Chapter Text
The lounge was quiet and Keith was enjoying it. He was on his phone, smiling a bit as he played a game. No Pidge for him to be bothered with her science and math, no Hunk around to talk about food and recipes (even though he actually enjoyed the bigger man’s company), no Allura to talk about meetings with Coran, and no Lance. Lance had always annoyed the shit out of him with the constant talking. Having peace and quiet was a rare occasion since he was hardly ever alone and he was glad to have it. Maybe I should get used to this, he thought.
Well, turns out he thought too soon.
“Keith! Where the hell is my notebook?!” Lance yelled as he entered the lounge where said boy was sitting on the couch and looking down at his phone.
“Wouldn’t you know? It’s your stupid diary.” Keith rolled his eyes, watching Lance walk in front of him.
“One, it is not a diary and two, I know you stole it.” Lance crossed his arms, glaring down at the older boy and it took Keith a lot of strength not to get angry at Lance for accusing him of taking his notebook. In all honesty, Keith didn’t care one bit but Lance clearly did. All of his personal secrets were in there and he often wrote in it like a diary. He didn’t want anyone to read it, and if it got into the hands of that little gremlin, Pidge, he would rather die then deal with her non-stop teasing for a whole week.
Keith sighed, and put down his phone as he looked up at Lance, making eye contact with the boy. He got up and pushed the cuban back a bit and crossed his arms. “I didn’t take your fucking notebook. Now leave me alone. You’re a pain in the ass.”
Lance let out an audible gasp, clutching his chest and eyes wide. “Okay, rude,” Lance sighed, relaxing his expression. “Can you at least help me look for it?”
“Nope.” The smaller male walked away, heading for the door.
Lance groaned “Keith, please! I am begging you! I’ll do anything!”
Keith perked up upon hearing this, turning a bit to look at him. “Anything?” He sounded out the syllables, raising a brow.
Lance cringed and the other male was oblivious to the small flush on the tan boy’s cheeks. “Okay now you just made it weird, Mullet. So I take it back.”
“Do you want help or not?” Keith sounded annoyed, even a little angry that Lance immediately pinned this on him. It was just a journal (diary) and Lance could easily buy another one at the space mall and continue from there, but no. It has to be that specific one. So Keith wondered why the hell had he gotten in this position, looking around for a simple diary that he didn’t care about but Lance obviously did and if Lance did, then it was serious. The boy knew Lance kept secrets, and it was pretty obvious because his mood changed daily, but Keith wouldn’t ask him what was wrong. Lance wouldn’t answer him anyway.
It was honestly just a diary and yet Keith had to help Lance look for the damn thing. In truth, Keith just wanted to go back to playing Candy Crush on his phone or maybe even lock himself in the training room. He didn’t care as long as it was anything else besides looking for the diary.
They were in the kitchen now, checking every drawer and finding nothing. Lance was complaining. “We’ll never find it! It’s lost forever! I really liked it too. Oh god, what if Pidge has it?! She’ll know all my secrets and all hell will break lose-“
“God dammit, Lance calm the fuck down! We’ll find your stupid diary and you can be happy so quit whining.”
“You don’t understand, Keith!” Lance exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air after looking in another cabinet only to find Hunk’s spices for the food they eat on a daily basis. “My journal’s very important to me! My mom gave that to me because...”
Keith almost missed the change in Lance’s facial features, realizing that this journal (diary) was indeed very important to him. The taller male’s arms dropped and his face turned into sorrow and honestly, Keith felt bad now, he really, truly did, and he could tell Lance really didn’t want to tell him the significance of the journal (again, diary) because it obviously has a strong meaning to Lance, one that Keith won’t ever understand. Keith never got to experience a mother’s love, or a sibling’s hug, he just had his father up to the age of eight and that was it.
Keith sighed, nodding. “Okay. Sorry let’s just hurry up and find the... journal and continue on with our day.”
Lance nodded, grabbing Keith’s wrist and pulling him out of the kitchen and down the hallway which the smaller male tensed at the contact and wanted to pull away, but Lance had a good grip on him. Since when did he get so strong? Keith thought for a moment. Definitely not training since Lance hated the idea and only trained when the whole team was forced to.
They reached an unfamiliar room that Keith hadn’t seen before and it looked like someone actually slept in there due to the various pillows and blankets being set up in the corner. Curiosity got the best of him. “Does someone else live here?” He didn’t notice the way Lance tensed up immediately, going stiff then somewhat relaxing.
“Might be an old room. Who knows, now can we please look?” Lance whined as he begun to look around already.
“Right. That.” Keith nodded, looking around and picking up some of the blankets. It took a couple minutes before Lance jumped up, waving the notebook around and Keith couldn’t help but sigh of relief. He walked over to Lance, sighing and crossing his arms over his chest. “Alright, now can we go? I need to train.” He rolled his eyes, beginning to walk out.
“Sheesh you’re bossy,” Lance groaned, walking behind him.
Keith raised his voice a little, annoyed. “It’s not being bossy! I’m just-“
At that moment, the power went out and the door went into automatic lockdown, shutting and locking the two boys into the room. Lance had freaked out, not being a huge fan of power outages yet Keith was shocked. Were they being attacked? Keith ruled that one out, because the castle alarms would have went off even if the power cut out. Maybe it was a malfunction?
God, he hopes not.
~~•~~•~~•~~•~~
“God dammit, I give up!” Lance exclaimed, throwing his arms up and walking to the wall opposite of Keith, sliding down it. He could see Keith had something to say by the way he looked around the room that they have been trapped in for two hours now.
“Where are we?” Keith continued to look around, examining the room that seemed to be occupied by someone. He spotted a blue stuffed shark in the corner where the pillows and blankets were—He used to do this when he was little, always annoying his dad when he trashed the place with blankets and pillows to make a fort—and it seemingly looked brand new. So, Keith thought glancing at the younger male, he lied.
Lance sighed, shaking his head and mumbled, “It’s my secret room... when I want to be alone and breathe. Where I get to talk to my mama through this notebook and listen to classic Spanish songs,” He sighed, looking up and speaking a bit louder and clearer. “Where I can look into space and it’s beautiful galaxies in it. This place makes me feel kinda at home, but it’s still not very close.”
Keith knew that smile, knew it from the deep part of his memory. A smile that held emotions of sadness and a small bit of anger that lie within it. He used to make that smile when his father died, but stopped when he went to his foster home because he knew it was hopeless and nothing, let alone a simple smile and a look at the stars, could bring him back home.
Lance must have missed home too.
“I get it, you know.” Lance looked at Keith in shock but Keith only continued. “I used to feel the same way when I grew up. I moved foster home to foster home, and each time I felt like maybe it could be my new home. You could guess it wasn’t even close. Not at all. I felt alone, trapped, closed off,” The taller male snorted a bit at the last part but Keith ignored him. “But I still had some hope that maybe, one day, I’d find a home. It’s written in the stars, and all I have to do is wait.” Keith closed his lips, ending his speech.
One beat.
Two beats.
“You were an orphan?” He muttered, eyebrows furrowed but face full of what seemed like sadness and concern. Keith immediately regretted what he said. “How come you didn’t tell any of us? Did Shiro know? Why keep it a secret, man? I thought we were a team.”
Keith looked at him in annoyance yet felt upset. The topic was already hard for him and Lance bombarding him with questions wasn’t helping his heart calm down from anxiety. He wondered if he might just break down right there. No, he thought, not with Lance here. So he sighed, sifting a bit as he curled up and hugged himself. His voice cracked a little as he mumbled out two words. “Forget it.”
“Keith-“
“Drop. It.”
“But Keith-“
Keith sent a warning glare, and it didn’t just scare Lance, it made him worry for his fellow paladin. Lance saw Keith give that glare to Shiro before, one that says to not continue on or to not push a conversation on from where it stands. He figured it rwas a sensitive topic and one that Keith was making it out to be and maybe he doesn’t want Lance to find out about his past. It was stupid, really, because they were the paladins of Voltron and they never kept secrets from each other as a team. Only now did Lance knew that was a lie, and the red paladin that sits in front of him now is still bottling up emotions, secrets, and things about his past he clearly didn’t want to talk about. Lance had so much to say, and he knows the number one rule was to never fuck with an orphan. But in Lance’s defense, he didn’t know. He wanted to become Keith’s friend, truly, but with how closed off he was, he knew there was no trying.
So he dropped the conversation and moved to his makeshift bed, laying down and looking up at the stars through an open window on the ceiling. “Sorry. I’ll leave you alone.”
Keith leaned his head on the wall, clearly passed out and Lance sighed. He got up and walked over to him and picked him up. He carried him over to the makeshift bed and laid him near a wall while Lance lay down a few feet away from him. He didn’t want to hear Keith complain about being sore the next days after.
Lance needed sleep, eyes tired and yawns present as he lay there. Within no time, he was out like a light with soft breathing escaping his mouth.
~~•~~•~~•~~•~~
Pidge was working away on her laptop in the bridge to find a way to get the power up and running again. But every path she tried, something would override the system. “I don’t understand. These messages look Galra, but there’s also Altean! I don’t get it! What the hell is going on?!” She threw her arms up from stress and disappointment before sighing. She was tired. The bags under her eyes made it obvious that she had stayed up all night trying to find out what was wrong.
“Well, Number Five,” Coran spoke up, walking over to her. “Maybe you should take a small break, okay? You need sleep. I brought pillows and blankets since we can’t really go to our rooms.” He handed Pidge a blanket and a small pillow. She sighed again. “I’ll keep watch, don’t you worry!” Coran smiled, walking away.
Pidge curled up on her paladin chair, groaning. “Fine. But wake me if anything new comes up.” She tossed and turned a couple times before she finally got comfortable and fell asleep on the chair.
Down several halls and into a room, Keith and Lance had just woken up from their sleep. Keith was extra grumpy that morning and Lance wasn’t going to bother him in any way. The look Keith had on his face told him he would kill something or someone right away and Lance wasn’t ready to die young (though he was being overdramatic).
The older male sighed while getting up and pulling out his blade. He walked over to the door and began to stab the blade through the cracks, trying to get it open.
“Keith? What the hell are you doing?” Lance looked at him, questioning as he watched Keith repeatedly try to stab his blade through the cracks of the door. “Keith, buddy, wait just a second-“
The blade ricocheted off the door, cutting Keith’s arm and he cried out in pain. He looked at the large cut that ran from just below his wrist and it was about a couple inches long and deep. He grimaced before covering it up with his hand. Lance was immediately by his side, panicking as he threw questions at him but Keith ignored him. He shoved him away and went to pick up his blade, but was stopped when Lance stepped on it. Blood was all on his arm and hand with a few drops already falling to the floor. The cut was big, but wasn’t deep. Yet, he was still losing a fair amount of blood.
And Lance wasn’t going to let him bleed out if he was able to help him out in some way.
“Stop, Keith.” Lance sighed, a concerned expression on his face. “You’re losing too much blood; let me help you.”
Keith rolled his eyes, trying to move Lance out of the way. “A healing pod will help me, thank you. Now please move.”
“No! Keith, let me help you now. God knows when we’ll get out of this damn room! What if by the time we get out, you’ve already bled to death? I’m not watching you bleed, so at least let me clean it and wrap it. Once we’re released we can get you a pod. Okay?” The taller male sighed, reaching a hand out. “Just, please.”
Curse Lance and his caring personality that made Keith give in. The shorter boy sighed, nodding. “Fine, but this is the only time, McClain!” He growled, pushing him away and grabbing his blade.
Lance raised his hands up in a placating gesture. “Okay, okay! Sheesh, calm down.” He walked over to his makeshift bed and pulled out a medical kit. “Keith, can you come here and sit down? It’s easier for me.” When he didn’t get a response, he looked over his shoulder. Keith was staring at the floor and completely out of it. “Keith?” Lance tried again.
Keith looked up at Lance and quickly nodded, making his way over and sitting down in front of him. He held out his arm, looking off to the side and sighing. It still hurt but he didn’t feel the amount of pain that should have been there. Or maybe it wasn’t as bad as Lance was making it out to be. He looked over at his arm that was now being cleaned. But when he saw the cut, he looked away. It wasn’t deep, but it was bad. He wondered how he managed to miss and not severely damage a single vein. Lucky him.
He felt every touch of the rag, gentle and cautious. He could tell Lance was being careful and he knew that his caring side had come out. Wait. Back up. Lance was caring for him? This must have been a nightmare because Lance never cared. But he must have care enough or else they wouldn’t be able to form Voltron, and he wouldn’t be his right hand man. Right? Maybe.
He misses Shiro. Since his disappearance after the fight with Zarkon, Keith never knew what to do or who to even talk to and it’s only been a month. He went into an isolated state of blocking people out. He became depressed; the same feeling he felt when Shiro went missing on the Kerberos mission. He was living with Adam at the time but when he got kicked out of the Garrison, he went back to his old shack. He hadn’t seen Adam since.
Truth be told, he wasn’t used to how Lance was treating him. He wanted leave the damn room and forget this ever happened (might as well be payback for Lance not remembering the last bonding moment).
On the other hand, Lance didn’t like the silence between the two. The tension was there and he really wants it to end (he really wants it to be as simple as taking Keith’s blade and cutting it). He knew he was a talker, yeah, but that was only to keep people interested in him as a friend. But with Keith? Different story, the man was scary on occasions. But they had grown to become friends and Lance didn’t see him as his rival anymore and they talk regularly, but not anymore every since Shiro disappeared.
“And I won’t bleed to death”
Lance looked at Keith, shocked how he said something finally. The other male only sighed. “You said earlier you don’t know when we will get out of the room and I might bleed to death before then. I wont bleed to death because the wound isn’t even that deep. Yes, it’s big, but I won’t bleed to death.” He was looking down a bit, avoiding eye contact with Lance and he shrugged. “Just saying.”
Lance held back the urge to roll his eyes as he finished wrapping up his arm. “I was being dramatic. It’s just how I act when I’m worried.” He said, putting everything away.
“Why would you be worried about me?” Keith spoke, tilting his head a bit and he was looking at him now.
Lance looked at him. “Your our team leader, also a friend. We need you, man.”
Keith knows that face all to well. Lance was being honest when he was saying he was worried and it made Keiths heart flutter a little bit he didn’t know why. Maybe it’s because someone finally, truly cared about him besides Shiro? He knows the team cares about him, yeah. He is their leader and they respect him, but he also knows they can get frustrated with him sometimes.
After all, he is the loner.