Chapter Text
Keith
A long, long time ago, there was a relatively average-height viking with a relatively average-length name walking across a beach. This Viking’s name was Keith Takashi Kogane, and he usually liked the beach, but on this night he was terrified.
After flying Hunk to safety and Pidge to Coran for medical attention, Keith turned to find his brother staring after the queen dragon and Lance as they battled.
“Shiro,” Keith called, “We have to find a way off of this island.”
His brother turned to face him, “You knew. About all of this.”
It wasn’t a question, but Keith nodded anyway.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Would you have listened?”
Shiro closed his eyes and took a deep breath, “Right. There’s nothing I can do about it now except take care of my people. Let’s find a way off this rock.”
Keith nodded, eager to be doing something. It ate and chafed at him that he couldn’t fly with Lance, and even though in his head he knew it would only end in disaster if he tried, it didn’t help that every fibre of body told him to jump on Red and fight .
The brothers had just turned back to their villagers when the queen dragon let out a mighty roar and unfurled wings larger and more colorful than their sails from her back. The force of one flap from them nearly knocked Keith off of his feet, and he couldn’t help but stare up into the night as Blue shot into the sky, Lance whooping as the queen followed them into the clouds. Prayers to any and every god Keith knew of crossed his mind as the night sky burned with fire.
Screeches and cries from both dragons echoed off the seastacks and mountains, filling their entire world with the sound of battle. Around Keith the Arusians gasped and gazed at the sky, the blazing inferno illuminating harsh shadows of the two creatures. Other strange sounds and calls began to trill near them, and when Keith looked around he saw that the dragons who had previously fled the island gathering around Red and Pidge’s Nadder. They were communicating in their strange language of clacks and hisses and kept worriedly glancing at the sky. Keith couldn’t tell if they were more concerned with the welfare of Blue and Lance, or their queen. He hoped it was the former, as they had all seemed terrified of the queen before.
High above them the sky streaked with blasts and hazy smoke from the burning ships, again and again, until suddenly they stopped. Keith searched the night sky desperately for any sign of a blue tail or fin, his heartbeat the only sound he could hear in the night. Without warning a high-pitched screech cut through the night, and Keith had no idea what it was until he saw the familiar form of Blue emerge through the clouds as she dove straight for the ground, the queen right behind them. The queen’s maw was open wide, spilling with gas, and Keith could tell she was about to strike when Blue spun around and blasted the dragon right in her mouth. The gas inside the queen’s mouth exploded like a bomb, lighting her up from the inside out, and Keith couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride swell in his chest when he realized that Lance was using their training from Coran.
The queen crashed into the ground, a wave of heat and fire enveloping the island, and Keith knew she wouldn’t get up again. He watched as Lance and Blue hovered above the carnage and looked for a place to land, but something was wrong. He could see it in the way Blue seemed off-kilter, that instead of a graceful descent to the ground away from the crashing queen, she flapped and stuttered, dipping up and down dangerously.
“What’s wrong with him?” Shiro called, looking over at Keith, “Or does he always fly like that?”
Keith shook his head, unable to do anything else. A small stream of smoke trailed from Blue’s tail, and a cold numbness shot through his system.
“Her tail,” he gasped, staring open-mouthed at the sky, “It’s on fire! Lance!” he spun around, his eyes raking over the crowd of people and dragons.
“What―” Shiro started, tearing his eyes from the falling Viking.
“Keith!” Hunk yelled, pointing at the sky, “Blue’s tail!”
“I see it!” Keith growled. ‘Where did she go?’
“What’s going on?” Coran yelled.
“Half of Blue’s tail is a prosthetic Pidge and Lance designed!” Hunk explained, “Without it, she can’t fly, and they’re going to crash and burn if we don’t do something now!”
Keith finally spotted her, “Red!” he ran over to the dragon and stopped in front of her face, ignoring the other dragons beside her, “Lance and Blue need us; we’ve gotta get up there and save them!”
But they were too late. Even as Keith climbed onto his dragon’s back he heard a bloodcurling scream emit from somewhere in the crowd.
“ ¡Mí hijo! ”
Keith whipped his head to the sky and watched in slow-motion as Blue lost control, spinning right into the tail of the queen dragon and throwing Lance from his saddle. He sat on Red’s back, paralysed with fear as he saw Blue dive after him, flapping her wings desperately to get to Lance.
There was a sickening crash, and the sound jarred Keith back to himself. He urged Red upward, and they took to the sky. The Crimson Nightmare swooped in low circles over the burning queen’s carcass as the last embers faded. Keith searched for any sign of the Blue Fury amidst the bones and smoke.
“Lance!” he screamed, “Blue!”
Suddenly a flash of color broke through the bleach white and gray, and Keith’s heart tripped. He dove right at the flash of sky blue, stopping short when he reached the ground. Keith leapt from the back of his dragon and ran to Blue, frantically looking about the chasm created by her crash for any sign of Lance.
“Lance?” panic started to well up inside his chest, “Lance! Where are you?”
Blue groaned and shifted across the beach, and Keith spun to look at her back. Maybe somehow Lance had managed to―
He froze as he saw the empty saddle and the damage it had taken in the fight against the queen. It was barely anything more than a strip of burnt leather and warped metal loosely fitted to the Blue Fury’s back, and Keith felt he couldn’t breathe. Something was crawling up his throat, thick and overwhelming as each breath came out more laboured than the last.
“No,” his voice came out strangled as he turned to look at Blue, who slowly opened her eyes.
“Keith!” he heard Shiro from far off, but he couldn’t make himself move.
It was every nightmare Keith had ever dreamt; losing Lance, not being able to say goodbye, never truly reconciling anything between them. He stumbled over to Blue and fell to his knees, “That idiot,” he gasped. “If he had let me tell Shiro like I wanted to in the first place this never would’ve happened. He never would’ve―” he couldn’t finish as the thickness swallowed his lungs and overflowed out of him, tears streaming down his face.
He sat there for a moment, tears falling like the rain Lance had loved so much, until he felt a warmth against his cheek. It was Red, gently rubbing her head against his. Keith reached up and rubbed her forehead, still unable to speak. He then turned to Blue, the dragon’s yellow eyes wary. Footsteps sounded near to him, but he didn’t care.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered to her, “He gave you a life again, and I couldn’t help you do the same. Forgive me.”
With a curious sideways look at him, Blue lifted her wing, and curled there against her chest was Lance, chest rising and falling with every breath.
Keith let out an undignified yelp and scrambled over to him. His limbs felt numb with shock as he cradled the boy he loves in his arms.
Lance groaned and fluttered his beautiful lashes, eyes locking immediately onto Keith’s violet ones. “Keith?”
“Lance!” Keith choked on his own words, still nearly unable to believe it, “Are you okay?”
Lance gave Keith that cocky half-smirk that made his insides feel fuzzy, “We did it. We are a good team.”
Keith couldn’t help but grin and bury his face into the crook of the blue-eyed Paladin’s neck. He then turned to Blue and looked her straight in the eyes. “You brought him back to me. Thank you.”
“Well,” Coran’s voice cut through the tension and made Keith jump, “Most of him.”
Lance
Two days later, Lance’s eyes fluttered open to see Blue standing over him.
“Blue?” he said, voice scratchy and deep.
The dragon’s eyes lit up as she smiled and attacked his face with excited licks and leapt about the room.
Lance immediately sat up and looked around, trying to get a sense of where he was. “I’m…in my house. You’re in my house,” he felt a strange panic start to rise in his chest, “Does Mama know about this?”
Blue ignored his concern, heedlessly attempting to take flight in the small wooden house but only succeeding in crashing into everything.
“Blue, come on, be more―” Lance moved to get up and control his dragon when he had to stop. Something didn’t feel quite right with his left leg. Actually, he couldn’t feel anything at all. He ripped off the covers of his bed, and his heart jumped into his throat.
Where his left leg should have been, from the mid-thigh down, was a metal prosthetic similar in design to Shiro’s right arm. It was complex, made from several differently shaped and hand-crafted pieces all fixed together to look as close to a real leg as possible, complete with five individual toes and mechanisms to bend at the knee and ankle.
Lance took a deep breath, trying to keep from hyperventilating, and thought about moving his toes. With a bit of concentration and effort, two metallic toes twitched. A sigh of relief cut through his chest, and he slowly swung his legs over the side of the bed. Blue scampered to his side and sniffed at the metal leg, sympathy and curiosity mingled together in her large eyes.
“I’ll be okay, girl.” Lance finally managed, bracing himself, “Just gotta...work through the adjustment.” the long-limbed Viking stood.
He took a deep breath and tried for a step. Immediately the strange sensation of a heavier, metallic limb he wasn’t accustomed to struck him, and he would’ve fallen on his face had Blue not caught him.
Lance groaned, “Thanks, girl.” he leaned on her as they walked through the house, and as they reached front door Lance felt he was starting to get an idea of how to move on his own again. When he opened the door, a sight so unlike any that he had ever seen or dreamed greeted him that he thought for one moment that he was dead. He had to be, because…
He looked out over his village and saw dragons...and Vikings...together. Rebuilding damaged houses; herding sheep; playing fetch; coexisting .
Down the street Hunk turned and saw him, and his smile was so big and bright it nearly blinded Lance.
“LANCE!” his friend ran and enveloped him in a bear hug so tight he felt his ribs were going to break, “Guys, he’s awake!”
Instantly a swarm of people and dragons started to gather around them, and Lance felt a little overwhelmed, “What happened? Did we win? Am I dead?”
“We’ll tell you everything once we get you something to eat,” a familiar, sharp and serious voice called through the crowd.
Lance looked up and spotted Keith as he broke through the throng of people. Lance felt his heart jump into his throat again, only this time it threatened to fly out of his chest to the Paladin Viking and run away forever. It was a scary, yet not unwelcome feeling.
“Talking? Eating?” he smirked, “Are you asking me out on a date?”
The entire crowd groaned, but Lance didn’t care as Keith just rolled his eyes and wrapped his arms tightly around the gangly boy. “You try anything like that again, and I swear I’ll kill you.”
Lance laughed and pulled back, gazing into violet eyes, “Duly noted. I’ll make sure to let you be the reckless one from now on.”
Keith laughed too, and it was worth everything to see that true smile, wide and uninhibited.
“ ¡Mí hijo! ”
Rosa McClain burst through and hugged her son nearly as tight as Hunk had, “I thought I’d lost you.”
“It’s okay, Mama .” Lance tried not to cry, “I’m okay.”
Lance looked over his mother’s shoulder and saw Shiro, Pidge, and Coran join in the circle around him.
“Shiro,” he began, “I’m so sorry―”
“You don’t need to say anything,” Shiro interrupted, “If anything, I should be the one apologizing.” he smiled at the young Viking, “It turns out that when dragons and humans take the time and patience to really listen and pay attention to each other, we go together pretty well. You’re the perfect example of that.”
So many emotions flooded through Lance’s chest and fingertips at this praise.
“Well,” Pidge said, “Most of you. You have Coran, Hunk, and I to thank for your left leg. Seems the world thought there was only enough space for one of your mile-long legs.”
Lance laughed and glanced again at his metal leg, “It’s perfect.”
“Of course it’s not,” Coran exclaimed, “But with a few weeks of therapy and as Pidge develops her tech, you should be as good as new! Better, in fact!”
Pidge and Hunk shook their heads at their teacher, “He’s right, it’ll take you awhile to get completely adjusted to the leg and the maintenance routine, but for now you should be good.”
Lance nodded and looked at all the people around him. Without each of them playing a role in his life, he knew he never would’ve become the man he was then, and he was so thankful for all of them. He then turned to Blue: his beautiful, incredible, wonderful dragon.
“This is Arus,” he smiled and showed her to his village, “It snows nine months of the year, and hails the other three.” he caught Pidge’s eye and received a smirk, “The food that grows here is tough and tasteless, and the people are even more so.” He winked at Hunk, “The only upsides are the pets. Where some places might have ponies or parrots…” he met Keith’s eyes and then turned back to Blue.
“We have dragons.”