Chapter Text
"Keith, move!"
But he was too late.
They were all gathered in the common room, Hunk and Pidge working on some new gadget, while Keith and Lance sat beside eachother-well, Keith was sitting on Lance's lap, a blanket over both of them, planting kisses on their faces, much to Pidge's annoyance.
"Oh my fucking God, get a ro-"
Alarms blared through the room, accompanied by Allura's booming voice.
"Paladins! Get to your Lions! The Galra are attacking!"
Lance jumped at the sudden noise, promptly knocking Keith onto the floor. Keith glared at him, but accepted Lance's outstretched hand, hauling himself to his feet with Lance's aid.
They all burst through the hangar doors after getting changed into their armour. The Castle shook from the receiving blasts; luckily, they were dulled, thanks to the particle barrier.
Lance pulled Keith close by the waist, while Keith brought a hand to his cheek and went on his tiptoes to meet him in a chaste kiss. They shared their 'be safes', and took off to their Lions.
"Alright, team!" Shiro called through the comms. "Keith, Lance, Hunk, you three take the left side! Pidge, you're with me. Let's go!"
They all went to their designated areas, shooting fighters off their tale.
"What the hell is that?" Lance muttered, dodging a few blasters.
"I think," Keith grunted, a shot hit Red, rattling Keith's bones. "It's an ion cannon. Or something."
"Number four is correct!" Coran chirped in. "Stay away from that ion cannon! It could tear your Lion a scanga!"
"A what?" Hunk asked, steering away from the blast that was directed at his Lion.
"I think the point is not too get hit by it," Keith huffed, catching one of the ships in his mouth and throwing it at another. They blew up in a spark of orange and red.
"May- Keith, move!"
"Keith, move!"
But he was too late.
Keith turned his Lion around just in time to see a blast aimed directly for them. Gritting his teeth, he braced for the inevitable impact- there was no way he could dodge that in time.
He squeezed his eyes shut, gripping the controls in a white knuckles grip.
I'm sorry, Red.
Something hard hit Red- but it wasn't the laser. No, it definitely was not.
He was thrown into the side of the chair from the impact, his head flying into the headrest.
Groaning, he shook his head to clear the ringing in his ears. Peeling open his eyes, he gingerly looked down and touched the unprotected part of his side- "Fuck," he hissed. He probably had a fractured rib or something.
"...ce!" His hearing came back to him then, even if the ringing had long since faded.
"Wha-?" he cleared his throat to get rid of the cough building up. "What happened? Why wasn't I-?"
In front of him, slowly drifting onto a planet, was the Blue Lion, a blast mark covering it's side.
"Shit- Lance!" Keith parroted Hunk's scream from earlier, turning his Lion around. He shot at the fighters shooting the Blue Lion, effectively destroying them all. "Hunk, how long-?"
"About two minutes. Get him back to the Castle! I'll take care of these guys!"
"Okay, yeah-" Lance's Lion had entered the planet's atmosphere. He was going to crash. "Fuck!"
He followed Blue into it, pushing Red to go faster- just go faster- and catch her. The ground was steadily increasing, and Red was still too far-
Her paw managed to graze the Lion's tail before Blue crashed; forcing Keith to pull up to avoid flying debris and crashing himself.
"Keith! Keith, what's going on?"
Keith wasn't sure who spoke, but he ignored them in favour of landing his Lion and rushing to Lance's aide-
Keith was running out of the Lion as soon as it landed, maybe even before.
What he saw was not something he expected.
Lance was walking out of his unresponsive Lion's mouth, completely unscathed.
"Lance?" Keith called out hesitantly, taking a few cautious steps toward Lance.
"Hello," Lance said back, voice hoarse.
"Lance, are you-" Keith stopped himself from taking a step back when Lance got too close; Something about Lance unsettled him- he wasn't sure what... "Are you okay?"
"Perfectly fine, Keith," Lance responded calmly, coming face to face with Keith. Keith swallowed harshly. "What about you? You don't look fine," His eyes trailed down to Keith's waist.
"What are you talking-?" Keith gasped as something collided with his stomach, sending him stumbling backwards as he doubled over.
"You see," Lance said, coming in front of Keith and renching off his helmet, "My communication line was damaged in the crash. Unlike me," Lance grabbed a fistful of Keith's hair, pulling him up. He wasn't met with the beautiful pair of ocean blue; Instead, he was met with a glowing yellow. The same type as the Galra. "But not unlike you. The crash- you weren't able to catch the Blue Lion, but Red, she was hit with a rock," Keith blocked a hit by Lance's fist, "sending you flying across the planet," Lance grabbed Keith's wrist as he tried to dodge him, pulling him close as he grabbed his other wrist. "In a very, very fatal situation. When I got to you," Lance kneed him in the stomach, leaving Keith wheezing for breath as his legs were swept from under him, "you were dying."
Keith blinked away the spots in his vision, rolling away as a foot came to stomp on his chest.
"Lance," he breathed, getting to one knee. He activated his particle barrier as Lance tried to kick him in the head. It bounced off the shield, rattling Keith's bones, "Stop it- This isn't you-"
"Oh, but sweetheart, it is," Lance hissed, placing a well aimed kick to Keith's already damaged rib cage. Keith yelped in pain, unable to dodge the foot that was coming to hit his head as the shield dissipated.
Lance laughed, a cruel, viscious sound, as he sent blow after blow to Keith's unresponding, trembling, terrified body.
"L-Lance," he gasped, gritting his teeth in pain. Lance had a foot on his chest, slowly pushing down it, breaking his ribs. "Pl-please."
Lance smiled visciously, showing off fangs. "Little Galra, before you die- well, brutally beaten then delivered to the Galra, of course, you need to hear something," Breathing was getting harder. Seeing was getting harder. Staying conscious was getting harder. "No body loves you. You're a burden to the team; always going into something dangerous, acting without thinking. Honestly, how could you even think we were your family?" With each statement, Lance pressed down harder. His bayard had marterialized in his hand, whereas Keith's was buried in a mountain of sand. He vaguely realized that Red was just sitting there, watching, but he could hardly see past those once ocean blue, loving eyes. "No one loves you. It's why your mother left. It's why your father left. It's why no foster home took you in for more than a week. It's why so many people abused you," Keith blinked harshly, forcing the black spots and tears to go away. This wasn't Lance, this wasn't Lance, it wasn't him- "You're Galra. How could someone ever love a Galra, after all they've done?" The barrel of Lance's blaster was placed against Keith's forehead.
"How could I ever love you?"
A gunshot echoed across the canyon, and Keith's vision went black, still wet with unshed tears.