Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Keeeeith. This is the cutest shit I've ever seen, dude."

Lance smiled adoringly at the tiny green t-shirt he held — on the front was a gator with a word bubble that read 'Later' — before he turned it around to show Keith.

"Lance," — the laughter was clear in Keith's voice — "I bought that shirt, I know what it looks like. Besides, how long have we been folding this little boy's clothes? And you still manage to pick out at least three items that are the cutest shit you've ever seen every laundry night."

"The. Cutest. Shit. I've. Ever. Seen." Each word was clipped, and Lance was doing his best not to smile as he pseudo-glared at his husband over the mound of laundry piled on their bed.

Keith refused to meet his gaze, and instead picked a new item out of the pile to fold. Lance watched him pause as he gazed down at the orange shirt. Even though Lance couldn't see the front of it, he knew it belonged to their daughter, and that it was adorned with a sequence-covered cat face.

Keith's eyes lifted slowly to meet his as a slow smirk pulled at his lips. "Do you think the clothes ever stop being cute?"

He was trying to tease, but Lance wasn't fooled. He knew Keith thought these clothes were adorable as well. Maybe even more so, given how upset Keith got whenever the kids outgrew a size and they had to pack away the clothes that no longer fit.

"Absolutely never."

"Not even when they become smelly teenagers?"

"Won't happen with us around, babe."

Keith chuckled at that, likely thinking of the plethora of soaps and skin care products Lance kept stocked in their bathrooms. With all the kids' clothes folded, Lance scooped up all the little socks — they never bothered pairing them — and tossed them back into the laundry basket before moving it onto a nearby chair. Then he beelined for Keith and tumbled with his unsuspecting husband onto their bed.

"Have I told you how much I love you today?" he whispered into Keith's hair, which was currently pulled up into a messy bun, a look that Lance particularly enjoyed.

Keith ducked his face into Lance's neck and pressed a kiss there. "I brought you flowers earlier and as thanks I only got a quick kiss on my nose. What is it about me folding laundry with you that always gets you all sappy?"

"Is sappy the right word?" Lance asked, eyes hooded and grin turned sinful as he slid a hand into the waistband of the back of Keith's pants.

He was rewarded with an equally playful grin and a soft growl from Keith as Keith rolled the two of them so that he could settle himself on top of Lance before lowering his head to meet Lance's lips in a kiss.

"I do love my flowers," Lance whispered. "I'm sorry you didn't think I —"

Keith kissed him again, cutting off his apology before saying, "I'm just teasing you, Lance. I could tell that you loved them. Plus, I know I sprung them on you when you were in the middle of cooking dinner."

Lance laughed as he said, "Cooking dinner and trying to figure out fourth grade social studies homework."

Keith smiled in return. "Better you than me."

"No, babe, listen — I'm pretty sure I'm failing a history project meant for a nine year old."

"I told you to let her figure it out herself."

"She gives me those puppy dog eyes, Keith. Puppy dog eyes. You've seen them!" He did his best to give Keith his own puppy dog eyes, but the jerk only laughed harder and shook his head — immune to the puppy dog eyes of everyone in the house after so many years of exposure to Lance's.

Lance grinned, hands moving to Keith's hips as he relaxed into their sheets and basked in the sound of his husband's laughter. There had been a time when he hadn't been sure they were going to get here — to the wedding vows, and the mortgage, and the kids — even though it had been all he'd ever wanted as soon as he'd laid eyes on Keith Kogane.

"I love you," Lance stated plainly. No smirking. No follow-up quip. No teasing. Just honest seriousness on his face as he watched Keith's pretty purple eyes shine back at him with the same amount of love and fondness.

"Love you back," Keith whispered as he rolled them so that he could pull Lance on top of him. But as his back hit the mattress, he immediately jerked forward with a pained expression.

Lance bit back a chuckle as his fingers searched under the sheets where Keith remained arched away from the mattress. He released a small noise of triumph as his hands finally closed around two rocks.

"Whoa, wait a second." Keith twisted his neck so that he could watch Lance place the rocks on one of their bedside tables. "Is that paint on those rocks?"

"What? No way, you're seeing things," Lance responded, unable to keep the grin off his face as he moved to straddle Keith's lap and pull his attention back to him.

Keith eyed him, not believing a word of it. "Did you actually pammph—"

Lance had discovered long ago that kissing was always the most effective way to distract Keith.

He could tell the technique was working its magic right now as well, since he could feel Keith melt beneath him before Keith's fingers trailed up his sides, pulling his shirt up as they went. Lance broke the kiss only to allow Keith the freedom to pull his shirt over his head, and then he dove back down to meet Keith's lips once again.

It had been an especially stressful week full of work emergencies, and sick kid doctor visits, and barely any space to breath, let alone time to get his hands up his husband's shirt like he was doing now. Lance hit one of Keith's ticklish spots just to listen to him make that cute noise that happens when he's trying not laugh. Of course, it also resulted in Keith trying to squirm away while glaring at him, even though the glare was hard to pull off when Keith knew Lance thought the whole thing was adorable. Lance pulled him back in to kiss his pout away, and smiled when he felt Keith smile into it.

His next mission included removing all these pesky clothes from his husband. He pulled back to go after Keith's shirt, but paused when he caught the way Keith's eyebrows knit together as he stared past Lance and up towards their ceiling instead.

"Lance, what is that?"

Lance sat upright in Keith's lap and then dipped his head back to stare up at the ceiling himself. The sight he was met with… well, he wasn't quite sure what he was seeing.

"Um…"

"Up, up, up."

Keith pushed at Lance until he toppled off his lap, and then pulled him off the bed with him, hands holding onto him tightly as he moved them both away from what appeared to be a hole in their ceiling. A hole that was growing progressively larger by the second.

"Keith?" Lance whispered, as if afraid to startle the growing black hole. He felt Keith's arms tighten their hold around him and he intertwined his fingers in with one of Keith's hands.

"I — I don't know," Keith whispered back. "It's not the house."

And it wasn't. It wasn't as if their bedroom ceiling was giving out. The boxes in the attic weren't about to fall on them. In fact, it didn't even look like their attic. It looked like they were looking up into —

"It looks like space?" Keith asked.

Lance nodded, eyes still trained on the otherworldly phenomenon happening in their bedroom. Now that it was larger, there was a white rim to the circle that appeared to be crackling with some sort of current. But the center was still a picture perfect view of a purplish sky dotted with stars. If Keith wasn't right here staring at the same thing, he was certain he'd think he was hallucinating.

"Lance," Keith said urgently, and as his fingers tightened around Lance's, that's when Lance felt it too — Keith was being pulled away from him.

Keith was being pulled away from him.

"No, wait!" Lance yelled, no longer worried about keeping his voice down for the kids. Keith's goddamn feet were already off the floor. Something — some sort of reverse gravity or something — was lifting Keith off the ground and up towards the hole. "Keith, hold on!" He had no idea why the hole was only trying to suck up Keith, but he did know there was no way he was letting go of his husband's hand. Not with the way he could see fear in those purple eyes as Keith's other hand scrambled from Lance's waist to his shoulders as his feet flew higher in the air. Lance looked around desperately before shifting as much weight as he could down toward his feet, and freeing one of his hands to reach for their bedroom doorknob. It took all his strength to move them the few extra inches he needed, but he finally wrapped his long fingers around the makeshift anchor and held on tight.

Then he turned back to Keith, and despite the presence of a swirly space hole that was currently trying to abduct him — Keith's feet were now closer to the ceiling than the ground — Keith still managed to send him a small grin for coming up with an idea.

"I'm not letting go of you!" Lance yelled over the crackling noises that were steadily increasing in volume.

Keith’s eyes widened in surprise — and fear — a moment later, though, as his feet were jerked even closer to the hole, and his fingers almost slid out of Lance’s grasp. Lance heard himself begin to swear as whatever was pulling Keith grew stronger.

"Lance," Keith said solemnly, eyes trained on Lance as he realized before Lance what was inevitably going to happen next, "I love you."

Lance's eyes widened in alarm. "No, Keith! Wait!"

Keith's fingers were slipping further away until Lance was left with only straining fingertips trying desperately to keep their hold on Keith's fingers.

"No!"

All of his weight fell back against their bedroom door as Keith was pulled completely from his grasp and sucked up into the space hole. Lance jumped back to his feet and rushed towards the center of the room to scream back up into the hole, which remained open and crackling despite having already taken what it had apparently wanted.

"Keith! Keith!"

He screamed Keith's name towards the blackness over and over as panic filled him. His heart was pounding hard enough to hurt his chest, making his breaths labored, and he distinctly felt like he was losing all sensation in his arms and fingers. His feet remained planted on the ground, there was absolutely zero pull to try to steal him away as well, which now only fueled his frustrated tears as he screamed Keith's name one more time.

Then his eyes widened and hope sprang in his chest, because his most recent plea seemed to work.

There was definitely someone with messy black hair spiraling down the hole towards him.

"Keith!" He was so filled with relief that he didn't even mind when Keith slammed into him and knocked them both to the ground. He wrapped his arms tight around Keith where they landed and glared up at the crackling breach. It shrunk in size at a much faster pace than it had opened, and before Lance could even blink, it was gone, leaving their ceiling completely unmarred and the room in silence except for their labored breathing.

"Ow," Keith grunted on top of him.

"Please tell me you're okay, Keith." Lance's voice was hoarse and his breaths were still coming out too fast, but he squeezed his eyes shut again and refused to release Keith, even though Keith was currently trying to push himself up. "Ay por dios, I'm pretty fucking sure my heart stopped back there."

"Lance?"

Lance's eyes popped open at the pure confusion he could hear in Keith's voice. Even when he leaned his face back, he couldn't get a good look at Keith's face with the way his head was ducked down, black bangs hiding most of it from Lance's view. It was only then that he realized his fingers weren't pressing into the back of Keith's soft sleep shirt, but a strange textured fabric that didn't end where a shirt normally would. Lance let his hands wander farther down Keith's back until they ran appreciatively over Keith's backside, and — damn — this really hugged the beautiful curves his husband possessed back there.

If the entire point of the black swirly hole had been a wardrobe change, Lance was pretty sure there were easier ways to go about getting his husband into a sexy bodysuit.

"What are you doing?" The confusion was still present in Keith's tone, but there was definitely an element of shock now as well that was pretty perfectly timed with the hands that were currently groping his ass. Keith's hands pressed against Lance's chest again, and this time he managed to push himself up and off the other so that he could stand.

Lance sat up from the floor but didn't move further as he gaped now that he had a complete view of Keith in all his glory in this outfit. Holy shit. He noted that the weird pressure he'd felt pressing into his chest a moment before had apparently been some sort of chest plate. The rest of the suit just clung to broad shoulders and a narrow waist and —

"Lance, where are we?" Keith demanded.

Keith's eyes darted around the room, and he even spun around towards where their bathroom door was located. Lance was Keith's butt's number one fan (a fact he liked to point out to their friends until Keith would cover his mouth and try to drag him away), but he'd never seen it wrapped in something so …tight. It was …distracting, especially given that he was currently sitting practically eye level with the sight.

"Lance." Keith turned back and squatted in front of him, concern covering his face as he stared at Lance's slightly dazed expression. "Are you alright? Where's your shirt? You – you guys — Voltron was on Naxzela. I thought you weren't going to… make it. I almost —"

Keith cut off what he was about to say, and sat himself back down on the ground in front of where Lance was still seated. It was then that Lance forced himself to stop trailing his eyes over the lines of this suit and focus on how very distressed Keith appeared to be. And, right — he'd just been sucked into a black hole and then spit back out — so he had every right to be distraught, and maybe not make a lot of sense with whatever he had just said (Lance had been…distracted). Lance shuddered a bit as the panic and terror he'd felt only moments ago rolled over him once more.

"Come here," Lance murmured as he wrapped his arms around Keith again and pulled him in close. He let the fingers of one hand run through Keith's hair — it was down now, all that flying around must've knocked out his hair tie. A tremor ran through Keith's shoulders, leading Lance to squeeze him a little tighter, and only when Keith relaxed against him did Lance speak again. "That was the scariest shit I've ever seen."

Keith stiffened in his arms. "You weren't there, h-how did you see it?"

Now it was Lances turn to be slightly alarmed. "What do you mean, how did I see it? Baby, I was right here trying to hold onto you."

"Baby?"

The return of the confusion and shock in Keith's tone sent a cold chill through Lance. Keith leaned away from his chest then, and Lance's mouth fell open in shock when he got a good look at those purple eyes.

This was not his Keith.

"You were in Voltron," Keith insisted, and Lance was pretty sure Keith was beginning to panic as well. "You were in Voltron with everyone else, galaxies away from Haggar's ship. You weren't there to see me almost — you weren't there."

Keith stood again and looked around the room, and Lance slowly followed this time, forcing himself up on shaky legs. He grabbed his shirt from where it'd been previously tossed to the end of the bed and pulled it over his head.

"Lance, where are we?"

Keith wasn't making any sense, and Lance's frustrated tears were returning, because this was not — and if this was not, then where —

"Where is my Keith?" he growled, scrubbing tears away with the back of his hand. "What have you done with him?" His chest hurt again and he absent-mindedly lifted a hand to rub over the pain.

"Kolivan, come in." Keith's voice was shaking slightly as he fiddled with some buttons on the sleeve of his outfit. He repeated the phrase a few times, before he switched it up. "Shiro, come in, please."

"Shiro?" Lance questioned. "You know Shiro?"

Instead of answering, Keith only glanced at him before he began furiously pushing buttons on the sleeve again.

Lance reached out and grabbed that wrist to get his attention. "Look, I don't care, okay? I don't care who you are or how you know Shiro. I just want to know where Keith is."

Keith's eyes flashed anger as he yanked his wrist away from Lance. "I am Keith."

"My Keith. Where the hell is my husband?"

The anger drained from Keith's expression just as quickly as it had appeared. "Husband?"

"Where is he?" Lance growled.

Keith glanced at his sleeve, which was apparently not giving him what he wanted, then glanced at the ceiling, before meeting Lance's eyes again.

"I think he" — a defeated sigh left Keith — "I think we switched places."

"Like some Freaky Friday bullshit?"

Keith's brow furrowed and the familiarity of that confused pout — the way his lips also pursed and shifted to one side — riled up the pain in Lance's chest once again.

"I don't know? Does this happen in this reality on Fridays?"

"Never mind." Lance waved a hand in the air quickly and pushed on. "What do you mean this reality?"

Keith still looked slightly confused by Lance's earlier movie reference, but continued despite it. "We found out a while back that there are multiple realities. We even visited another one, but we were only able to do so because we transferred into it while inside Voltron. But, we didn't switch one version of ourselves out for another. I don't… understand this."

Wide, frustrated eyes met Lance's, and Lance resisted the urge to pull this strange Keith back into his arms.

"You keep saying Voltron, explain to me what that is."

Keith looked hesitant and Lance watched him slowly glance around the room once more, pausing when he found the wall above Lance's dresser. He walked slowly towards it and stopped when he was close enough to see details — Lance had covered the wall with framed family photos.

"Who are they?" Keith asked, pointing to a photo of both kids sitting together at the top of the playground slide.

"Nuh uh," Lance said, his tone hard. He wasn't sharing — especially details about his children, who were much heavier sleepers than Lance had previously given them credit for — until he and this other Keith had some sort of plan in place to get his Keith back here. "Voltron?"

Keith took another moment to look over the photos before he began talking again, although he kept his back to Lance as he spoke. "Okay, see, there are five sentient robot lions and each one requires a pilot, called a paladin, and the lions can join together to form something called Voltron. Voltron is the most powerful weapon in the universe, and we're currently in the middle of a war against Zarkon, an alien who has terrorized the universe for the past ten thousand years."

"Okay."

"Okay?" Keith asked, turning to face Lance again and let his eyes roam over his expression. "That's it? You live in" — Keith waved a hand back towards the photos — "some domestic fairy tale land and that's all you've got to say about lions and aliens and a space war?"

"Dude, you fell outta a black sparkly hole in my ceiling, which also thieved my husband away. I'll take your robot lion story. Just tell me you have, like, a lion in your pocket or something?"

"No, the lions are huge."

Lance groaned as his fingers slid anxiously through his hair. "I meant, like, a way to call the lions? Summon Voltron?"

"Well," Keith said, and Lance's spirits sunk again at that defeatist tone of voice. "I mean, I activated the distress signal in this suit already. But, uh, this isn't paladin armor, or related to Voltron. And, the Marmoran distress signals aren't typically… answered."

"Great, so we need Voltron and you're not even a paladin." His words were meant to sting the universe in general, but he felt immediate guilt when he saw Keith visibly flinch as he heard them. "Hey, I'm sorry," Lance said, softly. He waited for Keith to meet his eyes again before he continued. "I'm just really upset and… this is a mess."

"It is," Keith said slowly, giving Lance no other acknowledgement of the apology. "Lotor just said he wanted to talk to us. I should be there. Not here. It doesn't make any sense. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. How am I supposed to help from here?"

Lance spotted Keith's thumb rubbing against his fisted hand, and again had to refrain from pulling Keith into a comforting hug. Instead, he slumped down on the edge of the bed, his legs finally giving out as he listened to the frustrated tone from the only one out of the two of them who had any experience with this sort of thing. He let his head fall into his hands and took a few moments to run through everything Keith had told him so far in his head.

"Would my Keith have landed in a safe place?" he asked a few moments later, lifting his head up to stare at this Keith again.

He watched Keith fight back what would've surely been a grimace, before he slowly began to speak. "Well, I had stolen a Galran ship and —"

"Don't – don't. Just stop," Lance interrupted quickly and threw a hand in the air. "If you're not going to say something that's going to make me feel better, I don't want to hear it."

"Okay," Keith said.

When it was clear Keith had nothing to add to the story about the ship he'd stolen, Lance rubbed at that painful spot on his chest again.

"Alright, listen, you two switched places somehow, so there has to be a way to switch back, right?" He stared so intently at Keith that Keith's only option was to nod in return. "And even though you've done this sort of thing before — kinda — obviously you didn't land here with the right tools. So, maybe you're not supposed to do anything? Maybe we have to rely on the Voltron group on the other side to figure this out and do the switch back?"

Keith didn't look so sure.

"What?" Lance demanded.

"Mission over individual," Keith said what sounded like a mantra with a small shrug. "We just dealt a huge blow to Zarkon. And Lotor stopped Haggar's attack on Naxzela and Voltron. Now Lotor wants to talk, so —"

"What are you trying to say?" Lance pushed himself to stand again, leaving him to frown down at Keith.

"This won't be — shouldn't be the top of their priority list right now."

Lance glared. "Are you kidding? If your Lance has anything to say about this, getting you back will be on the top of Voltron's fucking priority list right now."

"My Lance?"

Chapter Text

Time was a confusing thing in space, and the end of each day with the Blades was marked not by a sunset or dimming castleship lights, but by pure exhaustion that would leave Keith collapsing on any flat surface for sleep — often before his fellow Blade members called it quits for the day, much to his chagrin.

But here, in this cozy bedroom, sat a digital clock which currently read 3:34 a.m., and the Lance who sat across from him had been fighting sleep for hours — if the eye rubbing and repeated yawning were anything to go by. Keith had suggested Lance get some rest a few times, but Lance had refused. Apparently this Lance was as stubborn as the one he was used to.

Speaking of the one he was used to, he hadn't seen that Lance in a long time, minus a few video calls where Keith stood in the background while Kolivan talked to Team Voltron, or catching part of the Voltron Show in between missions with the Blades. Watching this Lance talk, with his hands in the air and his eyebrows flying all over the place, tugged at Keith's chest. He missed Lance. He'd missed all of Team Voltron, though, so the realization wasn't really a surprise.

They were planted on the floor, and Keith tried to ignore the fact that there was at least one chair plus a pretty large bed in the room which had to be way more comfortable than the wooden floor. Mainly because they were sitting directly under where Keith had been spit into this world, and based on the looks Lance directed at the ceiling every few minutes (Keith knew what Lance was looking for, and he didn't have the heart or the guts to tell Lance that the opening between their realities likely wouldn't be opening any time soon), Keith was already beginning to wonder what he would need to do to eventually get Lance away from this spot.

Instead, Keith focused on answering Lance's questions about Voltron. He began with Shiro's rescue (although he left out everyone's names, not even mentioning Hunk. This guy might look like Lance, but he felt too protective of Team Voltron to just volunteer extra information just yet). He skimmed over his time alone in the desert, before telling Lance about the Blue Lion (how it had reacted specifically to Lance), and what happened after their impromptu trip into space. Lance had listened with a mixture of disbelief and excitement in his eyes, except for the moments when those blue eyes had gone steely when he asked certain questions. That determined expression was so familiar, it had Keith's mind pulling up images of Lance in battle, of how focused he'd become when the team needed him.

Well, damn, he realized he missed that about Lance as well.

However, seeing these familiar mannerisms and expressions from Lance didn't make answering some of Lance's questions any more comfortable. First, there'd been that moment when this Lance realized that back in the space war reality, he and Lance were not a thing, especially not a married thing. Keith glanced at Lance's left hand again — he couldn't count the number of times his eyes had been drawn to that silver band wrapped around Lance's ring finger. That conversation had included Keith fumbling through his explanation that he and Lance were just friends. Not rivals — thankfully — and not indifferent towards each other — also thankfully — but friends. Just friends. Sort of — it's not like they'd had a lot of contact since Keith had joined the Blades, but he, personally, still considered Lance a friend.

"There's no way that Lance thinks of you as just a friend," this Lance had said, all steely blue eyes and mouth pursed into a hard line.

And, well, that had been an… enlightening statement. He couldn't deny the butterflies in his stomach, or the warmth in his chest, especially when that had been said in Lance's voice by a guy with Lance's freakin face. Although, Keith was quick to remind himself that even if this guy is another version of Lance, that didn't mean he understood all the technicalities and experiences they'd had in their reality. They were in the middle of a war after all. It was really no time to be thinking sappy thoughts about cute blue-eyed boys. No matter how nice that ring looked on his finger.

So, Keith changed the subject back to Voltron. And the storytelling had been going fairly well, for a few minutes, at least. Until Lance had realized that Keith and the paladins had been swept up into a space war without getting a chance to say goodbye to whatever family they had on Earth — which meant Keith had to pull Lance's phone from his hands to keep him from calling his mamá — "Just to say hi, Keith. Anytime is a good time to tell someone you love them." — at one o'clock in the morning.

Finally, Keith had been able to get through the story to the present, while skirting over certain details, and definitely not telling Lance that when the crackling dimension opening had appeared in front of him, he'd been piloting a ship alone — meaning this reality's Keith had likely been dropped into a ship — alone — that he would have no knowledge on how to pilot. He wasn't mentioning it to Lance, but he was… concerned.

Seriously, universe, that had not been the best time to swap them.

When Keith stopped talking, his voice was beginning to match the slight hoarseness he could still hear in Lance's voice. Lance pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, glanced once more at the ceiling, and then focused on Keith again.

"So you were a paladin?"

Keith nodded.

Lance released a long sigh which quickly turned into another yawn. "It sounds amazing. A little unbelievable, but — amazing."

Keith nodded again.

"And if you were a paladin living on the Voltron ship, then those guys are all definitely going to want to work to bring you home. Send my Keith back, yeah?"

Keith knew that he'd been over this at least twice by now — they likely weren't going to work on switching him back with this other Keith right away — he shouldn't be a priority at this point in the war. But he remembered something Shiro had taught him, back when he'd wanted him to learn about being a leader — people often repeat themselves if they think you aren't listening to them, or if you're not giving them the answer they want.

"I hope so," he said, quietly. It was the best he could do in terms of encouragement, and for now, seemed to satisfy this Lance.

Lance nodded a few times, as if agreeing could somehow set this into stone as a definite plan to get his husband back. He glanced at the ceiling again before Keith watched his eyes widen after he glanced at the clock and finally seemed to notice what time it was.

Lance exhaled another deep breath and then met Keith's eyes again. Without saying anything, he stood slowly on tired legs and offered a hand to help pull Keith to his feet as well, which Keith slowly accepted with his own gloved hand. Lance released him once he was standing, but nodded his head in the direction of the many framed photos Keith had been looking over earlier, encouraging Keith to follow him across the room to look at them.

Lance paused as he stared up at the photos, but then his arm lifted and he was pointing at the two kids Keith had previously asked about. The little boy sat in the girl's lap at the top of the slide, a gust of wind blowing matching heads of unruly brown curls. Keith had focused on it earlier because both kids had toothy grins for whoever had been behind the camera.

"That's our daughter, Luna. She's nine, which means she will roll her eyes and tell you if she thinks you're not doing something the right way." Lance's face was soft and his voice fond. Keith couldn't decide if he should focus on the photo or Lance's expression. "She gets really good grades in school, but we have to watch out, 'cause she pushes herself too hard sometimes. Keith is usually better at seeing that than I am…probably because you're the same way."

Keith's brow furrowed slightly. He didn't really feel like he knew this guy, even if this guy was Lance. But he got the distinct feeling that he was known here, whether he liked it or not.

"And that's our son, Sol. He's four and a pretty chill dude, but he's still four, which means he can be super stubborn about certain things."

"They look like… happy kids," Keith said as his eyes roamed over all the photos, many of which featured the children — although there were a few that featured just Keith and Lance, always with their arms wrapped round each other. "How did, um…" Keith trailed off, not sure how to ask what he wanted to know.

Thankfully, Lance began to explain without the question being voiced. "We started filling out paperwork even before we were married to become foster parents. We weren't sure how long it would take or how it was going to go, but we figured it was the only way we'd get to eventually adopt. We had a few single foster kids come and go. And then we got the call that they had siblings they were trying to keep together, but so far no one else had wanted to take two at a time. That's when we met Luna and Sol. That was three years ago, they were only six and one at the time. Sol wasn't even walking. And Luna would get really upset if he cried or fussed. We think she thought we'd give them back if we thought he was too much trouble. It took some time to earn her trust. To show her we very much wanted them here." Lance pointed to a new picture — this one featured all four of them with Lance holding Sol and Keith holding Luna, while both kids proudly held up certificates. "That's the day we went to court and the adoptions went through, about a year ago."

Keith nodded, eyes still pinned on the pure joy on every single face in the photo. But he turned when he felt Lance's eyes on him.

"This is our family," Lance said, eyes scanning over Keith's face. "We went through a lot to get to this point. Our house was inspected. Our friends were interviewed. There were first aid classes and special diet classes. We had to send my cat to live with my sister in case one of the kids we fostered had a cat allergy."

"Okay?" Keith said slowly, trying to understand what Lance was trying to say.

"Look, I want this to be a joke, or a nightmare, or anything that means when those kids wake up in a couple hours that Keith is here with me."

"Lance —"

"I know — I know it's none of those things. And I know you didn't ask to be here, either. And the husband part of this aside, for now, you're still Keith, and Keith is my best friend, so I'm going to help you. You're not going to go through this alone. But rule number one is that the kids can't know that you're not their dad — they call him dad or daddy, by the way."

Keith's mouth dropped open. "You want me to pretend to be their —"

"Yes," Lance emphasized. "After all that work — look, I'm not getting my kids taken away because they start talking about how their dad was replaced by a look-alike, space war soldier who appeared in — that outfit, which, by the way, dude, we gotta get you out of that thing before the kids see you."

"Its armor, not an outfit," Keith said, absentmindedly as his head reeled at the thought of pretending to be a father for the foreseeable future.

"That makes it worse."

Keith eyed the photos again. The Keith in the photos was all smiles and looks of contentment. It looked… nice, but… "Lance, this isn't going to work. I'm no one's dad. They're going to know right away."

"No, no." Lance shook his head a few times. "You look just like him. Sound just like him. Why would they even suspect anything? Right? Honestly, just follow my lead, and be yourself. Keith is good at this, which means you will be too."

Keith swallowed hard. He didn't believe a word of it. But he didn't really have a choice other than to just play along.

Keith wasn't sure he could do this. He still had no idea why he was even here, or how there was a reality where he and Lance were living together. Living together because they were married. In a house where they were also raising two children.

Two children that Keith now had to pretend were his for however long it took to switch him back to his own reality.

Talking about the kids had seemed to finally relax Lance enough that he let himself doze off. He'd sat on the edge of the bed as he spoke, and eventually his eyes gave out and he'd almost comically fallen to the side in sleep. Keith had practically sighed in relief himself at the sight. He'd practically forgotten that just a few vargas ago, he'd been involved in an intense battle against Zarkon's forces. He was exhausted. And he really wanted just a few moments by himself.

He waited a few ticks to make sure Lance was going to stay asleep, then went into the master bathroom and quietly shut the door behind him. He was sort of hungry, but wasn't ready to try to find the kitchen on the off chance that he'd run into a kid. Instead, he took a drink from the sink before splashing his face with water. He'd wanted to come in here and hide from the domestic world on the other side of the door, but realized there was really no escape as he stared down at the two toothbrushes standing on the sink. There were also two hair brushes. Two razors. A variety of bottles that he could only assume were Lance's. And a small pile of hair ties.

Keith picked up one of the hair ties and pulled a long black hair from it. His hair.

"This is too weird," he muttered before meeting his face in the mirror. "What am I supposed to do here?" he quietly asked his reflection.

Unfortunately, his reflection — the same reflection this mirror was used to — didn't have an answer for him.

He rejoined sleeping Lance back in the bedroom, and moved a laundry basket out of the chair, while thinking that Lance looked so strange still and quiet like that. He sank thankfully down into the chair for sleep that sadly only lasted about two vargas before his shoulder was being shaken. When he opened bleary eyes, it was to see Lance shoving clothes at him with a pained expression that Keith was too tired to do anything about.

"Kids are up," Lance said, voice raspy with sleep, or maybe lack thereof. "I'm gonna go start breakfast."

Keith nodded as Lance left the room. He slowly slid out of his Marmoran armor so that he could pull on the clothes Lance had given him. Clothes that fit perfectly because they were likely Keith's clothes, which likely explained why Lance had looked upset handing them over. Keith tried to make a mental note to figure out where Keith's clothes were kept so he could pull them out himself every day he was forced to be here.

Children's voices filled the house, both of them loud as the girl tried to shoo the boy out of the hall bathroom faster. Keith hovered behind the bedroom door and waited till he heard Lance greet them both before he dared venture out of the bedroom. Then he padded out quietly to the kitchen, and paused only for a moment when Lance ceased all movement when Keith came into view. Keith watched Lance study him closely, and when he didn't find what he was looking for — presumably signs of his Keith — his shoulders slumped slightly and he quickly pointed to a plate full of bacon, toast, and eggs which was waiting on the counter before he quickly turned away.

"Luna, we have to do this quickly so you're not late for school!" Lance called out.

"I don't think the doctor said every day!" a girl's voice called back from somewhere in the next room over.

"She said seven days of eye drops!" Lance called back.

"Six days!"

"Seven."

"Five days!" Luna yelled as she raced by the entrance to the kitchen and quickly escaped back towards her room.

"We don't negotiate medication — and she's gone." Lance's voice had lowered by the end of the sentence, so that Keith almost didn't hear him mutter, "I need Keith."

Keith was currently scarfing down the first real food he'd had in ages, but he swallowed his most recent bite of eggs quickly and tilted his head towards the small bottle of eye drops that sat next to a large vase of flowers on the island. "What do you need?"

"Loaded question," Lance sighed as he eyed him again, probably trying to decide if he was Keith enough to fulfill a Keith task. "Here's the deal. Giving Luna eye drops is really a two man job, three if you count Sol sitting on her legs. The game plan is to tackle her, and then one person holds her arms away from her face while the other administers the eyes drops."

"That sounds kinda painful. Tackling her? She's just a kid."

Lance's eyes narrowed in response and Keith go the distinct impression that he'd said the wrong thing.

"Okay, I'm going to be the tackler, since who knows what kind of tackling you're thinking of, spaceman. You bring the eye drops."

"I've never put eye drops —" Keith cut himself off when he saw the desperate look Lance sent him. "I'll just — follow your plan."

Lance exhaled a deep breath and bounced on his feet a few times, all while rolling his neck and shaking out his arms.

"Is that — is that necessary?" Keith tried not to smile as he watched Lance apparently prepare himself for battle.

Sol joined them in the kitchen, something small clutched in one tiny fist, while Lance ignored Keith's sarcastic comment and continued to stretch. Keith froze when the small boy wrapped himself around one of Keith's legs for a hug, and then wondered if patting the boy's head would make this more awkward or less awkward. Sol moved on before he could decide, and climbed up into a kitchen chair.

Keith was still watching the little boy, who was now depositing what had been in his fist — several small rocks — so he almost missed Lance tossing him the bottle of eye drops. Lance sent him a few complicated hand gestures, leading Keith to send a questioning look over to Sol, who had also been watching the gestures with an amused expression, and then Lance was off — with Keith quickly following — in the direction of Luna's bedroom.

Lance knocked twice before swinging the door open. "Luna-loo, let's just —" he jumped back, slamming his back against her door as she flew at him, armed with what appeared to be a plastic sword. The cape she'd stuck on her back flew behind her as she sprinted around Keith on her way down the hall.

"Luna!" Lance yelped as he righted himself back into a standing position and took off after her. "It will take ten seconds, come on!"

Keith watched as Luna wasted precious getaway seconds to pause beside Sol and swing a second cape around his smaller neck. Although, he noticed that it was likely worth the sacrifice as Sol beamed up at her for the inclusion, before he began to run behind her. They sprinted around the island in the kitchen before looping back the way they came — all with Lance running after them, still pleading with her to just give it up.

"Sol!" Luna yelled as she ran around the couch, "Blast him with your sun power!"

Before Keith could even wonder what that was, Sol stopped in his tracks before spinning around to face Lance — just to grin up at him, with what was likely all of his baby teeth showing.

And then Keith truly understood what Sol's power was, because Lance also stopped in his tracks, pulled his phone from his pocket, and proceeded to take a few pictures of his son — cheesing for the camera in his superhero cape.

Keith shook his head at the ridiculousness of the entire ordeal.

"Holy crackers!" Lance suddenly exclaimed as he pulled away from his mini photo shoot with Sol. "Where did she go? Keith?"

Keith shrugged his shoulders, he'd been too busy watching Lance and Sol to pay attention to where the girl child had gone.

Thankfully, a noise behind one of the chairs alerted them to Luna's likely hiding place, and Lance lifted a finger to his mouth in what Keith at least understand to be the be quiet gesture before he crept over to the chair.

"Gotcha!" Lance yelled as he managed to wrap his arms around Luna's waist and lift her from her hiding spot.

"How did you find me?" Luna squealed as she did her best to wiggle free.

"Because on a scale of ninja to dinosaur, you're closer to a dinosaur," Lance responded as he dropped her onto the couch. "Keith, eye drops!"

"Luna's not a dinosaur!" Sol giggled as he climbed up on the couch and sat on Luna's squirmy legs.

Keith, however, didn't move as he stood staring at the trio wrestling and squealing and laughing on the couch. He was still slightly confused by the past few minutes — surely it shouldn't be this hard to give a kid some medicine? — but there was something else here that was trying to pull him in. Happiness? Warmth? Security? Maybe if he could figure out what it was, then he could —

"Keith!" Lance repeated as he twisted his head around so he could catch Keith's attention with a question in his raised eyebrow.

"Right," Keith responded, jerking himself out of his trance. He moved forward to hand the eye drops off to Lance.

Other than acting entirely betrayed by all three males in her family, Luna didn't have any other objections in regards to Keith's presence, although he wasn't exactly sure what sort of objections he'd been expecting. Instead, she chatted with him about her social studies project while she and Sol ate their own breakfasts. And she grabbed his hand and swung their linked arms between them as they left the house and walked down the street in what Keith understood to be a walk to school.

Although, she stopped as the elementary school came into view and turned back towards where Lance and Sol were walking behind them. "You're quiet, papá, are you sick?"

Lance met Keith's eyes — god, he looked sad — before he shook his head in Luna's direction. "Nope, just didn't get enough sleep last night."

"Okay," Luna replied as she wrapped her arms around Keith's middle for a hug, but then she pulled on the shoulder of his shirt till he lowered his head so she could whisper, "Make him some of your special soup."

"Sure," Keith whispered back as he retuned the hug, although he had no intentions of cooking anything (he shouldn't be allowed near a stove), and also had no idea what ingredients might go into such a soup.

"Tonight is movie night, right?" Luna asked as she moved on to give Sol a quick hug before attaching herself to Lance's middle.

"Of course," Lance said with a smile that looked forced, even to Keith.

"Okay, bye!" She waved to the three of them and then skipped off.

Keith waited while Lance watched until she was inside, and then they turned towards a smaller building located right next to the school. Keith followed along, Lance hadn't explained what they were doing, probably because he wouldn't normally have to explain to his own Keith why they were leaving the house in front of the kids. But he soon realized they were entering another school, and he stood back as Lance signed Sol into a tiny classroom.

The hug cycle repeated as Sol hugged them both (Keith couldn't remember the last time he'd received so many hugs) and then Lance squatted in front of the tiny boy and held out his hand. "Pockets?" Lance asked.

Sol sighed and tried to bite down on a tiny smile that looked so much like an expression that Lance often made it had Keith leaning in for a better look. Sol's tiny fists went into the pockets of his pants and then he was dropping a few rocks into Lance's palm.

"Be good today." Lance dropped a kiss to the boy's forehead and then turned to lead Keith out as he stuffed the rocks into his own pockets.

"So, he does a full day of preschool there, sort of a kindergarten readiness program, and then one of us usually goes back in the afternoon to pick them up," Lance said once they were back outside and bypassing other parents as they made their way back down the sidewalk.

"What's with the rocks?" Keith asked.

"It's Sol's latest thing. He just likes them." Lance grabbed Keith's arm and pulled him around a mother with a stroller who stopped suddenly in front of them. Keith stumbled but managed to stay upright and to keep pace with Lance who appeared to be speed walking back to the house. "Anyway, his teachers don't really like the rock collection, so we usually have to pat him down at drop off."

"Why don't they like it?"

"I dunno, maybe they think he's gonna chuck em at the other children?"

"That ridiculous! That sweet little kid?"

Lance didn't slow his pace, but he did turn his head enough to give Keith a strange look.

"If he likes them and they make him feel safe, he should get to keep the rocks!" One of Lance's eyebrows began to creep up his forehead. "What?" Keith asked in response.

"It's just — that's exactly the same thing my Keith said."

"Oh."

"Yeah, well, I told you, Keith is good at this dad stuff."

Keith ducked his face, letting his bangs cover his eyes as he stared down at the sidewalk and wondered why those words made him feel so damn happy. It wasn't like Lance was talking about him.

"When Sol brought the first rock home, he asked us to buy rock things for it, like pajamas," Lance said with a small chuckle — the first laugh Keith had heard from him.

"Do they… can you buy rock pajamas here?"

Lance laughed again and Keith mentally patted himself on the back.

"No. We do not have rock accessory stores here. Plus, Keith rolled his eyes pretty hard when Hunk suggested we make pajamas, like, with felt."

Keith bit down on a smile. He was fine with the kid carrying around rocks, but rock pajamas did sound ridiculous. But then, everything in this reality seemed a bit ridiculous and far-fetched to him so far.

Lance rubbed his hand over the back of his neck as they walked up the front walkway to the house. "But, uh, I may have borrowed some of Keith's art supplies and painted pajamas on a few of the rocks without him knowing."

Keith paused outside as Lance entered through the front door. He hadn't really looked at the house on the way out the door that morning. The house was — it was picturesque. A soft yellow with large windows. The front porch wasn't large but there was enough space for a bench and a potted plant. The front yard was a decent size, lined with a white picket fence, similar to all the houses on this street. Keith wondered what had been this Lance and Keith's thoughts the first time they'd pulled up to look at the house. He wondered if they'd felt at home right away. If they'd known that one day it'd be the perfect place to welcome children into their family.

"Keith?" Lance questioned as he poked his head back out the front door when Keith hadn't followed him inside.

Keith snapped out of his thoughts and joined Lance inside. He caught Lance shooting eyes towards his and Keith's bedroom door (if it wasn't for Luna's insistence that she not be late for school, Keith isn't sure Lance would've left the house that morning. He'd had to corner Lance and quietly assure him that while he was no expert on reality swaps, he was pretty sure that the opening between their two worlds would happen wherever he was — and that staring at the bedroom ceiling wasn't going to help) before Keith paused as he thought about what Lance had said out on the front walkway.

"What art supplies?"

"Oh, uh, come here." He led Keith through the kitchen and back into a home office. There were two separate desks, although they faced each other, which would allow this Lance and Keith to also face each other as they worked. One desk had a section that was tilted like a drafting table, while the other had a large section illuminated by light with picture negatives sprawled across it.

"My Keith is a pretty bad ass artist." Lance's arm lifted towards the drafting table desk. "He's got major art supplies on lock down over there to try to keep me and the kids out of them." There was a small grin on Lance's face and Keith was almost relieved at the familiar expression. "Unfortunately, freelance graphic design work doesn't pay a steady income, which is what we needed to prove we had for the adoptions. So, he mainly does freelance architecture work."

"He's an architect?" Keith asked, disbelief clear in his voice.

"He's also a pretty bad ass architect," Lance added, "although, he prefers any job that allows him to get creative. It'd be nice if he could always choose what projects he works on, but…" his voice trailed off as he sat in the chair of the opposite desk, and for a moment, just stared sadly at the empty desk across from him and spun the silver wedding band that sat on his finger.

"But?" Keith asked, wanting to pull Lance's mind away from the sad thoughts he was surely thinking.

"Huh?" Lance's head whipped around in his direction. "Right. Well, we have bills to pay, so he does what he has to."

Keith moved over to the desk where Lance sat and took in the appointment book with scattered notes across the dates. The walls of this office were covered in framed photos — just like the rest of the house — most of which were of the kids, although Keith and Lance (photographed again like they were a single entity) were present often, as were several of their friends. Keith moved closer to one wall, although he had to avoid boxes of props, so that he could stare in awe at the photos that contained other members of Team Voltron.

"And you're a photographer?"

"Yeah. Mainly portrait based. Keeps me pretty busy."

"I don't know much about photos, but I really like these," Keith murmured. He still had his back to Lance, so he missed the grieved look Lance shot him.

That didn't mean he didn't hear it in his voice when Lance began to speak. "Keith bought me my first camera." Keith spun around with a questioning look and Lance continued, while still spinning his wedding band. "We weren't exactly friends when we first met in high school, although…" Lance paused before meeting Keith's eyes, "I knew as soon as I saw Keith that he was my person."

Keith couldn't suppress the shiver that ran through him at the solid truth he could see in Lance's blue eyes.

"I know you told me that you and that other Lance aren't together, but you should be."

Keith shrugged a little. "It wouldn't be like this. We live in a very different world."

"No shit, spaceman. But that part shouldn't matter. That stuff is all background noise compared to what you two could be doing together."

"Its not background noise, Lance. It's a war. For the universe."

Keith's mouth dropped open when Lance's eyes rolled.

"This is like starting from scratch with Keith all over again," Lance murmured. He met Keith's eyes again and spoke before Keith could ask what that previous statement was supposed to mean. "You're not listening to me." Lance's voice had an edge of frustration in it now, which was one step up from sad Lance, and a version of Lance that Keith was entirely familiar with.

"I could say the same thing!" Keith's arms crossed over his chest and he glared at one of the pictures behind Lance's head, which just meant he was left staring at an alternate version of himself who stood with his head tipped on Lance's shoulder as they posed on a wooded trail together. Looking so goddamn happy that Keith wasn't sure he wasn't about to go rip the photo from the wall and heave it out a window.

"That was a camping trip," Lance offered. "Pre-kids. We went with friends."

Keith decided to take the olive branch Lance was offering. He took a deep breath and lowered his arms so that he could point to some other pictures on the wall. "Those friends?"

"Yup."

"That's Team Voltron," Keith offered.

Lance jumped up from his chair and actually grinned. "Seriously? All of us?"

"Yeah. I mean, Coran isn't a paladin and Allura wasn't a paladin until the second time Shiro disappeared and I was forced to pilot Black." Lance looked slightly confused, these were some of the details Keith had skimmed over earlier, not really wanting to relive the days he'd been forced to be leader and eventually left the group entirely. "Anyway, Allura's dad created the Voltron lions."

"Sounds way cooler than the cars Alfor designs here."

"He's still alive?"

"Yeah, why is he — ah, gotcha."

Keith fiddled with a pen on Lance's desk. "What about your Keith's, uh, mom?" He kept his eyes on Lance's desk. "Is she alive?"

"Oh," Lance said, and his surprised tone had Keith lifting his eyes to watch his expression. "We actually don't know. Keith thought about looking for her a while back, but then we got busy with the kids and he dropped the whole thing." Lance chewed on his lower lip and maintained the eye contact. "Does that mean you grew up without your mom as well?"

Keith nodded.

"I'm sorry, Keith."

"I guess some things stay the same," Keith said with a shrug. "You have your big family nearby?"

"Nah," Lance said with a shake of his head. "I've got one sister who's about an hour away. But the rest of my family moved back to Cuba a few years ago, to be closer to the grandparents since they're getting older."

"Oh," Keith said, unable to keep the surprise from his face.

"What?"

"I would just expect you to live where they are, I guess. I'd think you'd be happier with them." He crossed his arms over his chest again as he watched Lance study him. He was beginning to recognize the feeling he'd get when he'd say something that Lance found particularly interesting, maybe because the other version of himself had said it before?

"Keith is my family," Lance said slowly after a few beats of silence. "Which also now includes Luna and Sol. I'm very happy here." He slumped back in his chair again. "Keith is happy here, too. It doesn't make sense that he'd be taken away."

Keith had to agree with that statement. But if this Lance and Keith were happy, then the universe wasn't trying to teach them a lesson… and that was a train of thought Keith wasn't prepared to face just yet.

"Do you have work to do today?" Keith asked, desperate to change the subject.

"I can in no way handle work right now," Lance sighed. He flipped through the calendar on his desktop. "I'm going to call Coran, he's my assistant, and get him to clear my schedule for a few days."

"What if this lasts longer than just a few days?" Keith asked.

Lance groaned into his hands. "Look, I know I said not to tell me if I wouldn't like it, but what were you doing when the switch happened? It's all sort of fuzzy now, but you were upset when you got here, right? Something about Noxzema? Where would my Keith have landed?"

"Naxzela," Keith corrected quietly. "Voltron was on Naxzela, but the planet turned out to be a trap, and Haggar was going to blow it up. I was with the rebels, and we were trying to fight through Haggar's ship's shield so we could stop her, but nothing was getting through." Lance's eyes hadn't left his face, and although Keith knew it was silly, he suddenly wanted a place to hide. "It was pretty clear that our weapon blasts just weren't strong enough. That we'd need something stronger to break the shield, like the Galra ship I was piloting."

"You thought what?" Lance jumped up out of his chair, eyes wide with rage and features twisted in a way that Keith had never seen. "Keith!"

"You don't get it, Lance," Keith said, immediately defensive. "I couldn't let her blow up an entire planet, plus the surrounding planets, plus all my friends who were stuck in Voltron."

"Do you have any idea what would happen to your Lance if your dumb plan had actually worked?"

Lance may still be yelling, but Keith was trying to keep his voice level. There was something about seeing Lance this angry that was keeping Keith's temper at bay.

"I told you, we're not together."

"So you think its okay to sacrifice yourself? And without a second thought about him?"

"Who says I wasn't thinking about him? I was thinking about all of them!"

"He wouldn't be able to go on if you died like that, Keith."

Keith watched Lance rub at his chest. There was still anger in his eyes, but also… sadness. And fear.

"Well, it didn't happen," he offered.

"I need to lie down." Lance tore his eyes away from him and quietly left the room.

Keith slumped in the other office chair and spun it around so he wouldn't have to look at all the happy family and friends pictures on the wall anymore.

It was ridiculous to feel guilty for doing what he knew needed to be done.

Mission over the individual.

"Can we watch this one, please? Please, daddy?"

"Um," Keith slowly said, as he wondered much longer Lance was going to take to make popcorn while he stared down at the impressive puppy dog eyes Luna was sending him.

"I don't want to watch that movie, Luna. We already watched it tomorrow!"

Luna leaned forward on the couch to peer around Keith to where Sol sat. "When?"

"Backwards tomorrow!" Sol replied.

Luna grinned, "You mean yester—"

"Don't you dare correct him!" Lance said as he appeared with bowls of popcorn. "That's adorable." He passed the bowls out before sitting on the other side of Sol. "Luna, you know those sweet puppy eyes never work on your dad." Keith slumped back in his seat, happy to have Lance show up to parent. "And we watched that movie on our last movie night. Next choice?"

Keith remained pretty quiet through the movie — something about a heart that looked like a stone being returned to an island. It was frustrating that there didn't seem to be anything here for him to do in this reality, unless serving as a human pillow for two small kids in a cozy and safe living room counted. He didn't think it did, though, given the uneasiness simmering under his skin.

They were approaching the twenty-four hour mark of his stay here, and he definitely felt like he should be doing more than just school pick ups and drop offs. He glanced over at Lance and found him fighting sleep, despite the nap he'd had earlier that afternoon. He probably should've napped longer, but an alarm had sounded on his phone, indicating it was time to go pick up the kids. Considering he'd only had about three hours of sleep the night before, Keith wasn't surprised he'd still be exhausted. Keith could feel the tired in his own bones, but he was likely more accustomed to it.

When the movie ended, not only was Lance heavily asleep on the other end of the couch, but both kids were knocked out as well. Keith sighed and slowly shifted Luna off his own side — she curled sleepily into Lance's side, an image that made Keith pause just to stare for a moment — and then stood with a sleeping Sol in his arms. He'd wandered the house earlier while Lance had napped, so he knew which room was Sol's, and he headed that way so he could deposit the little boy in his bed.

Sol was probably the smallest kid Keith had ever come in contact with, although he was a slightly heavy weight in his arms as he carried him. He didn't stir at all when Keith placed him in his bed and then covered him with a blanket. He paused after that as well, and thought about how Sol had run right up to him and hugged his legs when he and Lance had picked him up at school earlier. Then he'd insisted on holding both his and Lance's hands on the walk home. He'd offered Keith a rock (which Keith still had in his pocket) that had been found on the playground that day. And he'd talked nonstop through dinner about the music game his teacher had taught his class. His biggest worry in life seemed to be the green beans Lance had put on his plate at dinner. Keith found himself both content with these thoughts, as well as strangely envious. He brushed one of Sol's crazy curls off his forehead, and wondered if he was feeling jealous of Sol, a foster kid that had made it through the system, or the other version of himself… a foster kid who had apparently made it through the system.

He didn't sleep well that night. After carrying Luna to her own bed as well, he'd left Lance asleep on the couch, although he did cover him with a couch blanket. He went into the master bedroom and figured out which closet and dresser were Keith's, so that he could dress himself in the morning. He took a shower, and tried not to think about the fact that this was also where Lance showered. He also tried not to picture what sort of things this Lance and Keith might have gotten up to in this very shower.

He failed on both of those accounts.

His mind didn't get much farther than that, however, as he got out of the shower and came face to face with Lance's picture-covered wall in the bedroom again. He was an intruder here. It was the other Keith who should be here tucking these kids into their beds, while he should be with the Blades, trying to figure out if they can trust Lotor, especially before he gets near Team Voltron. The very thought of Lotor hurting any of his friends made his fists clench and his skin heat. He glared up at the bedroom ceiling, and wondered again what was the point of all this.

He'd sat in the bedroom chair again before falling asleep, even though the bed looked tempting. He was awoken after what felt like only a few ticks later by the kids' doors opening and then slamming shut. They sounded like they were racing each other down the hallway, and Keith vaguely wondered where the phrase about the pitter patter of little feet came from given how loud kids actually were. He stretched himself out of the chair and went to join them, passing Lance who was still zonked out on the couch.

"You guys aren't fighting are you?" Luna asked him as soon as he entered the kitchen.

"Who?"

"You and papá? Are you fighting?"

Her hair was a mess of curls and knots and her nightgown was covered in kittens, but she didn't look like a nine year old little girl in that moment to Keith. The worry on her face, the way her eyes were wide with fear — she looked like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. Keith thought about how her world had likely been flipped upside down when she'd been around Sol's age. And how her current world very much depended on Lance and Keith and the happy home they'd built here.

"No, we're not fighting," he tried to assure her as quickly as possible.

"Then why did he sleep on the couch?"

"You know how daddy carried you to bed last night after you fell asleep on the couch?" Lance asked as he strolled into the kitchen and scooped Luna up into a hug. "I'm just too heavy for daddy to carry."

Keith made an involuntary noise of protest in his throat that had Lance's eyes landing on him over Luna's head. He swept a glance up and down Keith's frame in a way that had Keith's ears burning very quickly.

Keith turned away to pull out a bowl for the cereal that Sol had been bumping into his arm for the past few moments.

"Not that bowl," Sol said with a shake of his head. He pointed back to the cupboard. "The one with Catboy on it!"

"Catboy?" Keith repeated as he glanced towards the other plastic bowls. They all had cartoon characters. Keith had no idea what a Catboy was. "You know, the cereal tastes the same no matter which bowl it's in?"

Thankfully, that had Luna giggling as she ran over to where Keith and Sol stood and pulled out the bowl that apparently had the requested character printed on its sides. "You have to ask papá if you want a bowl switch!" she whispered (loudly) to Sol.

Keith sent Lance a Really? look that included an amused raised eyebrow and Lance only smiled sheepishly and shrugged back.

They ate breakfast quickly, since Lance said it was Soccer Saturday and Sol had a game at nine. Keith helped Sol put on the world's tiniest pair of shin guards, while Lance brushed and braided Luna's hair. They filled water bottles, found soccer jerseys, and then piled into the car.

Sol beep beep'd at cars in front of them while they sat at stop lights, and Keith watched this reality's world go by from the passenger seat. They left the neighborhood and drove past grocery stores and restaurants before pulling into a large park with playgrounds and splash pads. It was bright and sunny and the parking lot for the soccer fields was filing up with other happy families trying to wrangle kids and loose soccer balls. It was… nice.

Keith reminded himself that it was not for him. He wasn't supposed to be here. He was supposed to fighting a war so that other people got to live like this.

He followed Lance and the kids to a small field and watched as Lance had Sol and the rest of his tiny teammates warm up by dribbling their balls around in circles. Lance rejoined him and Luna as the game began and Keith watched as the kids from both teams moved as a large group, all intent on kicking the soccer ball in whatever direction they could manage.

"Why you frownin?"

Keith waved a hand out in front of him, trying to indicate all of the tiny soccer field. "It's just so —"

"No, Sam! Sam, the other way!"

"Tom! Stop staring at the sky — go after the ball!"

"Yes! Nice goal, Erin! Wait, was that the right goal? Or is her team supposed to be scoring in the other net?"

At the other parents' interruptions, Keith lifted an eyebrow at Lance as if they had all just made his point. And then watched as Lance just shook his head and laughed.

"They're four and five years old," Lance said.

"So, they're not supposed to be —"

"Coordinated," Lance cut him off before he could get any further. "Yeah, it's a little like herding cats and we're not working on passing the ball, or, god forbid, something like proper formation. But, look, they're working on learning how to dribble."

Keith turned back to the game and watched as Sol used his tiny cleated foot to pull the ball back from the crowd of other kids before he turned and began to dribble away from everyone else towards the other end of the field. Keith could no longer remember which goal their team was supposed to be aiming for, and since they weren't actually keeping score ("Because it doesn't make sense for this age level, Keith") he supposed it didn't matter.

"I guess being able to dribble while ten other kids chase you could be considered a skill," he finally relented.

"There you go," Lance said. One of his hands wrapped around Keith's upper arm before he leaned in to whisper. "Now, smile, pretty boy, 'cause you're supposed to be co-coaching this team with me."

Then his arm fell from Keith as he moved down the sideline to suggest a few ideas to their tiny soccer players, leaving Keith rooted to the spot as he blushed at the residual feel of Lance's hand on his arm, his breath in his ear, and the words pretty boy rolling around in his head.

He wasn't much help for Sol's game, and when it was over, they moved to a larger field to watch Luna play in her own game.

Luna had her own coach and her game resembled an actual soccer game with passing and shots in the correct goal (Keith watched as the referee would mark each goal in a tiny notebook). Luna played in a midfield position and Keith found himself cheering when she moved quickly around one of the other team's defenders and scored a goal.

Lance jumped up and down, jostling Sol in his arms, before cheering, "That's my sharpshooter!"

He didn't get to ask Lance where the nickname had come from (did Lance start that in every reality?) before Luna was tripped as another player stole the ball from her feet.

It was then that Keith learned that Lance was not a fan of blood. When they got home from the games, Luna pulled him by the hand into the hall bathroom, while muttering something about how 'papá doesn't need to see this'. She hopped up on the sink and stared expectantly at Keith.

O-kay, tending to an injury, Keith told himself he could handle this. He fought Zarkon by himself. He could apply a band aid. Once he found one…

Luna finally pointed to the drawer where the band aids were, while giving him a slightly strange look, and moments later he was applying neosporin and wrapping a band aid over the bloody scrape. When he met Luna's eyes again, mainly to see if she was still looking at him funny, he found her looking forlornly at her knee.

"This knee has fallen on hard times," she said with a sigh.

Keith lowered her from the countertop with a laugh.

"Hey, we're feeding the fish," Lance said when Keith and Luna found him and Sol in the backyard.

"Lance, this backyard is…"

Keith spun slowly where he stood. He had not been prepared for what the backyard would entail. As if this reality wasn't dreamlike enough, the backyard was landscaped and groomed and flowered to look like some sort of fairytale. Even the shed in the back corner of the privacy fence-lined yard had stones covering it so that it would appear to be a cottage. There was an archway covered in ivy and roses, and stepping stones wove a pathway through the yard and around the variety of bushes back to a wooden playground, which is where Luna (and her poor knee) had dashed off to already. He'd joined Lance and Sol next to a small pond, complete with koi fish in a variety of colors.

"I want to swing! Luna will you push me?" Sol yelled when he noticed Luna already on the swings in the back.

Lance waited until Sol was out of earshot before turning back to Keith. "Yeah, um, our friend Shay owns a landscape company and she really helped us out back here. I tend to do a lot of my photo shoots just here in our yard."

"I've never seen anything like it."

"Not even on any of those planets you get to visit?" Lance asked, voice quiet.

Keith shook his head and accepted Lance's offer to toss in some food for the fish. "Most of the planets are in the middle of… war. Although, Olkari was pretty nice, I guess. Lots of forest."

Lance hummed. "Yeah, I'd like to get more trees back here. Is Luna's knee okay?"

"She said it had fallen on hard times," Keith said flatly.

Lance chuckled.

"Pretty dramatically, too. I have a feeling it's from your influence."

Lance elbowed him, but he was smiling, and Keith once again patted himself on the back. And tried not to think about how much he missed that smile.

"Thanks for handling it. I'm not a huge fan of blood."

"No problem."

"We tend to just hang out here Saturday afternoons. They're still a little too rambunctious to make eating in public a lot of fun, so I'll make dinner later. For now, I have to water the flowers back here."

"I'll go, uh, push them on the swings?" Keith asked, because, really, he still had no idea what he was supposed to be doing here.

"They'd love that," Lance said.

There were loud whoops of excitement when Keith joined Luna and Sol at the playset. Neither of them really needed his help to swing, but they still fought with each other over whose turn it was to get Keith to push them. When they were finally finished with swinging, they chased after Lance, who retaliated by drenching them both with the water hose.

Keith had, thankfully, avoided the hose, so while the kids went to get changed out of their wet clothes, he wandered into the home office and began digging through the drawers of Keith's desk. When he found what he wanted, he turned to leave, but paused when something caught his eye on Lance's desk. There was a folder over a stack of photos, but Keith could see his own face in one photo peeking out. He shifted the folder aside and lifted the photo stack before slowly shuffling through them. Most were black and white, and all of them had a single subject of focus: Keith. Keith sleeping in their bed. Keith smiling shyly at the camera. Keith with his head thrown back in laughter. Keith working at his desk, brows furrowed in concentration. He continued to flip through the photos. Keith. Keith. Keith. Dozens of pictures of Keith doing everyday, mundane things around this house.

Lance loved Keith. It was obvious in every photo. The way he had tried to capture every side of Keith, because he so clearly loved every side. It was clear that Keith didn't always know Lance was even there with his camera, but in those photos where he did, when he was not looking at the camera, but just behind it, smiling softly and eyes full of love for the photographer…

Keith put the photos back and re-covered them before he returned to the backyard. He glanced over at Lance, still busy watering — the sheer magnitude of flowers back here was pretty amazing. He sat on a wooden bench and pulled his knees up so he'd have a surface for the sketch book he'd found. He hadn't drawn anything since he'd gone into space (although his Earth shack had a pile of sketches of things he'd seen out in the desert) and he sort of missed the hobby. He sighed as he stared down at the blank page, and tried not to think about how frivolous it was to be worried about what to draw when he should be training or working out a plan for the next step in the war against Zarkon.

Of course, minus the appearance of a reality-swapping hole in this backyard, there was no way he was about to do any of those things. So he uncapped the pen he'd found, and began to sketch. He vaguely heard the kids come back outside a few moments later. They ran back to the swing set again, and he was so caught up in his drawing that he almost didn't catch what Sol said to Lance when Lance eventually made his way over to water the plants near the kids.

"Papá, I see your eyebrows look like they're sad, so I'm going to tell you I love you."

Keith peeked over his sketchbook and caught Lance rubbing at a spot on his chest. He turned off the hose as Sol approached him, and then crouched down to pull Sol into a hug.

"Thanks, buddy. I love you, too."

Keith ducked his eyes back to his drawing. It just seemed like a private moment between family members. And he was not a member of this family. Would never be a member of a family like this.

"Are you sad?" Sol asked.

"Nah," Lance said before forcing the biggest smile he could handle onto his face. "No worries, bud. Hey, I'm all finished with the watering, you want to help me—"

"Uncle Hunk!" Sol exclaimed, and Lance stood where he'd been crouched to watch Hunk, Shay, and their daughter enter the backyard through the side gate.

"Hunk," Keith sounded shocked, and Lance watched as he stood — Keith had been sketching with an oh-so-familiar adorable look on his face for quite some time — and stared openly at Hunk and Shay. Now that Lance knew that Hunk was part of Team Voltron as well, he sorta wondered how long it'd been since Keith had last seen him. He still looked shocked over there, but also happy, even relieved to see another familiar face. Lance wasn't clear on why Keith wasn't with the rest of the team right now in his own reality, but Keith's face right now told him that he'd missed Hunk.

"Sunshine Sol!" Hunk replied excitedly when Sol reached him. Hunk lifted Sol and tossed him the air a couple times before setting him back down on Earth. "Hi Keith, how you been, man?"

Keith's eyes darted over to Lance before he tried to respond. "I-I'm good."

"Hey, Lance!" Hunk called over to him, and Lance offered a small wave in response. "I'm going to go put this lasagna in the oven. Be right back."

"Lance, nice job on the watering." Shay had been wandering down the stone path, admiring the current blooms. "Everything looks very happy back here."

"Thanks, Shay," he said, "I was just wrapping up."

"Keef!" Shay and Hunk's daughter had apparently just spotted Keith and she began ambling towards him as fast her as her small two year old legs could carry her. "Keef!"

"Oh," Keith took a miniscule step back, and Lance beelined towards him to play interference. So far, Keith had had no problem with his kids, but this tiny toddler was clearly out of his comfort zone.

"Tula! Come see your favorite Uncle Lance!" He scooped her up and immediately blew a raspberry on her tummy. She squealed and squirmed and when he set her back on the ground, she took off running for the playset to join Luna and Sol.

Shay smiled as she watched Tula join the other kids before turning to Keith and Lance. "So where are you two headed tonight?"

"Oh." Lance rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. Right — date night. He and Keith swapped out babysitting duties with Shay and Hunk every couple weeks so that each couple could have regular date nights. He glanced over to Keith. Keith was sending him a questioning look, but was otherwise staying quiet, probably because he didn't know what Shay was talking about. "I'm not sure, I guess."

"There's that new restaurant over by Shiro and Matt's store," Hunk said, jumping into the conversation as he walked through the backdoor. "Sal's something or other. Doesn't matter, I have not heard good things, and I would avoid it."

"Well, uh, I bet your lasagna would be great," Lance attempted. "Maybe we should just stay in? Hang out with you guys?"

Lance swallowed when Hunk frowned at him. "You don't want to go out? Date night?"

He understood Hunk's confusion. Lance treated date night like a holiday, even though it was something that happened at least twice a month. He dressed up. He always had a plan for the evening. And he was usually kissing Keith before they even made it to the car.

As a result, he and this Keith got changed, they hugged the kids goodbye, and then Lance drove them to a nearby favorite restaurant where they were treated to a table for two. It was semi-private (the wait staff was familiar with the couple and the very real possibility that they'd check on the two of them only to find them with chairs scooted close and lips locked together), as well as super peaceful and romantic.

It was really too bad he was here on a date with someone who was not his husband.

Still, he didn't eat out all that often anymore, and Keith actually looked kind of excited about the menu. Plus, he was supposed to be doing something with this Keith — something to help him. He could feel that much. And hopefully once he did his part, his own Keith would be returned to him. So, time to make the best of this situation.

"Can I order for you?" Lance asked. Keith looked surprised by the request, but instead of protesting, he nodded quickly, and kept quiet when the waiter came to take their orders. "I just have a feeling you'll like that dish," he said as the waiter walked away.

"A feeling, huh?" Half of Keith's mouth quirked up. "I'm trusting you."

"Always a smart decision." He'd been teasing, but tilted his head in confusion when Keith's eyes dropped to the table and he began to readjust his silverware.

"I do trust Lance," Keith murmured. "I had to be leader for a while, I had to fly Black. And when that happened, Lance moved to Red."

"Your lion? Your very picky lion chose Lance?" He could feel the smirk on his face and the way his eyebrows waggled.

They were barely visible through his hair, but Keith's ears turned a pretty pink color at that.

"It's not like that," Keith insisted. "He became my right hand in Voltron. And I, uh…"

"You what?" Lance asked. He toned down the teasing since he could see that Keith was struggling to say something.

"I didn't always make the right decisions as leader. But Lance never belittled me for it. He always knew the right thing to say to get me back on track. I really relied on him. He was the one good thing about being leader."

Lance hummed and spun his own spoon in its place on the table. "Stable. Helpful. Reliable. Sounds like me."

Keith cracked a smile.

"Of course you're forgetting cute, adorable, and incredibly hot."

Keith ducked his head in a classic Keith move to try to hide behind his bangs. "Lance."

"Do you think I'm cute?"

"That's not — Lance, it doesn't matter what I think."

Lance leaned in, locking his eyes on Keith's as soon as Keith peeked up at through those unruly black bangs. "I have inside information that you think I'm very cute."

Keith looked past him, glancing at some of the tables near them. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before quietly saying, "It doesn't matter."

"It does."

Their waiter returned then and placed their dishes in front of them, giving Keith a reprieve, one he happily took as his eyes widened at the food. Lance had been trying to get Keith to ogle him a bit, get him on the Keith and Lance belong together train of thought. Not only had he seemingly failed, but he was now left feeling jealous of the looks Keith was sending his parmesan-herb crusted chicken.

This feeling was only made worse a few moments later when Keith took his first bite, closed his eyes, and melted in his seat with a happy sigh as he chewed. There continued to be happy sighs and slight moans with each bite until Lance was forced to put his silverware down and glare across the table.

"I know it's your favorite, but I'm really going to have to ask you to stop making those noises."

"I'm sorry," Keith replied, eyes now half lidded and sounding not the least bit sorry. "I've been trying not to make a big deal about the food in front of your kids, but" — he took another bite and sighed happily — "the castleship has this green goo and the Blades have this purple goo and its all goo, Lance. You don't even really have to chew it and there's no taste but also a strange aftertaste? And since it has all the nutrients we need, no one in charge seems to care that it's awful?"

Lance sighed in defeat and picked up his silverware again. This was fine. He could sit across from someone who looked like and sounded like his husband while he made slightly obscene noises over food. It wouldn't kill him at all.

Keith moaned again and Lance gripped his fork a little harder. His traitorous body knew what those noises meant and he could practically feel his blood perk up in interest.

"So," Keith said around a bite of food, "you and Keith go out on date nights pretty regularly?"

Lance nodded. "We don't get to go out like this very often, which is okay, we like spending time with the kids. And sometimes we'll have date nights in, like after the kids go to bed, we'll make a big deal out of a movie night or something. We try to make us a priority. I mean, our family doesn't work if he and I don't work, right?"

"Probably not," Keith said with a small shrug, honestly he had no idea, but… "It sounds like you two have it all figured out."

Lance laughed at that and earned a confused look from Keith. "Well, now it seems that way, sure. But, we've had our own rough patches. Keith even almost broke up with me once."

Now Keith was frowning. "Why?"

Lance slouched in his seat. He didn't like talking about it — the time he almost lost Keith — but at least this subject had killed off the arousal that had been building under his skin. "Keith thought it would be better for me if we weren't together. He thought he was holding me back."

Keith's frown eased up a little, turning into a thoughtful pout that made Lance's heart clench at the familiar expression. He resisted the urge to rub at his chest.

"He must've really felt that way if that's what he told you," Keith finally said after a few moments.

Lance nodded. "Yeah."

"But you didn't agree?"

"Of course not," he said matter of factly. "I could never be better off without him."

"How can you be so sure about that?"

Keith looked honestly interested, almost desperate to know what Lance's answer would be.

"I told you, Keith is my person."

"That doesn't — that doesn't even make sense!"

Lance could feel his own face crumple at that, because he'd already gone through so much with his Keith. He had been certain about Keith from the moment he'd first seen him, and it hadn't mattered that Keith hadn't felt the same initial spark, because they'd made it there eventually, and the two of them together were unstoppable in what they could accomplish.

"Wait, no, I'm sorry," this Keith was saying, obviously reading enough of Lance's expression to know he'd upset him.

And even that apologetic feature was Keith — Keith was never intentionally cruel, Keith just didn't get it sometimes.

But he counted on Lance to always get it, to explain it to him, even if they had to figure it out together.

Lance schooled his face into something friendlier and met Keith's eyes again with a smile. Because even if this entire switch was bullshit, and even if it felt like starting all over again with Keith, he'd do it. If it meant getting his own Keith back, by going through all this pain with this self-sacrificing, look-alike, alternate-reality Keith, he'd do it. If he needed to prove that he'd do whatever was needed for his Keith — for his person — he'd do it.

"Just trust me on this, okay?" he asked quietly. "Maybe it doesn't make sense right now, but it will."

When they returned to the house after dinner, Keith said hi to Hunk and Shay on his way to the kitchen. Lance had ordered a second serving of the delicious chicken he'd eaten for dinner to go, and Keith was going to make sure it went straight to the fridge. He was even thinking about eating it for breakfast in the morning.

He was headed back around the corner to rejoin the others when he heard hushed voices that made him pause.

"Hey, are you and Keith okay?" Hunk asked.

"Of course, why?"

"You seem a little… distant, like, physically distant. You're usually — touching? I haven't seen that much space between you two in years."

Lance released a strange sort of snort that had Keith frowning.

"What?" Hunk asked, also confused by Lance's strange reaction.

"Space," Lance said sardonically. "Space can kiss my ass."

There was a pause, and Keith sort of wished he could see Hunk's face.

"I think you need some sleep," Hunk finally settled on.

"You're right as usual, Hunk. And don't worry about me and Keith. We're all good."

"Where did you sleep last night?" Lance asked when Keith exited the bathroom. He'd changed into pajamas, and noticed that Lance had switched into a t-shirt and a pair of soft shorts as well. He paused before pointing to the chair.

"That's not weird," Lance said flatly. Keith shrugged before Lance continued. "Look, I'm doing my best not to upset the kids during the day, but Luna was worried this morning after finding me on the couch because Keith and are usually…"

"Touching," Keith finished for him. "I heard Hunk earlier."

"Right. And the kids do come in here at night sometimes, especially if there's a storm or if they think there's a monster under their bed, and I'd like to avoid a repeat of what happened this morning."

"Okay?"

"I don't think it would be a big deal for you to just sleep in the bed with me."

Keith stared at him.

"We're going on night three here, and you're obviously not leaving just yet, and you can't keep sleeping in a chair."

"Well, I could."

"Plus, I'm really tired," Lance said as if Keith had not spoken. "I'd like to get some actual sleep, and I'm used to having Keith in bed with me."

Well then. He could do this if it would help Lance.

"Okay," Keith said as he slowly approached the bed.

"That's your side over there," Lance pointed before he moved around Keith to enter the bathroom.

Keith climbed into the bed and pulled the blanket over him. He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

When Keith woke up the next morning, it was the first time in months that he felt rested. There was nothing like a little space war stress and unfamiliar surroundings to wreak havoc with actual restful sleep cycles. Without the possibility of a blaring ship alarm to signify an attack, Keith figured his body had finally given in to sleep.

Of course, the warm weight at his back probably helped too. He and Lance weren't exactly spooning, but as he twisted his head slightly, he could see Lance's head pressed into his back between his shoulder blades. His shirt was also tugged tightly towards his hip and with a little more maneuvering, he could finally see that Lance had fisted his shirt at some point, as if he wanted to hold on tight to Keith.

Lance had been looking pretty tired himself since Keith arrived, so Keith stayed where he was, even though he swore he could feel Lance's breaths puff against his back through the t-shirt, sending shivers literally down his spine. When the kids began to make noise and Lance still didn't budge, Keith began to inch his way towards the edge of the bed. He slowly pulled Lance's fingers away from his shirt, paused when Lance adjusted so that his head was back on a pillow, and then joined the kids out in the kitchen to do his best to make breakfast. Even if breakfast was only pouring cereal into the correct bowls and heating up his own chicken dish.

"I have a really loose tooth," Luna announced around bites of her cereal. "Makes it hard to chew."

"Roar roar!" Sol stomped around the kitchen.

"You want your cereal, Sol?" Keith asked, completely unclear on what it was the little boy was doing.

"My monster socks want cereal too!" Sol announced as he came around the island to where Keith could see the monster socks. "Roar roar! That's monster for feed me cereal!" He stomped his way over to his chair finally and climbed up into it.

"Sounds like someone has his monster socks on today," Lance observed as he joined them. He squeezed Keith's shoulder as he moved past him, and Keith had to wonder if the touch was an unconscious habit. "How's your chicken breakfast?"

"As good as it was last night," Keith responded with a grin down at his chicken.

"You're not scarring the children with your excitement over it, are you?"

"No." Keith tried to scowl at him.

"Why would we be scarred?" Luna asked.

"No reason," Lance said with a smile. "Hey, so, remember how we had promised the others that we'd meet them at the beach today?"

"Uh, yes?" Keith answered, assuming that was the answer Lance was expecting.

"Yes!" Luna and Sol managed to shout at the same time.

"I'm going to put on my new bathing suit that looks like a mermaid!" Luna said as she dashed off.

"You need eye drops before we leave!" Lance called after her.

Sol reached over to where Keith sat and tugged on his shirt sleeve. "Can I wear my feet?" he asked excitedly.

Keith glanced down at the little boy's feet before sending a helpless look in Lance's direction.

Lance, who looked way too amused to be fair, finally answered him, "No, you cannot go barefoot until we hit the sand."

Sol grumbled but turned back to his cereal.

"Here," Lance offered, pulling a hair tie from his wrist and offering it to Keith. "The wind will drive you crazy if you don't pull it up."

When he only got a confused look from Keith, Lance rolled his eyes with a smile and moved to stand behind Keith. And without warning, his hands began running through Keith's hair, which was fine — Keith was fairly certain that since he'd managed to survive the Blade of Marmora trials, he could live through Lance pulling his hair up off his neck as well. When he was finished, Keith lifted a hand to his hair and felt the small ponytail with a smile.

"I'll show you how to put it up in a bun later," Lance murmured quietly to him. "Guaranteed way to drive your Lance crazy."

"If you say so," Keith replied, fully aware that with an exposed neck, Lance could surely see how red he was.

"Remember how I said trusting me was always a smart decision?" Lance replied with a smirk.

"You burn like crazy, come here."

They'd been the last to arrive at the beach (Luna's eye drop protest definitely had them leaving the house later than they were supposed to), and Keith had stopped in his tracks and stared at the alternate reality version of his friends — spread out on towels or splashing in the water already — all having fun on the beach. He wished his actual friends could have a day like this.

Lance sighed and grabbed his arm to pull him to their towels when he continued to just stand and stare.

"Seriously, you burn as red as a lobster. And then you cry about it for days."

"I doubt I cry about it for days," Keith said dryly as he pulled off his shirt.

"Fine, I cry about it for days, just — whoa, Keith!"

Keith spun slightly to try to see what could've shocked Lance so badly to make his voice sound like that, and ended up jumping when he felt Lance's warm hand land on his shoulder.

"What the hell is this?" Lance whispered harshly.

Oh. Right. His Marmoran trials scar.

"I took a bad hit to my shoulder during this —"

Lance's fingers tightened around his shoulder, and Keith cut off his explanation.

"It's an old injury," Keith said with a small shrug of his other shoulder, doing his best to downplay it. "Looks worse than it was." He watched the way Lance's eyes traveled from the shoulder scar down his chest, no doubt seeing some of his other battle scars. Keith wondered what he looked like to an outsider. Based on the sad grimace on Lance's face, he assumed it must be pretty bad.

"Um," Lance said, voice suddenly hoarse. "You're gonna have to keep your shirt on today, otherwise everyone will be asking how you suddenly ended up with such a scar."

"Okay," Keith said quietly. He pulled his shirt back on and accepted the bottle of sunblock from Lance.

"I'm, uh, I'm going to make sure the kids are covered, too. They burn as bad as you do."

Keith watched Lance's quick strides as he crossed over the warm sand towards where the kids were laughing with Hunk. Lance had already ditched his own shirt, so there was a whole hell of a lot of exposed brown skin and broad shoulders and very long legs to admire as he walked away. Although, Keith found himself picturing the sunburst scar the Lance from his world had on his own back, the one he'd earned by saving Coran from that early explosion. As nice as all that smooth skin was on this Lance, Keith sort of missed the scar.

He settled into the beach chair Lance had set up for him and tried to relax. There didn't seem to be anything for him to do here, either. It still didn't make sense to him that the universe would think that he'd best serve in the war against Zarkon by sitting on a warm beach under Earth's sun. He wasn't sure how this was his life.

He also wasn't sure when he'd last seen Shiro smile this much. It put an actual smile on his own face as he watched Matt and Shiro splash each other before Matt tried to wrestle Shiro into the water, only to have Shiro easily lift him over a shoulder and charge into the waves while Matt laughed and tried to squirm away. Matt and Shiro had been his first two (and pretty much only) friends back at the Garrison. They'd always been so serious about their course work and the mission. It was nice to see an alternate version of his friends who were able to relax and have fun.

"Hey," Pidge said, drawing his attention to her as she plopped down in a chair next to him. "You haven't texted me in a few days, what's been going on?"

"The usual?" Keith responded, unintentionally twisting his statement into a question.

"Keef!"

Keith tensed as Hunk and Shay's tiny daughter toddled over to him and sat herself in his lap. His mouth dropped open and he began to look around for… for an adult to come help him.

"You canceled our lunch to take Luna to the doctor and I never heard back from you. She okay? She looks okay today."

They both glanced over to where Luna was trying to learn how to throw a frisbee with Lance.

"Um, yeah." Keith stood Tula up on her feet, only to have her twist around and wrap her arms around his neck with an excited repeat of his name. "Luna's got eye drops that she fights us on every morning."

"I bet," Pidge said with a laugh. "Well, good. That means we can meet up this week? Usual time and place?"

"Uh huh," Keith said with a nod. He hoped Lance knew the details of the usual time and place.

"Sweet. I'm gonna take a nap. Don't let Matt and Shiro leave with out me. They're my ride."

Keith nodded as Pidge stood and headed towards her own towel. Then he pushed himself to his feet, Tula in his arms, and trekked across the sand in search of one of her parents. He ran into Hunk first, who thankfully took her while laughing about how much his daughter loves her Uncle Keef. Of course, had he known he was about to walk right into a dance party begun by Lance and the kids, he would've held onto the toddler.

"Didn't make sense not to live for fun. Your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb." Lance sang along loudly to the song blasting out of the nearby speaker, causing both Luna and Sol to break into giggles as they tried to mimic his dance moves.

"Come on daddy!" Luna called to him.

Hunk and Shay had jumped in now as well, and it looked like some random nearby strangers were about to join the group.

Keith remained planted where he stood. He did not dance. Didn't know how to dance. Had never felt inclined to dance in front of other people.

However, he had seen other people dance, and he wasn't sure the jumping around and spinning the kids were doing counted as actual dancing? Not that it mattered, since they both appeared to be having a blast, dancing with the sun bright on both of their curly-haired heads.

Then there was Lance, who could definitely dance, and was entirely distracting as he not only moved with the music, but also continued to sing along, drawing more giggles out of the kids. And not only was Lance dancing and singing with the kids — he was currently spinning Luna several times in a row — but he looked happy. He still glanced towards that bedroom ceiling often when they were at the house, and Keith had caught Lance rubbing his chest a few times, but Keith was happy that for right now, Lance looked carefree as he played with the kids.

Sol ran over to Keith, pulling him from his thoughts by grabbing both his hands and then forcing Keith to spin in a circle with him.

"Daddy, faster!" Sol shouted over the music.

Keith attempted to go faster, but the sand worked against them and a few spins later they both got their feet tangled and fell to the sand. Sol only laughed before hopping up to join Luna in more crazy jump-dancing. And before Keith could attempt to stand, long brown fingers wrapped around his elbows from behind and lifted him to his feet.

"You okay, spaceman?" Lance whispered in his ear.

"I don't know how to dance," Keith murmured back, doing his best to be heard by only Lance, despite how loud the music was.

"Oh, I know," Lance laughed into his ear. "Keith usually needs me to warm him up a bit before he gets into it as well."

"What kind of warm up?" Keith tried to ask, but was soon too distracted to even want an answer when he felt Lance's broad palms leave his elbows and land on his hips. Immediately, he could feel his ears heat and redden, especially when Lance's voice was back in his ear, singing the lyrics.

"It's you, babe. And I'm a sucker for the way that you move, babe."

One of Lance's knees bumped forcefully into the back of his leg, forcing his own knee to bend, as Lance's palms forced Keith's hips to twist in a way that resembled a dance move.

"And I could try to run, but it would be useless."

Lance repeated the move again, and Keith wondered if anyone in existence had ever blushed so hard that they passed out.

"You're to blame. Just one hit of you, I knew I'll never ever be the same."

Lance's hands on his hips were so warm. And the breath hitting his ear as Lance sang was so warm. Everything about Lance was always so warm. Keith relaxed, despite the blood rushing to the surface of his skin, and began to mimic the dance move based on Lance's instructions. At least with Lance still behind him, he couldn't see just how red Keith's face surely was by now.

"There you go," Lance murmured as Keith's movements became more natural.

When the song changed again, this time to something faster, Keith moved his hips on his own to try to match the rhythm, only to end up brushing his ass against the front of Lance's swim trunks. The resulting gasp from Lance was loud and unmistakable in meaning. And even though Lance's hands immediately left Keith, and he said something about promising to build a sand castle with Sol, and ran away, Keith was left feeling warm.

He had had no idea he could have that sort of effect on Lance.

That was… something to think about.

Keith was slightly worried Lance was going to avoid him after that. No matter how well he might know all these people back in his own reality, he felt very much like an imposter hanging out on the beach with everyone. It was a little strange, since he didn't feel like such an outsider back at the house when he was alone with Lance and the kids.

Thankfully, after the sand castle was built, Lance came to sit in the chair next to him. He glanced around a bit, watching to see what their friends were doing, before he let himself relax back in the seat and turned to Keith.

"I don't think I understand from your story why you're not a paladin anymore? You left Lance? Well," — Lance rolled his eyes — "Lance and the others. But you're still fighting against this Zarkon guy? Why not stay with them to do that? They have to miss you."

"No," Keith said with a fast shake of his head, "they're doing fine without me. They can form Voltron without me —"

"Their ability to form some giant robot without you doesn't mean they don't miss you, Keith."

"You don't understand. Forming Voltron — it only happens when there's a strong bond between the paladins."

"Shiro wasn't there, you stepped in. You're not there, Shiro steps in."

"No, that's not —"

"They can still miss you and have a strong bond with each other."

"Lance."

"I don't see your point."

"Because you don't want to!" In trying to keep his voice down, the words came out in a harsh whisper

"Because you're not making a valid one!" Lance said in a matched tone.

They glared at each other — and dammit… Keith really missed Lance. He glanced away from this Lance, for the first time feeling what it must feel like for this Lance to be staring directly at the face of the person you miss and still miss them.

Lance rolled his eyes again and sighed as he looked away. "You're such a stubborn jackass."

"You —"

"You want to keep believing they don't miss you? Fine. But don't you miss them?"

Keith suddenly couldn't meet his eyes anymore. God, he had missed them so much it fucking hurt. He absentmindedly rubbed his thumb against his fist, and didn't see the knowing look Lance sent him.

"It doesn't matter, I'm more useful to the Blades," he finally said.

"What? As just a regular soldier? I mean, I'm not complaining about that outfit —"

Keith scoffed and pretended he wasn't blushing as he remembered the feel of Lance's fingers groping his ass when he'd first arrived. "It's not an outfit, its armor."

"— but you were part of something special with Voltron," Lance continued. "You told me the lions choose their paladins! And instead of that calling, you're with the mission over the individuals guys? You even said yourself when you first arrived that you didn't expect the Blades to answer your distress call. Keith, you have to see that there's no way that's more useful? There's no way that's a better choice if you and Lance aren't together."

"Lance and I are not — and, look, you don't know me, okay?"

"I'm married to Keith." Lance waved his ringed finger in Keith's direction. "You think I don't know you?"

"You are not married to me. You don't know what its like. You two live in a world where you go on dates nights, and walk your kids to school, and have a picket fence in your front yard!"

"You can't tell me that living and fighting alongside some cold group of soldiers is better than living with the Voltron gang. Your face when you talk about them — you were happy with them and you gave it up. Why?"

"This isn't about being happy, this is a war."

"There's always time to find happy, Keith."

A shudder ran through Keith then, shaking his shoulders slightly before traveling all the way down his arms and onward to his legs.

"Why do you care about any of this anyway?" Keith asked. "I know I've been a burden to you since I got here."

"You could never be a burden to me. I told you I would help you, and that's what I'm trying to do. You were clearly not where you were supposed to be in that space war reality, and now you're really not where you're supposed to be."

Keith shook his head. He pushed aside the thoughts that had begun to insistently tug at his brain. At his heart. Thoughts that said that maybe Lance was right.

"I don't know what you or the universe wants from me," he said slowly.

Lance sighed and let himself fall into the chair again. "Stubborn jackass," he muttered.

"I didn't want the chicken nuggets cut up!"

"Ow!"

Lance's head whipped around and Keith followed his lead in checking in on Luna's cry of pain over Sol's complaint about his mauled nuggets.

"-outh is –leeding!"

"Holy crow," Lance murmured. "That is a lot of blood." Keith leaned in with him to check out the tooth that had just been jarred practically free with one bite of dinner.

"I'm not eating them cut up!" Sol announced from the other side of the table, pout on his face and tiny arms crossed.

"Luna, come with me to the bathroom, we'll rinse out your mouth," Lance said, already looking paler.

"I don't want you to pull it out!" Luna pulled away from Lance's hands, which led her to lean right into Keith's side.

"They're yucky cut up!"

Keith glanced between the two children and had a better understanding about why they might not eat out all that often. He tried to meet Lance's eyes, but found those blue eyes shut as Lance paused to take a breath.

Sol raised his voice when he realized he wasn't getting the attention he wanted. "I'm not —"

"Then I guess you're not eating dinner tonight." Lance opened his eyes so that he could send Sol a quick warning look.

"He didn't say he was going to pull out your tooth, just rinse it," Keith said to Luna.

Deciding that Lance needed a break, Keith pulled Luna up by her elbows so he could lead her away from the table and into the closest bathroom. He picked up a small cup from the sink counter while Luna leaned over the sink to get a closer look at her mouth in the mirror.

"Can I see it?" Keith asked.

Luna made a discontent noise while clamping her mouth shut.

Keith leaned a hip against the sink and shrugged. "Personally, I'd want it out now. You're not going to be able to eat dinner with it dangling like that. And the tooth fairy won't come unless it comes out."

Luna met his eyes in the mirror. "Will you and papá do the tooth fairy thing?"

Keith slowly smirked back at her as he filled the cup with water. "Will you let me yank that tooth out?"

"Do you have to use the word yank?" She glared at him for a moment but accepted the cup of water and began to rinse out her mouth. Then she poked at the tooth a few times with her finger before turning to him. "Alright, here," she said with a cringe, "you can pull it."

"Hold one tic."

"One what?"

"Uh, second," Keith said as he quickly began to wash his hands. Then he held them both upright as he'd seen surgeons do in movies. "I'm ready for the procedure. You can call me doctor dad."

He got an eye roll, but Luna also gave him a small smile before allowing him a close up look at the bottom canine, which was still sorta bloody and twisted at an odd angle. Keith could remember losing some of his own baby teeth. And he could remember that he'd never had anyone to help him with them. He'd certainly never had a visit from a tooth fairy. He briefly wondered where these two kids would be if it wasn't for this Lance and Keith. If anyone else would be helping Luna right now.

He was happy he was here to do it. That she trusted him to help her.

"I'm not going to pull it unless I think it's really ready to come out," Keith murmured quietly as his thumb and forefinger slowly tested the looseness of the tooth. Luna had her eyes squeezed shut and judging by her expression, what he was doing wasn't causing any additional pain. "You don't want to pull these out before they're ready — oh, I got it!"

Luna's eyes popped open and she grinned at the tiny tooth he held in his hand. "I didn't even feel that!" She leaned over the sink again to check out the new hole in her mouth. "How'd you do that?"

"It's not really pulling, more like twisting." He handed her the cup again so she could rinse out her mouth a few more times while he rinsed the tooth off. "Feel okay?"

She responded by pressing her face into his chest with a tight hug before she nodded and murmured a quiet, "Thanks, dad."

"Sure." His response was equally quiet as he found himself returning her hug.

She beamed up at him and then held out her palm, waiting only long enough for him to drop the tooth into her hand before she dashed back out to the kitchen.

Keith washed his hands once again before joining the rest of them around the kitchen table where Luna was showing off her tooth to Sol and Lance. Keith could feel Lance looking at him, and while he tried to avoid it, he eventually gave in and glanced up at Lance. It was a relief that Lance didn't currently appear sad, disappointed, or frustrated with him, but that didn't mean Keith knew what to do with the appreciation and fondness he could read on Lance's face.

"Nice job," Lance whispered across the table.

He nodded in response, and then glanced at Sol to dispel the weird butterflies in his stomach. "Uh, you too," he said, tilting his head towards the four year old who was now happily eating his cut up chicken nuggets.

Lance shrugged. "I added ketchup."

"Why didn't you tell me how yummy these are?" Sol exclaimed around a bite of chicken.

Lance sighed in his seat and Keith tried to cover his laugh with a cough.

Keith sat on what was considered his side of the bed, and watched as Lance turned on the bedroom television before he landed on the bed beside him.

"What are we doing?" Keith finally asked. Lance had said something about a ritual movie night — the sheer number of rituals between these two, honestly.

"No Laugh movie night."

"You watch non-funny movies?"

"No, we take turns picking out a movie, or a show sometimes, that we think will make the other laugh, and when you laugh tonight, I'll win this round."

Keith settled back on the bed, and flinched when his back hit something. He dug under the blanket until he found a couple rocks in the sheets. He had a small smile as he rolled them around in his palm, before he leaned over and set them on the small bedside table next to him. He glanced over at Lance with a smile, sure that he'd find it amusing that Sol had managed to leave rocks in their bed for them.

Instead, he found Lance already staring at the rocks, mouth turned down in a sad grimace.

"Um, so Sol said something funny to me earlier," Keith said, doing his best to pull Lance back to the present.

Lance cleared his throat. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. He's got an old sunburn that is starting to peel, and he pointed it out to me and said, 'Look dad, I'm growing.'"

Lance's mouth pulled into an automatic smile and his shoulders began to shake with laughter.

"So, apparently he thinks he grows like snakes do?" Keith said with a small smile.

"Did you correct him?" Lance asked, voice full of laughter.

"Oh, no," Keith said with a head shake and eyebrows raised at the absurd thought of correcting this incredibly cute toddler thought process. "Not at all."

"Good." Lance's laughter stopped, but he paused just to send Keith an appreciative smile. "Okay, spaceman," Lance picked the remote up again. "Prepare to laugh right off the bed."

Keith had been feeling warm from that smile, and proud of himself for seemingly cheering Lance up. But now he stared at the overly confident look on Lance's face before narrowing his eyes. "Wait, are you cheating?"

"How would I cheat?" Lance didn't meet his gaze, and instead continued to focus on the remote as he pulled up his movie choice.

"By picking a movie you already played for your Keith? A movie you already know made him laugh?"

"I would do no such thing, good sir, and I am appalled that you would think so lowly of me!"

Keith hit him with a pillow. "You're totally cheating! You can't even keep a straight face!"

Lance giggled and Keith whacked him with the pillow again.

"I think I just won no laugh movie night, since you're already laughing."

"That's not how this works!"

"Fine, play your movie." Keith fluffed his pillow and stuck it behind his head. He watched as Lance tried to bite back his smile before he settled in next to him. He could feel heat radiating from the arm Lance had laying so close to his own. He wanted to move his arm closer so they were touching.

He wouldn't, though. This wasn't his Lance, nor would it be fair to this Lance. But it left him to wonder how he'd ever managed to sit next to or stand next to his own Lance all those times in the past without reaching out to touch or let their hands brush. Something. Anything when he'd had the chance…

"Oh come on," Lance complained. "You're not even paying attention. You don't get to win that way, either!"

Keith tried to turn his thoughts back to the movie, since he'd clearly just missed a funny part. But he was having trouble concentrating on it, thoughts wandering again to what his Lance might be doing right then. He wondered if Lance had missed him when he left to work with the Blades. He wondered what Lance would think if he decided to return to the castleship to live…

"You know whose voice that is, right?" Lance asked, interrupting his thoughts again.

"Picard's," Keith replied automatically, because even if he wasn't following the plot, he'd know that voice anywhere.

"What?"

"Jean Luc Picard's."

Lance scoffed. "It's Professor Xavier's." He grinned over at Keith. "Nerd."

Keith woke up the next morning flat on his back, and found that Lance had moved up from just nudging his forehead against him while they slept to full on cuddling. As in, Lance's face was currently pressed into his neck and Lance's body was currently a long limbed warm line down the entire length of his own body. One of his hands was once again fisted in Keith's shirt, and Keith tentatively placed his own hand on top of Lance's. Lance didn't budge, and Keith began to wonder if there was any chance of getting out of bed without waking him.

He shifted himself ever so slightly closer to the edge of the bed, only to have Lance stretch his entire body — muscles going taut against Keith — and then release the most sinful groan Keith had ever heard.

"Lance," Keith whispered loudly, suddenly desperate to get out of this bed.

Lance groaned again, although he somehow managed to make the noise sound like a question this time. But before Keith could answer, Lance (thankfully) rolled off Keith with a yawn, before shifting to his stomach and burying his face in his own pillow.

Keith silently released the breath he'd been holding and quickly disappeared into the bathroom.

It was completely and utterly ridiculous that Lance would fall for a beaming Sol in a cape every morning as a diversion to allow Luna to hide from her eye drops.

But as Keith joined them in the main room that morning, he once again found Lance with his camera out, snapping pictures of Sol, eye drops still in his hands, while Luna was nowhere in sight. He leaned against a doorframe and crossed his arms, unable to decide between frowning and smiling at the scene.

"Wait!" Lance exclaimed, as if he'd suddenly realized he'd been duped again. "Where'd she go? Keith?"

And despite the entire thing being completely and utterly ridiculous, Keith couldn't help the pressure that built in his chest and rolled up his throat in what was soon an outright laugh as he shook his head at Lance and tried to bite back the chuckles.

Lance straightened where he'd been crouched to take Sol's picture, and watched Keith's not-so-silent struggle.

"You know you're laughing, right?" Lance said quietly as his face softened and one corner of his mouth lifted into a small grin. "Are you okay? Should I call someone?"

Keith shook his head as he ducked his face down, letting his bangs fall forward to try to hide some of his face. But then he glanced back up at Lance and studied the other's expression. He'd seen that look on the Lance of the space war reality — his Lance — often when he'd still lived in the castle with the rest of the team. It hit him full force then that up until that very moment, he'd never understood what that expression meant. He'd somehow missed the fondness hidden within the teasing Lance had always aimed directly at him.

"Daddy's blushing!" Luna squealed, completely giving away her hiding place.

"Gotcha!" Lance yelled as he rushed for the girl. "Come get your eye drops so you can go to the learning place and learn things!"

When they returned from dropping the kids at school, Keith followed Lance into the home office. He sat himself at the other Keith's desk, and glanced at the sketches and grid work the apparent architect had been working on for various projects.

"I really hope he didn't have anything due anytime soon," Keith said as he shifted a few papers and looked for notes on due dates. It wasn't that he could help, but he was beginning to feel guilty at the potential loss of income for this little family.

"What have you been working on?" Lance asked. He'd turned on his computer, and sent a pointed look at the sketchbook Keith had taken to carrying around with him in the house.

Keith's palm slid protectively over the cover for a moment, but then he lifted the book and handed it across the two desks to Lance. Lance sent him a grin in thanks, but his mouth dropped open as soon as he turned to the first page.

"Holy shit, Keith."

"That's you in your paladin armor," Keith supplied. He'd found some colored pencils recently and had been adding color to his sketches. "And that's Blue and Red." He pointed to the two large lions standing proudly on either side of Lance in the picture. "You can pilot both of them, so I thought both should be in there with you."

"That's badass," Lance whispered. He turned the page and his eyes widened again at his first glance of the giant robot.

"That's Voltron."

"It really is made up of your lions," Lance said in awe. "I've seen plenty of your work in the past, but Keith, this amazing."

"Uh, thanks," Keith said. He ran his hand over the small ponytail he'd pulled his hair into earlier. "I haven't actually drawn anything in a few years."

"Years?" Lance's eyes darted up to his at that. "What do you do instead to relax?"

"Mostly training? Close combat and sword fighting."

Lance gaped at him before he blew out a breath. "First the skin tight bodysuit and now sword fighting." He was interrupted by his phone ringing but didn't even glance at it when he picked it up. "Try not to kill me while you're here, samurai."

Keith could feel his ears begin to burn. He sort of wondered what kind of killing Lance meant. He did have his utility belt wrapped around his waist, so his Marmoran blade was always on him.

"Hi, Coran. What's up?" Lance said into the phone.

Keith was pretty sure that wasn't the type of killing Lance had in mind.

"Oh, was that one today?" Lance's brows furrowed as he listened to whatever Coran was saying. "Yeah, you're right, I shouldn't cancel that one. Its fine to keep her on the schedule… okay, I'll see you over here in about an hour."

"Coran is coming over?" Keith asked when Lance set his phone back on this desk.

"Yeah, I guess I'm working today after all."

He sort of wanted to see Lance in action. And with the back yard as large and populated with flowers and bushes as it was, it was pretty easy for Keith to sit at the patio table and not feel like he was crowding Lance and Lance's young client. And, thankfully, Lance's voice traveled.

Lance had changed into grey trousers and a blue button down shirt right before the others had arrived. He stood now with a hip jutted to the side and one finger tapping his chin as if he was deep in thought while staring down at the little girl who stood before him. Keith thought Lance had said her name was Vera, and she appeared to be somewhere between Sol and Luna's ages, based on her size. She also seemed a little shy as she glanced over at her mother with apprehensive eyes before looking up at Lance again. Coran stood behind Lance, adjusting the lens on his camera, completely unworried about whatever it was Lance was currently contemplating.

"Yup," Lance said suddenly, snapping his fingers. "Something is definitely missing." He dropped into a crouch so that he was eye level with the child. "Do you know what's missing?"

Vera looked down at her dress and shook her head before meeting Lance's eyes again.

"Well," Lance said, and now he leaned forward as if he had a secret, "did you know that fairies are notorious for stealing things?"

A small smile appeared on the girl's face and she shook her head again.

"Well, they are," Lance said matter of factly. "And somewhere back here is a fairy chest, and I bet we can find what we're missing inside the chest. Do you… do you want to help me find the fairy chest?"

The little girl let go of her mother's hand and nodded enthusiastically.

Keith had given up pretending to sketch from where he sat. He was practically leaning forward in his seat as he watched a mischievous grin appear on Lance's face.

"I bet I can find it before you. Ready, set, go!" Lance shouted before he grabbed the camera Coran held out for him in a perfectly timed maneuver, and then took off in a run down the stone trail.

And his tiny client, who had been so quiet up until this point, squawked before she took off in a run after him. There was a smile on her face and her dress flew behind her, all captured on film as Lance managed to turn, run backwards, and snap a few shots. He even slowed at one point and let her run past him, all while he continued to capture the action.

"Found it!" Vera squealed a few moments later, and Keith had to actually get up and switch chairs (thankfully no one seemed to be paying attention to him) in order to continue to watch. He tipped his head as he recognized the box as one of the props Lance had had in the office earlier. He somehow hadn't seen him bring it out here.

"Let's see what we've got!" Lance's tone was still excited, and he continued to inconspicuously click away at his camera as Vera opened the chest and then smiled brightly at the contents. "Ooh, we're in luck today." Lance lowered into a crouch again so that he could peer into the chest and pluck out a flower crown. "This might be exactly what we're missing. What do you think?"

The shy smile was back, but the girl bravely approached Lance's side and nodded. Lance looped his camera around his neck for a moment so that he could lean forward to place the ring of flowers on her head.

"Wait," Vera said suddenly, backing up a few inches. She glanced over to her mother, who had been standing by silently so far, a pleased smile on her face as she'd watched the previous shenanigans. The mother gave a little nod to whatever silent question her daughter was asking. At that, Vera looked to Lance again, and with a deep breath, pulled off the wig she was apparently wearing, revealing smooth, bald skin where it had sat. She lifted the wig to her mother, who walked over and accepted it before placing it in her shoulder bag. "Okay, ready," Vera said to Lance.

Even from this distance, Keith could see that Lance's eyes were shiny. But his smile was wide, and he leaned in again to carefully place the flower crown on Vera's head. Then he stood to his full height again and beamed down at her. She kept her chin tucked for a moment, but soon lifted her face to offer him a small half smile.

"Its razzle dazzle time!" Lance exclaimed, actually earning a small giggle.

After that, Keith was so entranced with watching Lance run around the yard with the little girl, while keeping up a steady stream of jokes and funny stories, that he didn't even notice when Vera's mom first came over to sit at the table with him.

"I've heard that your husband works magic back here," the woman said, eyes not leaving Lance and her daughter. "When she lost her hair with that last round of treatment, I needed something that would help build up her confidence again."

"I think you found it," Keith responded quietly.

When she only smiled, but didn't say anything else, Keith returned to his previous thoughts, about how this may be a completely different setting, but Keith still saw the Lance he knew in this talented photographer. The Lance who would pause to take pictures with grateful survivors on planets they liberated, who handed out food and other supplies, who would sit and just talk for vargas with someone who needed an ear until the rest of the team would finally have to drag Lance back into the castle.

Lance was way too endearing for Keith to handle.

"I-D-E-N-T-I-F-Y. Identify."

"That's right," Keith said with a nod and small smile. "Now it says to list out two synonyms for that word."

Luna tapped her chin and hummed. Keith glanced over to where Sol sat coloring, a few rocks, most of which had been painted, were scattered around his coloring book. Lance was back in the office running through the photos he'd taken that day, and Keith was trying to keep the kids occupied so Lance could work.

"Uh, select and… find?"

"Those work for me," Keith said, searching the homework page for the next word in the list.

"That reminds me of that thing you told me the other day," Luna said.

Keith froze, briefly, before saying, "Which thing?"

"You said sometimes you have to find your own family."

"Oh." Keith leaned back in his seat.

"I think you're right," Luna continued, as if she'd been giving this serious thought ever since she and the other Keith had had this discussion. "I mean, you and papá found each other, and then you found me and Sol. I think when I'm a grown up, I'm going to find kids who are missing a family, too."

She met his eyes with a bright smile, and Keith swallowed hard over the sudden lump in his throat. He wondered what it meant to receive advice indirectly from himself.

"It's sad that some people don't get a chance to find their own family, isn't it?"

He nodded again, unable to speak as his Voltron family filled his head. After all, even he had managed to grow up and find his own family. And not for the first time since arriving in this reality, he wondered why he'd ever given them up.

Lance picked up one of Luna's shirts and silently folded it. He was doing his best to not pay attention to the graphics on the front of it, but he knew it was her favorite cat shirt. It was probably the last thing Keith had folded before he'd been sucked into the space hole. Somehow Keith was gone, but the shirt got to stay. And here it was in the laundry again since Luna insisted on wearing it at least once a week.

He hated folding laundry without his husband.

Sol had asked if Keith could read him his bedtime story that night, and Keith had easily agreed.

The jerk was still so busy acting like this was a life he could never have, he didn't even see how easily he fit into it.

Lance picked up Luna's mermaid bathing suit and tossed it back towards her basket. He was never sure how to fold it — 'Try folding it into a square,' his Keith had recently said, a large smile on his face as he laughed at Lance's frustration with the garment.

He rubbed his hand over his chest again. He briefly wondered how long he could get away without doing laundry. Maybe he could just buy the kids new clothes all the time? Although, Keith had always insisted on washing new clothes before the kids wore them, so that idea was probably out….

Lance was pretty sure he was visibly keeping it together in front of the kids during the day. And the kids definitely acted as a great distraction. He couldn't help but be happy when he saw the kids happy. And, sometimes, this Keith would blink at him with that familiar (adorable) confused face, or smile at something the kids did, or curl against him in his sleep, and Lance would get to pretend for just a few minutes that he wasn't currently living in the middle of a made-for-TV sci-fi movie.

He also struggled daily, sometimes hourly, with wanting to drill Keith for more details on where his Keith would have ended up. Just how much danger was he in? Was there a chance he was being hurt? Killed? So far he'd been too afraid of the answers to ask. He just wanted his Keith back. It had been days. He still had a feeling he was supposed to be helping Keith on this side of the switch. But he wished someone had run this whole thing by him first. Maybe left some instructions on the bedside table or something.

"Hey," Keith said upon entering the bedroom. "They're not asleep yet, but they're both in bed with the lights off at least."

"Okay."

"You want some help?"

"No thanks. I need to do this alone."

"You have to fold clothes by yourself?"

"Yes."

"I'm responsible for some of this laundry. Look, this is the shirt I wore." Keith picked up the shirt in question from the pile and Lance quickly snatched it away from him before he got any ideas.

"I got it," Lance said, not meeting his eyes as he continued to work. He could feel the awkwardness filling the room as Keith idled next to the bed, but he was too tired to try to fix it right now.

"I could… just fold the towels?"

Lance eyed him. "Fine. But, over there on that chair, though."

Lance continued to fold the last of the clothes, and then moved them into the baskets where they'd sit until they were delivered to the kids' rooms in the morning. He glanced over to where Keith was finishing up with the towels, expecting to see a neatly stacked pile. Instead, he found Keith twisting the towels into odd shapes before piling them on top of each other.

"Holy crow, Keith, seriously?" He moved to Keith's side and poked at his weird towel pile.

"What's a religious bird got to do with folding laundry?"

Lance narrowed his eyes at him, mouth still pursed in a straight line, but he couldn't keep the humor from his eyes as he recognized the way Keith was biting his lip in order to keep a smile contained. "I've heard that joke in the past from this hot architect I know. But he at least knows how to fold towels. You can't just — what are you, like, a linen rebel?"

"That's not a thing."

"This is the most ridiculous — you honestly have to be messing with —" Lance cut himself off when he glanced up and caught Keith struggling not to laugh. Then he shouldered Keith over a few inches so he could take over the towel folding while trying to hide his own smile. "Ridiculous," he whispered again as he folded.

Keith didn't offer to help fold anything else, but he did sit on the bed and talk to Lance while Lance fixed the towels. With the bed clear again, Lance settled back on the pillows, and pulled up a show to watch. Keith settled in beside him, close but not touching. He was wearing a pair of red flannel pants with a black t-shirt. Pajamas Lance had given Keith last Christmas.

"Thanks for trying to cheer me up," he offered quietly, "even if it created more work."

"Maybe that's just how we fold towels in space," Keith said, a small smile on his face as he kept his eyes on the television. "Maybe your way is the complicated version."

"I'm sure that's it, spaceman."

Keith nodded, smug smile in place.

"So after your… space war, are you going back to Earth?"

Lance watched Keith's brows furrow, the way they always did if he was confused by something. But then he shook his head and said, "I haven't really given much thought to after the war, I guess."

"You probably should. Maybe it'll keep you from driving your spaceship into other ships."

"I'm going to do what I have to do, Lance."

Lance could feel himself tense up again — blood rushing through his ears while his heart pounded — at the thought of Keith sacrificing himself without a second thought.

"My whole life — everything led me to fight in that war. There has to be a reason I'm there," Keith continued. "That's my only focus."

Lance forced himself to take a few breaths before he spoke. "Except, you're not in that war right now, are you? The universe stole you away because you're focusing on the wrong reason."

"I'll be back. This" — Keith waved his hand around the bedroom before pointing at Lance's photo wall — "this isn't for me. This is not where I'll end up."

"Don't you dare say that," Lance practically hissed. He straightened where he sat and glared at Keith. He waited until Keith's eyes were on him before he continued. "You listen to me, because I didn't spend a shit ton of time and energy breaking down my Keith's goddamn walls so that he and I could have this life, just for you to sit here and scoff at it —"

"I'm not scoffing at it," Keith said quietly.

"No, listen. You could have something like this. He and I have already proven that. You can't argue with this." He waved his own hands around the room. "We didn't come by this easily. This came with work, but it was worth it. We didn't give up. You're quitting before you even try."

He knew he was yelling, and that his frustration with Keith was clearly evident. But he was still surprised when Keith pushed himself off the bed and left the room.

He huffed out a breath, angry at himself for pushing too hard. He knew Keith. He knew forcing him into anything never worked.

Keith escaped out the back door and into the beautiful backyard, which somehow appeared even more wondrous at night with a few well-placed lanterns and a starry sky overhead. He walked over to one of the ivy-covered archways and ducked through it to where he knew he wouldn't be visible from the house.

Not that it mattered, since the backdoor opened a few moments later and he heard Lance's footsteps follow him into the yard.

He'd been trying really hard over the past several days here to push away everything Lance had been saying. It didn't make sense for the universe to tease him with this picket fence world of love and family, when he knew he'd be thrown back into the middle of a space war as soon as the universe had had its fun and switched him back. And why did Lance care so much about who he fought beside? Why was he pushing the Voltron crew over the Blades?

"Hey, man." Lance's voice was quiet as he approached Keith's back, and Keith squeezed his eyes shut as that statement pulled him back to another time those words had been spoken softly in that voice. When his Lance had offered comfort and a voice of reason.

His Lance.

He really missed Lance.

This Lance dropped a hand on his shoulder and spun him so that they were facing each other, and without a word, he pulled Keith in for a hug.

"Now you put your arms around me, too," Lance murmured into Keith's ear.

Keith rolled his eyes, even though Lance couldn't see his face, and wrapped his arms around Lance's small waist.

"Now squeeze." Lance's voice was teasing, but Keith did it anyway.

"I love you, you know."

"Not me," Keith whispered back.

"Yes, you. All Keiths. In whatever world or reality. You're still Keith. And I love Keith."

Keith shook his head against Lance's, but didn't open his mouth to protest again. There was no arguing with someone as stubborn as Lance.

"I always told Keith I must've done hero level good deeds in a past life, because karma sent me him."

Keith scoffed, although likely not for the reason Lance would assume. He dropped his arms and forced Lance to release him as he stepped back so he could properly stare incredulously at Lance.

"Lance." He ran his hand through his hair as he tried to come up with the words to express what he wanted to say. "Ignoring all the real hero work you've done in the war in my reality, you — you've convinced three foster kids, although maybe I should count myself twice? That's four — you convinced four foster kids that family and home and love are things that actually exist. That's definitely a hero-level good deed. I'm positive that Keith counts himself as the lucky one in this house."

Lance ran his hands through his hair and Keith watched him visibly swallow before he met Keith's eyes again with blue eyes full of fondness. Still, half his mouth quirked up in a smirk as he reached out and poked Keith in the chest. "I think your heart grew three sizes today."

"Shut up," Keith said with zero bite.

Lance pulled him back into a hug, and Keith returned it easily this time, tucking his face into Lance's neck and letting his arms squeeze tight around his middle.

"You know," Lance sighed, "it's bad enough that you look exactly like him, it's really unfair of you to smell just like him too."

"I'm sorry," Keith said. And he meant it. This whole thing was unfair to Lance.

"It's not your fault."

"Actually… I think it is."

Chapter Text

Lance let his shoulders sag only after Shiro and Allura led Lotor away — to be locked up in some special cell room within the castle. He didn't even know the castle had cells, but he was glad to hear they had some secure place to keep Lotor and his shiny hair contained.

The main lounge was currently crowded with resistance fighters and Marmoran soldiers, all participating in various degrees of celebrations and serious discussions. He spotted Hunk and Pidge in the midst of a laughing group and smiled a bit at the sight of such happiness on his friends. He scanned the room for a particularly short Blade member, but turned away disappointed when he didn't see a head of messy black hair in the crowd. He was halfway out of the room, determined to get out of his armor and into a shower, when he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"Can I talk to you?"

Compared to most of the happy faces in the room, Matt's somber look was a stark contrast, and Lance had the distinct feeling that his very long day was nowhere near over yet.

"Sure." Lance nodded out towards the quieter hallway, and even managed a smile.

A smile that, for some reason, only resulted in Matt looking even more upset.

And a few doboshes later, after listening to Matt's retelling of what Keith had tried to do after Voltron's narrow escape from Naxzela, Lance knew exactly why Matt had looked so upset.

"He did what?"

Matt's natural reaction was to be sad.

Lance?

Lance was pissed.

No, forget pissed. He was livid. He was going to kill Keith.

"Lance, wait! Where are you going?"

He'd spun on his booted heel and marched right back into the lounge and directly to Kolivan.

"Where is he?" he demanded of the Blade leader.

"Lance?" Shiro asked upon reentering the room with the princess.

Lance ignored him and continued to glare up at Kolivan. He was vaguely aware that the rest of the room had gone quiet, the victory celebrations stalling at the sight of the current Red Paladin's distress.

"Who are you asking for?" Kolivan asked.

Lance visibly bristled. Who else would he be asking Kolivan about? "Keith. Where is Keith?"

If it wasn't for how utterly upset Lance looked at the moment, Hunk may have released a laugh when he saw some of the other resistance fighters glance curiously over at Allura. Most knew that the princess was not Keith, but those that had only seen the Voltron Show, and had not interacted with Allura directly, were likely confused right now.

Kolivan hesitated, and even glanced over to Shiro and Allura for a moment, but when no one interjected again to stop Lance's line of questioning, he spoke. "He stole a Galra ship after completing his part of the mission."

"Yes," Lance fumed, tone hard and words icy. "I know that part."

"He has not checked in again since the battle."

Shiro came to stand beside Lance. "Then where is he?"

"How can you just stand here when you don't know where he is?" Lance demanded.

"He is responsible for himself. He knows what to do." Kolivan straightened his spine as he spoke, clearly offended by their demands.

"Responsible for himself?" Lance asked incredulously as he pictured Keith — alone — trying to pilot his ship into Haggar's shields.

"The Blade of Marmoran values the mission over individual," Kolivan said sternly.

"That's bullshit."

"Lance." It was said quietly, but Lance could still hear the warning in Shiro's voice.

"He better be okay," Lance growled in Kolivan's direction before he stormed away from Kolivan, Shiro, and every other being in that room who were currently staring. He'd barely made it into the hallway before the familiar footsteps of Hunk and Pidge began to follow him. He didn't turn back to them, however, but instead continued his trek to the main bridge where he found Coran working at his station. "Coran, you and Matt were talking to Keith earlier?" Lance asked immediately. It wasn't really a question, Matt had already told Lance that he and Coran had done their best to stop Keith. "Can you pull that frequency back up?"

There was a knowing look in Coran's eyes as he watched Lance approach him.

"I can try," Coran said, and Lance couldn't help but notice how tired he sounded. It was a true sign of the perils they'd faced that day, since Lance couldn't remember Coran ever showing signs of fatigue. "He closed down his comms earlier and hasn't reached out again." Coran's hands were already on his dashboard, though, despite the doubt in his voice. "His ship hasn't moved," Coran murmured as their main screen filled with a view of space that contained one lone Galra ship.

Lance impatiently watched Coran push the button that would hail Keith's ship, and reminded himself that he was no longer demanding answers from Kolivan, but from his friend, and did his best to keep his tone neutral. "Why isn't he responding?"

Coran hit the hail button again, eyes trained on the large screen in front of them. "Perhaps he is on another call?" he offered.

Lance's eyes slid to the side to focus on the older Altean beside him.

Coran shrugged in response to Lance's side eye.

"The readings of the ship say there is a life form onboard."

"Life form?" Lance asked, mouth twisted at the clinical-sounding word as he glanced towards Pidge where she sat at her own station. "Can't you just say Keith is onboard, Pidge?"

"Welllll," Pidge dragged out the one syllable word, prompting Hunk to lean over to see what she was reading on her screen. "It mostly matches Keith's biometrics."

"Huh?"

"It sort of looks like Keith," Hunk added helpfully.

"Lance!"

Lance's head whipped towards the sound, and found Keith's face filling the large main screen. "Keith," he uttered quietly in response, chest filled with relief at the sight Keith's familiar face. "Why are you still sitting out there? Is something wrong with your ship?"

"Is something wrong with my —" Keith's eyes moved frantically over his face. "That's your question? How about why am I in space?"

That relief Lance felt before? Gone. With the size of Keith's face on the screen, it was easy to see that his pupils were dilated as his eyes continued to dart over each of them. His hair was wild, as if he'd been through a windstorm. And he was visibly breathing faster than what would be required for sitting in the cockpit of a space craft. Lance frowned in confusion and concern as he watched Keith panic in front of them.

"Uh, buddy, are you okay?" Hunk ventured to ask.

"I'm in space!" Keith stared back at them as if they were the ones being confusing in this moment, before he focused on Lance again. "Lance, how did you — where are you?"

Lance did an unnecessary glance around the control room. "I'm in the castle?" He wasn't sure why he was phrasing it like a question. "Can you fly to us?"

"What? No! I was pretty much just hoping this whole thing wasn't going to blow up when I pushed the beeping button that brought you guys up on screen!"

"I'm going to go get him," Lance said, making the decision as he said the words. Keith was upset. And in trouble as he just floated through open space. And he was scared. He was visibly scared, and Lance couldn't just stand here one more second and watch without doing some—

"Looks like the red lion is one step ahead of you," Coran said, pointing to one of their side screens.

"Classic Red," Hunk said with a chuckle.

"He's not that far away," Pidge said, appearing by Lance's side. "She'll have him back here soon." She leaned closer to Lance and lowered her voice before speaking again. "We're going to have to run some tests on him."

"Ay por dios." Keith's eyes somehow managed to grow even wider on the screen. "What is that?"

"Was that Spanish?" Hunk murmured.

Lance stepped closer to the screen. He was going to have to ask Keith how much Spanish he knew later. When Keith was safely back on this castleship. For now — "Is it a large red mechanical lion?" he asked, pulling Keith's eyes back to him.

"How did you know?"

"That's Red, Keith," Lance said slowly. "She's going to help."

"From here it looks like she's going to eat me."

"Keith," Lance said sharply, because Keith looked like he was about to jump out of his seat and do something stupid. "Trust me. She's going to help. She's going to bring you back here."

That seemed to be the right thing to say, because Keith settled in his seat and met Lance's eyes again. "Bring me to you?"

Lance kept his eyes locked with Keith's, despite the warmth he could feel crawling up his neck at the silly hope that Keith had missed him and was eager to see him again. Surely, Keith meant the entire Voltron team. Although, the small grin pulling at one corner of Keith's mouth as Keith continued to stare longingly at him wasn't helping.

Keith was jolted in his seat a moment later, and while he looked startled, Lance took it as a win that Keith didn't immediately do anything that would get him ejected into space.

"Okay, I know you said this thing wouldn't eat me, but this spaceship is definitely in the mouth of the large lion right now." Keith eyes found Lance's face again, and Lance's head tilted slightly as he tried to determine if that was humor he heard in Keith's voice. "So, I'm not saying you were wrong or anything, but I'm likely two minutes away from being in this big cat's belly."

Hunk and Pidge both chuckled next to him and Lance's mouth dropped open in surprise. Keith was teasing him right now. He closed his mouth and pushed the thought away.

"Are you okay?" Lance couldn't help but ask.

"I'll be better when I land where you are."

That warmth on his neck was definitely rising to his cheeks now. Keith just looked so damn earnest.

"I'm gonna head down to Red's hangar. Coran, will you stay on with him till he gets to the castle?" When Coran nodded to Lance, his face betraying his worry over the situation, Lance raced to the exit. "I'll see you in a few doboshes!" he yelled over his shoulder to Keith, and tried to ignore how confused Keith sounded when he repeated back "Doboshes?"

He ran down the first hallway, with Hunk and Pidge once again trailing closely behind him.

"Maybe he hit his head?" Hunk offered as they ran.

"But he seems to know us?" Pidge noted. "He knows Lance at the very least."

"Okay, but what if he only lost his memory back to a certain point? Like if he met Lance before he learned how to fly?"

"He didn't," Lance interrupted. Keith had already been a top pilot at the Garrison when the two of them had met.

"Or he lost the part of his memory that includes the war against Zarkon?" Hunk grabbed a corner to help spin himself around a turn in order to keep up with Lance's stupid long legs.

"He'd still know how to fly," Lance said, "and he wouldn't be freaked out to be in space."

"Yeah, that definitely looked like a guy who never expected to be in space," Pidge agreed.

They watched as Red landed in her hangar and gently set the ship carrying Keith down in front of her. Lance, Hunk, and Pidge scrambled towards the ship and waited for one of the hatches to open to reveal a disheveled Keith.

In the past — after Keith had left to train with the Blades — Lance may have spent some time wondering what a reunion would be like when Keith finally returned, even if it was just for a visit. He'd always pictured a nod of acknowledgement or maybe even a smile from Keith in his direction. And although it would've been nice, he didn't expect an outright hug. And he certainly didn't expect to be tackled to his back with Keith landing solidly on top of him.

"Lance," Keith whispered in his ear, arms tight around Lance's neck as Lance tried to catch his breath in his sudden horizontal position.

"You're sure you know who I am?" Lance asked — Hunk and Pidge's theories of memory loss running through his mind at the unexpected greeting from Keith.

Keith sat upright then — completely straddling Lance's lap while Lance was still sprawled out on the floor of Red's hangar — and Lance got a better look at Keith's outfit, which included a red and black plaid that covered the pajama bottoms as well as the sleeves of the otherwise black pajama top. Lance was pretty sure that wasn't BoM issued sleepwear…

"Yes, I know who my husband is," Keith said, voice teasing as he managed to make Lance sound like the confused one here.

"Husband," Lance whispered.

"Husband?" Pidge asked with a tilt of her head while Hunk simultaneously released a long "Ooooh" and grinned widely at the two men on the floor.

"Lance, what was that?" Keith asked, ignoring all of them. "I tried to hold onto you, but — how did you get here? And where'd you get the… outfit?"

"Its armor," Lance whispered, awestruck as he continued to stare up at Keith. Keith who thought he was Lance's husband.

"And how did you two get here?" Keith asked, sparing a glance at Pidge and Hunk before turning back to Lance. "Who else is here?"

"I don't think this is our Keith," Lance said quietly.

Keith frowned at him then as his eyes danced across Lance's face. He spared another quick glance at Hunk and Pidge, before grabbing one of Lance's hands and tugging off one of the gloves they all wore with their paladin armor.

"What?" Lance finally asked when Keith simply stared down at Lance's hand.

Keith dropped his hand then as if it had burned him and shot off Lance's lap in order to stand on his own a few feet away.

"Keith?" Lance asked as he pushed himself to stand as well. Keith looked distraught once again, just as he had earlier when he'd been alone in space in the Galra ship.

Keith didn't meet his eyes, but he did lift his left hand, fingers straight up towards the ceiling in order to display the silver wedding band wrapped around his ring finger. Lance glanced down at his own bare finger and finally realized what Keith had been looking for.

"Keith, I know this seems —"

"Who are you?" Keith demanded. He crossed his arms over his chest, immediately making him appear smaller even as he glared at Lance. "Why do you look like — like —" he snapped his mouth shut and pursed his lips into a straight line.

"We're, uh, we're going to get the others," Hunk suddenly said as he pushed on Pidge's shoulder towards the exit.

"Hunk!" Lance exclaimed, because he was not at all sure he should be left alone with this glaring Keith.

"We definitely need some help here, Lance," Hunk said unapologetically as they moved. "Besides, you know how to handle Keith."

Lance turned back to Keith and tried to offer a comforting smile. Keith's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"I look like Lance because I am Lance," he said slowly.

"No, you are not," Keith practically growled in return, arms crossing tighter over his front. "I want you to bring me home."

Keith's eyes were slightly glassy, and Lance rubbed at a spot on his chest that ached at the sight. He took a step closer to Keith, but paused when he saw Keith tense further. He wanted to hug him. And if this was anyone else, he would just act on that instinct. But this was some version of Keith, and Lance wasn't sure how a random Lance hug would be received.

A rumble strong enough to knock him a step towards Keith hit him from behind, and before he could turn to ask Red what she thought she was doing, Keith appeared to stumble where he stood, arms falling back to his sides, before he looked wildly around the room.

"What was that?"

Lance did turn his head now to eye Red before turning back to Keith. "Pretty sure that was Mama Red Lion trying to make you feel better," he explained while throwing a thumb over his shoulder in Red's direction. At Keith's confused expression, he continued. "Um, our Keith was her paladin before me, and they have a pretty strong bond. She must recognize you, or part of you, or something." He suddenly rubbed a hand down his face. "I don't know," he groaned. "This is all pretty strange."

"You're telling me," Keith muttered. Keith eyed the giant robot lion behind Lance. "Can the lion take me back to Earth? Back home?"

"I'm afraid that won't do any good," Lance said quietly, and quiznack, he was really going to have to stop saying things that led to Keith looking so devastated. "Hey, man, you'll be okay." He took a tentative step towards Keith and drew Keith's eyes back to his face. "We won't let anything happen to you while you're here."

"Lance, what is going on?" Keith asked slowly.

"Well, we'll have to wait to see what the others say, but I don't think you belong in this… reality."

Keith's reaction — mainly disbelief if Lance was reading his expression correctly — was interrupted by the rest of the Voltron crew joining them, including Coran, and with the addition of Kolivan who was following closely behind.

"Holy crow," Keith whispered when he caught sight of the broad alien entering the room.

Lance's head jerked in Keith's direction, not because Keith was now moving to stand behind him as the others approached, but because holy crow was something he said — was something his father had always said when Lance was a kid — and he didn't know anyone outside his own family who regularly used that phrase.

"That's a big cat," Keith whispered, close enough now that his breath was hitting the back of Lance's neck.

Lance smirked in response, but looked back questioningly at Keith when he felt Keith's fingers circle one of his wrists. Keith's eyes remained warily pinned on Kolivan.

"Keith, are you ready to leave?" Kolivan asked.

Lance heard Keith's sharp intake of breath and felt Keith's fingers tighten around his wrist.

"Where is your armor?"

Something red hot surged through Lance at the thought that Kolivan believed he was taking this Keith away from the castleship.

"He's not going with you," Lance stated as he stood to his full height and shifted so that he stood more directly in front of Keith.

"Why not?"

"We've been running some scans," Allura said, stepping in before Lance could respond again. "There are some — anomalies in his readings. He's currently not fit for battle."

"Understood," Kolivan said with a nod to the princess. "You can send word when he's — recovered and we will arrange a transfer."

Lance glared at Kolivan's back as Kolivan left the hangar. He hadn't even asked what was wrong with Keith. Had shown zero concern for Keith's well being.

"Why would I go with him?" Keith whispered to Lance, pulling his attention back to him.

Lance turned to face Keith properly again. "Because our Keith doesn't currently live here with us. He lives with the Blades. And that is his commanding officer."

"Blades?" Keith asked. His hold on Lance's wrist continued.

Lance sighed and turned to the others. While it had appeared that Pidge and Hunk had filled them in prior to their arrival in the hangar, Shiro, Allura, and Coran all stood eyeing Keith curiously.

"Keith," Allura began, stepping forward, "Pidge tells us that you are unfamiliar with your current surroundings."

"Right," Keith said with a nod before tilting his head to the side as he stared back at Allura. "Are your ears pointy?"

Her fingers reflexively touched her own ears before Allura glanced at Lance with humor in her eyes. "Yes."

"They're not pointy where I'm from," Keith stated. "And you don't have any markings like that on your faces." Keith glanced now at Coran as well.

"Coran and I are Altean," Allura explained patiently. "We are not from Earth like the rest of you."

"Another surprise." Keith glanced down at Lance's left hand again, the one whose wrist he was still clutching, and dropped Lance's wrist as if he hadn't remembered that he was still holding it. He took a small step away.

Lance wanted to pull him back in.

"Is there any definitive way to prove that he is not our Keith?" Shiro asked. "How do we know we're dealing with alternate realities and not just…"

"I still think amnesia is a possibility," Hunk suggested. "He was just involved in a battle. He could've easily hit his head."

"Except he's claiming that he and Lance are married," Pidge said. "So, amnesia combined with false memories. That's a pretty complicated head injury."

"I don't have amnesia," Keith said, crossing his arms once more.

"We have to think about the possibility that he's a clone the Galra sent in to infiltrate Voltron," Shiro said.

"I think a clone is a tad far-fetched, Shiro," Allura said with a small chuckle.

"And wouldn't they do a better job at giving a clone Keith's actual memories?" Hunk asked. "Unless," and now Hunk smiled mischievously at Lance, "Zarkon ships you and Keith together, Lance."

"Stop," Lance said.

"The big bad Galra leader has a soft spot and he's just trying to help you two along," Hunk teased, grin as wide as ever.

"I'm not married to this Lance," Keith said seriously. "I'm married to my own Lance."

"So much for that theory," Hunk said, swinging his arm in an oh shucks motion.

Lance turned his back to his supposed best friend, and quickly did his best to divert the attention away from his surely red face.

"Keith, where's your knife?"

"What knife?"

"Oh, yeah, he never lets that out of his sight," Pidge said.

"Your Marmoran blade. Where is it?"

"I don't know what that is," Keith said.

"Wait, come here," Lance said, and this time he grabbed Keith's wrist and dragged him right up into Red's mouth (despite Keith's muttering about walking into the belly of the beast). He pointed to the pilot's chair, and while Keith gave him an odd look, he did take a seat.

And then they proceeded to stare at each other through the darkness in silence.

Lance let Red's feelings wash over him, and then turned on his heel to rejoin the rest of the group. "Red is… confused," he said. He rubbed at the back of his own head where her message had been the strongest. He suddenly understood what Pidge and Hunk had meant earlier when they said Keith's readings had been off. "She sort of recognizes him, but not as our Keith."

Not my Keith had been the most distinctive feeling he'd gotten from Red.

"You're saying she doesn't recognize him as a paladin?" Allura asked as they continued to stare up at the unmoving lion.

"That still doesn't prove that this is an alternate reality Keith, though," Hunk insisted. "Keith left to go with the Blades, maybe none of the lions would let him pilot right now, because they already have paladins."

"Can I come out now?" Keith asked from where he peered out of Red's mouth.

"No, I'm saying she doesn't recognize him as our Keith," Lance said. "Although, that doesn't make sense. She recognized him enough to go get him when he was in distress earlier. Why would Red go rescue him?" Lance's arms flew up in exasperation, and Keith, who had exited Red and come to stand next to him, expertly dodged one of them.

"Because you're Red's paladin," Pidge stated as if it was obvious. "And you were worried about Keith. Red was obviously responding to you, Lance."

"I'm not sure that makes sense, either." Lance frowned at Pidge. She only shrugged her shoulders in response.

"Keith, what's the last thing you remember before everything changed for you as well?" Shiro asked.

Keith laughed a little at that — laughed — before his face turned slightly pink and he glanced up at Lance from behind his bangs. "Lance and I had finished folding laundry in our room, and we were going to… bed."

Lance's eyes widened before his eyes darted to the ground and he refused to meet anyone else's eyes as Keith continued. He told everyone about a crackling, bedroom ceiling black hole that sucked him out of Lance's grasp and dropped him into the pilot seat of the Galran fighter ship.

"What about the Zaiforge cannon?" Shiro asked.

"Or going kamikaze against that Galra ship outside Naxzela?" Lance demanded, lifting his eyes again to focus on Keith's expression.

Keith stared at them blankly. "I — I don't know what those words mean."

"How am I supposed to yell at him if he doesn't remember?" Lance muttered angrily, hands tugging uselessly through his hair.

"Yell at me for what?" Keith asked, and he was suddenly much closer to Lance than before, with big purple eyes full of confusion and worry.

Lance lowered his hands from his hair at the sight and shook his head. "Nothing."

"What if we go further back than just today?" Pidge asked. "You obviously didn't recognize Red, so you clearly don't have any Voltron Lion memories. What about that shack you were in out in the desert? Or the Garrison?"

Keith stepped a little closer to Lance's side, and Lance watched him use his thumb to spin his wedding band around his ring finger.

"I'm not — look, I recognize all of you from my life, but nothing else here makes sense."

Lance shifted a little closer to Keith, fought down the urge to wrap an arm around Keith, and exchanged a few worried looks with the rest of the team.

"Coran," Allura said after a few moments of silence. "Would you please contact Slav and see if he will pay us a visit?"

"Right away, Princess," Coran said with a nod. He sent another worried glance in Keith's direction before turning to leave.

"Wait," Lance said, "if he's not our Keith, then where is our Keith?"

"If he's a Keith from another reality, then they likely switched places?" Allura suggested.

"You sound like you're guessing," Hunk questioned.

"Do you live somewhere safe?" Shiro asked before Allura could confirm.

Keith huffed out a laugh. "A lot safer than cat aliens and lion spaceships that try to eat you."

Lance noticed that he wasn't the only one in the room who appeared relieved by this information. And he was relieved, because they would figure this out and get their Keith back, but in the meantime he wouldn't need to worry too much about him. Not like the worry he felt while Keith was off being a super spy for the Blades.

"So, Slav is?" Keith asked as Lance led him through the castle hallways towards the sleeping quarters.

"Slav is the most knowledgeable being we know in regards to multiple realities."

"He would know how to send me home?"

Lance had no idea, so he avoided looking at Keith's face — he could hear the hope in Keith's voice, and Lance wasn't feeling up to disappointing Keith again. He stopped outside a room he'd been avoiding since their Keith had left with the Blade of Marmora, and hesitated only briefly before lifting his hand to enter the door's pass code.

"This is Keith's room," Lance announced as the door slid open. "Or at least, it was his room before he left us."

"Keith has his own room?"

"Uh, yeah," Lance said with an uncertain nod. "I mean, this castle is huge, there's enough space so that no one has to share."

Keith stared back at him for a moment, those familiar purple eyes moving slowly over Lance's face as if he was searching for something — as if he was expecting something from Lance. Then Lance watched Keith peer hesitantly inside the room before taking the few steps needed to actually enter.

Lance followed him in and went straight to the closet. "I've never actually seen Keith in pajamas." He heard a scoffing sound from Keith and turned to him with an eyebrow raised in question.

Keith pulled on the front of his current pajama shirt before saying, "Lance buys me pajamas at every opportunity."

Lance blinked and unintentionally licked his lips as his eyes traveled up and down Keith's pajama-clad body. Seeing how adorable and soft he looked left Lance no room to doubt that his alternate self would definitely gift Keith all the pajamas, all the time.

"These were a gift to celebrate…" Keith eyed the shirt and pants again for a moment, "our one year anniversary of home ownership. I think. Either that, or they were a thank you present because I finally figured out how to make Lance his favorite soup without burning it."

A short laugh escaped Lance's mouth before he could stop it. With the food options on this ship, and Hunk and Coran taking over most of the chef duties, he had no idea if their Keith had any abilities in the kitchen at all.

And also, yes, pajamas as thanks for something silly and wonderfully domestic sounded like something he would do.

His brows furrowed a bit, though, as he thought about what else Keith had said. "You two own a house together?" he asked quietly.

Keith tilted his head as he regarded Lance. "Is the surprise that we live together or the home ownership?"

"How'd you know I was surprised?"

"I married you." He waved his ringed finger at Lance as he spoke. "I know your face, Lance."

Keith's eyes were roving over Lance's face again, and Lance quickly turned back to Keith's closet, doing his best to hide how exposed those purple eyes had him feeling.

He cleared his throat before speaking again. "Well, our Keith left his clothes here when he went with the Blades. I don't even want to know if he ever gets to change out of their armor," he muttered the last bit as he rustled through Keith's closet. "There are some things in here for you to wear in the morning, I guess. He's got a jacket too, but it's… not in here right now. I'll get it to you tomorrow."

Keith's jacket was definitely in Lance's room at the moment, but he didn't think it was important to mention that.

He turned away from the closet to face Keith again, and found Keith eyeing the walls of the room.

"There's not a lot in here," Keith finally said.

"I guess not."

Lance didn't need to glance around the room to know it was pretty bare. He preferred Keith's old room this way, though. This room didn't remind him of Keith, making it that much easier to deal with Keith's absence.

"It's pretty late," Lance said, "so I'll guess I'll leave you to get some sleep."

"Wh-Where's your room?"

"It's right next door." Lance pointed in the correct direction, and holy quiznack Keith looked really sad again. He fought off the urge to drag Keith back to his room. "Are you going to be okay in here?"

"Um." Keith glanced around the room again. "Is there any paper in here? Something to draw with?"

"Draw?" Lance asked, surprised. When Keith only nodded in response, he crossed the room again to where Keith's desk sat and demonstrated to Keith how to open the weird alien drawers.

"Thanks," Keith murmured as he pulled the supplies he wanted from the small compartment.

And seeing as how Keith suddenly looked more at home, Lance wished him good night and left the room. He paused outside the door once it had slid shut, every fiber of his being telling him to get back in there and not leave this Keith alone. But he once again fought off the urge and made his way to his own room. He'd told Keith where he'd be, and Keith could come get him if he needed anything.

Once in his room, he finally began tugging off his paladin armor. Then he made quick work of washing his face and brushing his teeth, skipping any unnecessary steps so he could finally finally collapse into his bed.

The surprise arrival of a random Keith had only been one of the many momentous events of the day, and he thought back to all of the emotions that had slammed into him earlier through the Voltron bond when they'd all thought they were irrevocably stuck on Naxzela. The memory of Shiro dismissing his idea to get off that planet before they were stuck had hurt, and not just because he wanted Shiro to take him seriously as the right hand of Voltron, but because Keith would've listened to him immediately. Keith would've heard his tone of voice — heard the seriousness —and not even questioned Lance's suggestion.

He really did miss Keith.

Although, now a Keith was here and safe in the castle. That was good. Keith looked comfy and soft in pajamas. Also good. Keith tackle hugged him when he first saw him. Very nice.

Keith had a wedding band and said he was married to Lance.

Keith said phrases that Lance said regularly, phrases he'd never heard their own Keith utter before.

Keith wasn't just looking to Lance for explanations or help with decisions — something Lance had grown accustomed to when their Keith was still a Voltron paladin — but this Keith had also physically leaned into him earlier for support.

Lance wasn't sure what to do with any of this information.

And if Slav agreed with them that this was a Keith from another reality — then where the quiznack was their Keith?

Lance rolled to his side, and hoped that their Keith was safe.

Lance had done his best to sleep the night before, and it really made no sense after the battle and stress of the day that he should toss and turn all night.

But for some reason, he tossed and turned all night. Then he was out of bed early and hesitating in front of Keith's door. There was a possibility that the Keith they had all met yesterday was gone — switched back to his own reality. In which case, maybe Lance was about to find their rightful Keith behind this door.

The thought sent butterflies swooping around his stomach.

Deciding that no matter the Keith, he should be a good host and escort Keith to breakfast, he finally knocked on the door. After a few moments of silence, he knocked again, and this time there was a light thump in the room before a few ticks of silence. Finally Keith's doors slid open, revealing the Keith that Lance had met yesterday, still in his soft pajamas. Still wearing his wedding band.

Although now he had the added imagery of sleepy Keith with ridiculous bed head to contend with in his brain forever.

"Oh, hey," Keith said, voice thick with sleep and also sending butterflies swooping through Lance's stomach. "Is it morning?" Keith pointed to one of the portal windows in the room, the view an amazing assortment of stars the castleship was passing. With eyes still half closed but a small smile pulling at his lips, Keith declared, "It's still dark out."

Another laugh escaped Lance's mouth before he could stop it — not that he wanted to — but he certainly wasn't familiar with funny Keith, no matter what Hunk said about Galra Keith's sense of humor.

"How'd you sleep?" Lance asked as Keith stretched his arms over his head with a yawn before padding back to the bed to sit and rub at his eyes.

(Lance pointedly did not stare at any exposed skin with the arm stretch, or think that funny, soft, sleepy Keith was adorable in any way because Lance is a paladin of Voltron in the middle of a war for the universe, and this was not a scene out of his favorite rom-com.)

(Funny, soft, sleepy Keith was pretty damn adorable, though.)

"Not great," Keith muttered. "I'm not used to sleeping by myself."

"Oh, yeah. 'Cause you usually sleep with…"

"Yup," Keith said without elaboration. "So, I was thinking last night…"

Keith stopped and looked at Lance expectantly. Lance raised an eyebrow in question.

"Nothing to say to that?" Keith finally asked.

"Whaaat were you thinking?" Lance asked after a moment, a question with two meanings, since he wasn't sure what Keith was expecting.

Keith sighed, somewhat sadly, Lance noted, before his gaze dropped away from Lance and he yawned again.

"If I say I was thinking about something, Lance always says, 'Dangerous' because he thinks its funny to get me riled up."

And while someone else might complain about that sort of thing in a relationship, Lance watched Keith's mouth pull into wide smile. The spell was broken, however, when Keith glanced up at him again and seemed to remember that he was not at home with his own Lance. Lance mourned quietly as the smile fell of Keith's face.

"Anyway, I was thinking, and since you were surprised that Lance and I are married, and clearly not married to your own Keith, and you guys have separate bedrooms… Are you two at least dating?"

Lance scoffed as he shook his head. "Me and Keith? No. No way. Nope. No, no, no, no, no."

Keith stared at him unimpressed. "So that's a no?"

"Very much a no. Plus, I never — we never see him anymore. He moved out."

"Moved out of what?" Keith asked. "What is this ship? What are you guys doing out here in space?"

"We're saving the universe," Lance said, pride in his voice. "Get dressed. We can all fill you in over breakfast."

Keith made another face as he did his best to swallow down the food goo breakfast, before asking, "Can I see Voltron?"

"We may do some training in our lions later today," Shiro responded with a nod. "We'll likely form Voltron then."

The entire team had been talking over each other to tell Keith about the bond between Voltron's lions and their paladins, the current war for the universe, and many of their battles. They had just finished the retelling of their most recent effort which resulted in Prince Lotor's detainment onboard.

"It sounds incredible," Keith said with a bright grin, and Lance watched everyone around the table practically swoon at the sight.

"It's nice to have Keith here again," Pidge said quietly from where she sat next to Lance.

"Except he's not our Keith," Lance whispered back, determined not to get attached to the idea of having Keith around, made even more difficult when this Keith had met him back in the hallway earlier dressed in their Keith's clothes, looking so much like Keith that he'd been rendered speechless and immobile for a few ticks.

"There is this for now, though." Coran tossed a small disc to the center of their breakfast table, and a hologram lit up above their heads. Lance heard a deep "Whoa" escape a wide-eyed Keith as he stared up at it.

"May I present you with 'The Voltron Show'" Coran said proudly. "In an effort to gain supporters and allies in our fight, the paladins put on impressive demonstrations."

There were minor groans of complaint from around the table, but Keith didn't seem to notice as he grimaced through another bite of goo while still keeping his eyes pinned on the video stream.

Lance leaned back in his own seat, and resigned himself to half watching Keith's reactions (some small chuckles over some of their theatrics) and half watching the show itself. He knew this wasn't their Keith, but he had often wondered if their Keith had ever seen the show, or what he would have thought about the whole ordeal. He'd always sort of figured that Keith would likely just be relieved that he'd left Voltron in time to avoid having to participate in anything like this (which sometimes made Allura's portrayal of him even funnier).

Lance's eyes returned to the show when he heard his 'Loverboy Lance' introduction, although his attention was quickly dragged back to Keith as Keith began to choke on his food. Hunk gave Keith's back a few rough pats and offered Keith some water.

"I'd tell you to chew your food, but… it's goo," Hunk muttered.

When Keith managed to swallow down some water, Lance watched those purple eyes dart from the screen over to Lance and back again. It was curious, because Keith's face was still a dark red, despite the fact that he could breathe normally again, and he definitely just whispered a low "Fuck" as he continued to stare.

Lance leaned over so he could whisper to just Keith. "Are you okay?"

"Lance, fuck," Keith whispered harshly back. "How do you know how to do that?"

"Coran thought it would be a good idea for the show, and he had a couple of the Bii-Boh-Bis teach me. They're these really bendy aliens, but it turns out I'm pretty bendy too —"

"Jesus Christ," Keith said in a continued whisper, eyes still glued to Lance's routine.

"Um," Lance said intelligibly at Keith's interruption. Keith was still blatantly red, and Lance could feel his own skin begin to heat.

"Lance mentioned an aerial class down at the community college," Keith uttered, "and when I get home I am definitely encouraging the signing up for that. Holy shit."

Lance swallowed hard, but glanced around the table to see if anyone was paying attention to them — everyone else was still watching the show as they finished breakfast. "You're actually impressed by this?" he asked tentatively.

"Ay por fucking dios. Holy shit. Yes, Lance."

"Okay," Lance wheezed out as he sat back in his own seat, surely just as red as Keith, but extremely pleased all the same. Because apparently he had a previously unknown ability to affect Keith like that and who knew that could be a thing?

The show ended shortly after that, and Allura announced that while they waited for Slav's arrival, she and Shiro would speak with Lotor, excusing everyone else to do as they pleased.

Pidge and Hunk left together, talking animatedly about some coding project they were working on, and not even sparing a backwards glance to notice that Lance remained seated at the table.

He wasn't alone today, however, and after Pidge and Hunk walked out of sight, Lance found Keith watching him, pale skin returned to its normal tone.

"Tour?"

Keith smiled as he nodded in agreement.

Lance wished he had some sort of smile blocker device because surely there was some universal law against receiving so many Keith smiles in such a short span of time.

Lance had taken Keith to the lion hangars first so that he could say hello to Red again before introducing Keith to the others. Then they spent the next varga wandering the castle, stopping in the rooms that were used more often for quick descriptions of daily activities. They were about to head to the training room when they got the call that Slav had arrived.

The two of them were the last to arrive on the bridge, and Keith had barely made it to Slav's side before Slav was shaking his head and speaking.

"Definitely not the Keith of this reality."

"You can tell that just by looking at him?" Pidge asked.

"Of course I can."

"How?"

"By looking at him."

"Well, what is he doing here?" Shiro asked, trying to remain calm.

"I told you not to step in that puddle, Shiro."

"He didn't appear in this reality just because someone stepped in a puddle!" Shiro growled.

"Where is the Keith from this reality?" Lance interjected. "We found this Keith in a ship where our Keith should've been, and no sign of our Keith."

"He has replaced this Keith in his home reality," Slav said.

"Replaced?" Keith growled.

"How do we send him back?" Lance asked.

"You do not."

"What if I step in another puddle?" Shiro muttered.

"Surely there is a way to correct this?" Allura asked calmly.

"There must be a reason that they were switched," Slav said solemnly, "and when that reason has been fulfilled, they will be returned to their own realities."

"There — there has to be more to it than that!" Keith insisted angrily. "You can't tell me you guys don't have the tech to somehow breach the realities? Pidge? Hunk?"

"We have visited another reality once before," Pidge said slowly, "but crossing realities requires a trans-reality comet, and they're dangerous and not exactly easy to come by. The first known trans-reality comet collapsed the Galra home planet."

"Which basically began this entire war," Hunk interjected.

"Although, the ore of the comet was used to build Voltron," Coran added, "which is what allowed you paladins to cross realities when we came across the second trans-reality comet."

"So Voltron can cross realities?" Keith asked hopefully.

"Well," Pidge said, adjusting her glasses so she wouldn't have to look at Keith, "we'd need another trans-reality comet to make the pass."

"Even if we could get our hands on another comet," Hunk was reluctant to add, "there's supposedly a bazillion realities —"

"I'm not sure bazillion is an accurate measure of —" Slav interjected.

"And I'm not sure how we'd figure out how to connect ourselves to your reality specifically," Hunk finished with a sympathetic look towards Keith.

"Keith," Shiro said as Keith turned away from the group. Shiro reached out for him, but before he could land a hand on Keith's shoulder, Keith shook his head and stalked out of the room.

Lance watched him go with sad eyes before saying, "Seriously, Slav, you've got to give us more than this."

"Either this Keith is here to realize something that will help him in his own life, or he is here to help someone else realize something that will help them in theirs," Slav said simply.

"Could it be something to do with the war efforts?" Shiro asked, although he appeared to be directing the question solely to Allura.

"That's ridiculous," Lance muttered.

"Lance," Shiro's said, tone sharp with warning.

"Not everything is about the war," Lance insisted.

"We have to approach this rationally," Allura continued calmly with a hand raised between the two of them. "Slav, thank you for coming so quickly and sharing your knowledge with us. I'm sure we will figure this out."

"There is an 89% chance you will figure this out," Slav said, and Lance couldn't help but notice the way Slav focused on him as he spoke.

Following shock, Keith's main emotion during Shiro's most recent disappearance had been anger. Lance had been sure the anger was because the rest of the team was proceeding with saving planets and making allies, while Keith thought they should be looking for Shiro nonstop. He had tread lightly with Keith at first during that time, but soon learned to just say what he was thinking to Keith. That Keith preferred his directness more than his silence.

So when he went looking for this Keith, he was prepared for anger and ready to let Keith lash out at him. He was going to do his best to reassure Keith that they wouldn't give up on this. That the whole team would help him get home again.

He found Keith in one of the lounges he'd shown him during the earlier tour, his back to Lance from where he sat on one of the couches that offered an impressive view of the stars they were passing.

"Hey man," Lance began as he walked around the couch to approach Keith.

"Lance," Keith exhaled his name in a harsh breath and revealed purple eyes that were welling with unshed tears.

"Oh shit," Lance murmured, mostly to himself, because he could handle a lot of things, especially in this war, but there was no way he could handle hearing Keith say his name like he was in pain and then begin to cry. This was not the anger he was expecting, but Lance knew how to handle sad in anyone. He dropped to the couch next to Keith and wrapped his arms around him, a hug that Keith quickly reciprocated as he fit himself against Lance's chest.

"I just want to go home," Keith murmured, voice fairly steady despite the glassy eyes. "I miss Lance. And I miss our kids."

"You have kids?" Lance asked on an exhale, feeling as though something had been punched out of his chest with this shock. The fact that there was another reality where he was married to Keith — that had been a pretty big ass surprise. But throw in some kids? He and Keith actually had a family? How was this reality even a possibility?

Keith shuddered out a breath and nodded. He shifted slightly so that he could pull a folded paper from his pocket, and when Keith released Lance from the hug, Lance reluctantly let go as well, especially when Keith passed over the paper.

Lance unfolded it and stared down at a sketch of two children, a boy and girl with matching heads of curly hair and wide smiles.

"They're adorable," Lance whispered as 'You and Keith could have a family' repeated itself in his head. "What are their names?"

"Luna and Sol."

Lance blinked at him. "You named your kids moon and sun?"

"Well, we didn't," Keith said with a small grin, "although it seems a little more poetic, or a little more like destiny that we were meant to be their dads now that I know what you and Keith are doing over here in this reality."

Lance hummed thoughtfully as he continued to stare down at the cheery boy and girl in the sketch. "Wait, Keith, you drew this?"

Keith gave him an odd look, another moment where Lance felt like Keith was expecting something from him.

"Yes," Keith finally responded. "I didn't exactly have time to pack anything when I was dragged out of my world, and I wanted a picture of the kids for while I'm stuck here."

"I had no idea Keith could draw," Lance said, searching his memory for clues that Keith was a secret artist. "Unless that's a difference, maybe? Maybe our Keith can't draw? Anyway, this is — this is incredible. You're really talented."

"Thank you."

Lance smiled down at the sketch once more before he handed it back to Keith. "You have a family," he said quietly. "Not to diss the family-like bond of the Voltron team, but family is not really something we get to have or keep in this reality. Not with the war."

Keith was quiet for a moment before he asked, "Your family is on Earth?" He continued when Lance nodded. "Living in Cuba?"

Lance nodded again, "Well, except for —"

"Gabby," Keith said with certainty.

Lance straightened and frowned slightly as he met Keith's gaze directly. "I've never talked about my family to Keith." He knew it sounded almost like an accusation, but his sister's name falling out of Keith's mouth so easily didn't seem like something that should just happen.

"I'm not your Keith," this Keith said quietly, "I've spent a few Christmases in Cuba with your family."

Lance's shoulders dropped at the hard truth that this Keith had likely seen his family more recently than he even had. "You have? You — you've met my mother?"

"Yeah," Keith said with a small chuckle, "she calls me her hijo guapo, and Lance throws a fit every time."

Lance tried to laugh, but the noise was a strangled version at best. He turned his head away and blinked his eyes in quick succession, while hoping Keith wouldn't notice.

"Hey, Lance, I'm sorry," Keith said, because of course he noticed. He dropped a hand to Lance's back and began to rub a soothing circle over his shoulder blade. "Do you, uh, do you not get to talk to them out here?"

Lance shook his head quickly and willed his voice to cooperate as he spoke again. "No. When we took off in Blue that day, none of us really understood what we were getting ourselves into. I didn't get to say goodbye. They have no idea where I am."

"That fucking sucks, Lance."

This time his laugh was a bit more sincere. "Perfect way of putting it, yes."

Keith was quiet after that, and once the overwhelming homesickness abated, Lance peeked over at him. One of Keith's hands was still on his back, a touch that was burning him through the fabric of his shirt (not that he wanted Keith to take his hand away), and he caught the thumb on Keith's other hand twirling his wedding band in circles around his ring finger.

"I sort of keep waiting to wake up," Keith said quietly. "This whole world seems… I mean, we're floating through space. Allura and Coran are aliens. There's a giant robot made of robot lions. A space war. You and Keith aren't even together."

"I don't really think that last detail hits the same level of importance as those other things you listed," Lance said, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck and staring up at the ceiling.

"You're right," Keith said, expression hard when Lance looked at him again. "Because out of everything I just said, it's the most important thing that's wrong about this place."

"It's a war for the universe, Keith," Lance said. "All these planets and their inhabitants are depending on us. We don't have time for relationships, or marriages, or buying a house. And we especially don't have time to have some kids."

Keith refolded the paper that held the sketch of his children, and slid it back into his pocket as he stood from the couch.

"And now that's the most important thing that's wrong about this place," Keith said. "I'm going to bed early. I'll see you tomorrow, Lance."

Lance had another uneasy night of sleep that night. He wasn't sure if it was due to this Keith's insistence that his non-relationship with Keith was wrong, or the growing worry that came with knowing that their reality's Keith was missing.

He went directly to Keith's room again the next morning, ready to wake him and bring him to breakfast. But when knocking didn't earn him a response, he slid the doors open and found the room completely empty. He couldn't even tell by looking at the bed if it had been slept in.

He took off in a sprint down the hallway, immediately worrying about what could've happened, especially given that there were currently several possibilities. Maybe Keith went back to his reality? Maybe Keith just got lost in the castle?

When he didn't find Keith in the dining hall or any of the lounges, he headed straight for Pidge's work space, certain that she'd know how to scan the castle for signs of Keith.

He stopped short in the entryway, though, because there was Keith, still clad in his pajamas, and bent halfway over Pidge's work table, which allowed him to rest his head on his folded arms and stare at the screen where Pidge was focusing. But damn if it didn't also put Keith's ass on display and completely knock Lance off track from his main purpose.

Pidge spotted him first and threw him a 'Good morning' and he managed to pull his eyes up to Keith's face as Keith straightened and repeated the sentiment.

"I've been looking all over for you," Lance responded, and did his best to ignore the knowing smirk on Keith's face.

"I couldn't sleep last night," Keith said easily, "and I figured Pidge would be awake somewhere."

"Apparently Keith and I are close buddies in his world," Pidge said. She stretched her arms over her head and yawned and Lance made a mental note to make her drink some of the sleepy tea later so she would at least nap. "You two meet up… how often?"

"We grab lunch at least every two weeks or so," Keith said. "I had to cancel this week, though."

"Cancel?" Pidge stated in an appalled tone, so much so that Lance almost wanted to remind her that it wasn't her Keith had skipped out on.

Keith only chuckled and grinned, although his smile was a little slow and his eyes were definitely sleepy. Lance made a mental note to slip some of that tea to Keith as well. He definitely looked like he hadn't slept since he got here.

"Sorry," Keith said to Pidge, not sounding at all contrite, "Luna was sick and I had to take her to the doc instead."

"Oh, was she okay?" Pidge asked, without asking for additional information about who Luna was, leaving Lance to wonder just how much talking these two had done overnight.

Keith nodded, although his smile dropped off his face. "She was prescribed these eye drops, which… she hates them. And it's really a two person job to administer them, well, three if you count Sol's part, so I hope Lance is doing okay with that."

"Hopefully our Keith is pitching in," Pidge said. Her eyes darted from Lance to Keith and back to Lance again before she continued. "What do you think about Keith interacting with kids, Lance?"

What did Lance think? He thought about the small, pleased smile that would appear on Keith's face any time a young alien child would approach Keith during any of their post-battle victory celebrations, as if he were always surprised that kids would want to interact with him. And he thought of the way Keith would crouch down to their level and talk and listen for a few minutes, usually before he received a hug and a smile before the alien child returned to their parents.

Then he thought about Keith in some house in suburbia right this moment, where the biggest problem was probably what to make for breakfast or finding someone's missing shoes. Keith was hopefully getting more hugs and smiles, and Lance hoped he was safe and enjoying it.

He tried to ignore the growing longing he could feel in his chest at the imagery, and ended up just shrugging in response to Pidge's question.

"Hopefully he's helping," Keith echoed Pidge's earlier thought. A small smile returned to his face as he glanced at Lance again. "It'd probably be good for him."

Lance cleared his throat. "Breakfast. It's breakfast time. You two ready?"

At breakfast, Keith had asked about Keith's normal routine on the castle. He and Pidge had been brainstorming the night before, and they had decided that maybe Keith was here to do something that their Keith should've been here doing (but that their Keith was not doing since their Keith was off with the Blades).

And while Hunk's playful suggestion that Keith 'Cross his arms and frown' wasn't entirely helpful, it was Shiro who suggested they head to the training room after breakfast.

Which is how Lance found himself overheating once more as he watched Keith — who had changed into a Voltron black under armor suit for the training session — pull his hair up into a messy bun on top of his head — like it was no big quiznacking deal — before he moved back to Lance's side and sent him a dimpled smile.

"H-Here," Lance said, shoving the red bayard towards Keith. "This originally belonged to Keith. With him, it would turn into a —"

"Sword," Keith breathed as the bayard transformed into a familiar red sword.

"Wow," Allura said, coming to stand next to Lance.

"Yeah, wow," Lance agreed, because he'd missed seeing that red sword more than he'd like to admit.

"Swish swish," Keith vocalized as he swiped the sword in front of him a few times.

"What was that?" Lance asked over Hunk's sudden laughter, the awe from a moment ago gone completely as a wide smile filled Lance's face.

Keith grinned in response. "Sword noises?" He mimicked the noise and swung the sword back and forth a few times.

"Oh my god," Hunk said, doubled over behind Lance as he continued to laugh. "I'm not complaining, but this is not what Keith would be doing."

"Right," Keith said, straightening his stance and brows coming together in thought. "What would Keith be doing?"

"Training," Shiro said. "Lance, why don't you take this practice sword, and you and Keith can work together while the rest of us run through some drills."

Lance accepted the sword from Shiro, and said nothing about how he had zero sword fighting training, which meant he didn't think it made sense for him to be chosen to train with Keith. Except that this was a Keith with no training, which meant if Keith sparred against Shiro or Allura, they'd likely knock him on his ass over and over until he called it quits.

So, fine. He and Keith could be unqualified to fight with swords together.

"Keith didn't bring this with him when he went with the Blades?" Keith asked once they'd moved to an open area.

"No, its part of Voltron," Lance explained. "The bayards actually interact with the lions, and this one belongs with the red paladin."

"So it's yours now?" Keith asked, although it sounded more like a statement than a question. "Then why should I practice with it?" he asked once Lance had nodded.

"Because if Keith was here, that's what he would do," Lance said. "That's what — I mean, that's what we'd expect him to do."

"So he trains a lot?"

Lance nodded.

"By himself?"

Lance nodded again.

"Hmm," Keith hummed, eyes pinned on Lance in a way that once again told Lance Keith was expecting something from him.

Lance avoided his gaze. It wasn't like Keith had ever come and asked any of them to train with him. Plus, Keith liked being alone. He was the loner of the group.

Of course, that had been Pidge's initial declaration, not Keith's.

He met Keith's gaze again, those purple eyes patient and waiting.

"You ready to spar?" Lance asked, pushing away thoughts of lonely Keith on this training deck.

"Sure," Keith said, moving into a fighting stance that had Lance sending him a somewhat impressed, albeit confused look. "I'll have you know," Keith said, "that I have extensive plastic sword fighting skills."

Lance laughed loudly. "Kids?" he asked.

"Kids," Keith said with a nod. "Imagine trying to get someone who wields a sword to cooperate for eye drops."

"Quiznack," Lance laughed. He moved into his own beginning stance. "Guess I better not underestimate you."

However, plastic sword fighting experience wasn't enough to keep this Keith on his feet, and Lance will admit that he openly gaped the first time he managed to knock Keith off balance and send him to his back.

"Why do you look so surprised?" Keith asked as he stood and rubbed his newly sore shoulder.

"Because I've never knocked Keith off his feet before."

"Well, then nice job. Because you did that pretty quickly."

"I don't have sword fighting experience!" Lance exclaimed, still a little bit shocked.

"Maybe you're a natural with a sword."

Lance immediately wanted to argue, but the sincere grin on Keith's face kept his mouth shut.

They began again, and Lance noticed right away that Keith had learned from the last round. He parried against Lance's sword easily, and instead of leaving his side open, he twirled around Lance with the athletic grace that Lance was accustomed to when it came to watching Keith in action. Not even two rounds later, and Lance's reaction time against Keith sweeping his feet was too slow, landing Lance on his back this time.

He didn't even realize he was smiling fondly at Keith — as they tried to hit each other with swords — until Keith pointed it out.

"You just — you look like Keith," Lance admitted as they stopped and grabbed water pouches. "And I feel like I should be surprised that you caught on so quickly, but I'm really not. Keith's a natural at this sort of thing."

"Do you ever tell him that?"

"Keith doesn't need me to tell —" Lance cut himself off when he saw the knowing gleam in Keith's eyes. He added it to the growing list of things he was learning about Keith.

"It would mean something coming from you," Keith said quietly.

"Even if we're just friends?" Lance asked, doing his best to sound teasing, since he knew this Keith's thoughts on his non-existent relationship status.

But Keith turned the tables on him as his eyes raked up and down Lance's body slowly, leading him to flush with a heat that had nothing to do with the training they'd just endured.

"You should be more than friends," Keith said seriously when he met Lance's eyes again. "But, yeah, even if you were just friends. Lance encouraged me with my artwork back when we were just friends, and now I've made a career out of it."

"Really?" Lance asked in awe, the teasing completely gone from his voice.

Keith nodded. "I like to think that I did the same for him. We make a really good team, Lance."

Lance turned away from him and rubbed at a spot on his chest. Those words in Keith's voice with Keith's face and Keith's smile was just this side of too much for him.

"You ready for lunch?" he asked, voice surprisingly hoarse.

"I don't know, is it just going to be more of that green goo stuff?"

"Yeah."

Keith groaned pitifully.

While Shiro and Allura spent the afternoon talking to Lotor, Lance introduced Keith to Kaltenecker, and then Hunk treated them to milkshakes.

"Thank you, Hunk," Keith nearly moaned in his happiness to be ingesting something that wasn't weird space goo.

Actually, Lance takes that initial thought back, Keith wasn't nearly moaning in happiness over the milkshake, he was actually moaning in happiness over the milkshake.

Lance knows he's blushing, like hardcore blushing, and thankfully, Hunk is not calling him on it, despite the knowing look on his friend's face.

"Alright, I'm off to work with Pidge again," Hunk said, scooting out of his seat. "Team Punk has got some work to do."

"They've got the best team name," Lance muttered.

"What name do the three of you have when you hang out?"

"Doesn't happen that often anymore," Lance said with a sigh. "I guess we're the Garrison Trio, which… isn't as cool."

"Can I ask you something?" Keith asked before he tipped his cup to down the last of his milkshake.

Lance couldn't help the small smile aimed at Keith's milk moustache. Keith ducked his eyes as he wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand.

"What's up?"

"When I first arrived, in the middle of all those questions with everyone, you said something about needing to yell at Keith. Why?"

"Because Keith is an impulsive asshole who tried to kamikaze himself into another ship during that last battle," Lance said without hesitation.

Keith spun his cup between his hands. "Why?"

"Does it matter why?" Lance asked incredulously.

"I don't see just doing that without a reason."

Lance sighed, irritated as he rolled his eyes to the side. "Keith and the rebels needed to stop Zarkon's witch before she managed to blow up Naxzela, the planet Voltron had been trapped on earlier. We were free by then, but not far enough away. If Naxzela had been detonated, we would've been destroyed, as well as anyone within ten solar systems."

"Sounds like the answer to my why."

"Except sacrificing himself doesn't help anyone! And it's not the first time I've witnessed a member of the Blade of Marmora sacrifice themselves for the mission. Its some bullshit nonsense the Blades feed their soldiers, I'm sure."

Keith had abandoned his cup on the table, and had switched to spinning his wedding band with his thumb. He sat in silence for a few ticks while Lance finished his own milkshake. Lance watched him think, and wondered what excuse Keith could come up with for the other Keith's actions. But when Keith met his eyes and spoke, it wasn't what Lance had been expecting.

"I'm sorry he scared you," Keith said. "I'd want to kill Lance if he tried anything like that. And it doesn't sound like the Blades are entirely good for Keith, although I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do about that. Thank you for making sure that I stayed here with you, instead of going off with that big cat dude."

"You're welcome," Lance said. "Wish it was that easy to keep our Keith here."

"Can I ask you another question?"

"Sure."

"Can I see your room?"

"My room?"

Keith nodded.

Lance shrugged, unsure what the interest would be for Keith. But he led them back to his room anyway, and watched as Keith entered without hesitation.

He watched as Keith's shoulders relaxed as he began to openly explore. Lance glanced around as well, trying to see his room through the eyes of a new person. The game system's cords took over a majority of the space, and he (again) had the thought that he should move the game to one of the main lounges. Hunk had figured out how to print pictures from his phone, and he'd managed to adhere some photos of his family and the team to the wall next to his bed. There were also various memorabilia from different planets, including a few paladin dolls (very popular merchandise after the Voltron Shows began to air) scattered across his desk. Lance's eyes landed on Keith again, and he found Keith smiling as he took it all in.

"You fill up our house with photos," Keith said softly as he moved closer to the photos Lance had hung. "This room feels a bit like home."

And, well, Lance just didn't even know what to say to that. Not with the words 'our house' in Keith's voice repeating in his head. So, Lance seated himself on the floor and offered the game controller up towards Keith.

Keith grinned happily and took a seat next to him.

"Alright, so tell me an embarrassing Keith as a Dad story," Lance said as the game system ran through its complicated start-up.

"Why should I do that?" Keith asked with a laugh.

Half of Lance's mouth pulled into a smirk as his eyes met Keith's. "Makes it more real."

"Would the Keith you know make up the fact that he has kids?"

Keith's answering smirk was a bit deadly to Lance's heart. It didn't stop Lance from snorting out a laugh at the question, though.

"Definitely not."

"Okay then."

"Come on. Tell me a story anyway."

Keith glanced away with a small shake of his head. But before Lance could plead with him further, he rolled his eyes and began speaking.

"We were on a road trip once to visit your sister and after a couple hours, we made a stop. I refilled the gas tank while Lance took both kids inside to use the restrooms."

The game system still wasn't powered up all the way, meaning there was still no reason for Keith to put this much effort into avoiding Lance's eyes. Lance watched him anyway, a little bit mesmerized by the small grin on Keith's face. He wondered if Keith even knew he was smiling like that.

"So, Lance and the kids come back outside and he's buckling them in and I tell him…" Keith blew out a breath and shook his head again, already clearly regretting the decision to tell Lance this story, "I tell him I just have to go potty real quick and then we'll get back on the road."

Lance snorted out a laugh, which was soon followed by a full belly laugh that nearly knocked him over.

Keith let his head fall back so he could stare forlornly at the ceiling before giving in to watch Lance. There was a light pink color dancing across his face, but mostly he just looked amused by Lance's laughter.

"We had to potty-train, Sol! We used to say the word potty eight thousand times a day with the kids. I said it without even thinking," Keith groaned.

"What — what was your Lance's reaction?" Lance asked as he tried to catch his breath.

Keith waved a hand in his general direction. "This. Pretty much this right here," he said with his own fond laugh. "With the added benefit that he still sometimes asks me if I have to go potty before we leave the house. Because he's a jackass."

Lance bit back some of his own laughter so he could just sit and stare at a laughing Keith. "What — I mean, how did you get so…"

"What?"

"Smiley. Relaxed. Happy. I mean" — Lance's chuckle was an odd mix of disbelief and hope — "who the hell are you?"

"I'm Keith." Keith's smile was easy as he released another short laugh as purple eyes locked onto Lance's blue ones. "And the answer is easy. It's all thanks to Lance."

"Lance," he repeated his own name quietly.

"Lance," Keith said softly with a nod.

The whirs and beeps of the game system pulled Lance out of his thoughts of how to make his own Keith this smiley. The game began where it had last been saved, and Lance nodded to Keith's controller, to indicate he take the first turn.

"Tell me another one," Lance said as Keith began to play.

"I can tell you something I learned the hard way," Keith said, eyes on the screen. "I'll even tell it the way Lance likes to tell our friends."

"Okay," Lance said with a laugh.

"Well, if you give a four-year old some construction paper, he'll want his safety scissors to practice his cutting. If you let him practice his cutting, he'll ask for some glue to fix his many pieces of paper. If you refuse to give him glue, he'll find it himself. And if he finds it himself, I'll have to spend at least fifteen minutes cleaning glue off our table later that evening."

Lance did tip over this time as he laughed at Keith's monotone voice telling a story that he could practically hear his alternate reality self telling their friends.

"Which is why all of my art supplies are now kept locked away and I no longer encourage crafting with the kids," Keith muttered.

"Ay por dios, please tell me more kids stories," Lance asked through his laughter.

Keith's character died on-screen, so he tossed his controller to Lance. "You want to hear about Sol's monster socks, which insist on growling and stomping through our house? Or how Sol wanted me to buy rock things for his rock collection? Like pajamas? I tried to explain that pajamas don't qualify as rock things, but… Oh! And Lance is ridiculous about the whole thing. I know he broke into my art supplies to draw clothes on some of those rocks." Keith smiled as Lance let the controller just sit in his lap, too busy laughing to play. "I guess since Sol is still sort of a toddler his stories are a bit funnier than Luna stories. Although, in her defense, she was stuck being responsible for Sol for a bit there, before they came to live with us, so she's naturally a little more serious and cautious. Lance has done wonders, though, in helping her to lighten up."

"Sounds like he's had lots of experience with you," Lance teased.

"You're not wrong," Keith replied, and Lance was relieved to see Keith smile at his tease.

"You sound like an awesome dad, yourself, Keith."

"I follow Lance's lead a lot. Hopefully that's what your Keith is doing. Honestly, as much as I miss the kids, I'm not worried about their well-being while I'm here. Lance can handle them on his own. I just worry he'll run himself ragged doing it without help."

"Nah, don't worry. I bet he's made of pretty tough stuff," Lance said, cocky grin in place.

Keith pushed on his shoulder and nearly knocked him over. When he righted himself, Lance finally picked up his controller and began playing. And with his eyes focused on the screen, it was easier to ask the next question.

"So, you think your Lance will look after our Keith, too, then?"

"Of course he will. Your Keith will still be a Keith in Lance's eyes," Keith said with a small shrug in Lance's peripheral. "Although, hopefully he's not overdoing how he takes care of him."

Lance turned and caught Keith waggling his eyebrows at him, leaving him to drop his mouth open in surprise and heat to spread across his face.

Then Keith was laughing again, a fond look on his face as he watched Lance's reaction.

"You blush really easily," Keith teased. "I'm not used to that."

"And I'm not used to Keith saying things like that!"

Keith leaned into his space then, grin still in place. "I'd get used to it if I were you."

Lance exhaled harshly before turning back to the screen — only to find that his character had died during the last few ticks of neglect. "You say that like Keith and I are going to… end up together."

Keith shrugged and didn't respond further. They sat and played comfortably for a couple vargas, with Lance taking over some of the storytelling (he recognized only after the fact that the majority of his stories had focused on the period of time when Keith had been leader and he'd served as his right hand man). They only noticed that it was time for dinner when Coran buzzed into Lance's room looking for them.

Lance laughed as Keith continued to make faces at the goo, but otherwise he felt… content at the table. He hadn't even been aware of how different the table had felt before with Keith's absence, doing his best to take that subtle void in stride since they had more important things to worry about. But with this Keith smiling and chatting with the group at dinner, Lance felt a bit more settled. There was still worry for his own Keith's well-being, after all, they only had Slav's assurance that Keith was in a safe, domestic reality and not some hellscape.

Keith followed him back to their rooms after dinner, and before Lance could bid him goodnight, Keith turned to him with a question.

"Can I stay with you?"

"Stay? In my room?" Lance asked.

"With you." Keith said with a nod, and Lance once again noticed the dark circles under Keith's eyes, a reminder that he didn't seem to be sleeping all that well since his arrival.

"Sure, man," Lance said, and watched Keith sag in relief. "I mean, the bed is not that wide, but —"

"I can sleep on the floor," Keith said earnestly.

"Nah, we'll make it work. Just go get your pajamas on."

When Keith returned, he brought an extra pillow, and with his slight frame, there was actually plenty of space for them to sleep side by side. And when Keith's breathing didn't even out right away, Lance decided to fill the silence with a question.

"What does your Lance do for work?"

Keith turned on his side to face him, and honestly, the expression on Keith's face couldn't have been more fond if he tried.

"He brings magic into kids' lives. We have a really beautiful backyard, and he takes photos out there, like, fairy tale photography. Lance brightens the world of everyone who meets him."

Lance smiled and glanced up at the photos on his walls. "Sounds like he's doing some good in the world."

"That shouldn't surprise you, with all the good you're doing in this world."

Lance moved his eyes to his ceiling, sure that he was blushing once again. He wondered if this sort of constant praise or validation was what he could expect in a relationship with Keith.

"Thank you for letting me stay, Lance," Keith said, sleepily. "I'm not used to being alone anymore. Not with our full house."

"You're welcome," Lance whispered as he listened to Keith's breathing finally even out.

Lance awoke first the next morning, and found Keith curled warmly into his side, hand clutching a section of Lance's pajama top in his fist.

He didn't think he'd ever seen Keith asleep before. His dark bangs fell over his forehead and his dark eyelashes fluttered over his cheeks. His mouth twitched a few times as well, and Lance wondered if he was dreaming about being home, and if it would be cruel to wake him and pull him from that. So he didn't. Instead, he stayed where he was and let his eyes roam over Keith's somewhat delicate features and resisted the urge to run his fingers through his hair until Keith woke on his own.

Keith smiled at him, and then said 'Good morning' in a voice that was gravely from sleep and dangerous for Lance's health so early in the morning, before he sat up and stretching his arms over his head.

"I'm gonna go get dressed in Keith's room."

"I'll meet you in the hallway? We can head to breakfast together?"

"Okay," Keith said before standing and moving slowly towards the door.

"Oh, wait." Lance jumped up and opened his closet. "Um, this is Keith's." He pulled the cropped jacket from a hangar and handed it over to Keith.

"If you two aren't even dating, why would his jacket be in there?" Keith wasn't even trying to hide his smirk, even if he was trying to keep his tone innocent.

"Just take it." Lance rolled his eyes, even as heat spread up his neck.

Keith didn't say another word, although he kept the smirk as he accepted the jacket. Then he swung it around his shoulders and pushed his arms through the sleeves. "Oh," Keith said as he stared down at the jacket. "It's really comfortable. And I look pretty cool, right?"

"Aaaand, now I know why he bought it," Lance said with a sigh. Although, he had to admit… he missed seeing Keith in that dumb jacket.

"Ay por dios, Lance would die to know that guy Lotor's hair care secrets."

"What? No, Lotor's hair is not that great," Lance said from beside Keith. They sat in an observation room, the main video feed on display allowing them to observe Allura and Shiro talking with Lotor in his cell.

"Actually, he'd want to know so I could start using those products on my hair."

"Definitely not. There's nothing wrong with your hair."

Keith grinned over at him. "That sounds like something my Lance would say to me."

"That's because I am Lance. And I've come to accept the mullet."

"He started with my hair, you know." Keith's eyes were turning soft. "I mean, we're married now, so it's probably not a surprise that he's had his hands all over me —"

"Ay por dios," Lance muttered as he pulled at the collar of his shirt. Why was it so hot in here?

"— but he started with my hair. I went over to his place to watch a movie, and instead of doing that cheesy arm around the shoulders move, which is what I thought he was trying to pull, he just started running his fingers through my hair."

"And you didn't tell him to stop it?" For some reason, Lance could only picture their Keith being irritated if Lance suddenly started playing with his hair.

Keith chuckled as if that was absurd. "No. It felt nice."

Lance hummed thoughtfully as he pictured the few occasions in the past when he'd had to forcefully keep his hands out of Keith's hair — his Keith and even this Keith this morning.

"He did eventually get his arm around my shoulders," Keith added, "but I'm pretty sure we were kissing by then."

Lance let his head drop down to his hands with a short groan.

"You're really red," Keith said with a knowing smile. "Are you alright? Should I call someone?"

"Shut up."

Keith laughed outright then, and didn't seem to mind when he drew the attention of Coran who was working on the other side of the room. But when Keith caught Lance looking at him again, he asked him if something was actually wrong.

"Nah, I'm not used to seeing Keith's face smile this much," Lance offered. "I didn't even know he had that many teeth."

Keith's head tilted in confusion. "Do you have fewer teeth in this reality?" he leaned forward as if to inspect Lance's mouth and Lance leaned back with a laugh.

"There he is. There's the Keith I'm used to."

"Here they come," Coran announced, and Lance noticed that Shiro and Allura had finished speaking with Lotor and were headed back towards them.

"So?" Lance asked when the pair had rejoined them in the observation room.

"Lotor has agreed to provide us with inside information on the location of several stations that, if damaged, could harm the Galra Empire," Shiro stated.

"One sounds particularly interesting in that he states it stores the information for trade routes. Given that we're already so close to it, we'd like to send Red and Green, for their speed and stealth, to collect information," Allura added.

"I'll get Pidge and we'll leave right away," Lance said. He glanced at Keith and found wide, worried eyes watching him. "You can hang with Hunk while we're gone?"

Keith nodded in agreement, although he looked unsure.

"Red, we have to go," Lance repeated for what was surely the fifth time. "Pidge and Green are already out there. Do you seriously want Green to hold it over your head that they're faster than you?"

He leaned forward in the pilot's chair and rubbed at his temples. He knew what Red wanted — he could feel her repeating the request over and over in his brain.

"Red, there is no way that I'm — aaaaaahhhhhhhh," he yelped as Red spit him out of the cockpit and onto the floor of her hangar.

"This is not a joy ride, you know!" he yelled up at Red as he stood and rubbed a hand over his likely bruised hip.

He stared up at Red defiantly. She flashed her eyes at him.

He threw his hands up in the air and began to stomp out of the hangar.

"Stubborn, temperamental, hard-headed…"

Lance's grumblings continued until he returned to the hangar a few doboshes later tugging a confused Keith behind him.

"Now will you tell me what you need?" Keith asked.

"Red won't take off without you," Lance explained.

Red kneeled in front of them with an open jaw as if to demonstrate.

"You want me to climb into its mouth again?" Keith asked, voice full of disbelief.

"Lance!" Pidge's voice sounded through his helmet.

"I'm working on it!" Lance replied to her quickly before turning back to Keith. "Yes, and Pidge is already out there in Green, so if we could just —" He waved his hands towards Red's waiting mouth.

"No way."

Luckily, Red decided to step in, so Lance didn't have to do any more work to convince Keith to get onboard.

Unluckily, Red decided to step in by scooping them both up in her mouth and they both yelled and grunted as they rolled into the cockpit.

"Ow, Red. Ow." Lance pushed himself to his feet while glaring at Red's ceiling. He rubbed at his now sore shoulder, which would go well with his sore hip, and offered a hand to Keith to help him up.

Keith accepted Lance's help, but managed to glare at him at the same time. "Your lion —"

"She's kind of our lion," Lance said as he took a seat in the pilot's chair and immediately took off into space to join Green and Pidge.

Keith rubbed at his own shoulders. "She just ate us," he muttered.

"What took you so long?" Pidge asked as her face appeared on a small screen in front of them. "Wait, you brought Keith?"

"Red insisted," Lance responded.

"Okay," Pidge said without requiring further explanation. "Listen, I'm looking at the plans for this outpost." Lance leaned in when the plans appeared on his screen as well. "Let's hope Lotor was right that it's manned mainly by sentries."

"It's pretty rectangular in shape," Lance said. "It could take a while to reach a main if we enter on the wrong side. What do you say to splitting up?"

"Works for me," Pidge said. "I'm gonna try out my new stealth gear."

"Just check in often," Lance said before Pidge's face disappeared from his dash. He turned to say something to Keith, but stopped when he caught Keith staring in awe out the front dash at the passing stars.

"I didn't really appreciate it the last time I was out here," Keith said, "but having a yard full of stars is pretty amazing."

"I guess we don't really stop to appreciate it anymore," Lance said, looking out to the stars with a new appreciation after seeing Keith's reaction.

They split off from Pidge as they neared the outpost shortly after entering the new planet's atmosphere.

"Put this on," Lance said and handed Keith a spare helmet, a move he completely did not think through because as soon as Keith had the helmet on, which pushed most of his hair out of his face, Lance was left staring at Keith's large eyes — big and beautiful and ridiculously pretty. He swallowed and turned away from Keith, doing his best to look like maybe he needed to apply a parking brake or something as his hands ran over Red's controls long enough for him to recover.

Although, he wondered if he'd ever recover from this much Keith exposure.

They finally exited Red and Lance quietly checked in with Pidge, who had already entered the base from where she'd landed on the other side. Keith stayed behind him, and was impressively quiet in his movements as they made their way through the jungle-like atmosphere to the nearest entry point.

"I want you to try something," Lance whispered to Keith when they reached the door. He pointed and said, "Put your hand on there."

"Is it gonna zap me?"

"I wouldn't let something zap you," Lance said with an eye roll.

"You let that lion eat me earlier."

"She ate me too!"

Keith stepped up to the door and placed his hand on the sensor panel. Lance watched and waited.

And nothing happened.

"Huh," Lance said as he pulled the tablet Pidge had given him and connected it to the door.

"Can I take my hand away now?"

"Yup."

"Why did I do that?"

"I wanted to see if you could open the door." Lance watched the program on his tablet run its magic, and the door slid open a few ticks later.

"Why?" Keith whispered as he followed Lance inside.

"Because our Keith could've opened the door."

"Why? 'Cause he's part alien?" Keith joked.

Lance sent him a pointed look a small shrug of agreement.

Keith stopped in his tracks and gaped at Lance. "Wait, he's really part alien?"

"Get down!" Lance yelled as he pulled his bayard and aimed for the center of the two sentries who had just turned the corner and headed towards them. He turned to Keith when they dropped and found that he'd ducked behind a beam on the other side of the hallway.

Keith's eyes were wide and impressed. "That was so cool, Lance."

Lance willed his skin not to pinken and did his best to brush off the compliment. "Just get over here and stay safe. I'm one hundred percent sure your Lance will find a way to cross realities in order to murder me if I let anything happen to you."

Keith smirked. "Yeah, he would."

"Not helping!" Lance said with a glare. "Get over here."

"I think I found a main I can connect into," Pidge's voice rang into their helmets. "Keep looking on your end, but hopefully we can get out of here soon."

"You got it," Lance replied. He and Keith reached a corner and he glanced both ways before continuing. "How's your stealth mode going?"

"Awesome," Pidge said, the excitement clear in her voice. "Wait till I hook this up to your guys' suits."

"You're the best, Pid —"

"Lance, get down!"

Keith's shout came at the same time that he shoved Lance, sending him to the ground. Lance rolled quickly to his back, especially when he heard a high pitch yelp from Keith above him.

"What the —" Lance breathed out as he stared at the scene above him. A spider the size of a Volkswagen had several of its long legs wrapped around Keith, and was currently carting him through the air towards a giant web in the corner of the hallway while Keith grunted and struggled to break free.

"Lance? What happened?" Pidge yelled urgently.

He tampered down his immediate panic and jumped to his feet, already concentrating on his bayard until it transformed into the long range rifle.

"Keith, hold still!"

Through the viewfinder, he could see those big pretty eyes of Keith's widen, but his movements within the spider's legs stilled. Lance took a deep breath and adjusted his aim for a spider soft spot.

The shock of the hit was enough for the spider to drop his prey, and Lance activated his jet pack in order to shoot himself in the air and break Keith's fall before they both rolled to the ground.

"Pidge, its all you! We're getting out of here!" Lance yelped as he yanked Keith to his feet and took off running for the nearest exit.

He waited till they were back outside and the door shut behind them before he even paused to breathe. Then it was another moment before he realized Keith was bent at the waist, visibly shaking.

He leaned over himself to try to catch Keith's face and dropped a hand to his back. "Keith! Are you okay? Wait, are — are you laughing right now?"

Keith pushed himself to stand upright again, giving Lance a better view of the way Keith's eyes were squeezed shut as full body laughter shook him.

"Is this a normal response to almost being eaten by space spiders?" Lance was enjoying the view, but could admit he was slightly worried about the near hysterical laughter coming from Keith.

"I was almost eaten by a space spider," Keith managed to wheeze.

"Yeah, that's not funny, dude."

"Right, right," Keith said with a nod of agreement as he tried and failed to match Lance's serious tone. When Keith's shoulders finally stopped shaking with laughter, he focused his wide grin on Lance. "But the next time my kids are worried about monsters under their bed, I'm just gonna have to shrug and say that maybe there are monsters under there!"

Then Keith was hit with a fresh bout of laughter, and Lance leaned his weight back on his heels and let himself just watch this adorable boy laugh so hard that his face had become a rosy red. When Keith's eyes finally reopened again, he focused on Lance once more, only instead of just a happy grin, he shot Lance a deadly combination of those purple eyes softening as his mouth pulled into a smirk.

"You want to kiss me," Keith stated, blunt and bold and all things Lance had always admired in Keith.

That didn't make his statement any less surprising.

"I know that look on your face," Keith said. He continued, voice low and eyes teasing, before Lance could try to deny anything. "How often do you get that feeling for your not boyfriend, Lance?"

"Quiznack," Lance growled as he turned and took a few steps away from Keith. "Way too often," he admitted, voice exasperated. But now that he'd started, he didn't want to stop. "And that's for Broody McBroodface Lone Wolf Keith. And its not that he doesn't smile, I've seen Keith smile before, okay? But you're taking it to a new level with that much laughter. It's really not fair. Also — " Lance turned around to face Keith and found Keith directly behind him, those eyes watching him intently and a small, pleased smile on his face.

"Also what?" Keith prompted as Lance once again found himself stuck just staring.

"I've" — Lance cleared his throat as his eyes darted back and forth over Keith's face — "seen that look before. On our Keith's face."

"When have you seen it before?" Keith pushed.

Lance sighed. "Once when he asked me if I was joking about being the team's cool ninja sharpshooter. I thought he was being serious at first, but then… later I thought maybe he'd actually been teasing me."

Keith hummed in response as his smile grew a little broader.

"And, uh, I saved him during a battle against Lotor's generals this other time, and instead of jumping right back into the fight, he just stood there for a few ticks and stared at me with — with that expression."

"He paused in the middle of a battle just to stare at you like this?"

"What are you thinking right now?" Lance asked, voice slightly desperate. "What does that look really mean?"

"Well, before I was thinking that you're pretty cute when you're ranting about something."

"Cute?"

"Come on, Lance." Keith's fond expression remained strong as he continued to watch Lance process. "You know what this look means."

Lance swallowed and fought against the hope that this Keith was correct. "You can't know what our Keith —"

"Your Keith."

"You can't know what he's thinking!"

Keith sent him an exasperated shrug. "Yeah, I'm only him and everything. Well, except for the alien bit. Wait, are you sure we look just alike? He doesn't have like tentacles or —"

"No, he doesn't have tentacles! He's hot!"

Lance groaned as even more words slid past his filter.

Keith's knowing grin was back. "You think he's hot?"

"Look, your world sounds very different from ours. The Keith here has had different experiences, and he's very dedicated to the cause. Plus, he's — you're just way too smiley —"

"My Lance made me smiley."

"Guys, I've got it!" Pidge said excitedly through their comms. "Let's get out of here."

"Nice job, Pidge. See you back at the castle," Lance said, forever thankful for the interruption.

"You know," Keith said, as they began to walk towards where Red was waiting, "I bet that spider originated out here and maybe left some of his spider buddies behind."

That was enough for them both to break into a run.

Seeing as how they were both unharmed, the space spider story actually brought quite a lot of laughter at the dinner table that night, especially when Pidge described the high pitched shrieking she'd heard on their sprint back to Red (which Lance adamantly denied while Keith smartly kept his mouth shut).

Lance didn't say anything when Keith arrived at his door that evening, already in his pajamas, and ready to climb into Lance's bed to sleep.

The discussion they'd had earlier — wherein Lance had finally admitted certain Keith feelings he'd been doing his best to keep buried in the middle of this space war — didn't come up, for which Lance was grateful. He was exhausted after a day of emotional revelations and grabby space spiders.

Keith was too, apparently, because he fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. And even though they had started the night on their own sides of the bed, Lance found Keith curled into him once again the next morning.

He was so lost in thoughts of how nice it was to wake up with Keith's warm body pressed against him, that it took him a moment to notice Keith's deep inhale against his neck.

"Do I smell like him?" he whispered.

"Yeah," Keith replied, voice gritty and sad.

Then Keith pushed away from him and sat up in the bed to stretch before he padded quietly out of the room without another word.

Keith was quiet at breakfast, a familiar pout on his face that Lance was pretty sure had more to do with homesickness than the breakfast goo.

Allura ran through the schedule for the day, and since Red apparently wasn't going to fly without Keith, it was elected that Lance stay behind for today's mission. Instead, Allura and Shiro left to check out the next outpost position Lotor had provided.

After waving them off, Lance thought maybe Keith might want to hang out with Pidge and Hunk, but when it became clear that they weren't going to be able to follow the tech talk about modulators, the two of them snuck off and raided the kitchen for anything that wasn't goo before Lance asked the mice if they'd be interested in putting on one of their legendary shows for Keith.

Keith's downfall for the afternoon was when he began humming a song as the mice performed a tightrope act, prompting Lance to force Keith to sing the actual lyrics (because this was new music he'd never heard before — new!) Keith sang until his voice was hoarse, and even then Lance greedily begged for more by bribing Keith with a milkshake. He counted it as a win, though, when Keith laughed his way through some of the songs and Lance saw him smile again.

Lance found himself humming his new music as he led the way through the maze of hallways and elevators until they reached their next destination.

"This is the pool," Lance said with a smile, always happy to have a moment to just come down here and swim. "It took us a bit to figure out how to flip it around so we could actually use it."

"Flip it around?" Keith asked.

"Yeah, it used to be on the ceiling."

"How…?"

"You're better off not knowing," Lance said, waving off the question.

Keith shrugged and mimicked Lance as he tugged off his shirt and threw it on a nearby chair with their towels. Lance was about to jump into the pool when Keith stopped him from behind with a hand on his shoulder.

"Lance," Keith breathed his name out in shock, and Lance suddenly realized that Keith was likely seeing the sunburst scar on his back for the first time. "What happened?"

Lance glanced back and saw the sad grimace on Keith's face as his eyes roamed over Lance's back.

"Oh, that's a pretty old scar," Lance said, voice full of nonchalance. "From those first few days we were out here." He flinched slightly when Keith's fingertips roamed over the center, but didn't step away. "We haven't had a chance to show you the healing pods yet, but they healed me right up."

"Well, thank quiznack for that," Keith breathed out.

"I'm not sure you're using that word correctly," Lance said with a small chuckle. "Let's just swim, yeah?"

Keith stepped away with a nod, and Lance found himself searching out Keith's shoulder for a familiar scar. This Keith's shoulder, however, was unblemished.

Lance took a running leap into the deep end. He came up and floated happily on his back, even when he was hit by the splash created when Keith jumped in the pool. He turned his head enough to see what Keith was doing and found Keith floating quietly nearby.

"I was thinking."

"Dangerous," Lance replied, and secretly preened at the grateful grin he earned from Keith.

"Anyway, I was thinking, and I imagine some things stay the same, even in different realities. Like, you still have your big, loving family?" When Lance nodded, he continued. "My childhood…wasn't like that."

Lance lowered his legs so that he could slowly stand as Keith spoke. He watched as Keith's face changed. Closed up. Keith's brow furrowed and lips pursed and shifted to one side. The familiar pout suddenly had Lance feeling like he was looking at his very own Keith.

"I'm betting your Keith's childhood wasn't so much fun, either."

"I don't really know," Lance admitted.

"But you said Voltron was like a family, right? He was part of that?"

Lance nodded.

"So, I'm trying not to be upset with all of you for letting him leave." Keith lowered his own feet to the pool floor as he spoke so that he could stand and face Lance.

"Whoa, wait. That was Keith's choice, okay? You know better than anyone that we can't just tell Keith what to do."

"Did you ask him to stay?"

"I mean, I know Shiro talked to —"

"No, Lance. Did you try?"

Lance blew out an exhale and rolled his eyes to the ceiling. "Keith doesn't care what I think."

"That's bullshit," Keith said with enough force to gain Lance's eyes on him again. "You said you were a great team when he was leader. That he listened to what you had to say. If you had had an opinion about him leaving, he would've listened to you then, as well. He might've stayed."

"No, no guilt trips," Lance said before pressing his mouth into a hard line.

"I'm not trying to make you feel guilty," Keith conceded with a sigh. "Look, Lance, I just want to go home, okay? I've been trying to figure out what's wrong in this reality so I can fix it, and so far the wrong is that you and Keith aren't together."

"Who says there's something wrong in this reality?" Lance asked, tone defensive. "Maybe there's something up in your world that needs to be fixed. Have things really always been that perfect between the two of you?"

He half expected Keith to nod and then proclaim that he and his Lance had a perfect relationship in the perfect house-owning-two-kid world they lived in. Instead, Keith laughed, shaking his head and showing off his dimples.

"No. No way. I mean, they're great now. I wouldn't change anything about now."

"But before now?"

Keith crossed his arms, instantly making himself appear smaller. "When Lance and I met in high school, I did my best to ignore him, even when he tried to talk to me directly. I just wasn't interested in making friends. Not a lot of people I got close to stuck around, so I had begun to think why bother?"

Lance's brows furrowed. Keith's tone was light but there was a certain amount of hurt in his eyes as he spoke.

"But, thankfully, Lance is a stubborn jackass, as you know —"

"Hey!"

" — and he wouldn't let me ignore him."

"So, boom, you started dating?"

"We were friends first, which was pretty big for me, since my only real friend before that had been Shiro." Keith paused and Lance watched him use his thumb to twirl his wedding band again, a move that seemed to be soothing. "I kept waiting for Lance to forget our plans, or just get tired of hanging out with me, but he didn't."

Keith shrugged a little and Lance actively kept his hands to himself instead of following the urge to pull Keith into a hug. Even if it was in the past, and not even related to him, he disliked the idea that Keith had wondered if the other Lance really wanted to be his friend.

"I hate that it took a while for him to earn my trust, but he didn't seem to mind."

"I bet he didn't mind at all," Lance said.

"See?" Keith said with another small smile that pulled at Lance's chest. "Benefits to being a stubborn jackass."

Lance did laugh at that as he pushed Keith's shoulder and called him a jerk.

"We figured it out, though," Keith continued. "That we were good as friends, but that we… also wanted to kiss each other. That we loved each other," Keith said quietly.

Lance blew out another breath. The sincerity in Keith's voice was intense and Lance suddenly wanted to ask Keith every single detail about their relationship. Surely if that Keith and Lance had figured it out and made it work…

"We'd been dating almost two years when I tried to break up with him."

That pulled all of Lance's mushy thoughts to a complete halt. "What? Why?"

"Lance's family decided to move back to Cuba, and he wasn't going to go with them. I thought he was staying because of me, and I thought he'd be too sad without his family around, so —"

"You thought if you broke up with him, he'd go off and live happily ever after in Cuba without you?"

Keith nodded thoughtfully.

"That's ridiculous. And stupid!" Lance pushed at the water near his hands, sending small waves away from him, feeling anger despite the fact that this had had nothing to do with him. "I know I'd miss my family, I mean I miss them every day now, but if I had someone to love — who loved me back, I'd choose to stay with them. Family is family, but you don't just ditch someone you love for…"

His eyes widened as they returned to Keith's face, and he found Keith watching him closely once more, that expectant look on his face as he watched Lance work this out.

"Well, now I've lived through that lecture twice," Keith finally said. "Breaking up with Lance for his own good sort of killed me," Keith continued. "I may have a habit of doing what I think is best for the people I love, even to my own detriment."

"You think if Keith and I were together, he would've stayed with me instead of trying to find a family with the Blade of Marmora."

"Yes."

"And if Keith and I were together, maybe he wouldn't have been in the situation to almost send his ship purposefully into that shield."

"I don't know, Lance," Keith said tiredly. "The switch happened right after he tried that, right? I mean, I was kissing my Lance at that time. I don't really see the universe having a problem with kissing."

"Okay, but how do we fix Keith's near sacrifice? It already happened."

"I don't think we can fix it. I think I'm just supposed to make you see what you're missing, so you won't let him go again, and so that he doesn't have the opportunity again. When I broke up with Lance, he came after me, and I'd never been more grateful to see him. He convinced me that he wanted us to be together more than anything else."

Lance ran his finger through his hair, pulling on the ends a bit as he tried to really process what Keith had been trying to hint at this whole time. "This is really weird, dude."

"I've been here for days," Keith said with a small splash towards Lance's stomach. "You're just now thinking this is weird?"

"Look, just because I miss Keith and I might want to kiss him, or whatever, doesn't mean that Keith wants me to —"

"He does."

Lance groaned. "It's weird to get Keith relationship advice from Keith."

"My Lance is probably convincing your Keith the same thing," Keith said with another small smile as he ignored Lance's frustration. "He'll hear that you two aren't together and will loudly declare it an affront to the universe."

Lance groaned again. "Holy crow."

"What's a religious bird got to do with this?"

Lance snorted. "You really do know me well, don't you?"

Keith's smile grew. "Yup."

But then Keith looked thoughtful again, and Lance's chest tightened slightly since it didn't look like Keith was quite finished dropping bombshell revelations yet.

"I think it's pretty incredible that you're fighting this war, and being so brave, but since I do know you, I'm not really sure how you're doing it."

"What do you mean, how? You just said yourself, by being brave and —"

"No, I mean, Shiro and Allura and Coran are pretty busy around here, and Hunk and Pidge are together a lot. You seem to be alone, Lance. How are you doing this without support from your family? And without Keith?"

Lance's spine straightened. "There's no choice. My family can't be here. And Keith has never really been an available option. We all just do our part —"

There was a tight pressure around his middle, and Keith's face was pressed into his neck. It took him an honest four ticks to realize that Keith was hugging him. Tightly.

"Arms around me," Keith ordered, his breath running across the skin of Lance's neck as he spoke, sending a shiver down his spine. "You made me a hugger, you stubborn jackass, hug me back."

Lance released a breathy laugh at that and gratefully wrapped his arms tight around Keith's back. He pressed his head against Keith's damp hair, and felt all of his muscles relax instantly. Jesus, Keith really fit right here in his arms perfectly. He bit down on a smile as sweetly corny words like puzzle piece and soul mate floated through his head.

"I'm sorry you're all alone out here, Lance. You don't deserve that."

Lance shuddered out a long breath. He had been doing his damnedest to ignore the empty feeling he'd been walking around with, but it throbbed within him at this Keith's words. He'd been so lonely when they first traveled into space, and it hadn't been until he and Keith had begun to work together that some of that loneliness was abated. It returned, stronger than ever, though, with Keith's absence.

He felt it then, even as he stood here hugging a Keith, just how much he missed Keith.

"You don't deserve this, either, Keith," he said as he squeezed Keith tighter before whispering, "Tell me how I get Keith to come back?"

"I wish I knew, so I could go home."

"No, I mean, when you two are swapped, and you are back home. How do I get my Keith to stay?"

"You'll know what to say, Lance. You always do."

Chapter Text

…."I'm sorry," Keith said. And he meant it. This whole thing was unfair to Lance.

"It's not your fault."

"Actually… I think it is."

Lance pulled away just enough so that he could see Keith's face. "Why would it be your fault?"

"I don't think I was doing what I was supposed to be doing," Keith uttered quietly. His hands fisted the back of Lance's shirt for a moment before he let go of him entirely and stepped back into his own space again. Lance's arms dropped back to his own sides and his head tilted in question as he kept his eyes on Keith. "I'm sorry to have dragged you and the other Keith and your kids into this."

"Keith, you didn't drag anyone into anything. You didn't do this. But… if you leave here with a different perspective…"

Keith watched Lance's mouth pull into a genuine smile, one that reached all the way up to his eyes. He wondered when he began to distinguish Lance's smiles.

"I want you to be happy, Keith. Your Lance wants that too, I know it."

"How —"

"'Cause you're his person."

A flicker of doubt, but Keith pushed it away. He wanted. He so very much wanted.

"I believe you," he whispered in response.

Lance's smile grew wider, blinding in a way because that sure looked like pure joy on Lance's face.

A strange noise broke the moment, almost as if someone had broken a stick in half by stepping on it. Keith glanced around the backyard, and wondered where it could've come from, although his attention was drawn back to Lance when he heard Lance gasp.

It occurred to him, then, as he watched Lance stare hopefully up at the night sky, that this was the exact moment they'd both been waiting for since his arrival. But now that it was here, his eyes widened in a panic, because he didn't think he was ready to leave. He needed more time. He wanted to say goodbye to the kids, even if they didn't know it was a goodbye. He needed to make sure Lance knew he was truly sorry for dragging this little family into this mess —

"Lance." He reached out to Lance without hesitation, and found Lance's hand waiting for him. Lance's blue eyes, happy but calm as they bore into his own, were all he could focus on.

"Keith, you're going to be okay."

The protective determination in Lance's eyes was making Keith's eyes sting and he nodded quickly in response.

Lance used their joined hands to tug Keith towards him so that he could wrap him in another hug and whisper into his ear, "You can have this. Trust me."

Then Lance released him at the first sign of a tug from the universe.

After that all Keith knew was wind and that crackling noise — both loud in his ears — as he felt himself flung through the portal. He didn't fight the pull this time, and instead just watched as stars flew by (or was he flying past the stars?) and hoped that this meant that he was going home. Keith wasn't sure what he'd do if this landed him in yet another reality.

The thoughts that could've spiraled from that slightly depressing and nightmarish notion were quickly splashed away, quite literally as Keith hit cold water, falling beneath the surface with the force of the fall. He felt arms around his torso and before he could even begin to struggle or panic over the drastic change in his surroundings, Lance was pulling him not only to the surface, but towards the shallow end so that Keith could feel the bottom of the Altean pool and stand on his own two feet.

He stumbled a bit, prompting Lance to keep one arm slung around his back to hold him upright. Lance's other hand began to push his wet bangs out of his face as he sputtered out some water and scrambled to grab hold of Lance in return.

"Ay por dios, Keith, are you okay? Are you okay?" Lance was repeating, and with the wind and the crackle and even the sound of the water finally out of his ears, Keith could finally hear him. "That reality portal thing came out of nowhere and swooped the other Keith up — there was another Keith here for a while, it was crazy. Anyway, I've never seen anything like that crackly portal thing, and I've seen a lot of things out here. Crap — you're still coughing, please say you're okay, and that you're our Keith even though you arrived in pajamas again."

Keith glanced towards the ceiling through another coughing fit as he listened to Lance's flustered speech. The portal was gone. And this appeared to be the castleship. He met Lance's worried face and finally gave him a small nod. He managed to put more weight on his feet and found that he was finally able to stand again. Lance's hands fall away from him, and with the added space between them, Keith quickly spun Lance in the water with a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey!" Lance said at the surprise spin, although he quit protesting when he felt Keith's fingertips move over the scar on his back.

"I think this confirms I'm in the right place," Keith said, voice hoarse from coughing. He released Lance's shoulder and only when he pulled his hand back did Lance turn back around to face him, eyes soft and full of understanding.

"Can I see?" He jut his chin towards Keith's shoulder.

It took Keith a moment to realize what Lance wanted, but then he quickly nodded and pulled at the collar of his wet pajama shirt to reveal the wide scar that ran over his shoulder. Lance's fingers moved slowly towards his shoulder, and when Keith didn't move away or even release his shirt collar in protest, those fingers brushed lightly over his scar before Lance curled his fingers around Keith's neck and pulled him in close enough to press their foreheads together.

"You're back," Lance whispered. Keith nodded in return, letting his eyes close as he stilled and allowed himself time to breathe with Lance in this moment. "Are you okay?" Keith nodded again, but then shivered so strongly that even Lance felt it. Lance released a small chuckle and began to pull him out of the pool. "Come on, you're freezing."

It was uncomfortable to climb out of the pool water with the pajamas sticking wetly to his skin, and he pulled the shirt off as soon as Lance handed him a spare towel. Lance pulled on his own shirt, but he kept wide eyes pinned on Keith, as if he couldn't believe Keith was in front of him again (even though Keith was pretty sure Lance had just said there had been another Keith here in his place). But when Keith met Lance's eyes, Lance quickly glanced away.

"We have to take care of these pajamas." Lance snatched up the pajama shirt Keith had tossed away and began wringing it out. "The other Keith arrived in pajamas too, which he has now left here, giving you all sorts of pajama options and I expect to see you in them often."

Keith bit back his own grin as he watched red begin to color Lance's face.

"I mean, not often like I'd see you in bed often, but just… you should wear pajamas because they're ador — uh, comfortable. Pajamas are comfortable and you should wear them and now you have two pairs. Really, you should have three because I know you have Red Paladin pajamas in that room somewhere even though you claimed you did not." He spun on his heel and began moving towards the exit. "Let's get moving, huh? I'm going to get you into a hot shower before you catch a cold from reality tunnel travel. Well, I mean — I'm not getting you in the shower as much as I'm just going to escort you to the —"

"Okay," Keith said, cutting him off as he caught up to Lance near the doors. As much fun as he was having watching Lance dig himself into a hole of innuendos, he needed out of these wet pants.

They made it to Keith's room rather quickly, with Lance still chatting about how cool it was to actually see a spontaneous hole between realities. He was happy that Lance walked right into his old room without any prompting, and even smiled when Lance pulled another pair of pajamas out of his drawer to show him. His fingers then trailed over his jacket, which had been left tossed on his bed before he pulled his Blade of Marmora knife from the holster around his waist.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Lance said, throwing his hands around as he stared incredulously at Keith. "Tell me you were not wearing your knife with the pajamas?"

"Okay… I won't tell you," Keith said dryly.

"I just said pajamas are meant to be comfortable! You can't be comfortable with a knife on you!"

"I beg to differ," Keith muttered. "Besides, this belonged to my mom, and I couldn't… I didn't know when I might get picked up to come back, so I had to keep it on me all the time."

"Okay," Lance sighed, resigned. "I'll accept that excuse for that reality —"

"You don't have much of a choice," Keith said with his own wry grin.

"— but no more pointy pajama accessories"

Keith pulled the dry pajamas from Lance's arms, and in their place, left his blade with Lance. He caught Lance staring reverently down at it before he made his way into the bathroom for a quick, hot shower and new warm pajamas. When he returned to his room, he was pleased to see that Lance had stayed. He sat on the edge of Keith's bed, and spun the knife between his hands at an impressively fast pace, especially given that he didn't appear to be focusing on it at all, but instead appeared to be staring thoughtfully at the floor.

"The others should be told that you're back, but I wanted to… wait," Lance said without looking up at Keith. "Because if they know you're back, they'll probably call Kolivan."

Keith sat himself next to Lance and continued to watch his knife spin in Lance's talented hands. The weight of the space war was slowly settling itself back on his shoulders, and he suddenly had questions (that he wasn't in a hurry to ask) about what had happened to Voltron on Naxzela, how much did Kolivan know of this reality switch, and what was their current standing with Lotor?

"That was really stupid, what you did," Lance whispered. "Really, really stupid."

Keith sighed, realizing immediately that Lance apparently was in a hurry to talk about the incident with Haggar's shield. "Yeah, the, uh, other Lance yelled at me a few times already."

"You are not allowed to sacrifice yourself for anything, Keith." Lance's hands stilled then as he turned to face Keith, giving him the full effect of his glare. "Not for the mission. Not even for us. And if —"

"Can I — can I say something?" Keith watched Lance's face practically twitch at the interruption, apparently he had really worked himself up for this lecture while Keith was in the shower.

"Sure," Lance finally said in a tone that told Keith that he was in no way finished with this subject.

Keith took a few ticks to just take a few breaths. Now that he had Lance's full attention, he found his heart racing and his hands slightly shaky. Lance passed his knife over to him and he gratefully accepted it, thankful to have something familiar to hold while he did his best to talk.

"Look, Lance," he finally started, "there hasn't been a whole lot in my life that worked out the way I thought it was going go. And not just my family but the Garrison, even Voltron."

"Keith, you can come ba—"

"Just," Keith interrupted again, eyes meeting Lance's insistent ones. Lance shut his mouth and nodded, willing to hear him out. "When we got to space, I couldn't fight the feeling that my whole life led me here. I thought it meant that I was meant for this, like, destined for war?" Lance's mouth dropped open in surprise as sadness filled his eyes, but he didn't speak, allowing Keith to continue. "And since I thought I was meant for war, I never thought about after the war." He paused to swallow harshly before quietly saying, "I didn't think there would be an after the war for me."

"Keith," Lance said softly.

"But I want it now, Lance," Keith insisted before Lance could argue against anything else he'd just shared. "I've seen what it could look like, and I want it. I want there to be an after the war for me."

"Oh, thank God," Lance said, dropping his head to his hands in relief. "In that case, I cancel the rest of my don't you dare self-sacrifice again speech." Lance ran his hands through his hair a few times before sitting up again to face Keith. "Do you think this revelation was the main point of this whole thing? Or do you think —"

"Do I think that I might get sucked back into a reality swapper if you and I aren't…" Keith waved his hand between the two of them, and wondered if Lance had been subject to the same relentless relationship speeches from the other Keith.

"I don't really think you'll get tossed somewhere else just because you didn't come back immediately in love with me, dude," Lance said with a smile. "Although, the universe and I will have words if it takes you away again."

Keith knew Lance was trying to joke with him, but he felt himself frown as he stared back at him. "What you just said… you didn't say the universe would be upset if the two of us weren't already in love." He watched Lance's eyes widen slightly as realization dawned on his own face. "The way you said it almost makes it sound like you're already in lo—"

"I could be," Lance said hoarsely, smile gone and eyes serious with intent. "I could be so easily, Keith."

Now it was Keith's eyes that widened. While he had thought he'd grown used to the other Lance's bluntness in regards to his feelings for the other Keith, hearing a similar sentiment out of his own Lance's mouth was almost a euphoric experience. Unfortunately, his brain began to wonder if it was just the other Keith that Lances fell in love with.

"Did you feel that way before you… met the other Keith?"

Lance chuckled. "That Keith gave me a glimpse of what it could be like, similar to what I think you probably experienced. But, he's not who I… Keith, from the very first moment I saw you, I knew you were my person."

Warmth flooded Keith's body with how much he could practically feel that Lance meant those words.

Still, he couldn't fight the need to stay cautious.

"Did — did the other Keith tell you to say that to me?"

"What? No. Was he supposed to?"

Keith shook his head and threw caution to the wind as he reached over to rest his hand on Lance's wrist. Lance twisted his wrist and shifted his hand so that he could lace their fingers together in a proper hold. It was such a small gesture, but the touch was enough for Keith to feel grounded. He squeezed those long, brown fingers in return and ducked below his drying bangs as he replayed this Lance — his Lance — saying the very words that the other Lance had used in describing the other Keith. Keith hadn't even known how badly he needed to hear those words from his very own Lance until right this moment. He had to wonder if he was noticeably blushing. He tried to swallow over the lump in his throat — he was pretty sure his heart had moved to his fucking throat.

"I didn't know you felt that way," Keith replied quietly.

"I didn't think you'd want to hear it, so I kind of pushed it away, even from myself," Lance sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't… try to tell you sooner."

"I'm not sure how I would've reacted any sooner," Keith said honestly but with a reassuring squeeze to Lance's fingers. "But, even wanting to be with — I mean, I don't really know how… I don't have experience with —" His eyes dipped down to their joined hands as he struggled to find the words he needed.

"Keith, listen." Lance moved a little closer into Keith's space, unconsciously rubbing his thumb back and forth against the back of Keith's hand. "I don't think the point was for us to rush to a chapel and get married the very moment you came back. I think it was for both of us to open our eyes to what we could have and start moving in the right direction."

"We set the pace?" Keith dared to lift his eyes to Lance's again and found bright blue hopeful eyes waiting for him.

"As long as we do it together," Lance added. He twisted further so he could face Keith properly. "Just — please take this leap with me, Keith. I promise I'll catch you."

Keith could feel happiness race through him, across his arms, all the way down to his toes which curled against the cold floor. It was unlike anything he'd felt before, more powerful than an adrenaline rush during a mission. He even felt it in his cheeks as his mouth lifted into a smile.

"What if that feeling I had — that my whole life led me here — wasn't anything about the war? What if my life was just leading me here to you?"

"Jesus Christ, Keith, you're gonna kill me with lines like that," Lance said as he let his blushing face fall into his free hand with a small groan.

Keith smiled, happy Lance hadn't let go of his hand for the current dramatics. He admired Lance's slightly pinkened face as Lance's own smile grew when he glanced back at him.

"You should smile more," Lance said softly.

"I think I will with you around."

Lance let go of his hand only to pull him into a hug against him. "Yup, you're definitely out to kill me."

Keith went more than willingly, tucking himself against Lance's broad chest and wrapping his arms around Lance in return. He smiled to himself as he felt Lance's fingers begin to slide through his still slightly damp hair.

Back in the Domestic Reality…

This time, Lance had let go at the first tug from the universe.

And then Keith was gone.

It was harder to see the reality exchange portal hole-thing out here with the wide expanse of stars in the sky, but the white rim and crackling noise was still present. And as long as they were still present, then the portal was still open.

They were the only things holding Lance together as he continued to stand there Keithless and waiting.

If the universe decided to take Space War Keith back, then the 'Fair Keith Exchange Policy' (that Lance had promptly created in his head as soon as Space War Keith disappeared) meant that he had better get his Keith back.

Pronto.

As in, right this second.

"Please," he whispered shakily to the sky. "Pleasepleasepleaseplease —"

He cut himself off right before Keith hurtled into him. His hands flew up to try to catch his husband, but they both crashed into the grass and rolled a few feet before finally coming to a stop with Keith planted firmly on top of him.

Lance couldn't even spare time to groan in pain before he cupped Keith's face and lifted it quickly, determined to see those purple eyes and confirm that this was his Keith.

"Wow, I really fell for you, huh?" Keith groaned as he reached back to rub at a sore spot on his hip.

"No" — Lance choked on a sob — "no puns right now. I was so fucking worried, Keith."

And those were his Keith's eyes — made clear by the presence of love and happy tears, instead of wariness and confusion.

"Are you okay?" he asked desperately. "Please, Keith, please be okay."

"Yes, love, yes." Keith pressed his face into Lance's neck and pressed several kisses there. "I'm fine." And before Lance could ask again, Keith's mouth was covering his, and Lance relaxed into the grass at the familiar feeling of his husband's weight and his husband's mouth moving so perfectly with his own.

His hands roamed over Keith's bare back (that made two pairs of pajamas he would have to replace) and he only cut the kiss short when he felt Keith shiver above him.

"You're freezing." Lance rubbed his hands over Keith's back in an attempt to warm him up before he finally pushed him to get them both to their feet. "Is that a bathing suit?"

"Yeah." Keith fit himself into Lance's side as they began to walk back to the house, although he paused for a moment to just appreciate their backyard.

Lance didn't let him linger, though, and he pulled Keith into the house. Although once inside, he had to practically run to keep up to Keith as he followed him first to Luna's room to check on her and wake her with hugs, and then to Sol's room to do the same. Both kids were slightly confused, but neither complained about extra hugs before they went right back to sleep.

"I missed them," Keith said from the hallway as he peeked into both rooms once again, hand still holding tightly to Lance's through the entire reunion with the kids. "And you," he murmured as he wrapped his arms around Lance. "I missed you so much."

"I can hardly believe you're back. I was so worried, Keith, really. He said you were dropped in the middle of a space war," Lance whispered into his hair, which was currently extra floofy. "Are you really okay?"

"Yes, love." Keith nuzzled against him.

"Did that thing shoot you through a wind tunnel?" he tried to tease while petting Keith's hair, anything to keep his voice from cracking

"It was pretty windy, yeah," Keith said. "I didn't care so much this time, since I knew it was sending me back to you."

Lance released the sob that was stuck in his throat and buried his face in Keith's neck. Keith didn't let go of him, but he did move them away from the children's doors and down the hallway to their own room.

The strength in his arms as he kept them wrapped around Lance was the only thing keeping Lance grounded as he cried into Keith's shoulder and thought about what a release it was to finally have his arms around Keith again. His chest was lighter than it had ever been. Lighter than during their first kiss. Or the day Keith agreed to marry him. Or their actual wedding day. That first night they had Luna and Sol in the house — because they had known from the first moment that those children were meant to be theirs. He was so light he was pretty sure he could float away and that holding onto Keith now was the only thing keeping that from happening. Keith just squeezed him tighter and murmured words of agreement — as Lance belatedly realized that he had been saying all of this out loud.

"I'm never letting go of you again," Lance said. "Seriously, Keith, it's gonna get weird."

A strange laugh-sob hybrid noise escaped from Keith then before he pulled them both down to their bed and tangled himself into Lance.

In the Voltron Reality…

While the rest of the team got the general idea of what Keith had been doing in the other reality over the next few days, Lance was treated to every nitty gritty detail, including Keith's apparent hidden ability to pull loose teeth and funny stories that included skinned knees and the right breakfast bowl for stubborn toddlers. He grinned as Keith lamented over the loss of real food. And balked when Keith tried to skim over his day at the beach.

"You're sunburnt." Lance grinned, running his finger down the slope of Keith's nose. He recognized what Keith was doing, and while it was sweet — trying to leave out a part of the story that might make Lance homesick for his own beach — he still asked for more. "You were obviously in the sun. Come on, give me the beach details, too."

They were sitting on one of the couches in the main lounge. And while there had been plenty of space between them when Keith had first begun speaking, they'd both shifted enough times that they now sat close enough for their knees to touch. Lance had dropped his arm to the back of the couch and indulged himself as he ran his fingers through Keith's hair (Keith had stopped mid-word at the first slide of his fingers through those black locks, released a small, soft sigh, and then continued with his story. Lance was in hair finger combing heaven.)

"Oh, and then there was another movie night without the kids. I don't remember the name of the movie, but Lance was totally cheating because —"

"How do you cheat at movie night?"

"He played one that he must've already watched with his Keith, so he would've already known that it had made him laugh, and —"

"Whoa, wait, Keith" — Lance could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up — "was this No Laugh movie night?"

"Yeah, that's what he called it." Keith's eyebrows furrowed when he turned his head enough to see Lance's face. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Lance assured, fingers on the move again through Keith's hair when he realized he'd stalled. "It's just, uh… my dad invented No Laugh movie night. We used to have them all the time when I was a kid."

"Oh," Keith said thoughtfully as his eyes traced over Lance's face. "Well, I liked it. Maybe we could do that here? I bet everyone else would like it. Um, or we could just… have nights when we watch movies without the rest — you know, like, just the two of —"

"Are you asking me on a movie date?" Lance grinned widely at Keith's pinkened cheeks and uncharacteristic ramble.

Keith sighed. "Well, dates are what you do when, uh…"

"Yeah." Lance smiled softly at him while tugging a strand of hair at the same time. His smile only grew when Keith's mouth shifted to a pout. "I'm up for any date with you, samurai."

The pout disappeared as he watched Keith try to bite back a small smile while shifting his head back, an unspoken request for Lance's fingers to begin moving again.

"You are staying, right? Living here? No more Blades?" He had been dying to ask this question ever since Keith had landed in their pool a few days ago, but had been worried about spooking Keith, or asking too much of him. But right now Keith was a warmth sitting here next to him, and they hadn't even held hands again or kissed, but he already couldn't imagine giving this up.

Keith pursed his lips once before speaking. "I asked Shiro to set up a conference call with Kolivan for me," he said slowly before glancing once at Lance. "I thought I should be the one to tell him that I decided my place was here."

Lance's exhale was shaky, but his smile was wide as he wrapped arms around Keith and pulled him all the way into him for a hug. Keith 'Ooof'd' a bit as he was tugged closer but Lance was soon being hugged in return. He squeezed Keith a little and then reluctantly released him — he'd been doing his best to keep his hugs to short bursts in another attempt to not chase Keith off. But Keith didn't shift back to his own spot on the couch when Lance let go. Instead, he remained where he was, pressed snugly against Lance's side, face close to Lance's face, and dark eyes focused on what Lance had to assume was his mouth.

And Lance thought he'd been ecstatically happy a few ticks ago when Keith said he was staying… That was nothing compared to the butterflies swooping through his stomach as Keith's fingers skimmed over his jaw, causing a visible shiver. He brushed Keith's bangs out of his face and leaned in at the same moment that Keith's fingers found the back of his neck and pulled him in. The kiss was tentative and soft, almost to the point of no contact at all as they breathed against each other. But then Lance pressed forward, desperate to get more contact and Keith met him with equal pressure and small sound in his throat that Lance was going to replay in his brain and treasure forever.

As far as first kisses went, Lance was pretty damn sure it was perfect. The way they'd basically crashed into each other but it was only gentle fingers that made contact. The way one of Keith's hands clutched the front of his shirt while Lance's hands cupped Keith's face. Keith's other hand began to slide up his back before flattening between his shoulder blades, and Lance's stomach jumped in the best way when Keith used the new leverage to practically crawl into Lance's lap and pull Lance flush against him. There was another pleased grunt from Keith, as if he hadn't been expecting all the goodness that came with that amount of touching, and Lance found himself smiling into the kiss at the sound.

And when he pulled back to breathe, and Keith's lips chased after him, he figured death by kisses wasn't a bad way to go and leaned right back in to give Keith what he wanted.

"Lance," Keith managed to whisper reverently between kisses, and Lance pulled back only long enough to concur with the universe that this — this boy with the pink cheeks and the dazed eyes who was keeping them pressed together with strong hands around Lance — this was exactly what he'd always wanted in his life. Exactly what he'd fight to protect.

"Keith," he whispered back, just as reverently, before reconnecting their lips.

He walked Keith back to his room after that because he was a gentleman, and pushed Keith up against the wall inside his room to kiss him some more because he was not.

And while he'd meant to just kiss him silly before giving him some space for the evening, he'd melted a bit when he spotted the sketch of Luna and Sol stuck to Keith's wall. And then melted some more when Keith admitted he'd found the sketch in the pocket of his jeans and hung it up because he missed the kids.

So of course he had to kiss Keith for an extended period of time after that adorable confession.

In the Domestic Reality…

Lance draped himself over Keith's back and Keith immediately relaxed under the weight. It had been a few weeks since he'd been returned, but he still wasn't entirely comfortable unless Lance was touching him, or at least within touching distance. Lance didn't seem to mind this in the slightest.

"Hi, love," Keith murmured. He spread the many many pages he'd been working on since his return across his desk and then side-eyed Lance's face, currently pressed in close to his own. Lance scanned over the pages and moved his hands from the arm rests of Keith's chair to circle around his chest before he finally spoke.

"It's incredible, baby."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. They're gonna love it. The bonds between lions and paladins. Space battles. All the possibilities for characters given an endless number of planets. They're going to take one look at all this and want to publish the comic immediately."

Keith smiled at his work. Some were just sketches of characters, but he also had a few complete panels ready for an upcoming pitch. He was grateful for a talent that allowed him to recreate some of the things he had had seen, which was as therapeutic as it was feeding his creative side.

"You'll help me, right? If this takes off?" Keith asked. "I have a few story ideas from what the paladins told me while I was there, and a couple more ideas have come to me while I've been sketching, but…"

"I'll help you any way you want," Lance murmured into Keith's neck. He let Keith nose his face a few inches away, allowing Keith to turn his head properly and join their mouths together for a few slow kisses. "Missed you, baby," Lance whispered between kisses, a sentiment they both found themselves repeating often, even these few weeks out. He tightened his arms around Keith's torso and Keith felt him smile into the kiss when he felt Keith's hands come up to grip his arms.

When they stopped kissing, Lance wasn't quite ready to let go of him yet, so he remained where he was and turned his attention back to Keith's Voltron artwork.

"Holy crow, Keith, please tell me that's not the actual size of that space spider that nabbed you."

"Okay, I won't tell you," Keith replied dryly and felt Lance shudder playfully against his back. "Do you… do you think those two are okay?"

"As long as they never go near that spider base again."

"No, I mean do you think Lance and —"

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Lance sighed. "I think… if they're smart —"

"We're basically talking about ourselves and its weird."

"— then they'll figure out that they're better together than apart," Lance continued.

Keith hummed thoughtfully, and when he felt Lance shift against his back, he adjusted in his seat to support Lance's weight, allowing Lance to teeter over the desk and search through some of his additional sketches.

"Wait, Keith, who's this guy?" His finger landed on a broad alien with a long braid and big, fluffy ears.

"I think they said his name was Kolivan and I think he's the leader of the Blades, although I met him really briefly the night I arrived there, so my memories of him are a little hazy. I'm having a hard time remembering the details of his armor."

"Oh, Keithy, then I'm about to get the assistant of the year award from you."

"You'd be more than my assistant," Keith murmured.

"Right hand man? Space ranger partner? What do you prefer?"

Keith rolled his eyes. "Why are you getting an award?"

"Because when other Keith crashed into our world, he was wearing Blade armor, and as I mentioned, he was swept up out of here wearing some of your pajamas, which means…"

"We have actual Blade armor from another reality in this house?" Keith asked, eyes wide with excitement.

"Yeah, but I'm gonna refer to it as Keith's sexy bodysuit from now on and I request that you do the same."

"Request denied."

"I'm also requesting that you model it for me later after we get the kids in bed," Lance whispered into Keith's ear before nibbling at Keith's earlobe.

Keith couldn't fight the shiver that ran through him. There had been plenty of roaming hands and scattered office supplies in this shared work space, and for a moment Keith forgot that the kids were home as he reached up and let his fingers run through Lance's hair.

They were reminded that they weren't alone on this rainy afternoon, however, when both kids fell over top of each other as they suddenly barreled into the office at the same time.

Lance chuckled before lifting himself off Keith's back. Keith watched him, openly admiring his husband from his broad shoulders down to his long legs as he retreated to his own desk and sat himself down across from Keith.

"Are we eating dinner soon?" Sol asked as he scrambled to his feet, Luna quickly following him.

"Uncle Hunk said he wanted to bring us dinner tonight, so I need you guys to clean up the living room," Lance responded.

"Ughhh," Luna groaned while leaning heavily into Keith's side. "Most of those toys are Sol's and he never helps clean."

Keith pulled her in for a proper side hug as he watched Sol quickly escape the office and disappear out of sight.

"Sol, you're going to clean up your own toys!" Lance called out towards the hallway.

Luna wrapped an arm around Keith's neck and hugged him tightly in return. Keith grinned as he watched one of Lance's eyebrows raise as he stared thoughtfully into the quiet hallway.

"Are you listening to me, Sol?" Lance finally said after a few more quiet moments.

"Yes, I'm hearing you in my ears!" Sol yelled back from the other room.

"I hope this isn't a sign of what he's going to be like as a teenager," Luna sighed dramatically.

Lance snorted out a laugh while Keith pressed his lips into a solid line to bite back a smile.

"Please help him," Lance requested of her across the desks.

Another dramatic sigh. "Fiiine." She let go of Keith and made her way out of the room.

"You're my favorite daughter!" Lance called after her.

"Very funny!"

Keith smiled as he still felt the phantom warmth of Lance on his back and Luna at his side. He'd need to grab a Sol hug as soon as he left the office. As the kids began to presumably clean (although Keith had his doubts about that), their house was filled with the sound of Luna singing while Sol's monster socks began to growl.

He turned back to his computer and opened his email where he found a reminder about an upcoming deadline for one of his current architecture jobs. He wasn't as far along with that project as he should be, but it was hard to set the Voltron sketches aside to focus on the work he was actually paid to do.

Although, he thought to himself (and his supportive husband was quick to remind him) if his upcoming pitch for a Voltron comic went well, maybe he could officially retire from architecture…

He could hear Lance's mouse slide across his desk a few times, as if Lance was working, but Keith could also feel Lance's eyes on him. Keith continued to skim through his remaining emails without returning the gaze, determined to empty his inbox, but also determined to see how long it would take Lance to move to more drastic measures to get his attention. Keith bit back a smile and did his best to make it look like his computer screen had all of his attention.

Lance wasn't the only one who liked to get his partner riled up in this relationship.

Keith got a quick warning in the form of a rustling noise before he was hit in the face with a wad of paper.

"Cheater," Keith breathed before raising his pseudo-glare to Lance's smiling face.

"I love you," Lance replied, words soft but grin cheeky as he was actively balling up another piece of paper to presumably chuck at Keith.

And this man was definitely Keith's kryptonite, because he dropped the glare, abandoned his work, and made his way around the desks to sit himself in Lance's lap. Lance's paper distraction method was dropped and forgotten as he wove his arms back around Keith and pulled him into a tight hug. Keith reciprocated with arms wrapped around Lance's shoulders. He ducked his face into Lance's neck just so he could breathe in the familiar scent of home.

"My Keith," Lance murmured. He lifted a hand up to Keith's hair so he could run his finger through it, and was rewarded with a content sigh from Keith.

"You know I want all of this, right?" Keith asked quietly.

"Yeah, baby."

"No, I mean it, Lance. I want the kids interrupting us. I want to trip over their toys later. I want all of our rituals plus a hundred more. I want to watch you stand in the chip aisle at the grocery store and debate over baked versus not baked chips — even though you're going to drench them in french onion dip — and eventually buy the not baked ones because they have ruffles and we both know dipping chips without ruffles is a real waste of time. And —"

Lance captured Keith's mouth with his own and dropped his hands to Keith's hips in order to pull him impossibly closer in his lap.

"He's not picking up his toys!" Luna yelled from the other room, startling their lips apart. "Sol, you're not helping, you're just jumping."

"I'm jump helping!"

"That's not a thing!"

"What was that about the kids interrupting us?" Lance asked with a grin.

"I want it all," Keith whispered diving back in for another kiss.

In the Voltron Reality….

The small Olkari child bounced next to where Keith sat, doing his best to wait patiently, although Lance could tell, even from where he sat across the room, that it was a struggle. Keith was currently hunched over the paper he was working on (and Lance was already planning on what kind of massage to give Keith later when that poor posture caught up to the muscles in Keith's back and shoulders). The fact that Keith was being super adorable right now with his hair pulled into a messy bun and his tongue poking out between his teeth as he drew only made Lance feel more impatient to get back to their room alone later.

Finally, Keith finished the sketch he'd been working on and handed the paper over to the waiting child. The grateful boy's eyes were huge as he scanned the paper — while still bouncing in excitement — before hugging Keith quickly and scurrying back to his parents.

As Keith stood to stretch, and Lance noticed that all the kids who had been crowding around Keith earlier were all satisfied, Lance sauntered across the room to take a quick break with his husband. With the resolution of the war, Voltron's current missions typically involved helping communities rebuild. They were currently visiting Olkarion so Pidge could raid their new tech advancements in order to assist a planet a few solar systems over that was still 'in the stone age' (a phrase that had confused Allura and Coran, but was one that Keith had understood for once).

"He seemed pretty eager for his picture," Lance said as he came up behind Keith and automatically slid an arm around his waist — a touch that was so expected after three years of marriage that if Lance didn't do it, he was pretty sure Keith would likely stumble due to leaning his weight into nothing.

"His exuberance reminded me of a certain Blue Paladin that I'm extremely fond of," Keith said with a grin.

Lance sent him a half-hearted eye roll. "Are you remembering to sign your Voltron pictures for the kids this time?"

"No," Keith said with a laugh. "Nobody wants my signature on their Voltron sketch."

"Excuse? Those pictures are going to be framed on their walls."

"They're not even colored," Keith argued. "Just quick sketches for the kids —"

"Bip bip bip. Baby, I know you think you're just entertaining the kids here, but they really are going to treasure those pictures. They were drawn by the Paladin of the Red Lion of Voltron. Plus, they're incredible, especially considering you whip 'em up in just a couple doboshes."

"One of the Paladins of the Red Lion," Keith replied, elbowing Lance while managing to still pull him in close.

"The one who has badass art skills." Lance winked at him before leaning into kiss the smile on Keith's face. He'd meant for it to be a quick press of lips, but Keith responded fervently, lips pulling at Lance's lips so that he soon forgot where they were and tugged Keith even closer to him.

"Pediatric. Hospital. Waiting Room." Allura's voice reached them from across the foyer, reminding them both that while Pidge was off playing with technology, the rest of them had happily accepted a chance to entertain some of the children who were being cared for in the hospital today.

Lance reluctantly stopped kissing Keith, although the sight of pink cheeks and dazed purple eyes was going to carry him through the rest of his day until he got Keith alone later.

"I guess I'll leave you here to dazzle the kids with your art while I go back over there and attempt to make more animals out of balloons," Lance sighed.

"You're doing great, love," Keith said with a smirk. "You've almost got the snake down to a science."

"You've almost got the snake down to a science," Lance mimicked back in a higher pitch as he crossed the room to where his station was located.

He turned back to send his husband a pout, but was distracted when a small girl ran screaming into the waiting room. She wasn't Olkari, which wasn't a huge surprise, Olkarion had become a place of refuge for many displaced alien groups. The purple tint to her face and hair had Lance wondering if she was at least part Galran. She tried to simultaneously skid to a stop and turn to see if anyone was following behind her, but she managed to only tilt off balance and knock right into Keith.

"Whoa!" Keith scrambled, not only because the little girl almost fall over at the contact with his legs, but because she almost dropped the even smaller child she'd been carrying. Lance didn't think she was quite big enough to be carrying the little boy anyway, and he breathed a sigh of relief when Keith used a leg to keep the girl upright and caught the toddler in his own arms.

His husband had amazing reflexes. An adorable smile. Soft hair. A really cute butt. Lance liked to point these things out to their friends, especially that last fact, usually until Keith covered his mouth and dragged him away. But Keith was usually blushing so red by then that it was totally worth it.

Lance was getting distracted… He re-crossed the room to where Keith stood and crouched down to the little girl. She was no longer screaming, but had visible tear tracts running down her face.

"Hello, I'm Lance," he said. "What's your name?"

The little girl eyed him before glancing up to where the toddler was still being held securely in Keith's arms. Keith shifted the little boy to a more comfortable hold and gave his tiny back a few comforting pats and Lance swore that if he hadn't already married Keith, he'd be proposing this instant while he was down here.

"Where are your parents?" Lance asked, pulling her attention back to him. "Do you need help? We're with Voltron, we can help you."

The little girl shook her head, and Lance finally realized she kept glancing up at Keith because she was trying to figure out how to get the little boy back in her own arms, likely to continue making their escape away from their doctor appointment.

"There she is," a woman said as she came around a corner, breathless and with a hand to her chest as if she'd been running.

Given that she couldn't very well pull the boy from Keith, the little girl's only option seemed to be to hide behind his legs and glare up at the woman who had come to retrieve them. Lance stood back to his full height then, taking his place next to Keith and providing a bit more wall for the girl to hide behind.

"I'm afraid we haven't seen any wayward children, here, ma'am," he said in his best fake official voice. He glanced behind Keith's legs and when the little girl gave him a questioning look, he only winked at her. She bit back a smile (but he saw it anyway) and moved to use his legs as a shield as well.

"I can take him," the woman said, exasperation being her current obvious setting as she didn't react to Lance's tease, and instead just reached for the little boy Keith held.

But upon seeing her get closer, the little boy clutched tiny chubby fistfuls of Keith's shirt and ducked his face into Keith's chest. And the little girl, who Lance had to guess was really just a protective big sister, jumped out from behind their legs to shield the boy, throwing her arms out and shouting a loud 'No!' to who Lance had to guess was an overworked nurse.

"We can take them back there, to their parents? If that would help," Lance offered.

The woman sighed as she shook her head. "No parents. They just arrived with a small group of orphaned refugees and we're just trying to get their initial health check completed before they're taken over the Children's Center."

Lance watched Keith's hold on the little boy tighten ever so slightly as Keith looked down into the face of the toddler who thought he could hide in Keith's chest. The small purple face returned Keith's gaze with bright blue eyes. Keith met Lance's eyes over the little boy's head.

"I've been thinking," Keith started.

"Dangerous."

Keith huffed a breath but smiled softly when he saw Lance's hands drop on the little girl's shoulders and pull her out of her attack stance and closer to where he stood.

Lance kneeled in front of the little girl and asked her for her name again.

"Celeste," she finally responded after a few ticks of hesitation. "That's Flare." She pointed to the little boy.

Lance's eyes shot to Keith's, and he found Keith's brow slightly furrowed, like he wasn't quite sure what he was hearing. But there was hope in his eyes, and a longing for something that Lance hadn't been sure could be theirs in this life. Lance rubbed at a spot on his chest, sure that this moment was monumental. That he was going to remember this feeling of lightness and love and hope forever, especially when he had ached to give Keith a family and here was a chance to expand it to something greater than just himself.

Keith's eyes met his with a question.

Lance nodded quickly in response as he felt his eyes begin to burn. He turned back to Celeste and met her wide blue eyes to say, "No more worries, Celeste. We'll take care of you both."