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All around them, the stars shimmered and shone, glowing amongst the darkness of empty space. Keith studied the lone planet behind them one last time when his coms crackled.
“Come on Mullet, lets get going before this cruiser speeds away.” Lance groaned.
Keith let out a frustrated huff, “I’m coming, geez.”
“Geez yourself, we got some Galra ass to kick!” Keith could almost see his friend pump his fist.
“Alright alright lets go.” Keith’s lion roared and off they sped.
It was just the two of them today. Shiro, Hunk and Pidge were redirecting the Galra’s forces on the nearby planet, trying to create as big of a diversion as they could. Today was crucial to the survival of the Voltron Alliance.
“Nothing like an old stealth mission to get your blood pumping, eh Mullet?” Lance joked.
“Whatever, just make sure you don’t blow our cover.” Keith said.
You could hear the offense from Earth, “ME? BLOW OUR COVER? What about Ultrarion?”
“A fluke.” Keith shrugged. He looooved pushing Lance’s buttons.
“A fluke he says,” Lance scoffed, “Please.”
Keith only laughed and sped up, punching in their mission coordinates. The Blue lion and her paladin chased after them, bounding together through space. Soon enough, the Galra battle cruiser appeared in front of them.
“Engage stealth mode.” Keith said.
“On it.”
Together, they crept towards the back hanger of the ship, where the Galra fleet had already fled to join the fight on the surface.
“Bingo.” Lance whispered, “Lets go find that stupid formula.”
“It’s not stupid,” Keith hissed, “It’s a super serum that could potentially create a whole super race of Galra. We have to get it out of there quickly.”
“Easy Peasy.” Lance slowly pulled in Blue, landing her gently in the ship’s bay, Keith right behind him.
As he stepped out of his lion, he felt her familiar presence fill his mind, almost as if she was saying, be careful.
He turned back and gave her a big smile, patted her leg and stepped off the ramp.
Keith approached quietly, “K, Pidge is supposed to send us the schematics of the place in just a few minutes. We got to be in and out. No one can know we’re here.”
“You mean like us?” Someone growled.
Keith whipped around and found himself face to face with a squadron of Galra soldiers, at least 8 of them, all armed to a t.
“Lance run!” He shouted, pulling out his bayard. With a flash, his sword formed and he charged.
Lance began blasting his gun left and right, dodging attacks, trying to find higher ground.
“I thought everyone was supposed to be on the planet!” He shouted.
“Change of plans.” A soldier hissed next to him. Lance barely avoided his blow, and shot him straight in the chest.
“Sharpshooter who?” He pretended to blow smoke out of his barrel.
“Not now Lance!” Keith yelled as he went toe to toe with the Galra commander.
“Keith! Watch your back!” Lance shouted, blasting away a Galra soldier his friend hadn’t spotted.
“Thanks Lance,” He yelled, using his shield to block an incoming laser, “We’re over powered, we need to retreat back to the lions!”
“No, we need to get the formula!” Lance yelled.
“We can’t reach it Lance, we have to go!” Keith threw his Bayard sword at a Galra who was moments away from stabbing Lance.
“Woah! Careful with that thing Mullet. And you’re the one who said this serum thingy was so important. We have to get it. ” Lance yelled.
“Come on!” Keith began running back through the ship, towards their lions.
“We can do this! We just have to get through those doors!” Lance said, running in the other direction.
Keith spun and yelled, “Lance don’t!” but before he could say anything else, he had blasted his way through three more soldiers and slid through the doors.
“Always something with this guy.” Keith mumbled, before chasing after him.
———————
Lance sprinted down the long hallway, twisting and turning and ducking behind pillars whenever a troop of soldiers passed by. “Pidge, Pidge I need someone to guide me to where they are keeping the formula.” He whispered into his coms.
All he got back was static. “Pidge? Oh no. Keith? Keith can you hear me?”
Nothing.
“Dammit.” He whispered. He checked behind him, but he could no longer see the doors he went through, and his paladin buddy was no where in sight.
“Guess I’m on my own.” something large and powerful let loose a grumble in his mind.
“Well, other than you Blue.” He laughed, “But still, it would be nice to have some actual company.”
“I could fix that.” Someone growled behind him. Lance turned just in time to avoid being shish-cah-bobbed.
“Wow, not what I meant dude.” He shot at the Galra soldier and then tackled him, wrestling him to the ground. The soldier was a lot bigger than him though, and the tables quickly turned. Soon Lance was pinned and the Galra smiled as he drew his knife.
“Bet the captain will give me a promotion for killing one of the Voltron Paladins, don’t you think?” He growled.
Lance tried to shrug, “I dunno. What about getting your butt kicked by a Voltron Paladin?”
“Or two Paladins?” A new voice said, and Keith charged onto the scene, swinging his blade.
A few moments later, the Galra soldier was out cold and Lance reached out a fist to Keith. The latter rolled his eyes and begrudgingly returned it.
“Do not think this excuses betraying orders.” he warned.
“I wouldn’t dare.” Lance smiled, “Come on, we got to find that mysterious power formula.”
Keith nodded and they set off, stalking down the hallways. The two of them tried again to make contact with Pidge, but to no avail.
“The Galra must have installed a new blocker.” Keith thought, “We have no way of talking to the rest of the team now.”
His stomach cramped at the thought, but he pushed it away quickly, focusing on the task at hand. Finding the serum and getting out of here. They kept running, but time was ticking and they were getting more lost with every turn.
Keith was this close to suggesting they turn around and get out of there when something caught his attention.
“Psst, Keith, there’s something over there.” Lance whispered. They had stopped at an intersection, and something felt off.
Keith motioned for Lance to be quiet and peeked around the corner. There, just a few feet away was a large, scary looking door. It was engraved with some kind of strange symbol, neither Galran nor Altean, or anything he had seen before. The cracks between panels and the floor revealed a glowing green light, pulsating. Paying attention now, he noticed all of the hall lights were flicking in rhythm with it.
“Spooky.” Lance breathed, noticing the same.
“Lets move.” Keith held his sword in front of him, and Lance hoisted his blaster. Together, they crept towards the door.
Keith mouthed, 1,2,3! And flung open the door. Inside, a couple of Galra scientist spooked and tried to run, but Lance handled them easy enough.
“Oh no you don’t!” He cried, blasting one with his gun, and knocking the other one against a counter, sending them sprawling. He took a breath and stood up, turning to Keith.
“It has to be in here. Help me search.” He said, beginning to rummage around the tables.
“I don’t think we have to look around very much,” Keith pointed to something in the center of the room.
Turning to look, Lance saw some sort of tractor beam holding a small cylindrical container afloat. Inside, a glowing green liquid pulsed, radiating heat through the room. He approached carefully, and reached out a hand. Close up, he could see the same strange markings that Keith saw on the door. They glimmered almost maliciously, and the silver metal of the canister was glowing a faint reddish color from the emitted heat. Just as he was about to grab it, someone else grabbed his wrist.
“What are you doing?” Keith said, “That thing is dangerous.”
“It’s what we came here for,” Lance said, annoyed, “It has to be.”
“Lance don’t-” Keith said right as his fingers closed down around it.
“Ow, hot hot hot!” Lance juggled it back and forth as it cooled in his hand. After a moment it turned an icy blue color.
“Huh, weird.” he said.
“Just put it away Lance.” Keith relaxed, “We’ll look at it once we get back to the castle.
“Hey! Don’t move!” A new voice called, and a dozen new Galra soldiers filed into the room.
“Uh, yeah that’s not gonna fly with us.” Lance smiled, “Geddit? Fly? Because we’re pilots?”
Keith facepalmed so hard Lance was sure it would bruise, “Just because no one laughs doesn’t mean we don’t understand.”
And with that he turned and swung at the nearest guard, his red Bayard slicing through their armor. Lance shot off a couple blast at the soldier who had spoken, but he managed to evade them easily.
“Hey Mullet, there’s a lot more of them than there is of us!” Lance yelled, picking off another soldier who had tried to sneak up on him.
“Really?” Keith groaned as he pushed away another Galra, “I hadn’t noticed.”
One by one, Lance and Keith managed to fight off two, three, four Galra, but the balance was still not in their favor. Things were getting particularly dicey when Keith took a hard hit to the head and went down.
“Keith!” Lance yelled. He swept the leg of the Galra nearest to him and tried to run to his friend, but was intercepted by the same Galra Captain who first attacked.
“Not getting by me kid.” he smiled darkly.
“Don’t be too sure about that.” Lance growled. He shot one blast right at the Captains face, and when he dodged, shot another into his foot. The Galra howled and fell to his knees.
Lance sprinted over to Keith who was getting back on his feet, “Hey dude are you alright?”
“I’m fine, but we really need to get out of here.” Keith said as his vision began to swim.
Lance nodded and began searching for an exit route. It was then that the big Galra Captain came up behind Keith, knife poised to strike.
“Hey look out!” Lance yelled, throwing himself between them. The next few minutes were a blur.
Looking back, all Lance could really remember was fuzzy images. The look of triumph in the soldiers eyes, Keith’s horrified expression... Keith charging at the Galra and stabbing him with his sword... The rest of the soldiers fleeing through the door. There was a faint buzzing coming front somewhere. It was really annoying.
He remembered Keith’s frantic hands, moving up and down his stomach, trying to stop all of the bleeding. Oh god, it bled so much. His pained expression as he apologized and picked up Lance, wincing with every cry of pain. The pain never stopped, it just rose and fell over and over and over again.
And then it just ends. Nothing. Years later, Lance would try and try and try to remember more, and just couldn’t. The only thing that was always clear was the shock and fear when he first looked down and saw the knife embedded in his side.
Keith however, remembered everything, and he wished he didn’t. He remembered watching Lance cover him, the look of excruciating pain in his eyes as the dagger sunk in. He remembered the way the soldier cackled, taunting them.
“Protecting your little friend? How weak.”
Keith remembered the anger. He remembered charging the Galra, and just unleashing his fury on him. He had never felt such anger, not when his dad died, not when Shiro disappeared, or when he was kicked from the academy.
He remembered the look of repulsion on the other soldiers faces, and the terror as they fled. He remembered turning and finding Lance hunched over on his knees, terrified eyes following him across the room as a red puddle grew beneath him. The way that his blood covered his suit for a week, and the way it glistened on his hands.
He remembered how Lance fussed over him, as if he had been the one to be stabbed.
“Are you alright? Did he hit you? Oh my god you are covered in blood-” Lance muttered, his expression full of terror.
“It’s your blood Lance, not mine.”
“Oh.” Lance’s head swiveled as he struggled to hold it up, “But you’re alright? He didn’t hurt you?” Lance reached out and grabbed Keith’s arms, his eyes swimming with fear. Keith never forgot that expression.
“No Lance, I’m fine thanks to you.” Keith said, scanning the room frantically for something to stop the bleeding. He didn’t dare take out the knife, for all he knew it could do more damage.
“Thank god,” Lance breathed. He hissed and clutched his hands around the wound, “Ah shit.”
“Stop moving.” Keith cried, glancing back. He remembered the way Lance began to slump over, his eyes glassy and vacant.
He grabbed some paper off of the table and found tape in one of the drawers. Knowing he wouldn’t find anything better, he made do. Lance was floating in and out of consciousness at this point, and needed him to hold him up. He remembered the way he finally fell, nearly landing on his face before Keith slid to catch him.
He remembered Lance’s cries as he hauled him up, and the way he trembled as he lost consciousness. That day was the first time Blue had ever spoken to him.
She’d only said two words, but they grew more heartbreaking with every moment Keith looked back on it, “Lance hurt?”
He rushed Lance into the Red Lion, sprinting past troops of Galra that flooded the bay. As they ran, he felt something burn past his ear, singeing his long hair. He’d been shot by a blaster, he thought dazedly. but he barely even felt the burn. All he knew was he had to get Lance out of there.
He charged up the ramp into his lion, and carefully set Lance onto the floor next to his pilot’s charge. Lance only groaned softly, too far gone to even make any real sound.
Keith jumped into his seat and yelled, “Red get us out of here!”
Like a shot, the lion turned and jumped out of the bay, shooting into space with Blue right on their tail.
“Shiro! Shiro are you there?” He screamed desperately into his coms.
A soft crackling and then, “Keith! Did you get it? Where are you?”
Relief extinguished a small part of Keith’s terror, “Lance is hurt and I can’t get back to the castle without backup.”
“Lance is hurt? Hold on we’ll be right there. Send us your coordinates.”
Keith could feel tears rising, “It’s...it’s really bad Shiro.”
Static. “We’re coming. Just-”
The rest of the message was cut off as the Galra ship began pelting the Lions with laser strikes.
“No no no no no!” Keith yelled. He tried to avoid the lasers, but there were just too many of them. Blue flew around him, protecting his rear, but she was taking too many hits.
“Blue!” he yelled, “Take the front and clear a path if any fighter ships approach.”
The lion shot in front of him, roaring. Keith could feel the tremble in the sound as she feared for her own Paladin.
He rocked forwards as another strike hit, and his Lion went quiet.
“NO! RED COME ON!” He yelled, jerking the controls, but nothing happened. Next to him, Lance was growing more and more pale, and the haphazard bandage Keith had constructed was already stained.
Then, three more lions flew overhead, firing at the Galra ship.
“SHIRO!” Keith cried, relief fully flooding his body.
“We’re here, now get Lance back to the ship! We’ll cover you.” the Black lion shot a powerful beam at the battle ship, causing an entire area to go bright with explosions.
Keith yelled back into his coms, “Red is dead, we can’t go anywhere.”
Suddenly, Blue appeared above them, and gently took Red’s neck into her mouth, pulling them along.
“Looks like shes got you covered. Now go!” Shiro ordered. Keith didn’t need anymore encouragement.
They sped off towards the ship, and Keith felt the tears finally begin to fall as they landed inside of the bay. Lance gave a small ‘oomph’ at the rough landing, but otherwise was quiet. And quiet was never a good thing when it came to Lance.
Keith quickly hopped up and began towing the both of them out of the Lion. Coran and Allura were running towards them, and Blue settled down next to Red.
He managed to get Lance off of the ramp, but his knees grew weak and the two of them collapsed. Keith managed to keep himself up for a moment, but was soon on all fours.
Coran ran straight to Lance and began checking his vitals, whispering, “No, not him.” over and over again. The knife had dislodged itself between the rough trip and landing, and the red blade glared at all four of them menacingly.
Allura bent over Keith, checking to make sure he was alright. He was absolutely covered in blood but none of it seemed to be his.
“Keith? Keith what happened, are you alright?”
He was oblivious to her questions. The only thing he could see was the way the faint rise and fall of Lance’s chest was getting slower by the minute.
“Coran, he needs to get to the healing pods.” Keith stood, wrapping one of Lance’s arms around his shoulder.
The wounded paladin let out a yelp at the motion, and quickly quieted once more.
Coran stared at the red staining his own hands, “I don’t know if the pods will be enough. He’s going to need some one on one intervention or else...”
He didn’t need to say anything else. Keith felt himself go pale and simply began carrying his injured friend away.
“Keith where are you going?” Allura called.
“I’m taking him to my room, it’s the closest and I have multiple first aid kits stashed in there. Coran you know how to stich wounds right?”
Coran chased after them, taking Lance’s other arm around his neck, “Of course. Let’s go.”
So as quickly as they could, they towed their friend through the castle’s winding hallways and into the Paladin’s quarters. They paused for only a moment as a roar shook the castle. Blue was crying out for her paladin, but they had to keep going. Keith let go of Lance for a moment to open the door, and threw on the lights. The room was uncharacteristically messy, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Instead, as Coran set Lance on the bed, he dug through his drawers and pulled out his first aid kit. It said something that Coran was silent, merely watching as Keith gathered the needed materials.
Lance’s breathing was growing raspy, and Keith new they needed to get him stable before putting him in a pod. His face was paler than Keith had ever seen it, and his eyelids were flickering, almost as if he was having a nightmare. Well, this probably qualified as one , he thought.
“Here,” he tossed the enclosed needle and alcohol wipes to Coran. The man quickly set to work, stripping off Lance’s chest plate and under shirt. Keith looked on, wanting to throw up when the wound was finally revealed. The cut was deep, much deeper than he’d imagined, and his entire torso was stained pink. The edges were messy and purple and Keith felt bile rising to the surface.
He ran to the trash can, grateful he hadn’t eaten more before.
“Lance!” Came a gasp. Keith looked up and found the other three Paladins at his door, looking on their friend in shock.
Shiro tore his gaze away, and looked at Keith, eyes firm, “What happened.”
“He... I-I, there was this soldier-he took the...I...there was so much blood” Keith felt himself begin to shake.
“You’re in shock.” Shiro grabbed his arm and gently pulled him out of the room, Pidge and Hunk silently following.
—————————
Shiro helped Keith sit against the wall, cross legged on the ground. Keith studied the tile. It had clearly been a long time since it was cleaned. It had lost it’s shine and was covered in dirt and dust. There were a couple splashes of red here and there.
“Blood,” Keith mumbled, “We need to wipe the floors.”
“The floors can wait,” Shiro said, grasping his shoulders, “Wait here. Hunk, Pidge, keep an eye on him. Shiro walked back into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.
Keith kept studying the floor. There were faint whispers of footprints in the dirt. Someone has very large feet, he thought numbly.
“He looked so...” Hunk whispered.
“I know.” Pidge replied, their face wet.
It was then Keith realized he was still crying. He must have looked like a mess. He touched a finger to his cheek, surprised by how cold his tears were. He wondered if Pidge’s tears were cold too.
Lance felt really cold when he was carrying him. Then again, he always complained of being cold. He was always knocking on Keith’s door late at night, asking if he had an extra blanket. For some reason, he always did, and he always lent it to him.
The door opened and a pair of boots appeared in front of his vision. Shiro crouched down, and studied Keith’s face.
“Can you talk? Or is this going to send you over the edge?”
“I can talk.” Keith said. He was surprised by the lack of a tremor in his voice. Maybe he imagined it earlier.
Shiro sighed and fiddled with a strap on his suit, “It isn’t pretty. Coran said the blade was serrated. and coated in some sort of non-lethal poison. He’s going to search for an antidote as soon as he stitches him up, and Allura is already pulling up our databases.”
“He was poisoned?” Pidge trembled.
Hunk put his head in his hands, shoulders shaking.
Keith’s expression never changed. He didn’t say anything. Didn’t move. For a moment, he wasn’t even sure he breathed.
Then he stood, shoved Shiro aside and entered the bedroom. He didn’t think it was possible, but Lance looked even worse than before. His face was tinged green, and the stiches in his side were neat and small. For some reason, the stitches were harder to look at than the bloody gauze Coran was using to clean him up.
“I’m nearly done patching him up.” Coran said exhaustedly, “That’s a pretty nasty wound. He was lucky to have you there Keith.”
Keith only swallowed. He didn’t feel lucky to have been there. His shoulder began to burn. He scratched at it and hissed when the pain grew worse.
“What? What is it?” Coran stood and turned to him.
“My shoulder is killing me.” Keith winced. Coran motioned for him to turn around and examined it.
“This looks like a blaster wound.” He said, already digging through the med kit.
“I think I vaguely remember getting shot.” Keith murmured.
“Keith you were shot? Why didn’t you say something before?” Shiro said from the doorway. He grew more and more tired with each development.
Keith shook his head, “I forgot.”
“Shock is quick the drug.” Coran said, putting a cold pack on it, “Hold this here, and put some ointment on it. Thankfully it just grazed you.”
“Thanks Coran.” Keith said, taking the cold pack, “But I’ll be fine.”
“Thankfully, the two of you will.” Allura appeared behind Shiro, who moved aside to let her in.
“I think I found the poison that the knife was tainted with.” Allura said, handing Coran a monitor with a list of ingredients “It’s quite nasty though and will need to be treated immediately.”
Coran nodded and studied the list. “We should have everything to reverse engineer an anecdote. Let’s head to the lab. Pidge, Hunk, I could use some help.”
“Of course.” Pidge said, and the three of them headed off. Keith took the seat Coran had been using and watched Lance. His breathing was better than before, even if he looked worse.
“What happened out there Keith?” Shiro asked softly.
Keith swallowed, “It all just happened so fast. Everything was normal at first. We landed in the bay, managing to avoid any troops, but we were ambushed. Nine, maybe ten soldiers rushed us all at once. I told Lance to turn back so we could call for backup, but he refused and rushed into the ship. He got pinned by another soldier, but we managed to take care of him pretty quick. We got lost at one point and the hallways seemed to stretch on forever. Then we found the lab and the formula.”
Keith jumped up, “Wait, where’s the formula? Lance had it and then-”
Allura stretched out her hands and steadied him, “Don’t worry. Coran found the serum in his pocket and is dropping it off in the safe.”
“Ok, good.” Keith said, somewhat stupidly. “Lance risked his life for that so...”
“We know.” Shiro said gently, “What happened next?”
Keith wrapped his arms around himself as he sat back down, “Like I said, we found the serum pretty quickly and were getting ready to leave when the Galra found us. Lance managed to take a few of them out with his blaster, but I went down pretty quickly. He rushed over to make sure I was ok and the leader, he-” Keith sobbed, “He tried to kill me, and before I could even do anything Lance intercepted it and...”
Sobs over took him and Keith felt Shiro’s arms slide around him. Allura came to his other side and placed her arms around the both of them, in one strange and depressing group hug.
“I’m sorry Keith.” She whispered. Her face was also wet with tears, and Shiro raspily cleared his throat.
“He did what any of us would have done. Including you, if the situation had been reversed.”
“I just don’t understand why.” Keith sniffled, “He’s so...so...”
“Heroic-” Allura said the same time Keith said, “Stupid.”
Shiro gave a small laugh and stood, “Well, he’s going to be alright, so you don’t need to worry anymore. Why don’t we get you patched up and some food in your stomach?”
Keith shook his head, “I’m fine. I’m going to stay here with Lance.”
“Ok,” Shiro said, “Let us know if he wakes up.”
Allura gave him a sad smile, and together her and Shiro left, gently closing the door behind them.
Keith put his chin on his fist and turned back to Lance. Stupid, sweet, idiotic Lance. His expression was less pained than before, and even the greenish tint to his face had faded. He looked, almost peaceful.
“Why did you do it?” Keith whispered, “Shiro said any of us would have done it, but I still don’t get it.”
Lance did not reply. And so together they sat in silence, simply listening to each other’s breath.
—————————
Eventually, Keith began to drift off, the excitement of the day finally catching up with him. His dreams though were just as bad as the real thing. He woke up in a cold sweat more than once, but after seeing Lance was still relatively ok, managed to fall back to sleep.
The final time he woke up, he found a pair of friendly blue eyes looking up at him.
“Lance!” Keith shot up, “Oh my god you’re awake.”
“Hey mullet.” He grinned tiredly, “You look awful.”
“Oh man it really is you.” Keith cried, smiling wider than he had in a long time.
“Wow Kogane, getting soft on me?” Lance raised an eyebrow.
Keith nodded, “Maybe a bit.”
Lance’s expression turned a bit more serious, “Oh really? I was mostly kidding, but for you to admit that, I’m guessing things didn’t magically fix themselves while I was out.”
Keith felt his smile disappear, “Not really, no.”
Lance stared up at the ceiling, “How bad is it? I mean, I can kind of feel it, but mostly it’s numb.”
“It’s, not...well it’s not good.” Keith sighed, “The dagger was coated in some sort of toxin that's affecting the healing process or something? I dunno, I was really out of it when Shiro was explaining.”
“Shiro? All the others were here?” Lance asked.
“Yeah, just after we got you situated they all came down here to check on you.” Keith explained, “Hunk and Pidge went to help Coran and Shiro and Allura are taking care of the ship I think.”
“I don’t even remember much of what happened.” Lance admitted, “It all just seems like a bad dream.”
“I wish it was.” Keith said, “But they’re going to get you in the healing pod soon, and that will help a lot.”
“Yeah, why aren’t I in the pod? Did it break or something?” Lance asked.
Keith could feel more of his anxiety rise, but shoved it down. He deserved to know how bad it was. “We weren’t sure you would make it without direct intervention.”
“Oh.” Lance said, paling a bit, “Well, I’m still here, so that must mean something. Unless I’m actually dead and this is all some kind of feverish hell.”
“No, you aren’t in hell.” Keith rolled his eyes, but it was nice to hear Lance sounding a bit more like himself.
Lance shifted around a bit, a determined look in his eyes. “Help me up.” he said.
“What? No, Lance you’ve been hovering on the edge of... well... you know for hours now, you are not ready to stand up.”
“So help me mullet if you don’t get me on my feet right now I will chop off all of your hair in your sleep.” Lance threatened.
“Then there goes my hair I guess.” Keith stood his ground. And looking him dead in the eye, Lance pushed himself into a sitting position and stood up.
Keith barely had time to catch him before he fell over, entire body shaking furiously.
“What the hell Lance? Why do you want to stand up so bad?” Keith sat him back down on the bed.
“I’m fine, you said it yourself.” Lance argued.
“No, I said you’re going to be fine. It was a really close call though, and we don’t need you hurting yourself further.” Keith felt his anger rising.
“I always heal faster when I’m on my feet.” Lance said, even with his vision blurry and spinning.
“Not this time.” Keith said.
“Keith I swear to god...”
“NO LANCE. I CAN’T DEAL WITH THAT AGAIN. I NEED YOU TO STAY ALIVE AND YOU WILL NOT GET OUT OF THIS BED.” Keith yelled.
Lance looked properly cowed, “Ok, ok, I’m sorry.”
Keith slumped down onto the bed next to him, and put his face in his hands. Both of them were quiet, just sitting there. The air felt thick, like you could slice through it.
Keith took a deep breath. “It was fucking hell in there, Lance. Why, WHY did you do it?”
Lance was quiet for a minute longer, “You were in danger.”
Keith looked at him, “I was in danger? Lance, all of us are in danger, all the time. What was it really?”
Lance looked lost, his eyes sad, “I just couldn’t let him kill you. It was the only thing that would protect you.”
“So you took a fucking knife for me?” Keith sat up.
Lance rubbed his bandages, like the injury was bugging him, “What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know.” Keith sighed, “I’m sorry for yelling at you. Today has just been a lot.”
“Tell me about it.” Lance said, studying his face, “Are you ok?”
Keith shook, remembering the same words from just a few hours ago as the same man bled out in front of him, “Stop asking that.”
“What do you mean?” Lance turned toward him.
“Stop asking if I’m ok, you’re the one who got fucking stabbed, Lance. I don’t need any of your concern.”
“You may not need it, but you do deserve it.” Lance said, “So I’ll ask again, are you ok?”
Keith just turned and looked at him, remembering the same, sad and concerned expression from earlier. And he leaned over and hugged him, letting even more tears soak his shirt.
Lance just held him, letting his own tears fall, “I’m sorry Keith.”
“Me too.”
Eventually, Keith pulled away and wiped his eyes. Lance wobbled a bit and Keith immediately stood up, “You need to lay back down.”
He helped him recline back into his pillow and made sure he was all situated before sitting back down in his chair.
“Keith?”
“Yeah Lance?”
“Will you stay here?”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Keith reached out and grabbed his hand, stroking his thumb along the ridge of his knuckles.
The two of them fell asleep like that, and stayed that way until Coran came back with the others to give Lance the anecdote.
————————
“Keith, Keith wake up,” Shiro gently shook him.
“What is it?” Keith said groggily.
“We have the antidote for Lance, and then we’re going to put him in the healing pod.”
That woke him up, “The healing pod? Is he ready for that?”
Coran nodded, “I just checked his bandages. After we give him the anecdote to the poison, he’ll be ready to go.”
Keith felt a swell of hope. He really was going to get better, “Ok, lets do it.”
The entire time Coran undid the bandages and cleaned up the wound, Keith didn’t let go of Lance’s hand. Not even when the bandages came away sticky and smelling of feet, or when Coran spread the nasty green poultice all over the entrance of the wound. When he was finally wrapped back up, everyone cheered quietly, not want to wake him.
Shiro brought in a floating stretcher, and him and Coran loaded Lance onto it while Keith continued holding his hand, rubbing his thumb back and forth across his fingers.
And they stayed like that all the way up until the pod, where Keith and Shiro took him off of the stretcher and set him in. Keith whispered, “See you soon Lance.” and finally let go as the door to the pod shut with a hiss.
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Four days, three hours, and 56 minutes later, the pod door reopened. Keith was there to catch him when he stumbled out, disoriented and tired.
“Hey Mullet.” Lance grinned.
“Hey Sharpshooter.” Keith hugged him.