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They’d been staring at each other for too long, Keith thought distantly.
This was all wrong. There wasn’t supposed to be any life on this planet. Its atmosphere had only become habitable in the last 100 years – that is not enough time for any life to evolve, let alone life that ate cookies.
Finally, the alien dropped the cookie, pulling its mask back down over the half of its face that had been uncovered. Despite the staring, Keith hadn’t seen any of what was under that mask, bathed in the shadow of the vegetation.
The alien shifted, almost awkwardly, and cleared its throat.
The peculiarity of the situation caught up to Keith all at once, and he almost laughed. There was an alien, stood, its now cookie-less hand held halfway to its face, on a planet that had been lifeless for millions of years.
Keith opened his mouth to speak, and the alien’s head perked up a little. “I…” he began, still staring, but found he didn’t really know what to say, and so shut his mouth again.
There was another beat of silence, before the alien inhaled, and then let out a long, frustrated sigh. Its hand lifted, and all at once pushed its mask up and off its face. Keith sucked in a subconscious breath.
He was not an alien.
Well, he was an alien, strictly speaking; he was definitely not native. But, he wasn’t alien to Keith.
The man tousled his hair, slumping down heavily on the ground. He brushed his cookie off and took a tentative nibble.
All the words Keith had been missing before rushed back into his mind and spilled out before he could even think about them. “What the shit? You- human? How the fu- wait, no that’s not even the most important thing I want to know – why are you- hold on, just-“
“New, then?”
Keith stopped in his tracks, blinking owlishly. “Huh?”
“I said, ‘new, th-“
“No, no, I heard, I just…’ Keith trailed off.
The man gave a playful smirk, one of his hands coming to fiddle thoughtfully with the holster of his gun. Keith’s eyes widened, and he reached for his own bayard instinctively.
“Woah! Easy, tiger!” The man clambered clumsily to his feet, unfolding his gangly limbs, hands flying out in front of him defensively. “I wasn’t gonna get the gun out, holy crow.” His blue eyes were gazing into Keith’s with such earnest that Keith felt himself ease up a little.
It was mental, he knew, but Keith felt as though this man really meant what he said. Maybe it was because he was human, Keith hadn’t spoken to another human other than Hunk, Shiro, and Pidge for a good year. Maybe he had some kind of magic – the thought made him flinch back towards his bayard, but the flash of fear across the other’s face reassured him somewhat and he dropped his hands.
They settled for a moment, breathing quiet sighs of relief, before the other man stepped forward and reached a hand out.
“The name’s Lance.” He gave another cock-sure smirk, and, despite himself, Keith found himself somewhat endeared.
He shook himself and frowned, shoving his hand into Lance’s with a narrowing of his eyes. “Keith.”
Lance’s smile widened into something more genuine, shaking their hands together and grinning. “Nice to see another human out here, huh? So, whereabouts do you haunt?”
Keith blinked. Lance sighed and let Keith’s hand fall.
“I meant, like, what are you doing out here? You know, in space.”
Keith raised an eyebrow. “Never heard of Voltron?”
Lance’s jaw dropped and he leant forward, a little too into Keith’s space. "¡Dios Mío!" He huffed a laugh. “Really? Holy shit, man, which lion? Wait, no, let me guess…”
Keith watched, bemused, as Lance pulled a face, eyebrows furrowed in thought.
Lance teetered on the spot for a second, then stepped suddenly to his left, walking past Keith a few paces. He pulled his mask back over his face, fiddling with the eyepieces as he stared at the horizon.
Suddenly, he stepped back, triumphantly lifting his mask. “Red!”
“What” – Keith paused – “how could you see that?”
“High tech, baby,” Lance smirked again.
Keith squinted at him as the other sat back down in the dust and took another bite of his cookie. “Who are you, anyway?”
Lance stopped at that. “You can’t tell from the garb?”
“Obviously not.”
“Vigilante, pirate, space pirate, criminal,” he said, then cleared his throat and finished in a gruff voice, “enemy of the Galra Empire, prepare to die-“ he cut himself off with explosion sound effects and little ‘pew, pew, pew’s, before falling back into the dust. “Trust me, I’ve had it all.”
He looked up at Keith, mirth sparkling in his eyes, and Keith couldn’t help but chuckle a little. He stepped towards Lance and settled quietly next to him.
“What are you on this planet for, space pirate?”
Lance huffed out a laugh. “Making a getaway. Waiting for the Galra to piss off. Hiding here ‘cause they tailed me all the way from the Space Mall. Why are you here, samurai?”
Keith hesitated. He barely knew this guy. He couldn’t…
Lance paused, before nodding sagely. “Ah, super top-secret Voltron Stuff. I get it.”
Keith was about to reply, when a sudden burst of gunfire tore up the ground in front of them. Lance scrambled back with a yelp, yanking Keith with him by the back of his armour.
“Really guys?” Lance muttered at the sky, “Couldn’t give me just a little more peace?” His guns were already out, but Keith hadn’t noticed him draw them.
Keith jumped to his feet, brandishing his bayard.
A low vibration began in the ground, gaining power until it resonated as a booming voice.
“Lance McClain, surrender or be destroyed.”
Lance was standing now, feet planted firmly on the ground. “C’mon, we all know that ain’t gonna work,” he growled.
A ship breached the line of trees a few hundred yards ahead of them and Lance’s expression darkened.
At least thirty heavily armed sentries jumped from the airlock before it had even fully landed, and they rushed at Lance without missing a beat.
“Not even a hello? Come on, how long have we known each other now?” Lance said, forcing nonchalance as the sentries approached. “It’s been, what, two and a half years and I don’t even get a- okay you know what I don’t think you’re up for a chat today are you?” Lance’s voice got higher with every word, and Keith feared for a moment that Lance really didn’t know what he was doing.
That fear was immediately alleviated, however, when Lance practically disappeared from the spot he was in, and moments later four sentries fell with gunshots through their heads.
Keith didn’t have time to be impressed, though, as he sliced through an approaching sentry. As he sliced through another, he caught sight of Lance again; his jacket billowed out behind him as he flipped forwards, out of the way of a sentry’s swinging blade. He shot it as he landed, pushing his hair out of his eyes. Two more fell with little more than a swing of Lance’s arm, and he sprang towards another as he slid a dagger out of his sleeve.
Before long, the two boys stood in a circle of fallen sentries, and Keith let out a breath.
Lance turned, panting, and started towards the ship.
It was a relatively small ship, really, but for just the two of them there had been more than enough galra for a challenge.
Keith watched him disappear inside for a moment, debating following this almost-stranger, but before he could make a decision, Lance emerged again, bouncing a lump of circuit board in his hand absentmindedly.
He grinned at Keith again. “Need a ride?”
That shocked a laugh out of Keith, and he shook his head. “No, I just have to find these crystals then I’m out of here. But thanks.”
“Oh, it’s the crystals you’re after? I know where to find those here, if you'd like some company.” Lance gazed at him, and Keith blushed.
“I have a scanner; it shouldn’t take too long.”
“Yes, well, you haven’t really got ‘too long’ before more galra get here – seems like they’re really mad at me again – so if you wanna speed that up, let me show you.”
Keith flexed his fingers, scrunching up his nose, and eventually sighed in defeat. “Fine.”
Lance grinned, producing another cookie from his pocket and holding it out to Keith, who took it hesitantly. “Awesome. Call your friends, so they’re ready to pick you up after we get ‘em.”
“Hey.” Keith said, breaking the silence. He shoved another crystal in his bag as Lance looked at him, eyes questioning. “Thanks.”
Lance’s smile was softer this time. “No problem, man. It’s nice to see another human out here sometimes. Damn, it’s nice to even see someone on my side at this point.” He chuckled as he turned away, rolling another crystal towards Keith.
“I think that’s as much as I need,” Keith said, standing and stretching his arms in front of him. Lance nodded and followed suit. After a moment’s deliberation, they began to walk towards the forest again.
As they neared Lance’s ship, he gave Keith a smile and a quiet ‘see you, samurai’ and turned, slipping through the vegetation and out of sight.