Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There had been plenty of things from Earth that Keith had found himself missing ever since he had become a part of an intergalactic space war, but the thing he missed most was the ability to slam his door shut when he was upset. Instead, he was stuck with the automatic doors on a ship full of people who hated him.

The lack of ability to slam his door shut left him with only the option to pace his room furiously to work out the energy, occasionally grabbing a pillow and throwing it as hard against the wall or door as he could. It didn’t help much, but it at least let him try to calm down from what had been one of his worst training sessions to date. 

It had started like it always had, especially on a day that was meant for them to practice their sparring against each other in short matches. It had gone downhill from there. 

Ever since he had told the others — his friends — that he was actually half-Galra it was like they were all waiting for him to slit their throats in their sleep. If they weren’t straight up ignoring him when he walked into a room, then they were going out of their way to make it clear they didn’t trust him. Allura, especially, kept looking at him like he was the cause of all of her suffering. She didn’t blame her for hating the Galra, but how did that translate into hating him when he had almost died a dozen times trying to help her stop the Galra? 

Apparently all that tension had finally started to boil over because during that day’s sparring session his last match had been up against Lance. Considering his focus on long-range skills, it was an easier fight than some of the others, Keith managing to pin him within a couple of minutes. While Lance had looked frustrated and already complaining about going again, Shiro and Allura had… 

They had jumped forward. Allura he had expected, especially with her past and recent behavior, but Shiro had moved forward with the intention to- To stop him? Pull him off, maybe? He had stopped, whatever he had been about to do, but his initial reaction, his first response, had been to step forward to stop him. Like he believed that he was going to hurt Lance.

Like he believed that he wanted to hurt Lance. 

Exhaustion hitting him, Keith spun on his heel and dropped back against one of the walls. It felt like the only thing keeping him upright as artificial gravity took him down, Keith’s back sliding against the wall until he was on the floor and debating burying his head between his knees and maybe angry crying. 

The sound of the door opening had him tensing, ready to pretend everything was fine until he heard Lance’s voice, “Aw, is our fiery little lion in here brooding?”

“I don’t brood,” Keith said flatly, unable to help the smallest uplift in his mood as he looked up to see Lance strolling into his room like he lived there before closing the door behind him. “Training’s over, I take it?” 

“Nah, left a little early. See, my sparring partner suddenly ran off and it really threw me off-beat, so I figured there wasn’t much more reason in sticking around.” Lance crossed the room to him before taking a seat beside him, knocking their shoulders together. “So? Why are we sitting on the floor? Is this a Galra thing or a weird kid who lives in the desert thing?” 

“It’s a ‘mind your own business’ thing,” Keith grumbled with absolutely no seriousness to his tone as Lance laughed in his face and then threw an arm around him. Keith managed to last almost a minute before he slumped and fell into Lance’s side and tucked his face against him.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Lance said quietly, pulling Keith impossibly closer and brushing a kiss across his forehead. “I’m right here, kitty cat.”

“Don’t call me that,” Keith muttered, not fighting it as Lance cupped his cheek and tilted his head up to look at him. Keith could only take a few seconds of that warm, concerned look before he broke. “Did you see the way they looked at me?”

“Oh, babe…” And there, more than anything, was why Shiro and Allura’s reactions had hurt him so badly. It wasn’t that he couldn’t hurt Lance, but it was the fact that he never would. 

They hadn’t exactly told anyone on the ship, but for the past couple of months Keith and Lance had been- Shit, dating? Seeing each other? Romantically involved? No matter how it was put, Keith was stupidly gone over his teammate, the annoying jerk. 

“Hey.” Lance jostled him, pulling his attention back and smiling once he knew he had it. “Would a bonding moment maybe help you feel better? Should I cradle you in my arms-”

Shoving a hand against Lance’s face, Keith pushed him away and tried his hardest not to laugh. “Shut up, you jerk!”

It was a few moments of tussling before they were mirroring the positions they had been in during training, Lance pinned underneath him and pouting up at him like that would actually do anything. He gave a few wiggles before giving up and instead blowing out a breath hard enough to move Keith’s bangs, which had him snickering. 

“Very mature,” Keith snorted, cutting off any protests by leaning in and kissing him gently, relaxing into the feeling of it all once Lance sighed and softened underneath him. “I’d never hurt you. You know that, right?” 

“I know.” Lance made no move to get up or try to push him off, instead laying on his back like he was perfectly comfortable where he was. Keith still couldn’t help but worry, though, and he knew Lance caught onto it when he clicked his tongue up at him. “Hey. Keith. Look at me.”

Reluctantly, Keith did just that, not sure if he wanted to cry or laugh at the absolute trust that Lance was looking at him with. “Keith, I know things are… I know they’re not great, right now. But you gotta know that I am always going to trust you. Even if you go super total mad mind controlled Galra on me, I’m still going to trust you to not seriously hurt me.” 

“If I go mind controlled and you try to do some stupid shit like ‘oh, he would never hurt me!’ then I’ll kill you myself once I’m back in my right mind.” Because for as much as it was said as a joke, there had been one nightmare too many when Keith had been in that exact scenario and he hadn’t broken through it. 

“Aw, come on!” Lance squirmed again, this time more to be a little shit than in any actual desire to get loose or free. “You don’t believe in the power of our true love? I thought you were a romantic!”

“Wha- I am not a- A-! That! ” A romantic? Sure, okay, Keith knew he could be pretty soft towards Lance, but going that far? Jesus, was Lance ever not fucking with him- Shit. He was giving Keith that look that usually meant he was about to feel embarrassed. 

“Oh really? This coming from the guy who set up a picnic for us during a slow period when we were passing by a bunch of shooting stars?” Hm. He had done that, hadn’t he? 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Keith lied through his teeth, unable to help but laugh when Lance huffed in feigned outrage and finally put some actual effort into breaking his hold. This time it was Keith who wound up on his back, Lance straddling his hips and pinning his wrists to the ground, face (and lips) far too close to his to ever be something like a proper hold. 

Lance seemed well aware of that fact, smirking down at him because Keith knew, just by how hot his cheeks suddenly felt, that he was blushing. “Aw, is my kitty cat all shy, now?” 

“Didn’t I tell you not to call me that,” Keith managed, the words barely out before they were being muffled by Lance’s lips, this kiss a lot deeper and harder than the one before. He had half an urge to fight back and try to wiggle free, but Lance squeezed harder on his wrists and Keith gave into it, relaxing into the kiss and this time it was him sighing softly, Lance taking the chance to deepen the kiss immediately and, in the process, make Keith forget whatever had made him storm to his room in anger. 

“ Paladins! ” The sudden call over the speaker system wired throughout the ship had both of them jumping with enough force for their teeth to clack together, Lance pulling away with a startled swear and Keith frowning and licking at his lip to soothe what was a pretty hard bite. “ We’re approaching Olkarion now. Everyone get to the deck, we’re heading down and stepping on planet as a full team. ” Ah, right. And there, speaking over the comms, was one of the reasons he had stormed into his room angry and was reaching his limit of… Well, he wasn't sure. Frustration, maybe. 

“One day I’m going to find out how to turn those damn things on mute,” Lance muttered and grumbled, leaning back at the same time Keith pushed himself up, the end result being Keith sitting on the floor with Lance in his lap. 

“Any chance you’ll be getting up so we can get ready to leave?” Keith asked, not surprised by Lance’s ‘hurt’ pout. 

“But we were spending quality romantic time together!” Keith raised an eyebrow, keeping his judgemental expression on until Lance threw his head back and groaned. “ Fine. But don’t think this is over, cat boy. We’ll be picking up where this left off when we get back.” 

“Oh, with you almost tearing my lip off and our teeth banging together?” This time the pout was genuinely offended and Keith couldn’t help a quick laugh before he leaned in to catch Lance’s lips with his own, giving him a simple, sweet kiss that wiped away the forming tension. “Better?”

“Hm. Better.” Lance gave him one last kiss, just as greedy as Keith could be, before he finally stood up. “I’ll go get my suit on and meet you on the deck!” 

Like that, in a whirlwind of energy, Lance was out of his room and Keith was left still half-sitting on the floor. 

Shaking his head, Keith stood up with a light stretch before moving to get his own armor on. He wasn’t looking forward to heading down onto a new planet when he was still keyed up from how Allura and Shiro had reacted during the spar, but he would have been lying if he said Lance hadn’t helped soothe out the worst of it. 

At least he knew, if nothing else, the entire ship could be against him — all of his friends could be against him — and Lance would still be on his side. 

He just hoped that would remain true.

Chapter Text

The five lions and their pilots had grown to be some of the strongest fighters in a galaxy that they had discovered was bigger than anything they had ever before imagined. They didn’t have a whole lot of luck to their name, though. Keith forgot that fact, sometimes, and then he remembered when they ended up, as usual, caught in the middle of a fight. 

They hadn’t even been on Olkarion for more than a couple of hours when a warning had come through that ships were approaching. When they were identified as Galra ships, it wasn’t even a question that they would fight to help Olkarion. The problem, though, was that the Galra ships had apparently gotten a recent upgrade because they were on the planet and attacking them before they could even try to get back to the ship and thus their lions. That left them on the ground with nothing except some weapons and no chance of using their lions to help. 

“You know, I think this is probably some good practice, don’t you think? Really put that combat training we’ve been forced to suffer through to use! Who knew all that paranoia would pay off? ” And of course, also as usual, Lance was cracking jokes over the comms and completely ignoring the few times Shiro tried to tell him to not do that. “Boom! Perfect shot! Ten out of ten!” 

Keith couldn’t help his snort, even as he managed to knock the weapon out of the hand of the Galra he was fighting before flipping him over his shoulder and into another one that was approaching. 

The forces had gotten on the planet fast, but they weren’t as well trained as some of the other Galra they had fought in the past. It was almost as if they were… newly trained? Keith couldn’t exactly tell for sure, but they looked younger than normal. Zarkon might have been getting desperate, sending in freshly trained recruits to fight. That was good, though. A desperate Zarkon likely meant he feared there was a chance of him losing. 

Somehow that realization was enough to make him relax a little more, even as he kept fighting. They seemed to have it all under control, especially with some of the literal tech wizards helping them out. He had a feeling Pidge was going to question them relentlessly once all the fighting was done and they could re-group. 

“Keith!” His name, desperately screamed in a familiar voice to where it was louder than anything else, had Keith freezing in place and snapping his gaze to Lance. 

Lance was standing back-to-back with Pidge, weapon still raised, but even from the distance he was at he could tell Lance looked absolutely terrified. He could almost hear the panicked wheezing and was about to ask over comms before he noticed Lance wasn’t looking at him, but at something that was behind him.

He didn’t have time to turn around, but between Lance’s scream and the terror on his face, everything in him was hyper-aware, heart pounding in a way that it almost seemed like it was the only thing he could hear. He could still feel, though. It was slight, but there was a change, something around him different just enough that he knew someone was behind him. 

Keith didn’t waste his breath swearing and instead lunged forward, seeing a blur of purple and black out of the corner of his eye as he tried to dodge whatever was coming for him. If he was close enough to be right behind him, it was likely going to be something sharp and deadly. 

When he felt pressure carve a path across the back of his neck, a sharp sting that let him know skin had been broken, a familiar sensation in an unfamiliar place, he couldn’t help but think that at least he had been right. 

He then had to bite his tongue with the effort it took to not scream. 

The pain had been the usual sharp sting that came from skin being sliced or cut, similar to a sudden, nasty papercut but then suddenly multiplied by a number Keith couldn’t even begin to contemplate. He couldn’t even begin to think, thoughts gone and nothing in his mind but pain, knocking the breath out of him and freezing him in place and making him have no clue if the pain was just that great that he couldn’t move through it or if whatever had cut him had been laced with some form of paralytic. 

The pain was overwhelming, all-encompassing, something that took up his every thought — but it didn’t stop him from seeing. 

It didn’t stop him from seeing the way an attack, some form of energy or laser or bullet, skimmed past Pidge’s head and ruffled her hair, just short enough that the attack missed. 

It didn’t stop him from seeing the way Lance, who had been standing right behind Pidge as the two covered each other, went as still and frozen as Keith had gone. 

It didn’t stop him from seeing the attack tear through Lance’s armor and back before burning itself into his chest like a fiery brand.

It didn’t stop him from seeing Lance hit the ground. 

Keith had no idea how he managed, absolutely no memory of how he was able to move or stop whoever had been attacking him. If pressed he might have been able to recall the adrenaline that flooded him or the sensation of his knife burying into flesh and tearing through skin and bone. 

What he was fully aware of was that he was collapsing to the ground by Lance’s side, Pidge already crouched down beside him and pressing her hands over the blood that was pouring out from the edges of charred, burning skin, seeping past Pidge’s fingers even as she shouted. The bullet or energy they had shot him with hadn't just left burns, but made it so those burns bled.  

Not him, not him, not him, Keith mentally chanted, the only words in his head, everything else around him blocked out as he stared down at Lance’s hazy eyes and slack expression. 

“Lance? Lance, hey, look at me, okay? Can you look at me?” Keith knew he only breathed when Lance looked at him because after that he was suddenly gasping for breath. “You’re fine. You’re going to be fine.” 

Pidge was doing something — saying something — but Keith couldn’t have brought himself to care less about whatever it was. All his attention was focused on Lance, his hands having at one point moved to cup his cheeks, trying to keep his attention on him. The sight of Lance’s eyes fluttering shut for longer and longer moments sent the adrenaline coursing through him even higher. 

“No. No, no, no, Lance, you can’t do that. You can’t fall asleep on me.  You need- You gotta stay awake. You hear me? Lance?! ” 

There was a thin, reedy little sound that Keith realized with a distant sense of horror was Lance trying to breathe and not being able to. He heard Pidge shout something, heard others shouting back and getting closer, but everything in him was focused on the way Lance’s lips moved. 

He couldn’t hear what was said, though. Between the rapid beating of his heart, all the screaming and yelling of the others, and the way a sudden, searing headache began tearing through his mind, it was all Keith could do to lean down closer and try his hardest to hear. 

There wasn’t much he could make out, he saw the way Lance’s lips moved in the shape of his name, but more than that he saw the way that Lance looked at him. Instead of scared or trying to smile through the pain, Lance looked worried. It wasn’t worry for himself, though, it was worry for Keith. 

They had been traveling and living together for long enough for Keith to read past the mask that Lance liked to hide behind, and dating him had only made it even easier. Keith knew what to look for, knew how to read the actual emotion behind Lance’s eyes, and he hated that it was so clear that Lance couldn’t give two shits about himself at that moment. Instead all his focus seemed to be on worrying about Keith, almost as if Keith was the one bleeding out on the ground and gasping for breath. 

He hated it. He hated seeing all that worry directed at him when Lance was the one who was gasping, spamasing in pain, back arched off the ground as if the pain had simply been too much for Pidge to keep him pinned. Each gasp had more blood seeping out, Pidge’s gloves soaked with it and her screams getting even more higher pitched, a desperate scream for the others to hurry up.  

He hated it. He hated it, he hated it, he fucking hated it. Because of course, of course, Lance would be more worried about Keith than the fact that he was laying on the ground and dying-

No. 

No, Lance was not dying. 

Keith would not let him die. 

The fight must have been over, the Galra beaten or chased off or dead on the ground, because the others were rushing over and Keith was finally able to hear sound besides his pounding heart and Lance’s gasping breaths. “-need to get him to one of the pods on the ship. That should stabilize him if not heal him completely. I can-”

“I’ll do it.” Keith didn’t give the others time to argue, not even sure or caring who he had cut off. Instead he started ripping off the top part of his armor, digging until he could get to his undershirt and tear it off of him. With how frantic he was, or maybe with how much his own pain was starting to get to him, he didn’t know how long it took before he managed to get it torn into a shape that he could wrap it around Lance to stem some of the bleeding once Pidge removed her hands fully. 

No one stopped him from tying off the last piece of fabric and working to carefully pull Lance into his arms, trying to keep him as supported as he could. He did his best to move in a way that wouldn’t lead to more bleeding or more internal damage. He focused on that so he could pretend he didn’t see the looks that were being thrown his way. 

All of them — every single one of them — looked at him like they doubted him. They looked at him like they were ready to step in, like they thought Keith was playing out some ploy so he could hurt Lance even more. 

He hated it, but he hated it even more that he hated them. 

For the first time since the changes in the team’s behavior had started, for the first time since they had started cutting him out, Keith hated them for what they thought of him. He had understood it, before, really, he had. But now? After how long it had been? 

Had Keith ever even given them reason to distrust him like they did? Had he done something to make them honestly believe that he would betray them or slit their throats in their sleep like they seemed to think he would? 

Hell, he hadn’t even known what he was! He thought he was as human as the rest of them! Instead, when he had finally figured it out and told them out of a sense of trust and wanting the feeling that he was still the same Keith as before, they had looked at him and decided he must have always been the enemy. 

He pretended he didn’t see their looks, tried not to sink into that hatred of them, as he worked. At the same time he tried to ignore the searing pain of his neck burning where he had been cut. He tried to ignore the sluggish bleeding he could feel dripping down his neck, all of it accompanied by a throbbing pain in his head and enough nausea that he wanted to be sick. 

He ignored it all, though, because when he finally managed to pick up Lance safely and stand with him, as carefully as he could manage, the idiot relaxed into him and curled closer. Lance was unconscious, bleeding out, absolutely no thought left to make any type of choice, and still his body had curled into Keith’s as if Keith was going to be the one to protect him from everything dangerous in the universe. 

Keith decided, then and there, that he was going to be that person even if it killed him.

Chapter Text

If Keith had felt nauseous and hurt while they had been on the planet, then he felt even worse by the time Lance was safely in one of the cryopods and out of life-threatening danger. 

He barely remembered anything after he had picked up Lance, nothing in his head except that extreme instinct to protect the only one that seemed to see him as Keith instead of some half-Galra scum. Thankfully, nothing had gone wrong on the way and Keith had been free to collapse next to the cryopod and try to pretend like he wasn’t almost crying from the pain. Adrenaline had made a hell of an anesthetic, but it was gone and with it was gone whatever had been blocking out the worst of the pain. 

It couldn’t have been more than an hour before everyone was gathered inside the room. Keith had taken a seat by the cryopod and hadn’t left since Lance had been put in, but if he had to guess a couple of the others were making sure whatever alien life was on the planet was okay and that all the fighting really was over.

Keith almost wished he had left (he wouldn’t, not when Lance was like this) when Allura stormed into the room and looked as angry as she had been when facing the worst of the Galra Empire. 

“So.” The single word did nothing to break the tension and, if anything, made it worse. “Does anyone want to tell me what exactly happened down there?” Allura’s voice was cold and quiet and like he had before, Keith pretended that her gaze wasn’t looking right at him, asking the question like Keith had been the one to rip apart Lance’s chest with the intent to kill instead of whatever had shot him. 

(At least Keith knew, without a doubt, that whoever had done it was dead. The team had always been protective of each other, and Keith had seen that clearly once he was on the outside. Lance was loved, though. He was the favorite, the best of all of them, the heart, of course they were as protective over him as Keith was.)

He couldn’t ignore Allura’s question forever, though. He knew she wanted an answer from him more than the others. It was all he could do to just focus on breathing normally, though. The constant, fierce pain in his head had turned into something with waves. A couple minutes of a particularly bad headache and then burning pains that radiated up from the back of his neck and all the way into his head where it felt like something was attempting to burrow into his brain. 

He had to assume that there was a chance something had been on the blade when he was cut with it. Some kind of slow-acting poison? Even if it was, he couldn’t do anything about it, not even worry about it. Not when Allura was looking at him like that, as if she was ready to kick him out of the room and away from Lance if he didn’t give her an answer. 

“We were fighting,” Keith finally said, words like rocks and his throat feeling like sandpaper. He didn’t let it stop him. Not if it would let him stay by Lance’s side. “Most of us were separated, fighting around the field to keep the Olkari safe. Things were going fine. We were winning. Just before, Lance screamed my name.” 

Would Lance have been alright if Keith had been paying better attention? Would he have been able to dodge that shot if he hadn’t had to worry about Keith? Something to think about later and inspire a couple of nightmares, he decided. 

“He had seen someone behind me,” Keith continued. “Coming at me with a knife, I think? I managed to dodge. Just got a cut. I couldn’t move for a second, though. That’s when it happened. Before I could move an attack had been shot at what looked like Pidge, but it was aimed just a little too high. Because Lance and Pidge had been fighting back-to-back, it missed her, but hit Lance.” 

The hate from earlier, inspired by the way the others looked at him, had dimmed. It did so further when Keith saw Pidge’s horrified expression. He didn’t feel good about making her think it was her fault; making her believe that if she had done something differently then Lance would have been fine. 

Of course, the hate flared straight back up when her horrified look turned into something darker and aimed right at him, as if he was the one to blame for not stopping it. She looked at him like it was his fault that Lance was sleeping in a cryopod after being far too close to not making it. (What he hated most of all, though, was that he couldn’t tell if he hated her or himself more in that moment.)

Still. Even if by some chance he did hate her, even if he could bring himself to hate her, he wasn’t in the habit of lying. 

“Once he dropped, Pidge was immediately trying to stem the blood flow.” The proud and happy looks that Pidge was given made him feel some sort of way, but Keith didn’t even try to put energy behind figuring out what way that was. “She was calling for the others and after I took down who I was fighting, I ran over to check on him.” 

Taking a breath, and trying not to remember all the blood that had felt neverending, Keith kept his eyes locked on Allura, who half-seemed like she wanted to take that like some kind of challenge. Hell, maybe it was a challenge by Galra standards. It wasn’t like he knew anything. “Shiro — I think it was Shiro — said something about getting him to the pods.

“You know the rest from there,” Keith finished, trying to keep his voice even. Trying to make it sound like he didn’t want to just snarl it out and follow it up with a demand that Allura just tell him to his face that she didn’t trust him. He couldn’t. Not when Lance was still so close to that edge and Allura had the power to lock him out of the room if she wanted.

As it was, Allura made a derisive sound, no doubt aimed towards him, before raising her voice for the others, “Well, no matter what happened down there, Lance is safe and he’s going to be just fine.” Keith let himself glance up, just once, to see that Allura was smiling at the others, her expression a stark contrast from how she had been looking at him. “Since the ship is settled on the planet, we’ll have a full day and night cycle for the cryopod. Lance will be healed and back on his feet and telling us all bad jokes in no time.” 

“You’re sure? That he’ll be alright?” Pidge’s voice was quiet and wavering, Keith not sure what he was feeling as Hunk immediately wrapped her in a hug. As much as he wanted to hate her for the look she gave him, as if he had wanted this to happen to Lance, she was still a kid. She was also doing more than someone her age should ever have to do. Who was to say that Keith wouldn’t have acted the same if he was in her shoes?

“Trust me,” Allura said gently, not hesitating to reach out and take Pidge’s hands to squeeze them gently. “Lance is going to be okay. You managed to get him here in time, Pidge, and keep the damage from being worse. Everything you did will make sure that Lance will be back up and getting into trouble in no time.” 

Still holding Pidge’s hands, trying to give her comfort, Allura looked to Shiro. “Did you see who did this to him?” It took everything Keith had to pretend Allura’s gaze hadn’t shot over to him for a second. If he pretended hard enough, then maybe he could even fool himself into thinking he had imagined it.

“Took a second, but we managed to trace where it came from. Let’s just say it was dealt with.” Ah, well there was the reassurance Keith had needed. Whoever had done this to Lance would never be able to do it again. “The Olkari were a little unsteady, so you might want to go down and speak with them when you can. Reassure them, some?”

“Were any of them hurt?” Hunk asked, Keith vaguely noticing that all four of them were turned in towards each other, a little of themselves tilted towards the cryopod where Lance slept. Keith noticed that he was firmly outside the little circle they had built around each other, though.

Shiro asked some sort of question, something about the day and night cycle, but Keith couldn’t even try to bring himself to listen in anymore. Instead he returned his gaze to the cryopod and focused on Lance’s face, expression slack in regenerative sleep. It was an expression not far off from the dopey one he always had when he fell asleep somewhere in the common areas and had to have someone wake him up and shove him towards his room. 

God, that was about how it started, hadn’t it? His and Lance’s relationship? It seemed like years ago, but it couldn’t have been more than a few months. It had been during the ship’s night cycle, he remembered that much. He had been restless, wandering around the ship and half-expecting someone to come out and yell at him for acting suspicious. 

It hadn’t been long after their reunion and Keith sharing the news of his Galra heritage, just a couple of weeks if his math was right, and everyone had already been treating him so differently. At first Keith had passed it off as all of them trying to digest the news or fall back into the patterns they had first built before they had all been separated or left. 

Instead, Keith had slowly realized that the looks that had been given to him — that had been shot at him — were those of distrust. Everyone on the ship… It felt like they had been locking him out. Suddenly no one was talking to him when they were getting breakfast or lunch, Pidge and Hunk started walking a few feet further away when they passed in the halls, and Shiro and Allura were always looking at him, like they were waiting for something. 

The only one that hadn’t changed had been Lance. Hell, even if he had changed it had only been to get close to Keith instead of further away. 

He would sit beside him when they ate, would still throw his arm around him, would complain about Keith’s haircut and his clothes and everything he could, all while grinning and making it clear and obvious that he was teasing him. He then started making jokes about how he was half-Galra. 

The first time he had joked about it had been in front of everyone. Keith couldn’t even remember the joke, not really, but it had been something about him being a muscle-headed idiot only half the time? It was clear he was making a joke and it was clear he was making a joke about the one thing no one wanted to talk about. 

While everyone else had looked horrified or had gone suddenly quiet, Lance had only beamed and looked as proud of himself as he did with every other joke he made. Keith was laughing before he even realized it and it had felt good, back then. To just laugh about it. 

Reflecting on it, that was probably the moment Keith knew his feelings for Lance went deeper than just friendship or anything else. After he had laughed, the expression on Lance’s face, that smug pride, had changed to something bright and happy. Something delighted. Keith had been smitten before he could even tell what was happening. 

Their actual relationship, though, the start of it all, came back to that night when he had been wandering the halls, skittish and on edge, and then saw Lance asleep on one of the couches in the common area. His face had been as slack and dopey looking as it was in the cryopod now, and Keith hadn’t even tried to stop his laughter as he went over to shake Lance awake. 

The lazy asshole had demanded to be carried and whined and complained until Keith lifted him up into his arms and let him slide down and settle against his chest. He remembered he had struggled for a second to get the weight distribution right, one arm around Lance’s back to keep him upright and another under his knees to help balance most of the weight. 

By the time he was confident in moving, he had looked down to see Lance was staring up at him and blushing of all things. It hadn’t even occurred to Keith the sort of position they were in until he had seen Lance’s blush. From there it had taken more effort than he wanted to admit to not drop him. 

The night was one burned into his memory, but Keith has no idea about what they had actually talked about. He remembered Lance speaking to him softly, though — worriedly. He remembered carrying Lance to his bed and laying him down carefully. He remembered turning to leave when Lance had grabbed his wrist and gave it a little tug, looking at him with an expression that seemed to try and convey a million different things. 

There was no way he could remember the steps or words in between, but he remembered ending the night with the both of them curled in each other’s arms, Keith feeling more relaxed and at home than he had in… a long time. 

A stab of pain, sharp and sudden and searing through his head, had Keith hissing as he was ripped out of his memories. His vision blurred for one, two, three seconds before it cleared, the pain just as quickly dulling back down to something he could push to the back of his mind. The head pain had been getting worse, but some of it was likely because he just needed rest and a shower to clean the dried blood off of him. If the knife had been poisoned, after all, he likely would have already dropped.

Looking around to see if anyone had noticed his sudden change in behavior, he saw that the room was empty. It was more of a relief than he wanted it to be, but he figured he could be forgiven for that thought. 

“Looks like it’s just you and me,” Keith murmured, turning his attention back to Lance properly. Unable to help himself, he carefully reached a hand out, setting it against the glass. “Lance…”

Would it have been different if Keith had noticed the attacking Galra behind him before Lance had? Would that have made him more focused — enough that he could have dodged the shot that had taken him down? Keith has seen him narrowly dodge backshots before, after all.

Sighing, Keith moved his chair closer, pressed his hand a little harder against the glass, and tried to pretend the tears he could feel welling up were because of the lingering, pounding pain in the back of his head. 

“Please wake up soon.”

Chapter Text

Eyes skimming the readout and only just barely taking in the information presented, Allura tried to figure out how everything had gone wrong so quickly. After their initial separation things had been rough. She had been so lonely, even with Coran by her side and doing everything he could to try and keep her spirits up. It had been hard, but in the end her Paladins had come back to her. 

Things had been so good in those first few days. Everyone had been happy and laughing and joking and Allura felt like, even with all she had lost, things might end up okay in the end. It had been good, so good, and Allura had felt so hopeful. Then it had all come crashing down. It all ended with just a few words from Keith when he had told them… She still couldn’t believe what he had told them. 

How could he have kept something like that a secret from all of them? Keith had seen the damage the Galra had wreaked across the stars, the planets they had destroyed and the lives they had taken, and then he just- He goes and tells them he’s half-Galra and just expects it all to be normal?! 

Realizing she was getting upset, working herself up into that anger she had been stuck in for weeks, Allura tried to take a few deep breaths. 

Doing her best to shake the thought off and be the responsible leader she had become, Allura turned her attention to the pod that contained the pilot of the Blue Lion. It wasn’t surprising that out of all of them, he was the one injured enough to need healing. Lance, it seemed like, always managed to find himself in the most dangerous of situations. 

Mm. Maybe if she made this seem like one of his jokes then it would start hurting less to see him lying there, lifeless and still. (Of all of them, Lance should never be the one that was so still. Not when he was so full of life.) 

It was reassuring, at least, to see the glow of the pod heavy on his skin, very clearly working away at healing the injuries he had sustained. It was worrying, of course, that Lance had yet to wake up, but what was worse than even that was that out of all of them it was Keith who was just… sitting there. 

It had been a full night cycle after Lance had been placed in the pod to where it was morning on the planet they were still docked at. In all that time, she had yet to see Keith leave the room. He must have at some point, though, considering he had changed out of his suit and was wearing one of those ‘hoodies’ of his. It was unsurprising that he had the hood of it pulled up and over his head, hiding his face from her — from all of them. That seemed to be something he was good at.

“Keith.” Allura tried not to jump at the sound of her own voice, not realizing how tense and quiet the room had felt to her until she had spoken. “Have you… slept yet?” She couldn’t see his face, but she could see enough to know that he had shaken his head.  

Waiting for a moment and giving him a chance to explain his behavior, Allura felt that bitterness in her grow when he chose to remain silent. She supposed she shouldn’t have expected much. Even before he had told them of who he was, Keith had always been too… quiet. 

Giving one last look to Lance’s face, slack with forced sleep, Allura turned on her heel and left the room at a quick pace. If Keith tried to call her back or look up at her, she didn’t notice.

It was just so- So frustrating! Keith had been her friend- Hell, he had been one of the ones that she trusted most to do what was needed and get a mission done, even if it was something that wasn’t pleasant! Now he came out and said he was half-Galra and expected all of them to keep acting like everything was normal? 

The Galra were sick and twisted and not above using their own to gain leverage. How likely was it that they had done something to him without his knowledge? How possible was it that they had done something so that everything Keith knew, they knew. (Was Keith the reason they had failed so much?) 

Caught up in her thoughts, she only distantly realized she had wound up near the kitchens, the rest of the team all huddled up at one table and quietly eating breakfast. Coran was the only one not there and Allura could only guess that he was somewhere else on the ship, no doubt searching old books and looking for something that would help their Blue Paladin heal even faster. It had been far too close for all of them, after all. 

The pod could heal damage, but whatever sort of weapon had hit Lance had done more damage than any of them had ever really sustained at once before. If the shot had hit even an inch higher, then Lance wouldn’t have even made it to the ship. She couldn’t blame Coran for trying to search for something to help, or for the others all gathered together as if that would make the pain lessen.

There was a half-formed thought that she should attempt to comfort them and tell them that Lance seemed to be doing alright for the moment, but opening her mouth the words that came out instead were, “I don’t feel comfortable with Keith watching over Lance.” 

All of her precious team’s faces turned up to look at her, some of them looking startled either by her appearance or by her words. She was ready to try and explain — to defend her feelings — but felt something knotted and tense inside of her loosen when no one tried to tell her off or even glare at her. She should have known that her team would be better than that. They were no doubt as worried about the mess as she was. 

“Allura…” Shiro straightened up from where he was sitting and while he didn’t look angry at her, his expression seemed close enough to something upset that she felt a pang of sympathy for him. He had known Keith far longer than she had, after all, and the Galra had been cruel to him during his capture. “What do you mean by that? That you don’t feel comfortable with Keith being there?”

Debating on her words for a minute, Allura finally took a seat and promised herself to be as honest as possible. Shiro deserved that much, especially when it involved the close relationship he once had with Keith. “It unnerves me.” Seeing the confusion in most of their gazes, Allura sighed and tried to pick better words. 

“Since Keith brought Lance in he hasn’t left that room as far as any of us can tell, and if he has left it then he’s gone right back as soon as he could. He’s become almost attached to that chair he’s in, at this point, but- But those two have always fought each other, right?” Allura looked around and felt bolstered at seeing Pidge and Hunk both giving little nods. “They’ve always fought and insulted each other and now suddenly Keith, as far as I can tell, hasn’t left, slept, or even eaten. Doesn’t that seem a little odd? To suddenly be so attached?”

“It’s certainly… different for him,” Shiro finally said, sounding reluctant to say even that much. “But Keith and Lance are friends, even if they’re both bad at saying or even showing it.” Maybe… 

“What if he thinks it’s his fault?” Hunk looked around at all of them as soon as he had their attention. “I mean, think about it. If he thinks that Lance being shot is somehow his fault, maybe he just doesn’t know how to make up for it, so he’s doing some weird ‘protect him from harm’ kind of thing.” 

“No.” Pidge shook her head slowly, and then a bit more firmly. “No, I- I wanted to blame him the other day, but it’s- It’s not his fault. That Lance got shot like that. I think he knows that, too. It was just- It was a fight and we were all doing our best, especially considering we couldn’t get to the lions. Maybe- Maybe it’s a Galra thing? You know, upset that he saw his ‘comrade’ hurt or something?”  

It didn’t sound completely off base, but the Galra that Allura had known, the few that had been kind and sweet, were gone, all but wiped from history. The Galra now… “No,” Shiro said quietly, paralleling Allura’s thoughts. “From all my interactions with Galra they’ve never- They’re dismissive. When they see one of them hurt or anything else, they’re- Shit,” Shiro sighed, harshly, a hand pushing his hair back with enough force it had to hurt. “They’re more likely to toss them away than to even try to give them medical aid. No, whatever is up with Keith it’s coming from the human part of him.” 

All of them fell silent, Allura left with her thoughts as she absently watched Hunk stand up and head back to the food replicators. It was something of a distraction, something normal that helped it seem like her team wasn’t falling apart at the seams. 

“So he just… He wants to make sure Lance is okay or something, right?” Pidge’s voice was weak, Allura hearing the quiet dread in there as well as the rest of them. “Maybe- Maybe it’s just the Galra part of him twisting up his empathy, trying to mess with it and he’s fighting back. Trying to prove he won’t hurt Lance or something.” 

“Maybe,” Allura said quietly, as kindly as she could, only really smiling when Hunk set a plate of food down in front of her with a tired smile of his own. 

As soon as he re-took his seat, Hunk was looking at Allura expectantly to eat, only speaking once she started doing so. “We just need to keep an eye on him. Make sure all of this stress or whatever it is doesn’t make him angry and want to take it out on Lance, especially once he’s out of the cryopod.” Yes, that was a worry, wasn’t it? Keith giving in to the Galra and taking Lance right back down once he was up. “Keith has been closed off and short-tempered lately. I don’t- I don’t want to see all that anger put on Lance when he doesn’t deserve it, you know?”

“You have my word that I’ll make sure nothing like that happens,” Allura promised gravely, intending to stick to that promise with everything in her. She wouldn’t let anymore of her team get hurt. 

Thankfully, they were able to at least move on to a few lighter topics, moreso when Coran finally showed up and he was pulled into their conversation all while being forced to eat as well.

It wasn’t perfect, but it helped Allura feel a bit more settled into her body and this new universe that she had woken up into after what had felt like the end of hers. It was enough to bolster her and give her enough strength that, as soon as breakfast was finished, let her head back to the pod room. 

It had easily been an hour, maybe even two, since she had left the room, but she wouldn’t have guessed it from the way Keith hadn’t even so much as moved an inch. Cautiously she walked over to look at the readouts, making sure Lance was healing like he should be, before she looked at Keith. 

He still had that hood of his pulled low over his head, almost as if he was hiding his face even as he stared at Lance through the pod. It was tempting to just leave the room and give in to that sense of fear and worry that was pounding through her, but she had promised to not let her team be hurt and she needed to figure out just what was going on. 

“Keith,” Allura finally said, trying to make it sound like a greeting and not an accusation. “The others just had breakfast, in case you haven’t eaten yet.”

“Not hungry.” Alright. Well. It was a start, at least, that he had actually spoken and responded to her. It meant he was likely open to some sort of conversation. 

“Alright. That’s fine. Are you… planning to sit here until Lance wakes up?” She meant it to sound like a joke, hoping that it might at least make him talk more, but she wasn’t sure she had managed the tone quite right. That was fine, though. Her question still stood. 

Keith didn’t answer it, though, silent before he finally nodded. It was a response, but not quite the one she had wanted. “Well. It might be a few days, so maybe it’s best if you just try to do what you would normally do. Let Lance heal.” 

“I’m good.” The words were sharp and short, utterly dismissive, and enough to get Allura drawing up her shoulders and doing her best to not yell at him. 

“We’re all worried about him, Keith, but acting like this isn’t-” Allura’s words stopped with her breath. Keith had finally raised his head to look at her, but he wasn’t glaring like she had expected. No, instead his expression was- It… 

He looked at her like he thought they were the ones who were a danger to Lance.

Silent, unable to even open her mouth to try and say something, Allura finally took a step back. Keith’s expression didn’t change, his gaze didn’t move from her at all, and it took everything Allura had to pretend like it wasn’t affecting her as she turned and left the room as silent as she had been earlier. 

Once the door was firmly shut behind her, Allura took a slow, steady breath and forced herself to be fine. She had others to take care of, after all, and she couldn’t break down when she still had so many things to go. 

Besides, she was used to the Galra taking things from her at that point in her life. She was used to losing things from them. Her people, her home, her father, her trust. Why shouldn’t they take her friendship with Keith, too? 

She wondered for how much longer Keith would pretend to play hero with them before leaving. Even then, a part of her, a small voice she did her best to shove down so she could keep standing, begged whatever was out there that he wouldn’t leave.

Was it a betrayal to her people — to everyone — that she still wanted him to be her friend? 

It felt like one.

Chapter Text

Before he had told everyone about just what he was, Keith had been better about submitting to medical aid and letting the others look over him when he got hurt. He wasn’t great about it, but he was better at it. Then he had told everyone he was half-Galra and suddenly no one but Lance ever seemed to ask him if he had gotten medical care after a bad fight. 

All that to say that considering the one person who cared was in a coma, Keith hadn’t been put in a pod or had any of his wounds so much as looked at since the fight. He was starting to think not telling anyone anything had been a bad idea. 

The first couple of days he had dismissed his headache-slash-migraine as a stress response from the sudden adrenaline drop that came after everything had been settled. After that, he had decided it was likely from hunger or thirst since he barely moved or left Lance’s bedside, only just enough to keep himself alive. 

His neck he didn’t have a good excuse for. It had been cut and, afterwards, aching from that point onwards. It was only the last day or two that it had gone from a lingering pain to what felt like someone actively holding a lighter to the back of his neck. He couldn’t even try to bring himself to cover it up or put something on it, not with how much it hurt. He considered himself lucky enough that he could pull his hood up and hide it from view without anything touching it.

There was no doubt that he should have done something, said something, or hell, even try to eat a couple more meals, but he couldn’t. The whole team didn’t trust him as far as Pidge could throw him and he felt like if he left Lance’s side then… It had been days and they were stretching out longer and longer. It was already the third day and there had been no signs of Lance waking up. There had been nothing. 

The sound of the door opening pulled him out of his thoughts, Keith hunching over and gritting his teeth at the stab of pain that cut through his head at the movement. It at least didn’t take him long to link the steps he heard to Hunk. 

“Hey, Keith…” There was a rough clearing of Hunk’s throat, Keith not sure if he wanted to start crying or start screaming. He settled on not looking up or saying anything. “Right. Um, I brought you something to eat since, you know, I haven’t seen you for a few days.” 

There was the quiet sound of the tray being set down on a table just a couple feet away. Keith managed the breath to mumble something that could have been a thanks. Hunk had stopped trusting him, but he was still Hunk. He was still kind. “You should eat something, you know. Acting like this, brooding and starving yourself- It’s only going to worry Lance when he wakes up. You know that, right?”

Lance wasn’t here to make a joke or distract Hunk with a story from the Garrison and Keith could feel the knowing, intense gaze that was directed at him even though he didn’t dare try to look. It was silent for at least a couple of minutes, Keith finally hearing Hunk sigh as if he was the one who had been wronged. 

“Look, I know things have been rough after, you know, everything. We’re trying though, you know? We’re not- We don’t hate you.” It took more effort than he should have to not let slip a bitter laugh and point out that they sure had a funny way of showing it. “Cutting yourself off from us like this isn’t helping anyone. Not even you.”

Keith didn’t move his gaze from Lance’s sleeping face, instead quiet and voiceless before he finally heard Hunk give another one of those sighs before he was walking away, the door opening and closing. 

Somehow, he had the feeling he would be seeing the others soon. 

—

It was just after lunch when Pidge came in and started looking at the readouts, reading and understanding them in a way that Keith never could. No, the best he could do was pick at his food and eat enough to keep him from fainting before Lance woke up. 

Pidge was at least quiet and not starting any fights or arguments. It was off-character for her, but Keith would take the peace where he could get it. Unfortunately, because his life could never be easy, it didn’t last for long.

“It wasn’t your fault, you know.” The words were enough to take him off-guard, Keith feeling a thread of something like hope as he carefully looked up to see Pidge looking right at him. The movement of his head had the pain in his neck amplifying, but he paid it no mind as Pidge tilted her head down towards the pod. “Lance getting shot. That wasn’t your fault. Which means you don’t have to sit here and selfishly torture yourself.” 

Keith had half-opened his mouth to say something — anything — and then snapped it shut forcibly at the last few words. Pidge had always been blunt in a way that he had almost grown to appreciate, but never had he hated it so much. 

“Lance is too good to blame you for something like that, so sitting here starving yourself and acting like there’s some huge threat only you can protect him from isn’t- It’s not going to do anything but make everyone, even you, feel bad.” She thought he was selfish. For sitting by Lance’s bedside because god or whoever the fuck out there knew that they wouldn’t do a good enough job of it. 

Lance would know what to say if the situation were reversed. He’d probably make some kind of joke or pun about being selfish and then guilelessly explain that he was there because he cared and couldn’t relax until he knew that everything was alright. Lance would know what to say, but Keith didn’t. So he didn’t say anything.

Pidge didn’t either, simply staring at him for what felt like an eternity before she finished whatever she was doing and then turning to leave. It was as she reached the door that she finally spoke again. “You’re not the only one who misses him, you know.” 

With that the door opened and shut and Keith was left alone, staring at the cryopod as he had been doing since Lance had been placed inside. 

At least it couldn’t get worse.

—

“Good evening, Keith!” Coran’s voice was strained and filled with false cheer, Keith not bothering to look over at the attempt to draw him into conversation. “Allura and I are here to give a quick check on things! Has… everything been alright?” 

Keith didn’t move, didn’t speak, just stared at Lance’s sleeping face. His skin was pale — ashen. It was wrong to see a color like that on Lance, who had all the energy and brightness of someone who had grown up outside all the time. His family owned a farm or something like that, didn’t they? Keith had never asked much about his family. He was starting to regret that. Someone would need to speak to them if Lance never… 

“Everything looks stable,” he heard Coran say cheerfully, that tight edge to his voice loosening. It wasn’t enough to make Keith relax himself, but it was something. “He’ll wake up soon, you know. Always been stubborn, that one.”

There was the quiet sound of footsteps behind him, Keith tense and ready to leap into action before he heard the small clatter that meant his half-eaten lunch tray had been picked up. Actually, half-eaten was being generous with how little he had actually managed to eat.

“Dinner will be soon, you know,” Coran continued, as if everything was normal and Keith hadn’t been cut out of the team he had begun to see like a- Well. He was used to not having family, wasn’t he? “It would be nice to see you there.”

No it wouldn’t, Keith whispered in his mind, that bitter, festering part he wished he could shut up. You hate me. You’d rather toss me out of the airlock. You probably would if I wasn’t bonded to Red. 

“Right.” The silence set awkward in the air as Coran cleared his throat. “Well, then. Be sure to simply eat something later, yes?” Coran, at least, knew when he was fighting a lost battle. 

Keith didn’t move as he listened to his footsteps retreat, Allura’s soon following after another second. She, blessedly, hadn’t said anything this time. He half-hoped it would stay that way, but when had hope ever done him any good?

“It’s not fair,” he heard her mutter, whisper, just barely under her breath. It took more effort than Keith wanted to admit to in order to stop himself from whirling around and screaming at her. He could read between lines, too.

It’s not fair that you’re the one sitting here, awake and alive and okay, while Lance is the one laying there in a coma. It’s not fair that it was him and not you.  

(If she meant something else, something kinder, something about how maybe this whole thing wasn’t fair, Keith didn’t have any hope left to put towards the thought. That was Lance’s job, after all.)

—

“Usually you’re in bed at this point. Even before the Garrison you were always a disciplined kid.” Ah. The last person of the day and the one Keith had wanted to see the least.

Turning his head just enough to not trigger the worst of the pain, Keith saw Shiro walk by him before pulling over a chair to sit on the other side of the cryopod, just across from him. It at least relieved the pressure on his neck, Keith straightening himself and wondering how bad he must have looked for Shiro to look at him with that pained, worried grimace. 

“Just… worried,” Keith finally said. For as much as he hated how the team had started treating him, and for as much as it terrified him how even Shiro had started to react like he was a danger and a threat, it was still Shiro. “None of us have ever been out for this long. After… You know.” 

“Yeah. I know.” After such a close call. It wouldn’t be long until it was a full week since Lance had been hit, and then what? At what point did they do something else besides just sitting there? “You’ve been pretty attached to his side since this whole thing. Everything alright?”

Actually, Shiro, I’ve been feeling pretty bad since you all begun treating me like a ticking time bomb or some sort of sleeper agent that’s waiting for you all to fall asleep before I turn into some Galra monster and kill you all in your sleep. 

“Fine,” Keith replied, wincing at the rasp to his voice and the way speaking made his head throb. “Just… concerned.” 

“I think we all are,” Shiro said quietly, Keith risking a glance up at him before looking away just as quickly. Shiro looked even more exhausted than when they had first reunited — and that had been worse than Keith had ever seen him. “Lance… He’s sort of like the heart of this team, isn’t he?” 

He’s everything. The heart, the soul, the warmth, the care, all of it. If it wasn’t for him, then I’m not sure I would even be here anymore. I would have ran, but he stopped me. He’s the reason I’m even still sane after everything that’s happened. 

“Mm,” Keith hummed quietly, swallowing the words that wanted to bubble up instead. Those were words for Lance, after all. Not Shiro. 

“Keith, you can’t stay in here forever. You’re worrying the rest of the team by doing this.” Worrying. Right. They probably thought that Keith was going to finish the job if Lance woke up. “You’re worrying me.” 

Keith took a breath, slow and steady, and opened his mouth. He meant to say something, at least one small thing, about everyone’s change in behavior and what had been happening. Instead he almost felt like his choice was taken away, the words, “I’m fine,” coming out instead. (Not that Shiro would have taken his concerns seriously, anyway. He would say he was letting his anxiety get the best of him or something like that.)

“As long as you’re sure.” Shiro finally said, Keith catching a glimpse of him standing from his chair and beginning to leave. “At least try to head back to your room to get some sleep.” 

Once, Shiro wouldn’t have let it end there. He would have pinned Keith down until he fessed up to what he was hiding and feeling and sat with him until they talked it all out. That was Before, though, and Now had nothing like that. 

Keith sat, silent, unable to say a word as he listened to Shiro leave the room. It was once again quiet, nothing and no one except for him and Lance. 

“Lance… Please wake up soon.”

Chapter Text

For Keith, typically waking up was quick and sharp with adrenaline flooding his system after one too many close calls or alarms. This time it came slow through a groggy haze, like the effort it took to open his eyes was the same as trudging through mud. Even when he did manage to get his eyes open, he had no idea what it was that had woken him up. 

He could tell it was still dark in the room, although that didn’t give him much of a reference for the time. Likely he had woken up due to hunger or falling asleep in a bad position.

Then the pain hit. 

A sound almost like an explosion rocked through him, Keith unable to tell if he was screaming or not or even if he had hit the ground, only gritting his teeth through the pain that rocked through him. Whatever pain he had felt from his head or the back of his neck throughout the week had been nothing compared to what tore through him now. 

Panicked half-thoughts tore through him, wondering if it was some kind of attack, if he had been poisoned at some point, if someone on the ship had attacked him. No answers were coming, though, as the pain only seemed to double and double with each passing second. 

He managed to pry his eyes open for just a second, just enough to see he had collapsed against Lance’s pod- Lance. Whatever this was, Keith needed to protect Lance. He needed to. 

It was with that thought that everything went white. 

Still. 

Silent. 

And then he was stumbling up to his feet, hands braced against the pod to help him regain his balance as he looked around the room. There was no telling if Keith had actually been screaming in pain or not, but if he had, then no one had come to check. How expected after what he had seen and watched over the last few days. 

Shaking the thoughts off, he took a few deep breaths. A dull ache still came from his head and the back of his neck, but it was nothing he couldn’t push through or even ignore. Especially when he caught sight of Lance, still unaware of all that had happened. 

There was no stopping his soft smile, Keith’s memories of warm moments and kindness and understanding filling him as he placed a hand against the glass. “Don’t worry,” he whispered softly. “I’ll get you out of there soon.” 

Moving to pull back, he found himself pausing as his hand was no longer the peach-tones of a human. Where thin, almost impossible to see hairs had been, now there was a slim coating of purple fur, a bluish-purple skin tone beneath. The formally soft, blunt fingers of a human had, as well, changed to the sharpened talons of a Galra. Interesting. 

Reluctantly moving away from the pod, if only because he hated there being any distance between him and Lance, he looked around just long enough to find a decent reflected surface. When he did, he wasn’t quite sure what to feel. He didn’t look like Keith anymore, that was for certain. And it wasn’t just his hands that looked like a Galra, either. 

In that reflective surface stood nothing more or less than a Galra — with a few tweaks, it seemed. While he was still Keith, his body had shifted to have the typical Galran features of talons, fur, cat-like ears that he could vaguely twitch and move, sharp fangs, and bright yellow eyes. The differences, though, were an oddity that couldn’t even be attributed to Keith’s human side. 

Sliding Keith’s jacket off to leave him in just a black tank-top, he set the jacket aside to get a better look. The morning sun of the planet they were on began to rise and fill the room, the light only helping in picking out the differences. Under his eyes where there should have been more fur, there were instead bright red Altean markings. More interesting, though, was the tail that he could feel extending out from him. 

Curious, he focused on different parts of his body, tensing and twitching until he managed to narrow in on just how to move the tail he now had. A few minutes practice and he found it was more versatile and stronger than he was expecting. It was as purple as the rest of him, covered in fur, but strong enough that he could flip Keith’s knife into the air and catch it around the handle with his tail. 

“Helpful,” he murmured, noting that at least the voice was the same. It almost seemed odd considering how much everything else had changed. 

Shaking out his arms and doing a few light stretches to work out some tension, and pleased when that pain in his neck and head died down a little more, he went back over to Lance’s pod. Keith had no idea how to open the pod and a quick look at the controls showed understanding wasn’t coming anytime soon. 

“Well, then.” Crossing his arms, he gave it some thought before he chuckled. “If I don’t manage to get you out myself, at least I know where to find someone who does know how to open this thing.” 

The Green Paladin was so good with technology, after all.

—

A quiet groan had his attention snapping over to where Pidge was slowly waking up, shifting and twitching as her body seemed to realize she was on the floor instead of where she had fallen asleep in bed. He also saw the exact moment she realized she was chained and cuffed to the wall. He was a little impressed, though, that as soon as she realized the situation she immediately pretended she was still asleep. 

“You can stop pretending,” he said when it seemed like she wasn’t going to stop. “There’s no one here but us. Well. And Lance.” He wasn’t sure if it was Keith’s voice or Lance’s name that did it, but he watched as Pidge suddenly moved, sitting up quickly and trying to get to her feet when she saw him. 

“What-?!” He watched as she took in everything quickly. Her eyes went from Lance’s pod to the door that was closed and locked, and then back to him. “Keith…?”

“I need you to open this,” he said, tapping at the pod that Lance was still in. “Right now.” He wasn’t sure what he expected her to say or do, but it wasn’t for her to glare at him. 

“No.” The word was sharp and loud, Pidge’s glare making her look like she was a step away from growling at him. It would have been funny if it wasn’t for what she was saying no to. “Lance is still healing-”

“I don’t. Care.” He could take care of Lance just fine, after all. They didn’t need this stupid Altean pod that was keeping them apart. “I need him out of there. Now!”

Pidge laughed and he felt his anger and rage at her and the rest of Keith’s ‘teammates’ grow. “Why should I help you? You’re not Keith. You’re not my teammate or my friend!” Hah! So now she saw Keith as a friend, huh? And not before when she obviously viewed him as an enemy. 

“It’s your fault that he’s in here to begin with. That he was injured to begin with.” After all, that attack had been aimed at Pidge, to begin with. “The least you can do is let him out and let someone who loves him take care of him, now.”

He was given nothing but a distrustful glare. It didn’t take much of a leap to guess that she was likely thinking he was some sort of failed clone of Keith there to infiltrate and ruin them. Granted, he did look more Galran than human, but even if he didn’t… He had a feeling they still wouldn’t trust him. They had been looking for an excuse to hate them, after all. 

“You’re bleeding.” Pausing at that, he looked to where Pidge was staring at him, a lot more calm and quiet. When he didn’t say anything, she seemed to gesture as well as she could to the back of her own neck. “It’s… black.” 

“And?” He laughed at the surprise in her face. “That wound has been there and bleeding for three days now and no one noticed. Why would you care now?” The surprise mixed with hurt on her face just made him angrier. Why should she get to feel hurt and upset about a situation that she had helped to cause? “That’s not important. Lance is what’s more important right now.”

“Why is Lance more important?” Well. If she was going to waste their time by asking questions, at least she had asked an easy one.

“Because I love him.” That look of distrust and suspicion grew, but he couldn’t care less. He only told the truth, after all. “At least not believing is something you’re used to, isn’t it?” He didn’t care to see how deep the words hit her, if they hit at all, instead heading back to the controls of the pod. “I’ve tried this for hours.” 

It was all he could do to keep from slamming a fist into the controls, knowing that not only could it damage the pod, but Lance inside it. Still, it was frustrating. Moreso if his guess was right that Allura had either locked out Galra from accessing the controls or, just as likely, locked out Keith. (Because surely, with everything he knew, he should have at least accidentally opened it by now, right?)

“-not gonna help!” Ah, Pidge had been speaking. A shame he didn’t care. “Lance still needs healing to recover from what happened, and taking him out is only going to risk his life! I thought you said you cared about him-!”

“Don’t!” He snapped his teeth around a growl, stalking over to where Pidge stared up at him with wide eyes. “Don’t pretend you know what care is when you and the rest of this damn ship seemed all too happy with no longer ‘caring’ about a teammate who was going through hell.” 

Did she think Keith had come back to this damn ship knowing he had been half-Galra all along? Even when he knew what he was and how everyone felt about the Galra, he had still told them. He had trusted his team to care about him more than whoever family he used to have. Shame he had been wrong. 

“Fine. If you don’t want to help, then I’ll do it myself.” Walking back over to the pod, he reached over to grab the Red Paladin helmet from where it had been set in front of Lance’s pod days ago. It was easy to forget it was still there, tucked away and never having been put back since Keith had never left the infirmary. 

Shaking off the thought, he put the helmet on as carefully as he could, face screwed up at the sensation of the new Galra ears needing to be pressed down against his skull. It made hearing difficult, but it would only be for a few seconds. 

With one last look at Lance’s pod, and a reassuring hand placed against the glass, he made sure the communication system was on before he opened his mouth and blurted out in a panic, “Come in Voltron!” 

He heard Pidge make a sound like a gasp, but he paid it no mind as he put his focus on his voice sounding rushed and panicked, like he had been running through the halls or fighting. “Allura- Shiro, Hunk, anybody, come in! I need help, please- Anybody!” 

Like he had expected — like he had hoped — the communication channel in his helmet crackled to life as the other team members joined the broadcast.

Chapter Text

A little amused at Pidge’s shocked, horrified expression, he shook his head as he focused back on the sound of the rest of the team hopping onto the broadcast. Allura’s voice, as their ‘leader,’ was the first one he heard of course, “Keith? Keith, where are you?” 

Taking in a short, gasping breath, as if he was in the middle of running or had just stopped running, he glanced out the window down to the planet they were still on. “I’m on Olkarion. I just- Everyone kept saying to get out of the room and-” A sharp pause, as if he had snapped his mouth shut. He knew exactly how to fake being distracted for a few seconds, and that was all he needed to sell it. “I need help,” he hissed, quieter, like he was trying not to be heard. 

“They surprised you? Where were you?” There was Shiro, the familiar voice sounding not quite skeptical, but close to it. That was fine, though. He knew how to fix that. (Whatever small opinion he had of them dwindled further, though. They hadn’t even asked if Keith was okay.) 

“We went to the site of the fight,” he explained, pushing for his tone to have a little self-hatred in there, like he was blaming himself. “Pidge, she- She swore she could figure out something if she could just see it again. Like maybe if it was some kind of- Of new weapon, or-” 

He shut himself up again, frowning as he had to walk away from the pod to make sure Pidge’s yelling wasn’t picked up by his mic. As useful as it might have been, it was also too much of a risk. “We found some clues they might still be on the planet and Pidge, she- She thought she could figure out where they were hiding- Shit, they’re close-!” It was on the last word, halfway through, that he turned off the communications in his helmet. 

Removing the helmet carefully, and sighing in relief at the cool air to his ears after being held down so long, he reared up and then slammed the helmet down against the ground with as much force as he could. It didn’t completely break the helmet, but it no doubt destroyed the comm system, and that would have to do. 

“Relax,” he said over towards Pidge, amused despite himself with all the swearing she was aiming at him. “No one, even you, is any actual danger.” For as much as they had betrayed Keith and Lance, both of them would be upset to see actual harm come to who they once saw as family. 

“Why are you doing this?!” He would have worried Pidge’s screaming would draw the other paladins in before they went to check the planet if he didn’t know the room was sound-proofed. Healing patients needed rest, after all. Lucky him. “What did you do with my friend?!” 

Snarling, he turned on his heel and headed for the windows, not dignifying a question — a lie — like that with a response. Since when was Keith a friend to these people, after all? 

Shaking it off, he sighed and turned his focus back to watching the skies. If he had been convincing enough, then eventually he would see the lions heading down towards the planet to search for them. He had no doubt that if it had just been ‘Keith’ down there, they wouldn’t have bothered. But with Pidge ‘missing,’ too? That wasn’t even a choice. 

It was why, twenty minutes later, he was grinning as he saw the Blue Lion start to leave. It wasn’t as smooth as when Lance piloted it, which meant Allura was in there. Interesting. That meant he had sounded good enough that all of them went down to ‘rescue’ them.

The Yellow and Black Lions followed right behind her a minute later, but he was surprised to see the Green Lion followed as well, no doubt determined to ‘rescue’ the Green Paladin. He must have been really convincing, then. Good to know. 

Right. With Coran already down on the planet and talking to the natives, that meant everyone was either out of the castle, or right there in the healing room. Turning away from the window, he was mildly surprised to see that Pidge had finally fallen silent and was, instead, glaring up at him. “Yes?”

“Why are you doing all of this?” Well, it at least wasn't screaming that time. There was a joke there about reinforcing good behavior that was more suited to Lance's humor than Keith's. “What's the point? Are you after something?”

“I’ve already told you,” he said, no longer amused at her choosing to be so ignorant. He didn’t waste his breath explaining something he already had, instead gently setting a hand on the glass that separated him and Lance. Quieter, enough that likely not even Pidge had heard him, he whispered a soft, “Soon.” 

Indulging for a few more seconds, he finally sighed and pulled his hand away. He paused at the door only long enough to call back, “Don’t do anything stupid.” He didn’t have much hope that Pidge would listen, but he was sure he’d be back before she found a way to get out of the bonds he had her tied up in. “I’ll be back soon.” 

“Why? So you can finish me off!” Pidge thrashed and twisted in her restraints and he couldn’t help but roll his eyes. He didn’t bother to respond, either, simply leaving the room. If she wanted to believe that he was some evil spy sent to kill them all- Well. She had already believed that of Keith for weeks now, hadn’t she? 

Sighing, he shook his head, frowning at the twinge he felt from the back of his neck. Hopefully that would clear up soon. If nothing else, he could have Lance take a look once they were reunited — because that was why he was doing all of this. It was why Keith was doing all of this. 

To get Lance back. 

At least with everyone else out of the castle there was no need to rush his way up towards the bridge. Even if there were no signs of a fight down on the planet, it would still take them time to confirm that and then figure out what to do next. 

It was more than enough time for him to get to the bridge and get his hands on the controls for the particle barrier. While it was true that Allura’s Altean abilities kept much of the castle operational and limited what he could do, he could still raise the barrier without too much trouble or effort. 

Oh, he had no doubt that as soon as the others all saw the barrier they would realize they had been tricked, but by then there would be no way for them to get back inside. Even if they managed to unite, it would be useless without the Red Lion with them. Allura had been a lucky fill-in, but there were still two pilots they were missing. 

Overall, it was all working out exactly like he had hoped. He could have done without Pidge’s glaring when he returned to Lance’s pod, but it was worth putting up with when he saw the sight of the rest of the Lions sitting on the ground just outside the edge of the particle barrier. No doubt they were trying to figure out what just happened and why the barrier had gone up. 

With his helmet busted he had no way to listen in on the comms for the rest of the team, but, well. Lance still had his helmet. It was right by the pod, as well. 

Bending down to pick it up, he paused at hearing Pidge’s voice, a lot quieter and calmer than it had been. “You said you had that wound for three days. Did you get it during our last fight?”

“Why do you care?” Standing back up with the helmet, he looked over to see that Pidge was staring at him with that calculating look she always had. Likely, she was trying to decide if there was ‘any Keith in him left’ before trying to kill him. “I’m not your teammate or friend, right?” Oh? Was that shame in her expression? Interesting. 

“Just-” Pidge cut herself off, sighing heavily and speaking a bit calmer. “With that color, it makes me think you got poisoned with something. If it’s been three days without any treatment, then that might be why…” She trailed off, shrugging as best she could. “It’s probably why you think all of this is suddenly a good idea. I mean, Lance was hurt. Badly. He needs to be in the pod so the wound can finish healing.” 

“It’s been three days. What he needs now is actual rest,” he snapped, gripping the helmet tightly before forcing himself to relax his grip. “The wound is closed. He’s no longer bleeding. He’ll be fine once I can look after him.” 

“But it won’t hurt him to stay there a couple of more days, right? It’s not hurting him. So maybe while he spends a little more time resting, you can call all of this off, and we can just… start small. Maybe take a look at that cut on the back of your neck?” 

“I’m not an idiot,” he scoffed, shaking his head. While maybe Lance, sweet as he was, would fall for something like that, Keith wouldn’t. He wouldn’t. “You say that I’ve been poisoned and that’s the cause for my ‘suddenly bad ideas,’ but I noticed you didn’t have anything to say about my new look.” 

He gestured with one hand to himself in general and how he suddenly looked more like a Galra than anything else. The tail was the only thing that was strange, and that could have been explained by Keith having mixed heritage instead of being full Galra. Everything else, though? He looked exactly like the enemies they had been facing since they first got into space. 

“Because that’s probably also something to do with whatever is going on here!” Pidge said, exasperation clear on her face and hands wiggling like she would have thrown them up in annoyance if she could have. It was a little amusing to see her glare when she realized she couldn’t gesture like she was used to. “Look, I know we haven’t- We haven’t exactly- You know. With the whole…” 

“I’d ask if that was an apology, but all I’m hearing are excuses,” he said flatly, rolling his eyes when Pidge had the nerve to look hurt. “Ever since you all reunited, everyone has acted as if there’s a Galra spy in your midst and ready to slit your throats in your sleep. The only one — the only one — who has treated Keith normally since this has all started has been Lance! He is the only one that still cares and acts like nothing has changed! Because nothing had changed. At least, not until you all decided you knew better.” 

Pidge blinked at him, slow and uncertain, as if he had said something that might have finally gotten through to her. She didn’t say anything, though, and he rolled his eyes as he took another look out the windows. 

The lions were still sitting in front of the barrier, which likely meant the team was still deciding on what to do. With that in mind, he fitted Lance’s helmet over his head, once again squishing his ears against his head, before turning on the comms.

Chapter Text

It was Hunk’s voice he heard first, continuing a conversation that they had likely been having while he had been busy turning on the shields and dealing with Pidge. “Do you think the Galra got in? Did they use Keith and Pidge as a distraction? He just- He sounded so stressed out, almost like he was being forced to do something.” Huh. So Hunk could tell something had been off, but not enough to realize just exactly what was happening.

“Easy, Hunk.” And there was Shiro, trying to be the ‘leader’ that everyone looked up to. “Right now we’re not sure what’s going on and worrying won’t help us any. We need to just keep calm and figure out what’s happening-” 

“We don’t know what’s happening!” Hunk shouted with enough force and volume to make him scowl. His ears were already hurting from being squished into a helmet, he didn’t need them ringing on top of that. 

Before Hunk could get anymore screaming in, he was snapping over the line, “Be quiet.” Blessedly, all of them did actually fall silent. It was a nice moment that he took to relax before he was getting back to business. “Hello, paladins. Sorry to say that I had to get creative to get you out. Don’t worry, though. I have Pidge and, as soon as I manage to crack this pod open, I’ll have Lance.” 

He wondered who would be the first to speak and, as usual, he wasn’t surprised when it was Shiro. The man who had been a brother in all but blood to Keith before he decided that what was more important than bonds was the ‘greater good.’ “Keith, stop. This isn’t funny.” Ah, good to know that even in his voice he could hear the way Shiro knew this was no joke. 

“Keith, buddy, come back to us, pal! Something happened, right? Tell us what it is and we can fix it!” Ah, and there was Hunk’s bubbly heart and helping nature. (He wondered where that nature was before when Keith had curled himself up in corners and felt like he was among enemies more than he was friends.)

Looking out the window, he saw the lions were resting just outside of the barrier, the blue one in front and looking like it had been the first to try and get through. He therefore wasn’t surprised when he heard Allura’s voice over the comms next. “Keith! What has gotten into you?! Let us in!” 

As expected, her tone was harsh and demanding. And then, the very cause of it all: “ You’re just like the Galra, aren’t you! Just as underhanded and conniving and traitorous-!”

Shiro and Hunk began talking at the same time with enough volume to drown all three of them out into nothing except noise. It was enough to make him scoff, rage stirring back up in him because that was what it all came down to. To them, Keith would never be anything but a Galra. 

Turning his attention back to the pod, he laughed, and then laughed harder when the noise had caused all three of them to finally fall silent. The rage beating inside his chest was no longer just his own. “And there you go, Team Voltron! The winning deduction!” Taking a breath, they placed a gentle hand on the glass of the pod, even as their voice remained cold. 

“Allow me to explain it to you. Four days ago, I watched my only ally get injured, the only person on this damn team to see me as human, and not ‘just a Galra.’ Don’t even try to deny how cruel and racist you’ve been. It’s not like I’d believe you anyway.” The words were half-clunky in their mouth, not quite sure how to word it all, but the truth behind them stayed the same. “Not that any of you cared or noticed, but Lance wasn’t the only one injured down there. I don’t know what was on the back of that knife, but now… I see it all clearly.” 

He knew what had been on the knife. He wanted to see Team Voltron squirm, though. He wanted them to see just how everything had changed due to their cruelty. At this point, he had no doubt they were realizing the full extent of what they had helped to create. 

“I’m not just a Galra.” Their voice softened without permission, the hand on the pod pressing closer, as if that would finally help them touch Lance. “Because I’m loved.”

Quieter, harsher, he whispered, “Just not by the rest of you.” 

All of them were silent — stunned — just as they should be. Even Pidge had finally fallen silent, no longer screaming or trying to be heard over the comms. Instead there was nothing except silence. 

He would have been content to leave it there if he didn’t have more important things to worry about. “How do I get Lance out of the healing pod?” 

There was no immediate response from the team, not even so much as a threat or plea for him to stop. He grit his teeth when the silence continued, snapping out his order harsher than before, “Tell me how I get him out of this damn pod!” 

Again, none of them responded. He ripped his hand away from the pod and stalked over to the window, looking down to see all of the lions were sitting outside of the field before beginning to move. 

He didn’t bother to figure out what they were planning or where they were trying to go, instead turning off the communications and pulling the helmet off to set back down by Lance’s pod. It took more effort than he wanted to not throw the damn thing on the ground until it was broken in two. It wasn’t his, though, and he didn’t want to damage something that belonged to Lance.

“You can’t open the pod.” Looking away from where he had once again been staring at Lance’s face, he narrowed his eyes at Pidge. She was no longer screaming or thrashing around, instead staring at him with narrowed, focused eyes — analyzing eyes. She wasn’t a threat chained up like she was, but the look made them uneasy all the same. “Why?” 

He barked a laugh in her face, his tail lashing through the air hard and quick enough to tear through it. “You don’t listen, do you? I can open it if one of you would just tell me what to do already!” 

“Keith knows how to open the pod.” The words were firm. Not calm, not completely, but they were said with a sense of weight that showed she wasn’t about to cower away from him. “You’re not Keith, are you?”

“Sure about that?” He asked, taunted, as he tried not to flinch from the feeling of his headache beginning to come back. He wasn’t sure if it was from Team Voltron or leftover pain from the injury, but it was annoying all the same. “You seemed so sure when this started, after all. Like you were just waiting for betrayal.” 

Pidge struggled to hold herself back from saying something. He was a little annoyed she didn’t take the bait. “Allura showed us all how to work the pods in case she and Coran weren’t here or were injured. Keith knows how to work them. You don’t.” 

Another spike of pain shot up from his neck, causing him to hiss and grab at the back of his neck like the pressure would help in some way. His annoyance turned to Pidge, his voice sharp as he said, “Settle down there, Katie. Don’t go acting more clever than you are.” 

“Don’t call me that!” Pidge shouted, loud and childish and upset. It was aggravating, but it was better than that cold, analytical gaze. It also gave him time to ignore her and gently scratch the back of his neck. He winced at the sharp stab of physical pain from the spot before pulling his claws back to see them covered with a black ooze from where he had been scratching. 

After he wiped it off with a huff, he glanced up to see Pidge staring at his now clean hand, and then up to his face. He wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but he decided he didn’t care enough to ask. The only thing he cared about was getting the pod open, and it was made clear enough that she would be of no help to him. 

“Keith.” She was quieter and no longer squirming around so much. Not like it would have done her much good. He had been careful to leave anything she could possibly use as a tool out of her reach. “What happened to you? What’s wrong with you?” 

He couldn’t help the bolts of rage they felt at the question. They didn’t try to stop the way he pivoted on his heel and walked close enough to her to kneel down, only just out of her reach. “What’s wrong with you?” They saw her flinch. They didn’t stop. “What’s wrong with the way you stopped inviting me to hang out? What’s with the way you hide your blueprints when I walk into the lab? How about all the whispering during training? No? Then how about the way that when I spar with any of you I make you all flinch more than three times a second!”

Watching her recoil back, they scoffed and headed back over to the control panel for the pod. It still had the same damn reading that Lance was ‘almost done.’ There was no telling how long ‘almost’ would be, though, and the longer it went the more impatient he was getting. 

It was like he knew what he had to do to get Lance out of the pod, but the pieces just weren’t connecting. He wasn’t sure if he just couldn’t recall all the steps or if he was just too broken up inside to figure out how to put the pieces together.

He heard Pidge start to say something, but he only glared over at her. “Save it. I didn’t bring you here to hear empty apologies and tricks.” 

“Then why keep me here? Why not toss me outside the particle barrier in case I try to stop you?” As bold and fearless as she always tried to make herself seem, he noticed the way she was unsettled, furiously trying to think of a way out. He didn’t bother curbing the urge to laugh in her face. 

“I’m not an idiot, Katie. The second you meet up with the others, you all will figure some way back in here to try and stop me.” They already hated him, after all. After this? Well. Keith wouldn’t be remaining on Team Voltron for much longer. That much he knew for certain. “No. None of us are leaving this room until Lance is awake.” 

“Yeah? Well that might not work out so well for you. Cause I have to, uh, you know. Go.” Looking over as he heard her fumble her words, he raised an eyebrow as Pidge kept staring at him stubbornly. “You know. Go.” 

He wasn’t sure if it was amusement or incredulous disbelief that had them blurting out, “Are you really trying to pull the bathroom trick on me right now?” 

Pidge did little more than scowl, pouting as if she hadn’t expected to be seen through. Somehow, the childish action of it all… They didn’t like it. 

Ignoring her pouting, he turned back to the control panel and tried a few more combinations of buttons before he snarled and grabbed his knife. If no one was going to help him get the right sequence to open the pod, then he would just do it himself.

Chapter Text

Allura knew herself well. She had never been great at controlling some of her emotions, but the one she struggled to contain the most had always been her anger. Through the years, she had only found more and more reasons to be angry, and now…

“Surely something must have happened to cause this! Things have been… rocky, yes, but Keith isn’t the type to suddenly do all of this!” Not bothering to give Coran’s ramblings a response, Allura kept her glare to the ground. 

Coran could try and believe that something was controlling Keith all he liked, but Allura couldn’t take that risk. Being controlled was almost too fantastical when the simple answer was right there. Keith had betrayed them. (She ignored the niggling thought at the back of her mind that whispered Keith hadn’t known how to open the pod. Keith knew how to work the pods. Why would he ask?)

“There has to be something we missed. Some kind of- Of trigger.” Shiro was pacing the floor rapidly and Allura couldn’t help the pity that ate away at some of her anger. How much worse, she wondered, was this for Shiro? If she wasn’t wrong, he and Keith had spent some years together before Shiro’s time with the Galra. They had a brotherly relationship that was now all but destroyed thanks, once again, to those Galra. “He said something about a knife, didn’t he?”

“He said he wasn’t the only one injured.” Hunk’s voice had been quiet and lifeless since the particle barrier had appeared. It didn’t suit him. “During that fight. Then he said he didn’t know what was on the back of that knife. So… Maybe something really did happen? Something that we’re not seeing.” 

“The only thing we’re not seeing is how he played us,” Allura snapped, hating how harsh and sudden her tone cut through the room. “He locked us out of the castle- He kidnapped Pidge!”

“Maybe there was a reason for it.” Snapping her gaze to Hunk, she huffed when he immediately held his hands up in surrender. “I just- We need to look at all variables before we figure out what to do. Maybe if we can figure out what was on this knife that he said hurt him, we can figure out what’s going on.” 

Breathing out deep, Allura squared her shoulders and looked to the two Olkari that had remained in the room with them. Once they had retreated and explained the situation, they had been happy to provide them space to plan and figure out their next moves. Keeping her voice as steady and calm as she could, Allura asked, “Do you have any way for us to view the footage from the battle that took place here when we arrived?” 

The Olkari shared a quick look, Allura not sure what the verdict would be before the one on her right nodded. “Come. We will show you the footage we have.”

“Hopefully it will be able to provide some relief,” the other added, not realizing that Allura was desperately hoping for the same thing. 

Led to a room with an array of screens, Allura quickly took a place in front of them and began working with the systems. Normally it would be Pidge in her position, and who would be doing a much better job, but Allura could at least get the basics up. The Olkari, thankfully, were also there to help. 

“It’ll be towards the end of the fight, I think,” Shiro spoke up, slowly moving to stand slightly behind her. “If it was any earlier one of us would have likely noticed it.” 

“We’ll start with the end and work our way backwards,” Allura said, carefully beginning to manipulate the footage. The Olkari, as always, had some of the most sophisticated tech that Allura had ever seen. Another small part of her anger chipped away at the realization that some things, at least, were familiar in this new era of the universe. 

Shaking those thoughts off, her worry for her paladins coming back, Allura watched the footage carefully. The Olkari had camera angles from countless directions, so much of their wilderness integrated with the technology itself. It was time-consuming, but eventually Allura managed to find the moment where Keith was attacked with a knife. 

She felt her breath hitch as soon as the sight sunk in. 

She hadn’t been sure what to expect when reviewing the battle footage and actually seeing what happened, but there it was. A knife, coated in something blacker than anything she had seen, slicing across the back of Keith’s neck. Her paladin didn’t even pause, still moving to try and get to Lance — to try and help his team. 

“Keith…” Hunk’s voice was as quiet as it was devastated, Allura feeling not much better herself. “It’s- How did we not notice that? Did anyone? Did any of you notice!” 

The room was silent, Allura closing her eyes the second before she heard a fist slamming into the wall. Allura didn’t need to look to know it was Shiro. She heard him muttering, blaming himself, but if anyone was to blame… Allura knew herself well. She knew how well her anger got the best of her. 

“We should have noticed,” Allura whispered, voice faint as whatever anger she had left drained out of her like blood from a wound. “All of us saw him when he was waiting by Lance. We should have noticed.” 

When had they started, she wondered, to view Keith as if he was an enemy? When had they stopped seeing him as a friend? 

Allura hadn’t sent him on any solo missions since the day he had told her what he was. How much courage, she wondered, had it taken for Keith to confide in them when he knew how much she despised the Galra? Doubtless he had been uneasy at losing her trust and all she had done was prove him right. 

Had it been her clear rejection that began it all? Ever since Allura had all but shut Keith out of her life, she had noticed Shiro had stopped pestering Keith about mentoring him. Hunk, if she recalled correctly, had asked some questions that now, in hindsight, had seemed so… blunt. So unlike him. And hadn’t he ignored Keith’s meal suggestions multiple times in favor of someone else? 

Pidge no longer went to Keith to talk about whatever she had been studying that day or what new device she had managed to get working. If anything, she stopped letting Keith see any of her designs or blueprints. 

They never invited him to anything. They avoided training with him. Conversations around him quieted or stopped altogether. And, worst of all, Allura had just let it happen- No. No, she had encouraged it. She had let her fear and anger blind her and ruin a friendship she had once valued. They all had, except… Except for Lance. 

Lance had started to head to his room earlier than he used to. He would spar with Keith without hesitation and volunteer to go on missions with Keith that he could have done himself. On days Keith hadn’t come to dinner, Lance would sneak away with an extra plate. The few times they had questioned him, he had just said he was extra hungry. 

And now that she thought about it, ever since they had reunited, Lance had stopped flirting with the girls they saw on planets they would visit. He didn’t even seem to notice or care when a girl flirted with him. Along with that, where once before he would join in whenever they would talk about the Galra and the cruelties they did, now he grew defensive, insisting that not all Galra were cruel or evil. 

It seemed so obvious now. Lance’s behavior compared to their own made such a stark contrast now that she was truly thinking about it. 

Taking a slow, deep breath, Allura spoke up firmly, “Now isn’t the time for self-pity or hatred.” She made her tone commanding, but let the edges soften. “We have apologies to make once this is over, but right now we need to figure out what’s wrong with our paladin.” 

The others were silent, Allura not sure what their responses would be before Shiro blew out his own breath, forceful and heavy. “You’re right. We all need to make amends, but right now the most important thing is to figure out what’s wrong and get him help.” 

“It’s gotta be whatever was on that knife that's causing all this, right?” Hunk still sounded near tears, but he seemed to pull himself together as he walked over to Allura. “Can you play that back? Pause on the knife?” 

Allura nodded and turned to do as asked, feeling her heart break all over again at seeing the slow rewind of Keith getting slashed. Now that she had figured out how to slow it down and pause, she could see the moment some of that black substance had been left behind on Keith’s neck. “Coran? Have you ever seen anything like this?” 

She felt more than saw Coran step up beside her, not surprised when he heard Coran’s quiet hum that meant he was dismayed to not know the answer to something. “I’m afraid not. I’ve seen quite a few weapons and substances in my time, but nothing that looks like that. As well, with the way Keith is acting? It’s… quite odd.” 

“Yeah, if the Galra wanted to poison him, you think they would just use actual poison,” Hunk said, voice lowering. “So we don’t know what it is, where it came from, or even what it really does.” 

“It’s like searching for a house key in a desert.” Shiro’s voice was low and tense, but Allura could hear the determination behind it. “Which means we need to start looking.” 

“I’ll begin pulling up what I can now,” Allura said, Shiro’s determination passing over into her and filling her up. She could hate herself and pity herself later, after she had made all of her apologies to Keith. 

In that moment, though, she had a paladin to save.

Chapter Text

“What if the pod is the only thing keeping him stable!” It was Pidge’s fifth attempt in the last hour alone to get him to stop his work on the pod and, like the four times before it, he ignored her. “Taking him out might make him even worse than when he was first put in!”

Considering they both knew that wasn’t how the healing pods worked, and that even a short time inside would immediately begin healing wounds, he didn’t give her a response. As far as he could tell, she was trying everything she could to get him to spill his ‘evil plans.’

Ignoring her as he had, he stood up from the floor where he had been fiddling with the pod itself. He had been careful to not tear anything out or move something that would cause damage, but he had hopefully managed to adjust things just enough that the console would finally unlock itself. 

Stepping up to the console, he found himself muttering as he inputted the command, “Come on, come on… Wake up, Lance.” It had already been hours since his last conversation with Team Voltron and the early afternoon sun was filling up the room and soaking it in like it was designed to do.

Watching the progress bar across the console, he held his breath before it froze in his chest as he saw a flash of green and then numbers ticking down.

Sixty seconds.

“Keith? Keith, what did you do? Did you- Did you unlock it-?!” Pidge’s voice went higher, tight with tension, but he didn’t look back to see what her expression might have been. Instead, he was only focused on the timer that was ticking down. 

Fifty seconds. 

“Keith, he’s not healed yet, you can’t let him out- There was too much damage when he went in! If you take him out before he’s ready then his body might go into shock! Shock alone is enough to kill someone!

Thirty seconds. 

“Keith, please. Just- Just don’t hurt him!” Pidge was breathless, sounding as if she was struggling against her restraints more than she had in hours. He didn’t bother to check and see. Why would he? He had no words to spare for something as ridiculous as her belief that they would ever — ever — hurt Lance. 

Fifteen seconds. 

If Pidge continued to yell and shout at him then he didn’t hear it, attention instead focused on the dwindling numbers before slowly, so slowly, he heard the soft sound of the pod sliding open with a soft displacement of air. 

Keith felt a bone-deep relief that felt as if it was being looped and echoed, but he couldn’t bring himself to care as he stepped forward to catch Lance before he could even fully finish stumbling out of the pod. Relief turned his voice faint and quiet, but Keith still managed to croak out a teasing, “Hey, babe.” 

Lance’s smile, as small and exhausted as it was, was more beautiful than anything he could ever remember seeing. It was a sight that he wanted to see again and again for as long as he could. 

Before they could try to say anything else, Pidge’s voice tore through the air, something between a scream and a shout, “Lance! Run!” 

Keith mentally swore as he felt Lance go rigid in his arms before snapping to attention, body standing up straight and eyes darting around to take in the room with eyes that were ready for battle. For as amazing a sight as it was, it was one they really didn’t want to see right at that moment. 

When their eyes locked together, Keith saw the exact second that Lance finally noticed his new appearance. Before he could say or do anything, Lance was stumbling backwards and out of his arms, barely taking a few shaky steps before he was falling backwards and just barely managing to catch himself with his arms enough that he at least didn’t hit his head on the floor. 

Keith felt something in him damn near break as they fought against the desire to both step forward and step back. He wanted to help Lance to his feet, reassure him, but Keith couldn’t handle the sight of Lance looking at him in… In shock? (And awe, a part of him whispered. Their Lance was looking at them in awe.) 

Lance didn’t surge to his feet to run away or try to pin him down or even call to Pidge for help. Instead he just sat on the ground, staring up at him without a trace of fear to his gaze. Even now, with how he looked and how he was acting, Lance was still willing to hear them out — to see them. 

“Keith?” The use of Keith’s name wasn’t Lance asking if it was really him, but instead a question as to what was happening. “I… Okay, okay, just- Give me a second here.” They stayed in place, giving Lance all the time he needed. Unsurprisingly, Lance was already blurting out questions in the time it took him to suck in a deep enough breath, “What’s going on? Where is everyone? Why is Pidge chained to the wall and yelling for me to run? Why do you look so Galra? What happened?” 

Keith wasn’t sure how to answer even half of those questions, but he did. “I locked the others out of the castle for now,” he said, keeping his hatred at Team Voltron out of his voice. He didn’t want Lance to believe for even a second that he was upset at him. “She-” He raised a hand, gesturing to Pidge without looking. “-let you get injured. Let you almost… I’ll have none of that ever again. Never.” 

“Keith…” Lance looked up at them, that shock and awe fading into something so… soft. “It’s part of the war. Fighting, getting injured, looking out for each other… Even if Pidge was at fault, you have to know as well as I do that they wouldn’t have meant it.” 

Lance sat up, but he didn’t try to push himself to his feet. Instead, he held a hand out and motioned for them to come forward. He didn’t hesitate to stumble forward and drape himself over Lance’s lap, curling into him as much as he physically could. If Lance was put off by his new fur or tail or anything else, he didn’t show it. 

Gently, but firm enough to show it wasn’t hesitant, Lance ran a hand up and down their back. The tension that had started building back up in Keith relaxed, Lance’s voice drawing the last of it out, “Hey, I’m okay. But you haven’t told me what happened to you, yet. The last thing I remember is that knife heading towards you.” 

“I…” Trailing off, Keith fell silent. Settled in Lance’s arms like they were, he finally felt like the knowledge swirling around in his mind was settling into something simple and coherent that he could finally explain. 

Carefully, and as slow as he could manage, he lifted their hands to cup the back of Lance’s neck before pulling him close enough that their foreheads were touching. Keith relaxed, knowing that Lance was safe and willing to listen. He took a breath, focused on those settling thoughts, and mentally pushed towards Lance. 

‘Can you hear me?’ He made the thought as clear as possible, watching as Lance’s eyes widened. He closed their own eyes to better focus, and maybe to avoid the chance that the shock or awe would turn into something darker. ‘I’m not Keith. Not fully, at least. Or I wasn’t? It’s… tangled.’ 

The hand on his back slid up until it was wrapping around the back of his neck, squeezing firmly in a way that whispered safety rather than threat. There was no pain at all from the cut that had been there. Quiet, hardly more than a whisper of breath, Lance said, “Tell me.” 

‘I’m a symbiote that was able to take root. Was able to grow. Usually, I think my kind kill their hosts. We’re… weapons? It’s blurry. Jumbled. But Keith is part-Galra, so instead I was able to incubate. To grow.’ 

Keith was learning all of this at the same time as Lance, and he — the symbiote — was half-fearful that Keith would fight for control until they tore their body apart in the ensuing fight. Instead there was a sense of understanding and… not acceptance. Not quite. But Keith was as willing to listen as Lance. That was all he needed. 

‘His memories became mine. His feelings. When I was finally me, all I knew was that I loved you, and that Keith’s team, the people who were meant to be his friends, were…’ He didn’t have the right words to explain his distaste and rage or all the other bitter feelings that had grown and festered as he and Keith grew into one. 

The gentle squeeze to the back of their neck, however, made him think that Lance was aware enough to know what he had been trying to say. 

“Okay,” he heard Lance whisper. Louder, he repeated, “Okay.” One last squeeze and Lance was gently guiding them back so they could look each other in the eyes again. There was still no fear. “Help me up?”

They rushed to do as asked, bounding to their feet with agility and grace that Keith was coming to appreciate. In mere seconds they had Lance stable and on his feet, an arm joined with Lance’s to keep him steady. He seemed tired, but nowhere near close to death like Pidge tried to make them assume he would be. 

“Thanks.” Lance brushed a kiss against their cheek, leaving Keith blushing and flustered and him marveling at the warm feelings it stirred in their chest. “How about we take a walk? I think I want to learn more about this new side of my boyfriend.” 

Before they could eagerly agree, Lance was looking over towards Pidge, who had surprisingly not shouted in a while. She had probably been assuming they had been whispering something to Lance, which was the main reason he had done his best to explain everything telepathically. A letter likely would have been easier and left him less tired, but he had been so eager and desperate to explain — to make sure Lance never had reason to fear either of them. 

“We’ll be back in a bit, Pidge,” Lance finally said, a quicksilver smile on his face before he was squeezing their hands and beginning to pull them along towards the exit. If Pidge tried to get them to stop or say anything, it was nothing except white noise as they followed after Lance. 

When they were out in the halls, hands linked together and walking side-by-side, everything felt… right. 

He liked the feeling.

So did Keith.

Chapter Text

Lance had never been one for silent reflection when it came to understanding a new concept. He was good at mimicking what was shown to him and learning through visuals and audio, but, in his opinion, the best way to learn something was to just ask. So, as soon as it was just him and his boyfriend (boyfriends?), Lance was asking, “Can I ask you some questions?” 

Beside him, Keith — the symbiote? — nodded slowly, as if not sure he had actually wanted to say yes, which, alright. That was kind of fair, considering everything that was going on. Lance had only woken up ten or twenty minutes ago and in that time he had found Pidge chained up, Keith looking like a Galra, and had been telepathically told that Keith wasn’t just Keith anymore. It was a lot to wrap his head around. 

“Okay, so… I guess my first question is who are you- No. That’s not quite right. I-” Lance cut himself off with a huff, squeezing Keith’s hand more tightly. “There’s Keith. Then there’s the… symbiote?” Keith nodded, glancing at him briefly before looking ahead again. He then looked over at him again, shy and nervous in a way that was clear even with his new features. “Is that why you look Galra, now?” 

“We think so,” the symbiote, because Lance had to assume just going by what he was saying, nodded. “Like I shared with you earlier, it’s jumbled. Usually we, symbiotes, kill our host and take over. Keith is half-Galra, though. That let us… fuse, almost. Right now, the best way I can put it is that we’re sharing the same body.”

Alright. Most of that made sense. He remembered the symbiote explaining that Keith’s memories and feelings had become his, as well, which was ridiculously sweet. That meant Lance had a symbiote who loved him as much as his boyfriend, but also a symbiote who seemed to think the team hated Keith completely and was now protective over them both. 

“And is it just you that’s speaking right now? Or… in control?” Lance made a face, not liking the implications of that question. “Sorry, I don’t really have a good way to ask what I’m trying to ask.” 

“We get it.” We. That seemed to be the second time he had used it. So Lance supposed there was some form of teamwork there. “Right now it’s mostly… me. Keith is still here, but it’s more like he’s standing behind me.” His head gave a cute tilt to the side, Lance almost cooing at seeing how those large ears flicked and twitched. Sure it had been startling at first to wake up to see a Galra looking at him, but after a second it had been so easy to see Keith’s features in that fuzzy face. “Maybe the sudden transformation had something to do with it. Let me take the lead while Keith adjusted.” 

“Okay. I think I’m getting it.” Mostly, at least. If nothing else, Lance knew he would be able to ask for plenty of clarification later. “Alright, slightly more important question. What happened that made it so Pidge ended up chained to the wall?” 

The symbiote flinched, Lance able to read the mix of guilt and justified anger easily. At least Lance wouldn’t have any troubles in understanding him if he truly had copied all of Keith’s feelings and mannerisms. The tail and ears also helped. “The team was cruel. She let you get hurt when we were fighting. Everyone kept trying to get Keith to leave your pod when you were in there, as if he was faking the way he was so worried about you. They’re cruel. Heartless-!”

“They aren’t.” Lance’s words were more quiet than anything, and he couldn’t help a slight smile as the symbiote immediately stopped talking and instead put his attention on Lance. “The team isn’t cruel. Have they been dicks who have been making a lot of bad decisions lately? Oh, yeah, definitely. But they’re not… cruel.” 

Lance rolled words around in his head, trying to find the right ones to help explain everything. Finally, starting slowly, he picked his way through an explanation, “They can be mean, but it’s- It’s- Ever since I came up here to space, I’ve learned more than I ever thought I would. One of the biggest things that kind of took a while to sink in is that it’s not really as easy as there being ‘good and evil.’ 

“Everyone — humans, Galra, Alteans, everyone — has the ability to do both good and bad. The team… They do a lot of good, but I think they let their fear get the best of them. They didn’t stop to really think about the fact that while it was surprising, Keith being half-Galra didn’t make him bad or evil. Because of that, the team ended up doing a lot of their own bad. You sort of showed up at a pretty rough time for us, I think.” 

Neither Keith nor the symbiote said anything and Lance chewed on the inside of his cheek, trying to think of something else he could say. He didn’t get the chance before he heard a low, rumbling growling sound. 

Looking over at his boyfriend, Lance almost rolled his eyes as he realized neither of them had probably eaten anything in a while. Honestly, Keith would pass on his bad habits to a symbiote sharing his head- “What was that?” 

“Huh?” Lance, startled out of his thoughts, looked at the symbiote, who gestured to his stomach. “That was your stomach growling?” He couldn’t stop himself from making it sound like a question, especially with how confused the symbiote seemed in return. “When was the last time you ate?” 

The symbiote stared at him silently, Lance almost ready to ask his question again to see if maybe he hadn’t heard it. Before he could, the symbiote was tilting his head again, asking, “I don’t know what you mean by when I last… ‘ate.’ What does that word mean?” 

“You don’t know what it means to eat?” Lance burst out, surprised despite himself. “I thought you said you had Keith’s memories!” 

“We do- I do, but… I don’t think I understand? Going by what I can understand, Keith hadn’t eaten anything since I first started becoming aware. I didn’t know the stomach could make noise to indicate it wanted… food?” 

Alright. Lance couldn’t remember if he had been told how long he had been asleep in the pod, but he wasn’t going to ask when knowing would only make him sad and want to lecture his idiot boyfriend. Either way, it all came down to the same exact thing: they needed to eat.

“Come on,” Lance finally said, pulling the symbiote and Keith to follow as he changed course and headed for the kitchen. “I’ll make you something to eat and, while I do that, I’ll actually explain what eating is and why it’s important.”

Thankfully, the kitchen was kept as well-stocked and maintained as it always was.

After spending so much time around Hunk even before their epic space adventure, Lance knew a thing or two about cooking. It wasn’t hard to make a plate of space bacon and, because he was an amazing boyfriend who loved his boyfriend so much, a cup of chocolate milk with whipped cream in it — just the way Keith loved it. 

“Alright,” Lance said, pushing the cup of milk into Keith’s hands and then picking up the plate of bacon. “Why don’t we eat as we go? I could do with some more walking after being in that pod for so long, I think.” 

Truthfully, Lance felt like he could sit down and collapse and not get back up for a couple of hours — but Keith was restless. Lance could see it in the way his gaze couldn’t settle on anything and his tail and ears kept flicking, sharp and sudden and like his old family cat when the angry guy had been ready to attack them. 

Walking would, if nothing else, prove a nice distraction and get rid of some of that energy. Eating would also probably help, considering everything. “Alright, open wide.” 

Keith opened his mouth, more likely to ask a question than do as told, but Lance didn’t waste the moment. Pushing the piece of bacon into Keith’s mouth, Lance snorted as he watched his boyfriend bite down on it instinctively, pause, chew, and then chew more eagerly. After a few seconds he swallowed, gaze snapping to the plate. 

“Good?” Lance asked, holding out the plate and laughing as Keith snatched a few more pieces and began eating them at once. “I’ll take that as a yes.” 

“It’s good.” Keith- Well. The symbiote? Both of them, maybe, but- Either way, Lance was being given a bright smile and the sight of a happily eating Keith. A Keith who now looked fully like a Galra. 

Waiting until a few more bites of bacon and sips of chocolate milk had been taken, Lance finally asked, “So, the whole symbiote body changing thing. That’s what caused the change in appearance?” 

Keith, with puffed up cheeks, quickly chewed and swallowed before nodding. It was adorable. “We think so. Like I said, something like this has never happened before. It’s… new.” 

“Yeaaah, we’ve gotten pretty used to ‘new’ things,” Lance said, amused despite himself. Keith and his symbiote at least seemed healthy, so that was something. “I could definitely get used to the tail.” 

Unable to help himself, Lance reached a hand out to grab Keith’s tail and give it a playful tug. The embarrassed snap of teeth made way for what might have been a muffled purr that his boyfriend was trying very, very hard to suppress. Keith seemed to realize he wasn’t fooling anybody, since he huffed again, this time somewhere between amused and exasperated both. 

“Aw, who’s my good kitty cat,” Lance teased, soothing any sting from his words by leaning in to kiss the curve of Keith’s cheek. It was a little different with all the fur there, but Lance still knew how to show affection to his boyfriend, thank you very much. It was also near impossible to spot any possible blushing, but there was no hiding the embarrassed curl of his shoulders. 

Lance let them walk in silence for a bit longer, making sure Keith ate and drank at least half his meal before speaking up again, this time softer, “Hey. I know the team hasn’t been great lately, and especially not for something like a first introduction, so… Let me try to explain it a bit better, yeah?”

There was hesitation in the way Keith nodded, but his voice was firm when he said, “I’d like that, thank you.” 

That was all the permission Lance needed to start talking about the team. He made sure not to leave out the bad things the team had done, as much as he wanted to. He made even more sure he didn’t leave out the bad he had done, even if had really, really wanted to. It wouldn’t have helped to prove his point that everyone could be both good and stupid, though. 

He wasn’t sure how much the symbiote really understood about the complexities of good and evil and humanity, but he seemed to at least be paying attention and trying to ask questions where he could. So it was something! 

Lance hadn’t an idea of how long they spent talking — enough that Keith had long since finished eating and the plate and cup had been left abandoned somewhere — but he’d like to think that Keith was at least more relaxed- Well. Him and the symbiote. Or maybe just the symbiote?

“So, yeah. The team really does care for Keith, they’ve just been struggling with… I guess the reality of everything, you know? But we can fix it- They can fix it.” Lance paused, tilting his head to the side in thought. “From what you’ve told me, they have to know about everything by now.” 

“Likely,” Keith nodded, leaning in closer so their shoulders brushed together. “I told them about Keith getting hurt, so they at least know that much.”

“When he got cut on the back of the neck?” Lance asked, having a feeling it was something deeper. “Or when he got hurt by everyone pushing him away?”

Keith paused, his smile wan and tired when he turned to look at Lance. Finally, he replied softly, “Both.”  

“So, it seems like everyone is caught up on the same page. Mostly.” Lance would have to make sure the team got caught up on the symbiote and what would essentially be a new team member and boyfriend. Probably? Probably. Hm. The three of them would need to talk about that more. “Which means after this, we can sit down and finally just talk about everything.” 

“‘After this?’” Oh, well, if Keith was going to give him such a perfect segway, who was Lance to refuse it? 

“Yeah,” Lance said, smile widening into a grin as he spun on his heel and took in the sight of Keith looking at him with a small, confused smile and questioning eyes. He didn’t waste anymore time, stepping into Keith’s space and bending down to curl an arm around his lower back. In the same moment, Lance twined their other hands together, lining them up into the rough shape of a dance position. “After this.” 

With that, he pulled Keith back with him, laughing as his boyfriend stumbled to try and keep step with him. Lance didn’t hesitate to swing them around the hallway, no music playing at all outside of the continuous sounds of their startled laughs and stumbling steps. It was nice. 

While Lance hadn’t really been aware of time passing while he was in the pod, he could imagine the stress Keith and the rest of the team had gone through in the days he had been out. The whole situation had gotten more than a little complicated, but Keith seemed like he was okay, at least. And the symbiote seemed like he was trying to reach some sort of compromise. So for now they could just… take a few seconds.

So Lance danced with Keith. It wasn’t anything involved or fancy, but it was fun and they were laughing and, if for just the moment, everything felt like it was going to turn out alright. 

Finally, almost before he could realize, Lance found their dance ending, the two of them lightly sweating and panting for breath. It was with a long delayed second that he realized they were on the bridge, the early evening of the planet starting to filter in through the glass windows. It looked like there were only a couple of hours of daylight left and with how the day had gone… 

“Keith- Well, both of you, I guess, could you… Would you take the particle barrier down?” Lance looked at his boyfriend(s), grateful when he wasn’t given any angry or betrayed looks. Mild confusion was, by far, a better look. “We’ll need to deal with it all eventually, so we might as well do it now, right?”

“Yes. I suppose.” Keith looked out the windows himself, almost looking like he was lost in thought before he finally moved to the control panel. Lance followed, less out of a desire to make sure Keith pressed the right buttons, and more so for the desire to just stay close to him. 

Thankfully, it didn’t take long until Lance was looking outside and seeing the rough, flickering particles that let him know the barrier was finally being removed. If he had to guess, at least one of them, and a lion, would be on the ship with them before even ten minutes passed.

“Will you protect me?” The question was hardly louder than a whisper and, for a heart-stopping moment, Lance wasn’t sure which one of them was asking. It was easy to tell which one had pleaded, though, when he kept going, “Even though I’m suppressing your original Keith.”

“Hey, hey, you’re not suppressing anything.” Lance took a step forward, hands moving to cup those fluffy, furry cheeks almost as if he had already done it a million times. When he felt some of that tension melt out, he kept talking, thinking over his words carefully. “You’re here now. You’re him, in a way. I’ll always love both of you.” 

Even if, in the worst case scenario, the symbiote might need to be removed. What if it interfered with operating Voltron? But, heck, could the symbiote even be removed? He had made it sound like something like this had never happened before. 

Lance almost shook his head physically, doing his best not to think about it — he didn’t want to think about it because, well, he hadn’t been lying. He would always love both of them, even if none of them had ever seen something like this coming. Lance had always been quick to love, and right now that seemed like something close to destiny or luck.

Pressing his hands more firmly against Keith’s cheeks, Lance met his eyes with all the conviction he could pull up. Firmly, Lance said, “I know this is new and terrifying, but I need you to trust me. Can you do that?” 

The body in front of him took a long, deep breath and, for the first time since Lance had woken up and been wrapped up in something he didn’t fully understand, it seemed like it was Keith finally in control of it all. There was a spark to those eyes that hadn’t been there a second ago and a way he carried himself that spoke of stubborn determination. 

“I can do that,” Keith, and it was definitely Keith, smirked. “Just as long as you don’t lead us off any cliffs.”

“I would never,” Lance scoffed, the brief levity doing worlds in lifting his mood. Still, they weren’t done yet, so Lance stepped away enough to look out the windows. The lions were already racing towards them. “You ready?” 

Keith made a noise that was somewhere between laugh and sigh, his shoulders tense and his Galra ears curving back like an angry cat. It was adorable, but Lance made sure to hold back his laugh and then move to wrap one of Keith’s hands up between his own.

“Yeah,” he finally said, looking at Lance with a small, but genuine smile. “Ready as I’ll ever be.” Before Lance could make a joke, praise him, or both, he felt chapped, dry lips pressed against his own. The contact was brief and light, but it was also the most wonderful thing that had happened to Lance since he had woken up. “Sorry, just gonna borrow that for a second.”

Lance couldn’t help his laugh, bright and startled, as he ducked in to muffle the sound against Keith’s lips. “No problem,” he managed to get out around his giggles. “You know, borrowing a kiss doesn’t sound bad at all.” With that, he stole his own kiss, lingering for a long minute before he finally managed to pull himself away.  

“Hey.” Lance kept his voice soft and quiet, meeting Keith’s hesitant look with his own wide smile. “Hey, it’s okay. We’ll figure this all out. Promise.” The words did their job, Keith relaxing into his arms and not noticing as Lance turned just enough to look out the window again. The lions had already reached them.

“Yeah,” Lance repeated, quieter, all to himself and under his breath as he tried to make himself feel as positive as possible. “All comes down to this.” 

But, between the Red and Blue Paladins of Voltron with the rest of their team on the way? Well.

They were going to be just fine.

Chapter Text

Keith kept his eyes on the way Lance paced from one end of the control room to the other, measuring his breathing to the strides of his boyfriend and trying to keep himself from feeling like he was unraveling. It was hard to do when he tried to focus on just one thing to center himself and instead focused on everything. The swishing of his tail, the flicking of his ears, the way filtered ship air ruffled his fur as it cooled the room- Hell, the way it felt like his head was crowded. 

The pain of the last few days had at least dulled, but what was left behind was- Well. It wasn't quite a migraine. It was more like pressure, as if his head was too crowded. It didn't hurt, but Keith had a feeling it could if he (they?) got too overwhelmed or emotional. God. They. He had someone in his head. Should he be freaking out more about that? It felt like Keith had been sleepwalking for days and now he was wide awake and able to recall his ‘dream.’ He definitely had a lot of explaining to do. 

‘Well,’ Keith thought to ‘him’ wryly, ‘At least you're on my side.’ Something like a flash of warmth or happiness swirled through him, the feeling taking him off guard at the same time it drained away some of his tension. It was definitely a weird feeling, but not an unpleasant one. 

Before he could think on it too heavily, the doors to the control room were sliding open. There, suited up and armored, was the rest of Team Voltron, Pidge in her own green armor and standing in front of the rest of them. 

Keith couldn't stop the bolt of fear that filled him or the way everything about him curled in, as if trying to make himself a smaller target. Attention locked on the others as it was, Keith didn't realize Lance had closed the distance between them until he felt a jerk from his belt and then saw Lance’s back as he took a position in front of him. Opening his mouth to say something, maybe to assure Lance he was fine, Keith instead found himself speechless as he saw Lance holding his Marmora blade in front of him, grip tight and stance mimicking Keith's when he used the blade. 

Even with his heart racing and adrenaline spiking, something inside of him preened and purred at the sight of Lance protecting him. It was possible the burst of warmth and possessive pride was from the symbiote inside him, but Keith knew it was just as likely it was all him. 

Bracing himself for yelling and weapons firing, Keith instead went still as Allura stepped forward and raised one of her hands in a show of peace. For perhaps the first time since Keith had told her of his Galra heritage, there was no disgust on her face. There was just worry as she asked a soft-spoken, “Lance. What happened?” 

“Don't hurt him.” Lance held firm, blade still in his hand as he stared the others down. It was only because Keith was looking so closely that he saw a little tension had bled out of his shoulders. Lance had likely noticed that none of them were armed or shouting. Hell, Allura hadn't even tried to say something about Lance ‘siding with the enemy.’ 

“We don't want to hurt anyone here,” Allura said calmly. Keith didn't miss the fact she said want instead of won't. Lance did too, since he only moved in order to block more of Keith from view. While Lance was better with guns, he could fight with a blade just as well when he needed to. 

Shiro was the one to step in next, voice calm and expression twisted into concern and worry like Keith hadn’t seen in weeks. There was no fear or unease when he looked at Keith, even with his full transformation into looking like a Galra. Pidge must have warned them what to expect. “Easy, you two.” His voice was soft, but firm, no sudden movements and careful, deliberate eye contact with Lance. “What is he, Lance? I’m guessing you know a bit more about all of this than we do right now.” 

Keith knew Shiro likely didn’t mean for his question to sound so- Well. It sounded like he was asking what was in front of him because he thought it was no longer Keith. Like Keith and who he was had disappeared and was just gone. It was only Lance looking back at him, eyes filled with resolve and devotion, that kept Keith from spiraling into the negative thoughts. (It was possible he had a little more coping to do before he could come to terms with sharing his body with someone.) 

“Buddy?” Hunk. He didn’t step forward or try to get closer, but he had the same upset, worried expression that the rest of them had. Was it for Lance? Did they think Keith had done something to brainwash him? Or were they worried for him, too? “Is it- I mean. Is it you?” His gaze went from Keith to Lance when Keith didn’t answer. “Don’t get me wrong, I want to believe Pidge is right and that this is just- You know. A version of our Keith that won’t kill us? Still kind of our Keith? It’s-” Hunk’s voice stopped from where it had started speeding up, the other taking a deep breath and then letting it go. “It’s a little scary, man, not gonna lie.”

Alright. So Pidge had told them what she knew. The problem was that Keith wasn’t sure of all what Pidge knew. There had been some things the symbiote had said when in control, but Keith couldn’t remember every detail of it. Likely, by now, she and the others knew there was something influencing his actions. 

Lance’s gaze went from Pidge, to Keith, and then to Hunk. “He’s a symbiote.” Keith shuffled at the range of looks, but it was Allura’s shock and Coran’s narrowed gaze that had him going tense behind Lance. He supposed if anyone knew what the hell a symbiote was or might be, it was those two. 

“Keith got injured during our last fight around the same time I did. There was something on the knife that cut him. It was small, but it sunk in, and then it — he — became something new.” A thread of awe in Lance’s voice sent a rush of warmth through them, Keith not even minding the tangled thoughts between him and the symbiote as Lance’s free hand linked with his. “He’s just a version of my boyfriend who started today only knowing love and hate.” 

Flushing and a little thankful that his new fur would hide it if nothing else, Keith looked back at the team. He wasn’t surprised by their surprise, and he supposed it was somehow a little funny that it was the ‘boyfriend’ comment that sent them all scrambling for words. Pidge seemed a little less surprised than the others, but she had seen Keith and the symbiote frantically trying to wake Lance up. 

Carefully and slowly, Shiro was the first to move. He holstered his lowered weapon and lifted his hands away in a clear show that he wasn’t going to attack. The others followed, Keith squeezing Lance’s hand and nodding when his boyfriend glanced back at him. Lance huffed, but a little of his usual smirk returned as he returned Keith’s blade to the holster on his belt. 

“Keith.” Shiro’s voice held a tone Keith hadn’t heard in months — the same tone that had Keith seeing the man as a big brother since long before their space adventure. “Why did you lock us out?” 

“I didn’t.” The surge of frustration and anger wasn’t his, or at least, it wasn’t fully his. Sure he could take it to mean why had he ‘emotionally’ locked them out, which he hadn’t, that had been them, but if Shiro was talking about just in the last day physically locking them out, well… ‘ You want to help me out, here?’ 

There was a sudden feeling that overtook him that Keith couldn’t describe. If he had to find words for it, the closest he had was that it felt like he had just climbed up a set of stairs and tried to go a step higher than there actually was. A second of unexpected freefall that ended before the panic could even fully grow. A sharp, sudden beat of his heart that sent a surge of adrenaline through him. Then it was… Fuzzy, maybe? 

It didn’t feel like he was being shoved down under something like it had almost felt like the last few days. It didn’t even feel like he was delirious with pain or a fever. Instead, it felt like he was still in the room, but was now looking through a pane of glass or watching what happened through a screen. Nothing was muffled, but he wasn’t fully there. 

He was, instead. He was the one to lash their tail and pull back their lips in something close to a frustrated snarl. “ I locked you out.” Keith saw shock in the faces of all the others and he stopped looking too closely before he could see if horror and fear were there, too. “Your actions have not been erased from my mind. I hope they haven’t been erased from yours, either.” 

Their body took a slow, deep breath, Keith picturing the image of patting himself hesitantly on the back before some of his frustration (theirs?) felt like it was draining away. He huffed a breath, voice steady as he continued, “When I finished my incubation, I knew love. It rested in front of me, but it was torn from me through your technology.” Their body moved to stand closer to Lance, Keith melting at the soft look Lance gave them paired with his warm smile as they were pulled in closer. He relaxed just as much as Keith, their lashing tail calming down and something like a soothing rumble echoing in their chest for a second- …Could they purr? 

“But it was still there,” he said softly. Their gaze returned to the team, voice hardening again. “And then I knew pain because to see him injured was my own form of pain. And then, within seconds and minutes of learning love and pain, I learned frustration and how to amplify it into hatred. I knew no better because I learned it from watching.” He damn near growled before blowing out a long, slow breath. “What excuses do you have?” 

All of them were quiet. No one moved. It felt like Keith was standing on the edge of being shoved off a cliff or being pulled back and a part of him wasn’t sure which one he wanted. The symbiote was still the one most in control, but when Allura stepped forward, crossing some of the distance between them, Keith could tell she was looking at him. Not the symbiote or the Galra, or whatever he had become, but she was looking at Keith.  

“You’re right.” Her voice wasn’t quiet. It was firm and steady. There was hesitance there, wariness, but no hatred. “Our actions haven’t been erased. We don’t have excuses. The way we… The way I acted wasn’t right. Everything I did was wrong. You didn’t deserve that, Keith. And neither did you.” If it were any other situation, Keith might have laughed at how Allura seemed to switch between addressing him and the symbiote so easily. 

“I should have done better,” Allura continued, frustration coloring her voice. “Been more understanding. Tried to hear your side of it. Instead I… I shit you out. I encouraged all this hatred and distance and I- I wasn’t any better than the Galra we have been fighting.” 

The words were enough to send a bolt of shock through them. While the symbiote didn't have all the details, to hear Allura compare herself to the Galra? She really was sorry, wasn't she?

Allura took a breath, a waver in her voice making Keith’s heart clench and Lance frown in worry. “It wasn’t right. Any of our actions. So…” Allura drew herself up, tall and proud and every inch the princess she had been trying to stay and holding eye contact without a trace of fear as she said, “Help us fix them going forward.”

Before they could help themselves, they were chuckling and taking a single step forward. They didn’t let go of Lance’s hand and they didn’t finish crossing the distance, but they warmed at seeing how Allura didn’t flinch or even twitch at him coming closer. If anything, she looked hopeful. Allura, looking hopeful at seeing what might as well have been a Galra approaching her. She was serious.

Softly, but with all the forgiveness Keith knew how to give and he was beginning to learn, they said, “We can do that.”

Chapter Text

It turned out that sharing one’s head with a symbiote wasn’t exactly easy. Add that to his whole team trying to apologize and make things up to him while looking like kicked puppies or guilty children, and, well… The months following the initial changes had been rough. 

The early days had been the worst of it. Lance had gone back into the pod to finish the healing cycle that really shouldn't have been interrupted, Keith almost strangling the idiot for keeping quiet on how the pain had started to all come back only a couple hours later. After that, Keith and the symbiote were subjected to a million medical tests that almost had him considering jumping out a window and straight into the dark void of space. 

Thankfully, his existential crisis was resolved rather quickly. It was pretty clear, to him and the team, that they weren’t the same person. He, and Lainth as he later asked to be called, had different perspectives, thoughts, and feelings. It was less like Keith was torn between two parts of himself and more like his body was just now being shared with another person who had a lot of his quirks and personality. 

Still overwhelming, but somehow not as bad. Allura and Coran, working together to dig up old information, had also been able to explain some of the more shrouded details of what all had happened. 

Lainth had brought about the Galra appearance due to the symbiote’s nature enhancing the DNA from Keith’s mother. They still weren’t sure how the Galra had made what they did in the first place, especially since symbiotes seemed to have been different in Allura's time, but Keith having Galra DNA was enough to keep himself from outright dying. The bright Altean symbols that had eventually disappeared from his cheeks were apparently just from the Altean surroundings that had been present during Lainth’s incubation. 

Ever since those first few days, no one had ever mentioned the idea of removing Lainth. Keith wasn’t sure if it was because they didn’t want to anger the symbiote, or if it was because they knew, somehow, that it wasn’t possible to separate the two of them. For the most part, Keith was alright not having that question answered. He knew he could ask, but he was happy to leave that unanswered. Lainth was also kind enough to not volunteer the information.

So, instead Keith focused on trying to find a new normal. During the days of Lance’s healing, and Keith’s own recovery, the team had been more than a little over the top in- Well. In everything. Keith couldn't think of one moment he had been alone in those first two weeks or had one of the team trailing in his footsteps.

Thankfully, by the time Lance was back on his feet and cleared for combat, Team Voltron had gotten it together and settled into what Keith liked to deem ‘the right amount of affection.’ 

(Plus, all of that change and growth wasn’t even touching on the things he could now get away with in the war now that he was able to look like a Galra and, if need be, infiltrate them from the outside. The tail needed to stay hidden, but overall it had helped to stop a lot of fights before they even happened.) 

It had definitely been a long, long couple of months before they had all settled into something like a normal routine — or as close as they could get to it, anyway. 

There were still bad days — times where Shiro would flinch away from him or Allura would see him out of the corner of her eye and tense for a fight that wasn’t coming. The moments didn’t last, though. Shiro would blink, quickly and with a touch of confusion, before relaxing and closing the distance between them. Allura would look at him head-on, anger turning to realization turning to an embarrassed grimace as she struggled not to apologize or to fall into self hatred and instead simply let the moment go. 

Overall, the good outweighed the bad. 

Yes there were still some days that Keith would look at himself in the mirror and a sharp burst of panic and fear would overtake him, but those days were becoming less and less frequent. For the most part, he and Lainth had started to learn how to be in sync. They had learned how to work with each other. And with that came improvement from everyone else. 

Familiar meals, unending technical babble, terrible puns and jokes, and relentless training with a hand to help him up afterwards. The best part of it all — or maybe the most reassuring part — was that Lance was still beside him just as he had been since the beginning. They were as strong a team as always if not even stronger and closer after everything that had happened. Even if there was one extra person on their team, now. 

‘You’re thinking loudly.’ After months of cohabitation, it was easy to tell Keith’s aimless thoughts and thinking from the difference that was Lainth.

‘And I still think there’s no way to think quietly,’ Keith directed back, full awareness of his surroundings filtering back in instead of just the warm, familiar pressure of Lance laying on his chest. They were curled up in Lance’s bed in his bedroom, as usual, relaxing in the warm-toned light that helped mimic something like sunlight in a room with no windows. (Not that there was any sunlight when they were flying through space.) ‘Just reflecting.’ 

‘There’s no mirror around us.’ Lainth somehow managed to think the words like he was responding seriously, but Keith knew better. The symbiote had gotten his humor from Lance, after all. ‘Hunk would have believed it.’ 

‘Uh huh.’ Rolling his eyes, Keith was ready to respond before his thoughts stuttered to a stop. His attention focused back on Lance, who was shifting against him, body stretching out with a slow, languid movement that ended with him completely boneless on Keith’s chest. A long, slow exhale that Keith could only hear as content left the relaxed puddle of boyfriend on his chest. 

A glance down showed that, as usual, Lance had resettled so his ear was against Keith’s chest — his heart. Apparently, his heartbeat had also been one of the things to change. Keith didn’t fully understand how and why, but it made sense. At least, as much as all the other changes had. 

‘His hair is just so soft.’ Fighting to hold back a snort of laughter from where he had begun running his hand through Lance’s hair again, Keith let out a slow breath. ‘Tell him his hair looks good.’ 

That time, Keith was unable to hold back his surprised huff, the movement and sound dragging a sleepy, questioning sound from Lance. Filled with helpless fondness, Keith ruffled his hair a bit more firmly, asking, “You awake?” 

“Mhm.” Lance shifted to look up at him, eyes half-lidded like he had just woken up or been seconds from falling asleep. “Totally awake. You?” 

“Totally,” Keith snorted, hand moving to cup the back of Lance’s neck, squeezing gently and smiling at how Lance leaned back into the touch. “Lainth likes your hair today. He said it looks good.” Pausing, Keith looked at the soft hair that was ruffled and fluffed up into a casual, messy style that he had seen roommates back on Earth spend ages to mimic. “I do, too.” 

Lance laughed, bright and happy and full of a joy that had Keith and Lainth relaxing as one. “Glad to know both my boyfriends enjoy the way I look. I didn’t need the ego boost, but I mean, I won’t say no.” 

Letting Lance bury his face into his chest again, Keith half-thought he had actually fallen asleep before he heard muffled words that could have been a question if they weren’t smothered into his shirt. “Just because I have better hearing doesn’t mean I have super hearing.” 

“Skill issue,” Lance ‘huffed,’ not even trying to hide his smile as he looked back up at him. “I said, how did you come up with that name anyway? Lainth’s?” Huh. Keith could have sworn Lance already knew.

“I didn’t come up with it,” Keith finally said, head tilting to the side as he finished with, “He did.” When that earned him a look that very clearly meant for him to keep talking, Keith laughed and tangled his fingers fully into Lance’s hair. “He picked it and told me it was a mix of our names — yours and mine. He said yours came first. His first priority.” 

The pink flush that spread across Lance’s cheeks had a purring rumble of contentment flow through him and Lainth both. It was quite possibly Keith was also purring physically since Lance’s cheeks grew even brighter before he cleared his throat and tried to pretend he wasn’t blushing. “That’s adorable.” Then, like the dirty cheater he was, Lance shifted to place both his palms against Keith’s cheeks, thumbs rubbing under his eyes as he continued softly, “I love that, Lainth. Thank you.” 

Keith closed his eyes with a huff as he felt a mixture of amusement, embarrassment, and contentment all wrapped up and tangled around one another. Another thing he hadn’t expected when learning to live with a symbiote was all the emotions but, well. He wasn’t completely against it, he supposed. People always had told him he could stand to show his emotions better, after all.

Opening his eyes back up to see that warm, loving look still being directed at him, Keith suddenly remembered a question he had wanted to ask months ago and then never did. “Hey, Lance?” Keith hesitated only long enough for Lance’s questioning hum to fill the air. “How come you never flinched?” 

A part of him (or maybe both parts of him?) expected for Lance to be surprised or confused, either not wanting to answer, not knowing how to answer, or not even knowing what Keith was talking about. Instead, however, proving that Lance was somehow perfect even with his terrible sense of humor, he answered with a prompt, “Lainth isn’t that scary.” 

“He is,” Keith scoffed through the burst of relief that flowed through them. There was still a lot to figure out and work through, but as long as Lance wasn’t afraid of them… Well. It counted for a lot. 

“Hey.” Lance’s hands, still cupping his cheeks, pressed in harder and moved Keith’s gaze to meet his own. Quieter, but with a firmness that showed how serious he was, Lance said, “I wasn’t scared.” 

Whether it was Keith or Lainth that asked, they both had the same question, a baffled, helpless, “Why not?” Because it would have made sense, right? Keith had seen himself those first few days, even with the way he had been pushed down and quieted for that first day or so. There was a reason he hadn’t been shocked when the team had taken a while to get comfortable with him again, even with them trying to improve. Hell, like he had been reflecting on earlier, there were still some days that one of them would flinch away.

Except Lance. 

Ever since the very start of it all, Lance had never looked at them in any sort of fear. Worry, yeah. Concern, definitely. Panic, probably a little. But he had never looked at them with fear — and if he had, the fear had been on his behalf. Fear not from him, but for him. 

“‘Why not?’” Lance parroted, pulling them out of those dismal thoughts and memories and catching their attention as easily as he always did. “Babes, have you seen yourselves?” The flirtatious tone with a quicksilver smile and tease of tongue had Keith laughing so he didn’t give in to Lainth’s suggestion of lunging forward and kissing their boyfriend senseless for a few days or years. 

“Plus,” Lance continued, voice softer and warmer and everything that they had ever wanted. “It was the look in your eyes.” Lance pushed himself up onto his elbows just enough to curl in closer to them, noses brushing together as he smiled with that bright, wide smile that was so easy to fall in love with. “It’s the one you have right now.” 

“Sap,” Keith managed to get out before he gave in to Lainth’s suggestion and his want and pulled Lance into a kiss that was, as every kiss before, the best thing to ever happen to him. Well, right behind Lance himself, at least. 

Maybe when the urge to kiss Lance senseless died down Keith would try to explain just how much Lance changed their lives. Heck, he might even let Lainth do most of the talking, since the symbiote still had no sense of shame or embarrassment and was more than happy to spill their heart out for Lance. For now, though, Keith was going to make sure Lance knew just how loved and treasured he was and how, as long as he was there, Keith was ready for anything.