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Being caught in a 10,000-year-old intergalactic war was, oddly enough, one of the fastest ways to solidify relationships. Turns out, when you’re relying on the guy next to you to make sure you don’t get shot by a robot each day, you quickly form a pretty strong bond. And by now, it was safe to say that the paladins had definitely experienced enough to leave their group pretty tightly knit.
That didn’t mean they were all best friends for life, though.
Sure, when it came down to it, Lance trusted that Keith would help him out in a sticky situation. But the question was, would he do that for Lance’s sake, or for Voltron’s?
And was there a difference between those two anymore?
Keith had fast reflexes and relied heavily on instinct. Which was generally a good thing, in the heat of battle. He attacked first and asked questions later, so it was safe to assume each slice of the sword that just so happened to save Lance’s neck wasn’t preceded by some long contemplation over the strength and trust in their relationship, whatever it was. Were they friends? Allies? Rivals? Who knew.
On the other hand, when there was no battle raging in the background, and Lance had to rely on Keith to keep him alive not just because he was mindlessly fighting off robots, would Keith see Lance in trouble and think it just wasn’t worth it?
How much could they really trust each other outside of the battlefield?
_
The mission seemed easy enough. The planet they were headed to had diverse wildlife in its thick jungles, making it an easy target for Galra colonization. Now that resources were becoming scarce, though, the amount of forces devoted to this colony had decreased. However, the natives were intelligent and would make a good alliance for Voltron, and the planet provided a suitable place to make sure the castle was fully equipped. It only made sense to liberate this planet, as both sides benefited from it.
“Here’s the plan,” Shiro spoke before the rest of the team. “Allura, Pidge, and I will go into the colony and find the leaders to discuss an alliance. Hunk, you stay hidden nearby in your lion in case we need to defend the colony. Coran will stay in the castle and warn us in case reinforcements are coming. Lance and Keith, you attack the Galra bases and lead them away from the colony. We have to make sure the fighting happens away from where the citizens are at so no one is hurt. Got it?”
Everyone nodded their assent except for Lance, who crossed his arms. “Uh, that’s all well and good, but what about the all the jungle out there?”
Shiro nodded. “It’ll help keep you covered in the fight. You’ll be able to dodge and hide easily, and it’ll be hard for their ships to aim at you.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Lance continued. “We came here to free these people and return peace to their planet. And our plan is to destroy their wildlife and then leave them without resources or wildlife? That doesn’t seem right.”
Pidge turned to Lance, looking him over in judgment. “Tactically, it’s the best plan. The locals are protected, the Galra are gone, and we gain another ally.”
“That’s not the point,” Lance argued. “This isn’t just about us. Are we any better than the Galra if we destroy the planet?”
Keith rolled his eyes. “We get it Lance, you want to go into the city and flirt with alien girls or whatever. But we have a job to do as paladins.”
“I just think-”
“That’s enough,” Allura interrupted. She turned to Lance with a sharp look. “Your leader has spoken. The fight against the Galra is too important for these petty arguments. You will do as you’re told, understood?”
Lance looked down sheepishly, but gave a rigid nod. “Yes.”
“Good. Now that that’s taken care of, let us begin.”
_
They had been correct in their assessment that it wouldn’t be too difficult a fight. They managed to clear the area rather quickly, taking down a large number of ships before the remaining Galra surrendered and fled. Lance had been correct, however, in his assessment that the wildlife would be damaged. The lions had made it out relatively unscathed, but many trees and other strange looking plants were torn apart and falling over.
When the battle was won, Keith and Lance made to enter the city on foot. Showing up with two more lions could send the message that there was danger, which would cause an unwanted panic. No, it was best to walk, and it wasn’t even a long distance. They would probably arrive in about two hours, or whatever the equivalent was on this planet.
Which was actually rather nice, Lance had to admit. It was somewhat Earth-like, though the plants were more orange than green. They looked nice against the bright blue ocean next to them, which provided a path to follow into the city.
Lance kept an even pace, keeping a few feet between himself and Keith. While the mission had gone well, they clearly still had trouble coordinating their attacks and strategies.
Lance was broken from his thoughts at the sound of something creaking nearby. He had only a moment to look upwards and see a tree that was falling due to being damaged in the fight. Before he could even register what he was doing, he yelled, “Keith! Watch out!”
Lance leapt forward and shoved Keith ahead as far as he could before the tree made its full descent.
“What the hell, Lance? What was- oh my god” he cut himself off as he turned to take in the scene behind him.
The tree had fallen right where Keith had been walking. Now, instead of his crushed corpse, there was Lance, torso sprawled out from underneath the wide trunk.
“Lance!” Keith exclaimed, forgetting his previous annoyance. “Are you okay?”
Lance’s eyes were squeezed shut in pain, but after a moment he choked out a broken breath. He attempted a smile, which ended up looking more like a grimace. “I’m okay,” he said with feigned nonchalance. “Think my legs might be broken, though. One of my hips, too.”
Keith’s eyes widened. “That doesn’t sound like okay to me.”
“Whatever, it’s fine. Just get this off of me, please. It really hurts.” Lance’s brow was furrowed, and sweat was beading across his forehead.
“Right, of course,” Keith responded as he ran to push the tree. It really was enormous, though, and definitely dense. He tried pushing forward with his arms braced on the trunk, using his back with his feet planted firmly, even laying on the ground and using his legs to push it. Yet after all of his attempts, it had failed to even budge.
Keith sighed. “It’s too heavy, I can’t move this on my own. I have to go get my lion, or the others. Let me just-”
“Keith,” Lance interrupted. “Look.”
Keith looked at Lance, but didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Finally, Lance pointed to his side, and to Keith’s feet, which were now becoming damp from the waves of the ocean coming to meet them.
“So?” Keith said. “It’s just a little water, we already checked to see if it was poisonous. It won’t hurt us,” he reassured.
“That’s not it,” Lance refuted. “We’ve been walking along the same path for about an hour. The water wasn’t coming close to us at all when we left, and now it’s here.”
“Okay…” Keith trailed off, not seeing where Lance was going with this.
“So,” Lance emphasized, “I’m trapped here, and the tide is getting higher. I can’t sit up with my hip like this. The tide is going to keep getting higher, and eventually, I’ll…”
“Drown,” Keith finished.
Lance glared up at him. “Yeah. That.”
He involuntarily shuddered as another wave of water hit him, soaking his back even more. He looked up at Keith with pleading eyes. “Please don’t leave me,” he begged.
“I won’t,” Keith promised. He cursed himself for leaving his helmet back in his lion, thinking it wouldn’t be needed after the fighting was over. “I’m sure the others will find us soon. If we don’t show up to meet them, they’ll track us back to our lions and then realize we’re not there. It shouldn’t take them too long to find us.”
Trying to make it to the colony or his lion was out of the question. They were only about halfway there, so it would be at least an hour before he could get back to Lance. They might not have that long.
“Where’s your lion?” Lance snarked. “I thought she blasted in to save the day any time there’s danger?”
“I guess she only comes when she recognizes that I’m in danger,” Keith shrugged. “Hey, how come yours doesn’t come to save you?” He teased. “I thought you two were very happy together.”
Lance turned his head to look towards the water. “Yeah,” he sighed. “Guess not.”
Lance arched his back once more as another wave came to him, stretching even further than the last two. His right side was almost completely soaked now. His involuntary movement cause his hip to push against the tree, and he hissed in pain.
“Hey, are you okay?” Keith asked, kneeling down beside Lance to look him over more closely.
“Trapped under a tree, with crushed bones, and about to drown? Never better,” he muttered.
He tensed again as the water hit him, closing his eyes tightly, but being extra careful not to jostle his lower half. He slowed his breathing to try and calm himself down, but they came out broken and erratic. Whether in pain or scared, Lance was clearly not handling this well.
“Hey, come here,” Keith soothed. He stretched his legs out in front of him before gently lifting Lance’s head to rest in his lap. “You’re not going to drown as long as I’m here.”
Lance relaxed slightly once he was supported by Keith, but his brow was still furrowed.
“Come on,” Keith encouraged. “Don’t focus on the pain, or the water. Try to distract yourself.”
Lance’s eyes flew open to glare up at Keith. “And how do you suppose I do that?” he snapped.
Keith sighed and pinched his eyes. “I don’t know, talk to me. About whatever.”
Lance huffed. “I have nothing to say to you.”
Keith gave him a pointed look. “What’s that supposed to mean? You always have something to say to me.”
“Well, geez, Keith, sorry if I’m a little annoyed with you! I was trying to come up with a plan to protect the planet, and you guys all threw me under the bus. Or, well, tree.”
Keith rolled his eyes. “Lance, we’re just sick of you always trying to get out of-”
“No!” Lance cut him off. “I’m not trying to get out of anything! You guys just don’t want to listen to my plans. You think I’m trying to be lazy if I don’t think the best plan is to rush in and blow everything up. I wasn’t kidding when I said I think we’re just like the Galra sometimes. I get that we have a job to do, but being a paladin is about more than just stopping the Galra. How can we say that we vow to protect the universe and then take part in destroying it?”
Keith went quiet as Lance continued, completely floored by his sudden outburst.
“I mean, look around us!” Lance continued. “Look at all these plants we destroyed. I bet we ruined the homes of a lot of animals. Hell, I’m currently stuck under a tree because of what we did.”
Keith looked down the trunk of the tree to see the point where it broke, lying next to its base. Both ends were a bit charred, evidence of one of Keith’s fire blasts. He winced internally. Had they really caused that much damage?
“I can’t imagine,” Lance went on, voice much quieter than before, “if the Galra had come to Earth, and these giant lions came and told us they would protect us, then destroyed everything. The beaches, the forests, the jungles. If it was all just gone one day. Think of all the people who would die, the animals that would lose their homes, the food that would be lost. People would starve, species would go extinct, entire nations could be gone.”
He looked to the ocean in front of them, a faraway look in his eyes. “And sure, if it’s that or death at the hands of the Galra, I get it. But I can’t help but think there’s a better way sometimes…”
Keith’s breath completely escaped him, and he ran his hand through Lance’s hair without thinking. “I didn’t even think of it like that,” he responded. “You’re absolutely right, Lance.”
Lance chuckled humorlessly. “First time I’ve heard that one,” he muttered.
“Hey, don’t be like that,” Keith admonished. “You know you’re a valuable asset to the team.”
“Do I?” Lance snapped, eyes narrowed to glare at Keith. “Because my lion doesn’t seem to care that I’m in danger, and my ideas always seem to be ignored, and I’ll never be brilliant like Pidge and Hunk, or a great pilot like you and Shiro, or…”
He trailed off before looking away as tears flooded his eyes. He absolutely could not cry here, not in front of Keith.
“Lance,” Keith began, holding Lance’s head gently between his hands. “Your lion didn’t come because she didn’t need to. I’m here, and I’m keeping you safe, and maybe she knows that. And I am going to stay here and keep you safe. My lion...she means well, but rushing in isn’t always the best course of action. She rushed in while we were at the Blade of Marmora, which ended up alerting them. She’s like me, she runs on instinct. It’s not always a good or bad thing. Your lion trusts you.”
He sighed and started brushing Lance’s hair from his forehead. This part would be harder. “As for not having as much worth as us...you have to understand that no one else feels that way. We’re a team, we need all of us to make things work. You keep us cheerful, and you’re a great shot, and we know we can all rely on you. Heck, you were the only one who spoke up about the plan today. I think we all respect Shiro so much that we don’t even think to question his plans sometimes. But we should question him. He may be our leader, but he isn’t perfect. If we don’t question his decisions, that means we automatically accept that there can’t be a better idea. I think that isn’t fair to us, or him. I’ll even tell him that once they find us.”
He continued running his hands through Lance’s hair, gaze lost in the ocean before them. “And they will come find us, you hear me? I’m sure they’ve realized by now that the fighting has stopped, but we’re not there, and sent Hunk to come find us. You’ll see- Lance?”
Keith’s speech was cut off once he looked down at Lance. His eyes were shut tight, and he was gritting his teeth. “What’s wrong?” Keith questioned.
“Nothing,” Lance forced out.
“Lance.”
“It just...hurts, alright? I’m sorry.”
Keith slumped forward over Lance, doing his best to block the sun from his face and ease his discomfort in the slightest. “Hey, don’t be sorry. I know it hurts. Just try to relax.”
Keith watched as Lance forced his muscles to relax, letting his body sag more heavily against Keith.
Had it not been for Lance...this would be Keith right now, if he had even survived. This pain, this fear, all of it. The weight of what Lance had done for him started to truly sink in.
“Lance,” he began. “Thank you, so much, for saving me. If you hadn’t pushed me, you wouldn’t be stuck right now. I’m sorry.”
Lance smiled lazily, clearly starting to fade due to pain and fatigue. “Had to save you, you’re so much more important than me. Honestly, I’m surprised you even stayed.”
That wasn’t what Keith had been expecting. Maybe gloating, or telling Keith that he owed him, but not this. He was clearly not in his right mind if he was saying those things so freely.
“What do you mean? Of course I’ll stay. And I’m no more or less important than you.”
Lance sighed. “Of course you are. You’re so strong, and such a good pilot, and Shiro trusts you so much…’m sorry I’m so mean to you. I like competing with you, makes it not so scary to be out here. I know you don’t like it so much, though. Figured you hated me, that you’d let me drown.”
Keith turned slightly so he could face Lance better, gently lifting his head in his hands. “Lance, look at me,” Keith commanded.
Lance’s eyes opened slightly, but he was clearly fighting to stay awake.
Keith pressed on, hoping he would understand anyways. “I don’t hate you. I could never hate you, not after everything we’ve been through together. I’m sorry I made you feel that way. But I will always, always, have your back. I will not abandon you.”
Lance smiled, though it looked more like a grimace at this point. “Keith likes me…” he blabbered mindlessly. “Keith’s m’friend, he won’t let me drown…”
“Never,” Keith agreed. “Never.”
_
After a long meeting with the locals and a newly formed, if shaky, alliance, the others made their way into the jungle in Hunk’s lion to find Keith and Lance. The two of them hadn’t shown up for the end of the meeting, so they used Hunk’s lion to trace their location. When they arrived at the lions, both were just sitting there, not moving, barriers raised.
“It looks like they did okay,” Pidge observed. “The lions don’t look damaged, and if the barriers are up, that must mean that they left to meet us.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Shiro commented. “Why would they leave but not come to the city?”
“Look,” Hunk interrupted, pointing to the two trails of footprints leading to the nearby water. “They started on the path to find us, but never got there.”
“Something must have happened,” Allura stated, worry crossing her face. “We must find them as quickly as possible.”
“We’ll have to go on foot,” Pidge agreed. “We might not see them through this jungle in the lions.”
An hour or so later, they saw a long object blocking the path in the distance. As they neared it, Shiro saw a flash of red. “I think that’s Keith!” he exclaimed. “Come on.”
They ran the rest of the way over to find Keith sitting on the ground with Lance’s head on his lap, eyes closed. Was he sleeping? Both of them were being hit by occasional waves, which nearly covered Lance completely.
Before anyone could question what was going on, Keith perked up. “Thank goodness!” He sighed in relief and began to softly brush his hands across Lance’s face. “Come on, Lance, wake up, they’re here. They found us.”
“What’s going on?” Shiro began, before making his way over to Keith. Once they crossed to the other side of the tree, they were able to take in the whole scene, seeing Lance’s legs crushed beneath the large trunk.
“He saved me,” Keith explained, fingers still moving gently through Lance’s hair. “The tree fell because I blasted it in the fight. Lance pushed me out of the way and got trapped.”
“Why didn’t you come find us? Or go get your lion?” Shiro questioned. Keith surely wouldn’t be able to move this alone, but one of the lions easily could have gotten Lance out.
Keith braced himself and moved his back to protect Lance’s face as another even bigger wave rushed up to them. “The tide,” he said. “He couldn’t sit up on his own, and the tide’s been increasing since we left. If I had left him…”
Keith looked down to Lance’s face, who looked distressed even in unconsciousness. “He was right, Shiro.” Keith turned up to look their leader in the eyes. “We should have listened to his plan. He wanted to keep the wildlife safe. If we had, maybe he wouldn’t be stuck here right now.”
Shiro grimaced, guilt crashing into him not unlike the waves hitting Lance right now. “We’ll discuss that later,” he said. “Right now, we need to get Lance free and into a healing pod.”
_
Lance awoke slowly, taking a few shaky steps forward before falling forward onto something.
Where was he? The last thing he remembered was the tree falling on him, the tide rising, Keith saying…
A lot of things. For now, he was too tired and confused to think about it. He blearily opened his eyes and saw that the object he had fallen into was Hunk, who had been waiting with open arms in order to hug his best friend. “Lance! You’re awake!”
He struggled in Hunk’s tight grip before being let down gently. “Hi Hunk. Nice to see you too.”
An arm came to rest on his shoulder, and he turned to see Shiro standing behind him. “Great job out there, Lance. I’m sorry you got hurt because of my plan,” he said with a sad smile.
Lance turned to face him, still leaning on Hunk for support. “No, no, it’s not your fault. If we had just been more careful-”
“Keith told me what you said, Lance.”
Lance gulped and looked down in shame. “I’m sorry, I won’t question your decisions anymore. I was just scared and frustrated, I wasn’t trying to undermine your authority.”
Shiro laughed warmly and pulled Lance in for a hug. “I’m not mad, Lance,” he explained before pulling them apart to look Lance in the eyes, hands still gripped on his shoulders. “We’re not at the Garrison, you don’t have to cower in front of me. You shouldn’t have to, and I’m sorry if I made it seem that way. You were right. We’re a team, and we have to allow input from everyone if we want to work effectively. I’m sorry it took you getting hurt for me to realize that.”
Shiro looked over his shoulder, and Lance turned to see the whole team assembled in the medical bay. “That goes for all of you,” he reiterated. “I may be your leader, but that doesn’t mean you can’t question my decisions. I’ve been too distracted trying to get a leg up on the Galra to realize that. We are paladins. We are a team, and we work together to make the universe a better, more peaceful place. If I ever cross a line, I have to rely on the rest of you to keep me in check.”
Allura’s face softened, and she looked to the floor before turning to make eye contact with each paladin, stopping resolutely on Lance. “And I’m sorry if I come across as a dictator. I’ve been so determined to win this war that I sometimes don’t realize that I could be just like Zarkon…” Her face crumpled. “My father would be so ashamed of my behavior.”
Lance let go of Hunk and Shiro to hobble over to the princess. She watched him, fearful that she had finally crossed the line and Lance couldn’t forgive her. Instead, he just smiled. “Princess, you are so much hotter than Zarkon, don’t even worry about that.”
Allura laughed at Lance’s flirting for once, before rolling her eyes and turning to leave, Coran on her heels. Before Lance could move, Keith came over and wrapped an arm around Lance to support him.
“Come on, let’s get you something to eat.”
Lance nodded his assent before wrapping his arm around Keith and starting a slow walk towards the door. His legs were still sore, but much better than they had been.
Now that he had a moment to think, he was more easily able to process the day’s events. Shiro apologized. Allura apologized. They both told him he was right. Keith cared about him.
Lance stopped walking.
Keith looked back at him in concern. “You okay?” he asked.
Lance smiled. “Yeah. Just...realizing I was right. We really are a good team.”
Keith smiled, and together they made their way to the dining area to share a meal with the others.
As a team.