Chapter Text
“KEITH YOU ABSOLUTE ASS!”
Said subject of profanity whipped around at the sudden appearance of both the blue paladin in a mess of limbs on the ground and his enormous dog, happily trotting up to his much smaller owner.
Lance winced as he stood, dusting himself off and stalking angrily towards the other boy.
Keith raised a thick eyebrow. “Oh, now you’ll talk to me?”
“Put a sock in it mullet,” he pointed an accusatory finger at the red paladin’s monster of a pet, “This thing is out to kill my sweet Kaltenecker and if you don’t take care of it, I will.”
Keith shook his head in confusion. “Wait what? Nyx wouldn’t-”
“Uh well she just did!!” Lance could hear his voice getting shrill and could sense a few of the other paladins slowly looking toward the commotion, but he didn’t care. “I was just going out to gather firewood, so I left Kaltenecker out to get her graze on and I what do I come back to find? A panicked cow with space wolf about to go in for the kill!”
That wasn’t entirely true. Lance had returned to the campsite with firewood to find Kaltenecker still, staring thoughtfully into the brush directly in front of her. Curious, Lance began to walk closer to see what the large animal was focused so intently on only to find Keith’s enormous dog crouching low, her tail wagging vigorously back and forth.
Without warning, she sprang up and began to run causing Lance to drop his firewood and sprint to save his pet from what seemed like an untimely demise. He thought to yell like a madman right before Nyx collided with the other other animal prompting the beast to stop and turn it’s massive head towards him. At this point, the blue paladin had been running full speed and the wolf’s sudden stop came just as Lance plowed into her side and suddenly-
“Wait a sec,” Lance paused looking around to see Kaltenecker in the distance by the pasture, “How did I get here?”
Keith was kneeling and scratching Nyx behind the ears. “Well she can teleport, I thought you knew that,” he said looking up at Lance through his lashes.
Lance sputtered. “Excuse me, what now? Tele-wait wait wait wait, now hold on-”
“Breathe Lance,” Keith said coolly.
“How is that possible, I don't even, did everyone else know? Am I-” he looked down and could see Keith pursing his lips together, very clearly trying to smother a smile.
Lance felt a flare of irritation. “Oh this is funny, is it?”
Keith had the audacity to smirk. “If I’m being honest, a little,” and then, “But really Lance, I promise nothing would’ve happened.”
Lance snorted.
"I'm serious," Keith said earnestly, smiling softly as Nyx leaned into his touch, "She's pretty well behaved, and once you get to know her-"
"I have no interest bonding with your wonder-dog," Lance retorted.
Keith's easy smile wavered as his eyes flicked back to the blue paladin, "C'mon Lance you're not being fair here, she probably just wanted to play."
A small rational part of Lance's brain understood what Keith was saying was true to an extent, but he was far too riled up to back down now.
“Please humor me as to why you thought it would be a good idea to bring a giant, teleporting space mutt with us in the first place?”
Keith’s irritation was now apparent and his eyes narrowed as he stood. “I don’t know Lance," he said, voice even, "Maybe you can explain to me why you thought it was necessary to drag a useless, smelly future hamburger helper across the entirety of space?"
The dam broke.
“SHE WAS FREE WITH PURCHASE,” Lance yelled, jabbing a finger into Keith’s stupidly broad chest with each word, “AND SHE MAKES MILKSHAKES FOR US TO ENJOY WHILE ALL YOUR SPACE MONSTER DOES IS TELEPORT WITHOUT CONSENT!”
Keith sputtered for second, before launching himself into Lance's personal space.
“I’M LACTOSE INTOLERANT!”
“THAT SOUNDS LIKE A PERSONAL PROBLEM!”
"IT'S A MEDICAL CONDITION!"
"STOP TAKING EVERYTHING SO DAMN LITERALLY!"
"STOP YELLING AT ME!"
"YOU STOP YELLING AT ME!"
“UGH YOU’RE SO-!”
“Boys, enough.”
Lance and Keith had gotten unreasonably close in their heated exchange and Lance felt the strangest sense of deja vu as he stared into the dark indigo of Keith’s eyes before tearing his face away. Shiro had made his way over, handsome face scrunched in concern.
Before he could say anything Lance held up a hand.
“You’re right, Shiro..." he sighed tiredly, shoulders slumping, "I’m sorry for causing a scene.”
The former black paladin’s eyes widened in surprise as he looked from Lance to Keith. Lance still couldn’t bear to look at him directly, so he just turned back to face the other boy.
“Sorry for blowing it out of proportion man. Just uh, keep an eye out for Nyx, that’s all I ask.”
Keith’s entire face fell. “Lance wait-”
He’d already turned and began walking back towards the opposite end of camp.. He couldn’t risk staying and hearing what Keith had to say when the sting of tears had already started to blur his vision.
..........................
When Lance was 10, he and his sister were caught outside during a storm.
It was the middle of July when Lance and Rhea, his twin and partner in crime, decided that they’d earned an afternoon of relaxation after helping their parents around the restaurant for the entirety of the morning.
“Nena,” his mother had grabbed Lance before he could scurry after his sister, “Be back before the rain starts, it’s going to be bad today.”
He’d smiled his winning smile, front teeth askew after growing in awkwardly, “No ma, I’ll just stay out when it starts storming because that makes sense.”
“Oi,” his mother had clucked, smirking, “I didn’t ask for lip, cheeky boy.”
Lance had only laughed as he left for the sandy shores of Varadero.
He and Rhea had made it a mission that summer to identify and catalog the various sea and beach creatures they’d find over the summer to satiate their childlike infatuation with marine biology. Lance and his sister both took turns looking and recording, making sure to document every new encounter with the utmost detail and importance, in the chance that they one day find something worthy of scientific recognition.
“Think about about it Leandro,” his sister would say every time they ventured out, “Our names published, heard around the world for discovering the coolest sea animal of all time.”
“Slow down Einstein, why don’t we focus on learning about the buggers that live on the beach first.” Lance admired his sister’s ambition. She’d always matched his wild sense of adventure in stride, but also had a unique penchant for planning for the future that he very much did not share.
“C’mon hermano, don’t you want a shark named after you?” She stopped them as they meandered by the shore, extending a skinny brown arm out into the horizon. “The Carcharadon Valdes,” she announced dramatically.
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah yeah, but look at the more interesting known species,” he pointed his chewed up pencil towards the straggling beachgoers while lowering his voice to the best of his ability, “The Homo tourista!”
Rhea snorted loudly, shoving her brother in the process.
“That was terrible,” she wheezed.
“Yeah but who's laughing?" he retorted with a grin, "Now let’s go, we don’t have much time before it gets gross out and I wanna show you something.”
But despite the thunder rumbling in the distance, the siblings failed to hurry their ambling pace towards a cove Lance had found a few days prior. They stopped to record observations, play in the turf and just talk, finding the pre-storm breeze soft and inviting while ignoring the steady growing darkness of the sky.
When they reached the cove they only found more reasons to linger as the seaweed littering floor just inside the entrance was full of interesting shells, crabs and even a dead jellyfish. The kids didn’t even notice the rain begin to pour until they stepped out.
Lance yelped, shoving their battered notebook under his shirt and trying to squint through the torrent. It was hauntingly dark outside, save for the sporadic and illuminating flashes of lightning. He pulled his sister back from the entrance, dreading the way her small shoulders shivered under his hands.
“Leandro…” her voice was quieter than it had been all afternoon, “How do we get back?”
He opened his mouth to suggest just walking through it together and getting soaked, but an unreasonably loud clap of thunder stole the voice from his chest and elicited a sharp yell from his sibling. Their hands immediately found each other, interlocking their fingers in viselike hold.
Lance wanted to cry. They’d never been so far from home in conditions like this. And for once, gazing out into the sea only tightened his chest in fear rather than wonder as he looked upon the dark churning waters not too far from where they stood.
He looked to Rhea, who had begun to take deep breaths, in and out. In and out. She turned to look at her brother.
“Okay, I have a plan...but it’ll be scary.”
Lance shook his head, “We’re a team, I trust you. What should we do?”
She looked back out onto the large stretch of beach blurred heavily by torrential downpour.
“See that huge rock? The one we passed by and found the starfish?”
Lance squinted and could very faintly make out the dark outline of the outcropping rock.
“Yeah I see it.”
“I think if we just run for it together, we can get halfway back, and then we’d be able to see the way home better,” she said more confidently.
Lance chewed his lip. They could stay in the cove until the storm passed, but that also meant staying overnight and risking the rising tides in conjunction. Not to mention the cold, and the fact that it would get much darker and scarier as the evening rain wore on. Their mother would also be worried sick and/or furious if they never made it home and the thought of that alone spurred his decision in favor of Rhea’s plan.
He nodded determined. “Together.”
Rhea squeezed his hand. “Together.” And they sprinted into the rain.
At first the shock of cold water falling so forcefully from the heavens stunned the both of them, but they quickly acclimatized, fueled by adrenaline and determination.They flinched as thunder and lightning continued to harass their muted senses but found a steady pace, not once letting go of each other. Lance remembered not being able to see anything but his sister directly beside him and the looming shape of the outcropping in the far distance. He decided to focus his limited sight ahead.
This unfortunately also meant not seeing the large shard of glass his right foot caught onto mid stride.
Crying out in pain, Lance twisted downward, jerking his sister to an abrupt stop. His blurred vision was only furthered by the swift onset of tears and sharp pain shooting up his leg.
“Rhea,” his voice whimpered out in pain, “I think I cut myself and it hurts really bad.” His last word was choked on the rising sob in his throat. His sister crouched quickly to his side.
“Leandro, we have to get to the rock, I promise I’ll look at it there, okay?” Her voice was shaking as she tugged on her brothers arm. “Please, we can’t stay out here in the open.”
Lance breathed in a shallow, wet breath and used his sisters arms hoist himself up. They resumed their trek at a much slower and for Lance, more painful pace. Waves of pain radiated up and down his right side. He bit his lip to stop himself from crying out as each step lodged more and more sand into the open wound.
After what seemed like an eon, they rain began to weaken in intensity as they reach the outcropping’s benevolent cover. Lance collapsed on the ground, refusing to look at his injury. He took sallow breaths in, watching his sister shake her limp brown curls out of her eyes. She walked to the farthest reach of the rock trying to peer into the unrelenting rain.
Another wave of pain made him see white, and he couldn’t silence the whimper that escaped his mouth. Rhea’s head whipped towards the sound and she ran back to his side.
“Let me see hermano,” she took his foot gingerly in her hands turning to towards her.
She blanched.
“What?” Lance felt panic rise in his chest, “What does it look like?”
She continued to stare in shock, blue eyes unfocused. Lance snatched his foot back to look and almost gagged. The cut wasn’t long, only running from between his toes to the middle of his foot, but it was deep. Deep red dried clots lined the edges of the wound, while the bright red of the inside of his foot could be seen from the outside, all of which was coated in a thin layer of wet sand. The most nauseating part of the injury was the fact that in their hurry, the piece of glass never dislodged and was still in Lance’s foot, embedded deep with the point poking just outside of the wound for the eye to see.
At the sound of a sharp inhale, he looked up to see Rhea still holding her hands out as if she were still holding him. To his surprise, there were tears streaming steadily down her face.
“Ree…”
“I did this to you,” she whispered despondently, “I hurt you, Leandro, I did this-”
“Rhea please, it’s okay-”
“I made us run, we could have walked or waited,” she was breathing worryingly fast, “You trusted me and I hurt you and we’re stuck here and we could die-”
Lance grabbed her wrist, able to feel the rapid pulse thrumming underneath this fingertips. He pulled her closer and held her gaze.
“Rhea listen to me,” he began as steadily as he could despite the painful throbbing of his foot, “First of all, you didn’t do this. Some loser who doesn’t know how to recycle is definitely the cause of my pain right now.” He ventured a smile. “Second, because of you, we’re actually pretty close to home. If we’d stayed, the tide would have trapped us, or worse, we’d have to deal with the ghost of the dead jellyfish.” Rhea cracked a smile, thank god. “Third, we’re not dying here drama queen. It’s just rain for one, and also we can’t die when the Carcharadon Valdes is waiting for us to discover it right?”
Rhea laughed. “Thanks hermano.” She took a deep breath, grabbed his hand in hers and squeezed.
Lance was feeling faint, the sight and pain from his wound were doing nothing to ease the nausea in his stomach, but there was no way on heaven or Earth he’d allow himself to faint or betray his sense of calm when his sister needed him. He steeled himself against the rock and smiled back at her.
“Any time.”
..........................
That night, despite the calming night breeze wafting through the camp, Lance felt restless.
The team was spending their first night without the castle of lions on a planet called Trifid. It was a sanctuary planet the paladins had maintained communications with when they began freeing planets to join the coalition. Refugees from this quadrant of the universe had either fled or been sent to seek asylum in the lush planet, protected by defense tech Pidge and Hunk had designed for all sanctuary and coalition planets. Currently, the team was situated outside the most densely populated city on the planet’s north face. The capitol was overflowing with inhabitants, so the paladins assured fellow coalition leaders that they had no qualms setting up camp just beyond the city borders after stocking up from merchant shops for supplies and food.
Trifid had been a huge help in broadcasting/promoting the coalition propaganda (especially the extravagant productions developed by Coran while he was infected by the earworm). Lance rolled his eyes as he thought back to the weeks he felt wasted as a B-list actor while the universe continued to burn under Zarkon’s tyranny. He’d felt so useless and frustrated then.
“Guess nothing’s changed,” he thought to himself.
Ignoring the sudden tightness in his throat, he untangled himself from his sleeping bag and quietly walked through the camp. The lions stood tall against the night sky arranged in half circle and acting as a cover for the site. Lance let his fingers trail along Red’s enormous claw before walking over to Blue. Her yellow eyes shone in the darkness, very briefly bringing him back to that dark cavern and that fateful day he’d become the blue paladin.
He loved piloting the red lion especially as Red himself took to Lance so easily and with so much trust, but he couldn’t ever forget the home he found in Blue. Red was a ship built for speeding through the stars, but Blue just seemed like a ship yearning to graze the ocean. There were instances, he would swear, that he could smell sea salt in the cockpit. He let his eyes look between the two silent monoliths for moment longer before turning away.
The team lay sprawled all across the campsite in various physical manifestations of restful sleep. The site was quiet but Lance could still just barely make out Shiro's abnormally loud snoring from a distance. He inched his way across camp but in the darkness, nearly tripped over the fire pit. He steadied himself before looking to see the what he had almost fallen upon. Eyes adjusting, he could see that the tall flames from a few hours prior had reduced to nothing but smoldering embers that cast a dim glow on the face of the raven haired paladin curled most closely to them.
Lance paused to look upon Keith’s sleeping form, curled almost childlike on top of his sleeping bag. He hadn't bothered changing into sleeping attire and had fallen asleep in just his undersuit, paladin armor laying shucked to the side. His massive hound lay just beside him like an enormous, fluffy yet ferocious looking body pillow, breathing evenly as her drooping ears twitched.
It was simultaneously so odd and so familiar to have Keith back. For months, Lance had to adjust his balance without the red paladin. They'd been a dynamic duo, each other's push and pull, both rising to cause with equal and opposite reactions. As Keith's right hand, he'd grown unexpectedly closer to the boy he had often referred to as "the desert wild child." A self constructed rivalry had slowly given way to an effortless camaraderie. A friendship.
And then suddenly, it was gone. Keith was gone. Leaving a confusedly hurt Lance behind to try and discard the muscle memory of every roving eye seeking out red, every casual arm thrown around broad shoulders post-battle, every parry and block in the training room, and every unexplainable stutter of the heart when he earned raspy laughter.
But here he was. No longer an indeterminable number of light years away from Lance, but merely a few inches. Sleeping soundly while long, straight eyelashes cast spidery shadows over a freckled nose. The permanent furrow between his brows was gone, and despite his recent (alleged) age up, he looked almost as young as the first time Lance bumped into him at the Garrison.
Lance felt almost guilty for the morning's scene. After leaving Keith, he'd made himself scarce, even going as far as hiding in Red, when the other boy came looking for him. It was unnatural to revert back to their immature bickering, but those few moments he fumed at the red paladin stirred a corner of his chest that had lain dormant for months. He didn't know what that meant.
Before he could continue to dwell, Lance tore his eyes away as he tiptoed over the sleeping bodies, making his way quietly past the dense brush and to the cliff’s edge to sit down. The city sprawling below him was quiet and dim, which in turn gave room for the celestial bodies above to shine clearly. Bright white stars peppered the blue black sky, while the still surfaces of satellites orbiting the planet reflected their light. He knew his brother Marco, who like Lance dreamt of the stars, would have definitely loved this. Even Rhea would have begrudgingly admitted that the sky could hold its own in comparison to the beauty of the sea. Under normal circumstances, he’d also be awestruck.
But these weren’t normal circumstances.
Lance had grown weary of the galaxy and its hot balls of gas and rocky planets and alien imperialism. He wanted loud tourists, his mother’s garlic infused smock, and his sisters bright eyes as she laid out another bold new idea for the future. He just wanted to feel the grit of sand and seashell against the scar on his right foot because at least then then dull ache would remind him that his life on Earth wasn’t a dream.
He felt a hot tear snake down his face.
Glancing around to make sure he was truly alone, he allowed the sob he’d been holding at bay to finally break free. Lance wasn’t sure exactly why he was crying but he supposed that that in of itself was as good as any reason. He couldn’t even find it in himself to feel embarrassed at the sound of his loud cries echoing in the valley directly below. He would just himself break for a bit-
Lance felt his entire body freeze at the sound of the rustling brush behind him. He slowly turned dreading to see another paladin but found no sign of movement beyond the branches.
It took everything in him to not scream when he felt something hot and wet glide up the side of his face.
“What the-?!” he said as he found himself staring the bright yellow eyes of Keith’s furry companion.
Lance groaned, dragging a hand through his hair. “Ugh, I just wanted to dramatically cry in peace you time travelling she-demon.” He glared at her meaningfully, but the massive animal only cocked its head to the side.
Dammit that was almost endearing.
“You gonna eat me now for yelling at Keith or what?” he said dully.
Nyx shifted on her haunches quietly, but didn’t, in fact, eat Lance. Instead, she lowered her head and neck onto Lance’s lap, gazing attentively up at the boy with wide eyes.
Lance blinked.
Nyx blinked back.
He let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “Um....okay….I guess this is happening.”
He cautiously lowered his hands into the beast’s thick blue fur and found it incredibly soft to the touch. Nyx let out a deep rumble as Lance began to card generously through her fur. Despite himself, he smiled as she closed her eyes in contentment while he scratched her behind the ears.
“Well damn,” he murmured, “How am I supposed to hate you when go and do that?”
Lance sighed heavily, looking back out at the sky. He could feel the remaining pressure behind his eyes beg for release. He cleared his throat. “Uh..I didn’t plan on having company, but I’m not quite done crying yet, so I’m just gonna continue...if you don’t mind.” He glanced down.
Nyx was already looking back at him, and after a moment, blinked as if giving Lance the greenlight to do so. He chuckled as the tears began to flow freely again.
“Thanks.”