Chapter Text
Keith has never needed a family, and Voltron certainly doesn’t change that. Sure, they have to spend the majority of their day together, work as a team, and all that junk, but it doesn’t mean their family. Not even friends.
Keith knows that the only reason the paladins even tolerate him is because they need to be close enough to form Voltron. That’s it. Nothing else.
They don’t hang out much together outside of battles or training, anyway. Not even during these peaceful, diplomatic missions.
Speaking of, Hasu is a very strange planet. Keith has many words to describe it, but strange is definitely the best one.
Firstly, he noticed they’re very obsessed with colors. Their buildings, their clothing, all of it divided by colors.
It didn’t take long for Keith to figure out what red means, considering that every Hasuian wearing red robes came up to him to ask him what field of science he studies and where his degree is from.
Just a few days on each of the seven planets, Allura had told them, and don’t get into any trouble.
Fine by Keith, sure. He can spend a few hours pretending he’s some expert in chemistry or biology or whatever. Yeah, that’s going to go great.
Currently, he’s separated from the rest of the team at the planet’s Central Greenhouse, their place of choice for the festival. Hiding in the shadows of the plants that line the greenhouse, blaring sunlight fanning in from the glass panels on the ceiling.
“What was your dream last night?”
Huh?
A Hasuian waltzes up to him, adorning red layers, completely unaware of the fact he’s trying to hide in the shadows of the plants and not talk to anyone. She flutters her wings at him, the beak of her bug-like face clicking.
“Excuse me?”
“Apologies, I am just eager to know” She puts up a clawed hand in a gesture of peace. “I am Sahala, lead chemist here at the Science District on Hasu.”
Not even a hello? Keith frowns at her, furrowing his eyebrows.
“I’d rather not say,” he dismisses.
“Oh, was it a bad one? Well as long as they don’t have any masks in them, you should be safe!”
“Why?”
“Because masks are a sign that you have an enemy close to you!” She nods fervently. “Has your kind not discovered that yet?”
What is going on right now?
Keith absentmindedly scratches his left ear, but Sahala’s eyes light up in wonder. She giggles, rasping and clicking noises between her beak.
“What?” Keith raises an eyebrow.
“Someone you care about is thinking of you,” she points to the spot where his left ear is. “One of your friends perhaps?”
What? Do they have some kind of psychic ability Allura failed to mention?
“How do you know?”
Sahala widens her huge, black eyes at him in surprise.
“I thought you are a scientist?”
What does that have to do with this?
“Every scientist knows that it’s perfectly rooted in logic that when you scratch your left ear, a friend is thinking of you.”
Oh my quiznak, these are not real scientists, Keith thinks with bewilderment. On one hand, he’s glad that now he doesn’t have to pretend to be some kind of crazy expert in microbiology or whatever. On the other, he wonders how they’ve managed to get this far technologically.
“Keith!” Pidge calls for him from a distance, running over to him. Sahala nods at him as if this concreted her claim instead of just being a coincidence.
But he and Pidge aren’t friends. They’re just teammates, so of course it was just a coincidence.
“What’s up?” He asks, but he really knows what Pidge is here for. Every planet they go on, Pidge obsesses over the robotics and technology of that species, bombarding them with questions Keith never understands.
“Just wanted to hang out,” she lies. He knows she is, him and Pidge never hang out. Which, of course, they wouldn’t, because they’re not friends. “Who’s your buddy?”
“I am Sahala,” she flutters her wings once again. “It is a pleasure to meet the leader of Voltron. I would like to gift you something if that is fine with you.”
Leader?
“Wicked!” Pidge yells, then coughs. “I mean, yes, that is fine.”
Sahala procures a small green plant from her bag, putting it in Pidge’s palm.
“What does it do?” Pidge asks.
“It brings you luck.”
Pidge furrows her eyebrows, frowning.
“Does it have healing properties or something? Special microbes? Is it like a secret gadget or something!?”
Sahala laughs heartily, grabbing her chest.
“Of course not! It has three leaves! Three leaves is certain to bring you luck!”
Pidge looks at Keith from the corner of her eye. He leans into her to whisper.
“I don’t think they’re actually scientists. They’re supersti-tists.”
“Okay, I’m going to ignore the fact you just made a joke but we’re going back to that later,” she mutters pointedly.
“Why did she call you the leader?”
“Apparently only leaders are allowed to wear green on Hasu, so they think I lead Voltron, not Shiro.”
“So Allura told us this is your Central Greenhouse,” Pidge speaks up louder.
“Yes indeed!” Sahala chirps. “Here we grow our luckiest plants, and transport them all over Hasu to ensure our planet has the best future!”
“But what about crops? Aren’t those more important?”
“Only if they’re lucky,” Sahala dismisses Pidge with a wave.
Pidge frowns, sighing dejectedly. Clearly she’s not going to get anywhere with this lady.
“Thank you for the gift. Keith, let’s go back to Lance and Hunk,” Pidge turns to the side to leave, the light from the window panes above catching a glint in her glasses.
“Ah!” Sahala screams.
Instinctively, Keith bunches up his shoulders and twitches his hand, the absence of his bayard quite heavy in his mind.
“What is it!?” He demands.
“Your….Your….mirrors!” She shrieks, holding up one clawed hand to Pidge’s face. “It’s cracked!”
“Oh!” Pidge takes off her glasses, examining them. “Yeah, there’s a really tiny crack at the corner, but I don’t see how…”
“Ghosts, ghosts!” Sahala pushes them both away, backing up into the plants behind here. “You bring bad luck to Hasu! You must leave immediately!”
WIth a scream she runs through the crowd and disappears, leaving two very confused paladins.
“That was…” Keith trails off.
“Crazy?”
“Crazy.”
Pidge huffs, crossing her arms together.
“I thought I was going to get to hear something really cool! They have such advanced technology, and all they care about are stupid spirit things that don’t really exist. How have they gotten this far along?!”
“It’s really a miracle,” Keith deadpans.
Pidge whips around, pointing at Keith.
“You made a joke!”
“Am I not allowed to?” Keith’s voice pitches up at the end.
Pidge laughs, shaking her head.
“It’s just unexpected. Let’s go see what Lance and Hunk are up to.”
Strangely, Keith finds his mouth tugging up at the corners. He quickly pounds the feeling down. Woah, no, Pidge just made fun of you, that’s not funny or amusing.
Keith follows her through the festival. They’re not friends, he reminds himself. He’s just bored and has nothing else to do.
They find Lance first, who is just watching idly while sipping from a strange cup. Watching idly is not a Lance thing to do.
“What’s wrong with you?” Pidge scrunches her nose at him.
“Guys!” He jumps as soon as he sees them, grabbing Pidge’s arm. “I messed up, I really messed up!”
“Like political, Allura is going to kick your butt messed up?”
“Worse!”
“Oh my quiznak,” Pidge states with a realization. “A flirting messed up?”
“You always mess up at flirting,” Keith notes.
“Not now, mullet!” Lance straightens up. “So, apparently blue represents soldiers on this planet, but soldiers aren’t allowed to date anyone on this planet, but obviously I didn’t know that because I’m not from here! And now I’m scooped up in some stupid forbidden romance thing!”
“I always imagine you’d find your love through some cheesy trope,” Pidge smirks.
Keith has always thought of Lance’s flirting as kind of irritating. Why does he flirt when he knows he’s just never going to see those people again? If Lance really wants to date someone, he should make moves on a person he sees all the time. Of course, that person is Allura, but Allura is already an adult while they’re still teenagers. So, case closed, Lance is not going to find someone out here.
He’s not even sure why people find Lance’s flirting attractive. It’s not. It’s annoying at best.
“I don’t want to be in some cheesy trope!” Lance begs them. “You never saw me here, I’m totally blending in with the background!”
Suddenly he yelps, hiding behind Keith and Pidge. Keith looks over his shoulder to see a noticeable Hasuian swirling between groups, taller with pink skin.
“You flirted with the princess?” Keith says in disbelief.
“I always flirt with princesses!” Lance protests. “It’s one of my lovable traits!”
“It’s one of your annoying traits,” Pidge clarifies. “We’ve only been here for like two hours, I can’t believe you’ve already found yourself in some shenanigan. As leader, I forbid you from getting into more shenanigans.”
Lance grabs both Keith and Pidge’s wrist, dragging them into a nearby hallway.
“Why not let her find you?” Pidge raises an eyebrow. “Or do you just like girls who don’t like you back?”
“Very funny, Pidge,” Lance whispers. “She told me she wants to trap me in some dungeon so her mom doesn’t find me! That’s not crush behavior, that’s stalker behavior!”
Keith whistles lowly. He means, they were bound to land on a planet like that at some point, who knows what kind of creeps exist in space?
“How do you think I feel?” Pidge whispers back. Why are they whispering now? “These scientists are supersti-tists!”
“Hey!” Keith whisper-yells at Pidge.
“Sorry. That was Keith’s joke.”
“Keith made a joke?”
“I know, right?”
“Why is that so weird!?” Keith interjects.
“Cause it’s you!” Lance throws his arms out in a gesture to Keith.
“What about me?”
Lance clears his throat, attempting to pull his bangs over one eye, but since they’re too short they just end up sticking out awkwardly.
“I’m Keith,” Lance says in a very NOT Keith-like voice. “I train all day and I think I’m too good to hang out with my friends.”
Keith has half a mind to snap at him and tell him, ‘It’s not like you guys ever invite me to anything’. He decides against it, instead gritting his teeth and glaring at Lance with a striking stare.
“Maybe that Sahala girl was right, this place does look pretty haunted,” Pidge interrupts. “Look at those paintings.”
Keith looks up. The hallways connected to the Central Greenhouse are not covered in window panes, but rather a deep green wood, illuminating the place in a sullen dimness. High on the walls hang oil paintings. Now, Keith’s not good with faces, especially alien faces, but he swears all of these paintings are of the same three or four people.
“Creepy,” Lance sing-songs. “Let’s go explore, maybe we’ll find something even creepier.”
“Lance, you remember the last time we did that, we accidentally set free that king’s weird dragon? Allura had our heads for a whole week!” Pidge balls her hands into fists. “As leader, I won’t allow you.”
“That’s what you guys were doing?” Keith tilts his head slightly to the side.
“Yeah, while you were busy emo-ing in the corner,” Lance waves him off. “Now, are you going to emo some more or are you going to join me?”
“Did you not just hear what I said?” Pidge throws her hands up.
“Okay then, leader, are you not down for some ghoul-searching? Get it? Ghoul-searching, like soul-searching?”
“Keith’s joke was better.”
“Are you coming with me or not?” Lance huffs.
Pidge hums, tapping her chin with her finger.
“I’ll grab Hunk real quick,” with those words Pidge leaves the hallway and disappears into the plaza.
“What about you, mullet?” Lance leans back against the wall. “Are you scared of ghosts?”
“Are you scared of saying my name?” Keith retaliates. He leans to the side, putting all of his weight on one hip. Lance’s eyes flicker down for a second, his face dropping into an unreadable expression before covering it up with his dumb smirk.
“Answer my question, Keith,” Lance puts inflection on his name.
“I don’t believe in ghosts,” Keith answers, “but I’ll bite.”
“Hunk’s here!” Pidge waves the two of them down, the yellow paladin traveling right behind her.
“I haven’t seen you all day, buddy,” Lance crosses his arms.
“Dude, I’ve been having the worst day,” Hunk lets go of Pidge’s arm when they enter the hallway.
“You too? These Hasuians are weird.”
“You know how the color yellow is for like entertainers on this planet?” Hunk stops to wait for everyone to nod. “Well, that sounds easy! You just make people, do something stupid, but no! These guys have a strange sense of humor, like Shiro strange.”
Keith shudders. Shiro has a terrible sense of humor.
“Well the gang’s together now, so we don’t have to worry about that,” Lance claps his hands together. “Now let’s go!”
Lance marches in front of them down the hall, where surprisingly no Hasuians reside. Perhaps they’re all too busy at the festival.
Gradually, the hallway gets darker, the fluorescent lights on the ceiling blinking in and out of existence. It also gets…colder? Keith can feel it, but at the same time he can’t, like a gentle wisp crawling in between the gaps of his armor.
“Maybe this was a mistake,” Keith voices his concern out loud. “Let’s get back to the greenhouse.”
“Look!” Lance points ahead, completely ignoring Keith.
It’s hard to see, but they finally reached the end of the hallway. A giant opening leads them into an even darker room, to where Keith tentatively reaches out his hand so as to not bump into anything. The walls are lined with even more paintings, shelves taking up the central space and dividing the room into aisles.
“Woah, this must be their actual lab!” Pidge beams.
“It looks abandoned,” Keith points out.
“Probably because it’s not ‘lucky’ enough,” Lance says nasally.
“I think Keith’s right, maybe we should turn back,” Hunk stammers. “We had our fun, we did some exploring, now let’s sneak back, grab some food, and hang out by the castle.”
“No way, they make their clovers artificially!” Pidge guffaws. “They fake their luck!”
“Every supersti-tist is a fraud, deep down.” Lance tsks.
Keith hangs back, not wanting to trip into the shelves like an idiot and fall down. Hunk does as well, whimpering slightly.
“Okay, well I’m leaving, and you guys signal me when you get possessed,” Hunk turns around, ready to leave.
“No, wait!” Pidge says a little too loudly. “Look what I found! As leader, I’m telling you all to come here!”
Keith groans. Hunk grabs onto his arm as the two of them weave through the scattered shelves to the sound of Pidge’s voice.
“What…is this?” Keith trails off when they all meet up on the other side of the room.
Pidge crouches in front of a pod. A cryopod? It certainly doesn’t look like the ones on the Castle, but Keith can feel the coolness from its cracked glass creaking onto his face. A strange green liquid drips down the outside from where the hole is.
“Oh quiznak, this place really is haunted,” Hunk moans. “We need to leave, right now!”
“No!” Pidge holds up a hand. “This is something actually real. Do you think something escaped from here?”
“Like a prisoner!?” Lance whisper-screams.
Pidge scrambles to get a small tray from the shelf. Cautiously, she scoops up a portion of the ooze.
“I’ll get Coran to analyze it back at the Castle.”
“Oh, you think he might say it’s some kind of edible goo or something?” Hunk wags his fingers.
“Wait, look at that,” Lance points at the top-right corner of the pod. In all other corners, a purple crystal connects the glass to the infrastructure, but only in that specific corner is a crystal missing.
Keith looks around. The cryopod is the only one by itself, surrounded by the same paintings from the hallway. Is one of them crooked?
Keith reaches out to push the painting out of the way. Sure enough, he discovers a small compartment behind it.
“It’s here,” he picks the crystal up out of the compartment, holding it up for the others to see.
“Take it,” Pidge commands.
A loud creaking interrupts their conversation. Hunk yelps, going ramrod straight.
“Let’s leave already!” Hunk urges them. The four of them sneak through the aisles, narrowing their eyes at the emergence of light in the hallway.
“There they are!” Oh quiznak. Sahala and a group of other Hasuians stand in their way. “They bring us bad luck!”
“Uh oh,” Pidge gasps.
“Wait, wait!” Lance holds his hands up. “How do you know we’re not bringing you good luck disguised as bad luck?”
“There is nothing that can counter those cracked mirrors!” Sahala screams.
“Uh, uh…” Lance stumbles over his words. He closes one eye, mumbling to himself as he counts each of the Hasuians. “There’s thirteen of you! You’re bad lucking yourselves!”
All of the Hasuians shriek, pushing each other away.
The paladins take the opportunity and run by them until they make it back out the plaza. Nothing seems to have changed, except now there’s a few less Hasuians than before.
“Aww man,” Pidge whines. “I spilled some of my goop!”
“You got a little bit left,” Hunk reassures.
“Oh Lancey!”
Lance gasps, hiding behind Hunk.
There the princess is again, waving her hand high in the air while the other holds on to her dress.
“I’m not here!” Lance yells to Hunk.
Pidge cackles, snorting into the crook of her arm. She straightens herself out, standing in front of Hunk and Lance when the princess arrives.
“Excuse me,” the princess tilts her head to look past Hunk. “I believe you have something of mine!”
“No!?” Lance shrieks.
Keith bites his lip to keep from laughing, but it doesn’t help to control the coughing giggles that escape his mouth.
“Sorry, but Lance is already ours, you know, Voltron and all that,” Pidge waves her head around. Very poetic, Pidge.
“Oh…” The princess visibly deflates. “Is that true, Lancey?”
Lance peeks out from behind Hunk, giving her a nervous smile.
“Sorry, but my leader’s right. But you can always keep me in your dreams!”
Hunk elbows him in the stomach.
“Paladins don’t date anyway,” Pidge clarifies. “Welp, come on, we gotta get back to the Castle!”
The princess blows Lance a kiss as they leave. Keith groans out of disgust while Pidge just laughs.
“Hey, wait…” Hunk begins. “Do you think paladins aren’t actually allowed to date?”
“Sort of like a ‘co-workers don’t date each other’ rule?” Pidge raises an eyebrow.
“But I don’t flirt with co-workers, I flirt with potential allies,” Lance pipes up. “Besides, I don’t think any of us are ‘co-worker romance’ material.”
“Yeah, no offense guys, but I would never date any of you,” Pidge shrugs.
“Eww, definitely not, you’re like a little sister to me,” Lance pushes a hand into Pidge’s face, making a disgusted face. “Maybe Hunk though. You know what they say, marry your best friend.”
“No, Hunk’s already got a girlfriend, and her name is Shaaa-”
Hunk elbows Pidge as well.
“What about Keith?” Hunk attempts to change the subject, his face red. “Would you date Keith?”
Lance sputters, choking on his tongue.
“Sorry, Keith,” he coughs out, “but I don’t think you want to know the answer to that.”
Keith crosses his arms. Lance doesn’t have to be such a jerk about it, he could’ve just said no.
“No, I don’t think I’d date any of you,” Hunk clicks his tongue. “You’re all too good friends to me.”
Keith raises his eyebrows at that. Hmm.
“Keith?” Pidge goads.
“Yeah?”
“Do you believe in ‘co-worker’ romance? Would you date any of your fellow paladins?”
What are they, in middle school? Keith is aware that practically every teenager talks about romance and crushes at some point or another, but he’s never been a part of that crowd.
Still, he thinks it over for a second. Shiro is basically his brother, so no. Pidge is too young, a girl, and he just can’t think of her like that at all. Hunk is sweet to him, and actually seems like the best partner potential out of all of them, but he doesn’t see Hunk that way.
And that leaves Lance…
Who hates him, so no.
“Nah,” Keith decides. “We’re all just teammates.”
Pidge frowns, and Keith doesn’t like that. He’s not sure why he doesn’t like that.
They come back to the Castle of Lions without any further conversation, much to Keith’s surprise. The other three are always so talkative, never leaving a moment of silence in the air. Did something happen and he just missed it, or are they just thinking about that weird lab they saw today?
Keith doesn’t think much of it, spending the next few hours in the training room until he’s called out by Pidge.
“What’s up?” He asks when the simulation has ended. Sweat pours over his face, the muscles in his body heavy with wear.
“Come to the pool,” she practically bounces on the balls of her heels, jumping up and down. “I have something to show you.”
……
“What is this?”
“I installed a water slide.”
“How?”
“So after we all came back, I actually decided to visit Hasu again while waiting for the goo to be analyzed. Then the queen found me and apologized for that weird girl and her daughter’s behavior, saying that she’ll install anything on the ship for us to make up for it. They might be crazy about luck or whatever, but they’re master engineers.”
Lance gawks at Pidge. Keith is just wondering how she convinced the Hasuians to build them one.
“This is how you abuse your leader powers?” Lance’s voice scratches. “This is how you start getting mad with power! What’s next, you’re going to make us give you massages and pedicures and wait on you hand and foot!”
“Well…” Pidge taps a finger on her chin.
“Don’t give her any ideas!” Hunk warns.
“How does it even work?” Keith asks.
The Altean pool is already strange enough. How can you expect to swim upside-down? But the slide itself is even weirder, an upside-down structure hovering over the water.
“Yeah, it looks like you’d just fall off,” Hunk adds.
“Yeah, which is why you’re going first,” Pidge throws a thumb in Hunk’s direction.
“Me!?”
“You could probably take the fall. Or you,” she points at Keith, “you look like you’d land on your feet like a cat.”
“Yeah I second Keith,” Lance raises a hand. Keith scowls at him. “I don’t want to get and I know Keith would be easier to catch than Hunk.”
“Alright scientists, go test your hypothesis!” Pidge slaps Keith on the back, forcing him to take a step forward.
Keith looks back at them, but all three of them just stare at him expectantly. Keith walks forward, scrunching his eyebrows up.
“How am I even supposed to get up there?”
Just like that, the water from the pool swirls down like a tornado, scooping up Keith before returning to the ceiling. He yelps, holding onto himself as he’s whisked away to higher grounds.
“You’re doing great!” Hunk gives him a thumbs up. Keith frowns at him.
When Keith breaks the surface to grab some air, he finds himself staring down at the other three, feeling as if they were the ones on the ceiling. He doesn’t sense that his gravity has changed, his hair isn’t falling like it’s supposed to.
So Keith figures that it’s okay if he was to climb out of the pool onto the little platform on the sides. Hey, what do you know, he’s not falling.
“Do you feel the blood rushing to your head?” Pidge calls out, a contemplative look on her face.
“Actually, no,” Keith responds.
He turns to face the waterslide, located directly next to the pool. It looks just like one you’d find on Earth, except it hovers over the pool instead of being held up by poles. He climbs up the ladder, situating himself at the top.
Keith pushes down the slide, water splashing in his face as he hits the sides and goes down the spiral. He’s not really paying attention to what’s happening until he reaches the very end of the slide and…
He promptly falls down to the real ground.
Keith screams, grabbing onto nothing. The room falls around him in a blur, too fast for him to comprehend anything.
But instead of hitting the ground, he falls into someone’s body. Multiple bodies, actually. With an oomph they all tumble onto the floor. Keith vaguely feels a shot of pain in his leg.
He groans, his body shuddering with adrenaline. He’s laying on top of Lance, who wheezes from the hit. Pidge and Hunk are beside him, their arms underneath him.
“Human net,” Lance mutters.
“I’m so sorry Keith!” Pidge cries. “I didn’t know that would happen!”
“It’s okay…” Keith grumbles in a weak voice, pulling himself off of Lance, but the boy grabs his hand before he can do so.
“Dude, are you sure? That was a pretty high fall.”
Keith grunts, jutting his legs instinctively to get himself up. Oh.
“I think I broke one of my legs.”
“I think you broke one of my wrists,” Lance replies.
Pidge scrambles to get her arms out from under Keith, nursing one of her hands.
“I think you broke one of mine too.”
“Allura’s going to be pissed at us!” Hunk wails.
“No, Allura’s not going to find out!” Lance insists, sitting up and pulling Keith closer to examine his injured leg. “We’ll take turns in the cryopod, and if Allura asks where we are, just make up an excuse.”
“You’re an idiot,” Pidge says, “but as leader, I second that.”
“Okay Keith,” Lance huffs as he tries to get both him and Keith to stand up. Keith hisses as the adrenaline starts to come down, the numbness of pain more and more vivid in his body. “You go first since you have the worst injury.”
“Thanks,” Keith replies sarcastically. “It’s the least you could do.”
Keith and Lance make it about a third of the way before Keith can no longer stand the pain of his one leg and hopping on the other, leaning onto Lance for the added support. Hunk, being the annoyingly caring person he is, takes to carrying Keith princess-style (much to Keith’s refusal).
Lance, of course, still finds a way to make fun of him even with both of them injured.
“Aww, does Keith want to be a princess? Are you our damsel in distress?”
“I’m sure you make every girl in distress.”
“At least I talk to girls. You just stare at them”
Keith opens his mouth, deciding if he actually wants to say anything. He shouldn’t be surprised that Lance hasn’t figured it out yet, especially since he was the last one to realize Pidge is a girl.
Hunk snorts, clearly holding back words. Eh, Lance can figure it out.
“What?” Lance raises an eyebrow, leaning in and looking up at Hunk expectantly.
Pidge remains uncharacteristically quiet.
“Nothing, Lance. Ignore him,” Keith pushes Lance’s face out of the way.
“Woah, seriously?” Hunk asks, genuinely surprised. “I thought everyone knew.”
“Knew what?”
Hunk shrugs.
“That’s for Keith to tell you, man, not me.”
Lance switches his glare to Keith.
“What do you need to tell me!? No…is it…”
Keith raises an eyebrow.
“Do you like Allura!? Is that the reason you never talk to girls!?”
Keith can’t help it, he burst out laughing in Hunk’s arms. He covers his mouth with his hand, trying to muffle the sound.
Lance growls at him, frowning.
“Okay, so not Allura. Pidge, do you like Pidge?”
“I hope not,” Pidge mutters.
Keith laughs even louder, throwing his head back. Hunk follows suit, chuckling.
“What’s so funny!? What am I missing here?”
“A lot, apparently,” Keith says through giggles. Lance purses his lips, his face flustered.
They manage to get to the cryopods without any more ‘incidents’. Well, actually, no. They forgot one factor.
“Coran!”
Coran whips his head up from where he was checking the systems. Pidge promptly kicks Lance in the leg at the outburst.
“What happened to you four!?” Coran yelps, running over to look at the tiny bit of bone sticking out of Keith’s skin.
“Please don’t tell Allura or Shiro!?” Hunk begs. “They can’t find out!?”
Coran holds up his hands in compliance.
“Okay, okay. Healing first, talking later.”
Keith manages to get himself into the cryopod suit (with given privacy, his pride can’t take any more hits today), and with some help he’s hoisted into the actual cryopod.
“Not to worry,” Coran reassures Keith. “You’ll be in and out in the blink of an eye!”
And he really is out in the blink of an eye, because the next thing Keith knows, he’s waking up as the pod releases its screen. He falls forward, caught by someone. He looks up, only to find Lance giving him a strange face.
“They found out.”
“What made you think we wouldn’t?”
“Allura!” Keith jumps in Lance’s grasp.
“What were you thinking, risking yourself like that!” Allura roars at him, raising her hand in anger. “If the Galra attacked while you were off breaking your own leg, I would have – grrhh, ahh!”
Her last words trail off into yells rather than incomprehensible words.
Keith frowns. Right, of course. He’s needed for Voltron, nothing else. What other reason would they have for caring that he doesn’t hurt himself?
A headache begins to flare up. He thought the cryopods could heal anything?
Suddenly, one of the doors to the room opens. Pidge and Hunk walk in, Pidge’s shoulders hunched up.
Allura clears her throat, calming down a bit.
“Right, Pidge wants to talk with you. I will be in the Control Room, deciding on your punishment.”
Keith flinches at that. Allura never shows any mercy with them when she’s angered. He feels the headache turmoil in his head.
Lance, realizing the tension of the situation has disappeared, promptly lets go of Keith. He crosses his arms, holding onto himself and looking away awkwardly. Okay, not a Lance thing to do.
Keith turns his attention back to Pidge and Hunk, who now stand in front of them. Hunk nudges Pidge gently. The girl in turn sighs.
“Keith, I want to apologize,” she says it in a way that makes Keith think she’s been rehearsing this. “I wasn’t thinking and I let you get seriously hurt. I’m sorry.”
For an odd reason, Keith has the urge to reach out and tussle Pidge’s hair.
“It’s okay,” he chuckles. “If anything, Lance and Hunk are just at fault too since they didn’t do anything either.”
“What!? I caught you!” Lance jabs at Keith.
“Yeah, and I still ended up breaking my leg, so good job.”
Lance doesn’t blow up at him, or make some witty insults like Keith suspects. Rather, he narrows his eyes at Keith, pressing his lips into a thin line.
“Always have to find something bad, huh?”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. You always have to root out something wrong, right? Can’t ever just relax and actually have a good day for once.”
Keith curls his fingers into loose fists.
“What is your problem, Lance?!” He wants to say so much more, to accuse Lance of hating him for no reason, to tell him how much he’s tried to be a good friend but no matter what he does Lance will always find something to insult him about.
Pidge and Hunk step away, clearly not wanting to get in the middle of this. Keith finds himself wanting to say the same thing to them. The pain in his head worsens, creeping in from the back and striking like groups of stingers.
Lance is yelling at him again, saying something stupid, but Keith just pushes past him to get back to his room. He’s tired of dealing with Lance today. He’s tired of dealing with everyone today. For once, his thoughts aren’t traveling to train and just forget about everything. Instead, they yearn for him to lay down somewhere quiet, somewhere where no one can listen to him.
What is his problem? They fought together today, watching each others’ backs. They were hanging out just a few hours ago. Keith thought that, maybe, he was actually connecting with his fellow paladins.
He manages back to his room without interference. The lights dim and dark, his clothes waiting for him on his bed.
He thought wrong.
Heat builds up inside of him. He just wants to yell, to pound his fists into the mattress and throw his pillow. But that’s petty work, that’s the type of work that gets noticed by other people. And they’ll tell him he’s overreacting. He’s hot-headed, short-tempered, any synonym of the fire that always burns in his chest.
And they’re right, and he hates that.
He hastily slips off this stupid suit, putting his usual clothing back on.
Why would they want to be friends with him? It’s a stupid thought, stupid, stupid. He doesn’t know how to talk to others, he’s not funny or exceptionally smart or talkative or any of those other stupid things that make people like you.
Maybe Pidge really did mean for him to break his own leg. Maybe they just wanted him to hurt.
Okay, woah. He takes a deep breath, sitting on the edge of his bed and holding his head between his heads.
They would not do that. They’re not those kinds of jerks. He just needs to focus on something else, let all this anger out his veins.
Keith tries, he really does. He tries to focus on anything else that happened today. The fight, which wasn’t even really a fight, wasn’t that bad. They’re starting to feel like typical days, where Keith is just always going to suspect that he’ll need to pull his bayard out at one point or another. But hey, at least he didn’t need Red today!
He gasps, shooting his head up. The lights just barely flicker, but Keith sees it. He notices.
Wait.
Wait.
It’s not a headache that’s been plaguing him. It’s…static, almost. Static, in an absence of something, like the colored dots that buzz on a television screen in the absence of a show. Vital, and you know it’s missing.
It’s…
He digs in his mind, but he’s not even sure how to do that. What is missing? A memory? It’s just him, his thoughts alone, what would he…
Keith can’t hear Red anymore. Not even her humbling purring, a constant presence he’s learned to tune in the background. He can’t hear, feel any of her. She’s just gone. Oh. Oh, he needs to get to his lion right now.
But the bridge goes right by the cryopod room. Fine, whatever, he can risk another argument if it means he can figure out what’s wrong with his cat. He can’t let this disturb Voltron. That’s what Allura said, right? He’s needed for Voltron.
Pidge, Hunk, and Lance have already disappeared from the med-bay, to Keith’s relief. And…they’re in the control room, as is everyone else.
Lance glares at him, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
“Finally!” Allura claps her hands together, standing by her usual spot on the central raised platform. “Now that everyone is here, I need to debrief you for the next planet in the Soaris System! We’ll be departing Hasu tomorrow, so if you have any last-minute things you’d like to do, I’d suggest you do them tonight.”
Keith huffs. He’s not getting out of this. He opts for standing near Shiro, listening vaguely to Allura drone on about something to do with water. Alright fine, he can swim, whatever.
He sneaks a glance over at the “Garrison Trio” (as they have called themselves). He’s mildly surprised to see Hunk looking between him and Lance, a nervous expression on his face. Their argument can’t have been that bad, can it?
Lance scratches his left ear, and Keith definitely doesn’t mull over that. He looks at Keith, who snaps his head away, unaware that he had been staring at Lance for so long.
“And I believe that’s anything. Any questions?”
“Yeah, one,” Pidge raises her hand “Do we have to be able to swim?”
Allura widens her eyes, lowering her shoulders.
“Are you unable to swim, Pidge? Well, not to worry, I’m sure one of the other Paladins will be glad to let you hold onto them.”
“Keith, can you take me?” Pidge doesn’t miss a beat to ask as soon as Allura’s done talking.
Keith is taken back in slight shock, thinking that she would’ve asked Lance or Hunk or even Shiro instead. But he notices something in her eyes and in the glint of her glasses. She wants to talk about something.
“Sure,” he says, and that’s that. For now.
“Any other questions?” No one else says anything, so Allura just nods and dismisses them until dinnertime.
Keith loiters by, waiting for everyone else to leave. Now he, Allura, and Shiro are the last ones left.
“Heard you took a pretty nasty fall today,” Shiro clasps a hand on his shoulder. “You doing okay?”
“Fine.”
“Keith, I know all of your ‘fines’, and this one is not a good ‘fine’.”
Keith lowers his shoulders. He didn’t realize he had them tensed up.
“I just need to talk to Red for a second.”
“If you say so,” Shiro passes him a small smile. “But you know I’m here for you, right?”
Keith doesn’t say anything. Shiro takes his hand off him, gesturing for Allura to follow him wherever they go. Keith knows Shiro, and he knows that smile at her isn’t just a friendly one. He wonders if Lance has noticed it too.
Okay, no, because then he’s going to start thinking about Lance and their argument and everything. Just get to your hanger, Kogane.
He doesn’t even bother dressing in his suit, which feels a bit strange at first. But there Red is, sitting down in her dark and closed hanger, inactive.
Keith chews his gums. Should he speak out loud or in his thoughts?
“Hey girl,” he tries.
No response. Not even a hum from acknowledgement. She always acknowledges him.
“Did I do something to upset you?”
The huge lion stares down at him menacingly. To her, he must be so tiny, so minuscule. Even in the dark, her metal surfaces shine with something sinister.
“Tell me what I did wrong,” Keith grits his teeth. “And I can try to fix it.”
All that answers him is silence.
“Fine,” Keith stomps, “if you’ll just shut me out, then there’s nothing else I can do. Have fun when the Galra take Voltron.”
He turns to leave, and for a split second he hesitates. Maybe she will call to him at the last second.
She doesn’t. He doesn’t.
Whatever. He doesn’t need her anyway.
He doesn’t need anyone.