that. He agreed to this, and if he was being used, it was his own fault. He put himself into this position by kissing Lance that night and getting him into his room. Agreeing to play by Lance’s one rule in the first place. He just had to get over himself and his feelings for a player like Lance. Had to get over all of their precious times together. Even when it was just the two of them opening up to one another and getting to know each other, because those were Keith’s favourite times with Lance. Just sitting next to him and listening to what he had to say… It was nice, and Lance always seemed so sincere, and Lance didn’t just talk, he listened too. And before Keith knew it, Lance had grown incredibly dear to him.

It felt like there was a little fire burning just under the surface, and Keith thought for sure Lance felt that too. How Lance would grab him carefully by his cheeks and give him a look with his piercing blue eyes, that made Keith feel like he was the only other being in the universe, before crushing their lips together in a warm, fervent kiss. That look made Keith weak at the knees, and Lance would end up supporting him up by a grip on his waist, letting the pads of his fingers creep up under Keith’s shirt and find flesh… It turned Keith into putty in his arms. Especially as of late- it was Lance’s thing to be gentler and slower, taking his time with Keith and being so damn intoxicating -- how he would let his breath ghost over Keith’s neck before mouthing Keith’s name and an 'I want you' or a breathy 'I need you' against his skin. Lance’s honey voice would ring in his ears for hours after, and it was so different when they were alone… Lance was different when they were alone. Keith shuddered at the thoughts, squeezing his eyes shut and bit at his lip while scrunching up his nose. Toes curling just at the thoughts of him and his touch...

Fuck - No - now is not the time to be thinking about Lance and the things they did in secrecy in those vivid details... It only hurt dwelling on it and knowing he fucked up whatever bit of intimacy he had with Lance.

It’s been a few weeks since they've been keeping away from each other. Leaving the room whenever the other was there, or when they couldn’t, like when they were in a group discussion with the team, they would stand at the far opposites from one another. Keith would sometimes catch Lance staring at him from the corner of his eye- but Lance was quick to look away when Keith turned to meet his gaze. It made Keith feel weird and guilty about it all- but he didn’t mean to develop an attachment to Lance like that and ruin their fling.

Keith groaned and let his head thunk back against the wall. He stared off in front of him, not really focused on anything. It was all just a blur of dark blue and grey hues from the dimly lit corridor. “Thank you, Pidge -” Keith muttered bitterly under his breath. Annoyed that just Lance’s name could bring up so many emotions so suddenly like that.

I’m too influenced. . . Keith thought, finally pushing away from the wall and making his way down the relatively quiet corridor. Time to find another distraction. Somewhere else to be that wasn’t cooped up in his room for the rest of the day... If he was lucky enough, Hunk would be making his per usual afternoon snack that he could get in on.

As he neared the kitchen doorway, he heard two familiar voices from inside. He toed over and stopped at the edge of the doorway, just barely peeking into the well-lit kitchen area. Hunk was leaning against the wall beside the only currently working food-goo dispenser, laughing at something a cheesy grinning Lance must have said. And of course, Keith’s mauve eyes narrowed on the pretty boy Lance in the room. The artificial light gave his honey golden skin a radiant looking glow, and his blue eyes shone with a mischievous look that Keith had become quite familiar with over the years. They were all very familiar with it, but they had to admit, Lance had mellowed out (maybe a very small amount. . .) in recent years. He still missed home like no other, Keith knew that, Lance had told him that, but Lance was also adjusting to life as the famous Blue Paladin of Voltron and finding his place elsewhere. It was good to see Lance coping. Good to know they were all finally coping with this life.

Keith stepped further into the threshold and leaned against the door frame, arms folded in front of him while he watched Lance and Hunk exchange conversation. Neither one of them seemed to noticed, and Keith just decided not to intrude any further. He turned on his heel and was started back on his own way, but Lance caught his eye- again-- like really caught his eye because Lance had tilted his head in Keith’s direction. Pretty mouth going slack and eyebrows going up as he blinked twice, and he froze there on the counter.

What?

Keith made a face. Both of them sharing that awkward but brief eye contact before Keith heard Hunk question Lance. That's when Keith turned away and quickly tried to make his way towards the living quarters. He heard Lance hop off the counter after he turned away though, telling Hunk he’d see him later, and then his footsteps ensuing thereafter.

Oh.

Not now...

Not- right- now-

I know what you're going to say to me-

and Not . Right . Now .

He knew he’d have to talk to Lance face-to-face sooner or later… But what could he even say to Lance? ‘Hey, I’m sorry that I let my feelings get in the way and confessing my feelings to you during our supposedly no strings attached sex?’

No .

God no-- He wasn’t even sure if he was sorry to Lance about it anyway- morely sorry for himself for having fucked up his thing with Lance when he had become so dependent on their intimacy together.

Keith nearly panicked before he reached the corner, sprinting as soon as he rounded it. Shiro was in the hall, and lucky enough for the both of them Keith had incredibly quick reflexes. Dodging out of the way and mustering a breathy ‘excuse me’. Shiro hardly had time to react before Keith reached the door to his room and quickly pressing a hand over the panel beside his door, causing the door to swoosh open and he all but threw himself inside. Keith let out a exasperated quick huff when he heard Shiro call his name and his feet approach. Of course Shiro was going to stop and ask what was up, it wasn’t every day that Keith ran into his room- usually he ran out of it.

“Keith? ...What’s up?” Shiro started slowly, sounding suspicious and cautious as he approached the doorway, and threw his hand out to prevent the door from it’s automatic closing since Keith had stepped away from it. Not even bothering to hold the door for the other man, because he didn’t want to be bothered by Shiro right now anyway, and he certainly didn’t want the door to be held open.

“Nothing-” Keith got out quickly. “I just forgot something in my room, Shiro. Can you do me a favour and not hang around with my door open? I really prefer it staying closed.”

Shiro cocked a brow at the other man across the threshold, and debated about whether or not he should step in. He knew Keith didn’t particularly like people in his room, especially uninvited. Shiro drummed his fingers on the frame of the door and eyed Keith for a moment before shrugging. “Uh… Yeah, sure…” Shiro agreed and was about to step away before he leaned his upper body over the threshold to peer at Keith with his brows knit with concern. “You sure everything’s okay, Keith?”

Keith suppressed a scowl even though his back was turned to Shiro and the door. He quickly whipped his head around and snatched an old book off the floor to pretend like he had found what he was looking for. “Yeah, Shiro! But can you take this to Pidge for me? She asked for it- and you know how she gets when you fail to get her something she asks for…” Keith rambled off, turning and chucking the book over to Shiro. Just trying to get Shiro out of the doorway.

Shiro caught the book, giving it an odd look before just shrugged again and let out a sigh. Too obvious that Keith was either up to something or hiding something, but Shiro wouldn’t press for it. “Sure, Keith” Shiro said. “Talk to me if you need to, though.” He added before finally stepping out of the doorway, and the door finally closed a second after.

Keith sucked in a long breath before letting it out with his shoulders slumping harshly in the process. He rubbed awkwardly at his shoulder and neck before he stripped off his jacket and hung it up on it's designated hook on the wall, and he sluggishly stepped over to his bed. He plopped heavily onto mattress and fluffy scarlet red comforter, letting the sea of soft alien fabric swallow him nearly whole. His mind hadn’t shut off about Lance since Pidge mentioned him, and he knew he was going to sink into his nightly routine of despair without the boy in bed next to him.

Keith raked short nails down his face and groaned into the empty room. “Why’d you have to say that, Keith… Why go and make things bad with him ?” He muttered to himself in a complaintive tone. He kicked his shoes off of his feet before turning over and curling up into a ball on the bed. He pressed face into his pillow and groaned.

“Two weeks. It’s been two weeks since I’ve been alone with him. I miss him…” Keith whined into his flattened pillow. Suddenly there was a light tap-tap on his door and Keith bolted upright immediately.

“Who is it?!” Keith called out, plenty loud enough to be heard from the opposite side of the metal sliding door. He realized he sounded irritated- maybe a part of him was now. Not with anyone but himself in particular.

“Uhm. Lance.” Lance’s voice chimed from the outside, sounding small in response to Keith’s tone.

Keith’s cheeks went pink and he cursed at himself under his breath. Damn it- That’s right… he was following me, wasn’t he? Keith shifted and crossed his legs under himself, running his fingers through his mussed up hair to give it a quick fix. “Come in…” He spoke just loud enough for Lance to hear, voice softer this time and less blatant irritation in it, and the door opened after what seemed like a long pause in time. Lance stepped in just far enough for the door to close behind him, but didn’t move a step farther into the room; almost like he was waiting for permission or an OK. He looked god-awfully nervous standing there for sure, but he gave a feeble smile over to Keith on the bed.

“Hey, you…” Lance murmured quietly, giving the slightest tilt of his head. He was awfully puppy-like. Hard for the heart not to beat faster at the sight of his pretty face, and how his short bangs framed it so perfectly.

“Uh, hey…” Keith said slowly, unsure. He eyed Lance up and down carefully. Lance’s eyes briefly meeting his before they fell to the floor, his cheeks flushing and he shifted uncomfortably on his feet.

“Hey,” Lance said again awkwardly and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. He only looked up at Keith again for a second before he let his gaze fall back down to his feet. “Uhm. I- I wanted to talk to you… I have to talk to you.” Lance uttered, vaguely gesturing with his hand.

Keith shifted awkwardly on the bed, his gaze lingering on Lance’s face before he dropped it to his own lap. He scooted over and patted the bed next to him without saying anything else. He felt his stomach lurch with sudden creeping anxiety but he shook it off and let out a steadying sigh. It’s no strings attached… No strings attached…

Lance smiled again halfly and stepped over, sitting next to Keith on the bed and crossing his legs in front of him. He leaned forward on his knees and rubbed his hands together nervously, the light blush on his cheeks growing hotter. “I didn't mean to… to run out on you like that--”

“No- it's fine, Lance. I shouldn't-- I shouldn't have said that, okay?.. I- I didn't mean it.” Keith rambled out quickly, interrupting Lance and he nervously rubbed a hand over his face. That was an obvious dead lie... Even less believable by the crack in his voice. Keith inhaled a deep breath from his nose and shut his eyes tight before any tears even had a chance to threaten him. Stupid- Why are you trying to hide it from him now? It’s too late to cover it up, of course Lance knows… You can’t salvage this now. Stop trying.

Lance furrowed his brow, cutting a glance over at Keith before he shook his head, slightly exasperated. “What do you mean you didn’t mean it? I--”

Keith cut him off again, “Just what I said, Lance. Forget it. Please.”

“Hey! Would just you stop cutting me off for like- five seconds?!-”

“I’m - I’m not cutting you off!” Keith barked, his voice cracking, and made a face of disgust at his own frail-sounding voice.

“You JUST did! Again!” Lance squawked, growing exasperated. He slapped his hand over his face and rubbed at his temples harshly before taking a deep breath and letting it out smoothly and calmly. The last thing they needed was to be arguing. Keith could tell that arguing wasn’t Lance’s idea right now either, by how he quickly composed himself. Now when Keith thought about it, Lance hardly ever bickered with him anymore. Not anything like they used to. But Lance still did tease him occasionally. Teasing was their thing though, and more often than not it would result in sex.

“Keith, just… Listen for a second, will you?” Lance said softly with a sigh and dropped his hand before turning to face Keith completely. Keith finally turned to face Lance too when he was confident enough that he had controlled his expression and the water-works that threatened him moments ago. Lance tucked his right leg under himself and he offered a hand out, assumingely for Keith's but he wasn't sure. Not until Lance had gestured to it and Keith gave his hand up. He didn't know why Lance wanted it but he wasn't going to complain or question it now. He missed Lance's hands. He watched carefully as Lance grabbed his hand and held it in both of his, rubbing his palms lightly over the leather glove, and eventually he frowned. Only for a second though. Keith couldn't tell what brought on the sudden frown but he wasn't about to ask. It was already awkward enough, and he had to pull his hand away from Lance's. He quickly stuffed it between his own legs so Lance couldn't grab it again.

"I can't hold your hand?" Lance asked and gave him a slight smile and he cocked a brow.

"No... I don't know." Keith sighed. "What do you want Lance? Surely it's not holding my hand-"

Lance stopped smiling and frowned, and he tilted head slightly to the side and gave Keith a genuinely hurt look with his almost unnaturally pretty blue eyes. Brows furrowed too, making him look even more hurt and Keith felt his heart skip a beat in his chest, and the corner of his lips twitched into a frown.

Stop looking at me like that. I want to kiss you.

I want you to kiss me…

"... Just listen to me for a sec, okay?"

“.. I am listening, Lance..” Keith muttered.

“Are you?” Lance asked, cocking a brow for a second before letting it drop and shaking his head, presumably to himself. “Anyway, Keith,” he started slowly, and shifted more on the bed beside Keith. He had scooted himself closer to Keith now, and even leaned in with one arm finding itself between Keith’s side and arm, pressing down onto the bed beneath them. His other hand he placed innocently on Keith’s thigh. It was light, but Keith knew it was there without having to look directly at it. It wasn’t the first time it had ever been there- it had been there along with the matching set of lips before, and he hoped it wouldn’t be the last time ever, but he was going to prepare himself for that. He tensed up and jerked back suddenly when Lance’s cool breath unexpectedly fanned across his skin. He felt his cheeks glowing bright pink, which traveled to his neck and ears. His eyes immediately darted to Lance’s soft, slightly parted lips. He swallowed shallowly, finding himself dazed again and even more by how close Lance had gotten.

Talk about teasing and not being easy on the heart… 

“I need to apologize for running out on you the way I did.. It was stupid and immature of me, I know that it was,” Lance continued, voice getting quieter and softer, and he furrowed his brows when he said stupid and immature. He looked disappointed that he had to admit to it, but he didn’t waver when saying it. Meant he was being earnest about it. At least Lance could acknowledge when he acted stupid.

"...It was." Keith agreed, his voice coming out in a whisper. His eyes followed an invisible trail from Lance's lips to his too blue eyes. Lance’s eyes were searching his intently, occasionally doing the same thing that Keith’s were, flickering down to Keith’s lips. Keith took note of that- maybe more than he should have. He was unsure what to do with that note though. Maybe Lance was only apologizing because he was lonely and still needed Keith’s affection for a fix. The thought of that being the only case soured the other, much more brief thought that came to mind; that maybe Lance did like him back? He only hoped that might be the case.

It was silent for a long minute between them, before Lance gave him a short smile and a quiet chuckle under his breath. "Uhm… Yeah, don't rub my mistake in my face or whatever," Lance teased lightly with a slight grin, and he brought his hand that was on Keith's thigh up to caress Keith's face. "...Or, do if you have to, to forgive me for being an idiot.” Lance murmured. His features were getting softer as he gazed at Keith, his thumb brushing over Keith’s cheek, and his pretty head tilted slightly more.

Charming. You're so charming, Keith thought. He squinted at the wrist and hand now near his face; it was bleary but Keith couldn’t keep his eyes on Lance’s face any longer. If he had, impulse would have told him to pull him in closer and kiss him until both of their lips were bruised red and purple, and get Lance tangled up under his sheets one more time... But Keith tilted his head down, and pushed his forehead lightly forwards, attempting to put a bit of distance between him and Lance. “...What do you mean?” Keith asked sheepishly.

Lance let out a soft huff before both of his hands had reached up and cupped Keith's face, tilting his head back up to his eye level.

Damn-

Why are you so pretty and charming? 

I'm so in love with you...

“What I mean is- Keith-” Lance started, before Keith instantaneously leaned in and closed the gap between their warm lips. Their noses awkwardly bumped and brushed together, but Keith couldn't find it in him to care. He reached his hands up to grasp Lance's firm jaw. Disappointingly, it was clenched shut, and Lance seemed to completely freeze under his hands, but just as Keith was going to pull away, Lance's jaw had slacked and he tilted his head and kissed Keith back. His hands fell from Keith's face to his chest, and he grabbed fist fulls of the fabric on Keith's body. Not to pull it off though- to pull him closer, and Lance even did that little thing of arching his back and leaning into the kiss. Keith didn't know what to do with that response- it wasn't exactly what he was expecting to happen, but he was going to take advantage of the returned kiss. Having craved this set of lips for the better part of two weeks, of course he was going to run with it. He wouldn't even question it. At least not at this moment when he couldn't think of anything else but his lips on Lance's. It felt like a lifetime had passed since this kiss and their last, and Keith was going to hang on to it for as long as Lance let him. Keith tilted his head slightly to the side, his hands sliding up to the base of Lance's neck and he threaded his fingers into the soft locks until he had a half-hearted grip on Lance's hair. Lance emitted a soft gasp, and Keith deepened the kiss even more. Lance missed me too, I know he did. . . He did, he did. He has to. Keith thought, sighing quietly against the warm, moist lips against his. They felt even better now than they ever have; and they tasted even better than he ever remembered last; Lance must have put on that minty chapstick that Keith loved before walking in here, because that's what he tasted like. It made Keith's head feel dizzy. He could hardly believe he was here again with Lance... Lance moved to straddle his lap, his hands still gripping Keith's shirt for what seemed like dear life, giving Keith a new wave of emotions, causing him to whimper and moan. Fuck--

Lance pulled back slightly, tilting his head to the other side before smacking lips with Keith again and moaning against him. He kissed Keith slower and sloppier this time before he pulled back off with an audible 'pop', and put his bottom lip between his teeth to suck Keith's saliva off. Keith peeked his eyes open again, looking up at the blissed out, dazed face in front of his. Oh, Lance definitely missed something about him. Even if it was just the lust they had. That would hurt, but the phrase 'Beggers can't be choosers' came to mind, and right there Keith knew what he would do if Lance only wanted to continue their fling.

"Uhm.. You were going to say something?.." Keith questioned, his hands playing with the short hairs on the nape of Lance's neck. Lance always seemed to like that... Keith learned a lot about what Lance liked and didn't like. He was pretty interesting as far as his likes and dislikes went when it came to making love. Small little things that made him more lovable. Lance's cheeks went pink and dipped his head down.

"Oh-- Uh- y-yeah-" Lance started, muttering something else much too quietly under his breath.

"What?"

"Nothin... It's just-- That diiiidn't-?" He started again, his cheeks burning up from pink to a deep red in the matter of milliseconds, and when he dropped his jaw again to say the rest, the loud and jarring alarm suddenly started sounding off throughout the castle, and Allura's voice boomed over the Castle's intercom system. Both of them flinched and jumped apart at Allura’s voice, a normal reaction to the battle alarm. Lance practically threw himself off of Keith and into the bed at the alarm sounding off, obviously startled, but he hadn't jumped out of the bed in the same second like he was supposed to. Like he usually did. 

Son of a fuck-

“ Paladins, we have an emergency! Get to your lions, now ! ” Allura’s voice shouted.

Keith clasped a hand over his mouth and shot up from his place on the bed, hardly without another thought. It was hard to think when your heart was suddenly pounding in your chest and ringing in your ears. Didn't matter how many times throughout their years as a team that they've heard it go off, it still startled them. Some of them have even started to dread it with how risky thing had gotten to be out for them. The few occasions they've almost lost a teammate... or even the whole team. Keith whipped his head of the brought up thoughts and he briskly strode over to the wall to rip his jacket from it’s place and throw it on. He turned back to Lance, who hadn’t moved from his spot on the bed at all yet. He just sat completely still. Wide-eyed, flushed face, and chest heaving still from the sudden scare from the loud alarm.

“Hey,” Keith said loud enough to be heard over the siren, but still soft enough to not startle Lance more. Lance still hadn't moved from his spot on the bed, even with the alarm blaring above them; it was odd for Lance not to rush out for an alarm like this... He usually did. He knew better than not to, or Allura would have his head. There were a few times that Lance had hesitated to get on his ship and out too battle. Keith hoped he wasn't hesitating again, because he didn't know what to do to make Lance feel better about their missions. Surely their last couple of missions couldn't have startled him that bad... He didn't act too much like they did when they got back from them... Lance flinched slightly from the light touch but gave him a nod and a glance up. His eyes suddenly looked so tired, and Keith hesitated to move again for a moment when he shared a look with Lance. Oh. . . Keith frowned, brushing the back of his fingers lightly on Lance's cheek, trying to be comforting. He didn’t want to leave the room, didn’t want to part from Lance who was obviously wary, but they didn’t have a choice. Something was at stake right now... They had to go.

“We need to go,” Keith stated and gestured over to the door, eyeing Lance dubiously. “I-I'm sorry... Whatever it is you wanted to say to me, it… It can wait, right? You can tell me after this..." he paused, before quickly adding "You will tell me after, right?” 

Before Lance even had a chance to respond, Keith turned his back and strode over to the door to open it. Lance stared at Keith’s back as he made his way towards the door, and rubbed a hand over his face before climbing off the bed and standing up. “Uhm... Yeah. Okay... I-I don't know... I-I'll tell you.” Lance finally rambled in response, faltering over to Keith. Keith bit his lip, eyeing Lance over again with his dark eyes and nodding before stepping out of the door. He waited just long enough for Lance to reach his side before taking off before him. He had to make sure Lance was going to come, and sure enough, after just another second, Lance followed a few steps behind him. It was still apparent that something about this was bothering him by the way he trailed behind, almost skittishly.

"It's okay, Lance! Come on!" Keith called back, waving Lance forwards to walk beside him but Lance just lagged behind at an awkward distance behind.

Chapter Text

Both Keith and Lance reached the observation deck together shortly after the alarm sounded off and startled them. Lance finally caught up behind Keith and snagged him by his elbow, and pulled him to a stop, all but yanking him back. Something like that normally wouldn’t have irritated Keith, and at first it didn’t - it concerned him more than anything by the look on Lance’s face and in his eyes. He didn't know why Lance was acting so nervous about this mission; they didn’t even know what it was yet. For all they knew it could still just be a test to see how fast they got out… Which they would certainly be failing by Allura’s standards by now. Keith knew they’d have to get to their Lion’s in less than minute but he sucked in a breath when he eyed Lance back. He glanced down at the hand that had caught his arm and how tight the grip was.

“What’s wrong, Lance?” Keith whispered, and Lance opened his mouth to say something, but quickly shut it when Allura snapped at them to keep moving and get to their lions. ‘ You can talk later ’ she barked from her place at the entrance to the massive hangars where the Lions were kept on ship.

Lance scowled and bit at his bottom lip, staring at Keith before they both shot a glance over at Allura for brief second then back at each other. Lance leaned in to Keith with his head bent down to his ear, causing Keith to shiver slightly at the breath in his ear, even though it was only there for a second. “Keith, I know I messed something up between us, and I'm not sure if I can fix it with you, but I know ho--”

“ Red and Blue Paladins ! Did you not hear what I just said?! Get . To . Your . Lions !” Allura shouted over at them again, crossing her arms across her chest. She was clearly trying to hold together her own irritation and distress at the current moment.

Keith eyed Lance for moment before he gently pulled his arm from Lance’s grasp. “Later, Lance. I promise.” and he started to make his way towards Red’s chamber before Lance snatched his arm again, and pulled him back. If nervousness was a face, this was it. Keith felt guilty for shoving Lance off when Lance so desperately wanted to say something. For a moment Keith thought about just pulling Lance into a quick kiss and telling him it was going to be okay, that he’d listen to what Lance had to say, but everyone was watching them and waiting for them to get to their places. If only Lance would just blurt it out like he did with nearly everything else he said, because they didn’t really have time for this kind of thing now.

Just say it, Lance…

“Make it quick…” Keith whispered.

“I-I know how I feel about you, okay?” Lance stuttered,  “And I-I’ve known it for a while, I just--”

“Just what, Lance?” Keith asked, furrowing his brow. “Don’t want to hurt me again?”

Lance frowned at the word ‘again’ and bit at his bottom lip. “W-what? Uhm…” he paused for a second before he was able to find his words again. “Yeah, I-I don’t want to hurt you, Keith.”

“You already did.” Keith whispered venomously and gave a glare up into Lance’s shocked blue irises. “In case you forgot, you walked out on me .”

“Obviously I know that Keith- Do you honestly think I don't regret that every fucking day ? Because I do!” Lance croaked and his bottom lip wavered before Keith saw him clamp down on it with his teeth and dart his eyes away from Keith’s stare.

Keith opened his mouth to snap out a quick retort, but stopped and closed his eyes briefly, unclenching his hands. He wasn’t sure when he’d clenched them, but he could feel the half-moon shape his nails dug into his palms. Taking a deep breath, he murmured “If you regretted it so much, then why didn’t you try to apologize to me sooner? Did you ever stop to think how I felt?”

“I’m sorry!” Lance yelped, his voice breaking, and he started to shy his head away even more from Keith’s view. His head hung low and he leaned back anxiously on his heels. “What do you want me to say?” Lance whispered, sounding defeated and utterly drained by the conversation already. “That I'm sorry? Because I am ! And I’ve never been more sorry!” Lance continued, his voice cracking up pitifully. “Do you want me to tell you that I feel the same way? Because--” he was obviously trying to speak more quickly now, but it wasn't fast enough, as Allura had trudged over and shouted at them, interrupting Lance once again, and he let out a loud groan, grabbing at his hair in frustration. Keith was sure he saw a few tears fall, but he tried not to feel guilty for it. Not yet anyway. It was Lance's turn to cry over this.

Lance was unable to speak over her now, and whatever he was going to say, it would definitely have to wait. He looked back up and gave Keith a defeated look and dropped his hands from his hair, his shoulders slumping. Keith just shook his head and turned his back on Lance finally. He knew the longer he looked the worse he would feel.

Why couldn’t you talk to me about this sooner? We could have avoided this!

“Boys, you can talk later! We don't have time for this right now!” Allura pointed, nudging both boys off towards their designated places. She looked guilty for a second for having interrupted them, but she normally wouldn't have been so persistent if it wasn't for something that they needed to do. Keith just sighed and finally made his way over to Red. Warily, he glanced back over his shoulder to Lance as he made his way over to Blue’s hanger. His shoulders were sagging, and he ran a hand nervously through his short brown hair, mussing it terribly.

Keith tried not to look too long, and focused back on making his way quickly to Red. When he got in the cockpit, he pulled his hair back into a quick ponytail at the base of his neck. The poor band was almost too stretched, but it was his last, and he’d have to make it last a couple more weeks probably before he could find any more, but that wasn't much of a concern right now.

“ What are we looking at, Princess? ” Shiro questioned. Voicing the question that was surely on (mostly) everybody’s mind right now.

Keith just let out a sigh and shifted in his seat. His leaned his head back against his seat and he tightened his grip on Red’s controls. He was trying to focus on the task at hand as it was being explained to them, but he probably only heard every other word through the comms between each of his overcrowding thoughts. Until he heard Lance's headset click on and a subtle sniffle could be heard before Lance chimed into the conversation. Keith barely paid enough attention to what he said , just to his tone of voice and the crack in it before Lance covered it up with a totally fake cough. Was he really just crying? . . . God, you're such a bad actor, Lance. .

“ ..-ith? ...Keith?! ” Allura’s stern tone pulled Keith out of his head. “ Are you listening to me? You’re the only one who hasn’t responded yet! ”

Keith blinked dazedly a few times before he shook his head slightly to get back into the moment he was in now. “Sorry Princess, I was distracted...” he mumbled.

“ Get focused, then! We don’t have time for your daydreams! ” Allura snapped. Keith wasn’t exactly taken aback by it, as it was pretty normal for Allura to be snappy in these situations. Red made a purring noise, sounding reassuring to her Paladin, and Keith smiled indirectly at her quickly, before he urged her forwards and out of the Ship’s hangar without another thought.

“ Alright team, this isn’t anything we haven’t done a million times. We go in, rattle things up a little, then head out. ” Shiro informed calmly.

“ I just need to get into the control room, gather what information I can, and get out. ” Pidge explained. “ I finally modified my Paladin suit to mimic the invisible walls on the training deck, so I can sneak in and out virtually unspotted. ”

“ That’s great, Pidge! ” Hunk exclaimed and whooped excitedly. “ Now when are you gonna give us those amazing upgrades? ”

“ Paladins, please focus. ” Allura groaned, exasperated. “ Something doesn’t seem right here. ”

“ She’s right. There are too many sentries on this ship to simply be a supply ship. So enter with caution! ” Coran claimed in, humming softly. “ There are also some unidentified energy signatures on the ship... ”

“...‘ Unidentified’ how? ” Lance questioned. “ Haven’t we been travelling enough to recognize almost anything? ”

“ Apparently not. Get in there, paladins. Get the information and get out! ” Allura exclaimed before cutting out on her end of the conversation with a click.

“ Fun …” Lance murmured with a sigh after Allura clicked out, and Keith shushed him, earning a huff and something else from the Blue Paladin on the other end of the line.

“What’s our places, Shiro?” Keith asked, ignoring Lance’s grumbles.

“ Alright, Lance and Keith, follow Pidge into the ship. Hunk and I will cover you from out here. ” Shiro informed. Keith could hear a slight waver in his voice, and reached out to open a private window with Shiro, only to be stopped by Red’s warning growl. “ If anything, and I mean anything seems suspicious, call it in. ” Shiro continued, with more of a steely resolve.

Keith pushed Red’s controls forwards, settling into their regular formation to breach the ship. In theory, this was something they’ve probably done a thousand times, but even Shiro and Allura sounded skeptical… It put Keith on edge, and he sat up straighter in his seat. Their usual missions have gone off without a hitch, but if Allura and Coran emphasized caution, then… He’d be extra vigilant to guard his teammates’ back.

“ Lance, Keith, follow me under the ship. ” Pidge called suddenly, and initiated the Green Lion’s cloaking device. “‘ Cloak up, so Hunk and Shiro don’t have to protect your sorry asses from out here. ”

“ It was one time, Pidge, let it go already! ” Lance exclaimed dramatically, and triggered the Blue Lion’s cloaking device.

“ One time too many, you jackass!” she snickered, clearly taunting him.

“ That was like two years ago !!! Let it go! ” Lance whined.

Pidge and Lance went back and forth for a good minute and a half, and Keith just huffed at their quarrel. They had been fighting side by side for so long that the other paladins were basically an extension of one another, just as Coran attempted to explain to them when they started working together all those years ago. Keith reached over and tapped a few buttons on his control panel, and he sat up straighter in his seat and watched Red’s nose intently for the telltale shimmer that the cloaking was working. He smirked when he saw Red’s nose start shimmering, and murmured a soft “c’mon” to Red to urge her faster.

“ Down here! ” Pidge said suddenly, and pointed Green down into a nosedive under the ship. Keith saw Lance urge Blue down out of the corner of his eye, and pushed Red down to follow. Pidge landed Green gently on the bottom of the ship, and suddenly appeared through Green’s open mouth. Lance and Keith followed her example and hovered beside her as she cut a hole into the ship with her Bayard. Lance pulled himself up to the hole Pidge created, and kicked it in, peering inside. When he saw no one, he pulled himself in, and motioned for both Pidge and Keith to follow him in.

“Alright, I’m going to initiate the cloak on my Paladin suit. It’s a bit more advanced than the training deck walls, since I had some time to modify it for my suit.” Pidge explained softly, and crouched on the reflective violet floor. Deactivating her Bayard, and putting it back in its resting place, she lifted her left arm to look at the small holographic screen, and pointed to a small spot on it. “This is where I need to go. Luckily with the modifications I’ve made, there won’t be a single angle I’ll be visible from. So just keep behind me and guard my back.”

Lance hummed an affirmation and Keith gave her a nod. Pidge tapped a few things on her screen before suddenly becoming invisible to the naked eye, and Lance shrieked at her sudden disappearance, waving an arm out vaguely to where she was just a moment before. When the outside of Lance’s wrist met Pidge’s shoulder, her form flickered in and out of vision, and Lance immediately retracted his arm.

“That doesn’t seem to be… uh… secure. ” Lance muttered, poking at Pidge once more.

“ Huh … I didn’t realize it only worked when I’m not being shot at… I’ll need to work on that.” she agreed.

Keith cleared his throat quickly, knowing that Pidge could easily get sidetracked with what needed to be fixed. “So wouldn’t it be easier for you to go alone? It would be suspicious if two armoured Paladins were lurking down the hallway with no apparent goal in mind...”

Lance immediately protested, “We can’t leave her defenseless. What if her cloaking suddenly stops working, and we’re not there?” Pidge made a small squeak of protest, only to be waved off by Lance. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not leaving her alone, Keith… C’mon, Pidge. Lead the way.”

Keith scowled at Lance before sighing and nodding to a watchful Pidge. “... Right.”

Pidge suddenly reached for a wrist from both Lance and Keith, causing both to start slightly at the sudden contact. Pulling them both up, she started down the corridor with both men in tow. She kept a grip on their wrists for a few turns, practically wedged between them, until she pulled them both to a sudden stop.

“Pidge, what’s up?” Lance wondered, bending down slightly to where her head was usually visible.

Pidge slowly flickered back into vision, dropped her hands and she turned to Keith. “Don’t you find this odd?” she questioned slowly. “We haven’t seen or heard a single sentry or guard this entire time, yet Coran said it was heavily guarded. The entirety of Voltron’s here, and not a single alarm?”

Keith felt an ice cold dread consume his body, and he glanced up over to Lance, who seemed to come to the same realization. “It’s a fucking trap,” Keith mouthed, and grabbed Pidge’s elbow. “We have to get out of here, okay? Preferably like, right now.”

“Hold up, Keith.” Lance exclaimed, thrusting his arm out to stop them. “We’re here now, we may as well see the mission through. Hunk and Shiro are out there protecting our asses; we can’t just go back out empty handed!”

“He’s right,” Pidge amended, and peered up at Keith apologetically. “I know every sort of warning buzzer is going off in your head, Keith, but we’ve come this far. Cover me, the control room’s just up there.”

“Didn’t the two of you hear what Shiro said?!” Keith began to bark, but Pidge already set off ahead of them towards the control room without hearing what Keith had to say.

Lance was about to move to follow her, but Keith grasped his arm. “Lance,” he hissed, and tightened his grip on the Blue Paladin’s arm. He was wary about little it go, knowing full well that Lance probably wouldn’t listen to him now after how he had just snapped at him. “You can’t seriously think that this is a good idea…”

Lance glanced back at him, before pulling his arm out of Keith’s grasp harshly. “Does it matter if it is or not now? Pidge is going up there in that control room now, and I have to protect her back if you don’t.”

Keith growled under his breath and stomped at the ground irritatedly.

Didn’t they understand how dangerous this was? They were going in completely blind, with no sense of safety or preservation! Keith desperately wanted to grab both Lance and Pidge by their collars of their suits and drag them out to their lions, but here they were being ignorant and running off against better judgment. Grabbing his Bayard from its resting place, he trailed after Lance furiously. Lance shot him a glance back, appearing to want to say something, but he must’ve thought thought better of it and just turned back around and kept up a good pace ahead of him. Keith stopping stomping shortly after and warily glanced up and down the length of the corridor.  A sinking feeling hit him from the eery silence of the ship around them. This wasn't normal. Not at all. The only noise was the slowly increasing buzzing echoing down--

Buzzing?

Huh… he didn't know why, but it was odd. It wasn't the normal buzz of some kind of light fixture or air vent, that much he could tell.

Keith whipped his head back up stare at Lance, who was seemingly oblivious to the noise. “Pidge, Lance,” he called out, “do you hear that noise?”

“No,” Pidge immediately replied from inside the control room.

Lance turned back to face Keith for brief second again and he slowed his pace. He raised an eyebrow and shrugged his shoulders slightly in response. “...What noise, Keith?” he asked and stopped at the entrance to the control room, standing by and waiting for any kind of signal from Pidge that she got what she needed. He leaned nonchalantly against the frame of the entrance, favouring idly on one side, and while his back was turned to Keith, Keith had a moment to appreciate how good Lance’s Paladin suit looked on him. From how broad it made his already broad shoulders appear(apparently that was possible), to the softer black material that clung to his hips and made them look even smaller than he knew they actually were. Keith had enough personal experience with them to know, and a part of him wanted to grasp Lance’s hips from behind right now too; but he pushed that thought away as soon as it came.

Keith just shook his head and huffed a sigh. “Nevermind. ...Just pay attention to what’s around you.” He murmured to Lance.

“Thanks, I am.” Lance replied, all but brushing Keith off now.

Fine. Be that way.

Keith rolled his eyes in irritation at Lances tone of voice and stepped away again. He didn’t go too much farther down the hallway now that Lance and Pidge were both where they needed to be. He needed to stand by them but that buzzing noise was growing increasingly more high-pitched. It was really starting to bother his ears, but he pushed it back the best that he could. Leaving Lance’s back unprotected wasn't something he could do right now. Not something he would ever do. Especially not with this uneasy feeling around.

He peered down the end of the hallway, squinting slightly when he noticed that there was a red light, flashing at varying intervals a couple of meters away. He couldn’t quite tell what was flashing. It was just there, being ominous, and didn’t seem like it was attached to anything, not even the wall behind it. He narrowed his eyes and held unactivated Bayard out beside him. “Lance, please keep your guard up… I’m going to check something out, I'll just be a second…”

Lance just hummed noncommittally before Keith hesitantly made his way down towards the light. When he approached it, it seemed to just… Hover oddly in the middle of the air. Keith circled around it warily, trying to figure out what it was doing in the middle of the indigo hallway. He swiped his hand under it where it seemed to be just floating, but there was nothing. It was just air. He did the same thing above it, and again, nothing. It was floating, whatever it was. They’ve all seen some odd stuff, but sometimes the really odd stuff stuck out like a sore thumb. When he had just about completely circled it, something flickered out of the corner of his eye and he quickly whipped around, Bayard ready in hand until he came face to face with a masked druid. He let out a startled gasp, and he quickly hopped back on the balls his feet. He was caught off guard for a moment and thrown slightly off balance, but he swiftly swiped his Bayard out at the druid, nearly aiming blindly. His sword appeared halfway through her, slicing right through her reflection, and he took another step back quickly. “Lance!!! Pidge! We have company!” he yelled out before he backed into something solid and nearly tumbled back. That wasn't there a moment ago, he knew that for a fact, and for a second he was almost too petrified to turn around and see what it was. Glancing behind him, he saw that the flashing red light had turned into a large metal gun-like object. It looked heavy and clunky, and it definitely wasn’t there a second ago, but Keith was quick to duck when it had fired at him. Lucky he was quick, and it missed his shoulder. Instead firing at the floor and having seemed to melt it. Keith quickly flinched away when he saw the druid appear beside him again, and he heard Lance shout his name, and running footsteps came toward him.

Then, three things happened simultaneously;

The bizarre gun fired again,

Someone let out a gut wrenching scream,

And Keith stabbed through the druid’s face mask.

Keith was heaving heavily, cold sweat dripping from his head and his arm shook. The druid hissed at Keith before it seemingly started to disintegrate, and what was left of it had collapsed under Keith’s feet. Keith savagely ripped his Bayard out of the lump, before whirling back around to face Lance who he knew was somewhere behind him with wide eyes, searching frantically for him until his eyes landed on him. Lance was on his knees, clutching his right arm tightly to his chest. He could see that Lance’s armor had been cracked and splintered on his forearm, and blood seeped through.  His unactivated Bayard lying a few feet away from him, broken and split in half. Tears streamed down his normally pretty face, that was now contorted in agony. Lips pulled back and teeth bare as he let out a sob, and tears pitter-pattered on the floor in front of him. Keith launched himself forwards and kneeled down in front of Lance’s shaking form. He tossed his own Bayard away from him and pried Lance’s helmet from his head with shaking hands, glancing down at the blood coming from the crack in Lance’s suit. It looked like it was only coming from his arm though, and with that was a little bit of relief that it hadn’t been his chest like Keith thought it might have been at first glance.

“Lance?” Keith spoke, surprisingly keeping his voice under more control than he thought he had right now. Seeing Lance hurt always made him freak out, but the difference right now is the other Paladins weren’t here to be the supportive one, he was. And he couldn’t let Lance see how much he was scared right now- he couldn’t let himself feel how scared he was right now. It was time to keep it under wrap and assess the situation, but his vision was bleary and seemed to lag by the amount of adrenaline and panic in his system right now.

I have to breathe-

Just take a deep breath… Keith reminded himself, sucking in a long and slow breath from his nostrils before reaching and grabbing Lance’s face in his hands. Rubbing his thumbs over the golden boy’s cheeks and wiping the tears away the best he could. “Lance, can you hear me?” Keith asked, and Lance brought his weeping red eyes up to look up at him and he nodded quickly with a sniffle and sob. He bit down on his quivering lip and kept his scared eyes on Keith’s.

Pidge whipped around the corner, Bayard drawn, but quickly retreated back around the corner when the gun aimed and fired at her. Sheathing her Bayard, she peeked around the corner again, to see the gun back in its resting place. She broke out in a run down the hall and slid on her knees over to Lance and Keith’s side.

“What happened?!” she snapped, and tried to pry Lance’s injured arm away from his body. Lance cried out in agony at her ministrations, and she immediately pulled her hands back and threw them up with fingers splayed. Guilt on her face now and she quickly apologized, “ Shit- Sorry Lance!”

“I-I dunno,” Keith stuttered, mindlessly wiping more tears from Lance’s face with his thumbs as the head his weak head in his hands. “I came down here to try to figure out what the buzzing noise was, when I was ambushed by a druid. Then I backed into whatever that… thing is,” He spit the word thing out bitterly and shot a look over to it “and Lance got s-shot.”

Pidge huffed, then stood up to get a better look at the object that shot Lance. She hesitated for a moment before treading over and standing in front of it. Even dumber of an idea, she peered down the barrel before she started to unplug some wires attached to it.

Keith let go of Lance’s face and took off his own helmet, and placed it on the ground.  He tried to catch Lance’s watery gaze again, but he had dropped it to his lap. Tears plopping on the white of his suit below.

“Lance?” Keith whispered, eyes searching his face. “Can I see your arm?”

Lance was quiet for a moment, before slowly pulling his arm away from his body, and offered it to Keith without looking, and Keith had to hold back a sob at the sight.

Lance’s arm, from just below his elbow all the way down to his fingertips, was completely marred and bloody. The Paladin armour was mostly destroyed on his lower arm, biting into the skin in some places, completely gone in others. He could see hints of purple spiralling up from the back of his hand towards his wrist where the armour had been. His index finger, the one that sat on his Bayard’s trigger, was bent awkwardly, and already swelling and bruising.

“Bad, isn’t it?” Lance croaked out, head tilted away from the view of his arm.

Keith took a deep breath, and mumbled “yeah”. What else could he say? Lie ? Lance had to of known his arm was in terrible shape, and it probably hurt like hell from the looks of it. Of course he had to know it was bad.

Pidge pulled one final wire, and suddenly their comms blew up with overlapping voices.

“ Lance , Lance!!! ” Hunk shrieked into the headset, obviously sobbing. “ Lance, talk to me, are you okay? ”

“ Paladins, if you copy, please answer us! ” Allura called worriedly.

“Guys, we read you,” Pidge answered softly. A chorus of relieved sighs echoed over the comms. “But… Lance is really injured. He can’t pilot Blue.”

“Psh, Pidge, I-I’m fine…” Lance mumbled out unconvincingly. Finally turning his head to get a look at his hand. Upon seeing the state of his arm, he gasped, and blanched at the sight. His eyes started tearing up again, before he mumbled out “Uh-- N-Nevermind, th-that’s a negative. I need an extraction...”

“I’ll take Lance.” Keith immediately cut in. “I can get him safely and quickly-”

“No, Keith, I’ll take Lance.” Pidge said stubbornly. Placing a light hand on Keith’s shoulder. “I need you to grab that weapon, and … Lance’s bayard. I need to run tests, and I can’t carry the weapon with me.”

“ Why can’t Lance sheath his own Bayard? ” Shiro questioned slowly.

Pidge and Keith shared a look, before Keith murmured “Lance’s Bayard is currently split into two pieces.”

“ WHAT?! ” Allura and Coran exclaimed at the same time, completely smothering Hunk and Shiro’s outbursts. “ His Bayard is broken? ” Coran questioned slightly more calmly this time, but the worry was evident.

“We’ll explain back in the Castle,” PIdge muttered and moved to Lance’s good side to help him up. “C’mon, Lance, to Green we go.”

Lance slowly stood up to his feet, clutching his bloody and broken arm tightly to his chest again. Pidge picked up his broken Bayard, cradling the pieces lightly in her palms. With a quick glance back to Keith, she ushered Lance around the corner towards where they left the lions.

Keith stood and turned towards the gun. It looked bland enough, standing on a tripod, aimed at nothing in particular, but Keith felt a burning rage for what pain it caused Lance. Gathering up the tripod together roughly, he slung it under his arm hastily and started back down the hallway towards the lions. Keith couldn’t really look at it for more than a few seconds without hearing Lance’s scream echo through his head; the way Lance screamed, in complete shock and agony chilled Keith to the bone. When he blinked, he could practically see Lance kneeling over his arm as tears streamed down his cheeks. Someone as happy and good as Lance should never be put through that sort of pain. But granted, they've all been through quite a bit of pain. It just never seemed right though, and sometimes it was unfair, but it was a part of their job and life now. Keith just hoped that once they got back to the castle with Lance, it could be fixed. It usually was with a day or two in the cyropod. It'd be a long day, but that would be okay if it meant it helped Lance’s current condition.

Finally reaching the hole in the ship where they left the lions, Keith stomped into Red’s waiting mouth. She was oddly quiet, probably feeling all of the emotions Keith was emitting; anger, remorse, confusion, frustration. He threw the gun down beside his pilot’s seat, and turned on a video chat to Pidge’s lion.

Pidge was sitting on Lance’s lap in her pilot’s chair. Lance still cradling his arm to his chest, and resolutely looking over Pidge’s shoulder. Both jerked slightly when Keith asked “How’s the arm?”

Pidge shrugged and kept her gaze forwards. “ He hasn’t let me really see it yet, so ask him .”

Lance bit his lip for a second then sighed, stiff shoulders drooping, and offered his arm to the screen. It looked just as broken and ruined as it did before of course, but slightly more purple and splotchy from what Keith could tell through the less than clear video feed.

Keith squinted at the top of Lance’s hand. “Has the swelling on the back of your hand gotten worse?” he questioned seriously, and steered Red into take off.

Lance glanced down at the back of his hand and shrugged again halfly. “ I dunno. I mean, I can’t feel my fingers anymore... I can’t move them... but that’s not surprising, right? ” Lance whispered, just loud enough for the rest to hear.

Keith felt his stomach sink at Lance’s words and turned his gaze to Pidge on the screen. She looked like she’d come to the same sinking thought, that something else wasn’t quite right, and she murmured for Green to go faster.

“Lance,” Keith said sternly, “Let us know if you start to lose feeling anywhere else in your arm, or if the swelling on the back of your hand spreads. Got it?”

Lance narrowed his eyes slightly, before peeking over Pidge’s tensed shoulder to try to see her facial expression as well as Keith’s, but his effort was in vain and he just let his head drop back against the seat behind him. “ What… What do you guys think’s going on? I-I hate when you guys act like this- it scares me... ” Lance said lowly.

“ We just don’t want irreversible damage to your hand, dummy .” Pidge said softly, without any malice. “ We want to make sure this fully heals .”

Keith hummed an affirmation and urged Red to go faster. He switched back to group comms to ask Allura if a pod was ready. At her affirmation, he finally let himself slouch back into his seat slightly. Lance would be fine. Sure, his arm would probably scar terribly, but scars were not anything new to the Paladins of Voltron. They had all gained many in their years in space, from things varying to stupidity to battle wounds; and Lance already had quite a few. He only seemed to really mind them if he couldn't hide them and looked at them for too long. Lance of course would probably need to cry about ruining his virtually flawless hand though. Keith was more than willing to let Lance cry to him, and kiss every single new scar. Giving him a reason to like it if he let him... He was snapped out of his short fantasy when Lance suddenly cried out over the coms, fear beginning to be laced in his voice.

“ Uh, guys, I-I can’t feel my wrist, and that purple is definitely spreading. Th-this isn't right- it can't be right-- Pidge look at this...”

Keith could hear Pidge gulp and mutter a small ‘crap’ over the comms, but when he glanced at the screen he couldn't make out what they must have saw.

“Lance? Pidge? What’s going on? Is it getting worse?”

“ I-I don't know-- maybe? ” Pidge stuttered, brows furrowing.

Keith cursed savagely under his breath, veering Red towards the tail of the Green Lion. Red growled softly at Keith for being pushed so suddenly but Keith ignored it, hyper focusing on the Green Lion, on Lance . He had to get to Lance, to try to help him in any way he could.

“Pidge, stop. I’m gonna board.” Keith growled out, closing in on Green.

“ What?! ” she exclaimed, jerking back harshly on Green’s controls. “ Why? ”

“We need to stop the spread of whatever that is on Lance’s arm!” Keith snapped, while hopping out of the pilot’s seat. Red was just nearing her sister’s side when Keith was already pacing by the exit. As soon as Red opened her mouth, Keith flew out and towards the Green Lion’s open maw, running as soon as he landed in her mouth. Only stumbling for a brief second before practically skidding into Green’s cockpit, he halted just beside the pilot’s chair, yanked off his filthy helmet and peering down at Lance.

His arm was more purple, and the flesh on his arm seemed to be deteriorating. It was definitely worse than it was a second again, and the darkening flesh looked awful- ugh- and something smelled awful. Burnt and coppery. Lance was practically a bundle of nerves again, fresh tear stains along his cheeks. “What’s happening?” he croaked out, visibly shaking. “I-I can't feel my arm- I can't move it-- Shouldn't this hurt more or something?”

Pidge grimaced and shifted awkwardly in his lap. “Buddy, I think it's a good thing you can't feel that …” she commented.

Keith paused in his place for a moment before he stooped next to Lance and cupped his face softly in his hands. “I don’t know, Lance, but we’re gonna fix this.” Keith murmured soothingly, stroking his thumbs over Lance's cheeks and rubbing away the few fallen tears, and before it even had a chance to potentially soothe Lance, Pidge shrieked, “ How are we going to fix this?! We don’t even know what this is!” she wailed, shooting up from her seated spot on Lance and brushing past Keith.

Keith just shook his head slightly at her outburst, she was beginning to freak out as much as Lance. Not that the feeling wasn't mutual between the three of them, but they had to remain somewhat cool and level headed for Lance’s sake. Keith dropped his soothing hands from Lance’s distraught face. It wasn't helping much anyway, and he tapped on Green’s control panel, opening a video chat with Allura and Coran. “Allura, Coran, take a look at this…”

Allura’s white head snapped towards the feed, and she gasped when she saw the torn armor and blood. “ Lance! What happened? ”

“Doesn’t matter now, but whatever this is, it’s spreading- it's getting worse .” Keith interrupted snappishly, and gestured harshly to Lance’s arm. “And I think we need to stop it. Now . How do we do that?”

Allura narrowed her eyes, looking closer at the image, chewing on her lip. She thought long on her answer, causing Keith to shift on his feet impatiently. Looking back and forth between Allura’s image and Lance, who had leaned his head against Keith's arm at his side for comfort. He was crying and sniffing still, but he was relatively silent. Keith lifted his hand and shifted again on his feet so that Lance’s head rested on his side, and ran his fingers through Lance sweaty damp hair as comfortingly as he could, frowning down at Lance’s hurt form.

What's going to happen to you...

“Well… If it’s spreading, and rapidly, you have to stop it. And there’s only one way we can do that right now…” Allura finally said slowly.

Pidge’s eyes widened and she whipped around to face the screen. “You don't mean we have to amputate it here and now, do you?!”

“WHAT?!” Lance squawked, snapping his head up from its resting place. His face flushing to a ghostly pale colour and he shook his head frantically, his chest starting to heave as he hyperventilated. “Oh no no no --”

Keith looked back at the screen and nodded. “I’ll do it. Tell me what I have to do.”

“WHAT?!” Pidge and Lance squawked simultaneously.

“NO no no no, Keith-- you are NOT doing this!!! You can’t do this-” Lance yelped, and Allura cut back in.

“ Keith, you'll have to take off the damaged suit, and tie off his arm just above where you will amputate. Use the sharpest object you have on hand, and you must be quick about it… And make sure the tie is tight, otherwise he’ll bleed out! ” Allura spewed the instructions out and Keith listened closely, swallowing shallowly before nodding his head quickly, signaling that he understood. He turned back to Lance and started pulling off Lance’s armour as careful as he could in his haste.

“N-N-No no-- !” Lance murmured, sounding utterly weak and shaking his head repeatedly in protest, grabbing at Keith’s arm with his good one to try and stop him. Fresh hot tears streaming down his pasty face. “K-Keith! Y-You ca-can't just--” he paused with sob, “-cut off my arm!” Lance cried out hysterically.

I have to do what I have to to keep you safe, Lance…

Keith bit his lip resolutely, doing his best to ignore Lance’s cries and kept a watchful eye on Lance’s arm as quickly he stripped him of the rest of the broken armour in the way. He watched how the purple discoloration was practically spreading up its path on Lance’s arm at an unexpectedly rapid rate. Whatever it was, it was advanced, and Keith wasn’t sure if he was thankful Lance said it was numb or not; better than it being painful. Cursing under his breath, he turned to Pidge, who was standing shock still in front of her pilot’s seat. “Pidge,” Keith snapped, causing her to straighten up, “I need something to tie his arm off with; bandana, a rag, something , and you're going to have to hold him still.”

“I--” Pidge paused and nodded somewhat stiffly. “Okay.” She agreed before skirting around Lance towards the back of the cockpit. She ruffled around for a moment in a box of random parts before retrieving a slightly oily handkerchief. She quickly brought it to Keith, offering it to him with shaky hands. “Do you know what you’re doing…?” she murmured, doubt clear in her tone.

Keith drew his mouth in a thin line, chewing slightly on his bottom lip. He wanted to shrug, but that wasn't a way to answer her or Lance. “Allura will walk me through this.” he retorted, taking the rag from Pidge and stooping over Lance. He grabbed Lance's limp arm, giving it pinch just above the spreading discoloration. “Do you feel that?” He asked.

Lance shook his head quickly. “Keeeith,” he drawled with a wavering voice, “P-Please don't do this - OUCH!” Lance yelped and smacked Keith's hand that had just pinched him again, this time higher above, “Okay, I felt that! ” He hissed through clenched teeth and worried furrowed brow. Keith mimicked the worried face at Lance's arm, still examining it.

“Allura, he can still feel where this stuff hasn't spread yet-”

“ You'll have to tie it off above the numbness and cut below. Do it quickly. You won't be able to cut through his shoulder if it spreads past .” she informed. She was watching as closely as she could from her position at the castle, finger in her mouth as she chewed her nails in concentration and the creeping anxiety. Lance had flinched when she said shoulder, and breathed out ‘Oh god’.

Keith worked quickly as he could with fumbling fingers, and he tied the rag tightly around Lance’s arm, well above the elbow, and he reached for his Bayard. He hesitated for a second, fingers hovering over it at his side. Allura said to use the sharpest object they had, and that was it, even if it was brutal. “Pidge, I don't care if you have to tie him down and sit on him- make sure he doesn't move .”

Pidge nodded tersely, before plopping herself on Lance’s lap roughly, almost as if her legs had given out on her, but she was strong enough to pin Lance’s squirmish self down, and as soon as Pidge was situated, Keith reached forwards to grasp Lance’s injured hand as carefully as he could to avoid the possibility of hurting Lance further.

Lance shook his head dazedly, squirming underneath Pidge. Lance brought his tearful gaze up at Keith, shaking his head still in his frantic plea. “K-Keith, buddy… You-you’re not gonna-- you-you can't do this--”

Keith clamped down hard on his lip, feeling sweat drip from his forehead before he closed his eyes tightly and briefly.

Do it. You have to do it now.

Four-

Three-

Two--

And then he sucked a sharp breath before he thrusted the blade of his sword forward and pierced the sharp blade completely through the flesh and bone, severing just below Lance’s elbow.

Lance screamed and immediately drew what was left of his bleeding arm back. The part Keith cut off dropped to the ground with a soft ‘ thunk ’, that even with Lance’s screams, echoed inside the Green lion. Pidge and Keith shifted away from the sight of it, and tears immediately dripped down Lance’s cheeks, pattering onto the armor of his thighs. Clean red blood slowly started beading up along the end of Lance’s arm, and dripping down to mingle with the salty tears on Lance’s legs.

Keith hopped backwards, swiftly making his way to the back of the Green Lion’s cockpit, looking for another bit of clean cloth to stop the bleeding. He shifted through a box for a minute, before finding one of Hunk’s old bandanas, smelling faintly of sweat and oil, but it was all that was there. He brought it over to Lance and grabbed Lance’s arm maybe a little too roughly. He wrapped the orange bandana tightly around the open gash, since they couldn’t do anything more with it while not at the Castle.

Though, when Keith glanced out the window next, they were already entering Green’s hanger at the Castle. Keith hadn’t even noticed they’d still been moving, since he’d been so focused on … Helping Lance. Pidge reached forward to grasp Green’s controls, coming to the same realization that Keith was.

As soon as Green landed, Allura and Coran were practically flying into the hanger. Coran was holding a large needle with luminescent blue fluid, pacing in place, waiting for Green to open. As soon as Green was crouched, and her hatch open, Coran rushed up the foyer and into the cockpit, over by Lance’s side. Pidge jumped off of Lance’s lap and stood over beside Keith. She latched onto his arm tightly and bent her head down. She didn’t want to watch that needle- or Lance. She was feeling weak legged and the bile in her stomach threatened her.

Without an explanation, Coran plunged the needle into Lance’s injured arm and inserted the fluid into his system.

Lance tried to jerk away, but was held down by Coran’s free arm pinning his shoulder down. “Jesus fu-- Coran!” he exclaimed, voice cracking slightly. “What is that?!”

“It’s something to counter any of the infection left in your system.” he explained, pulling the needle out as gently as he could. He patted Lance’s arm lightly after and looked him over. “I’m sure Keith managed to stop it in time, but… Never hurts to take an extra precaution. We don't want to lose you.” he admitted.

Keith flinched slightly at Coran’s words, and peeked down at Lance’s severed arm on the ground; it wasn’t even bleeding, it was just turning darker purple, and even black in some places, seeming to shrivel up. He looked away with a slight sneer, and glanced over to Pidge. Her mouth was tight in a firm line, and her grasp on Keith’s arm was almost vice-like, but Keith didn’t say anything; he knew exactly how she was feeling.

“C’mon, my boy,” Coran said softly, and grasped under Lance’s arm, pulling him up and out of the chair as gently as he could. “Time to go to the healing pod and get rested up for a while.”

“W-what’s gonna h-happen now?” Lance stuttered in a murmur, curling in on himself slightly, biting in his lip that started to quiver.

Coran glanced over at Pidge and Keith, sharing a worried look with them. Turning back to Lance, he offered him a warm smile, “We’ll get your arm healed up, and we’ll make a new arm for you, how does that sound?”

Keith didn’t hear Lance’s answer as they walked away, and once they stepped out, Keith found himself stumbling forwards into Pidge’s pilot seat, plopping down ungracefully. He hunched forwards and he buried his head in his shaking hands. The look of disbelief on Lance’s face just before he screamed kept flashing behind Keith’s eyelids whenever he tried to blink to clear his vision. He tried to rub his shaking hands over his eyes, but quickly gave up when he couldn’t get his hands to do what he wanted them to do, and he'd end up rubbing his eyes too hard if he tried right now anyways.

Pidge knelt in front of Keith and grasped his shaking hands tightly in her smaller ones. “Hey,” she said soothingly, eyes searching his face. “He’ll be fine... You- you did good . You probably saved him, even if he doesn’t know it yet..”

Keith nodded slightly at her voice. Even though he was looking at her, he could hardly see her without bleary his vision had gotten. He tried to calm his erratic breathing, but the image of Lance’s severed arm and cries wouldn't leave- it made the feeling worse. He did that to Lance???

He rubbed his thumbs over Pidge’s hands lightly, before pulling out of her grasp, and turning to stand up. Coran and Lance had already left, and were out of the hanger, presumably on the way to a healing pod, but Keith hadn’t even heard them go. “The-They left right?” He asked Pidge.

Pidge nodded her head. “Yeah… Keith...I think you need to go lay down…”

Keith just nodded. He had to will his legs to cooperate, to walk out of the Green Lion and out of her chamber. He was going to go to the healing pods first, just to check on Lance again. He stumbled down the hall a few times, and even had to use the wall as a support some of the way there, but he eventually made it to the cryo pods.

Lance was already asleep in one of them, the same one he’d been placed in all those years ago, after the Castle was hijacked. He had been there a few times after that too… they all have, but it felt like Lance had seen it the most; though it had been awhile since then. Keith stumbled up the steps to stand in front of Lance’s still form. Coran must have stripped him of his remaining armour, and left him in the black undersuit. The orange bandana was still wrapped tightly around the end of his arm, steadily staining red. Keith crumbled to the floor in front of the cryo pod, and looked down at his hands, tightened into fists on the cold floor.

This was all my fault , Keith thought. If only I’d been faster… Not distracted, then Lance would be in one piece… What can I even SAY to Lance once he wakes up? He banged a fist against the floor harshly, and felt a tear slip down his cheek. He looked up, and into his own reflection in the cryo pod’s glass; his face was a ghostly shade of pale, and his eyes were already rimmed in red, exposing how stressed he really was. Eyes watering, he peered further up at Lance’s still form. Keith had known that to save Lance, he’d need to sever his arm, but…

He shook his head quickly at himself

Stupid, stupid-

He’s going to hate you-

A broken sob wracked through Keith’s body. It was his job to protect his teammates, protect Lance , and he felt like failed terribly today. He’d left himself exposed to the enemy, and Lance had paid the price for his stupidity. Quickly peeking back behind him, making sure nobody was there, he let the dam finally break; tears finally wept freely from his eyes, splattering over the dark floor in quick succession. His hands were still shaking when he brought them up in front of his face, or what he could see of his hands through a watery gaze. Lance had never endangered his life on the battlefield, and this is how he repays him?

Not stopping to think about how that one action and decision would affect Lance for the rest of his life--

Even if it was the right and only thing they could do- it still wasn't supposed to be his decision. He took that from Lance even after Lance begged him not to.

Keith let out another sob and pressed his head against the glass between he and Lance. “I’m sorry...I’m sorry Lance--” he choked out through tears. He was a mess right now, snot, tears and saliva dripping from his face. He was a wreck and he felt awful . Lance would never forgive him for this. He was going to lose so much because of Keith’s reckless decision today… Didn't stop to think about how Lance was now going to be out of commission from the team… That thought made his stomach lurch. That was all Lance had… Blue and his team. And now he was going to be ripped away from that-

I should have waited--

It could have waited- but I got so scared--

I'm even more scared now… I'm going to lose him.

Keith wiped his face with his hands, sniffling and standing up unsteadily on his feet. The floor below him seeming to disappear under him, and he felt like he was suspended over a black ocean. Guilt and dread filling up every nerve in his body now.

I can't put Lance through this-- I shouldn’t have put him through this.

Keith blinked slowly, staring blankly down at his feet. He could feel his heart pump in his chest, and with each painful beat it took, it felt like he got weaker on his feet, and he wobbled slightly even while standing stiff. He sucked in a breath from his nose finally and picked his head up.

He didn't know what was going to happen between him and Lance next, but he felt wary of what was to come.

He's going to hate me-- as if he didn't already...

Chapter Text

Lance felt the bed beside him dip underneath the weight of another body climbing in behind him. He didn't have to turn around to guess who it was; he knew the pattern and feel of the body climbing in well enough to know it was Keith. He was always careful climbing into the bed after him, trying to be undisturbing and gentle. Unlike Lance, who would’ve just thrown himself into the bed and threw his arms around his tired raven-haired lover. Lance would often wake him up with kisses to his face and lace their fingers together, just to pull Keith’s hand up to his mouth and kiss each one of his fingers, hoping Keith wouldn’t pull them away. He gave a small smile at the wall before turning over and smiling up at Keith. Keith’s mauve eyes snapped up at the movement and met his halfway. A light blush formed on Keith's cheeks before he blinked and smiled warmly back at him.

" Good morning …" Keith purred, his smile widening and flashing his pretty teeth before he leaned down and gave Lance a chaste kiss on the mouth.

Lance sighed lovingly against the kiss and threw both of his arms around Keith's neck. "Good morning, you fucking nerd … Trying to sneak out of my bed?" he asked, giving Keith a crooked grin.

Keith chuckled softly and shook his head. "No, I would never . What makes you think I would do that?" he whispered, before sliding himself on top of Lance as subtly as he could.

Lance hummed in fake thought, grin growing broader by the second. "Mmhm, well, you just left didn't you? What if I got cold? Or spontaneously lost my arm?!"

Keith suddenly cocked a brow, shifting his body on top of Lance until he got comfortable. "How does someone spontaneously lose their arm, Lance?"

Lance shrugged. "Dunno. Sometimes I worry that it's not going to be there when I wake up."

Keith blinked at Lance, eyes squinting in focus as they flicked back in forth between Lance's own two blue eyes for a long moment. Keith just shrugged, threading one set of his fingers through Lance's hair. “Don’t be ridiculous…” he murmured, and he bent his head down to kiss Lance’s lips again, a tender and loving one before he shifted his attention to the exposed neck and jaw beneath him. Keith lightly moved his lips up the line of the firm jaw, stopping and nosing Lance’s ear with another soft kiss that caused a deep blush to form on Lance’s cheeks.

Keith’s breath fanned lightly over his ear, causing a shiver to crawl up his spine. He gripped onto Keith's clothed back, and squeezed his legs around Keith’s waist. Lance was about to open his mouth to say something to him, but Keith started first.

“Lance,” Keith started, and paused. He lifted up and away from Lance slightly to look at him again, with a more serious face, “I only did it to save you… I swear I wouldn’t hurt you”

Lance blinked and furrowed his brow in confusion. “...Did what?”

Keith bit his lip and brushed Lance's arms from around his neck and he lightly trailed his fingers from inside of Lance’s elbow to the tips of his fingers on his right hand. Worried mauve eyes followed the trail he made, “Did that …” Keith paused for second, and added, “I’m sorry”.

Lance glanced down at his arm, but it was fine. It was still there. He even moved his fingers and it was fine. He peered up at Keith and raised both of his brows. “I - Uh - I’m confused...” Lance admitted, making a face.

Keith sighed, “Just forgive me, okay?” he whispered and pulled away from him suddenly.

“Wait-- for what??” Lance asked, feeling more like he was shouting it suddenly, but he knew he wasn't really shouting. If any, he hardly heard his voice at all, but it certainly felt like he was shouting. He quickly snapped forward and reached to pull Keith back but he couldn't seem to grab him fast enough---

And suddenly, his blue eyes snapped opened at the sound of the Castle’s alarm going off, and he was staring up at the blank surface above his bunk. He blinked once and slowly with a long exhausted sigh rolling from his lips before he turned his head one way, then the other. He glanced around his room for any evidence of a visitor in his room, but the room was still and unchanged from the last thing he saw before falling asleep. It was just him in here.

Oh…

It was just a dream…?

Lance groaned and rolled over on his side- the side with his missing arm. He awkwardly rolled over on top of what was left of it, wobbling slightly without his hand to adjust for the weight distribution. He laid on top of his half arm because he had the habit of scratching and tearing at the discoloured skin where it had scarred now whenever he was awake. Whether it was a subconscious or conscious action he wasn’t quite sure. At least when it was under him he couldn't do it, especially with the growing agitation from the Castle’s alarm going off. That arm was the reason he no longer had to respond to it the same way he had to weeks ago. It had put him out of commission, ‘for the time being’, as the rest of team liked to say.

He blinked tiredly at the wall and rubbed a hand over his face, trying to block out that unnerving alarm blaring throughout the Castle. He didn't even bother launching out of bed for that anymore; he can't pilot Blue, so the rest just had to make do without him , and without forming Voltron.

It has been nearly three weeks since his mission, the one where he got injured and lost his arm. Since then, he hasn’t been able to go out on a mission with the team, even when he was needed. They thought that by now they'd have something going for an arm, but Pidge and Hunk ran into a bit of difficulty finding parts. It didn’t help that they weren't quite sure how they were going to get this arm to actually work with him. They weren't biomechanics after all, and all this work they were putting into it just seemed fruitless at this point. Every day, every week that passed he started thinking about how much harder it would be to get back into the action both mentally and physically.

Lance shifted on the bed and lifted his arms out in front of him, gazing dazedly down at the… Stump that was now his right arm. His upper lip twitched in a moment of disgust with its image. It wasn’t healing properly like it should have been, thanks to his habit of scratching at it. Even after the being in the healing pod for over a day and half he tore the skin back open only after a few hours. And it was… Purplish too, and gross in Lance's opinion, which was part of the reason he couldn't leave it alone. Hunk had even trimmed his nails to try and prevent him from scarring it further, but he felt like a dog with mites; he’d do anything to relieve that invisible itch. Leaving it alone just wasn’t an opinion, and it got worse the more anxious he felt . Call it a nervous habit if you will… he didn't know how else to put it.

Allura was apparently working on plans to counter it, since his new arm was taking longer than anticipated. She was worried he'd end up damaging the tissue and nerves beyond their repair, which would leave them no choice but to amputate even further up his arm, which would cause the whole process to be dragged out even longer than it already was. But everything she tried either knocked him out for days at a time, or left him even more lethargic than he already was. So now he was turning down any sort of medicinal aid, trying to tough it out so he wasn’t just half-there or passed out in the corner.

Lance threw the covers back and stood up, wobbling there on his own feet. He staggered for a second before he leaned against the wall for support. He breathed slowly through his nose until he felt like he could take those few steps away from the wall and make his way over to the corner where he’d thrown his clothes the night before. He wasn’t sure when he fell asleep last night, or what time it even was now. Even with the Castle’s alarm going off, he didn’t really care about getting up for it anymore. He couldn’t join his team wherever they were headed, but he knew he was still expected to meet up with them. He was still part of the team, just not as active in it as he could be if he could still pilot Blue.

He stepped over to the corner wall of his stuffy room and bent down to grab his shirt from yesterday. He had to steady himself against the wall when he stood back up to stop the world from spinning. He squeezed his eyes shut for a long moment shook his head until the feeling went away. He threw his usual blue and white long-sleeved shirt over his head as well as he could with one functioning arm. Threading his arms through it, he pulled it down slowly against his ribcage, hiding the protruding bones beneath his skin that were more prominent than last week. They were there and progressively getting worse because he stopped eating. Not like he really planned to. He just had little to no appetite anymore; everything tasted bitter and unappetizing, and made him sick to his stomach. Last time Hunk had gotten him to sit down and try to eat a full meal, it didn't stay down for long; just long enough until Hunk left the room. The last thing Lance wanted was to worry his best friend more than he already was.

He pushed the extra fabric up above his elbow on his right arm, so it wouldn’t ridiculously dangle and flop around at his side and make him feel even more self-conscious about the missing limb. He let a sigh out from his nostrils and stepped over to the door, taking quicker steps to get past his mirror on the dresser. He's been avoiding that to the best of his abilities lately. He knew that looking in the mirror too long would ensue panic from reality hitting him. It already hit him hard enough, because he couldn't do anything normally; he couldn’t train, since he couldn’t use his Bayard as it was still broken, and he couldn’t even do hand-to-hand combat without a new functioning arm.

He couldn’t sit and chill with Hunk hardly at all anymore, since all Hunk did was worry and make it awkward. He couldn't bother Pidge while she had so much on her plate right now, one of which was work with both Coran and Hunk to build and program a fully functioning and working arm. That seemed to be taking forever, but they ran into quite a few stand-stills. They had a hard time duplicating the technology in Shiro’s arm, and the wires they were working with ending up shorting out on them, and finding parts to replace it was difficult when they were working with scrap. He also couldn’t follow Coran or Shiro without feeling useless, since they helped Allura most days, strategizing and keeping the Castle’s maintenance up to date- something Lance definitely couldn’t even help with anymore.

And the only other person left to occupy his empty time was Keith … And Keith didn’t seem to want anything to do with him anymore. He’d hardly spoke more than a couple of words to him since the accident, and when Lance tried to knock on his bedroom door a couple of days later to talk to him about what happened, and finally confess, Keith avoided him entirely. He apologized and told him he ‘just can’t talk right now’, but that behavior has continued on for the past few weeks now, and it didn’t get any better. Keith was definitely avoiding him. When Lance tried to catch his eye in team meetings, Keith just avoided his gaze and stood at the polar opposite end of the room. Lance couldn’t even get a word in with him once the meetings were over, since Keith would escape as fast as humanly possible. And considering Keith was the Red Paladin… That was pretty damn fast.

Lance sighed and dropped his head, letting his forehead rest against the cool metal door in front of him.

Why won’t Keith talk to me …

I just need to tell him how I feel...

He lifted his only hand up and pressed it against the door to open it, stumbling out of his room on wobbly legs into the cool, dim hallway. He suddenly regretted not having snatched his jacket off the floor when he stepped out of his room. He could have turned around and got it, but the door already closed behind him. He didn't bother going through the trouble of opening again, even if it was a task.

When he made his way to the bridge, the rest of the team were already in their lions from the looks of it, and Allura and Coran were giving them coordinates to a Galran ship that was approaching. Shit. Second time this week that a ship has found them, or crossed paths with them. They've learned that they didn't always have to interfere with a passing ship, because sometimes it was just a ship and not the soldiers. It was odd, but it seemed like there was more and more of that happening. Allura and Coran reason that these ships were no longer of use to the Galra, and they set them off to float abandoned in space, hence why these ships were also stripped of all remaining weapons and technology. They were literal ghost ships, but the team still had to check them out whenever one got close.

The last one actually had passengers left on it. Prisoners . Dead ones, though, and Lance was pretty grateful he hadn't been on that one mission, but he heard more than enough about it to make him feel like he was there, and it made him sick. As if he didn't already question leaving the team, but that kind of stuff made the dread of being part of this team even worse. Keith was usually the one that pulled him out of that dreadful feeling and reminded him of why they were here, or at least distracted him from it. Lance's eyes flicked over to the screen when he started thinking about Keith, looking over to the panel with the Red Paladin in frame.

There he was.

Keith looked tired under his helmet in the dim red glow of his Lion’s cockpit. Looked like the call out had woken him up too. Lance stepped up behind Allura and Coran, peeking over their shoulders. He leaned against Coran’s back and rested his chin on top of his shoulder warily, staring at Keith’s face on the video feed. He must have startled Coran a bit, by the startled ‘oh, Lance’ and glance back, but then Coran turned back and focused back at the screen, one hand on his chin.

“ Allura, I think it’s just another dead ship. ” Lance heard Shiro chime in from the grainy feed.

Allura nodded and shifted on her feet. “That’s what I thought… Make sure it’s empty and then we can leave it alone. We'll have to start putting some kind of tags on these things. Why are they letting ships go?”

“ Building bigger and better ships, maybe… ” Keith mumbled, letting out a tired sigh and he roughly rubbed his face under his helmet. “ They've got to be doing something… Just don’t know what yet. ”

“ Think we'll find out soon?” Hunk asked, and Shiro could be seen shaking his head.

“ I don’t think we want to find out right now. We don't have a Blue Paladin anymore, so we can't form Voltron, remember? Right now, we’re defenseless against an attack like that until we find another pilot for Blue. ” Shiro said aloud and Keith scowled at the last line, teeth making an appearance from under his lip in their show of disgust for the idea.

“ We HAVE a pilot for Blue - ” Keith started to snap before Shiro’s voice came over his.

“ Who’s out of commission for who knows how long , Keith-- I know it’s not what anyone wants to hear, but we have to find another Paladin, and soon. ” Shiro didn't notice that their little Blue Paladin was in ear range behind Allura and Coran, and Lance flinched slightly at his words. Shiro made it sound like Lance wasn't still a part of the team… Well, maybe he wasn't… Not where they needed him to be anymore, but it wasn't like he wished for this, being excluded from the team because he was made handicap. Coran and Allura both coughed awkwardly, Allura obviously gesturing her head towards Lance behind Coran, and Shiro’s face visibly flushed.

Huh...well that’s not awkward...or depressing..

The rest had glanced at their screen too, noticing Lance was standing there behind Coran quietly. Keith’s shoulders dropped in his panel and he turned his head away from view. It took awhile for anyone to say anything until Hunk opened his mouth to fill the awkward moment; though he didn't make it much better.

“ Let’s just… Get this ship cleared and get back to the castle, yeah? I... I think we have a bit to talk about. ”

Thanks guys, I'm not offended… Lance thought, sinking back on his heels and taking a step back from Coran. Happy for at least a second that Keith had tried to bite the idea, but Lance already knew it was coming.

Only Keith and Shiro could be heard humming in agreement to Hunk.

“Paladins, be quick.” Allura said finally, and closed all of the tabs except for Shiro’s, but she muted their mic and walked off from her post. Lance rubbed his neck warily and felt himself sigh when Keith’s face was no longer on the screen. He wanted to open the tab up again with Keith and talk to him, but he knew it would be awkward. Even more awkward with Allura and Coran behind him because he knew damn well he would have started sobbing, but he was aching to hear Keith's voice speak to him again. Wanted to see Keith's face again. He felt like he hadn't seen it in forever. Not his soft smile normally hidden behind his plump and pouty lips, or pretty violet eyes that he had to brush dark strands out of the way to admire fully; and of that moment when Keith would really light up and smile at him. He noticed that, he loved to notice that, the difference in Keith's eyes and his beautiful smile when it was just the two of them. And it wasn’t like Keith didn’t have a genuine smile around everyone else; he did, but the one Keith had when it was just the two of them was so different. He knew he made Keith happy, and Keith made him happy, but now that was all probably ruined  by how things have been between them lately. And Lance knew it was his own fault for that. All he knew for certain was that he was pining to high hell for Keith. Aching and suffering more without him than ever.

“Lance, how are you feeling?” Allura asked, disrupting his sudden train of thought. She was trying to sound as casual as possible. “You slept through a few cycles. Are you doing okay?”

Lance shrugged, narrowing his eyes over to her and he rubbed at his half arm awkwardly when he got chill. If his other arm were still there, his arms would have been crossed in front of him to keep the chills away. “Uhm… As okay as I can be…?” he said slowly.

“We're still worki--”

“I know…” Lance cut her off. “Still working on getting this new arm for me, but there's a problem, right?”

Allura’s expression changed to one of concern, but she pressed her lips into a thin line and nodded. “A few…” she admitted solemnly. “Lance, It’s been three weeks already… I can't let my team be without a useful Paladin for Blue. We have to find another one to take your place, do you understand?” she started, sounding sheepish to have to admit it outloud to him like this, but Lance figured this something like this would happen sooner rather than later without him having two working arms.

“ Yeeeeep ...” Lance drawled, popping the ‘p’ at the end. He shifted on his feet and stared at the ground, not really thinking about anything to be honest. All thinking kind of just stopped all of a sudden, sending him into a static feeling, but it was hard to focus on any one thing again.  

Coran had finally moved behind him, clasping a hand on his shoulder but Coran still didn't say a word. He was unusually quiet, but Lance didn't have the thought to question it.

“This will only be temporary. As you know, Blue chose you, and you two have a bond probably better than anyone else with their lion-- What I'm saying is, you're still a part of this team, Lance. But for now, we have to find another pilot compatible with Blue. We have to still be able to form Voltron.” she explained as strongly as she could, and all Lance could do was shrug and sway his head from side to side idly.

“Oooo-kay…” He offered.

Why are you trying to explain this to me, I think I already understand…

“This will be brought up in a meeting with the whole team later… I've already discussed it with Coran and Shiro, but I'll have to make an official announcement to the rest so we're all on the same page here… Lance, are you sure you understand?” she asked suddenly, and stepped over to him, placing her cold gentle hands on his thinning cheeks. She wasn’t exactly making a face, but Lance could tell she wanted to make one, for one reason or another… He could never tell what reason that was. “We aren't replacing you.” she reassured with a light pat on his cheeks.

Lance wrinkled his nose, only giving her one more glance before nodding back at the ground. Right now he couldn't hold a stare if he tried. He knew he looked awful, and that the team was worried, but the less he held eye contact the less likely they were to bring this up. Or at least it seemed to work like that, because he couldn’t see their worried gazes or questioning eyes. “Mmhm… If you keep saying that, I might think you ssssecretly are.” he cracked, wagging his finger at Allura playfully and forcing one of his signature dumb grins to appear on his face to soothe her and Coran.

“We aren’t.” Allura said again with a sigh.

When Lance glanced at Coran, he looked like he was lost in deep thought, staring and blinking at the ground, his lips pulled to one side under his mustache while he thought. He almost wished he knew what was on Coran’s mind right now. It wasn't normal for him to be so quiet and lost in thought like this, but Lance still didn't say anything to address him, and now the room was awkwardly silent. Allura's hands had thankfully left his cheeks already, and now she was pacing around the virtually empty room. She had put her ear piece in and she was muttering quietly with her hand slightly over her mouth. She was probably talking to Shiro, no doubt. Confirming their plan of seeking a new Paladin for Blue now that their current one knew of the plans. He could give them credit for that though, at least they weren’t trying to drop a bomb on him.

Lance sighed and brushed Coran’s hand from his shoulder, striding over to his designated seat and ungracefully plopping down. “Doesn’t Blue have to choose her new pilot?” he asked, staring at the back of Allura’s white head. Her hair actually braided today, in a long fishtail braid behind her back. He wondered who braided it for her, or if she had done it herself. Probably herself.

Allura turned on her heel to look at Lance, seeming a bit surprised by the question and she hummed in thought, dropping her hand from it’s hovering place over her mouth to be placed on her hip. “Not… Necessarily … Blue can deny a pilot if she chooses to, if she senses another more capable, but, Blue doesn’t have much of choice to be picky right now. She’ll accept her best candidate.”

Lance cocked a brow at her and tilted his head forward, pursing his lips together. “Hmm… So, you’re going to force a new pilot on her regardless of what she might feel about it?”

Allura shook her head at Lance. “No, no. I told you, she can deny a pilot if she isn’t confident in them-”

“Okay, so do you guys even have a list of potential pilots for her? Or are we just going to hop around planet to planet, taking applications from the first non-Galra civilization we see?”

Allura looked like she wanted to roll her eyes at him, but she refrained and sucked in a breath, shifting on her feet again. “Not quite. There are a few places I’d like for us to check with though, for a potential pilot.”

Great…

-

It only took about an hour and a half for the Paladins to get back from clearing the ghost ship, none of them coming back with anything interesting to say about it, and Lance wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. The mood around table was heavy, but that was probably because of the topic about to be brought up as soon as either Shiro or Allura found the words to use. Shiro didn't even look at Lance once when he came into the room- not that it bothered Lance too much- he expected that much after the awkwardness and guilt he probably felt from earlier. But what did bother Lance, was that the rest hadn't looked at him either, not even Keith. But maybe that was to be expected as well… What wasn't expected was that Keith actually sat next to him.

Lance almost wanted to breathe a sigh of relief. I guess he can still tolerate me after all… Lance thought, considering this was the first time they sat together in weeks… though, Keith was turned with his back to him. But if he were brave enough, he could have easily brushed their legs together. He had to shut that idea down quickly though, worrying that maybe it would make Keith mad and he’d end up moving away from him. And it wasn't like there wasn't any where else for Keith to sit; there were plenty of seats else where around the table, or if he really wanted, he could have just stood away from the table with his arms crossed across his chest like he usually did; that was usually the signal to leave him alone.

Allura cleared her throat, leaning back in her seat and crossing her legs. “Well, there's no real easy way to say this, and I'm pretty sure you all know by now, but our team has to look for another pilot for Blue-- ah- er- a temporary one, of course… Just until we get this arm of Lance’s like brand new.” Allura said, looking over at Lance and giving him a weak nearly-apologetic smile. Both Shiro and Hunk had looked over at Lance as well, brows furrowed as they studied over Lance’s expression. He didn't really have one right now. He’d ran over this scenario ten times already in the last hour and half, and this seemed less dramatic than what his mind had made it seem it would be. Still hurt a bit, but he couldn't oppose this. This was to keep the rest of his team- his family - safe and alive. Opposing it would be stupid, no matter how he felt about having someone else take his place as the Blue Paladin.

“Yeah, I got the memo an hour ago… Purr-ty sure everyone did.” Lance said finally, rolling his eyes. His voice cut into the long awkward silence, making him feel even worse about the whole thing, but he kept an mildly expressionless face. He let just a faint smile linger on his face, hoping that it wouldn't concern anyone despite how obviously fake it was.

Shiro’s eyes cut over to Keith, and he shook his head slightly with a worried brow at the burning mauve eyes that were boring into his head.

Keith finally pushed away from the table, shaking his head irritatedly. “This isn't a good idea. We can't just FIND another Paladin for Blue when we have one ! Pidge and Hunk just need to-- to work faster! You need to work faster!” Keith growled, snapping his head and glowering over at quiet Pidge. She hadn’t said a word since they got back. She didn't really need to up until now.

Pidge made a face and raised her lip at Keith’s comment, picking her head up to return the ugly glare at Keith. “What do you think I've been doing?! This isn't an easy task in the least! But you wouldn't know, because you aren't helping!!!” she snapped back, and her bawled fists hovered over the table. Keith might have been her best friend, but the two of them were still hot-headed and were capable of biting each other's head off at any given moment during an argument.

Hunk jumped in his seat beside her at the outburst happening, and his face flushed. “Guys please don't start this!” he cried, jutting his bottom lip out in a disappointed pout. “Arguing isn't going to help this situation any-”

“I'm not trying to argue!!” Pidge defended herself, taking her arms back and crossing them the same as Keith. “Keith, you're being more impatient than Lance is! And it’s his arm! I think you need to fucking chill!”

“I can’t be chill about this! We're NOT replacing Lance!”

“You act like I’M the one that made this decision-- ! ”

“We-Well y-you didn’t stop me!-- Yo-you didn’t stop it-- stop me- didn’t stop me-” Keith stammered out, face going pale and his breath stopped for a moment there before he shook his head and covered his head with his arms with a groan. Pidge and Lance both knew what he meant by that instantly, and Lance swallowed shallowly.

He was suffering with guilt. That’s what it was. He could tell by the crack in his voice that Keith was trying to stuff it down- but it was out now.

The realization was a little bit confusing to Lance at first honestly, considering how much Keith has ignored him… But it made sense the more he thought about it. He’s ignoring him because he feels guilty... Lance sighed to himself. Why didn't he just say that… He didn't blame Keith for any of it. It was just something unfortunate that happened, and Keith was doing what he was advised by Allura at the time. He was already-- or at least mostly - over that whole ordeal… And he wanted Keith to know that. Coran had shown him what the test results came back with; whatever kind of poison he was shot with was incredibly deadly, if it wasn't for Keith's quick actions, he probably wouldn't be breathing here right now. Keith saved his life . He wasn’t bitter enough to hate Keith over that- not even a bit.  

Shiro shifted forward and opened his mouth to cut in, but Allura beat him to the punch. “No one said we were replacing him, Keith.” Allura interrupted calmly, waiting to continue when Keith finally picked up his head again. His hair a mess over his eyes now. “...I know you feel guilty, but you can't rush Pidge or Hunk with this! They are working as fast as they can. So for now we must find a stand-in for Lance. You have to understand that.” Allura said, narrowing her jewel-like eyes on Keith.

Keith winced away from Allura’s eyes, silently gritting his teeth and he whipped his head away, too irritated and restless now to hold a gaze with her, and he sank back against his chair finally. “...Why can't you just be the stand in, then?”

Allura hummed and tilted her head one way, and then the next. “I would, but I am the commander’s head here at the castle, and that's where I think I should stay. Remember, it’s Coran and I here who help keep the five of you safe where your backs are cornered… And I believe having another experienced pilot with our crew would benefit us. Especially if we find someone suitable as a stand in not just for the Blue Lion, but for the rest as well.”

Lance cocked his brow but didn't comment. So Allura has plans to keep someone extra around… That idea was almost weird... It's always just been the seven of them on the Castle of Lions. Apart from a few survivors that they've had stay a few nights here and there until they found somewhere safe for them. But Allura was talking about having another permanent resident around as some kind of back up… Or at least that's what it seemed like she was getting at.

The rest of team seemed to still around the table, also considering what Allura meant. She chose her words carefully, and she knew full well what she was getting at. Something about the last few weeks must have scared her, and now she was preparing to keep this team up, mercy on them or not.

“Whatever… I just feel like having a stand-in will cause a stand-still for this new arm of Lance’s…” Keith muttered quietly, hand moving to rub at the back of his neck. He avoided gazes with everyone around the table, his eyes down on the edge of the table in front of him.

“... Keith, that's not what will happen at all. We'll make sure it won't.” said Shiro.

Pidge shook her head over at Keith too. “No. If any, this should help us.”

“Mhm.” Hunk agreed, giving a light smile that eased Keith when he peeked up at it.

Lance kept his eyes on Keith's back the whole time, remaining silent there behind him.

Lance finally stood, glancing over at the rest before he put his head down shyly. “Uh… Anyways, I think this is pretty much decided, right? A new team member… Hoo-rah…” he said flatly, but no one seemed to notice.

Allura nodded her head, looking over the rest of them as well. “I-- I believe so…” she said contently. She was obviously satisfied that there was not much fuss around the table anymore.

Lance bit his bottom lip, and glanced at Keith’s back again. A part of him wanted to flick his shoulder and tell him to follow him out the room because they needed to talk. They really did, and he was hopeful he'd get Keith to finally talk to him again today. He sucked up the hesitation and reached out to Keith’s shoulder to paw at his shirt lightly until Keith turned and faced him. Violet eyes glanced up to meet his through ebony strands. Lance felt his heart jerk in chest, too thankful that Keith's eyes finally met his for once this week, but he couldn't just stare into them as much as he wanted to. He gestured his head over to the door and mouthed “follow me” to Keith, before he meekly excused himself out of the room. He made his trek slow back to his own quarters, waiting to hear Keith follow behind. Keith was taking longer than anticipated, so Lance went into his room ahead of Keith. A light knock on the door from the other side sounded after a few moments, before Lance opened it and pulled Keith in. He wrapped his one arm around him in the best hug he could manage, which wasn't too well of a hug, being that he was pretty weak... Keith stiffened and let out a surprised squeak at the sudden embrace and how Lance had ducked his head shamelessly into the crook of Keith’s neck. He wasn’t wasting any time nestling up to the warmth harbored there that he admittedly missed so much. He moved when Keith flinched under him, and picked his head back up to meet Keith’s gaze, who was still startled by his actions. His eyes were wide and cheeks were flushed a rosey colour against his porcelain skin.

“Lance?! Wh-what-- are you doing…?” Keith gasped, stuttering over his sentence. His hands automatically moved up to grab Lance's thin arms and push him away, but he stopped himself and hesitated over Lance’s arms for a long enough moment to decidedly drop them.

“Hugging you, obviously, Keith…” Lance murmured with a sigh. He grasped the fabric on Keith’s back, unwilling to let go of him now that he had him in his arms-- or arm- once again. He let his forehead fall against Keith’s and he sighed again. “Why have you been avoiding me?” he asked finally, staring into the mauve eyes that were staring back still in what seemed like utter shock. Keith’s bottom lip quivered and he quickly bit down on it to make it stop, blinking a few times before he gave a slight shrug to Lance. He never opened his mouth to speak.

“Should I let go, or are you going to hug me back?” Lance asked, starting to sound defeated. Keith shook his head quickly to the question, eyes locked on Lance's but he looked nervous as hell. The bite on his bottom lip wasn’t preventing, or hiding the growing quiver in it too well. It took Keith a long minute, but eventually the hesitation wavered and he slowly wrapped his arms around Lance’s waist. His hands more hovered than touched; like he was afraid that putting his arms around Lance would break him or something.

“C’mon Keith, a proper hug. I’ll wait, make you suffer all day--” Lance goaded softly. He didn’t really want to get a rise out of Keith, but he was desperate to feel his warm, gentle hands on him again. The past few weeks have been rough, but they felt indefinitely harder without Keith.

“La-Lance-- Don't- I’m not-” Keith whimpered, then finally caved in and let his hands touch and hold Lance, pulling him closer to his warm body finally, and he tucked his head under Lance’s jaw, hiding his face.

Lance nearly sobbed in relief when he finally felt Keith’s arms settle, tucking himself into Lance’s chest. God, Finally... He missed those hands- his arms- him . He almost didn’t notice the tremor that started running through Keith’s body, turning into perceptible shaking, until Keith let out a broken sob. Keith’s knees weakened under him so much that Lance stumbled back, and they both slid down the wall. Lance’s frail self was unable to support Keith up.

“K - Keith?”

Keith buried his head in the crook of Lance’s neck, wracking sobs taking over his body. “H-how can you j-just hug me l-like this?!” he stuttered out sharply, clutching tightly onto the back of Lance’s shirt. “After what I did?!”

Lance blinked, his thin cheeks flushing and he did the first thing that came to mind to soothe Keith; rubbing his hand soothingly on Keith’s back. “Uh… Maybe if you would've stopped avoiding me and just let me talk to you, then you would know how I feel about it…” Lance said with a sigh. “Keith, I'm not… I’m not angry with you over this incident, if that's what you think… I’m more mature than that.” Lance cracked, forcing a small smile, even if Keith hadn't seen it. He didn't mind Keith against his neck like this. It was warm and comforting to him, if not to Keith. “Did you think I'd be mad? After you saved my life?”

“I don't feel like I saved it- I feel like I took it away--” Keith sobbed, and he moved one of his arms from around Lance to rub at his wet face. “I - I didn't - stop to think ab-about what you - wanted .” he said through each crying hic.

Lance shifted under him, his legs bent under him starting to lose feeling but he didn't say anything about it. He didn't want Keith to move away from him, and he was fine being immobile on the floor until then. “Well… I wouldn't have wanted to die, that’s for sure…” Lance said nonchalantly with a slight shrug. “You saved my life… You didn't ruin it…”

I don't think.

Keith sucked in a few calming breaths, his face still on Lance’s shoulder and turned away from his neck now. He stared blankly at the baseboard beside them, unseeingly. “I don't feel like I did…”

“Well start feeling it,” Lance murmured, nuzzling his nose against Keith’s head, and he moved his hand from the base of Keith’s spine to curl up in the silky locks. God, he’d missed this. Missed the feeling of running his fingers through Keith’s hair… Holding him in his arms… Fuck , he’d just missed him . More than words could explain- though he wished he could find the words to tell him. He made a light fist in Keith’s hair, at the base of his neck, holding him close. “Because you didn’t ruin anything, Keith.”

Keith didn’t say anything for a few moments, just tucked his head more securely under Lance’s chin. Taking a deep breath, he asked “Don’t you feel like you’re being replaced? ...How are you okay with this?”

Lance shrugged slightly, staring down at the ground in front of them. “It makes sense to replace me… I’m of no use to the team right now, and you guys need to protect yourselves. Allura’s only doing her best in a difficult situation.”

“How can you just say that?” Keith breathed out, sounding dumbfounded. “You’re the Blue Paladin of Voltron, and you’re just giving up your place for someone else?!” He snapped, pushing his head and torso away from Lance.

Lance closed his eyes tightly, just for a brief second, and his grip on Keith’s hair tightened without meaning to. Enough to make Keith slap his arm away and glare- though Lance was sure the glare wasn’t necessarily because of that. “What choice do I have, Keith!? Make the team fall back because I can’t fall back? I-I’m not that fuckin’ selfish! Gees- I just… Want you -- my team- to be safe… And it’s not safe without a Blue Paladin is it? Tell me that it’s not!”  

“Th - The team could survive until we got you back--”

“And if not? Do you know how guilty I would feel?”

Keith bit his lip and shook his head, looking like he was growing frustrated. “Don’t talk to me about guilt. ”

Chapter Text

"-nce. . . Lance !” a feminine voice pulled Lance from his head. “Where is your head today?” Empty . He wasn't thinking of a thing; he didn't even feel like he was there at first until Allura had called him out. “Are you ready to go? ...Do you even want to go?" Allura asked seriously, her electric blue eyes hard on Lance’s.

He finally blinked and focused on her face, only to squint at her from the close proximity she had taken. He took a step back awkwardly, accidently stepping into Hunk, who was standing behind him. He squeaked and quickly gave a quiet apology to Hunk.

Hunk just shrugged and clamped a tender hand on Lance’s shoulder.

Lance blinked at him before he turned back to Allura. "I- uh- think so…" Lance answered finally.

Allura tilted her head slightly, eyeing him up and down carefully with pursed lips. She looked a bit concerned, but she didn’t voice that concern outwardly. Instead, she just rocked back on her heels and spun around, white curls blanketing her back, and she went on about the plan for their day. "We'll be landing on Thalassa very soon. There's someone there I would like us to meet. I think he might be our new pilot; I spoke with him and his father earlier, and Kiryn seems fit to be our backup pilot. He's experienced and highly trained in multiple fields that would be useful for the team--"

"So you're already set on someone?” Lance interrupted, raising a brow at the princess. “It's only been, like, two days since you mentioned finding another pilot." he stated, only to crinkle his nose when he realised that he sounded way disappointed. He didn’t want it to sound that way. They didn’t need to worry about him.But maybe he was a bit hurt by how fast this was happening… He knew shouldn't be, though. His team didn't owe him the risk they took going without a blue pilot, and he knew he just had to suck it up and sit back for now.

"...I wouldn’t say set, but of course. Time is critical here." Allura retorted.

"Right…" Lance said with a sigh.

Once they brought this new pilot on board, everything would be different… He already accepted that thought, and a million times over at that, for the sake of his team, but that didn't mean it didn't make him feel empty. Or completely replaceable.

Replaceable… That's what thought was bothering him. He was still replaceable, wasn't he? Maybe this new guy would be that much better than he was- and his team would decide that he's not needed here anymore.

Lance felt the color in his face drain away with the thought. Oh no, oh no- stop thinking that--

“Now, if you're going, go get dressed in the clothes I presented for you. We must get going, they’re expecting us in two vargas.” Allura said, nudging him off.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Lance had noticed his outfit on his dresser this morning, a crisp blue and silver vest with a three-quarter sleeve undershirt. The undershirt flared at the end of the sleeve, just barely covering the scarring flesh below his elbow. The black pants, shiny ankle boots, and undershirt had been easy enough to put on himself, but he’d needed Hunk to lace up the vest for him.

Hunk was dressed in dark grey pants, black shoes, and a flattering yellow long sleeved shirt. After insistence from Lance, he’d reluctantly rolled up the sleeves, which showed off his toned forearms (which would bring all the alien babes to him, Lance argued, but Hunk swore he only needed one alien lady in his life).

They were the first two to meet up with Allura and Coran on the bridge; Allura was dressed in a stunning floor length pale pink gown. Her hair was twisted up in an elegant bun of assumingly her own doing, with a few pieces pulled out to frame her face. She didn’t say anything to them, just smiled softly and turned back to peer at the screens in front of her. Coran was silent from his position at the far end of the bridge, staring intently at the maps in front of him. He side glanced over at Lance for a short second, giving a small smile.

“Hi m’boy, how are you feeling?” Conan asked.

Lance smiled and stepped over beside Coran. He was always happy to have Coran to talk to, even if it was just small talk. Coran knew of a few of secrets; he was the first to find out just how much Lance missed his home and family. And the best part about it was that Coran didn't judge. Not at all. If any, he always had something soothing to say, and Lance was actually thankful he was stuck on a ship in space with someone like him.

“Managing…” Lance answered, more or less honestly.

“Your arm hasn't been itching, has it?”

Lance shook his head. “Managing that too.”

Coran smiled and patted his shoulder reassuringly before turning his attention back to the monitor. “I hope you're ready to see this place- I have a feeling you'll like it there.”

Lance hummed and grinned slightly. “Are you telling me I should stay there?”

“Oh absolutely not! You've still got a job here!” Coran chirped, and Lance blushed.

“That's right… I do, huh?” Lance muttered, blinking dumbly for a moment. Of course I do… Lance sighed a moment after and rested his hip against the solid part of a panel. He tapped his foot as he watched Coran peck at the screen with his fingers.

Pidge had joined them a few moments later, dressed in similar attire to Lance; though her vest was green, and her undershirt had short sheer butterfly sleeves. It was slightly effeminate, but not overly so, like Pidge preferred. She wore a pair of shiny black boots with a slight heel, giving her an extra inch of height to glare up at Lance with. She’d managed to curl her hair back away from her face, and the curls bounced with each step she took. She stopped and stood on Lance’s right, across from Hunk who was on Lance’s left. Both of them were pretty quiet about the reason behind the stop on planet Thalassa, other than Hunk’s soft comment on how Lance’s undershirt looked good.

Shiro and Keith were the last two to reach the bridge, talking quietly to each other. Shiro was dressed simply in all black; black slacks, shoes, shirt and jacket. He even had the white tuft of hair above his forehead slicked back, making the pale scar on his nose stand out even more than usual. Shiro’s black attire really did compliment Allura’s soft pink dress wonderfully, giving them both a striking image.

Keith, on the other hand, was… Well, he was really something. Like a whole new sight to behold. Lance shifted awkwardly, biting down on his lip absentmindedly while he watched Keith stroll in.  His red button-up shirt was a slight mess, certainly kudos to his impatient nature, with the sleeves pushed up, but looked so nice and fitting for his character. And the tight fitting straight black pants-- oh, Lance noticed how they seemed to shimmer in the right light. And he had his normal accessory stretched on his wrist, his black hair tie in case he needed it later, as always… Lance liked when he tied his hair up off his neck, but for now, his hair was down and covering his pretty neck. He noticed that there was a small braid tucked into it, just behind his ear, barely noticeable, honestly, but Lance definitely noticed. Keith must have finally take Lance’s proddings to heart, to finally do something to his hair, even if it was just a nice tiny braid.

Keith avoided Lance’s gaze like a champ, and stepped quickly past the small group to make his way to the Red Paladin’s chair. He plopped down onto it heavily, and stared out into space resolutely, his chin propped in his hand as he slouched over the arm.

Lance sighed and turned his gaze elsewhere. He peered out towards the vastness of space in front of them. They were slowly advancing on planet Thalassa, from what he could tell from Coran’s screens. The planet itself was small, smaller than Earth, with celeste blue bodies of water, and pearly white and pink land. The screen showed a couple of images of parts of the land from the surface; a shimmering clear blue ocean sweeping up on a pearly white beach, pink vegetation, red mountains, and a large city with a wall around it. Lance’s gaze kept sweeping towards the water image; he hadn’t been able to swim in water that looked just like Earth’s since he left…

“Miss the blue ocean, don't you?” Pidge started, interrupting Lance’s thoughts, and her grip suddenly latched onto his right forearm, well above his elbow. “Maybe Allura will let us visit a bit longer and explore the planet.”

Lance hummed in answer, “Mhm.”

“Could throw you in the water and leave you there if you wanted?” she teased with a big playful grin.

Lance just snorted with a laugh and rolled his eyes. “Doesn’t sound so bad honestly. Depending on what the royal family thinks of me, I could just move right in.”

“What, and take that prince’s place in his own family?” she snorted, and shook her head lightly, her brown curls swishing along her shoulders.

“Well, that’s what this Kiryn guy’s doing here, isn’t he? Why not just swap places and call it a day?” Lance pondered with a slight grin. Not that he wanted that at all, but at this point, Lance was pretty sure he'd settle wherever the current left him. He felt like he couldn't be much of complainer at all.

Pidge shrugged and opened her mouth to speak, before Keith suddenly appeared in front of them with his arms crossed and a brow cocked up suspiciously. Lance hadn’t even noticed Keith stand up from his chair.

“What are you guys talking about?” Keith probed, dark eyes flickering between Lance and Pidge suspiciously.

“What, Lance and I can’t just have a friendly conversation, Keith? Are you jealous ?” Pidge rebuked, her amber eyes narrowing dangerously at Keith, slight grin still pulling at the corner of her lips.

Keith blushed and rocked back on his heels away from the two. “I never said that, I just meant-- What is that supposed to mean?? I'm not jealous-” Keith scoffed, defending himself, only to give Pidge what looked like a full ‘ should I be jealous?’ look.

He really didn't; not from either one. Pidge couldn't be interested in another person even if she cared to, and Lance never thought anything like that of Pidge. If any, she was like a little annoying sister to him. Lance was pretty sure everyone felt that way about Pidge.

Pidge rolled her eyes at Keith and let go of Lance's arm at once, returning another look to Keith, and neither one got to say another word before Allura stepped up.

“Paladins, that’s enough, we’re descending into Thalassa’s atmosphere now. Everyone to your stations!” Allura barked.

Lance shrunk back from Pidge and Keith as quietly as he could, catching eyes with Keith and sharing their first lingering eye contact they've had in a while. Lance turned away after a few quick ticks, cheeks suddenly dusting pink. He wasn’t sure why Keith was acting this way, when earlier, he couldn’t even look Lance in the eye… Lance toed over to his chair as quietly as he could, and sunk down into it. He was more or less wishing that he could become one with the chair. Maybe if he did, he wouldn’t have to go down to the surface and meet the newcomer that was supposed to replace him. He shook his head at that word.

No, this is the right thing for us… It protects my family…

This will protect my family better than I can right now…

Don’t think about it as anything else...

Lance didn’t immediately stand up once the Castle landed on the planet’s surface and Allura called them out. It wasn’t until Keith’s bare hand waved in front of Lance’s face that he realized that everyone else had already left the bridge.

“Lance?” Keith whispered. “Are you okay?”

“Me? Psh… As fine as ever!” Lance huffed, and stood up, wincing when he wobbled a bit. He instantly regretted again that he was neglecting his meal times and most activities in the past few weeks honestly.

Keith caught him by the underside of his arm, pulling him upright and nearly into Keith’s own chest. “Woah, Lance, are you sure you’re okay?” he took one quick glance at Lance’s face, and decided his answer. “Alright, I’ll tell Allura you weren’t feeling up to this trip. You can go back to your room, rest up a bit--”

“No, Keith, I’m fine. It's just the gravity here I'm sure.” Lance offered, and stood up straight, a steadying hand curled up on Keith's chest before he promptly removed it, blush forming on his cheeks again. He couldn't help it if being around Keith made him blush, even if he knew he looked like an idiot blushing so much... It’s just what being around Keith did lately, there was no denying that.

“...We’re still in the Castle. With the Castle’s own gravitational field… The same gravitational field we're used to. ” Keith pointed out, completely unsarcastic.

Lance felt his face and ears heat up and he threw his hand up with a big exasperated shrug. “Okay- different atmosphere! I can't explain it!” Lance barked, trying to defend himself, although it was fruitless; Keith could see right through him, as though he was the water he was supposedly the guardian of.

“Lance…” Keith started softly, “Someone’s taking your place today, and it came up sooner than you’d expected, didn’t it?” Keith asked, a slight frown tugging at his lips. “It’s normal to feel this way, Lance. But think, it’s just until your arm is fixed, okay? This isn’t permanent … You’re still our Blue Paladin.” Keith murmured, leaning in closer than before, eyes fixed on Lance’s.

Lance felt himself stop breathing for a solid thirty seconds. He nodded, a quick bob of his head. He knew Keith saw that he was hesitating something from the way he chewed on his bottom lip slightly, like he did when he was pondering if he should say what he was thinking, but before Lance could gather up the rest of his thoughts Keith leaned away again.

“Are… Are you sure you want to go out there?” Keith questioned seriously, gauging Lance’s reaction. “You don’t have to, you know that.”

“I know, but, I should.” Lance said resolutely, and offered his hand out to Keith with a nervous smile. “Walk out with me?”

Keith stared at Lance’s offered hand for a few ticks, blinking once, though still looking unsure. “You… want to hold hands?” Keith asked slowly, unsurely.

Lance raised his brows and the nervousness dropped as he made ‘ are you serious’ face. “Wow Keith, you really are bad at following social cues. Yes, I want to hold your hand. ...So, can I have it?”

Keith blinked again and nodded, giving his hand up and Lance took it, threading their fingers together and rubbing their palms together lightly.

Keith's bare palm was warm and dry, Lance really missed the feel of it with his own, and how nice they fit together… He sighed contently and wiggled his fingers a bit between Keith’s, Keith's fingers pliant with his. “Lead the way, sunshine...” Lance whispered with a small smile.

Keith just blushed at that and started off, leading them off the bridge quietly.

Lance mindlessly rubbed his thumb in soft circles on the back of Keith’s hand. Cutting a glance over to him every couple of feet they'd walk, Lance finally sucked in a long breath from his nose. “Keith… Do you wanna tell me why you're ignoring me still?”

“I’m not ignoring you.” Keith replied blatantly.

“You kinda have been for the past two days… I just… I just want to know what's going on in your head.”

“It’s nothing Lance. I'm not ignoring you, I'm just,” Keith paused, and shrugged awkwardly. “I don't know, Lance… I’m confused.”

“About?” Lance asked, chewing his lip.

Keith scrunched his face and rubbed the back of his neck, growing frustrated. “I-- I don’t want to talk about it right now, okay? Can we just drop it?”

Lance blinked then sighed. “Sure…” and he left it at that, chewing more on his lip now until it started to hurt.

It was quiet for a long minute before Keith broke the silence. “...Why’d you call me that…?”

“Call you what?”

“...Sunshine?” Keith grumbled, his head bent down as he walked. He was still blushing, and putting his head down did nothing to hide it, but Lance thought it was pretty cute and didn't tease him about it.

He smiled at Keith and shrugged his shoulders. “Why not? Unless you don't like it?” Lance asked, lightly bumping his shoulder into Keith as they walked.

Keith didn't answer, his cheeks just burned brighter, and he swallowed nervously.

“...Nevermind... I'm sorry...” Lance muttered, and bit on his bottom lip again. He looked away from Keith, his own cheeks growing hot, mostly with disappointment rather than embarrassment. He needed to stop flirting and making it even more awkward between them, especially since Keith really didn't seem to like it anymore.

Just take the hint already…Keith made it pretty obvious that he doesn't want that. I need to back off… Need to leave him be like he wants...

The rest of their walk to get to the others at the elevator felt long. Mostly because they were walking a hell of a lot slower than Lance thought they needed to, but he wasn’t complaining if it meant he got to hold Keith’s hand for that much longer. The others were waiting by the elevator for them, and Lance felt Keith's hand start to pull away from his, causing panic to suddenly rise in his throat, and warmth starting to threaten swelling up in his eyes with the panic.

No no no- not yet…

He squeezed Keith’s hand and held it tighter, and cut a pleading look over to Keith.

Keith clamped his jaw slightly and gave a soft apologetic nod to his head, relaxing his hand back into Lance’s.

Not yet.

Just, not yet...

Maybe it was selfish to do that, but right now he didn’t have anything else to tether himself to except for Keith’s gentle and warm hand. He just hoped Keith wasn't mad about being forced to hold his hand and be seen with it, but he didn't try to pull his hand away again after the they shared the look.

“Are we finally ready?” Shiro and Allura asked simultaneously, and everyone nodded.

Lance nodded as well. Only feeling a little less hesitant now that he had something to hold on to. He squeezed Keith’s hand again when they all piled into the elevator. Everyone was quiet, but it wasn't as awkward as it looked. Not really. The most awkward thing was the looks the others kept giving to the set of intertwined fingers. But he didn't let it bother him. Keith was staring at the floor, brows furrowed intently and mouth pressed into a thin line. When the elevator pulled to a stop, they hopped out, and they were greeted with beautiful scenery in front of them.

The Castle of Lions had landed just a mile inland from a endless sandy beach, looking out to the clearest blue water Lance had ever seen- if that was even possible- but it surely seemed like it in the bright light from it’s nearest sun. Though, strangely, Thalassa circled two suns- small ones. It was odd seeing two suns in the sky, but it was certainly breathtaking. On the water was a city, a large white stone castle at its front and center, with an even larger arch in its middle. The arch gave way to the entrance to its protected city behind it. There seemed to be a ton of windows, as the castle reflected a ton of light, making it hard to look at. Lance couldn’t see much else about it from here, being that it was miles out into the sea, but he knew it had to be even more elebrate than it looked from the shore.

“Wowza…” Lance breathed out breathlessly, gazing out at the glistening water’s horizon.

Pidge hummed from behind him. “I wouldn’t stare at the water if I were you, you’re going to burn your eyes.” she commented smartly before brushing past he and Keith. “So how advanced are they here, Allura?”

“Pretty advanced, I think…” Allura replied, “But let’s not forget while we’re here… I know that you all want to explore and get some time to relax and rest for a bit. But we are only here for one thing, to meet our new potential pilot, and that comes before anything else.” said Allura.

Shiro casted her a withering look, pressing his lips into a thin line.

She raised both her brows at him, “What?”

“You know what…” was all Shiro said.

Allura sighed, and threw her arms up defeatedly. “Fine. The lot of you may have some leisure time- AFTER - we meet the Prince.”

“Woohoo!” Both Hunk and Pidge shouted, excited for the small reward of getting to relax and explore a new and beautiful place. There were all kinds of things for them to poke around and see, as the city up ahead was huge, and Allura had talked vaguely about what she remembered of the culture. The Alteans used to be allied with the Thalassans, ten thousand years ago, and Allura had been good friends with the princess of the time. She’d mentioned that she’d hoped to figure out what happened to her in the palace’s records and see what she had missed.

Lance breathed out a slight sigh of relief. At least he’d get some time to look at the pretty ocean, though he knew it would make him think of home a little too much. The hand in his squeezed before it let go, and Keith stepped away and walked off, towards the water ahead. Lance blinked and watched his back, blush faintly turning up on his cheeks again, and he wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was because of how pretty Keith looked in the sunlight, near the bluest water either of them had probably ever seen. His black hair was fluttering in the breeze, back and away from his neck, and he looked so at ease by the water. It was almost like being by the sea lifted the weight he’d inflicted on his shoulders. Maybe Lance was just happy to see Keith at ease. Lance huffed a sigh through his nose and stepped out after Keith, the rest starting to follow and walk ahead, kicking fine white sand under their feet.

“Our entrance to this city is by boat...?” Keith asked in a mumble, taking the elastic band from his wrist and tying his hair up swiftly.

“Or you can swim-” Pidge started, only to be elbowed in the ribs by Hunk.

“That isn’t very nice. Last time Lance and I landed on some water planet, there was a man-eating dragon monster thing! What if there’s another one of those here?” Hunk exclaimed, waving out at the water with dismay.

“I think you were traumatized by that, Hunk…” Lance snickered and reached out to pat his friend on the shoulder.

“Yeah I was !” Hunk squawked. “Remember, I got mind-swished!”

Lance shook his head and shrugged.“...I remember... Don’t think there’s any hungry baku dragons to worry about here, though, relax…”

“Yeah, I'll relax after we can confirm that there’s no mind-swishing food and man-eating beasts around.” Hunk retorted.

Allura walked over to the shoreline and happily greeted a tall gangly man who was standing near what Lance assumed was the man’s boat. He looked like he was older in age, and his visible skin was dark and covered with blue markings. His ears were pointed and odd- but other than that, he looked oddly human. Much like Allura and Coran. Eventually she gestured everyone else over, and the man climbed into the boat. Not a big boat by any means, but big enough for them all. It looked a bit like a British narrowboat, but much shorter in length. It kind of disappointed Lance if that was the boat they'd be taking, being that it is an enclosed vessel. No skimming my hand over the water’s crystal surface I guess… Lance thought disappointedly.

Pidge nimbly hopped into the boat first, looking thankful that the boat was enclosed, and Hunk followed closely behind her. Shiro then stepped in quickly afterwards, and offered his hand out to Allura. She accepted it gratefully, one hand bundling up her dress tightly in her fist to avoid getting it wet. Lance and Keith were the last two to enter the boat. Lance motioned for Keith to go ahead of him, so Lance could sit in the rear, and nearest a window. At least if he couldn't touch the water, he could look at it. Keith sat next to him, his legs crossed in front of him. They smiled feebly at each other for short second.

Once they were all settled in, the boatman pushed a few levers, and the boat started cutting smoothly through the water, making headway towards the large castle and city out in the middle of the huge ocean. This place wasn't an island, it was actually a city built in the water; not suspended, and not quite floating. Lance wasn't sure how it was there, in the middle a vast ocean, but it was. It was surrounded by a border, short and thin in comparison to the huge city within its limits, but was large enough to stop any ships that may have tried to infiltrate it in the past. The border completely encircled the city, meeting at the castle itself, appearing to go right through the castle walls.

Lance wary stared at the enormous size of this castle. It was apparent just how towering it was in size the closer they got, and wide as well. Though Lance supposed the most menacing points were the two huge statues at each corner of this castle. They were twice- maybe three times the height of the castle itself. They depicted two serpent dragons, with large fierce open mouths, long whiskers to match their sharp snouts, and large thin and fluttery fins that nearly looked like wings. They were identical, and both defensively facing toward the archway into the city.

“ They must protect it…” Lance thought out loud, and Hunk shifted diffidently in his seat.

“You don't think that these things actually exist here, do you?” Hunk asked, unease clearly in his voice.

“Wouldn't know…” Lance replied apathetically.

“Wouldn't want to find out either if they're that size…” Pidge commented kiddingly and Hunk frowned at her.

“Uhm, definitely not.” Hunk mumbled.

“I don't know... If we killed it, it might make a good tuna steak…” Keith added with a soft smirk on his lips, and he kicked out at Hunk’s foot gently, causing Hunk to ease up a bit and chuckle.

Lance blinked over at them, feeling like he lost the topic suddenly before he looked back out the window. He leaned his head against the glass tiredly. His mind felt blank. He was unable to process everything that was about to happen, but the anxiety was there. It made itself present and started to weigh heavily on his empty mind the closer they got. No thoughts, just the apprehensive and crawling feeling in his bones. He felt it in his chest, too, and it dropped to his stomach and to his stiff limbs, where the digits started to feel numb and like ice--

Oh, he was familiar with the feeling of anxiety. Anxiety didn't always have to have thoughts. Just that awful feeling…

He shifted slightly in his seat the more uncomfortable he started to feel, and then there was a hand on leg, and gentle squeeze. He turned his head to Keith, who was looking at him with a concerned brow. It was unfortunate that Keith could read him like an open book; he didn't want Keith to worry about him if he didn't have to. He really didn't have to…

“I'm fine..” Lance whispered

“You promise?” Keith whispered back, shifting to one side and threading not just one, but both of his hands with Lance’s. He held Lance’s much cooler palm between both of his, still giving Lance that really concerned look.

Lance's heart definitely stopped on his chest, and he had to blink back tears before they could spring up suddenly... Oh, Keith was going to kill him if he kept acting like this… He felt more confused now than ever; he knew he had to beat back his feelings for Keith, but it was so hard when Keith still acted like he cared so much about him. Lance nodded sharply and chewed the inside of his cheek, and didn't answer until he was sure he had control over his own voice.

“I'll be okay…” Lance promised. “...What do you think the city is like inside?” he asked, trying to steer the subject away from himself.

Keith rubbed his lips together and hummed, leaning in to peek past Lance out the window. “Dunno… Guess we'll see in a bit...?”

Lance swallowed nervously, and pressed up against the wall when Keith had leaned in to peek out of the porthole. His cheeks heated up from the closeness of Keith's face, and how Keith’s breath felt on his skin, though it was only for a mere second. “Uhm… Y- yeah… W-would you… Would you walk around with me later?” Lance asked, realizing they were both still whispering.

Pidge must have found the whispering suspicious or something by the narrow eyes she was casting over, but she grinned at him and Lance felt his cheeks heat up with being caught flirting with Keith. Yep, he was definitely trying to flirt with Keith- in some way, shape, or form. He always did, even if it just wasn’t so clear.

Keith quirked a brow at him. “Sure…”

Pidge scooted closer to them on her bench, smug grin on her face growing when she gave a glance down to their mingled hands. “What are you two whispering about?”

“Nothing-- None of your business, Pidge .” Lance bit out quickly, cheeks still red, but honestly he didn’t care what Pidge thought about them. He just wanted to wipe that evil grin off her face; she definitely knew something was up. He saw Keith glower at him out of the corner of his eye, with his lips pursed and nose scrunching up in that adorable way it always did when he disagreed with something. Why did Keith and his dumb cute face have to be so hard on his heart-- All he could do was pout back and try really hard not to think about kissing Keith’s equally pouty face in front of everyone.

“It’s nothing Pidge. He’s just being rude.” Keith jested, lightly nudging his arm into Lance’s and his face lightened into a smile at him again when Lance playfully gave him a hurt look. Looking even more like a puppy.

“Pidge knows! Her and I are bros.” Lance defended, and Pidge snorted a laugh.

Keith quirked his brow again, this time at the both of them. “...Oh yeah? Since when?”

“Since I bent over backwards to get her that Mercury Gameflux like, six years ago ! I’m the best bro!”

Pidge nodded. “That’s true- but I wouldn’t say you’re the best bro. Hunk has been pretty exceptional.”

“Hunk is everyone’s best bro! But I’m definitely second best, right?” Lance asked, poking his lip out at Pidge.

“What are we talking about here? I heard my name.” said Hunk, leaning into the group.

Suddenly, the hands that were still mingled with Lance’s drew back. Keith folded his arms across his chest, and Lance frowned at the loss, opting just to stuff his hand between his own legs for warmth.

“Pidge is just being-- er, Pidge . But we were saying that you’re a good a bro.” Lance explained.

Hunk blushed. “Aw, thanks Lance!”

“I said it first.” Pidge grumbled, pouting that only Lance got a thanks, and Hunk patted her head gently with a smile.

“Jealous…” Lance teased Pidge, rolling his eyes at her. Lance leaned against the window again and looked out. He sighed quietly as he looked at the clear blue water rushing past them before he glanced back up at the castle that was growing ever closer. It was becoming more daunting the closer they got to its shadow. “We’re getting pretty close…”

They were approaching the city fairly quickly now, and as they entered the shadow the palace cast, Hunk whistled softly when he leaned to gawk out of one of the small windows. “This place is huge. ”

“ You think …” Lance muttered, in awe of the sight before them.

The large dragon-like statues seemed even more imposing up close, watching the canal leading into the city like frightening, faithful watch dogs. The castle itself seemed to glimmer in the nearest sun’s light, casting a gold reflection on the smooth surface of the water. The archway they were approaching was huge and imposing, appearing large enough to let a giant weblum through it’s mow. Above the arch, sat a large square room with a huge circular window that seemed to take up the entirety of the front wall. Lance wasn’t exactly sure what it was; maybe a chapel or some kind of shrine… On either side of the arch, there was a large column, each with a long sea serpent curled up its length. The entirety of the palace curved in a large ‘C’ shape, the dragons protecting the large body of water before the archway. It was taller than it was wide, imposing in its staggering height. The palace walls on either side of the arch was littered with windows, presumably to show off the utter beauty of the ocean to its guests. As a whole, the gold palace sitting on the water made its viewers feel insignificant in its entirety.

The boatman popped his head into the cabin, “Welcome to the capital city of Nirie, home to the royal family of Arroyo.” he announced with a warm smile on his wrinkly old face. “You’ll be getting out here; the royal family is waiting for you above.”

“Alright, than--” Allura began, with Pidge cutting her off with a whine.

“We have to walk?! To the top of that?! I haaaate walking up stairs!” Pidge groaned loudly.

Allura casted her a look, her brows pinched together. “Pidge, best behavior today, okay? Please? And I mean that for all of you.” she insisted kindly, eyeing everyone over in the boat. “...But I’m sure there's an elevator.”

“If not, then it's just leg day.” Lance bumped in with a tease, grinning widely at Pidge.

Pidge kicked at his leg but missed poorly; it was a good thing she had short legs, but Lance still pulled his legs up to his chest to keep out of reach and stuck his tongue out at her.

You little shit, Lance thought, totally projecting that thought out to Pidge with his eyes, and she gave a devilish grin in response. She took pride in being mischievous, she wasn't always mature.

Allura was the first to stand and thank the boatman, who gave her a kiss on the hand before letting her and the rest out onto the concrete flat under the large arch of the castle. A cool breeze blew through the already chilly underway. The shadow of the castle preventing the heat from the two surrounding suns to warm this particular area. It was nice though, when Lance stepped to the edge of the platform and peered down at the crystal clear water below. He was pretty sure it was so clear that he could see the sandy ocean floor below. Maybe if he dived in he could find out just how far below it really was…

...But then again, he wasn't sure he could swim too well with just one arm.

He brushed that thought off as soon as it came, and turned back to the rest of the crew,

Hunk snatched his arm and walked with him to the large entrance on the wall of the castle, leading to a large, bright hallway. Tall, wide windows let in light from the ocean surrounding it as they all entered, and white and light grey marbled floors proudly shone beneath their feet. Down the long virtually empty hall was a set of three white and gold crowned elevators.

Pidge skidded over them at rocket speed and pressed the button first. “Ha! I got it first!” she teased, sticking her tongue out at Lance.

“Child.” Lance snickered as he stopped and stood next to Pidge, resting his arm on her shoulder casually. “What are you, fourteen again?”

“No, but someone here has to lighten the mood.” she said, glancing up at him from the corner of her eye.

Lance couldn’t agree more. The closer they got to the elevator, the bigger the ball of dread sitting in the pit of his stomach got. The reflective elevators glared Lance’s pitiful reflection back. Even dressed up the way he was, he knew he still looked small and broken . He hummed and shrugged slightly. “It’s not that bad.” He said, and tapped her shoulder absentmindedly until the elevator chimed and the doors slid open.

Both he and Pidge were about to step in, until someone tall and slender stepped out. Long white hair spilt over broad shoulders, and that was all Lance caught a glimpse of before he and Pidge stumbled back slightly from the surprise. Pidge screeched when a dark hand caught hers and pulled it up to the face framed with white hair and bright excited green eyes.

“Oh, you’re all here!” the stranger said, voice silvery and nice.

“Who are you?!” Pidge snapped, still surprised. She ripped her hand away from the tall stranger and stepped back immediately.

Hunk and Keith stepped up behind her, Keith grabbing her by her shoulders and pushing her behind himself.

“H-hey you can't just grab someone like that- leave the lady alone!” Hunk stammered out, stepping in front of Keith and beside Lance.

The man threw his hands up defensively. “Hey now, no need to get defensive… I've been expecting you! So, I got excited when I saw the famous Paladins of Voltron.” he said calmly, dropping his hands to his side and leaned his hip against the wall, crossing his long arms.

“And who are you?” Pidge asked, poking her head out from behind the two protective men in front of her.

The man narrowed eyes with her and grinned slightly. “Kir--”

“Prince Kiryn,” Allura chimed in, strutting up to the scene with content smile. “It’s nice to finally meet you in person. These are my five Paladins…” she held her hand out for the tall man, who now had a name to the face, Kiryn. He took it and placed a light kiss on her hand. His white hair fell from its’ place tucked behind his abnormally pointy ears as he bowed his head.

“Princess Allura…” he purred. “Why didn’t you call before touching down? I would have had a special coach out for you and your Paladins.” he straightened up and looked at the rest, polite smile on his face.

Lance noticed that Kiryn had odd blue freckles and two identical markings on his cheekbones, a sharp angular nose and long, light eyelashes. He was rather handsome, Lance had to admit that, but his gut still twisted at the sight of him. This was the person that was going to replace him and pilot Blue. Blue would probably like him- he looked likable. He was tall, lean, and broad shouldered, with fine straight white shoulder length hair that was mint green near the roots. It looked just as light in weight as it did soft. And he was dressed nicely; a royal blue and well-fitted shirt showed off blue markings on his neck like a tiger, and dark tight fitting pants. He had high cut boots that were laced half-way up his shins, and a long pretty cut of tricolored fabric adorned his slender waist. He was also wearing a pair of blue and silver ear cuffs on his long pointed ears; they looked expensive. Yeah, he definitely looked the part for royalty… Lance chewed the inside of his cheek and shifted awkwardly on his feet, looking elsewhere now. He couldn't find the voice to speak to the stranger first. He usually didn't have a problem with that, but today he felt frozen, more so now that his replacement was in front of him. He shook his head to himself. Stop thinking that…

“Kiryn, I'm Shiro, the Black Paladin. It's nice to meet you. Allura seems to think that you could be a part of our team?” Shiro said, offering his metal hand out to him.

Kiryn took it and kissed the hand, a smirk on his lips, and his green eyes locked with Shiro’s the entire time before he let it go and politely bowed his head to Shiro.

Shiro didn't look the slightest bit uncomfortable with the flirting, but the second his hand was let go of, it dropped to his side rather awkwardly. Shiro wasn't uncomfortable with the formality, just didn't expect it; didn't know what to do with it.

“Oh no, it’s nice to meet you , handsome.” Kiryn purred, then hummed slightly, “I certainly believe I could be a part of your team, but I guess we'll see, hm?”

“Mhm…” Shiro agreed, watching Kiryn closely.

Lance watched them silently, still not finding his voice or the words through the icy feeling in his gut and limbs. He cleared his throat finally and stuck his only hand out to Kiryn. “Hi, I'm Lance. The Blue Paladin.” he offered with an awfully forced smile.

Kiryn blinked at him, and his green eyes widened in realization, before trailing up his figure, noticeably taking note of the missing feature on his right side. “Lance,” Kiryn cooed, taking his offered hand with long slender fingers and holding it in both of his hands, before he brought Lance’s hand up and kissed his fingers. “It’s nice to meet you… It’s an honour to even be considered as a successor for a fine warrior such as yourself. I hope you and I can become better acquainted in the future?” Kiryn flirted.

Lance nodded quickly, before pulling his hand out of Kiryn’s grasp as gently as he could without being too rude. “Uh, y-yeah…” Lance said, swallowing nervously. The guy seemed nice enough, but, something just was just odd about him. Lance couldn’t exactly put his finger on it, but he felt… Suspicious about the the nice face before him.

It’s probably nothing… You just don’t want to be replaced , stupid. Lance thought irritably. There’s nothing to be worried about, he’s here to keep your team safe… your family safe.

“Well, I suppose we should continue our greetings in the elevator; it’s a long way up, and I don’t think we should keep my parents waiting.” Kiryn said cooly, and motioned everyone into the waiting elevator.

Once everyone was piled into the large elevator, Kiryn pressed the button at the top of the pad, labelled by a simple glowing crown. Pidge was crowded in front of Keith and Lance with her arms crossed, in the opposite corner that Kiryn was in. Allura and Shiro stood nearest Kiryn, quietly chatting with the prince. Hunk and Keith both kept glancing at Lance worriedly, but Lance ignored his friends’ worried gazes, until Keith rested his chin on his shoulder, his warm breath suddenly so close to his neck. Lance felt his face flush slightly but he kept his eyes forward and took a steadying breath.

“ Lance …” Keith whispered, “Are you okay?” he asked in a small tone, looking Lance over carefully. His dark brows were pinched together with worry.

Lance nodded and linked his fingers with Keith’s when prompted for it. Keith gripped lightly at Lance’s arm with his other hand, giving his forearm a gentle and comforting squeeze. “Yeah, are you gonna keep asking that?” Lance asked lowly, turning his head slightly to peer at Keith out of the corner of his eyes.

Keith nodded too, locking eyes with him for a short second and then he laid his cheek on Lance with a defeated sigh. He brushed his thumb over the back of Lance's hand absentmindedly. “Just thought I'd ask to be sure…” he murmured.

Lance bit his lip and turned his head away again, only acknowledging Keith by lightly squeezing his hand. He wasn't going to admit it, but he was so thankful Keith had grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers. It was comforting and warm, and for a moment, it helped the unease go away. And when he closed his eyes and just focused on Keith's touch and warmth, he felt much calmer.

“So, I’ve met the Black and Blue Paladins, but I am still unaware of your names,” Kiryn spoke up suddenly, stepping around Allura towards Hunk.

“I’m Hunk, Paladin of the Yellow Lion.” he said with a kind smile, before offering Kiryn his hand for a handshake.

Kiryn’s eyes flashed down at Hunk’s offered hand, confusion clear on his features. He slowly extended his own hand to mirror Hunk’s, unsure.

Hunk chuckled before grasping Kiryn’s offered hand, and shaking it firmly once. “Sorry, old habits. It’s an Earth custom, shaking one’s hand this way.”

“Oh!” the prince exclaimed, his mouth opening slightly. “I was unaware, but it’s most fascinating how Earthlings introduce themselves to others. It’s nice to meet you, Hunk.” Next, he turned to Pidge.

“Name’s Pidge, piloting the Green one.” she offered tersely, in her own way of introduction. She kept her arms crossed over her chest, seemingly unwilling to put her hand in the prince’s.

He hummed and smiled warmy at her, and didn’t pressure her for her hands. “Wonderful to meet you, Pidge.”

Keith had been completely silent, mauve eyes slightly narrowed at the prince, watching his every move as Kiryn made his way over to them. Lance could feel Keith take a deep breath in against his back, before stepping around him finally to offer his hand to the prince. “Keith,” he said lowly, glancing away from the prince, “Red Paladin.” he said hastily. He seemed impatient to get it out if the way and return back to his spot beside Lance.

Kiryn’s bright green eyes widened slightly as he took in Keith’s figure. He seemed to freeze up in front of the Red Paladin, actually appearing starstruck . He quickly blinked, before reaching for Keith’s hand.

Keith’s gaze snapped back to meet Kiryn’s as soon as their hands touched, startled slightly.

Lance’s skin prickled at the sudden contact between them. And the fact that Keith kept his eyes locked with this guy made Lance's skin burn even more. Keith wasn't exactly a social butterfly; he usually looked away from strangers when he felt uncomfortable around them. But Keith held his gaze with this handsome man, as the prince bent his silver head down. He brought up Keith's hand to his mouth to place a reverent kiss to the back of his palm, green eyes and pretty lashes locked with the mauve set. Not even once did Keith even flick his eyes away from Kiryn’s. It was a strong hold the two of them had. Odd.

Look away, Keith. You always look away…

Maybe he should have been telling himself to look away, but he couldn't. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Keith and Kiryn. He raised his lip up in a scowl when Keith still didn't look away from this new admirer of his. Instead he saw Keith's eyes trail down Kiryn's form then back to meet his face before he finally withdrew his hand. But it wasn't rudely taken back, not like Keith was uncomfortable with his hand in this other man's grasp. Kiryn straightened and placed a curled finger under Keith’s jaw, tilting his chin up to meet his stare as he stood tall above Keith- tall above all of them, actually…

“It’s nice to meet you, Keith… Might I say you have striking eyes?” Kiryn purred. Keith's cheeks went red and suddenly the entire air in the elevator felt completely awkward and stiff.

Lance knew he went stiff. Probably shocked by Kiryn’s reaction to seeing Keith, and maybe a bit angry or jealous. Lance didn't like that… That wasn't a normal interaction between two strangers, one of which was definitely reserved, yet here Keith was. Calm and maybe even a bit intrigued by this new person who flirted with him.

It was awfully silent in the elevator now until the elevator dinged, signalling their arrival to the throne room. Kiryn straightened and whipped his lingering eyes away from Keith, stepping out of the elevator first and gesturing the princess and the rest out. Kiryn led them down a long elaborate hallway towards what Lance assumed was their royal throne room from the feel of it.

The hallway was long, leading to a corner adorned with a large portrait at the end. On one side, there were a ton of older family portraits lining the wall, appearing to date back generations. They were all adorned in similar dark blue frames, but some were turned darker from time. On the other side, there were arched spaces spanning the length, looking into the throne room. The spaces were almost like windows, but with no glass. There were only small pillars between each arch connecting to the ground, which ran up towards the tall grand ceiling. Lance had to tilt his head back to stare at the ceiling, high up above their heads. The blue ceiling almost seemed like it could be the sky, until Lance realized that there were beams meeting intermittently all along the way. The marble here was similar to the floor where they entered the castle, but here the floor was more iridescent, appearing more than the tile downstairs. All of it was very meticulous. Something distracting to look at, at least...

Suddenly, Keith pulled at Lance’s elbow, tugging him to a stop. “Hey, wait a second.” Keith murmured, and pulled Lance a couple of steps backwards. He glanced at the backs of everyone walking ahead, waiting for the group to be farther away before he spoke again. His hands found purchase on Lance's chest, and his dark eyes stared into Lance’s, searching. “Are you sure you want to go ahead with this?” Keith asked slowly, closely watching Lance.

Lance froze, swallowing shallowly past the lump in his throat. He stared back at Keith, staying silent. He hoped that he could say enough with his eyes without saying anything. Keith can tell how I feel. Of course he can… He wouldn't keep asking if he didn't, right?

Keith took the silence as his answer and continued, keeping his voice low. “We already introduced ourselves to the prince… We can just leave now, and explore the city…”

Lance shook his head slightly, looking anywhere else now than at Keith now. Chewing on the inside of his lip. “I want to… But Allura’d have our heads if we skipped out on this, you know that. And-- and this might be my last mission as the Blue Paladin, right?”

Keith blinked, taking a second to process what was just said. “What-- What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Keith snapped, brows furrowing and eyes intensely narrowing.

Lance’s face flushed and he flicked eyes away from Keith's face again nervously. His hand twitching at his side. “Kiryn just… He just seems more capable than me-” Lance muttered nervously.

“He’s temporary, ” Keith bit through his teeth.

“And what if I am too, Keith?”

Keith blew out a harsh breath and shook his head. “ Fuck all of that . We don’t really need this prince --”

“Yes, we do, Keith.” Lance interjected. “We need someone else in my place. I- I can’t just leave you guys defenseless while I’m practically rotting away over here waiting on an arm that may or may not put me back in the team.” Lance said, steeling himself with a deep breath. He shook his head and drew away from Keith.

A look of misery flashed across Keith’s features, so quick that Lance wasn’t sure he even saw it. Keith schooled his expression back to one of indifference. “Alright, then. If that’s what you think, we should go meet the rest of the royal family, and let someone else pilot Blue. Let someone take your place. ” he grit out, spite clear in his voice with the last five words out of his mouth, before he brushed past Lance to stalk ahead of him.

Lance winced, before turning and following. He could practically see waves of anger emanating off of Keith, as red as his Paladin armour. He tried not to let it hurt as much as it really did. He blinked frantically to control the sting in his eyes and tight feeling in his throat, and slowed his pace, giving him the time to take a few calming breaths before turning the corner.

As soon as they turned the corner, Keith almost ran into Pidge. She’d apparently hung back from the group to corner the boys first. “Lover’s quarrel?” she whispered, a slight glint in her eye.

“Not now , Pidge.” Keith snapped, venom practically tangible in the air. Pidge jerked back at Keith’s tone of voice, visibly hurt. Keith brushed past her, just as roughly as he did to Lance. “We can’t leave the prince and the royal family waiting any longer.”

“I agree,” Allura chimed in from the doorway, arms crossed over her chest as she watched Keith. As Keith neared her, she dropped her voice to a whisper to talk to him. Lance couldn’t hear what she said, but whatever it was, it calmed Keith down enough to not look like he’d spontaneously burst into flames at any moment.

Lance stopped beside Pidge and placed his hand on her shoulder, offering her a small smile. “Don’t worry about him, okay? I think he just needs some time to cool off…” he whispered sincerely, trying to soothe Pidge.

She turned her head up to look at him, really look at him. “Are you two okay? I - I don't get you two lately-- What's going on with you? ”

“Uh,” Lance started, surprised by her seriousness and concern. He frowned slightly. “I- I don’t know… Why are you concerned? ...Let’s just get on with this…”

Allura and Shiro stepped ahead of the group into the throne room, Keith closely behind the two of them. Hunk hung back a bit with Lance and Pidge, exchanging a ‘ is he okay?’ look with Pidge, Pidge just shook her head.

Lance sighed softly; he wasn't even going to comment.

The throne room itself was a celeste blue, matching the colour of their ocean in daylight, with lighter blue, silver, and gold accents all throughout. There was a huge circular window facing opposite to the four regal ivory thrones, and Lance suddenly realized that this room was the huge house-like shape they’d seen as they’d approached the castle. Glancing back towards the thrones, he noticed that only three of the four were occupied; Kiryn was standing comfortably beside his father on top of the dias.

The king and queen were both beautiful, and striking in their own ways. The king was of darker hair, a mix of brunette and ebony, turning grey near the roots, and his stormy grey eyes seemed to take in the whole room without moving them about. There was a gold ear cuff covering the entire length of his long, pointed ear. From the corner of his pointed ear to the lobe, there was a set of swirls that appeared to represent waves, decaled in various blue and violet precious stones. He was dressed much simpler than his son, but appeared more , if that was even possible. There was no crown atop his head, but there was a large engraving on the ivory back of his chair, depicting an extravagant gold crown. His queen on the other hand looked more like her son, with long white curls tumbling over her shoulder. On her right ear, she bore the match to her husband’s gold ear cuff, accentuated beautifully by her snowy hair. The bodice of her emerald dress was elaborate, detailed in beautiful gems that reached down into the skirts. There was also a gold crown carved into the back of her throne, but it was a touch more feminine, and smaller than her husband’s. To the right of the slightly raised platform, sat the young princess on her smaller throne. She appeared to really young, and her posture in her throne betrayed how bored she was with this meeting. She was dressed comfortably in an ivory and lavender dress, coming to halfway down her shins. It had light beading in the bodice, where it was pure ivory, before slowly fading to lavender in her flowing skirts. She had matching lavender ribbons in her brunette curls, which complimented her pale blue eyes wonderfully. Lance could immediately see the family resemblance in the entire family; the princess had her mother’s eyes, but her father’s hair, while Kiryn had his mother’s hair colour, and his father’s sense of presence. They were all beautiful people, which wasn’t unexpected of the royal family.

Allura stepped closer to the dias the king and queen sat on, and bowed gracefully. “King Dominik, Queen Rosalie, my name is Princess Allura of planet Altea. It’s an honour to meet you both.”

“Princess Allura,” the king hummed, a light smile on his face. “It’s lovely to meet you in person. Thank you for taking the time to visit us here on Thalassa, you and your Paladins.”

“My ancestor was right about you, it seems.” the queen mused, before standing up and slowly making her way down to Allura. “You take all the kindness in the room and shine it back tenfold.”

Allura stood up from her bow, and giggled at the queen’s words. “Zelda always was too kind with her words, you know. I wish I’d been able to see out her days.”

Queen Rosalie then turned to the five others in the room, who had all stood awkwardly at the center until now. “Come, please, no need to be shy. Let us see you properly.”

Shiro was the first to step forwards towards the thrones, and he stopped beside Allura. He offered a quick but meaningful bow to the family, before straightening up again.

“This,” Allura began, “Is Shiro, our Black Paladin, and the decisive head of Voltron. His Galra technological arm has proved quite useful in the past, infiltrating various Galra bases for information.”

“Woah!” the princess exclaimed, shooting up from her chair and across the room to Shiro’s side like a shot. “Can I see it?”

“ Serafina ,” her mother snapped, eying her daughter in shock. “You can’t just ask people to see their prosthetics--”

“It’s fine, your majesty, honestly.” Shiro assured, as he offered his right hand, palm up, to the princess.

Serafina’s eyes widened at seeing the shiny metal hand, and immediately ran the tips of her fingers down Shiro’s palm. “Did this hurt?” she whispered incredulously.

Shiro smiled sadly, and nodded down at the princess. “It did.” But as soon as he saw her troubled expression, he dropped down to a knee in front of her, to look her in the eye. “But, it was a very long time ago, and it’s useful for my duties as a Paladin. So, I wouldn’t change this.”

She nodded slowly, before reaching up to run her index finger down Shiro’s nose, over his scar. Then, she pressed her fingers to her lips, before pressing the same fingers to the long fading scar on Shiro’s nose. Seeming satisfied, she smiled at him, and bounded back to her throne.

Shiro blinked dumbly at the space where the princess was moments ago, before standing up, a light blush dusting his cheeks.

“Next, is our Red Paladin, Keith.” Allura looked back over her shoulder, and motioned Keith forwards. “He pilots the fastest lion, and wields the sword of Voltron.”

Keith stepped forward awkwardly, keeping his head down. He offered a quick, jerky bow to the king, and stayed silent.

“Pidge, the Green Paladin, wields Voltron’s shield, and is our tech genius.” Allura continued, not glancing back at Pidge. “She’s the youngest of our Paladins, but is still a very vital part of our team.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, majesties.” Pidge offered as she stepped forwards to Allura’s right side.

“Hunk, the Yellow Paladin, is one of the legs of Voltron, and also our mechanic and cook. He’s also a very skilled negotiator, and helps us soothe some otherwise hostile species.” Allura said with a soft smile.

Hunk stepped up, and offered a low bow to the family, smiling. “Greetings.”

“And finally, the reason we are here in the first place; our Blue Paladin, Lance.” Allura gestured over to him. He stood awkwardly far behind the rest, but stepped up one step when he heard his name. “He was gravely injured on one of our latest missions, and is currently unable to pilot his lion… He’s our team sharpshooter, and the second leg of Voltron.” Allura finished, watching him still.

Lance chewed his lip before stepping up and giving a light bow. “Greetings King Dominik, Queen Rosalie,” he said smoothly, straightening back up and giving a small wave over to the smallest body before him. “Hello, Princess.” he said, giving a soft smile to Serafina watching him. She reminded him so much of his younger sister Maia, with her long brown curls and gentle and curious nature. It made him miss his sister, but he kept it together; kept it from showing too much. The last thing he wanted was for Keith to notice how he was feeling about this again.

“Hi!” she waved back to him, a wide smile on her innocent face. “Why can’t you pilot your lion anymore?”

“Uhm, well, an accident happened, and my arm had to be amputated… So for now, I don’t have both hands to pilot my girl Blue.” Lance explained slowly, glancing down to his right arm- or where it should be. “...That's why we need your brother.” he muttered, forcing a slight smile back to Serafina. She was just staring at him now, with wide curious eyes.

Serafina stood and made her way over to Lance. She stopped before him, “Are you going to get a metal arm like Shiro’s?” she asked, eyes trained on the sleeve covering his mutated arm.

“Soon.” Pidge cut in, giving a small smile to Lance when he looked at her, and he nodded.

“Yeah, soon…” Lance agreed, watching Serafina closely.

She glanced up at him, reaching her hands up towards the fabric covering the end of his arm. “Can I see it? Does it hurt?”

“N- Princess, I don’t think that’s-- It doesn’t--” Lance stuttered, a wave of panic rising through his system again. He didn't let people see that- hardly at all- not unless necessary. It's not something he just showed off- not something he expected for people to ask to see.

The curious little girl ignored him though, and lifted the sleeve up to peer at the discoloured and ugly scarred flesh. He winced and immediately pulled his arm back, and shifted his left side forwards. He cupped his hand over the awkward nub, hiding the mangled flesh. His face paled, “I-I’m sorry, princess, that’s not s-something you should--”

“Sorry.” she murmured when she looked back up and saw the obvious pained look on his face. “It’s not that bad. I have a scar too- and a prosthetic limb! Like Shiro’s.” she lifted one side of her dress slightly and tapped her leg, pointing to a scar, though the leg below it looked completely natural, unlike Shiro’s metal arm. She picked her leg up and bent it behind her, showing off just how natural it moved as well.

“...Thats- that's a prosthetic leg?” Lance asked, bewildered.

Serafina nodded and smiled, dropping her hiked-up dress. “Yep! Shiro’s is a lot different, but it's still really cool- actually, I think it might be cooler than mine!”

“O-oh… Wow.” Lance said, still trying to process that. He wouldn't mind something that looked so natural, but he wouldn't complain about any bionic arm, as long as it worked for him.

“I hope you get a cool new arm like Shiro’s!” Serafina chirped, skipping back to her throne chair.

Lance chuckled softly at her, shaking his head. “Well, you are certainly more than you look, princess.”

Kiryn hummed from his spot beside his father and tapped his foot thinkingly, watching Lance closely. “It’s a shame about your arm. What happened exactly? I'm curious as to what I might be getting myself into…” Kiryn purred, smirking slightly at Lance.

Lance held back a scowl. Don't know why he wanted to scowl exactly, but he felt uncomfortable with the look Kiryn was giving him. “Poison. It spread in my arm, got worse, and my team did what they had to do…” Lance muttered, glancing over at Keith for a shy second.

“That’s insane,” Kiryn gaped. “Who did the honours?” he asked wickedly, and Lance could practically feel everyone else in the room stiffen.

“Kiryn,” His father interjected, giving a disappointed look to his son.

Honours…? What an insensitive douche. Lance thought, biting his tongue. Now he knew why he didn't like Kiryn.

“...Don’t know why it matters…” Lance replied lowly, eyes narrow on Kiryn.

“ Honours?! ” Keith exclaimed, glaring openly at the prince. “Why would dismembering my partner be an honour ?”

Kiryn shifted slightly on his feet, turning his attention to the Red Paladin. “That depends on who’s doing the dismembering.”

Keith bristled at the prince’s words, glaring over at him with sharp eyes. “Do you think I enjoyed it?” he snapped.

Kiryn threw his arms up defensively, small show of a smug grin on his face. “Whoa, touchy-touchy, I get it. I was simply curious, but now I think I know what you're made of.” Kiryn said, backing down only a bit.

“I did what I had to do to save my teammate and friend!” Keith snapped.

Shiro quickly placed his hand on Keith’s shoulder, attempting to rein him back in. “Keith, that’s not what he’s saying, and you know it.”

“Do I?” Keith growled. “Who asks something like that?!” he snapped, baring his teeth. Thankfully only at Shiro; it might’ve caused a problem if it had been at anyone else.

“Paladins, please, our apologies. My son did not mean it that way,” King Dominik interjected, flashing another glance at his troublesome son.

Kiryn’s mouth slanted in annoyance.

“...Keith just did what he was advised to in a difficult situation,” Lance said with a slight shrug. “He’s… Instinctive… He knew what he had to do. And it’s not like I’m out of commission permanently …” Hopefully ...

Keith’s eyes snapped over to Lance, “ You wanna tell me something I don't know, Lance ? ” Keith said through his teeth, and Lance’s face went flush.

Lance saw Shiro squeeze Keith’s shoulder and Keith only relaxed a small bit. “N-no.” he stuttered back.

Keith clamped his jaw shut tightly while he stared at Lance from the corner of his eye.

Lance pressed his lips together and glanced away. He probably made that sound wrong… He told Keith he wasn't mad, he really wasn't, but sometimes he had a poor choice of words that made Keith feel otherwise.

“Anyways, your majesties,” Allura interrupted, steering the eyes in the room back to herself, “I came with my Paladins to further negotiations for having your son travel with us for a while, as our temporary pilot for the Blue Lion.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When the negotiations were settled, Lance ducked out of the throne room and quickly made his way back towards the set of elevators. He rubbed his face tiredly before pressing the button and waiting for the elevator. He had to get out of there and escape for a while. Everything was starting to be too much, too soon-- and worst of all, Keith was most certainly mad at him.

He said something wrong, said it the wrong way- twice, and now Keith was for sure mad at him. And for a second, Lance thought that maybe he did lie to Keith about not being mad at him for what he did. Now he started to feel guilty. But for what? He didn't do anything to Keith. He swore he wasn't mad with Keith, but he still felt this way. Like he actually did lie.

I didn't lie to Keith. I'm - I'm not mad for what he did… Don't start feeling this way now…

Lance sighed, bouncing on his feet slightly as he waited for the damned elevator. It had a long ways to go, though, he supposed. He heard light footsteps behind him, but he didn't dare turn around to see who it was, just in case it was Keith. He wouldn't know what to say until Keith said something first.

“Hey,” a feminine voice said behind him. It was Pidge thankfully.

“Hey…” Lance said back, glancing to his side when she appeared beside him, and the elevator finally stopped on the floor and opened. It was empty unlike the first time they got on it, and he and Pidge hopped on silently. Neither spoke until the doors closed again.

Pidge worked her jaw before speaking up, “Look, I know about your relationship with Keith- or whatever you want to call it--”

Lance hummed, not all that surprised that Pidge knew honestly, but he went ahead and asked for a confirmation, “You do?”

“Uh, yeah… You- You don't sound that surprised that I know?”

Lance grinned slightly and shrugged his shoulders. “Nah, it was kinda of obvious that you knew something… And not to mention that my room is right next to yours. I’m sure you heard more than you were supposed to.” Lance snorted.

Pidge rolled her eyes. “Unfortunately. Not to mention you stole my headphones-- Anyway, but, that's not how I found out in the first place. Keith told me.”

Lance raised a brow, glancing at her reflection on the door. She was looking back at his reflection as they stood forward quite awkwardly. “He did?”

Pidge nodded. “...How do you feel about him?”

“Why are you asking?”

“For a friend,” she cracked, only offering a small grin. “Seriously though, you keep toying with him- and he doesn't deserve that; you don't deserve that.”

Lance furrowed his brow and finally twisted towards Pidge, looking down at her in all seriousness. “What did he tell you?”

“ Everything ! How he felt, how he feels right now… He has unresolved issues with you! And I think you have the same thing!” she blurted, starting to wildly gesture with her hands. She looked really concerned too.

Lance chewed his lip, glancing at what floor level they were on now and wishing they were already on the first floor level, but they were getting close now. He sighed through his nose finally and shrugged halfly. “I don't know, Pidge… He's been avoiding me up until earlier today, and now I think he's mad at me.” he muttered, leaning his hip and head against the cool wall of the elevator. He stared at the glowing floor numbers as they dropped, so he didn’t have to look at Pidge’s concerned expression. It finally reached the bottom floor with a slight jerk, and the doors opened. Lance gestured for Pidge to go first, and she did, giving him a pouty look before she stepped out.

“He thinks you're mad at him !” she squawked once she was out of the elevator. It echoed down the hall once, and both of them flinched at the empty sound of the hall.

Lance lowered his voice as they walked down the corridor. “I told him I’m not mad… I’m not, really... I just want to talk to him, but it seems like every time I try, something interrupts us, or he just doesn't get it.”

“Get what?” Pidge asked, folding her petite arms across her chest. Not angrily, just like she was keeping a chill off.

“How I feel about him…” Lance murmured quietly, chewing at his lip again. This was the first time he'd explicitly mentioned his feelings for Keith to anyone. He could trust Pidge though, and he was pretty sure she could probably help him get to Keith. “I care about him, Pidge, I really, really do. I just... Made a really dumb mistake by hiding it and denying it so many times. But I’ve tried to tell him.”

“So… You admit you're kinda stupid? In the love department?” Pidge poked at him, annoying smirk on her devious face.

Lance groaned. Well she wasn't wrong. “Yeah, Pidge. I'm a little stupid in the love department. Maybe even more than you are, ace-player. ” Lance said and grinned back at her. They reached the end of the hall and were back at the underway of the castle. A cool sea breeze blowing through that relaxed Lance just a bit. He just needed to be outside. Maybe the air inside the castle felt more stale than he thought.

Lance clear his throat. “Well… I lost my date for exploring the city with me… Wanna take his place?” Lance asked, elbowing Pidge lightly and giving her small ‘ please ’ smile.

Pidge shrugged and linked her arm with his nonchalantly. “As long as you don't kiss me.”

“Wouldn't dream of it.”

They quickly found someone on the lower levels who directed him to the prettiest spot to sightsee on the grounds, and thanked them quietly before following the directions. He was happy they did.

The place they was directed to was small, almost like a patio space looking out towards the expanse of sea outside the wall. In the late hour, the water was turning into a stunning amethyst colour as the sky turned crimson. It was covered by a large blue shade, overlapping the entire space, even the few steps that stepped down into the water. They could see the Castle of Lions in the distance, framed by a large red mountain and the crimson sky. The water was crystal smooth, hardly moving at all, even where it met over the steps. Lance immediately made his way over to the steps, and sat down, and started pulling his boots up.

“Gonna dip your feet in?” Pidge questioned, as she followed him towards the end of the dock area.

“If I can get my boot off,” Lance muttered, trying to pull it off by the heel one handed, but it didn't want to come off that easily.

Pidge took pity on him, and sat next to him, before pulling his foot onto her lap, and pulling the boot off for him. “You know we’re working as fast as we can, right? On your new arm I mean...” she asked suddenly.

Lance nodded, and chewed on his bottom lip slightly. “Yeah, I do… It’s just, I’m w-worried that the longer it takes, the less likely my arm will work with a prosthetic.”

“That’s not gonna happen, Lance.” Pidge replied seriously, pausing her actions of rolling up Lance’s pant-leg to stare up at him. “We’re gonna make this work, and you’re gonna be fine. You’ll pilot Blue, and hopefully we’ll never see this Kiryn guy again.”

“Does he rub you the wrong way, too?” Lance questioned incredulously, eyebrows raised.

“Isn’t that obvious? He said ‘honoured’ when referring to cutting off someone's arm! Who says something like that?!” she exclaimed, and dropped Lance’s leg into the water before reaching for his other one. “He just seems… Like he might like trouble. Kinda like you, but worse…” Pidge was saying as she took off his other boot.

“Wow, thanks Pidge.” Lance mocked, taking his legs from her once she got his boot off, and dipped his leg in the cool water with a content sigh.

Pidge smirked at him slightly before she took off her own boots and set them aside. She was quiet for a minute longer before she added. “There’s just… Something about him that seems weird… Maybe I just don't like the idea of some new guy in the castle though-- but did you see how he was oogling Keith?! Talk about being creepy...”

Lance winced. “Yeah, I noticed…” Noticed too much. Lance thought. His mind kept replaying how Kiryn kissed Keith's hand, and how Keith didn't even look the least bit unsettled. Not uncomfortable or awkward-- Keith was fascinated. Interested. Lance wanted to gag at the mere thought. It's been awhile since he's seen Keith even vaguely interested in meeting someone else. He never seemed to care about others outside of the group, and he certainly didn't let others kiss his hand. Lance felt his cheeks burn and squeezed his eyes shut.

Pidge eyed him for a long moment, her mouth slanted curiously, but she didn't say anything more about the topic with how Lance was growing fidgety over it. She sighed and dipped her feet in the water finally. Feeling calm as soon as her feet touched the water. She leaned back, eyes closed, with her weight on her palms. “...I forgot how much I loved water flowing through my toes.” she murmured, changing the topic now.

Lance nodded absent-mindedly to that, eyes still squeezed shut before he forced them back open to look back at the water's surface. There was a lot more on his mind now… But the water was calming to look at. “I just miss water ,” Lance said with a soft hum. He reached out his hand to stick it in the amethyst coloured mass. “I’m supposed to be the guardian of water or whatever, and never get to go in water?! That’s scandalous !”

Pidge broke out in giggles, filling the comfortable silence with her chortles.

Lance couldn’t help but laugh along to her infectious laughter, laughing until his sides were sore. As soon as they caught their breath, Lance turned to look at the smaller Paladin, smiling. “Thanks for this, Pidge. I… It’s been awhile since I’ve had this much fun with you.”

“Anytime, man. I’m just happy you didn’t kiss me.”

“I still could,” Lance teased playfully, sticking out his tongue with a big grin.

“I'd prefer you not,” Pidge retorted, sticking her tongue out at him as well. “Besides, I'm sure I'm not as good of a kisser as Keith. ” she added with a smirk, brow raised tauntingly.

Lance blushed a deep red color and turned his head away embarrassedly. He shoved her shoulder lightly. “C’mon, don't start teasing me about Keith now…” he whined, then covering his still blushing face with his hand.

She snorted with a laugh next to him. “I'm not sure who's worse, you or Keith!”

Before Lance could defend himself, Hunk stepped out onto the dock, stopping beside Pidge.

“I was wondering where you two skipped off to, should’ve known to find Lance by the water.” Hunk chuckled, shaking his head. “We’ve been looking for you. It’s time to go.”

“Already?” Pidge whined, and flopped back onto the ground, pouting up at Hunk. “We’ve barely been here, and we’re already leaving?”

“Sadly, yeah. The royal family offered us rooms to spend a couple of days, but Allura got a call from Coran, so we need to head back to the Castle.”

“Damn,” Lance muttered, and put his legs under him, before standing up straight. “Alright, where’d you put my boots, Pidge? We better go.”

She waved vaguely behind her, and threw her arm over her face. “But I missed feeling sea spray on my face… Do we have to go?”

Hunk huffed, before bending down and throwing Pidge over his shoulder, wet feet and all. Pidge shrieked and kicked wildly, kicking water everywhere, but Hunk held fast, completely unphased by her actions. He bent again to pick up her boots, and simply carried Pidge off the dock like a sack of potatoes.

Lance blinked dumbly at the scene, before grabbing his boots and jogging to catch up to them.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The whole team had gathered by the dock they’d entered the palace by, with the addition of Kiryn. He wasn’t loaded with much, just a small simple teal suitcase. Lance had thought that the prince would have a lot more belongings to bring on the ship, but apparently Kiryn had proved him wrong.

Lucky enough for Lance, he had fallen back away from the rest of the team a few minutes ago. Now they were all ahead of him crowding around this Kiryn guy; not that Kiryn was paying any mind to anyone but Keith it seemed. Out of everyone that had to catch this guy’s eye, it HAD to be Keith , the one guy who should’ve been off limits… If Lance hadn’t been such chicken-shit just to make him his boyfriend.

All of a sudden, a whoosh of ivory-lavender and brunette curls rushed past Lance, nearly sending him off balance. Once he recovered, he saw the blur was actually the young princess he’d met earlier, who was launching herself into the air at her older brother.

“But Ki,” she exclaimed, clutching onto her brother’s shirt in her tiny fists, “You can’t just go , you’re the crown prince!”

Smiling ruefully at his younger sister, he brought his forehead down to hers. “I have to, Fee. These Paladins need me, and the whole universe does for that matter!” he explained calmly. Suddenly, he spun her in a quick circle, her lavender skirt splaying out wildly. “Besides! It’ll be fun, and I’ll call you every chance I get.”

She pinched her lips and scowled up at him, trying to be serious, but a smile flickered at the corners of her lips. “Promise?”

“I promise.” Kiryn vowed, before setting her back down on the cobbled ground. “Now it’s up to you, Princess Serafina, to make sure mum and dad don’t kill each other while I’m gone. Can I count on you?”

Serafina inclined her head slightly at her older brother, an action far too old for her young body. It made Lance slightly uncomfortable, seeing someone as young as Serafina act so much older.

Kiryn’s face lit up in a bright smile, before he placed a quick kiss to her forehead, and steered her back towards the castle. “Go on, you probably freaked mum out, running out here all alone. I’ll see you soon, alright?”

“Bye, Ki!” she called, before rushing back the way she came. The lavender ribbons in her hair fluttered out behind her as she rushed back to the castle, glinting in the sunlight.

Lance watched her run past, thinking of his siblings. It’d been several long years since he’d left… Maia and Lucas would nearly be in high school now. The thought made Lance’s heart constrict. He’d missed so much of their lives…

Turning back towards his team, he was met by Keith’s piercing gaze. Lance froze in place, as Keith’s gaze searched Lance’s face, almost as though he knew exactly what Lance was thinking of. He opened his mouth to call out to him, only to be interrupted by Kiryn’s hand clutching at his shoulder.

Lance muttered a curse under his breath. This was going to be interesting…

Chapter Text

“Alright, team, so we know what we’re doing?” Shiro questioned, plopping down between Keith and Kiryn in the makeshift circle. Keith was silently thankful that someone was between he and Kiryn now.

Shiro had called a sudden group training session half an hour earlier, calling everyone down to the training deck to learn how to re-form Voltron. With Lance out of commission, and Kiryn learning the ropes, Keith guessed it made sense, but he still didn’t like it. He still wasn't sure he liked Kiryn, though Kiryn hadn't given him too many other reasons to dislike him since that whole ‘ who had the honors ’ thing.

Kiryn had been relatively modest since then, and obviously toned down whatever kind of loud personality he had back at his home. Keith guessed that being in a new place with strangers made Kiryn act better than around his own royal family, but he was still a bit of a priss. Keith was just doing his best ignoring Kiryn, turning his nose up and appearing disinterested in anything he had to say. Keith could tell it got to him, though, and it gave him a bit of satisfaction. Just knowing he irked Kiryn as much as Kiryn did him made all the difference, with Kiryn trying to be the suave new guy or whatever...

Pidge groaned dramatically and flopped onto her side, her headset flopping off her head and clacking on the floor. “I hate the mind melding exercise!” she whined. “Why can’t we just get to know each other like normal people or something? I don't like you guys rooting around in my head, it's so weird-- and most importantly, I don't like being in your guys’ heads.” she muttered the last part, shooting a look over to Keith in particular.

Keith knew what that look was about, but he just shrugged uncaringly. He just wanted to get this over with. He could focus on Red and forming Voltron long enough for this exercise, but right after, he'd be straight back to thinking about Lance. He had yet to apologize to him for how he treated him the other day, before meeting the royal family on Thalassa, but he was going to do that today. It was no wonder why Lance had cooped himself up in his room after how he had acted towards him. He’d gotten mad at Lance when he was just expressing his concern for his team, and doing what was right for them… He still didn't quite understand where Lance was coming from, but he was going to apologize to Lance for being such an ass; and maybe with a bit of luck, finally get Lance out of his room.

“Because, Pidge, this isn’t just about getting to know each other; it’s teaching Kiryn here how we form Voltron, and make him a part of our team.” Shiro said, sounding exhausted with Pidge’s nonsense already. She was being rather ornery today though; Shiro had to drag her into the training room by her ear. Keith found that pretty amusing, honestly. He had never seen Pidge more against a team practice before.

“C’mon Pidge, the sooner we do this the sooner we can leave...” Keith retorted softly, and nudged her knee lightly with his knuckles.

“What, you all have somewhere better to be?” Kiryn piped up from beside Shiro, cutting a look over at Keith of course, with that same small cocky grin he has been casting at Keith for the past two days. Like he was something special. That said grin only widening when he caught Keith glance at him. Oh, this guy was clearly was begging for attention…

You're not getting it from me. Keith thought. He just raised his lip in a scowl and balled his hands into fists, only for a second though before he released a semi-calming breath and turned his whole attention to their leader, Shiro.

“Shiro, let's just do this…” Keith mumbled, placed the headset over his head, and shut his eyes.

Keith heard Shiro agree, and then he felt his presence in the back of his mind. Then a second, third, and finally the fourth. Everyone had a different feel entering his brain; Pidge felt like leaves ruffling in the wind, Hunk like pebbles tumbling down a steep incline, and Shiro like the aurora borealis covering the night sky. Pidge, Shiro, and Hunk’s presence quickly washed over his mind, but there was a new presence hovering behind... Kiryn .

He was different than the other presence he was used to. Kiryn was like harsh ice; a deep freeze, and utterly bone-chilling, and it crept forward slowly. It was almost like moss being defrosted by the spring’s sun, allowing it to grow again, and grow towards him. It nearly made Keith’s skin crawl, made him desperately want to shove Kiryn’s invasive feeling from his mind, but he knew that he shouldn’t. It wouldn't be good for the team if he did, but it was just so drastically different from the blue aura he was used to, the one he grew to be comfortable with. Lance’s aura felt like cool waves meeting fiery lava over his mind, but it felt different with Lance; calm, soothing, natural . It just felt entirely right melding with Lance, honestly. Knowing he was there to keep his fire cool, contained. Yeah, Lance did that… They truly were fire and ice to one another.

Everyone else noticed who was on his mind, before he refocused his thoughts on the Red Lion, and being one with her. It made him a little embarrassed to have been caught thinking of Lance… Or rather missing Lance. It's not like Lance wasn't still here, he was , but he was mad at Keith right now. As he should be , after how much of a dick Keith's been to him.

Dammit, keep it together. He quickly focused his train of thought back on Red. He only vaguely noticed Red forming in front of him, as the cold, invasive prodding advanced on Keith’s brain. He could almost feel an icy chisel pecking down, trying to get past Keith’s defenses, but Keith was having none of that.

Keith growled and scrunched his face in annoyance. “ Kiryn ! You’re supposed to be focusing on the Blue Lion , not prying into my head!” Keith snapped, glaring across the space at the prince, who jumped slightly at Keith’s tone.

“I- uh- ...sorry.” Kiryn stuttered, blinking away the shocked look in his eyes and putting on a mildly pouty face directed at Keith. “I thought we were supposed to all be open to one another?” he asked innocently.

Keith’s upper lip twitched and crossed his arms, growing annoyed. “We're not sharing that much. How about you just do what you're told to do, and focus on Blue.” Keith said coldly, and Kiryn hummed a small disappointed sound.

“Keith’s always been pretty closed off, Kiryn, don’t take it too personally.” Hunk supplied, and reached over to clap the prince on the shoulder.

Keith shut his eyes, and sucked in a deep breath through his nose, before staring resolutely at the image of his lion in front of him. He could see the Black, Yellow, and Green Lions out of the corner of his gaze, and could see the Blue Lion flickering in and out. It was understandable, Keith reasoned, that Kiryn was having trouble bringing up the Blue Lion, since he hadn’t even flown her yet.

As soon as they brought all of the lions together to form Voltron, Keith and Pidge whipped off their helmets simultaneously. Pidge was the first to stand, hands on her hips, gazing down at Hunk. She didn’t seem to want to take the time to congratulate their newest comrade on his success. ”C’mon, Hunk,” she said, and tilted her head towards the door. “We should continue working on our project.”

Keith glanced over at Pidge and Hunk, wondering which project they meant, before turning back towards Shiro, avoiding Kiryn’s obvious gaze on him. Stop looking at me. “Is that it for today, Shiro? I have things to do.”

Shiro sighed, and dropped his head back, appearing utterly exasperated. Shiro was just tired of all the crap with the team lately, tired that, so far, no one seemed to be getting along. “Fine, that’s it. Go do what you gotta do…”

Keith nodded and wasted no time in jogging towards the door, eager to escape. Twice as eager to go see Lance and try to talk to him. He wanted to throw his arms around him and apologize a million times over if he had to- but geez, he just wanted to see Lance. Two days is a long time to go without seeing someone you cared about, but Keith knew it was his fault in the first place that Lance had been hiding away. He felt so awful for being so cold to him… He really was the worst.

“Keith, just wait a sec!” Shiro called suddenly, halting Keith’s escape. He hadn’t moved from his spot on the floor, just tilted his head back further to see. “Come back here, we should talk. It'll only take a second so don't give me any excuses…”

Keith growled softly under his breath, and turned back towards Shiro. My excuse is Lance, Lance has first priority right now…

As soon as Keith reached Shiro’s side, Shiro motioned for Keith to sit back down, and he did so, but not without a heavy sigh. “Spill it, Shiro, I have an apology to make...”

Shiro nodded. “...Well, it's about time.” Shiro said softly, giving him a small smile before he pressed his lips into a thin line. He was showcasing his signature Disappointed Dad face. “Keith, you can’t be so hard on Kiryn.” he said softly, quiet enough so that the man in question could not hear. “I don’t care if you’re upset that he’s not Lance. He’s going to be taking Lance’s place for a bit… He’s learning the ropes to all of this, just like you had to-”

“Yeah? Well he still had no right to try to dig around in my head like that.” Keith snapped loudly, causing Pidge and Hunk to glance back from the doorway. Wincing, Keith lowered his voice. The ‘taking Lance’s place’ bit really stung him, but he steered himself away from that hurt feeling and focused it on the other situation Shiro had brought up. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I don't take very kindly to people trying to force themselves into my personal space. Kiryn has been doing exactly that.”

Kiryn hummed from his spot and shifted to rest his elbow on his knee, and his chin in his palm sophisticatedly. “You just seemed like you wanted some attention,” Kiryn said with a smirk, then he shrugged his shoulder.

Both Keith and Shiro gave an odd look at Kiryn, Keith making an appalled expression. “Even if that were the case, which it isn’t,” Keith said lowly, narrowing his eyes, “I don’t need attention from you .”

Shiro furrowed his brows, his lips pressing thin awkwardly as his eyes darted from Keith to Kiryn. Keith could tell that Shiro definitely wanted to back out of this now, and probably felt awkward as fuck between this suddenly.

Kiryn nodded to that. “Mhm, but I do apologize… I have no intentions on making you uncomfortable with me, handsome.” Kiryn said earnestly, not looking the slightest bit apologetic.

“...Alright, then.” Keith bit out awkwardly, glancing back at Shiro. “I'm leaving now,” he said suddenly, scrambling up from his spot and darting out of the doors.

He quickly darted down the hallway leading towards his room and Lance’s. Nobody else was in the hallway, luckily, as Keith stopped in front of Lance’s door. Steeling himself with a deep breath, he rapped his knuckles lightly on the door. “Lance?” he called out softly, eyes taking in every inch of the door. “Can I come in? We… We need to talk.”

The door stayed stubbornly shut, and there was no noise coming from the inside; no shuffling, no blankets ruffling, nothing . Just dead silence. Keith sighed and pressed his forehead against the cold door. “Lance, I-I know you're in there… J-Just let me apologize, please… I’m sorry- I’m sorry that I've been such an ass lately...” he plead, voice going quieter and weaker by the end. He bit wobbly lip and looked over at the pad beside the door. He briefly thought about trying it, to see if it was well and truly locked, but… If Lance didn’t want to talk to him right now, he shouldn’t try and force Lance to. He could make it worse if he did that... He tried to tell himself he deserved this kind of treatment from Lance, but he still wanted to make it right between them… Had to make it right between them. Eventually.

Footsteps echoed down the hallway, causing Keith to whip around. Pidge wasn’t nearly as far away as he thought she was; she was already practically beside him. He jumped back slightly from Lance’s door, as if he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

She stopped beside him, a small apologetic smile on her face. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. I just… Came to check up on him.”

“He won’t let me in. I don’t think…” Keith swallowed and ducked his head, peering down at the space between their shoes sadly. “God, I fucked up, I just- … He probably hates me...” Keith choked out, chomping down on his quivering lip. It was getting harder and harder to keep the warmth from building up behind his eyes, but Pidge knew how he felt. She wasn't judging him. Not exactly… Maybe a bit after the shit he pulled with Lance, but she knew how much he regretted it. How much he was beating himself up for it now.

Pidge reached up and patted his shoulder caringly. “He’ll come back around when he’s ready, don’t worry… Let me try.” Pidge soothed, before stepping between Keith and the door, and knocking lightly. “Lance? Hey Lance, c’mon, open up!”

It took a second, but Keith could vaguely hear rustling coming from the inside, most likely Lance throwing blankets aside. He stepped back again quickly, back from Pidge and back from Lance’s room with a hurt look on his face. Of course he’d open of for Pidge, she didn’t hurt him and make him want to hide away.

Pidge glanced over her shoulder at him, shocked. “Keith, where are you going?!”

“He… He obviously doesn’t want to talk to me, so, I’ll... Talk to him when he’s ready...” Keith muttered, and spun away on his heel, quickly making his way back down the hallway. His heart heavy in his chest, and sinking feeling in his lungs.

He screwed up so bad...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A knock on Lance’s door woke him up, and a soft concerned voice came after it from the other side.

It was Keith, and his voice sounded absolutely wrecked .

“Lance? Can I come in? We… We need to talk.”

Lance knew he couldn’t bear to face Keith just yet. He’d been hiding in his room for who-knows-how-long, avoiding Keith after what he said.

And there was that other thing too... Kiryn. Lance couldn't make up how to feel about him yet, but Kiryn was replacing him in the team. Lance couldn't stop thinking that maybe Kiryn would be better than him, and permanently take his place. It wasn't that far out of a possibility, honestly… Lance just didn't want to start naming out all of the reasons why Kiryn would possibly be a better Blue Paladin.

“Lance, I-I know you're in there…” Keith continued pleadingly, “J-Just let me apologize, please… I’m sorry- I’m sorry...” Keith’s voice became too faint to be heard through the door, but Lance got the gist… It hurt him to hear Keith sound so distraught, but he couldn't just cave into Keith so easily. It was unfair to himself, and he was scared of where they would end up if they got a chance to talk now. He couldn't process all of the different outcomes, but his all of his insecurities and anxiety told him it wouldn't be a good one for them, because he had treated Keith wrong once too.

Lance buried his face deeper into his pillow, arm buried underneath it, and he stayed silent. Maybe if he was quiet enough, Keith would give up and go away, thinking that Lance had finally left his room or something.

It was quiet outside for a few moments, until someone else’s footsteps echoed down the hall. Lance could hear Keith step back from the door frantically; he mustn’t’ve heard the other person approach until they were nearly right outside the door. Lance couldn’t quite hear what they were saying, exactly, other than the odd muffled word or two.

Suddenly, there was another knock on his door, softer this time, perhaps coming from a smaller hand. “Lance?” Pidge called, sounding somewhat soothing compared to her usual tone. “Lance, c’mon, open up!”

With a sigh, Lance rolled over to his other side, facing the door. He kicked the blankets down towards the foot of the bed with his feet, feeling warm all of a sudden. He could hear footsteps backing away from the door, before leaving entirely. He could vaguely hear Pidge arguing with Keith about something, but didn’t really care. Hopefully Keith was leaving… He'd deal with him another time… In a less private space, too.

Lance tilted his head up on his pillow and peeked at the solid door with exhausted eyes. His vision was just too bleary from crying and pressing his face too hard into his own pillow to see anything that far away with clarity. He knew it would come back to him though, but he wasn't really in any rush to see anything anyway.

Pidge had been worried about him since they left Thalassa two, maybe more days ago. She came to check up on him every so often, usually with Hunk too. He liked it when Hunk came to see him, because Hunk would spoon with him and keep him warm for an hour or two. He felt less lonely with his best friend around, but he couldn't ask him to stay. He couldn't even tell Hunk what was really going on to make him feel so down. He just blamed it on trauma from losing his arm still, though that was really only a minor factor.

“-Lance! Are you going to let me in?” Pidge asked a bit louder, knocking again.

He wanted to ignore her like he had done Keith, but he did need someone to talk to. Or just someone to sit with, really, because after so much virtual solitude, he was only starting to make himself feel even more awful than he did when they left Thalassa. He’d been thinking too much about that day- and everything about it that confused him. Particularly Keith being concerned and gentle with him one moment, to bitter the next. He did probably deserve the first snap he got from Keith, about stepping back from the team, but definitely not the second one. That was out of the blue; something had made Keith mad enough at Lance that he snapped.

He remembered how his blood went cold and his eyes teared up with the angry look Keith had given him, like any of this was his fault , and how he was so close to breaking down and crying in front of everyone. But Pidge had grabbed his shoulder and turned him away, as if trying to distract him from crying in front of everyone around.

"Come in, Pidge…" he called out, just loud enough for her to hear from the other side.

Moments later, the door whooshed in, and Pidge’s shadow stretched across the room. "Christ! Finally… Hunk's still really worried about you… Have you come out of your room at all? He wants to get you out of your room." she yapped, and walked over to the side of the bed, before she plopped down on it gently. She glared at him and reached to place her palm on his thin cheek. “You have to come out of your room sometime… Keith's worried about yo-"

Lance brushed her hand off his face and turned over, away from her, laying his hand under his cheek, disgruntled. "He wasn't worried about me when he blew up on me twice in a day…" Lance heard the crack in his own voice, and bit down on his lip. “God, he didn't even look like he regretted what he said the second time..." Lance sniffled, feeling hot tears drip off his cheeks and onto hand under his face. He curled in on himself and tried to prevent a sob from escaping.

Pidge scooted close and rested her hands on his side. "He does regret it, Lance… He just blew one of his short fuses with you… I agree it was wrong of him, but he does regret it, believe me he does." Pidge murmured softly. She patted at Lance's side softly and soothingly, trying to calm him down. “He wants to apologize to you, but you have to let him first…”

He was holding his breath in an effort to not cry out loud, only taking in a breath through his nose and out the same way when he needed it. He knew if he opened his mouth he'd just fall apart. Something went wrong between he and Keith, and he couldn't be sure if it was his fault or not. He was trying to make things right. He was trying to tell Keith how he felt, but it was always the wrong place, the wrong time. Maybe that was karma telling them that they just weren't meant to together, or something. His lip quivered, and he quickly turned to press his face into his pillow. He didn’t give the oncoming sob a chance to escape before it was smothered. He tried to squeeze his hand tightly around his pillow, to give him something else to focus on, but his hand slipped, and his nails ended up digging into the palm of his hand instead.

Pidge bent over and practically laid on top of him, cooing softly and flattening his bedhead with her hands. "Lance… You just need to talk to him… I-I don't think he could hurt you anymore, could he? ...So no matter what happens, you'll be fine, right?" Pidge said the last part more than asked it.

" Hhnt brry cunfurring... " He said, being muffled by the pillow, but Pidge could distinguish it enough as ' not very comforting '.

She sighed softly and lifted off of him. "Want me to talk to him for you, or drag him in here?" Pidge asked, very seriously. She crossed one leg over the other and bounced it impatiently waiting for his answer or protest or something.

Lance shook his head and turned his face from the pillow. "No..."

"Then what are you going to do?"

"I-I don't know… But I don't want to see him right now, okay?" Lance whispered hoarsely. "I… I don't want to be hurt even more… I don't think I could bear rejection from Keith, the one person I've had a crush on for eight straight years..."

Pidge cocked a brow at him. "You had a crush on Keith for that long? You must have done a good job hiding it…" Pidge paused then pursed her lips in thought for a moment. She thought back to all their years together, and some of Lance's actions suddenly made more sense. Yep, he definitely had something for Keith since day one. She just thought it was because he was jealous and because they were ' rivals ', and then later on teammates . But nope, Lance had clearly(or not so clearly) been harboring a crush on Keith this whole time-- for nearly eight years . Pidge vaguely wondered if Hunk maybe knew about it- but nah- surely if he did she would have known about it sooner... But she’d had no idea. Lance had hid it well, more or less covering it up by teasing and starting small petty arguments with Keith from time to time… Which kept his growing crush on Keith to himself… But nonetheless, there was no doubt that yes, Lance McClain has had a crush on Keith this whole time.

"...Oh. Maybe that does make sense now that I think about it… But for eight years and you haven't said a thing to him about it? You two were literally fucking! How did you hide it?! Why did you run away when he finally confessed to you?!" Pidge groaned and threw her hands up exasperated. Lance really was an idiot. He wouldn't be in this mess if he had just been honest with himself and Keith. The problem now was getting Keith to hear him confess. She wondered if maybe he were outside of the door- but she doubted it; he was pissed when Lance had ignored him but let her in-- and Keith had been more persistent than she was when knocking on his door.

Lance flinched back slightly. "I got scared! I-I didn't think he actually liked me… I thought when he pulled me into his room that first night that he was just fed up and lonely- not that he liked me, not that he wanted to get close to me…" Lance whimpered, his bottom lip trembling, and eyes glossy with fresh tears. "I didn't know how he felt, so I hid how I felt, okay?! But I regret it so much… I should have just told him before it got this bad. Pidge, I love him… I just... Don't want him to break my heart after all this time…" he murmured, moving his hand to anxiously drag it through his short hair, once, twice, three, and four times. Pulling on it and wincing. “I'm in love with him and I'm scared that he might not be.”

Pidge sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Lance, I know you don't want to hear this, but you did this to yourself… Things wouldn't even be this complicated had you just 'fessed up beforehand."

"I know…" Lance muttered, frowning. He dragged his hand harshly over his face, squeezing his eyes shut tight for a moment until he saw hues of red and green behind his lids.  "…I know…" he said again, this time muffled by his own hand. He stared blankly up at the ceiling above his bed, blinking slowly. Both of them quiet now, thinking and over-thinking.

Pidge shifted her weight on the bed and tucked one of her legs under herself, rubbing at her face tiredly.

It was another long minute before Lance asked, "What if… What if I can't fix this? If I- If I just ruined my chances of being with him by playing games…?”

Pidge shrugged her shoulders sadly. "Lance, I don't know… You have to talk to him before you can fix it, though…"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Keith practically stomped down to the training deck after stopping at his room for his Bayard and luxite blade, hoping the deck was empty. It made sense that Lance would let Pidge in, since she didn’t act like a complete asshole to him even once. Keith groaned and rubbed a hand over his face tiredly. If only Lance would let him clear the air, and maybe make it up to him… He didn't know where he could find roses in space, but he almost wished he did. Maybe that was cheesy for an apology, even more so between two people that were only supposed to be friends… But damn if he didn't actually thought about it. Lance was known to be big on sending space flowers to his girl crushes; though, he hadn't done that trick in a couple of years...

“Hey,” Shiro called, obviously surprised that Keith was already heading back to the training deck. “How’d it go?”

“He wouldn’t let me in.” Keith muttered, and chewed on his bottom lip. “Not that I blame him… After what I said to him, I wouldn’t let me in either.”

“He’ll come around, don’t worry… Plus, the Castle is only so big; he’ll have to run into you sooner or later.”

“That’s true…” Keith mused, and released his abused bottom lip slowly. “What are you still doing here?”

“I was working with Kiryn. Gauging his strengths and weaknesses as a fighter. He’s pretty evenly trained, I have to say. I'm pretty impressed.” Shiro explained softly, as if trying not to spook a timid animal, though this timid animal was more of disgusted animal with that name being brought up. “Oh come on, don't look like that… Kiryn isn't that bad of person… I'm not going to force you to like him, but at least get along with him for our team.”

Keith pursed his lips, eying Shiro accusingly. “Please, don’t--”

“Could you at least try to behave and be friendly? For Voltron and the universe?” Shiro plead, giving Keith the best puppy-dog eyes he could muster.

Keith groaned, exasperated, and hung his head, defeated. “Fine, Shiro, I’ll try. But he’s still a prissy douche and doesn’t deserve to take Lance’s place…”

Shiro held his hands up, palm out, in a surrendering gesture, smiling. “Perfect.”

Keith shook his head, and stomped past him onto the training deck. “Seriously though, who has time to be friendly to a narcissist?” Keith cracked.

Shiro opened his mouth to start to say something, but thought better of it, and waved Keith off. “You do. Alright, I’ll see you for dinner…”

With a nod, Keith pressed his hand to the pad outside of the training deck, and stepped through the doors. He paused upon seeing Kiryn still fighting in the middle of the circle with his open palms, ducking and dodging away from the gladiator.

Kiryn glanced over his shoulder as the doors whooshed open, and narrowly managed to block a hit from the gladiator. Quickly sweeping its feet out from under it, Kiryn knelt on the bot’s chest, ending the simulation. He swiftly stood and turned back to Keith. “Hey,” he said slowly, obviously wary of his teammate’s presence on the floor. “What are you up to?”

“Came down to train, but, if you’re here--”

“No, no, stay. Just one or two more simulations with weapons, and I’ll leave you the floor.” Kiryn interrupted, and jogged over to the weapons wall, oddly gracefully for being covered in sweat.

Keith shook his head of the rogue thought, and stepped further into the training deck, towards the wall. Leaning against it, he observed Kiryn from afar. He’d changed from his royal outfit on Thalassa to something more casual, in the prince’s books. He was wearing a tight fitting teal shirt, with long sleeves that faded to see-through by his wrists. He had tight black jean-like pants on, with a pair of fashionable-looking boots. Or, they would be considered purely fashionable if not for the thickness of the soles. He grabbed a matching set of pistols from the wall, and swung them around his index fingers idly, testing their weight. Nodding to himself, Kiryn stepped away from the wall, and back to the center of the room, initiating a low training level.

As soon as the gladiator dropped to the floor, Kiryn dropped to a crouch to avoid the gladiator’s swing, and aimed his left gun up at the last second to deliver a kill shot to the underside of the bot’s chin. He stood up, and flipped his guns around his index fingers idly, smirking.

Keith huffed softly at Kiryn’s antics. He won’t be so smug at higher levels.

Kiryn flipped his pale hair over his shoulder, and attempted to smooth back the flyaways with his pistols still in hand, failing miserably. Glancing over at Keith, he grimaced slightly, seemingly embarrassed. “So, uh, Keith,” he began, while pocketing the guns, “What’d you think?”

“What do you mean?” Keith deadpanned, and leaned against the wall. Why does he care what I think?

“Well, you and the other guy trained a lot, right?” Kiryn questioned, and started slowly making his way towards him. “You know his battle patterns, his strengths and weaknesses. So, who’s the better fighter between the two of us?”

Keith bristled at the prince’s words. Better fighter? “I don’t think that’s a fair comparison, Kiryn.” he snapped, pushing away from the wall. “And it shouldn’t really matter, since you’re only a temporary replacement for him.”

Kiryn winced slightly at the Red Paladin’s words, eyes darting to the floor momentarily. “Ah… I see how it is. You have something with him, don’t you?” he chewed on his bottom lip lightly, watching Keith.

“What's it matter to you?”

“Hmm... Okay, okay. Just forget I said anything, then.” Kiryn said, backing down again and flashing Keith a brief smile. He turned back to the center of the room, and initiated the next training level.

Keith ran a hand through his hair, and stepped back towards the wall again. He watched the new man’s technique closely, looking for anything to correct. Kiryn was… A good fighter, as much as Keith hated to admit it. Lance was often better at long distance, almost sniper-like combat, whereas Kiryn was comfortable aiming from a distance and nearly hand-to-hand combat. It gave Keith a weird feeling watching Kiryn circle the bot, aiming shot after shot into barely exposed weak points, to back up just as quickly to let the bot stumble around. Kiryn’s green eyes seem to gleam when he lined up a shot to the bot’s head, ending the level.

Kiryn whooped when the training bot disappeared, and he tucked the pistols in the hem of his pants. “I think that’s enough training for me,” Kiryn mused, and turned back to Keith. “Oh, uh.. I meant to ask earlier, but, why’d you come back to the training deck so soon? Didn’t you owe Lance an apology, or something?” Kiryn asked with a slight grin. That grin was getting really annoying...

Keith froze, and felt a flush rise to his cheeks. “I-I… Uh.. Things didn’t go quite as planned, so, uh, I came down to blow off some steam.” When Kiryn didn’t say anything, Keith continued, “Shiro also may have mentioned that I should get to know you.”

“And that’s the only reason you stuck around?” Kiryn questioned, slowly stalking over to his flustered teammate. “Not because… You are intrigued in me?” he stopped barely a step in front of Keith, practically crowding him into the wall.

Keith stumbled slightly when his back hit the wall, but caught himself. He peeked up at Kiryn, to find him staring intently down at him. He didn’t realize before just how tall Kiryn was; he easily had a couple of inches height on Lance, and he was certainly taller than Keith. Upon closer observation, Kiryn’s irises were actually two different colours, both varying shades of green; a pale mint green, and a bright chartreuse. They were stunning, both flicked with pale blue, only visible if one was close enough… Which Keith definitely was. He tried to swallow the sudden lump in his throat, and quickly ducked out of Kiryn’s space, practically running to the door.

Kiryn watched him go with a longing gaze, with his hands on his hips. “Hmm, playing ‘ hard-to-get ’, huh?” he murmured to himself, sounding pleased.

Chapter Text

Allura called the Paladins down to the bridge about half an hour ago, for some supply run since they’ve been running low on this and that. No big deal, really. Keith wasn’t complaining, since it finally brought Lance out of the confines of his room at least. It was nice to see him, even though he was sandwiched between his two bodyguards, Pidge and Hunk, over by Pidge’s seat. Shiro was at the front, talking quietly to Coran about something or other, and Kiryn was sitting casually in the blue chair, with his legs crossed, minding his own business.

Keith groaned and slouched further down in his chair, staring forwards pointedly, trying to listen to what was going on around him but not hearing much. He could hear Hunk murmuring things to Lance, mostly because that's what he was trying to zero in on. Maybe that was wrong, and not his place to do so, but he was curious if they might have been talking about him-- if Lance was. He was sure Lance was still ticked off at him, positively sure of it, but he wanted to know if he could potentially fix it in the future or not.

Probably not though... Not if he isn't listening to me.

Keith’s gaze ventured over to the newest member of their team, who sat alone practically on the outskirts. He was obviously the outsider of the group, but Kiryn didn’t seem the least bit fazed by it. If anything, he actually looked pretty comfortable on the out right now. It was a little unexpected of his character, Keith couldn’t help but think, but maybe Kiryn wasn't entirely and obnoxiously self absorbed like he thought. When Keith thought about it, Kiryn hadn't made a single attempt to bother him after that scene in the training room the other day. And Kiryn had been training with Shiro a lot, which meant he saw Keith a lot. Maybe Shiro had told him something about keeping to himself after Keith told him what happened. But he wasn't going to start thinking about that again.

Shiro walked over beside Keith’s chair. “Hey,” he said softly, and placed his hand over Keith’s shoulder. “How are you holding up?”

Keith shrugged half-heartedly. “Alright, I guess.” He responded lowly.

Shiro offered a small smile and a light squeeze to his shoulder. “Have you managed to talk to Lance yet?” He asked quietly enough so the person in question couldn't hear it.

Keith's cheeks flushed and he sighed, his shoulders drooping with the question. “...I think that answer is pretty obviously a no, Shiro.”

“I never know with you two, honestly... Are you at least trying to be considerate about it? You know, his feelings, when you talk to him?”

Keith glared up at Shiro with an ‘are you serious right now?’ face. Of course he was taking Lance’s feelings into consideration, at least he was pretty sure he was… He was trying to give Lance space, like he seemed to want, but he was still persistent enough so Lance knew that he wanted to talk.

“Yeah, yeah of course I am. But that only works if he would just listen.” Keith said bitterly. “I don’t know what more to do, but I don’t want to leave things like this… He's- He's my t-teammate, Shiro... We... We weren't supposed to be like this." Keith muttered out, flinching at his last words. He remembered thinking something along the lines of that when it started between them. Like it was really such a bad thing. Lance kept making him think it was-- but apparently it wasn't bad enough for either of them to say no.

Keith glanced back up when Shiro gave him an odd look of confusion.

"The fighting, I mean..." Keith clarified. "And ignoring each other... Teammates..." He paused for a second, "...Aren't supposed to do that, are they? Not ones like us who've been together for as long as we have. We were supposed to be past this kind of stage..." He leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms disappointedly.

Shiro pressed his lips into a thin line, and nodded his head softly. "My point exactly... Look, I don't think I know everything here, do I? But I know that for some reason you two both know how to hurt each other better than any one of us ever could, and the two of you need to learn how to fix that. Work through whatever differences you two have, learn how to listen and apologize to one another."

Our differences are that he's not in love with me like I am with him, Keith thought with a frown. "I'm trying to apologize."

“You just have to give Lance some time...” Shiro said softly, a frown turning his thin lips downwards. “He’s been through a lot the past few weeks, Keith, and you letting your emotions get the best of you aren't helping either.”

“I know that.” Keith gritted out, and glared down at the space between his knees like the floor there had personally offended him. “I’m fully aware of what he’s been through and that it's my fault."

"I didn't say that-" Shiro started, a bit too loudly he realized after Allura and Hunk had cut eyes over at them. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose before continuing more quietly, "Just that you can't get mad at him for being scared of his situation and future here."

Keith groaned under his breath and shut his eyes tight, pinching at the bridge of his nose irritatedly- or mostly to prevent the tears he felt threatened by. "It was an accident. I never meant to sound like I was mad at him for what I did, but thanks for making me feel worse about this, Shiro. I’m trying to make this right." Keith bit out, standing up from his chair quickly.

“Keith, that’s not what I--”

Allura took a few loud steps to the center of the room, clearing her throat. “Alright everyone, it’s time to discuss the next mission. You’ll be glad to know that it’s just a supply run.” Allura called out, interrupting Keith’s attempt to escape and Shiro’s next words. Allura had let her long hair flowing loosely down her back, the curls barely organized like usual. She stepped up to her station light this time, and waited for the two pedestals to rise. “I’ll be staying here,” she eyed over at Coran spitefully, “while the rest of you follow Coran to the planet’s surface to collect some needed materials...”

“I’ll stay behind as well.” Shiro interjected, startling Keith slightly. “One of us may as well stay here to protect the princess if something goes wrong.”

Allura gaped at him incredulously. “Protect the prin-- Shiro, haven’t we already determined that I don’t need protecting?!”

Shiro shrugged his shoulders slightly. "I'm not sure- what did we determine?"

"That Allura can protect herself." Keith interjected, crossing his arms over his chest and favouring on one hip. "Don't you have a Paladin to train? Like I don't know… Kiryn?" He said flatly.

Shiro pressed his lips together, nodding his head defeatedly. He seemed disappointed he wouldn't get to stay with Allura.

"That is correct. As much as I enjoy your company, Shiro, you have a role to fulfil, and don't forget it." Allura agreed. "Kiryn, are you ready for more training? I hope that you are, you have a lot to learn still."

Kiryn smirked and nodded his head at the princess from his spot. "Oh, of course. Never been more ready for this."

Allura smiled back at Kiryn half-heartedly.

Hunk leaned down near Lance. "Hey, are you going to come with us?" He asked Lance quietly, before looking over at Coran and Allura. "He can come with us, right?"

“I suppose so,” Allura replied. “Coran?”

“Of cour--” Coran started, only to be interrupted rudely.

"I'm not going." Lance interjected, arms- or rather, arm- in a position as if he would be crossing his arms. His blue eyes appeared utterly tired and irritated as he looked over the group.

Keith really hated that look, especially since he knew that he was the root of Lance’s anger. Lance was still really mad him, no doubt about that at all, but now Lance wasn't holed up in his room... Lance was just openly ignoring him, and it just hurt Keith even more.

“Are you sure, Lance?” Keith heard Pidge question distantly, but he wasn’t paying attention anymore. Was Lance… Giving up? No, Keith thought stubbornly, he loves the universe too much to give up on it. But… Maybe Keith had finally pushed Lance so far away that even the rest of the team couldn’t reach him.

Hunk tried to catch Lance’s gaze as he spoke; "It's just a simple supply run, you can come, Lanc-"

"I don't care how simple it is! I would slow you guys down if I went. So I'm not going. I'm fine staying here with Allura." Lance said again, making it utterly clear that he would have to be ripped out of the Castle to go out on this mission, more than likely.

“Are you quite sure, Lance?” Allura asked softly, appearing worried for the former Blue Paladin. “You can go out, stretch your legs outside the Castle and get some fresh ai--”

“I’m fine, Allura. I have enough air in here.” Lance said lowly, his head ducked from everyone’s vision. Keith could’ve sworn he saw Lance’s lip trembling. “I’ll stay here, no problem...”

Allura appeared to want to argue that, but eventually nodded her head. “Sure, alright, Lance. If you’re sure about that... You know you are not excluded from the team while you heal, right?”

“I know..” Lance retorted.

“Are you really sure Lance? You can come with me!” Hunk said, trying to sway his friend.

“I’m one hundred percent sure, Hunk.” Lance stated.

Shiro moved from behind Keith, clasping his hand on Hunk's shoulder. "Come on, Lance is fine here, okay? No need to get on his case." he said.

"It's just been so long since you've been outside the Castle, you know? I'm just worried about your well-being." Hunk said, chewing on his lip, eying his best friend worriedly.

"We all are..." Keith murmured, and that got Lance to look at him, if only for just for a moment.

"T-there's… There's no need to be." Lance stammered. "I'm fine, okay? I'm just not going, getting in the way of things if I don't have to. I'll get out on the next run or something, it's not a big deal…” After a moment’s hesitation, he turned his back, and started towards the door off the bridge. “See you guys later, I'll be with Blue."

Shiro furrowed his brow. "Lance, we were taking Blue so Kiryn can-"

Lance flinched in his step and stopped, not turning back around though. "Oh."

"It's fine, we can take Red this round." Keith cut in lightly. "Kiryn can learn how to pilot Blue after this run."

Shiro shared a flat look with Keith and he glanced over at Kiryn, who was now standing beside Keith. "Kiryn needs the experience with Blue. All the time he gets learning to fly with her, the better."

Lance cleared his throat, sinking on his heels in the doorway, still not turning around. "Yeah, that's true... Don't want Kiryn to fall behind you guys because he's not bonded with Blue." He muttered dryly, before stepping foot past the threshold and sauntering out of sight.

As Lance stepped off the bridge, the door seemed to whoosh shut louder than normal. Keith knew it was his imagination, but it felt like Lance was shutting them all out. As if he wasn't shut out already...

“When do we leave?” Kiryn asked, pulling Keith suddenly out of his reverie when their arms brushed. Keith jumped slightly at the contact, startling himself further and causing Kiryn to start.

“Sorry…” Kiryn murmured, shifting to his other leg, but he didn’t bother to take the necessary step back.

Keith felt his face flush with colour, and he shrugged his shoulders. “It's… Fine.” he muttered in response. He guessed it didn't bother him enough to be disgusted or annoyed with Kiryn’s close proximity.

“As soon as we enter the galaxy, which should be in four vargas, or a few of earth’s hours.” Coran replied from his position at the front of the bridge. “So you’ll all need to meet up with me in the Blue Lion’s hanger before we depart, armored up. Any of you who are going, that is.” he said, eyeing over the small crowd.

With a nod to nobody in particular, Keith made his way off the bridge mindfully. He had a lot on his mind, particularly about Lance’s odd behaviour. It was almost as though… No, he thought stubbornly, Lance wouldn’t want to leave now. They’d been through so much, as a team and as individuals. Could they even function if the team wasn’t whole, the original team? He tried not to let that trail of thought go somewhere dangerous as he wandered the halls towards his room.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t even hear Kiryn come up from behind him, and place a hand on his shoulder. He jumped at the contact, and skittered a few steps away.

Kiryn raised his hands in surrender, seemingly shocked at Keith’s actions. “Whoops. Didn't mean to scare you again... Are you okay?” Kiryn asked, lifting a white brow.

“Uh, why do you ask?” Keith asked, more bark to his tone than he intended, and he frowned at himself for it when Kiryn winced slightly.

“Why wouldn't I ask about you? You are one of my teammates now…” Kiryn said, floundering a bit before continuing. “Just seems like something has you out of your head a bit. From what I’ve heard, you’re the best fighter of the Paladins, second to Shiro, but you didn’t even hear me walk up behind you. So from that, it just seems like there’s something nagging at you. Does it… Does it have something to do with Lance?” He asked hesitantly.

Keith felt shocked and a little bit embarrassed that the new guy noticed something like that. Kiryn had barely been on the ship a week and guessed more accurately than the people he’d been flying with for years. ...Well, besides Pidge. But she had gotten an earful even when she didn't want to hear it. “W-well, uh, it’s a little more complicated than that--”

“Is it because of what you did? By cutting off his arm?”

Well, this guy doesn’t fuck around. “...Sort of.” Keith said vaguely.

“I’ve noticed that he’s been without a prosthetic.” Kiryn mused, and tapped a finger against his jaw, lost in thought. “My sister had her prosthetic within days of her incident, nothing like your Lance has.”

Keith couldn’t help but flush at what Kiryn’s words implied, and couldn't say anything.He didn't know what to say, not that there was anything else for him to say. Luckily, Kiryn broke the silence.

“Hmm… Maybe I have an idea. I’ll see you in the hangar later, yeah?” Kiryn said, and with that, he quickly spun on his heel and backtracked towards where he came from with a nonchalant wave to the red Paladin.

Keith blinked, a little confused by the prince’s lack of explanation, but shook his head quickly. “Y-Yeah, Kiryn…” he muttered, watching the prince carry on towards his room.

Must be a Thalassan thing.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Keith took a lot longer than the rest to armor up and get down to the hanger. He was too caught up in his thoughts, not worried enough about the time as he was for Lance. He huffed quietly and picked up his helmet last, finally exiting his room with no further thought.

He was the last one to make it to the hangar, much to Coran’s dismay, as he seemed extremely eager to go, practically vibrating in place. Coran’s wardrobe hadn’t changed much... Hopefully that meant that none of them were expected to get into anything outrageous and ridiculous…  

Shiro was present too, although he wore a slight pout. He still must've been disappointed that he couldn't stay here at the castle with Allura. Oh well for him, Keith thought. He didn't feel bad for Shiro, or his crush. Keith ended up walking over to Coran’s side, glancing over at the new member. Kiryn was standing between Coran and Shiro, and he appeared pretty nervous, surprisingly for someone who was acting too big for his britches the other day. Keith tried not to make a snarky comment about it. Now wasn't the time to be rude, and Kiryn didn't really deserve that right now with how obviously nervous he was, running a hand through his long white hair, and shifting his weight back and forth.

Everyone else had sort have been thrown into their Lion’s pilot seats, but Kiryn was stepping in for someone else. He wasn't destined for this like the rest... If you believed in that. Kiryn more than likely didn’t actually have an idea what to expect for this kind of role, not for the actual intensity of it. Keith almost felt bad for him, but he did agree to this. Unlike Lance and the rest of them, Keith realized, the colour in his cheeks leaving him with that realization. Unlike Lance... He frowned again at that thought and turned his head to find Pidge and Hunk talking animatedly amongst themselves a couple of feet away, looking more lively than Keith had seen them… In a while...

Walking up to them, he placed a light hand on Pidge’s shoulder to get her attention. “Hey, what's up?” he questioned.

“Keith! Keith! Hey!” Pidge shouted excitedly, grabbing him by his arm and nearly yanking him down below her level. “We figured it out!”

Keith blinked in a daze at her. “Uhm, figured what out?” he asked, rubbing at where her tight grip was at on his arm. Pidge might have been small, and her nails short, but she had the toughest death grip imaginable.

“How to fix Lance’s prosthetic!” Hunk chimed in, his smile nearly splitting his face in two. “Well, with a little help from Kiryn. He stopped by Green’s chamber and offered some advice from what he remembered of his sister’s prosthetic, and gave us the hailing frequency of his sister, who is, like, the most pure person-alien-thing I have ever met, well, other than Shay, of course--”

“ Hunk ...” Keith cut in, still processing what was being told.

“Right. Well, she hooked us up with the person who made her prosthetic, and we talked with him a bit before armoring up, and they’re gonna help us complete Lance’s prosthetic! Y’know, make it functional and seamless like Serafina’s! Like Lance wanted!”

Keith could only blink dumbly at the pair. He wasn't sure he remembered that Princess Serafina had a prosthetic. His bad mood that day had clouded his memory of it probably… “She had a prosthetic?”

“Yeah, from below her knee to her foot. Don’t you remember she showed us?”

No, he didn’t. But he’d take their word for it. If it meant that they were on the path to getting Lance his new arm, he’d do anything, believe anything. Finally. “Well, no, but did you guys tell him?”

“Oooooooh, the tech for it is sooo cool!” Pidge couldn’t help but giggle lightly. “God, just wait until we tell Lance! He’s gonna be over the moon! Oh, no, we haven't told him yet, but that's our next step.”

Keith smiled softly. Lance would be excited, since he’d already been waiting so long to get his new arm. With how many standstills Pidge and Hunk have had lately… Lance would surely appreciate the good news.

“I mean, it’ll still take a bit of time to get the ball rolling, since, unfortunately, saving the universe comes first and all that, but at least we know more of what we're doing now, and have another brain to help us get this right. I can't wait!” Hunk exclaimed, and suddenly wrapped his arms around Pidge and Keith.

Keith barely had time to pat Hunk’s arm awkwardly before Shiro spoke up.

“Alright, team, it’s time to move out.” He said, causing Hunk to drop Pidge and Keith. Shiro placed a comforting hand on Kiryn’s shoulder, causing the prince’s shoulder to jerk up stiffly. “Ready to pilot one of the Voltron Lions?”

“I-I think so.” Kiryn stuttered out, and he cleared his throat. “Have any advice for me?” he asked, eying Shiro nervously, and he seemed to relax a little under the leader’s soft expression.

“Just listen to her, dude.” Hunk spoke up, and offered him a small smile. “Blue knows what she’s doing. Lance said piloting her is like being on autopilot.”

“Oh.” Kiryn seemed surprised by Hunk’s answer. “I guess I thought they’d be--”

“Harder to handle?” Keith cut in, with a wry smirk. “Red, maybe. But Blue gets attached to her Paladins, and likes to take care of them. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”

Kiryn sent a brief thankful look Keith’s way that Keith returned with a half smile, before Kiryn squared up his shoulders and faced Blue.

Blue was still sitting tall and proud, making the Paladins between her paws seem insect-like. Her usually bright yellow eyes were dim, like they have been ever since Lance stopped piloting her. Her barrier wasn’t up, but her posture practically screamed ‘leave me alone’. Keith only just noticed, but the chamber was silent outside of their voices. Blue was almost always purring, or emitting some sort of cat-like noises, and she was always loud when her Paladin was in sight. She’d been known to practically pounce on Lance on occasion, especially after he’d spent some time in the healing pod. But she was as still now as she was before Lance bonded with her all those years ago. Keith felt cold around her, today especially. She didn't look like she was going to invite the new Paladin too warmly.

“Is she going to let me in?” Kiryn asked, seeming feel the same thing Keith was thinking, looking up at her large blank eyes.

“She doesn't know you're her paladin yet, you have to reach out to her.” Coran said calmly to Kiryn.

Kiryn seemed to flounder a bit, glancing back to the group for some kind of help or advice.

Pidge just huffed loudly and pushed Kiryn forwards, towards Blue’s large paw. “Goooo!” She groaned. “Step closer already,”

Kiryn yelped in surprise and stumbled forward, immediately bowing half way down to Blue. Her eyes glimmered for a split second, before she rumbled loudly and made the crew all flinch unexpectedly when it echoed throughout the chamber. Kiryn shot back a few steps warily. “Did I do something wrong?”

Yeah, you're not Lance probably… Keith nearly said out loud. He stepped up and placed his hand on Kiryn’s shoulder. “It's fine, you’ll be fine. I just don't think she got the memo to open up.” Keith muttered, and Blue sounded as if she had growled at that comment, but no one else acted like they heard it. Must be in my head.

I'm sorry, Blue.

Keith just sighed tiredly and grabbed Kiryn’s arm, tugging him closer to Blue with him. “Blue, we have a job to do. Open up.” he said up to her sternly.

Blue seemed to consider her options for a moment, before finally relenting to Keith’s command. She took a step back and crouched down, opening her large jaws for Keith and the new Paladin. Keith glanced at Kiryn who looked in complete awe, and gave him a light shove towards the cockpit. “After you, Blue Paladin .”

Chapter Text

Shiro zipped up his vest, and ran his hands down his front, mentally making sure everything was in check. He had taken it upon himself to take Lance out on a small excursion today, just to get him out of the Castle. Allura had expressed her quiet concerns about Lance being cooped up, and he knew Keith was going stir crazy about Lance… But Shiro didn’t know the specifics of why Keith and Lance were avoiding each other. He didn’t even have a guess, really, since he thought they had put their rivalry behind them years ago.

He hesitated in front of his own door for a moment. Lance had said earlier that this would be good, but did he really want to go? Or was he just saying that in front of Allura? With how adamant he was the other day about not going on that supply run… Shiro didn’t want to push him.

He finally stepped out of his room, and turned to head down the hall towards Lance’s room. “Lance?” Shiro called out, and knocked his metal knuckles against the door once he reached the door. He was hoping that Lance would give him a quick response, if he had decided for certain if he was coming or not. It'd be nice to go out for once on something that wasn't for something entirely work related, and he didn't mind being the one taking Lance out for his stroll. He tapped his knuckles on the door again, as he still hadn’t heard a response. "Hey, Lance, you ready to go?"

He finally heard some quiet shuffling on the other side before the door slid open. Lance stood on the opposite side of the threshold, appearing awfully tired. A little bit frail too, his cheeks were too thin and his eyes didn’t seem as bright, Shiro couldn’t help but notice. He didn't comment on it though, nor the room behind him that was an utter mess. That was unusual for Lance… “Hey… Ready?” Shiro asked with a small friendly smile, and offered a hand.

Even though he looked exhausted, Lance still shot a smile back at him. He glanced at the hand being offered to him and hesitated before taking it firmly. "Yeah, I am. Thanks again for this, Shiro."

Shiro hummed in affirmation. "You know you could have gone with us the other day, on that supply run?" he started.

Lance quickly shook his head, and waved his hand in front of him in some kind of protest. "Yeah, no, I didn't want to go… Just, I thought that maybe it's best if I got out when it's… Less dangerous and no big motive, y'know?" Lance said, flinching slightly at his own words. "Er… Not that it was dangerous-- I'm not scared! But, I don't want to be in the way right now, and…" he paused, with a slight shrug of his shoulders, seeming to be at a loss for the right words, “...I just wanted something calmer. No mission, just… Time out of the castle.”

“That’s okay, I get it. No one would force you to do anything you don't want, Lance." Shiro said, taking a step back with Lance's hand, a sign for them to get going.

"Are you sure about that?" Lance asked, stepping out of his room. The door slid shut behind him with a click, and Shiro led them down the corridor.

"Who would force you to do something you don't want to?" Shiro questioned, lifting a thick brow over at Lance.

Lance grimaced at the question and pulled his hand out of Shiro’s grasp. He slowed down slightly, falling in step behind Shiro, and he shrugged, a frown on his lips. "Do you want honesty, or for me to pretend that this whole thing was entiiiiiirely of free will and sunshine, and happiness, like-- Y'know what? Nevermind that..." Lance said, and sighed defeatedly. "I'm not gonna go there."

"Lance…" Shiro frowned. "If you have something you want to say, then say it. I'm not here to judge you for it, I know it's been rough for all of us, especially you. So if you want to talk, please talk to me. Or anyone, really, so you don’t keep this bottled up."

Lance frowned and scratched at the back of his neck awkwardly. "Don't you think I complain enough? I feel like that's all I do."

Shiro shook his head. "Haven't noticed. You've been too holed up in your room lately for me to notice." He commented dryly, before he lengthened his strides to step ahead of Lance to open the hangar door for him. He shot a small smirk to Lance when the younger man scowled at him. "Are you going to say you haven't? Keith's been really worried about you being in your room all the time and… Ignoring him…" Shiro paused, as something seemed to suddenly click into place and perhaps start to make a little sense. "Are you mad at Keith for what he did?"

Lance froze, his face giving away his obvious shock before he schooled his expression and shook his head quickly. "No."

Shiro’s lips turned down into a frown and he waved Lance over to the other side of the threshold. He didn’t comment again until Lance stepped inside the hangar with his head drooped down. Shiro put his hand on his back and pat it comfortingly. "Okay… Maybe you should tell him that."

" I have ."

"Explicitly, or just vaguely?"

"Yes?" Lance muttered with a shrug and a frown.

"You can't be vague with Keith." Shiro pointed out.

"…Yeah, I know. Your point?" Lance sighed. "Why are we talking about Keith , anyways…?"

"Because you two seem like you need to talk lately, and haven't really… Keith's been really bothered by it."

Lance shook his head and groaned. "Maybe I'm bothered by it? But that's not-- This isn't supposed to be about him ! I just want some time to myself, and right now , I need some time away from the Castle and someone to talk to that will listen and stop bringing up Keith for Christ’s sake! I'm not- I'm not mad at Keith for severing my arm. He saved my life! I'm not upset because of that, I'm upset because I - I can't handle everything else right now… I'm sorry he feels that way but it's not him… Keith has nothing to do with this…"

"Okay. So what else is it? You wanna talk about it with me? We can talk about it now." Shiro said on their way over to a pod. Well, one of the only ones left that didn't currently need maintenance. He gestured Lance over to the passenger side, and helped him to get in and buckled down before getting in himself.

Lance held a pouty look on his face as he watched Shiro climb in. "Where are going?" He asked.

Shiro noticed Lance avoiding his question, but chose to let it go. He had to guess which were touchy subjects with Lance, and he guessed this was one of them right now with everything that had gone on. "This is your field trip, Lance. Where do you want to go?"

Lance hummed and pulled his knees up to his chest, and rested his chin lightly on top of his arm and legs, rather puppy-like. "I like any blue planets, like home…” He paused, and gazed out of the pod, his gaze suddenly millions of miles way. “Do you… Do you think I could ever go home? I mean, before the war is over, that is."

Shiro furrowed his brow and pressed his lips into a thin line, peering over at Lance out of the corner of his eye. But Lance had his head turned the opposite way so Shiro couldn't see his face. There was no crack or stutter in Lance’s voice, but Shiro knew that Lance was being serious. "Lance, do you want to go home?"

"Do I get an option?" Lance asked blankly, his shoulders going down in what must've been a quiet sigh.

"I… Think you do..? You know what I’ve said, that you have to want to be a part of the team… If you do want to leave, Lance, no one’s stopping you."

"I think I do." Lance cut in without any hesitation in his voice, and he turned his head to face Shiro squarely.

Shiro honestly expected tears in Lance's eyes, but there wasn’t even a trace of tears. He looked completely serious about it, as serious as he could with the softest genuine expression in his eyes.

Shiro blinked dumbly for a moment, "You want to… Go home ?"

Lance nodded his head softly. "Mm… Maybe. You guys have another Paladin, so, I’m not really needed anymore."

"Lance, don’t even say that." Shiro plead, reaching up to rub at his eyes with his forefinger and thumb. He couldn’t help but wonder how much thought Lance had put into this recently. He knew that Lance had always missed Earth, and especially his family… But Shiro wasn't expecting that after seven years together as a team, Lance would finally make the decision to leave . He wasn’t even sure if going home was even an option for Lance at this point, because of the rest of the team. Lance was part of the only family the rest of them had right now, he couldn’t just… Go home without them …

He cleared his throat with a deep frown on his face. "First of all, that’s far from true--”

“Is it? You guys have Kiryn now. He probably does an even better job than I ever could.” Lance bit out, his voice breaking at the end but he played it off with a grunt. He narrowed his blue eyes at the floorboard, masterfully avoiding Shiro’s gaze.

“Lance…” Shiro started.

Lance shook his head at him before he finished. “I dare you to tell me he isn’t, Shiro… He’s- He’s good for this team, and he might even be good for Keith and--” Lance froze, his cheeks going a bright shade of red with the realization of the mistake he must have made. Before Shiro could even think about asking, Lance shook his head again and shoved his palm in Shiro’s face obnoxiously. “ No , no no no! Don't you dare ask.” He squawked.

“Uh, yeah, I think I'm going to ask. What do you mean by good for Keith?” Shiro asked, swatting the hand away and shifting in his seat towards Lance with a raised brow.

Lance groaned and covered his hand over his face. “What do you think I mean by that?”

Shiro shrugged awkwardly. “I don’t know, how am I supposed to know?” he said, and sighed exasperatedly at Lance. As if he would know. Shiro could admit he didn't always pay that close of attention to his team, so of course he didn't know. And he hated to make assumptions, even if he had any, but he did notice that they always have that frustrating bit of friction between them.

“Doesn’t Keith tell you everything ?”

“Well, I thought he did? But he’s been avoiding my questions lately, and… Well, yeah, I guess he doesn't.” Shiro stated dumbly. He honestly had no idea what Lance could be talking about, and now Lance had shut his mouth entirely. How frustrating… He didn't like forcing things out of people, but he really like when people started mentioning something and then didn't clarify the rest of it.

Shiro huffed finally and gestured dumbly for Lance to continue. “What are we talking about here, Lance?”

Lance let out a whimper and kept his hand covered over his tomato red face. “Fiiiine.” He whined pitifully.  “I-I love Keith, okay? Like, I'm in love with him, but I think Kiryn… I think Kiryn kind of gets in the way of that. I-I don't know. Maybe--” he cut off, shaking his head suddenly and dropped his hand from his face. “N-Nevermind. Guess my secret’s out now, though. Haha.”

Shiro blinked, dumbfounded, but he relaxed back in his seat. “ Oh. That I… Really didn't expect…” he admitted, rubbing at the back of his neck sheepishly. “I-I don't know what to say? I'm not sure why you think Kiryn gets in the way?” He said slowly, eyeing Lance. “More importantly, why do you want to go home if you feel this way about Keith?”

Lance frowned. “I haven't been the best to Keith… I think he realizes that, and I know Kiryn's been nicer to him than me. Does he talk about Kiryn?”

Shiro pressed his lips into a thin line and shook his head. “No more than about you…”

“But does he talk good about Kiryn?”

“He talks good about you , isn't that something?” Shiro asked. “Maybe you should just talk about this thing with Keith, before you decide to go home, alright?”

Lance's cheeks flushed with color and his frown deepened. “I-It's not that easy, Shiro…”

“Sometimes it's not about whether it's easy or not. If there's something between the two of you, you two need to try and work it out, that's all.” Shiro said, and reached over to pat Lance’s shoulder. “I trust the both of you to be responsible about this.”

Lance's cheeks flushed an even brighter color and he groaned again. He hugged his knees to his chest and buried his face against his knees. “Responsible… Right … Because we're not 17 anymore, huh?”

“That’s right, so don't do anything dumb.” Shiro teased, and gave Lance a small grin even though he didn't turn his head at all towards him.

“ I already diiiid. ” Lance whined, voice cracking pitifully, and he rocked forward against his knees childishly. “I have officially fucked myself, Shiro, you just don't know.”

“You're right, I don't know, and I don't even think I want to know! But I don't think you fucked yourself as bad as you think. Now do you want to go somewhere or not?”

Lance let out a long sigh and shook his head. “Nah. I just wanna go back to my room now… I’ll tell Allura that I'll get out some other time.” he said slowly, before throwing his feet down off of the seat and reaching over for the latch, but he paused and glanced over his shoulder at Shiro. “Thanks Shiro… I really like getting to talk to you, y’know.”

Shiro felt himself frown again but he nodded his head to Lance. “Anytime, Lance…”

“Walk me back to my room? I'll let you vent to me on the way back, buddy.” Lance jested with a slight grin on his face.

Shiro hummed and gave a small grin back. “I'm good, I don't think I have as many problems as you… No offense.” he said, climbing out of the pod and over to the other side to help Lance out.

“Eh, none taken.” Lance shrugged. Suddenly, a devious smirk took over his lips, and Shiro didn’t have any time to consider it before Lance grabbed him by his shoulder and leapt into his arms unexpectedly. It was a good thing Shiro had fast enough reflexes, otherwise they both would have fallen. With a big goofy grin on his face, Lance said, “But since I have all of the problems here, you can carry my problematic self, can't you?”

Shiro laughed and rolled his eyes, adjusting his hold on Lance until he was in a better carrying position, much like a damsel, with his legs dangling over one arm and back resting against his other. “Sure, sure.” he muttered, and started off down the hall with Lance casually draped in his arms. He couldn’t help but notice how light Lance was, almost like he’d lost weight. He knew that Lance was a fairly lanky guy, but he’d seen his body enough times from the skin-tight white monkey suits they wore in the healing pods. He knew Lance wasn’t normally this skinny. Was he not eating?

Lance hummed and rested his head against the broad chest beside him, remaining utterly quiet outside of his soft breathing, much to Shiro’s surprise. They didn’t make much commotion down the dimly lit hallway, his own quiet footsteps being the loudest, barely echoing down the corridor.

“You'll talk to him, right?” Shiro asked, breaking the silence around them, and he consciously slowed his pace down.

“Eventually… You aren't going to be pestering me about this from now on, are you?”

“I don't know… I just think if you feel that way about him, then you should talk about it with him.” Shiro sighed, and desperately wanted to rub his temples. “The worst that could happen is he doesn't feel the same way about you... But, you know you have a whole team here that cares about you, Lance. Keith does care about you, even if he doesn't love you the same way… And you won't know until you say something.”

Lance tensed up and gulped, pressing his face further into Shiro’s chest. “...I know. Can we, just, drop this subject? I don't have anything else to say.”

“Alright, consider it dropped…” Shiro muttered, shifting his human arm slightly under Lance and resuming his normal pace down the hall again.

When they finally reached the hall to the Paladins’ room, Keith was just walking out of his own room. His head perked up when he heard Shiro’s footsteps approach.

“Shiro…” Keith muttered, glancing over the boy in his arms. “What's wrong with Lance?” he asked, and reached out slightly for Lance, but quickly crossed his arms over his chest.

Lance winced when he heard Keith's voice, but lifted his head to see Keith. “Heeey Keithy… I'm fine, just tired. So I had Prince Charming here carry me to my room.” He answered with a sheepish grin.

Keith frowned at Lance’s choice of words, but didn’t say anything.

Shiro sighed to himself and carried Lance over to his door before setting him down. He wasn't about to comment on how Lance should stop flirting with everyone if he wanted Keith to realize how he felt... But he should probably mention it to him later, when Keith wasn't around to ask questions. “Well, Lance didn't want to go out today, so we just talked. But next time, one of us is going to get him out of the Castle…” He said, and glanced meaningfully over at Lance.

Lance recoiled a bit under the gaze, and ran a hand down the side of his face. “I got out of my room, though? And that's good enough.” He chuckled nervously.

“No, it's not.” Shiro and Keith said in unison.

Shiro cut a slight grin over to Keith. Maybe he didn't know everything between Keith and Lance, but Keith definitely cared for Lance. That was blatantly obvious. Shiro cleared his throat. “No, it's not, and no one is rushing you, Lance…” Shiro said, and paused before subtly adding, “ With anything. ” as he glanced back and forth between Lance and Keith.

Lance obviously got the memo, because his cheeks flared an awful bright red colour and he slammed his palm blindly on the control pad to get his door open. As soon as it was open wide enough to slip through, he stumbled inside. “ I know when I'm being rushed!!! You rush me! ” He screeched, and assumingly threw himself on his bed, by the audible thunk heard from outside of the room.

Shiro chuckled lightly at Lance’s antics. At least losing an arm hadn’t changed the dramatic flair he has.

Keith furrowed his brows, confused. “...What's all that about?” He asked, and glanced back towards Lance’s room, the door still not having shut.

Shiro just shrugged in response. He was sure Keith would eventually figure it out for himself… Maybe. Or Lance would tell him. He hoped that he would before he decided to leave… He frowned a little bit at the thought, but it was Lance’s choice. And he had just as much free will as the rest of them, whether the universe depended on them or not.

Keith frowned over at him and stepped over into Lance’s doorway, leaning faux-casually on the door frame, all but blocking Shiro from entering. Not that he was planning to. “So, uh, I’ll see you around?”

Shiro nodded. “Sure, Keith, see you around.” He replied, and stepped over to peek his head past Keith’s shoulder. “See you, Lance!” he called out to Lance before he turned around and headed to the bridge deck with a wave goodbye behind him. He started to think about whether he should mention to Allura what Lance said about Leaving… But he quickly decided that he should wait for Lance come to a decision, and talk to Keith first.

___________

Keith watched Shiro disappear down the hallway before he let out a quiet sigh and turned onto his other hip, facing into Lance's room. He saw that Lance was flopped lazily over on his stomach, face buried into his plush pillow. “Sooo…” Keith drawled, while the tips of his fingers mindlessly drummed against his arm. He started counting the seconds it took for him to get a response, but Lance remained face-down on his mattress, not giving Keith any indication that he’d even heard him speak. Guess not , Keith thought with a huff. “Guess I'll see you later…?” he muttered disappointedly.

Lance hummed loudly and shifted on his bed, sitting up relatively quickly to the question. “Wait--!” he started forward, but sat back down when he saw that Keith wasn’t moving. “Keith… D-don’t go yet. Do you mind staying? For a little bit?” Lance uttered, scooting closer into the wall and pulling his legs up.

It was mild gesture that Keith was welcome in the bed, and Keith wouldn't question the invitation. He slowly made his way across the room, giving Lance the time to change his mind. Lance stayed very quiet, scarcely even breathing, and watched him with his too-blue eyes. Keith climbed in next to him, feeling speechless suddenly. He thought he should ask something, anything really, to avoid the awkward silence, but his mind was utterly and frustratingly blank now that he was so close to Lance. Lance didn't seem to notice, he just nodded at Keith and gave a feeble smile on his thin lips.

Keith watched him closely with what he was sure was a pining gaze. He let his eyes linger on every feature of Lance’s face that he truly missed seeing up close. From Lance’s long brown eyelashes framing his pretty blue eyes, to his slightly crooked long nose, to his soft chapped lips. Lance’s eyes were glued towards the floor, hardly even moving about, but Keith could still see his eyes reflecting in the dim light from the hall. He’d considered cerulean blue his favourite colour ever since he realized that it was the colour of Lance’s eyes. The light also showcased the small scar on the left side of his nose, just below the bridge, in all its quiet glory. As he glanced down to Lance’s lips, he was surprised to see that they were chapped; he couldn’t remember a time in all of their seven years in space that Lance let his lips go chapped. Not that he loved those lips any less, oh no , he still adored his lips. The urge to run his fingertips and tongue over those lips was nearly overwhelming, but Keith knew he couldn’t do that. He shouldn't even being thinking about that, but many of their moments together that ended up like that popped into his head. He was pretty sure his cheeks went pink from the thought, but he moved his gaze over to Lance’s hair next. They were still the same brunette locks, although slightly longer than Keith was used to seeing Lance keep it. His hair was starting to curl slightly at the ends, a showcase of Lance’s obvious roots. His adam’s apple bobbed slightly, as if he was swallowing past a lump in his throat. Keith could barely remember the feeling of Lance’s neck on his lips anymore.

He was pulled out of his thoughts suddenly when Lance gripped at his arm, squeezing lightly to grab his attention.

“Hey, thanks, Keith... You don't mind staying in here with me for awhile?”

Keith shook his head, keeping his eyes down now. It was best not to look anyway. “Yeah, I don't mind at all… So… What did you and Shiro talk about?”

Lance shrugged. “Just this and that-- y’know, typical guy stuff…”

Keith was painfully aware that Lance was avoiding the question, but there was another person he could ask, so he decided to let Lance drop it. “Huh… Shiro does like talking about his typical guy stuff, huh?” Keith jested, forcing a small smile.

Lance snorted and laughed suddenly, startling Keith slightly. “Yeah, wouldn't you know, he does.” Lance snickered and shifted, grabbing his blanket and slipping underneath completely casually.

To Keith’s slight disappointment, Lance didn't hold the covers open for him like he was almost hoping for him to do. Maybe that was asking too much… So he just sat quietly and watched Lance with a small pout. He could tell Lance had started grinning from under the blanket, from how his eyes squinched up at him.

“What are you grinning at…?” Keith questioned quietly and dropped his shoulders in defeat.

“You… You're such a pout… You're welcome under the covers y’know, you don't have to keep staring at me like that.” Lance muttered, and patted the bed under the covers. He scooted away from the wall enough for Keith to climb under the covers with him.

Keith was 90% percent sure his cheeks had gone pink, but he scrambled and climbed in without hesitation, tucking himself in between Lance and the wall. Both of them merely stared at one another for what felt like an eternity before Keith cleared his throat. “How are you feeling?” He asked quietly.

Lance shrugged his shoulder. “Better, I guess… I'm kind of excited about the progress on my new arm, Pidge and Hunk told me about it. Did they tell you?” he asked, adjusting himself on his pillow to get comfier, hand stuffed under the pillow.

Keith’s eyes trailed the line from his head to his shoulders, the dim light of the room highlighting his skin perfectly. “...Yeah, it was great of Kiryn to set us up with his sister so Pidge and Hunk can really get to working on your arm.”

Lance flinched somewhat at his replacement’s name, but he nodded slightly and forced a smile. Keith could tell he was faking it. “Y-yeah. He's something, isn't he?” Lance muttered, eyes looking down at the space between them absent-mindedly. “...Do you like him?” he whispered.

Keith furrowed his brow and frowned slightly. “What do you mean?”

“I mean.. Is he like, a better pilot for the team than me? Or… I-I don't know… You tell me what I mean.” Lance sighed, and pulled his hand from underneath the pillow, rubbing his face with hand.

Keith was taken aback by Lance for a second, he didn't know what to say or what Lance really meant. But if Lance was really thinking that Kiryn was the better teammate than he was, he was so wrong…

“Hey,” Keith scooted closer to Lance, close enough that noses could brush accidentally. He put his hands on Lance’s face and tilted it up, forcing Lance’s blue eyes to look back at him. “Kiryn is only here until you’re able to pilot Blue again. And then after that, we drop his princely ass back on Thalassa and forget this ever happened, alright?”

“R-right.” Lance stuttered out, his eyes wide at their sudden contact.

Keith backed away with a sigh. He felt like maybe grabbing Lance’s face and being mere inches away was taking his welcome too far, just guessing by how Lance froze up. He never used to freeze up… But things were different now, weren't they?

“Look, if you want the truth, Kiryn's pretty great… But it's not the same without you on the team, got it? Kiryn doesn't replace you…”

“Yeah… Okay…” Lance murmured, and peeked back over his shoulder at the door briefly. “Uhm… I think I'm tired now, Keith…” Lance muttered again before turning over, an ending for a conversation if Keith had ever seen one.

He took that notion as a ‘ get out ’, and just frowned. “Fine… Goodnight, Lance.” he mumbled, trying to cover the hurt that Lance’s words caused. He pulled the covers off of his body to sit upright in bed, but as soon as he started to crawl over Lance’s still form, Lance’s hand snaked out to grasp his forearm again.

“You're not going to stay?” Lance peeked up at him from under the covers, his blue eyes pleading.

Keith coughed awkwardly and glanced over at the door, trying to direct the heat in his cheeks anywhere else.

Why does Lance look at me like that when all of his actions lead me to believe otherwise? The pitiful look Lance was giving him was doing wretched things to his heart, pulling it in too many directions to be considered healthy. How many mixed signals could Lance give him before he spontaneously combusted?

Keith glanced down at Lance again, suddenly realizing he hadn’t moved from his in-between of staying or fleeing. Lance was still gazing up at him pitifully, giving him a look that practically begged Keith to stay. Keith was a weak man; he’d never been one to deny Lance, especially not with something like this. Leaving Lance’s bed was hard on a good day, let alone when Lance obviously needed the comfort.

Keith just sunk back into his spot behind Lance quietly, and Lance relaxed again, breathing out a soft thanks that Keith just nodded his head to. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of the back of Lance’s neck, studying it too closely and practically willing him to turn back over. He just wanted to see his face, and maybe talk some more if he was lucky. But he knew that Lance wouldn’t, at least right now. He probably was tired, he sure looked it… Keith desperately wanted to apologize for how he acted on Thalassa; that was a day Lance could’ve used his support, not his anger. But all of his attempts to apologize to Lance since leaving that cursed planet have been scorned, thanks to Lance either avoiding him or all out ignoring him. Pidge had been the only one to get Lance to open up, the traitor, and she wouldn’t even tell Keith what transpired between them. Lance had even talked to Shiro , his supposed idol! It made Keith frustrated to know that he was the only being on the ship that Lance refused to open up to anymore. Lance probably even talked to the mice . Even though Keith knew he hurt Lance, it still hurt that he talked to practically everyone else on the ship before himself.

“Hey, Keith?” Lance murmured. “Do you ever think about going home?”

Keith blinked a few times and furrowed his brows at the back of Lance’s head. “What, like, after the war?”

Lance turned over slowly and shook his head slightly. “Uhm… No…” he said, and chewed his lip, seeming to choose his next words carefully. “I mean, like, now . And just… I don't know… Resume life where it left off?”

Was Lance thinking of going home now? Keith sure hoped not, but he swallowed that fear of Lance leaving down. “No… I mean, I don’t exactly have anyone to go back to, but it’s too dangerous, anyways… We would endanger Earth if we went home anytime soon.” Keith retorted.

“...Right. Nevermind, it was a selfish question.” Lance mumbled almost sorrowfully, and turned back around, back against Keith again. Too much noticeable space between them that made Keith frown.

“I… I know you’re homesick, but,” Keith paused, and hesitantly reached a hand out to brush along on Lance’s side before placing it well above his hip. “Remember that you can talk to us, to me . I’m right here for you.”

Lance practically melted under Keith’s hand, giving Keith the courage to scooch closer to Lance’s back and wrap his arm fully around his stomach, pulling him into a spoon.

Lance sighed tiredly, and pressed himself back into Keith’s embrace. “Thanks, Keith…” he murmured.

“Anytime, Lance.”

Keith couldn’t help but notice that the boy in his arms was a lot thinner than he used to be. Keith could practically feel his ribs digging into his upper arm, and his hip bone was more pronounced than it ever had been. Had Lance been eating? He knew that Hunk brought him food whenever he was worried about him, but was he eating it? Now that Keith thought about it, he’d never seen Lance finish a plate since the accident, usually picking at his food until he deemed it enough time spent in everyone’s company…

Once Keith worked up the nerve to ask Lance, he quickly found that he couldn’t; Lance was out like a light in his arms, even lightly snoring. He’d forgone the eye mask and the usual facial routine... He really must’ve been tuckered out. Has Lance not been sleeping well either?

God, there were so many questions Keith wanted answered, but for now, he nestled closer to the warm body in front of him, and buried his nose into the crook of Lance’s neck. He desperately missed the closeness that they had before… Not even the sex, really, although he did miss that… But the casual closeness they had behind closed doors, the closeness that allowed Lance to throw himself at Keith’s chest and curl up there like his permanent residence was in the crook of Keith’s neck. More than anything he wanted to wake up to this, every day, curled up in Lance’s space listening to him lightly snore into consciousness… Being able to tell him that he loves him…

But that won’t ever happen , Keith chastised himself. Not now, not ever. As he wiggled closer to Lance’s back and closed his eyes, his last thoughts were ‘ I’ll talk to him when he wakes up ’ before falling asleep.

Chapter Text

Of Confessions and Dragons

Keith curled his feet up tighter to his body, and wiggled further down the couch. He’d been kicked off of the training deck about a varga ago, when Shiro and Kiryn came in to spar. So Keith decided to curl up in the common room with one of the books Pidge had brought from Earth all those years ago.

The backpack she brought on their journey in the Blue Lion was practically destroyed, barely usable after everything it’d been through, but somehow the books had survived. Each of the three books had been passed through all of the Paladin’s hands, and even Allura and Coran’s as well. Pidge had had the books in her bag for an English course she was enrolled in at the Garrison; Great Expectations, The Hobbit, and The Fire Within. Keith hadn’t been interested in either Great Expectations [he thought Pip was a pretentious asshole], or The Hobbit [Rivendell was amazing, Bilbo should’ve stayed with the elves rather than travel with the dwarves], but he was interested in David’s story in The Fire Within. It was a story following a man who moved in with a woman and her daughter who were descendants of the last true dragon, if that was even possible. Apparently, the two Pennykettle women that David lived with had these little handmade clay dragons who somehow came to life? And the little dragon that Liz made for David, he named Gadzooks, or Zookie. They had numerous little clay dragons around their house, such as Gwendolen, Gretel, and G’reth. Keith was just getting to the part where Lucy, the daughter, found Conkers the squirrel, when footsteps echoed down the hallway. He leaned his head back against the top of the couch to see who it was.

It was Kiryn, and he appeared to have come straight from the training deck. He was still wearing his usual workout clothes, and was breathing a little heavier than normal. “Oh, hey Keith, I’ve uh,” he paused, and ran a hand through his sweaty hair. “I was looking for you.”

“Oh?” Keith answered slowly, and folded a small corner piece for a placeholder in his book. Truthfully, nearly every page in the books had small triangles folded into the pages, but this page was one of the few that was unscathed. “What for?”

“Well, I know that Shiro and I sorta kicked you off the training deck. I just, I just came to tell you that we’re done down there, if you, uh, wanted to go down there again.”

“Thanks, I’ll probably head down there later.” Keith looked away from Kiryn and opened the book again, an obvious sign that he was done with the conversation.

Kiryn merely shifted awkwardly on his feet. He seemed like he wanted to say something, but wasn’t sure what to say to the Red Paladin.

Keith held back a sigh and looked away from the words on the page, trying to look at Kiryn without actually looking at him. He couldn’t help but notice that Kiryn seemed to be more awkward, more timid around him than he was around any other people on the ship. Kiryn seemed to get along best with Shiro, Allura, and Coran, but that seemed to be because they’d opened up to him the quickest. He was on friendly terms with Pidge and Hunk, from what Keith could tell, only because he’d opened the door for them to actually work on Lance’s new prosthetic arm. And then there was Kiryn and Lance; it was obvious why they didn’t seem to see eye-to-eye, just due to the nature of their relationship… Kiryn was only here because Lance wasn’t able to pilot his lion. But Lance didn’t seem to be interested in talking to him at all, so maybe it was just a mutual thing.

And Keith…

Well, he just wasn’t sure what to think of Kiryn.

Kiryn had come off as a major dick when they’d first met on Thalassa, and had seemed creepy in his… Advances at the start. But since then, Kiryn had toned it down and now just seemed at a loss of what to do around Keith.

And Keith felt weird to admit it to himself, but he didn’t like the distance he’d created between them. Because, truth be told, he hadn’t exactly been welcoming when Kiryn joined them. He’d let his feelings for Lance cloud his judgement in whatever kind of man Kiryn could be.

Well, it was up to him now to bridge the gap.

He snapped the book closed quickly, causing Kiryn to startle slightly at the sudden noise.

“How’d training with Shiro go?” Keith asked lightly. He wanted to try to initiate a conversation with the man. Not enough to get personal, but… Enough to learn at least a bit more about his new teammate.

“It went well, I think.” Kiryn replied slowly, doubtfully. He tilted his head slightly at Keith’s inquiry. “Why?”

“Just wondering.” Keith immediately replied. He sat up a little, and twisted so he was more so facing the man behind him. “I… Well, we don’t really know a lot about each other, and I just thought--”

“Oh, no, I get it.” Kiryn swiftly interrupted, and started walking around the couches so he could stand in front of Keith, rather than behind him. “I don’t blame you for being distant. Shiro’s said that you’re… Well, that you don’t trust strangers. Especially given the circumstances.”

Keith merely hummed in agreement, casting his gaze to the floor. It wasn’t like he wanted to distrust Kiryn. He was probably a nice guy. But, given the circumstances that he’d come to the Castle of Lions… Who could blame him?

“Well, Shiro and I have been working with a variety of weapons, mostly sparring against each other. I think he’s gauging my strengths and weaknesses, which is fair.” Kiryn explained, and moved to sit on a separate section of the couch. “I know I am not as well-rounded in combat as Shiro is, but I’d like to think I’m improving under his training.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt it.” Keith snorted, and shook his head lightly. “Shiro doesn’t half-ass anything, especially when it comes to training. I know he may seem like he’s overbearing, but, believe me when I say that it’s worth it.”

“Definitely,” Kiryn agreed. “I’ve already noticed my hand to hand combat has gotten better. And it’s all thanks to Shiro. Now, I just, uh” Kiryn laughed nervously, “have to master flying a Voltron Lion.”

“It gets easier.” Keith said lowly, confidently. He leaned forward in his seat a bit, towards Kiryn. “Sometimes, you don’t even have to use the controls. Sometimes, your lion just knows.”

“Really?” Kiryn seemed awed by Keith’s words. “Is that what it’s like flying the Red Lion?”

Keith’s lips curved up into a confident smile. “Better. Flying Red’s like hurdling through a galaxy at light speed, trying to hit a target the size of a pen tip, and somehow succeeding. It’s such a rush, and really satisfying to gain a lion’s trust.” Keith paused, and twisted the ends of a strand of hair between his fingertips, lost in thought. “I think Lance described flying Red as ‘cataclysmically disastrous, yet gratifyingly optimistic’. Truth be told, I don’t know exactly what he meant, in so many words, but I feel that every time I fly Red.”

“Wait, did Lance use to pilot the Red Lion?” Kiryn leaned forward in his seat, his interest piqued.

“Briefly.” Keith shifted slightly, and sat back a bit. “I piloted Black, Lance piloted Red, and Allura piloted Blue when Shiro was, err, missing for a while. But it wasn’t for long.”

Kiryn’s green eyes widened, and he sat back. Running a hand down the side of his face, he mumbled; “Wow, lion swaps.”

“Shiro was so shocked to find Lance in Red’s seat when we rescued him and Matt.” Keith smiled fondly at the memory, and inspected the back of his glove casually.

“Matt?”

“Pidge’s older brother.”

“Oh. Wait, was he captured when you left Earth?”

“Well, sort of.” Keith said slowly. “Have you not heard the story of how we came out here?”

Kiryn shook his head, sending the ends of his snowy white hair flying. His mismatched green eyes held an almost sparkle to them, similar to how Pidge’s eyes glowed with mischief whenever she learned any bit of new information. Keith felt as though he was nearly drowning in them; they were so sincere and curious, Keith felt as though he should keep that spark lit.

So Keith talked. He talked about all of their experiences up until the battle where Lance lost his forearm. Kiryn was familiar with everything that happened after that, since he was present for it. Keith talked about the Kerberos mission, and how all of the crew were believed to be dead until Shiro crashed back on Earth. How they were all just a random group of kids who’d somehow ended up in the same place at the same time, and somehow ended up fighting in a galactic war. How Blue had chosen Lance as her pilot, the first Paladin since the Paladins of Old, and how they somehow managed to pilot her to the edge of their solar system before jumping through a wormhole to Arus. He talked about some of the alliances they’d made in their years of fighting, and even how some of those allies tried to betray them. What visible scars were from certain battles, and how long their bearers sat in the healing pods. And even some of the funnier moments in this war, such as when Pidge built a tic-tac-toe machine that tried to kill the two of them.

“In the end, I’m not really sure why she thought it was a good idea.” Keith waved his hands about for emphasis on his fond exasperation. “She says that she got bored of winning against Shiro, and tired of listening to Hunk whine about losing to her. Lance was smart, he just learned to never play any strategy games against her. Ever since that time we tried to recreate Monopoly up here to play…”

“What’s… Monopoly?” Kiryn asked slowly, annunciating the foreign game name.

“Oh, shit, right. It’s an Earth board game, where people buy property on the board and pay taxes and such if a person’s token lands on purchased land.” Keith tried to explain. How does one explain Monopoly? “It’s also filled with chance, because of the cards that players pick up with various situations on them, like going to jail where you have to buy your way out, or lose money for various ‘financial’ reasons. It’s just, a very intense game. Pidge usually ends up owning everything, somehow.” Keith shook his head sadly. “Nobody knows how she does it.”

Kiryn nodded slowly, as he tried to absorb all of the new information. “It sure sounds interesting, and sounds similar to a game we have on Thalassa. It’s called ‘monaplacht’, but we usually have bets associated with it.”

“Bets, huh?” Keith chuckled lightly. “Don’t tell Pidge about it, then. She’d want us to start betting during Monopoly, and we already lose enough of our sanity every time we play. Don’t need her gaining more than satisfaction from winning.”

That pulled a startled laugh from the prince, and he collapsed back into the couch cushions as he laughed. Keith couldn’t help but notice that the prince was quite beautiful when he laughed, something he hadn’t seen or hear the prince do since meeting him. His eyes crinkled up slightly, and his pointed ears twitched as he shook. Keith wasn’t sure if his eyes were deceiving him or not, but it also looked like Kiryn’s markings were glowing brighter. He sincerely hoped his eyes were deceiving him, because how could the man across from him be that cute?

Keith sat back slightly, shocked at his own thoughts. How could he even think that when he was still in love with Lance?

Well, Keith can admit that Kiryn is beautiful even if he still has strong feelings for Lance, right?

“I’ll definitely keep that in mind, then.” Kiryn said softly, pulling Keith out of his own thoughts. “You… Seem very close with your teammates.”

Keith could only nod. “Well, when you’ve been stuck with the same six people for seven years up in a large spacecraft, you get pretty close. That, and they’re the only family I have, so…”

“Don’t you have people waiting on Earth for you?” the prince’s head cocked to the side slightly, appearing a little surprised at Keith’s confession.

Keith ducked his head, letting his bangs fall forwards in front of his face. “No, I uh, bounced around from foster home to foster home all throughout my time on Earth. Then I came out here. The only people that mean anything to me are here on this ship.”

Kiryn was quiet for a while, and when Keith finally glanced up again, he saw that the prince’s green eyes were flickering all over Keith’s face, trying to get a read on him. He looked concerned, or at least empathetic for Keith’s situation.

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean that-- Well, I’m glad I’m with the people I care about.” Keith quickly explained. “I’m not homesick or anything like Lance is, or searching for lost family members like Pidge was, so there’s that.”

Kiryn’s mouth opened slightly, almost as though he wanted to say more on the subject, but he closed it after a moment’s thought. He tore his gaze away from Keith’s face as well, and chewed on his bottom lip as his gaze danced around their immediate surroundings. Suddenly, his eyes landed on something directly beside Keith’s lap.

“What is that?” he asked, and reached out to grab the book with nimble fingers.

“The book?”

Kiryn’s eyes widened as he started flipping through the book. “This is how Earthlings read?”

“Uh, yes?” Keith answered slowly, confused. “How… How do Thalassans read?”

“We don’t have our words… Written? In ‘book’ like this.” he said slowly, and turned the book on it’s end to look at it from another angle.

Keith couldn’t hold back the laugh bubbling in the back of his throat at Kiryn’s confusion even if he wanted to. How could the prince be so well educated and still look adorable stumbling around new information? It just wasn’t fair. He was sure that Kiryn was probably staring at him as if he’d grown a second head, but Keith couldn’t stop the laughter even if he wanted to. He even snorted softly once or twice, but couldn't bring it in himself to care.

“Well then, at least someone finds my confusion funny.” Kiryn jabbed lightly, with a smile on his face.

“S-sorry, I just-” Keith rubbed a hand over his face and tried to hide the smile overtaking his face. “‘Book’ is singular, meanwhile ‘books’ is plural. But one could also consider that specific book a novel.”

Kiryn’s eyes widened again, and he mouthed the word ‘novel’ to himself. “What’s the difference?”

“Well,” he began, and pushed his hair back from his forehead absentmindedly. Kiryn’s eyes immediately followed the motion, but Keith ignored it in favour of scootching closer to him on the couch. “A book is a general term. Not all books have hard covers, like this one does.” he rapped his knuckles lightly over the cover on the book to prove his point, “Some have soft covers, or even pictures on the cover. And not all books are the same size! Some consist completely of the written word, while others are accented with pictures. Some are even mostly pictures with words only accenting them!”

“So… How is this one a ‘novel’?

“Well, a novel is a story consisting of a lot of words put together, with very few or no pictures. So, in this one…” Keith gently pried the book from Kiryn’s grasp and started leafing through, “has a few, small… Aha! Doodles.” he held the page open for Kiryn to see the small doodle of Gadzooks, the scribe dragon with his notepad and pencil between his paws.

Kiryn hummed understandingly, and took the book back into his own hands. “Wow. Earth has such cool devices for reading! It’s much easier to have a handheld device like this, being able to touch the words and have a physical form.”

“Wait…” Keith said slowly, and narrowed his eyes slightly at the prince. “You never said how Thalassans read?”

Kiryn placed the book back down on the couch and reached into his pocket for a small object. It looked nearly identical to the dodecahedron dice used for various games, but it was without the numbers. It was a teal colour, the exact same colour as Kiryn’s markings, but the die itself was translucent. Keith could see Kiryn’s fingertips through the die. Kiryn fiddled around with the die for a moment, before tapping one of its faces with his fingertip.

Suddenly a holographic screen, similar to the one that popped up when the Paladins sat in their chairs on the bridge, popped up in front of Kiryn’s face. There appeared to be multiple file folders of sorts, like on an old Earth computer, to browse from before finding a book, but Keith could not read any of the words from his position. Not that he thought he could anyways; the letters were not of any Earthen language, obviously.

“Woah, I see what you mean now.” Keith murmured, slightly in awe of the screen in front of them. “But it’s cool that you have so much data stored in that little cube; we have to have thousands and thousands of books like this if you want physical copies to hold.”

“Well,” Kiryn began, and bit at his lip distractedly. “If you want, you can borrow it if I can borrow your novel there? It’d be interesting to learn the Earth language.”

Keith didn’t have the heart to tell Kiryn that there was more than one ‘Earth’ language. So he simply said; “Sure.”

Chapter Text

Hindsight is 20:20

Laughter.

Like bells and sunshine and better days, it was happy, and Lance recognized it immediately. He was walking by the common room’s cracked doors when he heard it. It was Keith… Keith’s laugh. He was drawn in by the sound and the curiosity of who or what could've gotten Keith to laugh like that. It had been a while since anyone’s got Keith to laugh so loud it carried into the next room. Lance stepped closer to the doors and peeked into the room, looking for the owner of the joyful laugh.

He was both surprised and crushed that Keith was sitting next to his own replacement, Kiryn. Kiryn was holding one of the books Pidge brought from Earth in his hands, staring down at it, looking like he was quite confused, while Keith was practically bent over his lap laughing at whatever Kiryn had said. Kiryn had even gotten him to snort , which was something that Lance worked so hard to get Keith to do.

Lance scowled at the Kiryn’s face when he saw him. Ugh… ‘Nothing to worry about’ my ass, he thought to himself bitterly. Of course Kiryn got Keith to laugh. Lance didn’t like that, but he knew he was just being obnoxiously jealous where he had no right to be… But pushing these feelings down was just so hard, especially when it had always been he and Keith side by side-- romantic feelings involved or not-- for the past seven years. That’s just how it’s always been for them. And now, there was another person completely taking over the spot that he fought so hard for; the place next to Keith. Who was this guy? Thinking he could just waltz in and take up the spot that Lance had fought for, through good times and bad, no matter what?

Even when the homesickness was so bad that he could scarcely move? Even when fighting seemed pointless? Because who were they really saving? It certainly wasn’t themselves.

Lately, Lance was feeling the weight of homesickness harder than ever.

Though, the feeling of helplessness wasn’t the same; it didn’t have the same source… Seven years now and he knew how his team felt about him, and this wasn’t because of his team… This was because of multiple things; his new situation, the new teammate, and definitely the new attraction between two specific Paladins.

This was the first time that Lance had really seen Keith and Kiryn getting along, but it certainly didn't seem like it would be the last. From Keith’s body language alone, how he leaned into the conversation, towards Kiryn, and how his eyes never strayed far from the prince’s face, Lance knew that Keith was interested in him...

Kiryn probably told some stupid prince alien joke that Keith might’ve got, or was charmed by. Just like how Kiryn looks as charmed by Keith… Not that Lance blamed Kiryn for the look he was giving Keith… He was brutally aware of how beautiful, vibrant, and full of life Keith was. He would be giving Keith the same look if he were in Kiryn’s place… It just took him a lot longer to organize his thoughts and feelings, just what his fixation on particular features of Keith meant. It borderlined on the edge of lust for what seemed like forever, until he realized there was something more… Things he actually liked and admired about Keith. The same thing that made him protective of Keith, and jealous when someone tried to make a move on him… Or when people looked at Keith just like Kiryn was doing right now.

It wasn't right, though. Keith wasn't his . He had no right being jealous of this, he wasn’t seventeen anymore. He needed to be mature about this and let it go. His feelings for Keith were a mistake anyway, he was going to tell himself that.

Keith isn’t mine. This doesn't mean anything to me… I… I should let him be happy.  

He swallowed around the sudden lump in his throat and pushed himself out of the doorway after one more long bleary look at Keith’s back. He tried not to care about how infatuated Kiryn looked with Keith. Good luck to him…

Maybe Kiryn wasn’t as awful as he originally made himself out to be, and he certainly couldn’t be as bad as Lance used to be to Keith. Lance was certainly aware of how much of an ass he was to Keith at the start of their long journey. He knew he handled his feelings just as badly as Keith handled his… It was one thing they really had in common, handling their feelings for each other in the worst way possible.

But it’s not the same… He doesn’t feel the same way…

He wasn’t going to try and think about that again, though… Knowing that whenever he tried to comprehend Keith’s actions or visible emotions, he always ended up thinking even more about Keith--- particularly about Keith whenever they fucked. Because it was just that between them … Or that’s what Keith surely thought. It was how they treated each other after all. They did care about each other; they had to, but he still doubted that what Keith felt for him was akin to love. Lance was always hoping that Keith would prove him wrong; that he’d share that he did feel the same way about Lance, and that it was more that just a fling… But he also knew that Keith wasn’t that kind of person. He’d use whatever he could for a stress relief, whether it be training until he dropped, or good and rough sex.

But what did that make Lance to Keith? Well, basically a tool for stress relief. But he couldn’t complain; he’d used Keith for the same at first, and he couldn’t complain now that he caught a case of the ‘feelings’. It was his fault he couldn’t just tell Keith how he felt sooner… But now he didn’t really have to, for what they had was seemingly over with.

He still ended up thinking about the events leading up to their first time together, though. How he’d been distant when coming to terms with the fact that he may have liked Keith a lot more than he’d originally thought, and was avoiding anyone that would have questioned anything between them. Pidge and Hunk seemed worried, but Hunk knew sometimes he needed space to figure things out. Hunk knew that his best friend would come back around to talk to them when he was ready. Shiro and Allura were harder to sway; Allura would ask if Lance wanted to spend some time with her, swapping stories and taking a spa day, while Shiro would lend an ear for anything if he needed to talk.

But the worst had been Keith. They’d been spending more time together, either training, reading together, or even sharing stories from their time on Earth, and suddenly Lance was creating excuses just spend some time on his own. Keith would come around to Lance’s room, knock on the door and timidly ask if he’d wanted to do something or other with him, Lance couldn’t remember some of the things Keith had asked… But the bastard was persistent, a man after Lance’s own self.

He didn't see that situation happening again, though… Whatever. He dealt with loneliness before Keith, and he could deal with it after Keith, too, if that's how this was going to be. He had already talked to Shiro about going home; it was definitely an option, and he was going to put some more thought into it. Maybe that would be the best thing to do, for himself mostly. Would it be so bad if he wanted to put himself first?

He stopped in the middle of the hall, having lost track of where he was going. Did he even have a destination in mind in the first place? It was still easy getting lost in the Castle halls, too. Even after being here for seven years, he still had to pay attention to where he was going… Or he should've been… He groaned and glanced back down the hall he came from. It looked like one of the many hallways that headed up to the bridge, so he turned on his heel and started down the hall.

Suddenly, Pidge ran smack into him after she popped out of a side room, the short unexpected collision between them nearly making both of them scream in surprise. Lance didn’t have enough time to jerk to a halt and neither did she, apparently, by the time her hard head collided into his chest. It hurt more than he expected it to, but Pidge had whipped around that corner pretty fast.

“Jesus Christ, Pidge— Do you always whip around corners that fast?!” He squawked, jumping back slightly and placed a hand over his chest. “If you were a bullet you would have killed me-”

Pidge blinked, dazed for a second before she shook her head quickly, and held her hands up apologetically. “No no, I was just in a rush. But I’m glad I ran into you!” Only literally. “C’mere, Hunk and I are really close to getting this arm to work, but of course we’re going to need to make sure it works with you, and not just our computer.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him into the room she whipped out of.

It was one of the many workshops on the ship, but this was one of the smaller ones Lance had seen. Hunk was sitting cross-legged in the centre of the room in front of Pidge’s laptop, pecking at the keys. He glanced over his shoulder and raised a brow at them.

“That was super fast… Hey Lance! How are you feeling, buddy?” Hunk smiled warmly and patted the floor next to him.

“Hey Hu--”

Pidge then shoved Lance over and demanded him to sit, pushing down on his shoulders until he was sat down next to Hunk. “Alright good, we got our subject-”

Lance grimaced at the given title. “Don’t call me that.” Pidge should have known a little better than to say something like that; it never sat well with him.

Pidge rolled her eyes, but adjusted her sentence: “Fine, okay, we got the recipient of the prosthetic we’re working on, now let’s see if we can get this baby to work!”

In front of Hunk and the laptop sat a small table, if it could even be called that, which housed the work-in-progress that was soon to be Lance’s new arm. It didn’t look like much, basically only the bare bones of a skeleton of the human hand with a bit of other filling stuff around it, and a bunch of wires attaching it to the laptop.

“So… Is this going to look like Shiro’s, or?” Lance asked slowly.

“No, it’s gonna be like Serafina’s, you remember her prosthetic?” Pidge spoke up from her position behind Hunk’s shoulder. “The final thing we really need to add is the synthetic material that will replicate what your skin looks like. But that won’t be until after we make sure it works on you.”

Lance could only nod. That made sense, but it still looked… Rough… Just the image of it there on the table made him feel self conscious. That was soon to be his arm. Something that wasn't really a part of him. It just felt… weird. He was quiet for a few more seconds before he asked: “How do we make sure it works with me?”

“Well, for now, we had to modify one of those headsets we use for mind melds, since we can’t string your nerves into an incomplete arm.” Hunk explained while furiously typing away on the laptop. “I mean it doesn’t look like the mind meld headset anymore, but it should do the trick, hopefully.”

Lance squinted at his best friend, and pursed his lips. “How long have you been at this, big guy?”

But Hunk only shrugged. “Dunno, few hours, maybe?”

“Wait, what time is it anyways? I’m actually starving.” Pidge chimed in, leaning in and squinting at the screen.

Oh god. Must've been at this a while if Pidge was starving… He sighed. “Wow, okay, well as soon as we’re done this testing, promise me that the both of you will go to sleep. Take a break, for all of our sakes.”

They both immediately murmured their assents, but Lance was nearly positive that they didn’t actually hear him.

“Alright,” Pidge exclaimed, and reached for the massacred headset on the other side of Hunk. She started plugging in a bunch of loose wires from the arm into the sides of the headset, before placing it as snuggly as she could on Lance’s head.

He didn’t really appreciate the piece of metal that sat on top of his head uncomfortably. “So… What now?”

Hunk hummed and rubbed at his chin. “Just try thinking about moving your index finger for a start?”

Lance closed his eyes and tried to focus on moving what would be his right index finger. He could feel his own flesh and blood hand responding, wrong hand, but it’s what he was used to now. When he peeked through his lashes, the robotic arm on the table was still motionless. He tried not to sigh with the bit of frustration he was being to feel and just tried to focus better on what action he was trying to accomplish. He didn't think it should've been this hard, but it was…

He clenched his teeth and let out a groan, dropping his shoulders in disappointment. “Guys, this isn't working,”

“Are you even trying?” Pidge retorted, obviously just as disappointed and aggravated as he was. It made him think maybe he spent longer than he thought he did trying to make this work, trying to focus.

“Yes! Why do you think I’m making all of these faces? I’m trying to get my new damn finger to move!”

Pidge huffed a sigh and leaned away slightly, before she held her palms up defensively. “Alright, so maybe singling out a single finger just doesn’t work right now... Maybe try clenching your fist? It should fire off more sensors in your brain.”

Fortunately, as soon as Lance clenched his left hand into a fist, the robotic hand mirrored the clenching motion to a degree. It startled him at first but then he grinned to himself in triumph. It wasn’t able to fully clench, but it was moving in the correct path.

Pidge and Hunk both whooped at the hand’s movements, and Lance couldn’t help but smile and chuckle as well. This was good… It meant that soon, he’d be back in action, and maybe wouldn’t feel as useless around the Castle anymore. He could do something again.

“This is good!!! It looks like you might just have to do a bit of physical therapy to train your brain that you have a hand again.” Pidge said thoughtfully, and patted Lance on the shoulder. She turned to Hunk for confirmation.

“Perhaps,” Hunk hummed in agreement. He rubbed at his tired looking eyes before a soft smile took over his face. “I mean, this little contraption with the helmet isn't the best for this, but it has been nearly two months since you lost your hand… So your motor cortex might have altered to focus more on your upper arm or even your torso in your left hemisphere. You know, your hand takes up more space on the brain’s topographic map of the body than any other body part, even your face! It takes up like, a quarter of each hemisphere’s motor cortex!”

“That's… Cool, buddy.” Lance said slowly, eying Hunk critically. The dark circles under his eyes were definitely startling, but not as much as Hunk’s tired rambling. “I think you should go to bed now, though. You look almost as bad as I do...” he joked lightly.

Hunk raised his brow at Lance and looked him over too. “No offense, but I doubt that-”

“None taken.”

“Oooh, we all know around here that sleep is for the weak,” Pidge proclaimed and she reached to pull the headset off of Lance’s head. Hunk chuckled lightly under his breath as Pidge started unplugging wires from the headset.

“I'd beg to differ, have you ever had a good cat nap?” Lance jested, elbowing Pidge lightly with a grin.

She snickered and elbowed him back playfully. “I don’t know… What's a nap?”

“Alright you two, enough about naps, I already want one.” Hunk chuckled and placed a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “We're getting really close to this, Lance. You'll be back with Blue in no time.”

Lance blinked and nodded his head slowly to Hunk, letting the feeling sink in. That was true, or at least becoming true. He was going to have a second functional arm again, but a part of him didn't know if that really meant he would be with Blue again. Kiryn was here, piloting Blue, and he remembered how long it took Blue to accept him back after Allura had taken up his leg position for a while. Blue was accepting but she was also ornery, and Lance knew that better than anyone.

“Well, what's the next step here?” Lance asked, pulling his leg up to lean comfortably on. He glanced between both Pidge and Hunk, watching their faces.

Pidge hummed, lost in thought for a moment. “Well, we won't need you for our next steps. Our next steps will be finishing up its form and structure, making sure that it's movement are lifelike. You can practice with it again tomorrow though, if you'd like. Like you did today.”

“I'll do that…” he murmured and sighed quietly. At least it gave him something to do tomorrow. He would need to work extra hard at getting this… That way, when the arm was done and attached, maybe he wouldn't have a problem operating it like a normal arm. “Y’know… I really missed having my right hand--”

“Don't you dare make that joke-” Pidge warned, recoiling away from him with a disgusted sneer on her face.

Lance grinned. “I get pretty lonely without it, y’know, left hand isn't as goo--”

“ Lance…” Hunk sighed.

“OH MY QUIZNACK!”  Pidge screeched and kicked him a little less than lightly in the side with her bare foot.

“-- Ouch! - Not as good for the job! Ha!” He finished, despite the painful foot in his ribs. He swat her foot away with a faltering grin. “C’mon, jokes are how I cope! And that wasn't even inherently dirty!”

“You totally meant it that way!”

“You're right, I did, but that's besides the point.” Lance sighed and swayed forward before standing back up to his feet. “Anyway, lemme escort my two favourite geeks to their rooms before they forget what sleep is. C’mon guys, up, up, up!” he gestured them up with his hand and Pidge groaned before standing to her feet.

“Thanks, but I don't need an escort. I need to talk to Kiryn first.” She said, adjusting her glasses on her face and walking to the door without waiting for either Lance or Hunk behind.

Lance made a face at the name and followed her, stuffing his lonely hand into his pocket. “What for?”

“Don't worry, I'm not buddy-buddy with him like Keith is.” She jabbed, obviously knowing full well about how he felt about that idea. Especially since it wasn't so much of an idea anymore; it was becoming a reality. “I just have a few questions he might be able to answer, regarding this prosthetic arm.”

“Yeah, okay…” Lance muttered, glancing behind them to see if Hunk was following them or not, but he wasn't. Probably didn't even leave the room yet… He'd check on him in a minute. “I know you made that as a jab, but they really are getting along…” he sounded really disappointed when he said that, and he instantly felt guilty. He was a selfish man, and he could be honest about it with Pidge, at least. She would only judge him a little bit for the bitterness in his tone.

Pidge shrugged her shoulders, keeping her pace.“I'm not surprised, Lance… I know you think this is like, the end of the world for you, but it's not! If you don't resolve anything with Keith, why don't you just let him go? Let bygones be bygones.”

He stopped in his tracks for a second with surprise by her words, watching her back before he picked up his pace again and shook his head. “I don't know why it always sounds like you're really rooting for us, to turn around and contradict your own words, but it's a lot harder than that… You may not understand it, but I've tried to explain it! And this hurts, Pidge! I-I don't want to just give up on him, on us like that…”

Pidge sighed through her nose and glanced over at him, slowing down a bit. “I don't mean it like that, you're both my friends, you know that. But…” She paused and stopped walking, rubbing at her neck idly. “I don't know what more either of you want me to say. This isn't my problem, okay? It's not that I don't care what happens, but I just don't know what to say, alright? Even if I told you everything he told me, doesn't fix anything automatically unless you do something, yourself, with that information. Do you get what I'm saying? Because I'm actually really struggling with this…” She sighed again and scrubbed at her face with her palm.

Lance stopped next to her and frowned. “I'm sorry-- I'm stressing you out with this…”

“Yeah, a little…” She muttered, dropping her hand from her face. “He loves you too, if you didn't get the million and one hints already… And you love him too, but the problem is that the two of you are so scared to say that, that you guys hardly believe it yourselves. And not only that, but I think you're telling yourself you aren't worth something to Keith, and I don't know why. I don't even think you know why… You just have an insecurity,” she rambled, explaining her own analysis on this whole ordeal.

Not that her trying to shed any light on the facts made a difference… But she was right, Lance was insecure. That's what it was, ultimately… “I-I know that … ” he mumbled lowly.

“You want him to make the first move right?” She asked, crossing her arms loosely over her chest, not out of annoyance or irritation.

“Maybe…” He whispered hoarsely.

“He already did,” She stated bluntly, “but there you are with your dumb insecurities, Lance.” She sighed a fourth time, this time Lance was sure they were to cover her exhaustion.

His frown deepened and he dropped his head low, snaking his hand behind his neck to scratch at his scalp uncomfortably. He looked away from her feet, even. He felt too embarrassed now to even look in her general direction, because he knew that she wasn't wrong. She really wasn't… He already knew it was his fault though, and pointing it out to him that it was didn't exactly help him deal with it… He couldn't get himself to say anything else, he just stayed quiet and silently agreed with her.

“Just…” She groaned and shrugged her shoulders helplessly. “I don't know, stop overthinking it or whatever.” She said finally and started off again. “And don't worry about Kiryn...”

Lance glanced up and watched her back as she walked away, his lips set in a thin line. “Thanks, Pidge…” he muttered.

He didn't follow her. It took him a few minutes to work up the will to move from his place, but when he finally did, he decided to backtrack to check on Hunk. When he peeked in, Hunk was still there, sitting on the floor and tinkering with the weird, super robo-looking arm in his hand. Lance frowned and leaned his cheek on the frame of the sliding door. “Hunk…”

Hunk didn't perk up. Must've not heard him.

“Hunk.” he said again, and this time Hunk perked up, his face flushing slightly and he gave a sheepish smile.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” Lance replied. “You should put that down for the night, big guy… You need some rest. Shiro would be disappointed if we weren't getting proper sleep.”

“You're telling me to get proper sleep?” Hunk chuckled and sat the arm down on the table before standing up. “You don't look that much better than me… Are you feeling alright?” He paused, and fiddled with the bottom of his shirt before blurting: “Can I ask you something?”

Lance blinked, and straightened up slightly. Hunk’s sudden tone of voice put him on edge a bit. “Yeah, what is it buddy?” he tried to sound as concerned as possible.

“First of all, I'm not like, upset by this or anything, but… I've noticed you've been talking a lot more to Pidge lately… Like about personal things, er,” Hunk paused and rubbed his neck, walking over and trying to look more casual than he probably felt. “You know you can still talk to me too, right? About whatever, y’know.”

“Oh,” Lance raised his brows, slightly surprised. That was probably true, though; he had been talking a lot more to Pidge lately than Hunk, but that was only because of the subject matter. Hunk didn't know about he and Keith, and he didn't need to know as far as Lance was concerned. “I know that I can, Hunky…” Lance said, and threw his arm around Hunk’s shoulder as soon as he was near enough.

“Good…” Hunk smiled and looped his arm around Lance’s middle. “I know you don't want to tell me everything, but if you need a shoulder or ear, I'm your guy.”

Lance sighed thoughtfully and stepped out of the room with Hunk at his side. “That's true, you are my guy. The best guy.” Lance chuckled. “Y’know, sometimes I wish I was in love with you.”

“Oh?” Hunk chuckled.

“That’s not weird is it?”

“Hardly,” Hunk patted his side tenderly. “That brings me to my next question, though… Since you've been hanging out with Pidge lately...” Hunk paused, glancing over at Lance skeptically before continuing. “Are you two a thing? You and Pidge?”

Lance froze in place, his face heating up suddenly. Oh no. No no-- Oh god, what gave Hunk that kind of idea?? Seriously, he, with Pidge ? Just because he was hanging out with her a little more than usual didn’t mean-- “WHOA--” Lance spluttered and shook his head frantically, stepping away from Hunk slightly. “What the hell gave you that idea?!” Lance squawked, his cheeks still burning red. Now he couldn't get that cringe-worthy image out of his head.

Hunk shot his hands up quickly in defense. “I don't know! It's just you've been hanging out with her and stuff so I was just assuming that, maybe, just maybe, my two best friends were a thing?! It was a long shot, I know! But I wasn't sure what else to think!” Hunk defended with red cheeks.

“There's no way, no way!!” Lance kept shaking his head no, hoping that was strong enough to convey to Hunk that he was seriously deadass wrong. “Pidge is like my little sister supreme! There is nothing between us!”

“Alright, alright. I believe you. Thought I'd ask to be certain.” he stopped in front of his bedroom door and turned back to look at him head on. “Do I at least get some kind of explanation for the recent hangouts without me? I looove gossip, and making sure my friends are okay! Do you guys hate me now or something?”

“What?! No! Noooo no!” Lance whined, reaching to grab at Hunk’s shoulder. “There’s no way I would ever hate you! You're literally my most best friend ever- and have been since the 7th grade!”

“I know-- Just asking…” Hunk sighed in relief and but his hand over Lance’s. “So… What could it be? C’mon, don't leave me in the dark! I'm even beginning to feel like Keith may know more than me! And once upon a time you hated him! I think you still do--”

Lance’s face flushed in color and he opened and shut his mouth a few times too many before he could form words again. “W-what?” Lance stuttered. He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut for a short moment to clear his thoughts. He didn't want to accidentally say anything that would only make Hunk more confused and press him harder for answers. “No- I don't hate Keith at all… And Pidge is not my girlfriend or whatever, just so we're clear.” He dropped his hand away from Hunk’s shoulder and rubbed sheepishly at his neck. “I've only been hanging out with Pidge because…” he paused to think, trying not to pause too long and look suspicious. If Pidge had caught wind that Hunk even suspected that they were a thing, she would bloody murder him for sure. And he didn't want to make any of this about Keith- he wanted to avoid that at all costs with Hunk. “She's… Uh- Y-Y’know… Building me this arm…” Oh wow, you really are a genius, Lance… He held back his own groan and forced a terrible awkward smile that didn't play it off very well.

Hunk raised a thick brow at him. “...Yeah, so am I.” Hunk deadpanned.

Lance smacked his forehead and groaned loudly. “Pidge and I aren't a thing!!! Pidge and I, are just-- talking something out-” He started rambling, and could only stand silently through the buzzing panic he felt as he tried to find some easy way to avoid the subject. He hated to dodge Hunk like this, and he didn't want Hunk to know he was hiding anything from him.

Hunk sighed and slumped his shoulder. “So there is something that you guys are hiding from me… Lance, buddy, I'm your best bro, right? Like I said before, you don't have to tell me everything, but… I don't know… I just thought I'd always be the first person you would go to?” Hunk frowned, his bottom lip sticking out in a hurt pout.

Lance frowned too. “You still are…”

“So what is this? I hate to press you, and I know it annoys you sometimes, but you’re starting to worry me…”

Lance’s frown deepened and he furrowed his brows. “Hunk… There isn't anything to worry about… Really, it's nothing important… Pidge and I hanging out is just a coincidence.”

Hunk wasn't buying that, Lance could tell just by how his frown changed. “You just said a second ago that you two were talking things out--”

“Hand things, Hunk…” Lance sighed. That was probably a well enough save, but he knew it upset Hunk. He hadn’t hung out with his best friend as often as he should have, or even as often as he used to before he lost his arm. Not even for a chat about what was happening with his new arm; he usually went to Pidge for that. And Hunk did play a huge part in it, probably more so than Pidge if he was being honest. Now he just felt bad…

Hunk stopped frowning and forced his lips up into a feeble smile. “Okay,” he murmured, and spun around to open his door. “It's late, right? And you wanted me to go to bed, so...” he stepped inside his room, and glanced over his shoulder at Lance before murmuring: “Night, Lance.”

“Hunk, don't act like this…” Lance threw his arm out to stop the door from closing behind him. “You're my best friend.”

“You're my best friend too, Lance.” Hunk sighed and rubbed a tired hand over his face. “I'm sorry- I just… I know something's up…”

“There’s nothing up.” Lance said finally, hoping his more stern voice and expression would make Hunk believe him, at least for the night.

“Alright, alright… Goodnight, Lance.” Hunk turned and shuffled towards his bed.

Lance let the door close, and immediately slumped back against the cold metal. He let out a deep body sigh as soon as his back met the door. He absolutely hated lying to his best friend… But he’d already dragged Pidge into this, Hunk didn’t need to be burdened with his love life. Even if it put a rift between them for now, it would be better for Hunk, in the end.

Geez...