Work Text:
I saw a drawing from Season 4 on tumblr and was like yes I need to write this. Check it out here and support the artist if you can :).
Lance pushed Red as fast as she could. He’d seen the explosion, known that Keith was in there. Fear coiled in his stomach heavy and weighty, constricting this throat. His eyes burned, but Lance refused to cry, even if his vision wavered for a moment. “Keith,” he whispered gripping the red control bars tight.
The other lions were behind him, their cries fading as he focused on the burning Galra ship wreckage. Red landed heavily, the rocks underneath her paws cracking, but Lance didn’t care, he had to get to Keith. Rocks crunched under his boots, breath heavy against his visor. There was no reason he had to sacrifice himself, no reason at all.
It took him several moments to reach the wreckage. “Keith?” Lance called.
He started digging, pushing aside burned metal. Lance ignored that the other lions had landed. It was more important to find Keith. Grunting, Lance pushed up a larger sheet of hull to see an unconscious Keith underneath. Blood dripped down his forehead and his nose. A large patch was soaking into his Blade suit, the hood pushed back. “Keith?” Lance whispered reaching shaking hands out.
Nothing, there was no response, no flutter of eyelids. Kneeling down, Lance carefully scooped him up in his arms. A lump, painful and tight settled in his chest, eyes burned from the tears. Not caring anymore, he let them roll down his cheeks. He turned and began to walk back to the other members of Voltron carrying his precious cargo. “Keith, is he?” Hunk asked hands held together tight, worry clear in his voice.
“He’s breathing, but we need to get him back to the castle,” Lance said.
A sob broke from Pidge, her eyes welling up. Shiro couldn’t look at the teenager in Lance’s arms, his shoulders slumped in defeat. Lance walked past them and towards Red.
It was different than holding his cousins, this dead feeling weight heavy in his arms. The way Keith’s head lolled sideways as he walked, careful not to jostle him. The tears ran silently down his cheeks as he made his way to Red. She purred in his mind, trying to reassure her paladin. “I’m sorry Red.”
She opened up, settling down so Lance could walk inside her. The team flew silently back to the castle, dread heavy over everyone. Lance held Keith carefully in his lap, his head tucked against Lance’s, pressing against his armor. His faint breathing was all that kept Lance together. It was hard to not think of the dark spot on Keith’s bodysuit, and the blood that had smeared on his own armor.
Shiro radioed for a pod to be readied by the time they got back to the castle. The other paladins watched as Lance carried Keith from the hangar to the sick bay. Lance was the one to help him into the pod, brushing a piece of hair from his forehead. “Get better mullet,” he whispered.
It took three days for Keith to be fully healed from the broken bones, lacerations, and bruises. Lance spent them all waiting for him, pacing back and forth. When the door hissed open and Keith’s eyes opened Lance couldn’t help but smile. “Hey buddy,” he said.
The rest of Voltron encircled the two of them. “Welcome back,” Hunk said.
Pidge just smiled her eyes shiny with unshed tears. Shiro’s gaze flickered to Keith’s then lowered. “Why did you save me?” Keith croaked leaning back from the arm that Lance has slung around his waist.
Everyone froze. “Because that’s what friends do,” Lance replied.
“I failed my mission, it was my duty to die.”
This was too much for Lance. He liked the Blades, Kolivan wasn’t the friendliest, but he’d worked with them, hung out with them, spoken up in their defense from the aliens they’d rescued. “Die? What!” Lance burst out.
He stepped back ignoring the way that Keith stumbled for a moment before getting his balance. “So, we were supposed to just leave you to die on an abandoned planet?”
Lance’s voice rose in volume, anger and hurt spilling out. “Should we leave?” Hunk whispered.
“Maybe we should,” Allura whispered back.
“Do you know what it would do to this team if you died? To me?”
“I-I’m not a part of Voltron anymore.”
“So? You’re still a paladin, even if you don’t wear the armor. You’re still part of this family!”
Lance hated that tears filled his eyes; he always cried when he was upset. He hated that they rolled down his cheeks and he hated the way Keith recoiled and began to fold in on himself. Lance scrubbed at his cheeks with the heels of his hands. “I couldn’t bear to think of you dying Keith.”
“I’m-I’m sorry Lance.”
“Sorry, Keith for quiznaks sake you were dying! I found you in the wreckage. Do you know how worried I was that I was going to find a corpse?”
Lance didn’t expect the arms that wrapped around his waist and a body to launch at him. Tightening his hold, Keith buried his face in Lance’s shoulder. “I didn’t want to die Lance.”
The shakiness of Keith’s voice was muffled in the material of Lance’s jacket. Hands gripped his back, shoulders quivering. “I thought of the fact that I’d never see you all again. I’m so glad you found me.”
Lance slid his arms around Keith holding him tight. The two stood there for a few moments. When Lance leaned back he reached up a hand to rub the tears off his cheeks. “Let me.”
It was a surprise to see tears staining the former red paladin’s cheeks as well. “I hate crying in front of people.”
Gentle hands brushed the tears off Lance’s skin. “Come back to Voltron Keith.”
“For you I might.”