Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Luis is awoken by a scraping noise outside the front door. He’d fallen asleep on the couch after his shift, and a quick glance at the clock tells him it's just barely past one in the morning. Too late for anyone to be visiting. The shuffling outside stops for a moment, before he hears a muffled voice talking. The presence of just one voice does little to assure him it’s not some freak planning on breaking in. He slowly pulls himself off the couch, taking caution to not make any noise lest he alert the person outside. He slowly makes his way to the window by the front door, grabbing whatever's closest to use as a weapon should he need it.

Through the window, the figure stands broad and tall, just slightly taller than Luis himself. He’s backlit, face shrouded in the darkness, so Luis can’t tell who it is, but he thinks he would recognize the frame if it was someone he knew. The person makes no move to leave, despite neither ringing the doorbell or trying to pick the lock. Luis is tired, and would rather deal with this now than later, so he brings his weapon to a point at the door and swings it open quickly to catch the figure off guard. 

He still can’t see the man’s face, but he jolts, hands going to his hip seemingly by reflex. 

“What do you want?” he growls, hoping the darkness tricks the guy into thinking he’s got a rifle instead of…well.

“Are you threatening me with an umbrella?” The man says, his voice oh so familiar but strange all the same. It takes Luis off guard and the umbrella falls to the floor as he slams the porch light on. 

It’s Lance. Seven years later and it’s Lance, standing at the door looking bigger and broader than the seventeen year old in his memories. They stare at each other in silence for who knows how long, and Luis can’t choose between the rush of relief he feels that’s making his legs weak and the hot anger that simmers under his skin. Lance, who thinks he can come home after seven years without saying a word to anyone. Lance, who’s staring at him with his big round hopeful eyes, a smile tugging at his lips. 

“So can I come in or…” He says, and it's so painfully him that Luis can't help the noise that tears past his throat. He throws himself at Lance, and for a second he flinches like he’s about to get punched, and Luis feels guilty that it was one of the options he was thinking of. The hug releases the tension from them both, and he starts to feel Lance shake from where his face is buried in Luis’ neck. 

“You came home.” He says, and Lance is nodding frantically, grip tightening. They stand there for minutes or hours, it’s hard to tell. 

He tries to take in his brother. His little brother who’s six inches taller, maybe that much broader, too. His hair is cropped shorter than he last saw him, but he still smells the same, still feels the same in his arms, and for now that's all that matters. 

They make their way into the house quietly, shuffling around in the dark until they reach the kitchen. He pours Lance a glass of water, and watches as he gulps it down. Luis has so many questions for him, but there’s an exhaustion radiating off Lance he never thought his little brother capable of, so he stays quiet. It's easier to see him in the glow of the kitchen. There’s a scar cutting across his left eyebrow, his face has matured, no longer the teenager whose face haunted him in his nightmares. 

“Say something,” Lance says, finally. It’s timid, and both too loud and too quiet for the silence of the kitchen.

“I don’t know what to say,” Luis admits. There’s too much to say, and yet nothing at all. Lance left them without a word, and now comes home just as silently. He’s so angry, at Lance for leaving, and at himself for being mad now that Lance has finally come home. 

Lance nods in understanding, taking another long drag of his water before clearing his throat. “I swear I’ll explain everything,” he puts the glass in the sink. 

“Let's talk in the morning,” Luis blurts, and Lance nods. He wants to hear what Lance has to say, but looking at him right now feels strange and wrong somehow, and he would rather he get some sleep before he says something he regrets. 

He leads Lance back to his room, untouched for the past seven years except for the way it had been cleaned deeply, around four months into his disappearance when their mother was convinced he would be returning any second. Lance sets himself on the bed, opening his mouth as if to say something, but Luis walks out and shuts the door quickly.

Seven years ago, Lance went missing. The Garrison informs them of this a week after his disappearance. They never really got informed of the details, something to do with military confidentiality. All they know is that Lance had snuck out one night, got into a fight with some personnel dealing with some top secret mission, and promptly vanished. His family is immediately distraught at the news, and they spend months begging and pleading for the Garrison to tell them everything, anything. They refuse, firm on the stance that it’s none of their concern. Of course it is , they demand, but the Garrison remains tight lipped, insisting on their story that Lance was just some delinquent who ran away because he wasn’t good enough for the school. 

Two years after his disappearance, the Garrison reveals to them footage of that night, and he sees his little brother breaking into a facility in the middle of the desert, accompanied by two of his friends. The footage shows them disappearing into the building, and emerging with two other figures. Takashi Shirogane and Keith Kogane, the Garrison explains, the missing captain and a temperamental dropout. His little brother takes off on the dropout's hoverbike, and promptly disappears into the desert. That's the last anyone sees of them. 

Following the release of the footage, his family gets into contact with Lance’s friends’ families, who are equally in the dark and scared and confused. They remain in contact for about a year, before it’s clear their kids aren't coming back, and talking to each other is just another painful reminder of what they’ve lost. 

Lance’s family sends for a witch hunt for Keith Kogane, the boy who's responsible for everyone's disappearance. The investigation reveals a shack in the middle of the desert, already ransacked by the Garrison, with remnants of some psychotic prophecy charted out on a corkboard. The running theory suggests Kogane went crazy after his expulsion, and turned to conspiracies to occupy his time. He became manic, and Shirogane’s return spurred on his mania, leading him to kidnap the whole group. The theories differ from this point on. Some people think he killed them all and then ran away, others suggest the collapsed cave had something to do with it, perhaps a ritual or maybe an explosion of some kind. 

The disappearance of the Garrison kids becomes something of a conspiracy then, featured on podcasts and videos full of people speculating the real circumstances of them going missing. Luis himself was sent email after email, received call after call from eager eyed theorists for an interview of what he thinks happened. He shuts them all down. What happened, he says, is that my little brother is missing and I don’t have time to create fairy tales about it .

And just like that seven years pass. Lance turns eighteen, then nineteen, twenty, and then they stop counting, and at twenty four he comes home. 

Veronica is always the first one up, considering she’s actually got places to be unlike some people, mentally sneering at Marco who’s out of a job again . That’s why she nearly jumps out of her skin seeing Luis on the couch, wide awake. Upon closer inspection, it doesn’t look like he’s slept at all. 

“You look like shit,” She says, doubling the amount of coffee she’s making. Clearly someone needs it. She only turns to look at him when he doesn’t reply. He’s still staring off into space, not even acknowledging her. 

“Hey, you ok?” She makes her way to him, nudging his shoulder. He finally breaks out of the trance he’s in, meeting her eyes with his own bloodshot ones. 

“Um”, he says unintelligibly. She quirks an eyebrow, and watches basically every emotion wash over his face. “I have to tell you someth-” 

A shout startles them both, and suddenly Maria is running into the kitchen, tears running down her face. Veronica wrangles her niece in, crouching down to the five year old’s level. 

“What’s happened? Are you okay?” 

Maria is blubbering something, as a crash resounds from Lance’s room. Luis is running both hands down his face hard, cursing in what he might think is a whisper but it shocks Maria into silence. 

“I went to uncle Lance’s room to say hi but there’s a scary man in there” She hiccups, turning her big brown eyes fearfully in the direction of the hall. Veronicas about to run down the hall right as the aforementioned scary man himself barrels into the kitchen, hands up in surrender. 

“I didn't mean to scare her!” He announces, and all Veronica can do is stare, mouth agape. 

It's Lance, his hair sticks up the same as it used to, and there's a pillow crease on his right cheek like there always is this early in the morning. And its Lance . And he's home, running after his niece after scaring the shit out of her. 

“What…” She trails off, looking between the sheepish look on Lance’s face and the resigned one on Luis’.

The four of them are sitting on the couch, each cradling a mug of coffee.

“Where’s mom and pop-pop?” Lance says, and then takes a sip out of his mug, shielding his face. 

“Mom’s with Lisa in the hospital,” Veronica pauses. “Pop-pop died two years ago,” she adds, quieter. 

“Oh.” 

They sit in silence again. She knows she should be elated to see her brother again, but there’s an unfamiliar grown man on her couch when all she wants is to see her teenage little brother again.

“I'm sorry,” Lance offers, and Luis scoffs from the other end of the couch. 

“Sorry for not being there when he died, or for vanishing in the middle of the night and letting us think you were dead for seven years?” He says, venomously. It’s a complete one-eighty from the zombie Veronica saw on the couch just a few minutes ago. She should reprimand him, but it’s a hurt she can sympathize with, and frankly, she was thinking the same. 

“Both,” Lance says quietly. He’s refusing to meet either of their eyes. “I’m sorry I couldn’t say bye. I’m sorry I missed so much,” He says, gesturing to where Maria is tucked into her father’s side. 

They’re doing this wrong, Veronica thinks vaguely. They should be asking him where he’s been, what he was up to. They should be hugging and crying, and the solemn mood should come later, after they've told him how happy they are to see him again. She knows, realistically, that this must be just as hard for him, they're just as foreign to him now the way he is to them. He’s sitting impossibly straight, she notices, like he’s strung up, like he feels threatened in his own home. She takes in her own expression, and the way Luis is glaring, arms crossed, and her heart breaks a little more. 

The silence drags on, and eventually it becomes too much for Maria, and she wiggles out from under Luis’ arm, and walks towards where Lance is sitting. 

“Are you really Uncle Lance?” She says suspiciously, looking him up and down. Lance glances between her and Luis, before looking at her earnest face and nodding. 

“Yeah, but I don't think we’ve met before,” he tries for a lighthearted tone, but Veronica hears the waver in his voice, the way his eyes are taking in his niece. 

“I’m five,” is what Maria deems an acceptable answer, and Lance nods like he gets it. Maybe he does. Maybe he understands the gravity of the time that’s passed, the moments he’s missed out on. 

Maria considers him for a moment, and she must see what she was looking before, because she’s clambering into Lance’s lap and bringing him in for a hug. “Papa missed you,” she says, and whatever else she says is lost to the sob that breaks out of Lance’s chest. 

Lance has been home for three days now. It took some time getting Nadia and Silvio to get used to his presence, considering how young they had been when he left. They had to call Marco and Rachel back from the city, and they’d flown in as quickly as they could. Their mother had been inconsolable for a full day, refusing to let him out of her sight until she could be convinced he wasn’t going to slip away again. 

It feels almost natural having Lance back, as if he never left. He’s still Lance, he cracks bad jokes constantly, and he falls back into the chore routine like he’s just visiting for the summer from the Garrison. 

Except that’s not really true, because Lance is a different person now, and he hasn’t said much on where he’s been other than “in space”, and he’s constantly checking what Luis can only assume is a high tech phone. Luis finds him awake on the couch most nights, staring at that glowing translucent screen as if it holds the secrets of the universe. 

On the morning of the fourth day, Luis finally cracks, slapping his palm onto the dining table as they’re all crammed together eating breakfast. Maria jolts from where she’s sat in Lance’s lap, pancake halfway to her mouth off of the plate Lance hasn’t touched at all. 

“You can’t keep refusing to tell us where you’ve been, Lance. Seven years of radio silence and you don’t think we deserve an explanation?” He demands, and his mother is reaching out to him to reprimand him but Lance cuts her off. 

“You’re right,” he clears his throat, “it's easier if I just show you”. 

He pulls out the alien phone and clicks a few buttons. A projection appears above their table, a picture of a giant castle, gleaming white on a foreign earth. Maria claps excitedly and Nadia and Silvio let out a quiet “woah.”

“This is the Castle of Lions,” he says, and then swipes. A photo of five giant mechanical lions, the only reference for scale is Lance at the feet of the blue one, barely as tall as one of her claws. He starts talking about magical lions on a distant planet, how he was swept off of Earth all of those years ago for a destiny he stumbles over explaining. A few more scrolls, the lions up close, Lance inside the blue one, Lance suited up in armor. 

It’s a lot to process, and Luis is almost convinced it’s some psychosis Lance has talked himself into to distract himself from wherever he was taken to. He's showing them scenery of distant lands, and selfies that feature the other missing kids, Hunk and Pidge, if Luis is remembering correctly. There’s images of ships and technology that feel straight out of a TV show, along with photos of aliens that look nothing like the ones humans could have come up with. It's all unbelievable, despite his photographic proof. Unbelievable and still not really any sort of explanation. 

One of the photos features two new figures, clearly not human. A tall elegant woman with white hair and marks under her eyes, ears pointed, next to her a man with a shock of orange hair. It's unsettling how human they look. Lance’s eyes have never been brighter these past four days than when looking at them.

“This is Allura and Coran,” he says, “She's a princess, and Coran's her royal advisor.” He says, like that means anything.

“A princess? Of where?” Maria adds excitedly. 

Lance scratches at the back of his neck. “Um,” The table stares back at him expectantly. 

“A planet really far from here,” He says to her. “It doesn't exist anymore, not really. That's um, that's why we got dragged into space in the first place. The lions belong to her and she needed to avenge her home.” He says to the rest of the table.

“Avenge it?” Luis says. “What, like a superhero?”

“Sort of,” he shrugs.

Luis knows he should press, but he's got so many questions he doesn't know which one should go first. 

“Well what about the other people, Shirogane and Kogane?” He asks. Those two are the only ones not featured in Lance's story, and it feels suspicious.

“You know Keith?” He asks, eyes wide. There’s something in his voice that suggests something more than general curiosity that he can't put his finger on. Veronica scoffs.

“Yeah, we all watched the footage of him kidnapping you” She says. 

“Kidnapped?” Lance splutters. “I Just told you how we ended up in space. No one got kidnapped!”

Veronica nods, “yeah well, for the past seven years he was our only lead. The running theory was that he took all of you somewhere and killed you.” 

Lance’s eyes widened further. “Killed- wait, Killed us?” he exclaims. He shuffles around on his phone again, this time pulling up a photo of Shirogane and Kogane, both engaging in what looks like a sparring session, unaware of the camera.

“Keith and Shiro were with us,” he says. “The five of us piloted the lions together.” 

“So…” Veronica coughs, “there wasn’t any foul play?” 

“No!” Lance huffs. 

“It’s not like we knew that Lance. We went off the information that we had. It’s not like you let us know where you went.” Luis spits, and Lance deflates. Luis would feel bad if not for the anger that’s starting to rear its head again. 

“I know. I know and I’m sorry,” Lance insists, and then he’s changing the subject, scrolling past the photo of the two to show them a creature that apparently recycles planets.

After that day it’s like a dam has burst, and now nearly every moment is filled with Lance adding anecdotes about a battle, or a vacation, or a parade. Once, Luis spills some scrambled eggs on the floor and Lance is shooting off about a time an enemy virus hacked the castle and sent the food machine in a shooting frenzy. 

He has his moments, though, where he’ll be talking about the other “paladins”, as he calls them, and he gets a little distant, a far away look in his eyes. It’s only for a brief moment, and then he’s shaking it off and continuing the conversation like nothing happened. He also makes a point to talk about all of his friends, and even occasionally a cow, but Luis notices that Keith hardly makes an appearance in Lance’s rants, and from what he can gather, Lance and him have a sort of animosity. Luis has never really liked Kogane, and while knowing he isn’t a crazy killer is reassuring, the way Lance skirts around him still makes him uneasy. 

It’s been two weeks now. Lance has adjusted well. As well as he can for someone who’s six inches too tall for his bed and reflexively reaches for his hip when there’s a particularly loud noise outside.

Veronica’s been studying her brother, the man he’s grown into. There’s pride, somewhere in the mix of emotions that threatens to choke her. If what he said about the war is true, then her brother’s a hero to billions, something that she can barely wrap her head around. His personality hasn’t changed much, and he talks as much as he used to, and smiles at nearly all times, but there’s a shadow of grief over him. It's clear in the way he takes the time to sit silently on the porch in the middle of the night, sighing up at the sky, his alien phone clutched in his grasp. In the way he spaces out at the table while eating, and leaves without taking a single bite if he’s feeling particularly troubled. There are also the scars. The most obvious being the one on his brow, but she’s caught glimpses of others littered around his torso and legs. The war story sounds more believable when she has proof like that. 

It's another restless night, and a particularly exciting story Lance told at dinner feels less heroic and more sickening the more she runs it through her brain. Something about a collapsing building and a target he could only dismantle from the inside. She doesn't know what's more frightening, Lance dying seven years ago on Earth or Lance dying somewhere off in space, unable to tell them.

She walks into the kitchen and flips the light on only to see Lance is already sitting at the table, by himself in the dark. His head snaps up with the light, showcasing his deep eyebags and red rimmed eyes. He gives her a sheepish smile and wave, any remnants of tears long since wiped away. She doesn't know how to navigate this new side of him. Back when he was still a student, late night tears were about his grades or a crush. Late night tears after you've been fighting a war for seven years is a whole different ballpark. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” She says. Selfishly, she wants him to say no, because she doesn’t know if she’ll have the right answers for whatever he's looking for, and she's not used to being so unprepared. The part of her who wants to be there for her brother though, gives him an expectant look, face earnest and open. 

“Why are you up right now?” He deflects, and Veronica feels both relieved and hurt. 

“Couldn't sleep,” she sits down at the table next to him, drumming her fingers on the polished wood. “You're not telling us something.” It comes out harsher than she means. 

Lance sighs, turning his head away from her. 

“I don't want to talk about it.” 

“Will you ever?” 

“Yeah,” he says, eyes darting to the phone laying blank on the tabletop, “eventually.” 

She knows this is all he's going to say for the rest of the night. His face gives away nothing, closed off, and it's hard to picture him as the same little brother who would tell her every detail of his life even when she begged him not to. 

She nods, and gets up from the table to brew some tea to help them both sleep, and after she's done setting the mug down in front of him she leaves, flipping the light back off, leaving him in the dark like he's done to them. 

A few more nights pass just like that. He acts normal all day and then the minute the sun sets and everyone’s gone to bed, he sits by himself and stares and stares at that phone. She doesn’t know what to think about it. He’s expecting something, a call or a text or whatever that device is capable of, and night after night, nothing. She can tell it eats away at him. His eyebags get darker, his conversations get shorter, his laughter less frequent. 

Worst of all, no matter how much she pushes, he never tells her. He avoids her questioning like the plague, and on especially worse nights he actually gets mad. 

It's one of those nights again. 

He’s sitting, head down on the table, when she walks into the room. She gives a cough to let him know she's there and his head shoots up off the table to give her a glare. 

“What?” He demands. 

Veronica shrugs, “I didn’t say anything.”

“You were about to.” 

“Would you answer if I actually asked this time?” It's his turn to shrug now. He’s not really angry. Maybe frustrated. With what, she doesn't know. 

“You’ve been home for a month now,” She says, “And the whole time your head has been somewhere else.” She settles into the chair nearest to him, hand on his shoulder. “Let us help you.”

“I-” He starts, and then there’s a buzzing. The phone on the table is glowing, and Lance grabs it faster than she can register. 

“Hello?” He says desperately, and the alien woman, Allura, is looking back at him. She starts talking to him in a language Veronica doesn’t recognize, and to her surprise he starts talking back in it. 

The conversation is frantic on his end, and composed on hers. It lasts only a few moments, but by the end of it he’s practically vibrating in his seat. The phone call ends with a rushed goodbye, and then he’s flying out of his seat.

“What? What is it?” Veronica demands. Lance is glancing around the room, but it doesn’t look like he’s really seeing anything, 

“I need to - I need to go.” He says, and he's making a move towards his room. 

She grabs him by the arm, and just barely manages not to get brushed off. 

“Lance what is it?” She presses, and he finally locks eyes with her. 

“I need to go back to the castle.”

Chapter Text

They were heading back to Earth. Everyone decided that given there was no Galra presence anywhere near the Milky Way, they could just go home quietly, staying off of the Garrison’s, or anyone’s radar using the cloaking tech embedded in all of their ships. Staying off of Earth radar also meant they couldn’t wormhole into the edge of the galaxy, and thus, the journey would take longer than they were actually capable of. 

They were still a ways away from Earth at the moment, but the anticipation on the ship was palpable, permeating the Castle’s old recycled air with a sense of excitement they haven't felt since maybe the first time they formed Voltron. Lance and Keith are lounging on the couch as they usually do since defeating the Empire. There really isn’t anything to do unless Keith’s being pulled around by The Blade, so lounging around seems like the most productive option. 

“You’re gonna love my family,” Lance reassures for the hundredth time, nudging Keith on the shoulder. “They’ll love you too.” But deep down Lance knows that there’s really no way of actually knowing that. Seven years is a long time, and he doesn’t know how much his family has changed without him. Would they even want to see him again? The son who abandoned them for a war that would have never affected them in the first place? 

Keith, sensing his distress, gives him a slight nudge back, “They love you too, Lance. They’ll be excited to see you again.” There’s not really much else to say after that, so they both bask in each other’s reassurances until Krolia is walking into the room, holopad in her hands. 

“Keith,” She says, then nods in Lance's direction, “Kolivan’s asking for us.”

Lance can feel Keith’s body tense just slightly. He’s only just been back from a different mission a few days ago. While Voltron had successfully dismantled the Empire, more distant planets separated from the coalition still needed some liberating, and The Blade had taken it upon themselves to help. And while that was great, it also meant that Keith was being taken away from the team more often than not, despite the fact that Voltron’s win should have been his victory, too. He deserved a break as much as the rest of them, but his sense of justice didn’t allow him to even hear a word about it from Lance. 

“When does he need us by?” Keith asks, already detangling from Lance’s arms. 

“As soon as possible,” She says, and then she nods a goodbye to Lance and walks out of the room.

Keith, hot on her trail, turns back to him. “I’ll see you soon,” and Lance, like an idiot, believes him. 

It’s been a few days since Keith’s departure, and none of the team has heard from him. While it’s never really unusual to get silence from his end when he’s on a Blade mission, it never really lasts this long, especially since he and Lance got involved a few years back.

Lance tries not to panic, but it’s difficult given Keith’s disposition to not care what happens to him. He’s anxiously pacing around in his room when Shiro slides his door open, eyes wide. 

“It’s Keith,” he says, looking panicked. Lance’s heart jumps to his throat.

“Is- is he back? Is he okay?” Lance says as they’re both running into the main room. 

“Lance it’s-” But Lance doesn’t hear him out for the rest of it, coming to a halt in the main room when he sees Krolia on the call screen. Just Krolia. 

She looks…well, she looks really unwell. Her typically impassive face is screwed up in panic, eyes wide. It doesn’t take long for Lance to register the amount of blood smeared across her armor, in her hair, across her forehead like she’s been wiping bloody hands across it. She’s breathing hard, like she’s been running, but he can tell she's in the cockpit of a ship. She’s panicking. 

“We’ll get to you as fast as we can,” Allura says. Coran is typing in coordinates into the system as Lance comes to a stop next to Allura. 

“Krolia what happened?” He demands, uncaring of the tone he’s using with Keith’s mother. 

“He’s hurt Lance,” She warbles out, “Badly.” Lance wants to comfort her, really, because he’s never seen her look this afraid, but the part of him that still resents her for the way Keith cries into him on hard nights doesn’t really care about how she’s feeling. 

“What happened?” He says again, and this time it sounds like an accusation. Allura puts a gentle hand on his arm, but he shrugs it off. 

“We were misinformed of the situation at the base,” She says, too distraught to acknowledge Lance’s blatant disrespect. Allura starts to open the wormhole. 

“We were caught off guard, the building was timed to explode and we didn’t know until it was too late. He shielded me.” The last part is a whisper, like she doesn’t really believe it happened. 

“We’re here,” Allura states, and Lance startles. He didn’t realize they had already jumped, Krolia’s cruiser visible from the front window. 

The next few moments are a blur. Krolia is docking into the hangar while Coran runs to the ship with a stretcher, and then they’re all sprinting to the med bay, Pidge, Matt, and Hunk prepping the pod. 

Keith looks bad. Like, really really bad. Lance can’t tear his eyes away from him the entire way to the pod. His eyes are closed, skin pale and face gaunt. He’s breathing, but barely. Small, shallow breaths that you could only really see if you were looking at him as hard as Lance is. 

And then there’s the blood. A steady plip plip plip on the floor marking the path they make though the castle. 

He’s covered in it from head to toe. His suit is practically shredded, hanging on by meager threads. It exposes the hundreds of cuts and lodged debris in his skin, and a large piece of metal deeply lodged into his side. The only part of his body undamaged by the blast is his face, which he must have buried into Krolia's body as he shielded her. 

The blood on his face is a remnant of the way Krolia's hands must have cradled him. He can imagine it, the way Keith’s blood would have soaked into the fabric of her gloves as she had to drag him to the ship, the way those bloodied hands would have cradled his face, soothed him, pushed his hair back, urged him with gentle hands to open his eyes, to stay with them. Lance almost feels jealous that her’s was the last face Keith would have seen, before he has to remind himself that Keith is right here and that he’s going to live. There’s no last, Lance has to remind himself, when it comes to the two of them. He won’t allow it.

Other than the steady breathing of the team, no one says a word as Coran ushers them into the med bay. It’s silent as they hook him up to the machines and peel out his suit from his wounds. It’s especially silent when they all realize each piece of metal needs to be removed before they can seal him into the pod. They’ll need to be okay with getting close to losing him before they can even try to save him. 

No one wants to say that he’s basically dead anyway, not when there’s the weak pulse still emanating from where he’s linked to the pod. The extractions take an excruciating amount of time. 

Each tug of metal sends a twitch through Keith’s body, and more blood spills out. Lance wants to scream, wants to tell them to stop, but he knows that realistically he can’t be put in the pod with the shrapnel still inside. Shiro’s got a hand on his shoulder, both of them useless in this situation, when Keith flatlines. 

Someone screams, he thinks it might have been him but he can't be sure, and then there’s a flurry of movement. Coran and Allura flock around Keith, and Lance doesn’t realize he’s thrashing until he registers Krolia holding him back. She’s using her size to her advantage, rendering his arms useless as he flails around trying to get purchase on the floor. He doesn’t even realize that he had tried to fight her until he registers the slight throbbing in his knuckles. 

“There’s nothing you can do, you’ll only just get in their way.” She says, firm, and anger flood him, hot and heavy.

“This is your fault.” He spits. Her arms falter for a moment and he takes it as a chance to break free. 

It’s not until he gets to the stretcher that he realizes that she was right. There really is nothing for him to do here. He never really picked up on anything but basic wound care in his seven years in space, and this wasn’t that. Krolia is right behind him when he takes a step back, bumping into her. He’s eerily calm now, and she doesn’t make a move to restrain him, the fight seemingly drained out of the both of them.  

It’s not easy but they manage it, and Lance finally comes back to himself when Keith’s face is shut behind the glass, heart rate back to a slow and steady beep. He can’t even remember what happened, how they got his heart beating again, and he can’t bring himself to care about the details at the moment. 

Krolia is being forced by Coran out of her own armor, then, to also be put into a pod. She too had taken heavy fire from the blast. Looking at her now, Lance can see that some of the blood is actually hers, likely from the places Keith hadn’t managed to cover. 

Once she’s also sealed away, the team heads out to wash up. There’s nothing they can do now but wait. 

Lance stays. Keith’s blood is drying on his hands, but it’s all he has of him right now, and he can’t part with it. 

He sits there for hours, maybe, before Hunk finds him. 

“Hey,” He says softly, sitting down next to Lance. Lance gives him a hum of acknowledgment. 

“He’ll be okay,” Hunk has an arm wrapped around Lance’s shoulder, despite the fact that he’s just washed up and Lance is still covered in blood. “You know how stubborn he is. He’ll be out in no time.” 

“He promised me he’d come home with me,” Lance says absentmindedly, monitoring the steady rise and fall of Keith’s chest through the glass. 

“He will.” Hunk says, but it doesn’t come across as confident as Lance knows Hunk meant. 

They remain there in silence for another moment before Hunk leans away. 

“I’ll watch him for a bit, how about you go get cleaned up,” He says unsubtly. The blood is flaking now, sprinkled around Lance's frame on the floor like snakeskin. 

Lance shakes his head. 

“You sure?” Hunk asks. Lance can appreciate when his friend can tell what’s going to be a losing battle. Hunk nods and stands up to head to the door. “Call me if you need me,” he says gently, before the door swishes softly behind him. 

He loses track of time again. By the time Shiro walks into the room, the Castle lights are dim, suggesting it’s been at least five or so hours since he saw Hunk. 

“Go get cleaned up Lance,” It’s not as gentle of a suggestion as Hunk’s, and it makes Lance look up at Shiro’s face. 

“Seriously, Lance. I’ll stay here, you go freshen up.” It’s an order, and unlike Hunk, Lance knows Shiro won’t take no for an answer. Lance sighs and stands up, dusting off more flakes of blood. Shiro doesn’t try to hide his grimace. 

Lance walks over to the door, and Shiro rests a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He doesn’t say anything else, just gives him a solid few pats and then he’s guiding Lance out of the door. 

It’s just him in the hallway, then. The gentle hum of the Castle accompanies him back to his room, where he slowly strips off his bloodstained clothes and climbs into the shower. 

He breathes in, out, as the water sends the rest of the blood swirling into the drain. Treacherous thoughts of having to go home alone run through his mind, before he has to remind himself that Keith is alive and well, just a little hurt. It’s nothing the pod can’t fix. 

He makes it a quick affair, eager to get back to Keith as fast as possible. Despite how little time he spent washing up, when he gets back there’s a bed set up next to Keith’s pod, blankets piled up to create padding and a pillow at the end facing the door. Shiro sits at the foot of it, and turns to greet Lance as he walks in. 

“Get some sleep,” he gestures towards the bed, and then stands to stretch. 

It’s the only exchange they have, and once Shiro is out of the room, Lance settles down into the middle of the heap of blankets. He grabs at the pillow to hold, and is surprised to find it smells like Keith, likely taken from his room. He knows he won't be able to sleep, so he remains sitting, arms full of Keith’s pillow.

Days pass, and Lance gets more restless as the pod remains closed. More days pass, and Lance doesn’t even register the state he’s in anymore. The other’s come and go, convince him to eat, but none of them are successful in getting him to leave the room for longer than a few minutes at a time. 

“Paladins,” an announcement cuts through the silence of the med bay, and Lance startles. Coran’s voice continues to carry through the ship. “Welcome home!” He exclaims, and for the first time since leaving, thinking of Earth fills him with dread. 

They force him into Blue. Shiro assures him that he’ll call when Keith wakes up, and that he should see his family. Lance wants to refuse, that he can wait for Keith to wake up, but they don’t hear him out, and instead they’re shoving him a duffel of his belongings and promising him that seeing his family will help. And then Blue is shutting her maw and flying out of the hangar towards home. 

“What do you mean ‘go back’?” Veronica demands. She’s had enough of being left in the dark, and the thought of her brother vanishing fills her with a dread worse than when the Garrison had announced his disappearance. “You just came back to us,” she pleads. 

Lance looks at her properly, eyes wide and shiny. “I’ll come back,” He says, “It’s just, I need to go back for a little while.” 

He’s rummaging around his room loudly, shoving clothes and what looks like a weapon into the duffel he had come home with. 

The commotion must have woken up the rest of the family, because they’re slowly filing into the room, bleary eyed and confused. 

“Lance, what’s this about leaving?” Their mother demands, and it gets Lance to pause. 

“It won't be for long,” and it sounds almost like he’s pleading. 

“What could be more important than us, Lance?” Luis has pushed his way past the kids to get closest to Lance. “What’s so important that you think you can just leave for a second time?” Lance flinches. 

“It won't be the same I promise, I just need to check on someone, and then I’ll be back,” Each passing moment has Lance more animated than Veronica thought possible, and she realizes slowly that the call was good news. If she thought these past weeks that her brother was happy when talking to them then she was clearly wrong, because the looks he’s giving them are radiating the most life she’s ever seen in him. 

She hesitates, then. Clearly, he can’t be stopped. Whoever called him must mean a lot to him, and all she ever really wants is for Lance to be happy. 

“Then I’m coming with you,” she decides, and Lance turns those big eyes to her. “If you’re not going to be gone long then take me with you, I want to be there too.” She states, and she knows her tone leaves no room for argument. Next to her, Luis nods. 

“I’m coming too.” He says. 

Lance hesitates, and seems to mull it over in his mind before nodding. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Veronica says, surprised. Because, yeah, she wasn’t going to take no for an answer, but she wasn’t expecting not to fight about it. 

“Yeah, okay,” Lance says, and he’s actually fully smiling. Veronica can’t help but think she’s so glad she didn’t try to stop him. 

They say rushed goodbyes to their family, hugging their mother and giving the kids kisses on the heads, and then Lance is leading them out of the house and towards the patch of forest behind their house. 

Anxiety creeps up on Veronica as Lance just keeps pulling them further into the trees. 

“Where exactly are you taking us?” She says, after they’ve been walking for around ten minutes. Luis grunts in agreement next to her. 

“You’ll see,” Lance says, and even though his back is turned she can hear the smile in his voice. 

Veronica really, really wants to hate the fact that Lance is so taken with whatever’s up there in space, but after all of these weeks it’s like she’s finally seeing her brother again. 

He leads them into a clearing after another ten minutes of walking. He stops abruptly, sending both Veronica and Luis crashing into his back. He doesn't even flinch. Instead, he's turning around towards them, and stretching his arms out wide. 

“Guys, meet Blue,” he says, and Veronica tries really hard not to question his sanity. The clearing is still empty, and she’s about to ask him if he’s actually feeling okay, before a light blue glint of light ripples behind Lance. It’s like the air around them suddenly warps, and then she’s looking at the leg of a giant robot. 

Blue, Veronica recalls vaguely from the time spent looking through the slideshow of pictures Lance showed them. Blue, the giant robot spaceship.  

Lance is laughing as he takes in the shock on their faces, and then the lion is lowering her head and opening her mouth. Lance bounds in quickly, and only turns around when he realizes he isn’t being followed. 

“We don't have time,” he urges, and then Veronica and Luis are clumsily piling in behind him. 

It's not that she thought Lance was lying about the whole space war thing. It was more like she had a healthy amount of doubt about it. Now there’s no doubt about it, she thinks, considering they’re flying in literal space at the moment. Luis and her are gripping onto the back of Lance’s seat, white knuckling through the fact that super advanced spaceships didn’t think to add additional seats in the cockpit. Lance hasn’t said much of anything after they took off, and it gives her a chance to take everything in. 

Her brother is expertly flying alien spacecraft. Her brother is flying said alien spacecraft to what she can assume is another alien spacecraft. Alien spacecraft. She stifles a snort, lost in how improbable this all seems. Luis shoots her a dirty look, and it’s clear that he’s not made for speed. She actually lets out a laugh, and it makes the dirty look even meaner. Lance continues to ignore them. 

Around half an hour into the flight, her hands relax, and she can finally let go and shake them out. Lance clearly knows how to steadily fly the thing, and there’s no way her hands will be able to manage that grip for however much longer it’s going to take for them to get to their destination. 

It’s probably another half hour until Luis breaks the silence.

“What the hell is that .” he says, and Lance startles like he’d forgotten they were even there. Veronica tries not to let it hurt her feelings. 

“That’s the Castle,” he says, and it comes out as a relieved sigh. It’s only another few moments before Lance is steering them towards the side of it, and a door opens up to allow the lion to fly in. Veronica only realizes she’s gripping the chair again when the whole machine comes to a stop. 

The head lowers and suddenly they’re walking down to the floor of the Castle. 

“Lance!” Exclaims a voice, and Veronica admonishes herself for forgetting the aliens name. She’s wracking her brain trying to remember what Lance had called the ginger man when she realizes Lance is talking about her and Luis. 

“These are my siblings,” he says, “take care of them,” and then he disappears out the door, leaving her and her brother alone with aliens, and upon closer observation, Takashi Shirogane tucked near the door. 

Veronica offers them a lame wave, while Luis is still staring at the door Lance vanished through. 

“Well!” The ginger exclaims, clapping his hands together, “I believe we’re in need of a tour, then!” And then she’s being dragged alongside her brother outside of the same door Lance just took. 

Luis is not an idiot, and he knows the man leading them around the ship is only doing it to buy Lance time for whatever it is they’re here for. They’re walking around yet another storage corridor when the intercom rings out. 

“Coran you’re needed in the control room,” a female voice says, and the man walking with them, Coran, perks up. 

“Well, it’s about time we head back!” He says, and then they’re walking back around the winding corridors until they're brought into a large room, windows lining the front with some sort of control panel facing towards them. 

They’re kind of forgotten at that point, with Coran walking over to talk to the princess. Luis turns to Veronica, who seems to be taking in the vastness of the room. 

Luis can appreciate how amazing the inside of the ship is, and had been during their tour, but that’s not really why they’re here now, is it?

Takashi Shirogane, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, approaches the two of them. 

“It’s nice to meet you both,” He extends his left arm out, “Lance has told us a lot about you.” There’s a friendly smile on his face, completely open and easygoing. 

Luis goes to shake his hand, while Veronica gapes at his right arm, a prosthetic that's attached by seemingly nothing, floating in the space his arm would be in. Luis will have to sort it away into the file of ‘things I can stop to think about later’. Right now he needs to find Lance. 

“Has he now?” He challenges, and the smile on Shiro’s face doesn’t even falter. 

“Lance has always been the one dreaming of home more than all of us,” He explains, “we learned a lot about you all through the years.” 

“Well his family’s here now,” Luis starts, “but Lance is apparently nowhere to be seen.” The rudeness in his tone snaps Veronica out of her reverie, and she nudges him in admonishment. 

Shiro for his part actually doesn’t falter at the words. Instead he just nods in agreement. 

“Here, I’ll take you to him.”

They’re led down another hall, which it seems that Coran purposely avoided. Shiro brings them to a halt outside of a door. 

“I’ll let him know you’re here.” He says pleasantly, and the door swishes open and shut after him. Luis catches a glimpse of Lance sitting near an elevated bed, another woman at his side before the gap closes shut. 

Just a moment later, the door opens again, and Shiro ushers them in. 

Lance doesn’t look up from where he’s sitting, but the woman with him does, and it makes Luis falter in his steps. 

She’s tall. Taller than Luis and definitely taller than Shiro. She’s not exactly broad, but her height makes her look it. Her skin is a light purple, with purple markings down the sides of her face. Her sclera are a shade of yellow, with irises a deep purple. The only features she has in common with Coran and the other girl are the long pointed ears and the vaguely humanesque face.  All in all, she’s intimidating, and it doesn’t help that she seems to be glaring them down. 

“Ah,” Shiro clears his throat. “This is Krolia. Krolia, this is Lance's sister, Veronica, and his brother Luis.” 

Krolia continues to stare them down, and doesn’t bother greeting them. She must get what she's looking for because she gives them a low hum before turning back to the figure Lance is hunched over. 

Which, right, they’re here for Lance. 

Lance, who is hunched over what Luis can now see is a body neatly tucked into white linens. For a second, Luis thinks it’s a dead body, before he remembers the excited way Lance was packing his bag back home. 

His brother finally turns to look at him, eyes watery but with a smile plastered on his face. 

“Luis, Veronica,” He says, squeezing the hand of the bedridden figure. “Meet Keith.”

Chapter Text

Truthfully, Krolia hasn't spoken to the Blue Paladin, Lance, she has to correct herself, since she'd gotten out of the pod. It was only a day or so since she was put in, and there he was, staring deep into Keith's pod, not even acknowledging her. And that was really the last she saw of him. They avoided each other, and then he'd gone to earth, and she had no reason to contact him since. 

Well, except for now. 

She was grateful for the arrival of his siblings, because he'd refused to look at her and she needed someone here to break the ice. 

Strangely enough, she has seen his siblings before. Even stranger, from a glimpse into her own future back when they were in the abyss. It was a fleeting image of them sitting around a table together, Krolia much older than she is now. It takes a moment of scrutiny to decide if they're even the right people, given how old everyone was in her memory, but she confirms it with a hum after a brief moment.

She turns back to Keith, then. He makes for a pitiful figure tucked into the bed. The hours before Lance’s arrival gave her some time alone with him. The panic directed towards his sleeping form felt much like the kind that she harbored during his birth. She was always checking him for his breathing, his heartbeat, making sure he could see her. It went beyond the curiosity of how a human hybrid could survive, and more into the territory of attachment she was raised to forget. It scared her. 

Lost in thought, she misses when Lance introduces Keith to his siblings. They don't really give much of a reaction, but she can't tell if she just hasn't picked up on it due to her own ineptitude for human expressions. 

They stew in silence longer, with the smile on Lance’s face faltering the longer it stretches. 

“Um,” he clears his throat, and then glances at Krolia. He looks timid, and it sends a wave of confusion through her to be given anything but his usual anger. “Did Coran give you guys a good tour?” He asks, diverting the attention away from Keith as his siblings continue to scrutinize him. 

It brings back Luis from his thoughts. “Yeah,” he says gruffly, crossing his arms. “Really good hallways in this place.” Krolia can’t tell if it’s a joke or a jab, but Lance seems to falter a bit more regardless. 

“Right, well,” Lance glances at the ticker mounted on the wall. “It’s bedtime.  I can ask Coran to take you to your rooms?” He suggests, but it comes across more like a demand. 

Veronica shifts uncomfortably. “I thought you said this would be quick. You want to spend the night?” 

Lance scratches the back of his neck sheepishly. “I wanted to wait until he woke up.” 

As if sensing them talking about him, Keith begins to stir, murmuring something unintelligible. Veronica and Luis flick their eyes back to him, both of their eyes narrowed. It stirs something uncomfortable in Krolia’s gut, so she moves abruptly, startling the three of them. 

“Lance, you go take them to their rooms. I’ll stay here.” She says curtly. Lance narrows his eyes at her. It maybe wasn’t the tone she meant to use on him after over a month of avoiding one another, and she can see the anger behind his eyes. However, he must also be feeling out of sorts with his siblings’ eyes on Keith so he stands up to lead them out of the room with a hesitant nod. 

“I’ll be back,” he says to the air while walking out of the room, and then Krolia is left alone with her son. Selfishly, she thinks this is the way it should be. 

Sure, things are super awkward with Krolia, and his own family, and maybe even with Shiro considering the disapproving look he sent Lance’s way for avoiding Krolia the way he has been. But, Lance thinks, Keith is awake. That’s all that really matters at the moment, so he can handle a little bit of awkwardness. 

“So this is what you’ve been hiding from us?” Or not. 

“Yeah, what gives, Lance?” Veronica joins in. 

“I wasn’t hiding anything!” Lance protests. “It just never came up.” He adds lamely. 

“Yeah, definitely never came up even once when we kept asking what was wrong.” Veronica scoffs. 

Lance bristles. He knows his family doesn’t know about Keith and him, he knows they can’t understand the complexities of his hurt, but he was hoping they’d give him some leeway. 

“It wasn’t something I felt comfortable sharing,” he says after a moment. It just makes his siblings angrier, by the way their faces contort. 

“We’re your family, Lance, you shouldn’t hide anything from us.” Luis says. “What’s so special about him that you couldn’t tell us?” 

The judgement coming off them is unfair. When he fantasized about coming back to Earth, he never considered that his family would have changed. Like he had. He expected them to understand. Clearly he was wrong. 

“You don’t know the half of it,” Lance starts, and sure, maybe he’s losing his cool. “What we’ve been through on this ship you’d never understand, and I don’t expect you to.” 

Veronica opens her mouth to say something but he cuts her off. “But these people up here are my family, and I’d expect you to understand that.” 

Honestly, he’s a little confused why this is a fight in the first place. But he’s standing here, angry, and his siblings are staring at him with hurt. 

“We were your family first, Lance. I would expect you to understand us too.” Veronica says, and then his siblings are walking away from him down the hall and out of sight. 

It only hits him a while later that he’s supposed to be their guide, and they definitely don’t know where they’re going. 

They’re definitely lost. Luis curses under his breath as they walk into another identical hall. 

“Maybe we could have fought him after he brought us to the room?” Veronica jokes, and Luis furrows his brow. 

The fight with Lance felt, in hindsight, completely useless. Sure he was mad at his little brother, but this was clearly something, someone, he cared about. But his own hurt clouded his rationality. Lance was their family. Sure he had spent the last seven years in space but he spent the seventeen years before that with them. Surely that would take precedence. But at the same time, what would Luis know about forming a telepathic bond with sentient lions and four other people.

“Luis,” Veronica says. He glances down at her. She’s looking at the end of the hall. The alien woman, Krolia, is leaning against the wall, arms crossed. Luis hadn’t even heard her approach while he was lost in thought. 

“The blue paladin was supposed to take you to your rooms.” she says. Luis avoids her eyes. It takes him a moment to realize she’s talking about Lance.

“We uh, had a disagreement.” Veronica supplies, also avoiding the alien’s gaze. She’s gripping onto the sleeve of Luis’ shirt quite unsubtly. 

“About Keith.” It’s not a question. She approaches them, and Luis tries to pretend like he’s definitely not afraid of the creature that towers over him. Veronica gives a faint nod. 

She’s looking down at them. It feels condescending. 

“How much has Lance told you about Keith?” She asks, and it takes Luis by surprise that the question is a lot more gentle than her previous statements. 

“Um, that they fought together in the war. That Keith discovered the Blue Lion.” Veronica looks up at Luis, and it’s almost funny how stressed she looks. 

“He said they were rivals, and that Keith got them into a lot of trouble.” Luis adds, and it was apparently the wrong thing to say because Krolia loses all of the relaxation Luis didn’t know she was displaying, and stiffens up, eyes narrowing. 

“Right.” She says, back to being curt. “Well, I'm sure you’ll be able to find your way back to your rooms.” and then she’s disappearing into the same hall she came from. 

“She was totally being petty, right?” Veronica asks, a little hysterical, still not over having spoken to a real life alien. 

(Coran didn’t count, he looked way too human, Luis justifies. A purple woman with yellow eyes and claws is just different .)

They end up wandering for another fifteen minutes before Coran himself finds them. He thinks it’s hilarious that they’ve been lost this whole time and leads them to a new wing of the Castle, with rooms lined up on each side. He gives them each their own, bids them a goodnight, and then leaves them to their own devices. 

Veronica ditches her room to follow Luis into his own. 

“Lance is definitely hiding something from us.” She says once the door slides shut behind her. Luis groans into his hands, running them over his face. 

“Obviously.”

“He doesn’t want to talk about it.” 

“Obviously.” 

Luis sits heavily onto the bed, immediately struck by how stiff it was. For all that the alien ship could do, clearly comfort wasn’t high on the list.

“What should we do?” Veronica sits next to him on the bed, wringing her hands together. “We can’t even ask him without us getting mad at each other,” she says sadly, eyes downcast. 

“I thought the month he’s spent with us would be enough time for him to open up to us, but he keeps hiding.” she’s slumped against his shoulder. Luis lies her down in the bed, patting her shoulder in what he hopes is a calming manner. 

“It’s not like he can avoid us in space together?” He suggests, getting a snort out of his sister. She sits up abruptly. 

“Holy shit. We’re in space!” She exclaims. Luis rolls her eyes. He can’t outwardly agree with the sentiment so he shoves her back down. 

“Get some sleep. Maybe he’ll be more willing to talk when he’s not running on zero sleep.” And then he’s shoving her over on the mattress and willing sleep to take him. 

She wakes up disoriented, forgetting where she is. The memory of last night slams into her. Lance getting a call from Allura, them taking off into space in a giant metal lion, talking to an actual real life purple alien. She startles seeing Luis already awake, sitting at the edge of the bed. 

“Did you even sleep?” Luis just grunts, shrugging his shoulders. 

Whatever he was about to say is disrupted by a knock on the door, Takashi Shirogane’s voice on the other side, telling them breakfast is ready. It’s so casual she can almost pretend she’s back home and it’s just a matter of walking to the kitchen instead of the large expansive halls of a giant spaceship. 

They freshen up, thankful that while the beds were prison worthy, the room was equipped with its own pristine bathroom. 

Shiro is waiting at the door when they pile out, and Veronica almost feels guilty they made him wait so long. 

“I thought I should take you to the kitchen. I forgot how confusing this place could be when it’s your first time,” He says warmly. 

He leads them down another identical hall, but Veronica actually recognizes the way from the tour they were given. They’re led into a bright room with a dining table and an abundance of chairs, and what seems to be a kitchen tucked into one of the sides. 

Coran, Allura, and Krolia are already at the table, divulging in what looks like a green pudding. 

“Where’s Lance?” Veronica asks. Shiro uses his prosthetic to scratch the back of his neck, and it seems weird seeing Lance’s nervous tick on someone who isn’t him. 

“Lance is in the infirmary, still. But don’t worry, we gave him some breakfast earlier.” Shiro reassures. 

The three of them sit at the table, Veronica and Luis taking the seats closest to Coran and furthest from Krolia. Shiro, on the other hand, sits right next to her. 

“Oh! My apologies,” Allura says out of nowhere. “I was so busy last night I forgot to introduce myself. I’m princess Allura,” 

She’s holding out a hopeful hand for them to shake. Veronica takes it. 

“So I’ve heard,” She handshake is firm, if not maybe a little too hard. “Lance has told us a lot about you, Princess.” 

“Only good things, I hope” The princess laughs lightly. Veronica thinks about the way Lance had talked about her on those days crowded around the dining table, his eyes twinkling with affection, and Veronica smirks. 

“Oh trust me, only good things.” She says, and is unsurprised by the Princesses faint blush as she gives another laugh. Oh there’s something there for her to talk to Lance about later when he’s not set on living in the infirmary.

Coran also gives a light chuckle, “Oh Lance’s affliction for the princess was of course the selling point for Voltron for many years.” He adds. 

Krolia gives a sharp cough from the other side of the table, and Coran gives her a sheepish smile. 

Weird, Veronica thinks. 

“Well, how about we give you guys some time to eat,” Shiro says, clapping his hands together. 

It’s an absolutely miserable meal. Veronica has never wanted to eat anything less in her life. The consistency was deceptively slimy, and it tasted like sadness and salt. If this was Lance’s diet for the past seven years, she thinks she can forgive his anger. Luis must think the same, because he’s taken about half a bite off his spoon. It’s genuinely surprising to look up and see that the other four have cleared their plates. 

Shiro laughs when he notices their hesitance. “Don’t worry,” He says. “You’ll get used to it.” And Veronica gets the sinking feeling she’s not going home today either. 

“I’ll take you to Lance.” Shiro says, putting his metal arm on Luis’ shoulder. 

He’s walking them down another increasingly familiar hall when he speaks again.

“Give them both some time,” he turns to look at them, eyes shining something fierce. “Lance is strong, and he’ll open up eventually. Just, please, give him some time.” And then he’s leaving them outside the med bay door. 

It’s hurtful, to hear someone talk about her brother to her like she’s the stranger, but his intentions were good, and she can work with that for now. 

The door slides open to the familiar sight of Lance hunched over the bed, except this time he seems to be rubbing something into the back of Keith’s hands. The smell hits them as they approach, something floral. 

Lance gives them a small smile, setting the other boy’s hands down to rest over his stomach. 

“Hey guys, how was breakfast?” Like there wasn’t a sleeping elephant in the room. Veronica snorts. 

“Awful.” 

Lance laughs a real genuine laugh. Affection blooms in her chest. 

“Oh it took me months to get used to that stuff.” Veronica worries for a moment that he’s insinuating that they’re going to be stuck here for months, before he speaks again. “You’re lucky you won’t be here that long.” 

“And how long are we going to stay here?” Luis asks, an eyebrow raised. 

Lance gestures to Keith. “I already told you, when he’s up.” 

Keith has to have some sort of unconscious sixth sense because he stirs again at the mention of himself, this time actually blinking awake. 

“Lance?” He says quietly, and Lance's head whips around so fast Veronica’s surprised she didn’t hear a crack. 

“Yeah, hey,” he says breathlessly. 

This means something monumental to him. She knows this, and her confusion is slowly being overtaken with clarity. 

“Why are you here?” Keith says, while Lance’s face falters for a moment. Veronica feels hurt on his behalf.  

Keith’s eyebrows furrow in confusion, head tilted like he’s facing a giant mystery.

“Why aren’t you with your family? You shouldn’t be here.” His voice is still nothing more than a hushed whisper, but Veronica hears it anyway, and silently agrees. 

At the same time, though, she feels a deep hurt at the statement. The second Lance received news about him he was packed up and ready to leave his family, who was Keith to suggest Lance should have stayed gone? 

(A voice in her head reminds her that she literally agrees with Keith, but the brief flash of hurt across her brother’s face makes her second guess it.) 

Keith shakes his head, and attempts to sit up. He eventually manages, with the guidance of Lance’s hands that haven't left his body even once. He’s wincing in pain, but refuses to lie down.

“How long was I- why are you- when.” 

Veronica can hardly understand the guy, and his confusion would be a little funny if the little hurt expression wasn’t still on Lance’s face. 

“Oh.” Keith says, and Veronica realizes it’s aimed at Luis and her. “Um.” He looks delirious again, and her eyes travel to the drip that’s been newly attached to the guy, not dissimilar to a drip you find at the hospital. Painkillers, maybe.

The hurt slides off of Lance’s face, replaced with mild amusement. “Yeah I uh, brought them up here with me. Don’t worry about my family, Keith.”

Ouch , Veronica almost voices out loud. She can tell Luis is about to say something equally as snappy before Lance shoots him a look. Keith’s eyes are sliding shut again, still sitting up, and Lance manages to push him back into lying down. 

“I’ll introduce you guys some more when you’re more awake,” Lance says affectionately, shooting Luis and her a far gentler smile than he’s managed the whole time they’ve been up here. Keith's eyes are fully shut now, and the look on Lance’s face is so open and affectionate Veronica’s struck dumb with it. 

She feels like an absolute idiot, and maybe a little insensitive for not having realized it sooner. Luis is shooting her confused glances, and he has to reel in the look she knows is on her face. 

“I thought you guys had healing pods,” Luis asks, breaking the silence of Keith slipping back into sleep. “Why is he hooked up to an IV?” Veronica nudges him for the insensitivity, knowing now what she assumed Luis still hasn’t picked up on. 

“He was. In a pod, I mean. He’s only been out of it since I got the call the other night.” He’s not looking at them, smoothing out the sheets tucked around the supine figure. 

“Is he okay?” Veronica asks stupidly. “I mean, he was in a pod so I can assume he wasn’t. But you said the pods heal you completely.” She backtracks. Except that’s also not entirely true, right? She’s seen the scars on Lance’s body, those clearly weren’t healed instantly. 

Lance is silent for a moment, looking as solemn for a moment as he did on his worst nights. 

“The pods do as much as they can, but sometimes we still need extra rest outside of them.” It’s the only explanation he provides them with, and Veronica lets it go. 

The rest of the day passes by similarly. Lance doesn’t leave the side of the bed, which can’t be healthy, and he also doesn’t join them for mealtimes, which definitely can't be healthy. Veronica can’t blame him, she barely manages a few spoonfuls of the green stuff before she’s rummaging through the bag she packed for a snack she knows she put in there. 

After mealtimes, her brother gets whisked away into conversations with Coran, and more often than not she’s left alone with Shiro and Allura. Krolia, it seems, wants to interact with them as little as possible, and considering that she’s terrifying to look at, Veronica really can’t complain. 

Allura and Shiro make good company, and they ease her into conversations about silly happenings on the ship and their missions. It’s only after dinner that she has the courage to bring up Keith, and what exactly happened to him. 

Shiro is the one who answers. Veronica recalls Lance mentioning their familial relationship and she winces, realizing it's a sore point for him too. 

“On our way back to Earth, Keith and Krolia continued going on missions. Maybe a week before we got back to Earth Keith got hurt pretty bad, he’s been in the pod since then. We promised to call Lance when he woke up.” 

“It's been a month since then!” Veronica gapes. Even when talking about his most heroic feats, Lance never mentioned anyone being in a pod longer than a handful of days. 

Shiro nods grimly. “It was hard on everyone, but Lance took it the hardest. It took a lot of convincing on our end to get him to actually go home.” 

He must see something on her face, because then he’s wincing. 

“I don’t mean it like that! Lance was so excited to go home, he would have regardless. He just needed some time.” He trails off the end of his sentence, and the lighthearted mood is gone. Technically her own fault, but Veronica wants to blame Keith for some reason. 

She never thought she’d be grateful for the arrival of the purple woman, but her entrance into the sitting room is as good of a distraction as any from the awkwardness in the room. 

“Krolia, is there something wrong?” Allura says, standing up from off the couch. 

“Kolivan has located the source of the information leak. We’re going to go after whoever did this to him.” She says, and Veronica doesn’t need the context to understand she means whoever did this to Keith . 

Allura’s demeanor changes, Veronica can see now how she was able to lead a war effort. 

“Should we tell Lance?” Shiro adds, unsure. 

Veronica hadn’t even thought about that. Lance cared about Keith, more than he led on, and knowing her brother he would throw himself headfirst into something like this.

Krolia also looks uncomfortable with the idea. “It’s my own fault, I should be the one to fix this.” She says resolutely. That explains how Lance is better at avoiding the woman more than Veronica herself is. 

The door closes loudly across the room, and Veronica's heart lurches. 

“It is your fault, which is why I can’t trust you to go alone.” Lance says. “I’m going too.”

Chapter Text

“You can’t be serious?” Veronica fumes. They’ve just got him back, he just got them back, how could he think of going on another mission?  She knows he cares about Keith, hell, with the way Lance was looking at him, even she was partial to caring about Keith. But knowing this is the same type of mission that got the other man killed, how could she be fine with Lance going? 

“She’s right. You need to stay here.” Krolia says, a placating hand out to him like he’s a wounded animal. “I’ll handle it.” 

“Like you handled the last one?” Lance scoffs. She’s never heard him use this tone with anyone before, and it makes her realize that maybe she’s never heard Lance ever be properly angry. Sure he’s been frustrated or annoyed before, but never anything like this. She almost feels bad for Krolia. 

Shiro tries to put a hand on Lance's shoulder, trying to soothe him. “Lance, maybe it would be better if you stayed here? Looked after him?” Lance narrows his eyes and shrugs him off, gaze calculating. 

“You don't think I’ll be able to keep my head in the mission?” He accuses, this time fully directing his venom at Shiro. Veronica feels like she should say something, do something. He’s her little brother, it feels like she should have some sort of responsibility in the situation. Except, despite her instigating it, it's obvious she’s no longer a player in this conversation. 

She can see the gears in Shiro’s mind turning as he tries to think of what to say next. She would hate to be in his position, Lance has always had a one track mind when it came to the things he was passionate about. “That’s not what I said,” Shiro starts. “Keith needs you here more than he needs you out there.” 

Lance scoffs, mouth opening for no doubt another scathing remark, when the door opens to reveal Luis and Coran. Veronica bites back a groan. If things weren’t going to shit already they certainly were now. 

“What are you guys talking about?” Luis says, and out of the corner of her eye she can see Lance bracing himself for another fight. 

She really should say something, but strangely, she’s curious to see how this plays out. Which way will Lance go? Would his magical bond with these aliens precede the family he abandoned years ago? 

“I have received a tip for a mission and will be leaving soon.” Krolia says carefully. She’s trying to meet Luis’ eyes as she says this. A valiant effort considering he’s avoiding looking in her general direction. 

“And I-”

“And Lance will be staying here.” Krolia cuts him, still looking at Luis. 

“Right…” Her older brother says, casting a dubious glance around the room. His eyes lock onto hers and she desperately tries to silently convey that this isn’t going to be a fight he’s going to win. 

“Why does everyone suddenly think I’m not capable of going on this mission?” Lance exclaims. Veronica wants to comfort him, but the hurt of being potentially left again stops her. 

“No one is saying that,” Shiro tries, again. “We need someone with a level head to take this,” He places both hands on lances shoulders, gaze firm. “And when it comes to Keith, that’s not going to be you.” He tries for a more lighthearted tone on that last part, and the implications of that reinforce what Veronica already knows. She can feel in her gut that it’s exactly why nothing is about to stop her little brother right now. 

Luis is sauntering up to Lance now, despite the growing frustration Veronica can see brewing. “So you’re telling me,” he says gruffly, “that you’re going to leave us.” Veronica lets out a heavy sigh. “And for Kogane again, no less.” Veronica knows he’s thinking about that footage they were shown five years ago. Lance following Keith and disappearing seemingly forever.. Luis had obsessed over that footage for months, trying to find any piece of evidence that would suggest where they’d gone. 

“What is that supposed to mean?” Krolia interjects, making her way into Luis’ space, blocking Lance from his line of sight. Despite his best efforts to make eye contact with the woman, she can see fear reflected in Luis’ eyes. 

“Everyone!” Allura claps her hands together. “Let’s all discuss this calmly. Nothing good will come out of a fight.” Krolia relaxes, sends a quick glance Lance’s way, and haughtily moves to the side. 

Realistically, Veronica knows the outcome of this is going to be that Lance will go on this mission. She doesn’t know exactly what they are to one another, but there’s clearly a deep affection between Lance and Keith, or at least on Lance’s end. It must not be a secret considering Shiro’s statement. 

Lance deflates, shoulders slumping. It’s as if all the fight’s been drained out of him. “Just let me do this for him. For myself.” He says quietly, eyes firm on Shiro. Veronica doesn’t know Shiro well, or like, at all, but even she knows that no one on this planet (er, well, semantics) could possibly be immune to that pitiful, heartfelt statement.

“Lance, you can’t be serious right now.” No one but her idiot older brother. Veronica slumps back down on the couch, head in her hands. 

It’s so confusing. She wants so badly to hate this ship, these people, Keith. Maybe even Lance. But her little brother has never sounded this desperate. Not since a decade ago when he was trying to convince them to let him join the Garrison. It seems laughable, now, how scared they were to send him to a school a plane ticket away, considering the distance he’s gone since. Or perhaps it was justified then, that fear. Maybe if they rejected his pleading then, they wouldn't be in this situation now. 

Her brothers are getting into a proper argument now. Lance is being held back by Shiro, and Luis looks like he’s a second away from throwing hands. Allura has somehow made it to Veronica’s side. 

They’re arguing faster than she cares to keep up. Something about family, about duty and loyalty, about war and abandonment. It ultimately doesn't really matter. Luis is going to argue regardless of how he really feels, because he’s stubborn like that. And Lance. Well, this is a new side of Lance that Veronica hasn’t really seen. She can’t expect the teenage memory of her brother to match the man in front of her now. But she knows Lance isn’t the type to not get what he wants. She sinks her face lower into the palms of her hands. 

Keith wakes up to the sound of the Castle’s gentle humming and an argument echoing down the hall. It takes him a moment to remember what he’s doing, how he’s ended up in the med bay, before his mind slowly lets the memories seep back in. 

The explosion, protecting his m-Krolia, and then falling out of the pod and being in and out of sleep for the past few days. 

The argument is still lively, and he’s not really used to being alone during his moments of wakefulness, so he urges himself to get up. 

The IV is easy to take out, but his body sends sharp jolts of protest at his movement to sit up. Despite the pod’s efforts, it's like he can feel every single cut on his body like they’re fresh. By contrast, his head feels full of cotton, every sense dulled except for the pain. He sits up with a draw out groan, and steels himself for swinging his legs down off the bed. 

It’s slow progress, and by the time he’s standing he needs to clutch the drip for support, thankful for the wheels at the bottom that help him roll across the room to the door. His legs won’t stop quaking beneath him, and not for the first time does he wonder how long he’s been in the pod. 

Shiro and Krolia had been there when he first awoke, but both refused to answer any questions, and had insisted he needed more rest and more medical supervision. Between their silence and the way he could hardly stay awake, he got no answers.

Then, there was Lance, who for some reason was also there. Keith knows, because of the lack of Pidge and Hunk, that they’d made it to Earth while he was gone, so seeing Lance was a surprise. Lance, who had been there every time his eyes opened for the past two days, who wasn’t on Earth for some reason. Who had brought his family onto the ship.

The argument down the halls of the castle grabs at his attention again. 

Walking is slow and agonizing, and he silently curses himself for taking the IV out if he was going to walk with it anyway. It takes him about ten minutes to reach the common room, chest heaving and brow slick with sweat with the exertion. 

The scene that greets him is certainly something. Lance is being not so subtly held back by Shiro, his teeth bared and eyes angry. Keith follows his line of sight to see Lance’s brother on the receiving end of it. He’s stone faced, hands to his side clenched into fists. On the couch is Lance’s sister (was it Rachel or Veronica? The fogginess of his mind has yet to settle), she’s got her head in her hands, with Allura's hand awkwardly hovering over her shoulder. Krolia and Coran stand together, off to the side but still close enough should they need to get involved. Keith can’t tell what they’re fighting about. Keith can already barely hear with the way his head is throbbing, and it doesn’t help that the two of them are barely letting each other talk. 

Allura spots him by the entrance first, with a small exclamation of “Keith”, and suddenly seven sets of eyes are on him. He tries not to tense up, and manages a quick hello, except his throat is smarting and is drier than he thought, so it comes out more like a croak. Lance seems to forget all about the fight, and Shiro's hands easily slide off as Lance reorients himself towards Keith.

Lance’s body has lost all of its tension as he approaches him. “What are you doing out of bed, you’re still hurt you idiot.” He says, gently taking hold of his aching arms. Lance leads him to the couch. Despite how far Lance has seated him away from them, Keith can still feel his sister’s eyes boring into the side of his head. 

“I heard yelling.” He says, when he’s finally caught his breath from the walk over. 

The silence that follows is awkward, to say the least. He raises an eyebrow, staring at Lance’s face. Lance, expecting this, is looking anywhere but Keith, but considering his fight was with everyone else, his gaze seems to flit awkwardly around the room. 

“What happened?” He asks Shiro, who might be his best option at getting answers. 

His brother heaves out a sigh, and Keith can tell he’s holding himself back from dragging a dramatic hand down his face. “Kolivan has information on your last mission. We think we might have found out who was responsible for the information leak.” 

Which is entirely unhelpful when it comes to the fact that he asked about fighting, and he says as much. Shiro actually does his dramatic hand thing this time. 

“Krolia is going to be sent on the mission.” He says vaguely. If Keith wasn’t three seconds away from crashing into another nap he’d be way more irritated. All things considered, he just musters another curious glance at Lance, who huffs. 

“And so am I.” Lance says decisively. Lance’s sister lets out another groan that sounds suspiciously like here we go again . Keith's…confused, to be honest. 

“Why would you go?” He asks, “Shouldn’t I just go. I’m healed now, and It’d be better if I dealt with it.” Keith sends a glance towards Lance’s family, who are both giving him curious looks. 

“What! Why would you go?” Lance exclaims. “You literally just came out of the healing pod. You still need a cane to walk around!” He gestures wildly to the IV drip that Keith had forgotten to let go of. 

Keith scratches his cheek absentmindedly. “Um.” In his defense, he won’t need it to stand if he’s going to be piloting a ship.. 

Lance crosses his arms, serious. “You need time to recover, and I’m here now, so while you rest, Krolia and I can go and catch these bastards.” It makes sense. And it’s what would have happened usually if they were still running missions. But Keith can feel Lance’s siblings’ eyes on him, staring, disapproving. 

Keith makes eye contact with her, Veronica, he finally remembers. Her gaze is calm, but calculated. Sharp. It must run in the family. 

“Lance, I’m fine. I can do it. You have people waiting on you here.” Like, literally here. No longer the empty reassurance he would tack onto nights after a particularly rough battle. 

He’s embarrassed to realize the rest of the room is silently watching them both. An agreement that whatever fight went down Keith was going to be the one to resolve it. 

“It’s going to be dangerous. I can’t make you do that for me.” He puts his hand over Lance’s, trying to ignore the eyes on them. 

“You’re not making me do anything, Keith. I want to, for you.” The sentiment feels overused at this point between them. There’s no fight that wouldn’t be worth it for one another. Keith understands that. But it’s different when he can see the people waiting for Lance back home. 

Keith shakes his head, then reconsiders. “If you want to go so bad then I’ll join too,” he shrugs.

“No way!” 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”  Leave it to Lance and Shiro to partner against Keith when it’s least expected. 

He quiets his voice then, to make sure the rest of the room can’t hear. “Lance there’s no way your family is just gonna let you leave, you know that right?” 

Lance huffs. “Believe me, I know.” He’s holding Keith’s hand properly now, rubbing his thumbs over Keith’s knuckles. 

“So stay with them, Krolia and I will figure it out.”

“Keith let me do this for you. The quicker the mission goes, the faster we can go home. Together.” And, well, Keith can’t really argue with that. Before the accident, Keith had promised Lance that he would come with him to his parents house. It only made sense considering their relationship, and the fact that Krolia wasn’t exactly going to be touching down on Earth anytime soon. Lance was the closest Keith’s ever had to a family to look forward to on Earth, it was just obvious that’s where Keith was going to end up. 

Leave it to Keith to get into a fatal accident that would lead to Lance’s family hating him. Not exactly the type of first impression he was trying to make. 

“Okay.” Keith says, at a normal volume. Even if Lance wasn’t the only paladin on the ship right now, Keith would have only really trusted him for a mission like this anyway. 

“Okay what?” Luis says, snappish.

Lance doesn’t dignify him with an answer. Instead, he turns to Krolia. “What time do we depart?” 

“In three hours.” Keith raises an eyebrow in her direction, unsure for whose benefit she’s using Earth measurements. She ignores him. 

Lance gets up from his seat, and then helps Keith up, no doubt to lead him back to the med bay. It’s a pain in there, though, and too cold. By the time they’re out of the door, Keith is steering them to his room, Luis’ voice echoing down the hall behind them. 

“Seriously Lance?” Luis calls after them, but they’re long gone, the squeaking of the IV wheels somewhere distant. Luis turns to Shiro. He’s supposed to be their leader, right? “You’re just going to let him go, then?” 

Shiro shrugs, looking less apologetic than he should. 

Coran chimes in from the side, “Lance doesn’t like to admit it, but he usually lets Keith get the last word.” Allura somewhere to his side lets out a sound of agreement. 

Luis doesn’t really know what to make of that. Lance mentioned Keith being the leader at some point, and that he was ‘technically the right hand’, but Luis wouldn’t have guessed he was still sticking to that. 

“I’ll go prepare some supplies.” Krolia walks past him, and Luis can’t not stare. She levels him with a glare that sends shivers down his spine, and it seems unfair, considering he’s never done anything to her. 

Veronica finally gets up from where she sat herself down, and pulls on Luis’ arm. “We’re gonna go get ready for bed.” She says to the rest of the room, and then they’re following Krolia out the door. 

“Lance is leaving in a few hours and you want to go to bed?” Luis asks, and Veronica gives him an incredulous look. 

“No you idiot, we're going to spy on him.” 

Luis didn’t realize she already memorized the layout of the floor they were on, but she had successfully led them to what Luis recognized as the hall they emerged from that morning. 

“Wouldn’t they be in the med bay?” Luis asks, and she’s giving him another look that assures him she’s calling him stupid in her head. 

They wander aimlessly down the hall until they hear muffled voices from behind one of the doors. Veronica promptly sticks her ear to it, and ushers Luis to do the same. 

“What exactly do you think you’ll gain from this?” Luis hisses, but his sister just shushes him. 

They listen for a few moments, but the insulation of the castle is top notch, and all they hear are vague mumbles and the rise and fall of each of their voices. 

Fed up, Luis backs away, but Veronica stays, ear pressed against the cool metal. God knows what she expects to hear. 

Another beat and then the door is sliding open, Lance looking at them, unimpressed. 

“Uh.” Veronica provides, eloquently. Luis just levels him an equally unimpressed look from where he’s leaning against the adjacent wall. 

“The sound proofing isn’t two ways,” Lance crosses his arms. “Because, defense castle, and all.” Veronica sheepishly backs away. Inside the room, Luis can see Keith tucked into the bed, and he startles when he realizes he’s making eye contact with him. Luis averts his gaze. 

“I don’t want to fight about this anymore.” Lance continues. Luis can’t bring himself to agree, but it’s obvious that it’s not going to lead them anywhere productive. 

“I can have Shiro take you back to Earth before I head out.” Lance offers, and it takes Luis by surprise. 

“What do you mean? I thought we would just wait for you to get back?” Veronica says. Luis had assumed the same. 

“Look, I’m not sure how long it’s going to take me. Best case is only a few days, but even then I don’t think you want to be stuck in the Castle that long.” The door has slid shut behind him, but considering the new fact about soundproofing, Luis knows Keith must still be listening. 

“Best case is a few days?” Veronica exclaims. It makes sense, Luis thinks. A galactic war defeating one empire took seven whole years. Of course an infiltration mission would take a few days. The thought made him uneasy. 

“Luis you need to get back to your kids, Veronica I know you missed a few days of work.” Lance has his hands on his hips, and it looks so much like their mother when she’s scolding them that Luis’ stern facade almost cracks. 

He hates when Lance makes good points. He misses his children, and he does feel like kind of an ass for leaving his wife to take care of their newborn alone. “Fine, I’ll go back.” And then, just to be petty, “Should I ask Keith for his permission too?” 

Lance looks at him confused. “What are you talking about?” Veronica facepalms, and then the three of them are walking back to find Shiro. 

Arrangements are made quickly. Lance, for his mission, and Luis to get back home. Shiro seemed okay with making the journey, though Veronica thought it was odd that he himself had never actually gone back to Earth as far as she could tell. 

Shiro’s guiding them to a smaller ship to take them back, and Veronica has to stifle her laughter at Luis’ disappointment. He was totally expecting a ride in the black lion. 

Luis shuffles into it, and Shiro turns to her, expectantly, to follow. She stops short, by Lance's side. “I was kinda hoping to stay here. To wait until Lance gets back.” Lance shoots her a look. She ignores it, choosing to elbow him in the side instead. “He’s probably going to need some extra support bringing his special someone back home.” Lance's jaw drops, and she can see his ears turning red. That’s just an excuse though, Veronica is in space , and there’s no chance she’s going to miss out on talking to aliens for going back to work. 

“How did you- Shiro what did you say?” Shiro, bless him, looks surprised too. 

“I didn’t say anything, you said you were going to handle it.” 

Luis, sick of being out of earshot, walks back out of the ship, demanding to know what’s taking so long. 

It’s another few moments of explaining, and she convinces Luis to let her stay under the guise of making sure Lance actually comes back to them. Five more minutes of goodbyes, another ten of final diagnostics and then Shiro and Luis are leaving the hangar, leaving her and Lance alone. 

“Seriously, how did you know? Allura? Coran?” He’s grinning, though, and it warms her heart a bit, not like she’d admit it out loud. 

“I just have eyes, Lance.” And it gets him blushing again. Though, considering he’s accusing everyone on the ship for letting it slip, Veronica can confirm it’s more than a crush. The two of them are likely in a relationship. 

It’s not a far off concept. Lance has always been open talking about his crushes on both girls and boys. It’s just surprising he would choose Keith, of all people, considering his stories consisted mainly of their rivalry (so clearly one sided it was painful). She’s happy for them, if not dying for the details, but if she’s going to be spending another few days on the ship it’s nothing she can’t wheedle out of someone. 

Exactly three hours after the conversation in the common area, Lance declares that they’re ready to go, and the intercom chimes back. “Opening the wormhole.” 

She doesn’t have time to question it before the ship is moving. Outside the window, she can see them being pulled into exactly that. It’s only a few moments before they’re stable again, the view outside completely different. “Congrats, Veronica, you’re officially like, the eighth person to ever leave the Milky Way.” A dizzying concept, one she’ll have to geek out about later.

Lance is loading supplies into the Blue Lion with Krolia, then. Keith has joined them again, despite Lance’s protest. Veronica is baffled by how blind Luis was, because every interaction between the two oozes sap. It’s almost sickening, but Veronica needs to give credit where it’s due. They make a really cute couple. 

It’s unsurprising to see Keith give Lance a firm hug before he departs, but it is surprising to see Keith do the same with Krolia. It’s around a hundred times more award and the one he shared with Lance, and visibly more hesitant, but it happens nonetheless. Not for the first time, she questions their relationship. She could probably just ask, but it seems odd to do so. Lance finds it funny, at least, giving the spectacle a snort of laughter.

She’s close enough to the both of them that when they go in for a second hug, she hears Keith whisper into her brother's ear. “Don’t antagonize each other, please?” Her brother responds with a grumble, which has Keith leveling him a deadpan look. 

“Fine, I won't.” He concedes, hands up in surrender. Veronica has to stop herself from immediately asking for context. Keith gives the same look, albeit watered down, to Krolia, who only responds with a nod. 

And then the Lion is leaving the hangar, leaving Veronica alone with Keith. He’s just standing there, awkwardly, and it’s kind of endearing if she wasn’t a little concerned for his health. She motions for him to follow her out of the hangar, and he does, despite her not being the one who actually knows where to go. 

He breaks the silence a beat later. “Lance is good at what he does. You don’t need to be worried about the mission.” Veronica turns to look at him. He’s meeting her eyes head on. 

“I know. I just need to get used to the idea of it.” She admits, and Keith just nods. “Plus, I know nothing would stop him from doing this for you.” His eyes widen a fraction. Weirdly purple, Veronica is surprised she never noticed it before. 

“He told you?” 

“I figured it out myself.” She shrugs, and he seems to accept her answer. She’s feeling pretty smug about it, if she does say so herself. He reaches into his shirt collar, a flimsy black top that looks way too worn. She doesn’t question it, despite the action being a bit strange. But again, she hardly knows the guy. 

And then, as they’re still walking, from the corner of her eye she sees what he was reaching for. On top of his shirt, now, sits a thin metal chain, looped around his neck. Resting against his sternum, is a ring, glinting innocently at her. 

A secret boyfriend? No biggie. Perfect blackmail and teasing material. This? She’s going to have to kill her brother for hiding this the second he gets back from his stupid mission.

Chapter Text

Maybe she’s overthinking it. It could be a family heirloom that he coincidentally pulled out while talking about Lance. Plus, she’s never seen a ring anywhere on her brother. Not on his hand or around his neck. Though, she hasn’t really seen much of her brother without his shirt on. And if she had, she was too busy looking at the scars. She could have totally missed the necklace if his back was turned. Shit. 

Okay, she reasons. Maybe it’s a promise ring, and that's why it’s a necklace and not actually on his fingers. Or, maybe it’s something all of the paladins share, as a token of friendship or whatever. Except, she knows for a fact Shiro wasn’t wearing anything around his neck (sue her for looking), and Lance wouldn’t just fail to mention matching jewelry when he talked about the paladin bond. So, what if they’re engaged. Just engaged. Her brother wouldn't just get married without his family there, right? 

“Um.” Keith clears his throat, and she realizes they’ve already reached the hall with all of the rooms. When did that happen? “I’m just gonna” he jacks a thumb behind him towards his room, “bed, er-sleep.” His face is still as impassive as ever but she can see his ears getting redder in the dim lighting. At least Veronica’s crisis has gone unnoticed to him because of his own awkwardness. 

She gives him a casual shooing motion with her hands, and he takes the chance to quickly hobble away from her. And then she’s left alone in the hall. 

Despite her earlier bravado with Luis earlier, she only really memorized what hell they’d emerged from, not which room. This was clearly a mistake considering she’s now stuck looking down a hall of identical doors. The first door she opens, adjacent to Keith’s, is bare. The only thing that may insinuate someone stayed there was the rumpled sheets. The next three are similar. Bare, but the beds are at least made. Another door reveals an unkempt room, like someone was running around in a rush. The bed is bare, but there are spare parts littered across the room, like they’d fallen out of someone’s handfuls. For the most part, it all looks like trash. A few more empty rooms, and then one that’s actually lived in. The bed is made, but there are little trinkets purposely lining the desk and shelf, and laundered clothes placed on top of the bed. Shiro’s room, she figures, and quickly shuts the door. 

A few more rooms, and she’s about to give up before she actually gets to the one that her and her brother were sharing. She lets out a sigh of relief. She immediately goes for her bag and takes out a granola bar, which to her dismay, seems to be her last. 

She’s doomed herself to space pudding for however long it takes Lance to get back. She sits back with a groan. The prospect of that is so awful she’s almost tempted to ask Allura if it’s too late to send her back too. 

There’s a knock on the door. She debates calling out or just opening it before the choice is taken from her. The door slides open to reveal Allura. She’s brandishing a fresh set of sleep clothes. “I figured you’d need some. You weren’t exactly prepared to spend multiple days here.” Her smile is kind and inviting, and the stories of her famous diplomacy are making a lot of sense now. 

Veronica takes the offered clothes and holds them to her chest. She’s instructed to get changed and then report back to Allura in the common room. The phrasing makes Veronica laugh after Allura has let the door shut again. Take the princess out of the war meetings but the war meetings never leave her, or something like that. 

She finds Allura already lounging back, those holographic tablets in her hands displaying what looks to be a novel. It’s not in any language Veronica can recognize, and she’s taken back to the night Allura called Lance, both of them speaking a language that none have brought up again. 

It takes Allura another few moments to notice Veronica’s presence, and she does so with a jolt and then a sheepish smile. “Sorry, not going on missions recently has seemed to dull my senses.” Veronica doesn't know what to say to that, so she gives the other woman a casual shake of the head. “I was hoping I would get to know you better. I never actually anticipated getting to meet the Paladins’ family. It is a very exciting prospect.” She says once Veronica has settled next to her. 

And, that’s an interesting concept. She tries to think about it from Allura’s perspective. You spend the last seven years with a group of people and once the war is over you just have to accept you won’t see them again. It’s an uncomfortable thought, considering Veronica was an avid advocate for Lance to never return here. 

“How come?” She asks, but she can already anticipate the answer. 

“Well, for one, Humans don’t really know about life on other planets.” She says, and Veronica can’t help but let out a chuckle. The last month has been an insane mindfuck to say the least. “And,” Allura hesitates, looking over Veronica steadily, studying. “I wasn’t sure any of them would want to come back.” And isn’t that heartbreaking. Though, Allura still looks cheery enough. “Though, I guess I could never really get rid of Lance,” She jests, clearly sensing Veronica’s guilt. 

She takes the out. “Oh do tell me more about this infamous crush.” And the tale Allura tells of their first meeting is so different from Lance’s own recount that it has Veronica clutching her stomach in laughter. And then they’re sharing embarrassing stories about Lance’s crushes. 

Allura’s stories seem to go in chronological order, starting from herself to an alien rebel named Nyma to maybe another dozen alien names Veronica can’t be bothered to remember. Strangely enough, Keith isn’t mentioned, and she’s dying to ask. Before she gets the chance, Allura stifles a yawn in the middle of a story about Lance almost getting an alliance canceled because his flirting was seen as a proposition to fight, and then she’s clapping her hands together declaring it’s bedtime. 

Veronica tucks herself into bed with more questions than she knows what to do with. 

…

…

…

They’re two hours into the flight towards one of the less black hole-ey Marmora bases, and other than the back and forth with Kolivan about the map proof directions, neither he or Krolia have spoken. 

Lance considers ejecting himself out of the lion just to escape the awkwardness. 

The thing is, he doesn’t even hate Krolia. In fact, he really wants to get to know her better for Keith’s sake. It’s just that, in the moment, he was so angry and keyed up he took it out on the first person he could, and it just so happened to be Krolia. And then after that, it was just so easy to keep doing just that. He knows she probably feels guilty as shit about the whole thing, but it’s just so easy. 

He’s a level headed guy, it’s how he makes for the best shot in the universe and is one of the best choices to help Allura with diplomatic matters. Except maybe he - hate is too strong- aggressively disapproves of most of Krolia’s choices when it comes to Keith (abandoning him as a baby, ghosting him for twenty years, letting her magic knife guide him to an organization where self sacrificing seems to be a go-to choice, to name a few). His predisposition to disliking her choices may have clouded his judgement during recent events. 

In any case, the silence in the lion is too fucking awkward. There’s just the steady signature hum of all Altean machinery, and the taping of his fingers on the dash. He can see Krolia twitch out of the corner of his eye. 

There’s still another four hours until the rendezvous point. 

“Can you stop with the-” she lets out a deep sigh. “The tapping.” Another beat of silence. “Please?” 

It sounds so much like Keith that Lance almost chokes on a laugh. “Um, yeah, sorry.” 

More silence. 

Before sending him off, Keith had dragged him to the side and (not so) subtly told him to get along with Krolia. He’s not sure if anyone had filled Keith in on what happened while he was out, but even if no one had, he’d have to be blind to not notice the way Krolia and Lance had avoided one another in just the past two days alone. 

He hears Krolia’s throat click as she swallows. 

“I’ve seen them before.” Her voice seems too loud all of a sudden following the quiet. Lance turns to her inquisitively. “Your siblings.” She clarifies. 

It’s definitely not what he expected to hear. He knows Keith and her went through some freaky stuff in the Abyss, but neither of them were too keen on sharing much to Allura’s delight. Something about how knowing the future could doom their timeline. So naturally, any bit of information has him intrigued. 

“Really?” He says. She gives him a nod, far too formal for what the conversation is. It reminds him of Keith those first few times they’d gone on diplomatic missions, and he had no idea how to interact with any of the locals.

“In the Abyss. We were in your home on Earth, eating dinner together. That is all I saw.” Lance wonders if this is her attempt at closing the rift between the two of them, or about the obvious animosity between Lance and his own family. Either way, he’s almost overly touched at her attempt to reconcile with (console?) him. 

Krolia on Earth, with his family. He has to stop the idea from sending him into a spiral. One day in the future, his family quits being mad at him and accepts Keith and his alien mom into their family. It’s everything he’s hoping for and more, and he doesn’t know what to say back to her. He settles on giving her as sincere of a smile he can. She gives him a grimace back, which in Blade language might translate to a grin for all he knows. Finally, some of the tension bleeds out of the room. 

The rest of the flight is spent in a much more relaxed silence. She even lets him keep tapping. 

Kolivan is waiting for them in the hangar when they land. He’s just as intimidating as Lance remembers. All stocky frame and annoyingly impressive braid and face that hasn’t seen a smile even once. Lance had asked Keith once if he could braid it like Kolivan’s and Keith had given him a cold hard ‘over my dead body’. Thinking back on it,  that might have been less about the braid itself and more about ‘not trying to twin with your boss that might also have the hots for your mom’ thing. 

The debrief starts almost immediately, as they make their way to the command room. What Lance assumed was a simple ‘take one mole out’ mission is turning out to be ‘infiltrate a Galra base to discover a network of moles and also all of their blade intel to destroy it and them’ and while Lance is stoked to go on another mission after months of nothing, he’s starting to realize how long this is actually going to keep him away from Keith. From home. 

He has to swallow down a lump of anxiety. Krolia’s vision comes back to him, surprisingly soothing. He survives this, he gets home. All of them get home. 

The Galra base is a few more hours of travel, considering they couldn’t exactly wormhole anywhere near. For now, They’re going to check in with the Castle and give their final update before their communication is cut. Blue can’t go, it’s too conspicuous, so they’ll be needing to take the standard Galra cruisers so they can land it near the base and go undetected. It’s the logical conclusion, but it also means they wont have Blue to communicate, and the blade outfit being handed to Lance means that while he can contact the Blades, he won’t be able to talk to the Castle, or Keith. 

An hour later and they’re standing around the main console. The Blade uniform is well fitted. It’s flexible and breathable, and he can see why Keith used to practically live in it. And, if he’s being honest, just as hot on him as it is on Keith. Take that , says the part of his brain that’s still stuck in that rivalry. The normal part of his brain wonders if he’s going to be allowed to keep it. For…reasons. 

He takes a deep breath and readies himself for when the call connects. 

She blinks awake slowly, letting the sensations of the ship guide her into consciousness. The almost too-sterile smell. The weirdly smooth sheets. That persisting hum. 

She has no way to be able to tell the time here, but she can feel that it’s grossly early, seeing as how no one’s come to collect her for breakfast. It’s probably only been a handful of hours since she’s fallen asleep. Despite that, she crawls out of bed, depositing her feet into a set of fuzzy slippers Allura presented to her mid gossip session. They’re purple and designed to look like the lions, and maybe the best thing she’s ever seen, so. 

It’s surprising to see that lights on when she slips into the hallway. Even more so to hear distant talking. Following the wall, she makes it to the main room to find everyone gathered around a large projected screen that has yet to turn on. 

Allura, with her alien senses (probably), notices her first. “I was just about to get you! Lance has just arrived at the base and we are just about to connect the call.” She turns back around and continues tapping away at her screen. Veronica makes her way to where the other Humans have gathered. 

“Your brother wanted me to tell you that he’s going to explain the situation to your family,” Shiro tells her. He looks somewhere between friendly and uncomfortable. Veronica knows it’s going to be a hard conversation for Luis to have, and she’s silently grateful for the fact that it was her who stayed up here. She gives Shiro her best smile for ass’o’clock in the morning as a thanks. He couldn't have gotten here more than two hours ago, considering he was still out when she went to bed. Despite the journey, he looks wide awake. 

Keith, on the other hand, looks like he got dragged out of the wringer. His hair is mostly disheveled and clothes rumpled. While his body is half crumpled into Shiro, his eyes are surprisingly alert. He either hasn’t noticed Veronica’s arrival, or is pretending not to see her, as he doesn’t greet her. 

In his defense, it looks like the former. He’s absently nodding along to whatever Shiro’s talking to him about while one hand clenches and unclenches, the other fidgeting with his ring. His eyes keep darting between Shiro and the blank screen. 

His concern makes her feel good, in a way. That this whole time at least her brother had someone looking out for him, loving him, while she was too far away to do it herself. She wonders how much of that concern is also for Krolia. The two of them seemed strangely close. When Lance wasn’t hovering around him, Veronica’s willing to bet Krolia was. Not for the first time, she’s dying to know what their relationship is. Especially when it comes to how Lance’s relationship with Keith has clearly come in-between it. 

Lance very rarely talked about Keith. Or rather, he talked a lot about Keith’s war accomplishments and their rivalry, but he rarely mentioned their dynamic outside of that, or even anything personal about Keith. It makes sense now, looking back on it. Hard to talk about someone when they were on their deathbed billions of miles away. Lance never even mentioned the guy’s last name, let alone his relationship to an alien. 

She’s tempted to ask him right then and there. In her half conscious state she almost does, but then the call connects. 

Her jaw nearly drops. She’s so busy gawking at the alien that she hardly notices Lance and Krolia also in frame. This new guy takes extra-terrestrial to another level. He makes Krolia pass as human. He’s certainly humanoid, but his nose is flat and triangular like a cat, with small yellow eyes and a brow bone that turns into large bat-like ears. He’s covered in fur. The only human-like thing about him is a simple white braid that falls over his shoulder. 

She might’ve let out a noise that resembled “guh?”, but the room, thankfully, ignores her. 

He’s already started talking, details about the mission that seem to go over her head. Something about danger and stealth and infiltration and weapons. Her attention breaks away from the cat-faced alien when she hears Shiro quietly snort beside her. 

At first glance, Keith looks impassive, but upon closer inspection, there’s a blush high on his cheeks and his ears are nearly glowing. He’s staring right at Lance. Her brother’s wearing a new uniform, similar to Krolia's. She might have even seen a similar uniform on Keith from one of Lance’s slideshows. It’s form fitting and shows off how much bigger her brother’s gotten since his departure from Earth. 

The look on Keith’s face? Gross.

She resolutely tunes that out to focus on the debrief, biting back a smile. Shiro is still snickering under his breath. The debrief is not unlike the type she’d hear at the Garrison, stiff and formal and concise. What she can gather is that it’s a large scale operation, and something of this caliber on Earth might even count as a suicide mission. Considering the scale for this mission is the universe , it might just be another average day for them all. At least, that’s how Lance makes it seem when he chimes in. While his body language is lax and casual, his eyes are steely in a way she’s never seen before. 

Krolia takes a turn to talk, reassuring the mission will run smoothly in that even, monotone voice of hers. Strangely enough, it looks like she’s looking right at Veronica when she says this, despite them talking through a screen. Veronica gives her a steady nod, finding it easier to meet her eyes if it means she can avoid looking at the other guy.

Kolivan (she learns, after Allura finally says his name again for Veronica to catch), finishes up by clearing his throat and saying “well,” before pointedly looking at Keith (seriously, how are they doing that over a video?), and walking off screen. The other three also seem to take some sort of hint, and quickly move to shuffle out. It’s about to be only Keith and herself on this side of the call when Allura gently grabs at her to guide her out too. Veronica manages a quick wave bye at Lance before she’s in the hall. 

“Sorry,” Allura releases her once the door has slid shut. “They always do this for longer missions, we’ve learned to clear the room.” She says humorously. Her face is entirely fond, and it’s hard to tell if it's for one of them individually, or for their relationship as a whole. 

“Krolia gets to stay?” Veronica half asks, remembering how she had stayed in frame even after Kolivan left. 

Allura gives a thoughtful hum. “Her attachment to Keith is…” she says carefully, before giving her a look that’s almost guilty. “I’m afraid I never got the chance to know her well enough to ask her in detail.” She concludes, flashing her another sheepish smile. It’s vague enough that Veronica still has no answers. Allura is not so subtly dragging her away from eavesdropping distance, and she feels another swell of something seeing how committed these people are towards her brother. 

It’s a bit of a bummer that she doesn’t get to be nosy, but as she’s deposited near her room she feels grateful for the extra sleep she’s about to get. 

Everyone else has already cleared the room. But Krolia, clearly, has yet to catch one despite how many times they’ve done this. Surprising, considering even Kolivan’s started to understand where he wasn’t needed anymore. Then again, Krolia has very rarely understood Keith on just about anything. 

On the screen, Lance is whispering something to her, too quiet for the mic to catch. She looks grim for a moment before stepping away. Lance's eyes follow her as she walks, and only looks at him when she’s left the room. He lets out a huff of laughter. 

“So,” he says, and Keith is just out of it enough that he almost forgets to respond. Has the suit always fit everyone like that? 

“So.” Keith says back. It’s strange, seeing their roles reversed. Lance backlit in purple, Keith under the white fluorescents. Things between them since Keith got out of the pod have been…strange, to say the least. Lance was doting on him nonstop, and while Keith would usually deny the ministrations and pretend to not like it all, this time he used it like a tether. Lance’s hand keeping him place. Finally being off of the more intense medications left him reeling, both with phantom pain and a sense of confusion, like his body knew it shouldn’t be standing. Lance not being by his side leaves him feeling more unmoored than usual. 

And guilty, of course, that Lance has to leave Earth because of Keith’s mistakes. 

“I’ll be quick.” Lance promises, “Before your mullet can even hit your pillow tonight.” He’s smiling brightly, likely sensing Keith’s spiral. All he can do in response is scoff, hand subconsciously reaching up to the ends of his hair that now brush his collarbones. Lance hasn’t called it a mullet in ages, and the familiarity of it has his heart aching for some reason. It’s also entirely untrue, so.

He opens his mouth to say just that. “And before you say anything, yes I’ll get along with Krolia, no I won't fight her, and no, I won't ask her if she has a crush on Kolivan back.” Lance cuts him off. He’s been flighty and avoidant recently, about the elephant in the room, and it’s evident in the way they haven’t talked about it. About what happened to Keith. About why exactly Lance needs to be reminded not to fight with Krolia. But the clock is ticking and they don’t have much time before Lance needs to depart. 

“I was going to say I love you.” Keith can change the subject too, take that , Lance. “So clearly you’re not as good at reading my mind as you think you are.” Lance visibly softens. The smile he gives him is too guilty for it to just be about this conversation. 

“Oh. Well, then. I love you too.” 

Veronica is sitting in the kitchen when he gets there, glaring distastefully at the half eaten bowl of goo in front of her. He hesitates at the doorway, thankful that she hasn’t seen him yet. 

He doesn’t know how to talk to her. It doesn’t take having Galra senses to detect the tension between the siblings. Even worse to understand that it's because of him. The part of his brain that suspiciously sounds like Shiro tries to assure him that it’s no one's fault, but reality is that his own incompetence on that mission nearly cost him his life, and in turn soured something between Lance and his family members. 

He shifts on his feet, debating whether or not he should alert her of his presence, before a hand claps over his shoulder. “Good morning.” Shiro announces. Veronica’s head shoots up. 

“Oh, hi. How long have you been there?” She asks. Shiro turns to Keith with raised eyebrows, silently asking him the same. When it’s clear that Keith isn’t going to answer, he takes it upon himself. 

“Just got here. How is breakfast treating you?” He must’ve talked with Lance’s brother in quite some detail on their trip to be so casual with Veronica. Something akin to jealousy stirs in him. He needs to do better to try and get along with them for Lance’s sake. 

A memory pops into his head. From the Abyss. It’s unclear how much into the future it was, neither of them having aged much from their current selves. They were on Earth, visiting Lance’s family. Lance had knocked, and the door had swung open just as Keith squeezed his hand in reassurance. Lance’s brother opens the door, gives them a once over, and the door is shut in their faces . Keith’s stomach sours. That’s where the vision had ended. If that was in their near future then it made little sense to try to sweeten up his relationship with Veronica, considering the family would hate them anyway. 

“Keith, you with us?” Shiro says, squeezing his shoulder. Keith blinks. Veronica’s looking at him with an eyebrow up. He realizes he’s been staring at her this whole time. Heat flashes over his face. 

“Yeah, sorry. Thinking.” He says, shuffling over to the dispenser. 

“Don’t mind him,” Shiro assures Veronica. “Getting out of the pod after that long has probably left him a little loopy.” Keith resists the urge to roll his eyes at that. He’s just fine , thanks. His side, the traitor that it is, throbs faintly. 

The two behind him continue conversing silently. Probably about Luis’ journey back home. Keith really should be paying attention, but Shiro was right as much as he hates to admit. He’s had a hard time putting the events together in his mind through the pod induced haze. While it was easy to ignore when he had people hovering over him and about a thousand different medications in his system, Lance’s departure and his recovery means he had plenty of time to think about it. 

He can hardly remember the explosion, just bits and pieces of flashes of pain and a ringing in his ears. The journey to the Castle is entirely missing. Then there’s the moments of consciousness on his way to the pod. The mess of voices all talking over one another, the intense agony all over his body. The coldness in his fingers, around the edges of his mind. Then, that blissful, deep, all encompassing silence. And there it was, what he was trying fervently to ignore. 

He had died. 

And wasn’t that something? Lance didn’t want to talk about it, Krolia didn’t want to talk about it. Shiro hadn’t said a word. Coran hardly looked him in the eye since he woke up, and Allura talked to him like it never happened at all. It’s not like he was a stranger to the concept of dying. He almost did, at Naxela, and maybe before that during his blade trials, and maybe even before that back when he sequestered himself into a shack in the middle of nowhere where no one would ever find him. 

“Keith?” Keith blinks. Shiro’s at the table with Veronica. At some point he walked past him and grabbed breakfast. Keith is still standing in front of the dispenser. They’re staring at him now, Shiro with worry and Veronica with confusion. He can feel his breathing quicken, that phantom pain attaching to his limbs. 

He turns around and walks out of the kitchen, Shiro’s voice calling out after him. He remembers turning past one of the halls before everything goes dark.

Chapter Text

Keith’s retreating steps are oddly loud in the silence that follows Shiro’s call. 

“Should we go after him?” Veronica asks. Shiro shakes his head, sitting down with a sigh where he’d half stood up to go after Keith. 

“It’s probably best to leave him alone for a few minutes.” Despite his own words, he still looks ready to run after the guy at a moment's notice. Veronica nods along. Shiro would know best, probably. 

His relationship with Keith makes the most sense, despite how little she knew about it. Lance had only mentioned it occasionally, the most prominent instance being when he talked about that first day rescuing Shiro. After that were only offhand comments talking about how well Shiro and Keith had worked together because of their bond. 

She sneaks a glance down, the goo still sitting there, menacingly, only half eaten. She turns her attention back to Shiro. “What’s the plan for today?” She says, eyeing how he’s also now just toying with the few bites of goo left on his plate. 

He perks up a little, snapped out of his own head. “I’ve been meaning to call Pidge and Hunk, they wanted to talk to Keith when he woke up.” 

Veronica hums. It was easy to put the other paladins in the back of her mind. The less she had to think about the war, the better. She only feels a little bad, remembering Hunk from the few times he was featured in a video call from when Lance used to call home on the weekends. A sweet kid, hard to imagine him as a leg of a war machine. 

Shiro’s about to add something else too, before there’s a loud clang emanating from the hall. 

“Shit, Keith.” And he’s out of his seat, setting off into the hallway. Veronica shoves her goo inward, keen on abandoning it. 

Keith hadn’t even made it that far, really. Just a hall or two down. He’s lying prone on the floor, arms under his chest like he tried to catch himself. Shiro’s quick to grab him, immediately walking in the direction of the med bay. 

Veronica tries to keep up with his pace, surprisingly fast for someone carrying a grown man. From her angle, she can see Keith’s slack face. He looks impossibly young like this, compared to the angry set to his face any other time. His skin looks sickly, and weirdly enough, a little lilac under the Castle’s harsh lighting. 

Keith gets deposited back on the same bed she saw him in, with Coran somehow heavy on her heels. He’s taking Keith’s vitals instantly, a screen projecting readings she can’t even begin to decipher. 

“What’s wrong?” Shiro asks. Coran gives a light noise of acknowledgement. 

“According to this,” He gestures to the alien language, “nothing.” He comically strokes at his mustache, unbefitting of the situation. “Perhaps he just pushed himself too hard.” a pause. “Or maybe it was stress.” A look directed suspiciously in Veronica’s direction. 

She doesn’t have time to feel offended. 

“He was spacey all morning, and then ran out on us.” Shiro defends, oddly enough. Coran nods in acquiescence. 

“It’s best if we let number four sleep in, then.” He says cheerily, clapping a hand over Shiro’s shoulder.

“I’ll watch him, Coran. Thank you.” Shiro says, and Coran takes it as a dismissal. He gives Veronica a smile on the way out, shutting the door behind him. 

Shiro pulls up a chair, practically sagging into it. “I should have known he was feeling sick, he never gets spacey like that this long after a pod.” 

Weirdly enough, Veronica feels like comforting him. Lance was always a stubborn kid, and often pushed himself to his limits without anyone knowing about it. That meant things like continuing to swim for hours despite the cuts on the bottom of his feet, or staying up late to study for the Garrison entrance exam despite a raging case of the flu. He had fainted on the car ride to the testing center, to everyone's shock. No one had even known he had had a cold let alone a fever that day up until that moment. The memory blooms fondness in her chest as she sets her gaze on Keith. Maybe it was a little brother thing. 

“I get the feeling he’s not the type to tell you something like that.” She says, and Shiro lets out a huff of laughter. 

“You bet,” He says, smiling. It’s as good a chance as any to fish for more answers about Keith. 

“Lance tells me you knew each other before the whole Voltron thing?” She baits. 

He takes it. “A mentor program for the Garrison.” He says, and Veronica gestures for him to continue. “He was in middle school, and I think I imprinted on him like a duck.” Shiro laughs. 

“Not the other way around?” Veronica raises an eyebrow. 

“He didn’t want anything to do with me, even stole my car to try and scare me off. I couldn’t leave him alone after that.” He’s smiling fondly, smoothing his metal arm over the frame of the bed Keith’s in. Veronica can’t help but smile back. 

“Seems like a skill of his.” She comments, earning a cock of the head from Shiro. “Krolia also seems like she’s imprinted on him.” She says, testing the waters. 

Shiro’s eyes widen for a second, before his smile turns more hesitant. “Ah, well. Something like that.” She shouldn’t have mentioned it, clearly a sore subject for everyone involved. It makes her more curious, if that’s possible. She might just have to give in and ask Keith himself when he wakes up. 

She changes the subject. “I’ve been meaning to ask more about the alien stuff, is there anything I can read about all the planets you’ve been to?” Shiro looks almost appreciative of the subject change as Keith stirs. 

“You know what, I think Coran might have just the thing for you.” He says, a groggy Keith using his shoulder to leverage himself up. It’s not a dismissal, but she uses it as one, unsure if she should be there when Keith’s been feeling more vulnerable than usual. She’s only half serious about learning about aliens. While it would be cool as hell, it’s also going to be a lot of reading. 

It’ll also make the war feel real . More than just a story Lance concocted over dinner, or a few photos of happy civilians. 

She takes her time locating Coran.

The flight to the Galra base is tense, but more so now because of the impending pressure of a mission that needs to go well. They’ve gone over it about a million times already, but Krolia finds something new to nitpick about every five minutes, in typical Kogane fashion. (Did Keith’s parents ever even get married? Should Lance be referring to the two of them by Krolia’s last name instead? Does she even have one?) He shakes his head at the train of thought. 

“What is it?” Krolia asks, serious. 

Lance clears his throat, “Nothing.” 

She narrows his eyes at him. Despite looking so much like Keith’s, the Galra-ness of her sclera still unsettle him on occasion, especially if he’s already nervous about something. He turns his head back towards the dash. 

He’s grateful for her nitpicking, honestly. He needs to look at this from every angle. They can’t afford it for the mission to go wrong, not when Lance has an entire family actually waiting on him now. Not when he’s got that future to look forward to. 

Lance lounges back in his seat. He’s hoping his fake nonchalance gets Krolia to unwind a little too, but she remains high strung. The next hour is spent in a familiar silence (minus, of course, the nitpicking that’s reduced down to every twenty minutes). It’s not until the base is on their radar that Lance straightens out, palms suddenly sweating. 

What if he’s too out of practice? A month of sitting on his ass could get him killed at the moment. He had thrown a few practice shots around the Marmorite base for a bit, and while he was rusty at the start, it came back to him easily. What if it wasn't enough, though? He swallows thickly, cursing himself for psyching himself out last minute. 

Krolia has a hand on the back of his seat now, her other hand pointing at the base through the window. “The hangars near the back are used for waste disposal and faulty ships, we land there and we’ll go unnoticed.” She says, nearly word for word from the folder they’d both been given. 

Like planned, the docking goes unnoticed. Their entry is quiet, tucked away in an unused corner. Lance pulls up a map of the ship on his suits datapad, finding their entry point marked by a small purple dot. 

The main data center is on the upper decks, manned by actual Galra soldiers since creating droids was harder to do after the fall of the empire. Killing people is nothing new, of course, but while droids are repetitive and predictable, how actual soldiers fight can never be accurately guessed.

Lance scans the area. Six distinct lifeforms on the other side of the hangar. Their conversation carries across the room, and Lance catches snippets of the conversation. It’s not anything useful. It’s mundane, actually, which comes as a surprise considering they’re aboard one of the last fleets of a fallen empire. 

Krolia nudges him a bit, her own map pulled up. She points to a door on the far end of the room, next to the soldiers. It’s their only entrance to the rest of the ship minus the vents (an avenue they thoroughly thought about before realizing the Galra had too, and all of the vents were space mice sized). The soldiers will have to be dealt with quickly and quietly. 

Lance pulls out his bayard, and Krolia pulls out her blade, similar to the one she gave Keith. They share a quick nod with one another, and then separate. Krolia takes the left, Lance the right. His side of the room has less obstacles, making for a clearer shot, but it also leaves him more vulnerable to being seen. He moves quickly, ducking behind crates and ships when he can. The Marmora suit gives him an advantage that his paladin armor doesn’t, the lack of harder plates allowing his movement to be quieter than he’s used to. 

Across the room, he can spot Krolia moving around just as fast. Her position brings her closer to the soldiers. She gets in position, around twenty feet behind the one furthest from the door, and Lance transforms his bayard. He exposes himself to the soldiers, gun at the ready. 

“Hey, don’t move!” Says the one closest to Lance, and the other five snap their heads to his position. 

He breathes out, and pulls the trigger. The one who spoke is down, and Krolia uses his distraction as a chance to sweep across another two. She gets one of them in the throat, and brings down her blade to catch another in his stomach. Once he’s down she goes for his throat, too, making sure he’s not alive to alert anyone else. Lance takes down another as they’ve turned to look at Krolia. They’ve brought out their own guns now, but with only two of them left, it’s an easy finish. Krolia has the one closest to the door in a headlock, his weapon on the floor. Her blade makes quick work of him, and he falls to the floor in a heap. Lance has changed his bayard into something more close range, running at the remaining soldier and catching him straight in the head. 

It’s brutal but efficient, and if Lance lingers around their bodies too long he’s about to get existential. They hide the bodies easily enough, though the blood is a dead giveaway at what transpired. Lance gives Krolia a vague shrug when she eyes it for too long, and they make their way into the hall. 

It’s a short passageway, and empty. The map tells them they’re around six floors away from the main data storage. They can’t take the elevators undetected, but there aren’t exactly fire escapes on the ship. 

Lance can feel his breathing quicken, the adrenaline of fighting feeling foreign to him. Too much is at stake for him to start freaking out. Krolia lays a hand on his shoulder, eyes firm. She’s gesturing towards the main hall with her head. Lance nods in confirmation, and they make their way to where the hall splits. 

According to the mission plan, Lance is meant to take the left, and Krolia is meant to go right. The split up lets them cover more ground and communicate soldier movement to one another. Right before they make the split, she grabs him by the forearm. 

“Be careful.” She says, and it's less of a warning and more of a plea. There’s more emotion in those two words than Lance has ever heard directed at him (except, that's not entirely true, she had wavered those five weeks ago, too).  It takes him off guard. Realistically, he knows Krolia probably cares for him a little, even if it’s just residuals from her care for Keith. But the full force of it being said to his face throws him off, makes him feel more wary. 

“I always am.” He says, trying for a reassuring grin. He doesn’t know if it works, but she takes it anyway, giving him a final look before darting off in the other direction. 

Alone in the hall, he’s grateful for the darkness of the suit. The dim lighting of the halls lets him blend in with the walls. Though, he’s unsure how much the suit actually camouflages him, considering the dim lighting is an effect of their adeptness towards night vision. It’s reassuring nonetheless. The classic sharp contours of Galra architecture let him press himself into crevices when the need arises. 

Two soldiers side by side walk past him, likely doing their scheduled rounds. Kolivan had given them the guard schedule, and a quick glance at his screen tells him it’s too soon for them to be walking down this particular hall. 

Was the information wrong? What were the chances of that happening again? He feels the familiar prickles of anxiety at the back of his neck. 

“Krolia.” He mutters into their shared comms. “The guard schedule is off.” Her comms click on, and he hears the sound of struggle before she lets out a grunt. A body hits the floor. 

“I noticed.” 

Shit . Once was a shitty mishap, but twice is building a pattern. Whoever Kolivan got the ship details from is either outdated, or a mole. Troubling, considering that’s the guy they’re supposed to be looking for. 

“What should we do?” 

Krolia is silent for a beat, likely drawing the same conclusions he has. Lance decides for her. “Let’s continue with the plan for now, and if there’s more inconsistencies let’s regroup and figure something else out.” He proposes, and Krolia gives him an affirmative. 

He shuts the comm off to let himself heave a sigh. He should have known it wasn’t going to be this easy. If the mole has more inside men in the Blade, it’s only a matter of time before everything else falls apart. He gives himself another moment to breathe. It’s not like it matters much anyway, since their time schedule for the guards is inaccurate. 

As far as he can tell, the two of them are going to have to ditch the plan altogether, and figure something out on their own if they want this to go well. 

Despite her reluctance to actually read the (metaphorical) piles of translated text Coran gave her, she hasn’t been able to keep the screen down. Apparently, he’d been documenting Voltron’s missions from the start, outlining the entire war in excruciating detail. Where he got the time, who knows. 

They’re different from Lance’s stories, for sure. Where his were more theatrical and lighthearted, Coran accounts for all ships destroyed and all injuries sustained. She skims over battle tactics, not sure how relevant they are to what she’s looking for. 

The first year or so of his documentation has a lot of focus on the paladins themselves. He’s been through to include quirks of Human biology, all of which are wholly uninteresting to her. It’s not like she needs to know any of it anyway. 

Year three gets more interesting. Krolia, as Veronica pieces together, is a part of the Blade of Marmora, full entirely of people with Galran descent. She’s not mentioned in the document, but the uniform makes it obvious. While it explains her general purple-ness, it does little to explain her insistence to stick around the castle. It does make her feel bad to justify her unease around the woman as an effect of her being Galran, considering she just learned it, but she sticks with it. 

So, a few years into the Voltron gig, Keith elopes with a Galran faction of rebels. Interestingly, Coran hardly mentions Keith after that, and she can only assume it’s because they rarely saw him after that. 

Lance makes plenty of appearances in the records, and she has a sneaking suspicion that he might be the man’s favorite. Lance did this maneuver, Lance took down six droids with two shots, Lance effectively dissolved a political dispute using his unique charm at diplomacy. It’s all very flattering, and she’ll have to ask her brother if he knows about it when he gets back. 

A few months in and Keith reappears in the logs. Coran makes note to mention Krolia for the first time, now. She’s only part Galra, though that seems to be a trait for all of the Galra, something Coran credits to being a part of a ten thousand year old empire with no home planet. She arrives with Keith when he finally returns to the castle. The two had apparently been trapped on the back of a whale stuck in time, and spent two years together. 

She supposes that explains their closeness, then, and she’s tempted to just shut off the device then and there. She’s been reading for hours now. It is getting closer to lunch (or dinner? Maybe she should ask Coran for a clock). 

Rubbing her eyes, she exits her room, only to be mauled by a giant creature. 

She doesn’t really even have time to react before it’s being dragged off of her. 

“Kosmo,” It’s Keith, holding back what looks like a giant dog. He’s looking at it disapprovingly. “Sorry, he gets excited around new people.” He says this so casually, like he’s not holding off a literal alien creature from jumping on top of her. 

“Um.” She manages, tearing her eyes away from the thing’s face. By all accounts, it’s built like a dog, but its snout is elongated like the fuzzy kind of bat, and there’s a strange glow to its fur. That and it stands at more than half of her size. 

And then Keith is tugging on the back of the dog-Kosmo’s neck, and in a flash of blue light they’re just…gone. She would think she hallucinated the whole ordeal if not for the barking in the distance. She rubs at her eyes again. Coran definitely failed to mention a few things. 

Allura finds her still stunned in the hallway with a pleasant smile. “I heard you met Kosmo.” 

Veronica scratches at her cheek absentmindedly. “Mauled, is more the word I think.” She jokes. 

Allura nods in sympathy. “We had to put him with the Kaltenecker while Keith was healing, the poor thing missed him a lot.” She says unhelpfully. Veronica probes her with a huh?  

“Oh,” Allura clarifies, “Keith found him while in the abyss with Krolia,” she says. Veronica wonders if Allura knows she requested the documents from Coran or if she meant to be vague again. 

The two of them make their way to the kitchen, only to be greeted by Keith and his wolf. Shiro has made his way here, too, it seems. Thankfully, Kosmo seems uninterested by Veronica’s appearance, nosing at Keith where he’s trying to get a spoonful of food in.

“How’s the reading going?” Shiro says in lieu of a greeting. 

“It’s a lot more than I expected.” She says honestly, wearily accepting a bowl Allura hands her way. 

“That’s Coran for you,” He laughs. Next to him, Keith is nodding despairingly. 

“How far have you gotten along?” Allura asks. Coran must’ve told her, then. 

“Right up to Keith coming back with Krolia.” She shrugs, “though Coran forgot to mention the…dog.” She warily places herself as far as she can from it, despite its disinterest.

“We didn’t even know Kosmo could teleport until he took Keith away mid argument with Lance.” Shiro snorts, patting the animal with his metal arm. That explains one thing, at least. 

“How does that work?” She asks, purposefully directing it at Keith. He’s still not really looking at her. She makes him uncomfortable, that much is obvious, but it’s really killing her to not know why. 

“I don’t really know,” Keith says, finally looking at her. “We didn’t find any others like him, so it’s hard to tell” He joins Shiro in the petting, the action visibly relaxing him. Kosmo pays no mind to the hands, using Keith’s moment of distraction to lap up some of the goo from his plate. 

Keith looks unphased by this, other than a slight frown on his face. It seems to give him an excuse to push the plate away and excuse himself, though, much to Veronica’s disappointment. Shiro lets out a sigh again, and she commends his lungs for being able to handle so many in a day.

Once Keith is out of earshot, she turns to Shiro. “Did I do something wrong?” It comes out more petulant than she means. “I mean,” She corrects, “he’s totally avoiding me”. She leans back in her chair. “It’s got to do with Lance, right?”.

Shiro looks guilty enough for her to know that he knows the reason. She raises her eyebrows to challenge him into a response. 

“A little bit,” He gives in. “The time in the Abyss gave him glimpses into the future,” He says, and Veronica can feel her eyebrows shooting even higher. Shiro turns around cautiously, as if Keith’s going to reappear. It strikes her that it’s technically actually possible, with the dog and all. Once he sees that the coast is clear, he continues. 

“Look, he told me not to tell anyone, but,” he makes a vague gesture with his hands. “He saw something in the Abyss that- Keith struggles with-” He keeps cutting himself off, trying to find the words. 

She can kind of guess what he means though. The headlines weren’t very forgiving when they called him the main suspect, and his status as an orphan was public knowledge, and occasionally used as his reasoning for his “crime”. Of course seeing your fiancé's family without any preparation straight out of a medically induced coma was going to be jarring, especially if you didn’t have much practice. 

Finally, Shiro puts something together. “I know he thinks he understands what that vision showed him,” he says carefully, “but I think there’s a misunderstanding there somewhere.” Veronica waits for him to elaborate on where this is going. “He’s going to act in a way that reinforces that vision, and I don’t mean to say you need to fix things, of course I’ll talk to him, but he’s going to have a hard time reaching out to you and your family first.” 

It’s a gentle way of saying “Keith will avoid you until he actually dies”, but the message comes across just fine. She’s less offended at the confirmation than she thought she would be. Maybe the Abyss vision part helped with that. Whatever he technically knows about the future was bad enough that he thinks it’s better to avoid her entirely. She can’t really stand for that. She knows her brother, and it would actually tear him apart to have to witness the people he loves avoid one another. 

A voice in her head tells her that technically she’s also supposed to be mad at Lance too, but she wills it away. She can admit to herself that she was never really angry. Scared, yeah. And maybe a little disappointed. But she could never be mad at Lance for long, and especially not since reading through those documents. 

Regardless, befriending Keith might be her ticket to not only getting the details she’s missing about their relationship, but also to getting back on Lance’s good side. 

Lance can have all the little missions he wants, because she’s got one now, too.

Chapter Text

The two of them are minutes away from the target. Minutes at the most. He pulls out the small chip from a pocket in his suit, readying it for when it’ll be needed in mere moments. 

But the ease of the mission should have been his first warning. He realizes, as they draw closer, that there had hardly been any droids, or Galra even, in their way. He was so caught up in his own head about making sure nothing went right that he hadn’t seen that nothing was going wrong, either. 

His second warning, he hears too late. A shrill beeping close to him. Too close. A gasp behind him. Krolia must’ve just heard it too. They don’t have time to run. 

And then a blistering heat engulfs him, the force of it dragging him backwards multiple feet. There’s shrapnel flying through the air, and it cuts through his suit where his body is still exposed. 

Still exposed?

When had he gotten on the floor? When had Krolia followed?

He’s hunched over, nearly curled into a ball. Krolia is wrapped around him, but she can't reach all of him. The sides of his arms still take a few hits from the debris. Something feels wrong, but his fear takes over any coherent thought. They’re way too close to the blast, and it would do them better to keep running. 

He turns, slightly, to meet her eyes. Open and unmoving. 

Unmoving. 

He blinks at her slowly, eyes taking in the rest of her form. Her back must be covered in shrapnel, if he’s consistently getting hit, too. Blinks again. There’s a large chunk of metal lodged into her side, bleeding sluggishly. 

Her eyes are still, wide open with a mixture of fear and shock. 

This isn’t right. This isn’t what happened. 

He blinks. Krolia is gone. It never was her, maybe? It’s hard to tell. The body shielding him is wider. Shiro. His metal arm is somewhere off to the side, thrown by the blast. His eyes are unblinking. 

He blinks again. Shiro is gone. What’s happening to him right now? 

The body hunched over his own is hardly enough to cover him. They’re the same size, after all. Lance is still. He can feel the blood start to seep into his own suit where they’re pressed together. Wet and sticky and warm. 

He blinks again. This time he’s met with the ceiling to his room. It takes a moment for Keith’s eyes to adjust to the dark, taking on the yellowish hue they tend to in the dark. The castle is devoid of any voices. The lighting and uninterrupted hum tells him it’s probably still late at night. Or early. It’s not like he’s going to be able to get any sleep after this. His heart is jackrabbiting out of his chest, though he feels strangely calm. It was just a nightmare, not unlike the ones he’s had every night since falling out of the pod. 

He hadn’t told anyone about them. What would be the point? They were just dreams, and he knows in reality everyone’s just fine. 

He can’t get his heart to settle.

With a grunt, he pulls himself off the bed. His side still protests, despite being entirely healed. It’s like his body knows he should have still been hurting. Kosmo perks up from where he’s curled on the floor near the foot of the bed. He doesn’t bother with the lights as he slips out of his room. His eyes can see well enough this way, and it’s easier than trying to mess around with the castle’s settings. Kosmo nudges at the back of his legs, likely a moment away from teleporting him back into his room. 

“What if I feed you?” Keith bribes, and Kosmo stops with his nudging, following him gladly. 

Adhering to his promise, Keith walks them to the kitchen, fixing himself something hot to drink and Kosmo, well, anything. They both settle at the large table.

It’s not really surprising to him that he continues to dream about it. It happened when he was a kid, different scenarios in which his father had burned haunting his dreams home after home. It happened years later, too, picturing the many different ways Shiro could have crashed. He’s learned to think of them rationally, having had to reassure himself how little those dreams affect reality. 

He had been stupidly unaware of his surroundings, his body associating Krolia’s presence with the uneventful years spent on the back of the whale (he refused to entertain the idea that the word he was looking for was comfort ). It cost them the mission, and nearly his own life. It was sheer luck they both survived. He wasn’t a stranger to that gamble, and neither was Krolia, but it was the first time since meeting her that he’d seen her so shaken. 

He grunts in frustration to the empty room. He can’t figure out what’s bothering him so much. The fact that he’d caused issues with Lance’s return home? That was kind of it, but his visions in the abyss let him know that the two of them got to Earth unscathed. Was it that he nearly died? No, he’s nearly died hundreds of times by now, probably. Maybe the fact that the mission had gone completely sideways and it was his fault? Plenty of missions went sideways because of him, and he’s learned to accept it before. Was it that Krolia looked at him all sad and woeful and caring when she thought he wasn’t looking? 

With a sigh, he thumps his forehead onto the table, the material cool against his sweaty forehead. Kosmo shoves his head onto Keith’s lap, sitting between his legs under the table. The hand not gripping onto the mug slips into the wolf’s fur. It’s softer than usual, and he suspects Coran might have given him a wash before returning him.  

His mind wanders to the call with his friends earlier in the day, a while after he had woken up from his fainting stunt. Veronica’s worried expression flashes in his mind and he wills it away. Talking with Hunk and Pidge was nice. Really nice, actually. They were enthused to see him, putting it lightly. The three way call meant everyone was just slightly delayed, so their reactions to seeing him awake had echoed in the call for minutes, and it had taken them a while to settle down from how amusing it had been. 

Catching up had been good. (Meaning, they filled him in on the past month and he filled them in on the past few days). Hunk had voiced his jealousy at Veronica being on the ship, and Pidge had agreed, but the spark in their eyes and the way they had settled at home made Keith think otherwise. There was no way they were ever going to come back up here without any real cause. Still, the sentiment was warming. 

The two of them gushed about the time they’d been spending with their families, accompanied by Matt saying a quick hello. Pidge was, predictably, working on a new satellite prototype, likely a stronger version of what she’d built on Earth all those years ago that picked up on the chatter about Voltron, and Hunk was spending time with his family, and tinkering with Yellow’s mechanisms. Keith had reminded him that Yellow didn’t need enhancements, she was retired, and Hunk had dismissed it, saying she deserved the attention still. 

The memory of the conversation brings him to another thing he’s been avoiding. Red. She’s still in the hangar where he left her, and her presence still permeates in his mind, but he hasn’t actually gone to her yet. He knows she’ll flood him with worry and disapproval, and it’s been bad enough with Krolia, he can’t imagine that worry shoved straight into his mind. 

Kosmo perks up a little for a second, and turns his head expectantly towards the kitchen entrance. Shiro must also be awake at this hour. Keith didn’t get his late night (early morning?) tea habits from nowhere, after all. He keeps his eyes as is, seeing as how Shiro’s entirely too used to it by now, and doesn’t bother trying to flip on any lights. That, and it’s funny to see Shiro try to use the glow of his arm to guide him despite them not being very bright at all. 

Kosmo barks happily as Veronica turns the corner. 

It’s stupidly early, and Veronica feels the urge to just roll back into her blankets and fall back asleep. But the growling in her stomach is incessant. Cursing, she shoves her feet into her slippers and takes one of the blankets with her, wrapping it over herself like a cape. Everyone should technically be asleep right now, so no one can judge her for the late night goo escapade. 

The lights to the castle are all off, confirming that she’s the only one up. No one actually told her how to turn the lights on around here, so she uses the faint glow of the accents and her hand outstretched in front of her to guide her to the kitchen. 

She read more of Coran’s documents before bed. Pidge, affectionately referred to as “number five” reunites with her brother, and Coran spends an increasingly large portion of one of the documents gushing over the reunion with his own opinions on the matter. It’s really sweet, and Veronica can only imagine how it must have felt seeing someone connect with family after you had already lost everything. Matt’s rebel groups are touched on briefly, and then his recount becomes more sparse as the battles get more intense, and she can’t fault him for not adding as much detail anymore. 

Surprisingly, her shuffle across the castle is pretty successful, and she manages to reach the kitchen after only tripping twice. Upon reaching the entrance, he can tell there’s already someone at the table. The dim blue glow allows her to see the figure’s dark outline. Most noticeably, though, are the two glowing yellow spots in the figure's head, pointed right at her. She stills, suddenly a little scared. Coran’s documents helpfully provided plenty of images, and she was no stranger to the types of faces attached to glowing yellow eyes. A bark breaks the silence, and she tries not to flinch.

There’s no doubt they’re looking at her, but they don’t say anything. Maybe Coran and Allura can also do the yellow eye thing, she reasons. Who knows with aliens, right? 

The eyes blink, and then the glow is gone, leaving the two of them in the dark again. Her hand finally flails to the light switch. 

She has to blink back against the sudden white that takes over the kitchen, and once she can actually open her eyes again, she sees Keith sitting still at the table, Kosmo wiggling around under the table. 

All the Galra talk from the documents was getting to her. She shakes her head slightly while making her way to grab a bowl. Keith’s eyes follow her. He watches her silently pour herself a mound of goo, and sit down at the table, just two seats away. There’s just no way she made that up, though. She hadn’t even known there was someone in the kitchen, let alone be able to imagine those eyes on them. 

“Do you make a habit of sitting alone in the dark?” Is what she chooses to open with.

Keith breaks out of whatever’s going on in his head with a scoff. “I wasn’t alone” He says, gesturing to Kosmo. 

“And the sitting in the dark part?” She questions. Keith starts to rake his fingers through Kosmo’s fur at that. Likely a nervous tic, he did that last time too. 

“I could still see…” he says vaguely, and Veronica’s gut unsettles at that, those eyes flashing in her head. 

“Care to elaborate?” 

Keith looks at her quietly for a moment, calculating the look on her face. He tilts his head slightly in question. “You don’t know, do you?” 

Veronica tries not to vent out any frustration. She’s been in the dark about what feels like everything for the past seven years. In the dark about Lance’s whereabouts, about alien life, about a war, about the relationships that her brother made without her knowledge, about every single goddamned thing on this spaceship. 

Instead of saying any of that, she tries to keep her face neutrally blank. She’s annoyed but not specifically at Keith, and he’s alright flighty with her. Snapping at him will only push him further. 

“I don’t know a lot of things, you’re gonna have to be more specific.” She says, hopefully with as little ire in her voice as possible. Keith squirms a little under her gaze. It gives her a rush of satisfaction. She didn’t perfect intimidating little brothers for nothing. 

“If Lance didn’t tell you then it’s probably not important.” It’s a shut down if she’s ever seen one. He’s stopped petting Kosmo in favor of crossing his arms, jaw set firmly. Despite the tension on his face, he’s leaning against the back of the chair casually. 

Weird, but Veronica’s not about to take an attitude from someone who was quite literally moping in the dark. She has to go at this strategically. Has to beat Keith at whatever game this is (it’s not, and for a second her mind wanders to Lance’s weird rivalry with the guy, and can only assume it’s this current attitude that inspired it). 

What type of personality should she expect from someone Lance has chosen as a life partner? Her brother has always been loudmouthed and wild, often saying things before he’s even thought them, and always in the wrong contexts. Lance is also smart in his own ways, clever enough to get into the Garrison and clever enough to get himself out of the trouble said mouthy-ness could get him into.

She’d always assumed the person he would end up with would be equally prone to energetic outbursts and silly shenanigans. She mulls over Coran’s reports. Replace energetic with angry and silly with impulsive, and that pretty much sums Keith up as far as she (and Coran) can tell. 

If she was dealing with Lance, she could speak her mind and bully him into submission. But this isn’t Lance, this is his supposed better half, so by that logic, she should speak to Keith rationally and nice him into submission. Or something like that. If Luis was still here he could keep the bullying part in. 

“It’d do me good to get to know my brother’s partner, wouldn’t it?” She says, emphasizing partner because she actually still doesn’t know what that ring means. 

Keith clearly isn’t expecting that, and he drops his guard a little. All going to plan . 

He hesitates for a moment. “What do you want to know?”

A loaded question, honestly. What doesn’t she want to know? Should she ease her way into the relationship details? Should she skip asking about Lance and just get to know Keith? What would she even ask? 

She wishes Lance was here. Asking him anything would be worlds easier, and Keith might even be more open to answering more personal things if Lance was by his side. It’s a cruel reminder that her brother’s launched into space somewhere on a mission he can’t even guarantee a return from. 

All curiosity about Keith leaves her at that moment, her worry for Lance at the forefront of her mind. 

“Will Lance be safe on this mission?” Is what comes out of her mouth, the plan abandoned. 

Keith raises his eyebrows, also not expecting that, but his guard lowers completely, and his face morphs into one of understanding. 

“He’s good at what he does.” He says, and Veronica doesn’t have to know about their relationship to hear the raw certainty in that answer. “And he has someone looking out for him.” His eyes narrow, wandering to somewhere beyond her. 

“Krolia?” The likely answer, as Keith hangs out with literally three people. 

Keith nods. “She won’t let anything happen to him.” He sounds so sure of himself, but there’s no way he didn’t see the obvious way her brother had avoided Krolia like she was moments from killing him dead. 

“How can you be so sure?” She snorts, but she’s also very curious to maybe actually get an answer. 

“She can’t, I won’t forgive her this time.” He says.

And, woah. It’s more intense than she was expecting. Keith seems to realize this, and his body twitches like he’s about to make another run for it. Kosmo seems to sense it, and tilts his head questioningly at him. Keith just sighs, shaking his head no unsubtly at the dog. 

“That’s not what I meant,” He backtracks. “Just trust me, they’ll look out for each other.” and then he’s abandoning his mug (that’s still full, she notes), and takes his leave the old fashioned way using his legs. Kosmo rubs up against her on his way out, and she’s left alone in the kitchen covered in glowing fur. 

This time insinuates Krolia and him had a last time that she needed to be forgiven for. Had been forgiven for . He could be talking about the explosion he got caught up in, but she highly doubts it. Keith doesn’t look like the type to blame someone for something like that. Or rather, she doubts Lance would align himself with someone who would blame another person for something like that. 

Then, what else does she know about them? Something to do with him leaving the team? Maybe she had forced him to join her even when he didn’t want to. But he hardly looks like the person who could be forced into doing anything he didn’t want to. 

She sits there, stumped. Either she was really shit at asking questions, or Keith was really bad at answering them. She’d never been in the position to give the shovel talk to anyone as of yet, considering Lance was one of two people in the family younger than her, and the only one of the two to introduce (not technically, but whatever) her to a partner. So, she’s not cut out for a shovel talk, but Keith should be grateful she’s not Luis. No doubt his lack of tact and general obliviousness would send Keith and his dog running with their tails between their legs. 

She snorts at the concept, the movement unfortunately making her make eye contact with her lukewarm goo. Her appetite has been long gone, so she leaves it out on the table and shuffles back to her room. 

The plan is, to put it in the Blue Paladin’s words, going to shit.

Since splitting, she’s found herself turning the same corners repeatedly. She growls in frustration, taking a moment to regain her bearings after turning into the same hallway for the third time. Lance, similarly, is muttering expletives into her ear over the comms. The map is either outdated or, the more likely option, has been made purposefully to ensure they never actually get to where they need to be.

“Let’s reconvene.” She states into the comm, and Lance gives her an affirmative. Finding each other will be difficult, but shouldn’t take them too long considering neither of them seem to have left the level they landed on. 

Kolivan would never have sent them on a mission with information this unusable. This, she knows for a fact. What she struggles to understand is that he hadn’t caught on to someone clearly close to the mission tampering with their information. 

Her first theory is that Kolivan, too, was misinformed about this particular ship, and would not have been able to discern the correct map and schedule from an incorrect one. It’s possible, but he’s been running the Blade for decades, long enough for him to have been the one to send her to Earth in the first place, and she doubts he wouldn’t have been able to pick up on something like this. 

Her second theory is that the information was correct up until they landed. This brings about a new set of problems, the most pressing being that someone on this ship has access to the Blade’s information, as well as the ability to alter it. She’s not often anxious, but it had ironically hardly crossed her mind that the Blade would have an inside man for the Galra, and it twists something within her. 

They’ve always been a quiet organization, and all recruits had to pass the trials to ensure full allegiance to the cause. Someone passing the trials and Kolivan’s scrutiny and still turning their back is… 

She silently turns another corner, and nearly bumps into Lance, who is moving around not so silently. 

The boy jumps a little, and rears his bayard before registering it’s her, and promptly relaxes. How he can be off guard is a quirk of his she’ll never fully understand, but there’s no time to dwell on it. 

They make their way to a supply closet, reliably tucked in a corner where most Galran craft tend to store them. It’s certainly a security risk to build ships this predictable, but it’s done her nothing but favors for the past deca-phoebs. 

“We need a new plan,” Lance says hushed, repeating the same sentiment he had been since they separated. 

“The original mission is still important.” She reminds him, and Lance nods. 

“Whoever’s messing with the info is probably the target of the original mission,” he’s tapping his bayard to the side of his leg absentmindedly. She’s over familiar with the nervous tic at this point, but it still unnerves her, the movement distracting. She watches him think some more, watching his features contort with each new piece of information that crosses his mind. Humans were strange in that way, letting each thought flitter across their faces. 

“So we can’t exactly trust any of the stuff written in the document,” more tapping, “but we do know the general location of the information, given that the Galra are stupid enough to build their supply closets in the same spot every time. No offense.” She fails to hide her surprise at the fact that he had caught on to that. Though the boy had been fighting them for the past seven years. He was more perceptive than she gave him credit for. 

“It’s imperative that we stick together.” She decides. Getting separated on a craft this large, especially with their tech compromised may put them in a difficult situation later. If their comms were being tapped in on, then their position is compromised.  It would be better to stick close and keep their conversation in person to avoid being heard by this third party. 

Selfishly, she recognizes that if they split up, there’s a higher risk of one of them getting hurt, and as much as she has scorned the Blue Paladin before, his safety is of the utmost importance if she wants to keep her truce with Keith. 

“Let’s start by making our way up to higher levels, the soldiers down here wouldn’t know much. The higher we go, the higher they’ll rank.” Lance responds by backing up a bit and shaking out his limbs, something she’s learned to recognize as him getting ready to fight. 

“Avoid using your scanners as much as possible.” She warns, though she suspects the boy already knew this. 

As far as plans go, theirs is abysmal. But she has to accept that they are going to have to do this completely blind in order to stay off their attacker’s radar. Lance steels himself, his casual stance replaced with one she’s more familiar with. 

By Lance’s request, they’re pushing the door open on a count of three, Lance shifting his bayard, and both of them are spilling silently back into the hall.

Sleep had continued to evade her after her encounter with Keith. Despite this, she stays in bed until Allura comes to collect her. The princess, endearingly, insists on walking her every morning despite her protests. While she claims it’s because Veronica’s a guest, she has a sneaking suspicion that she’s probably just over eager to have a new friend. It’s not that she can really blame her, and the company is always pleasant. 

“Sleep well?” Allura asks. Veronica shrugs, unsure if she should mention Keith or not. On one hand, they don’t seem very close despite the years. On the other, apart from Shiro, Veronica really has no other options. 

“I was thinking about Lance.” she says, deciding that the Keith thing might be best left for his brother. 

Allura nods sympathetically. “It’s always hard not to worry,” she admits. “It’s been deca-phoebs now and I still do.” She pats Veronica on the shoulder reassuringly, but doesn’t continue to talk. The silence hangs over them comfortably as they join Shiro and Coran in the kitchen. Keith, predictably, is not amongst them. 

Upon seeing her, Shiro cracks a smile. “Long night?” He asks, knowingly eyeing the bowl she left on the table a few hours ago. Keith’s mug is noticeably gone. 

“Something like that.” She agrees. 

“I've found one of number two’s cookbooks,” Coran says excitedly, uncaring of the half ongoing conversation. Shiro groans. “The recipe has been followed exactly as written, just give me a tick, let me bring it in.” He leaves them in a dash, leaving Veronica Vaguely confused. While familiar with the man’s antics by now, he’s still a lot. Strange considering Veronica’s used to being surrounded by eight people at all times. 

Shiro and Allura exchange a knowing look, which does little to instill confidence in Veronica for the upcoming meal.

Like all alien food, it's practically inedible, though she manages to swallow down a few bites. Allura and Shiro get away with politely declining, and give her mirthful glances throughout the meal over their blissfully plain goo.

“Is Keith still feeling unwell?” Allura asks after a few minutes, though Veronica could tell she’s been dying to ask from the start. 

Shiro shrugs, his demeanor suggesting he was used to Keith acting like this. “He seems to be fine physically, but other than that,” He does a vague gesture with his hand, giving Veronica an apologetic glance. 

Allura hums in thought, but stays silent otherwise. The rest of the meal is spent in relative silence, minus a conversation between the aliens and Shiro about more modifications for his arm. 

Waiting for Lance had been nothing short of agonizing. Sure, she’s keeping herself entertained one way or another, but it’s been impossible to have any semblance of peace knowing her brother is in danger somewhere and she’s got no way of helping. It’s different from the past seven years, she thinks. Back then, she had no idea how to help, but right now, apparently just a wormhole away, she feels more helpless than ever. 

They wrap up the meal with some strange equivalent to orange juice, a slight pinkish in color and the flavor resembling banana more than anything. Veronica stands up to leave when a beeping in the castle brings everyone to attention. 

She makes a questioning sound, to which Allura stands up with haste. The four of them make their way to the room she’d last seen Lance over the call. 

The screen is flashing, an incoming call. The other three look confused. 

“What could Kolivan want?” Coran ponders. 

“Maybe they’re back from the mission?” Veronica suggests. Shiro gives her a skeptical click of his tongue. 

Allura answers the call with grace, giving Kolivan a warm greeting before the man can get a word in. 

He looks severe, more than when she had first seen him. It makes anxiety stir in her gut. There’s a flash of light beside her, and she flinches away from Keith for the second time that day. He looks like he was just pulled out of a sauna, skin slick with sweat and his bangs stuck to his forehead. There’s a sword gripped in his left hand. Shiro gives the new addition to the room a disapproving look but quickly turns his attention back to the screen.

“I have lost contact with Krolia and the Blue Paladin.” The room is deathly silent. 

 It's Keith who speaks first. “What do you mean?” He demands. 

Kolivan pays no mind to the tone of his voice, keeping his own steady. “The trackers in their suits have turned off, as well as their comms. We have no way of contacting them.” 

“This could mean anything,” Shiro reasons, arm extended out to his brother’s shoulder. Keith nudges him off. 

“What can we do?” Allura asks. 

Kolivan shakes his head. “It would be ill advised to follow after them. If they’ve turned off their communication themselves, it’s purposeful.” 

“And if they didn’t?” Veronica steps forward a bit, her concern for Lance overtaking her reluctance to look at the man on the screen. 

“Then it would be even worse to send in more people.” He says, eyes firm on hers. She refuses to shrink back. 

“We can’t just do nothing!” Keith looks keyed up, like he’s prepared to jump into the next ship available. 

“I called to inform you, not to encourage you to try to join them.” Kolivan warns. “Sending anyone else in could jeopardize them further. All we can do is wait for them to report back.” 

Next to her, Keith growls in frustration, though he’s no longer looking at the screen. It’s not directed at Kolivan, that’s for sure. 

“Thank you for telling us, Kolivan.” Allura says sincerely. 

“I’ll call again when I hear any more news.” He says, and then the call ends abruptly. 

There’s another bout of awful silence in the room. While everyone else looks contemplative, Veronica can’t help but panic a little. 

The lack of communication seems to be unusual, which does nothing to quell her previous fears. If Lance is in serious danger, if he’s hurt, or worse, dead , then Veronica will have lost him a second time before she even fully got him back. 

She tries to tamp down the growing resentment in her chest to no avail. If it hadn’t been for Keith, Lance would have never gone back on a mission, or even back to space for that matter. It’s entirely unfair to think, she knows this , Keith can hardly be blamed for his injuries, or the way Lance feels about him. Despite this, it is, even inadvertently, Keith’s fault that Lance is in this situation, and her previous plan to get closer to him seems to diminish. 

She knows herself well enough to know the resentment is temporary, but she still can’t stop herself from glaring at Keith before storming out of the room. He meets her eyes straight on, and her anger directed at him seems to catch him off guard, before his face turns resigned. No one heads after her when she stalks out, and she can’t help but be grateful for it. No amount of reassurance is going to help right now, especially since she knows the others won't be able to justify it. 

She finds herself wandering to a part of the castle she’s not familiar with, which, to be fair, is most of it. She can vaguely recall it being the observation deck from Coran’s brief tour. It's a large empty room with massive floor to ceiling windows on all sides. She sort of feels like a fish in a fishtank. 

The deep dark of space stares back at her as she makes her way to the edge of the room, seating herself right in front of the glass. The stars and constellations in front of her are foreign, and any sort of comfort she was seeking from the view seems to dim. 

It’s useless to be scared or angry right now, nothing she can do right now can help her brother, and she can only pray he knows what he’s doing out there. Realistically, he’s been doing things like this longer than she’s even known about it, and his comms being off is probably low on the scale of things that have gone wrong in missions. But it’s her first time with something like this, and her scale is starting fresh, with this being the only entry. 

She draws a leg up to rest her chin on her knee. 

“It’s probably not that big of a deal, right?” her voice echoes slightly. The stars do not answer. She huffs out a sigh. 

It’s a while longer of sitting there in silence when she can hear the door swish open behind her. In the reflection of the glass, she can make out Shiro’s outline. He sits a few feet away from her, close enough that they could converse easily but far enough that she doesn’t feel pressured to talk. 

“You siblings are a little predictable.” He jokes. She gives him a confused glance. 

“Lance comes here to think, too.” He clarifies. 

It makes sense. He had always had a passion for space, and would often sit in the yard and stare at the night sky if something was bothering him. Oftentimes, their mother had to beg him to come inside if the night got too cold, and he would do so only after hours of pleading. It warms her a bit to know that despite everything, he kept to his habits. 

“I can’t guarantee that he’s going to be okay,” Shiro says, and Veronica can’t help but turn to him incredulously. “But,” He stresses, “Have faith in his abilities. Things like this happen a lot on missions, and he’s got a good head on him. They’ll work it out.” 

“I know,” She says, uncertain. “It’s just weird to be in the know and still be able to do nothing.” 

Shiro hums, but doesn’t offer anything else. 

His presence on the ship confuses her a bit. She really hasn’t had much time to think about it, but seeing him now makes her realize something. 

“Hey,” Shiro turns to look at her. “Why didn’t you go back to Earth, too? Was it also for Keith?” His expression stutters a bit, going from open and friendly to something more neutral. 

“Ah,” He clears his throat. “It’s a bit complicated.” A hand goes up to rub the back of his neck. She stays quiet to let him continue, but he doesn’t. 

She respects the man, and he’s her older brother’s age, so she drops the subject. It seems rude to pry when she doesn't have any real reason to. 

The quiet stretches between them again, not uncomfortably. She needs time to process things, and it seems that Lance’s return is on an indefinite hold, whether she likes it or not, giving her plenty of time to familiarize herself with how she feels about it all. 

Her priority is Lance, but he comes as a package set, and it seems to be one step forward and two back when it comes to her relationship with Keith. Sometimes he’s hot and sometimes he’s cold, and unlike Shiro she really can’t read his mind. This mission is their common ground though. She has a feeling that the same unjustified blame she’s put on him, he’s put it on himself too, and it might be a way for her to make a breakthrough. 

She shifts, to muffle a groan into her hands. Her life seems to be getting more complicated by the second. 

The two of them make their way quietly around the ship. They’ve managed to go one level higher than they landed on, but the personnel still seemed pretty oblivious. Sneaking around was easier than he thought it would be. Krolia and him had been able to loosely hash out the soldiers’ actual guard schedule after maybe five or so hours into them being there. With that, they’ve been successful at avoiding running into any more people since Krolia’s first scuffle. 

He’s yet to discuss theories about the info leak with Krolia. She seems frustrated enough, and he’s afraid if he provokes her more it’ll do more harm than good. Kolivan’s lack of foresight on something like this happening does raise a lot of questions, though. Namely, how did anyone slip by him? 

“Krolia.” He whispers. They’re walking far enough from each other that if she had normal range ears, his voice would have easily been missed. Seeing as how she doesn’t, she turns around briefly to acknowledge him, though she looks displeased with him potentially giving away their location. 

“Does this happen a lot on Blade missions?” He says, because there’s no way a mole like this hasn’t sprung up in the centuries the blade has been active. Perhaps he should have asked this sooner, maybe the hours they’d spent in awkward silence on their way here, but it really hadn’t crossed his mind as something that could be a pattern until it happened in his presence. 

She seems to mull over his words a bit. 

“It is not unheard of,” She says, “There have been similar attempts from before Kolivan’s time, but I wasn’t a member of the Blade then. I can not be certain the exact ways in which they were resolved.” 

“But it has happened before?” 

“Yes,” She confirms. 

So maybe they’re not entirely screwed. If the blades were already familiar with how to deal with a mole, then they probably have a shot at revealing it smoothly. However Krolia had seemed concerned despite her knowing the Blades history. It was hard to tell if it was because of Kolivan’s misjudgment or Keith’s direct involvement. 

Something tugs at the back of his mind, and no matter how hard he pulls it refuses to come to him. There’s something obvious that he’s missing. 

He needs to look at this step by step. 

Keith and his mother’s original mission was a simple intel probe. They were supposed to be in and out of the small Galra base. Even if there was a mole involved, it makes little sense for them to strike during such a small mission. The intel was destroyed in the blast, so he can’t exactly make the judgement on how important it might have been, but Kolivan had assigned it to the two of them knowing they were approaching Earth and kept it simple on purpose. 

A bomb planted directly near where they needed to be tells him that the mole knew their positions exactly, though again, he could have just gotten away with destroying the intel if that was what he was trying to hide. 

Something tugs at his brain again. 

Krolia has an arm out, stopping him from walking any further. They’ve approached a new section of the ship, finally coming out of the repetitive hallway layouts. It’s a room not dissimilar to the common area in the Castle. 

Despite them tucked into the shadows of the ship, the room has enough personnel mulling around that they might be easily spotted if they walk any further. 

According to Krolia, they’re not on high enough floors for any of them to be people of interest (given she’s sticking to the original mission, Lance on the other hand is trying to wrap his head around something else). The best course of action is to stick to the shadows and bypass the room entirely. Making sure they go unseen is of utmost importance right now. Lance shifts his bayard into something smaller. It would be way too embarrassing to be caught because his gun couldn't keep a low profile.

They slink across the hall, Krolia’s large frame surprisingly agile. Though, it’s less of a shock knowing she’s Keith’s mom. Lance can only hope for half as much grace. While he’s good at infiltration, it’s hardly similar to how silent Keith and Krolia tend to be. 

Right, back to his theorizing. So, the mole knew where the intel would be, but made the choice to detonate the bomb only when the two of them were close. It was an effective strategy to try and take down two of the Blades most important members, but ultimately a failure. If this was about hijacking the mission though, then multiple other missions should have been targeted, too. Especially ones that were of a higher caliber. 

Easier missions were easier to sabotage overall, but if someone wanted to take down the entire organization why bother? Focusing efforts on larger missions would cost the Blade of Marmora a lot more in the long run. 

The conclusion his brain turns him to makes him uneasy. 

Krolia is still treading in front of him, poised for attack. As a soldier, she’s incredible. She takes orders to heart and backs down from nothing. As an individual, she’s haughty and condescending at worst, and downright awkward at best. But the members of the Blade don’t have to be friends to effectively work with one another. Hell, he doubts Krolia even has friends other than her boss and her son. He stifles a snort at that, the only indication that he was heard a brief hardening of Krolia’s stance. 

Anyways. From the standpoint of the organization, Krolia is a hard person to dislike. She gets the job done and she gets it done well. It makes sense that someone trying to sabotage the Blade would target her. 

“Lance,” Krolia says. He blinks back up at her disapproving stare. She motions her head in the direction of another stairwell. There’s one guy milling around it, seemingly kicking metaphorical rocks about something. He’s armoured up but not armed. It would be easy work for them to get rid of him to clear access to the stairway. 

Krolia motions for him to stand a bit further back, emphasizing the arm holding the blade to indicate she’ll handle it. Lance nods an affirmative and tucks himself away, making sure to keep his eyes on her. 

She stalks up to the Galran like a tiger sizing up its prey. He’s blissfully unaware, whatever he’s upset about is clearly taking up his attention. 

It happens quickly. She pulls up behind him, and uses the blade of her sword to drag him back and pin him against her body. She’s larger than him, and the soldier loses to the disadvantage. His attempts to cry for help are aborted quickly as she shushes him, likely pulling the blade closer to his throat. 

“You don’t have to die here today,” Her voice is low and threatening. “But if you leave me with no other choice I won’t hesitate.” The man- Lance scrutinizes him further, Krolia is not known for her mercy- the boy nods, clearly unused to situations like these. Lance has hardly had run-ins with the Galran youth, but this guy can’t be much older than an Earth teenager, given that they age at nearly the same rate that humans do. 

Krolia’s mercy is surprising, though perhaps reconnecting with her son has made her softer than she’s led on. Still, it seems uncharacteristic of her to have done. 

“Listen to me closely,” She warns. “You’re going to let us go, and if I even suspect you’ve told anyone of our whereabouts, I will find you.” The boy's eyes dart around at the word ‘us’, catching Lance’s eyes where he’s tucked himself closer to the action. He gulps, and then nods. Krolia loosens her hold and the boy immediately scampers away, but remains silent. 

“That's going to bite us in the ass later.” Lance says, gesturing to the direction the kid ran in. 

“I know.” She says, almost like she can’t believe she let him get away. It’s too late to reconsider now, and they should get moving in case the kid ran to get reinforcements. 

The staircase is wide and winding, more for large groups of soldiers to plow through than for the Earth standard fire escape. 

They have to tread lightly, the confined space making everything a hundred times more echoey. The only advantage being they can hear anyone else as easily as they can be heard. There are cameras in here, but they try to stick to the shadows. Considering no alarms went off after their first stair excursion, he can assume that they’re not being watched right now. 

The end of the staircase leads them into another hall. It’s fairly empty, and Lance tries not to think about the way Keith had recounted his last mission. 

It was too easy , he said, curling around Lance's body as they drifted half asleep. Every part of it went so great, I was so distracted by the victories I couldn’t tell it was designed that way on purpose.  

Lance shakes his head. He can’t afford any distractions right now. 

If they landed their cruiser on the lowest tier of the ship, and they’d only gone up one floor, then they’d hardly made a dent in the layout of the ship. They had dozens more floors to go if they wanted to meet anyone with enough relevance to actually take them where they needed to be. Mentally running through the mission in his head, he can recall that the original information they needed to download was on either the highest floor or the one below it, in one of the central commend rooms. 

Without a proper map, or tracking or even guard schedules for the more regulated part of the ship, this was going to take them an uncountable amount of more hours than they’d already spent here. 

In his head, he curses at this stupid informant. What a ridiculous chase to send them on for seemingly no good reason.

What would a mole gain from taking out Krolia and Keith? Even though they were notable figures in the Blade, they still were just two of many, the actual number of members being unfathomable scattered across the universe. There would be no point in getting rid of just two people given the chance that they did have access to most Blade intel. 

Sure, Krolia often took the lead on missions, but any Blade was capable of- Lance’s brain comes to a halt. He looks at Krolia’s back from where she’s navigating the both of them through yet another hall. 

Krolia always took the lead on missions, walking in the front as she was the most familiar with Galran layouts. Keith had shielded her from the blast. If he was walking behind her, and the blast hit his back, then that meant the bombs were placed further away from the intel than strictly necessary, as if they weren’t the target at all. If the bombs were placed behind Keith, even though the person who put them there was familiar with the way Krolia ran missions… Lance feels a sense of dread wash over him. 

The intel was never the target. Nor was Krolia. Keith was.

And two people that Keith cared a whole awful lot about  had just willingly flown themselves straight into a trap.

Chapter Text

Before Keith had been called on that last Blade mission, Shiro and him had… a talk.

Specifically, half of an argument about Shiro’s refusal to go back to Earth.

Shiro had been adamant on staying in the Castle. It was natural that someone should stay up there in case of an emergency , he had insisted. Keith had said that that’s what Coran and Allura were staying in orbit for in the first place. 

But Shiro wasn’t budging. He said, like Keith, he had no family back on Earth anymore, and that his appearance would alert the Garrison more than anyone else’s would. Which would have been a fair point had they not all been on watchlists since their disappearances. So Shiro couldn't play that card anymore. 

Keith can’t read his brother as well as Shiro can read him, and he can admit that. But he does know Shiro well enough to know when he’s scared or nervous about something. It’s how he’d been able to place how off Kuron had been. Shiro was hiding the real reason behind his refusal to go back to Earth, and Keith was confident enough to say he had an inkling of what it was. 

After the news of the Kerberos mission had got out, Adam was the first person who had reached out to Keith. Naturally, Keith had ignored the texts, but it still meant something. Someone out there had acknowledged that Keith was hurting and had tried to help. It was only weeks before their discovery of Blue, maybe months after Adam’s last text, that Keith had realized that Adam was reaching out for his own sake, not Keith’s. 

He’d just lost his fiancé, and reaching out to his kid brother was the closest he could get to something tangible of Shiro’s. And Keith had ignored him. At seventeen, it was an act of defiance and hurt. Now in his twenties, he can recognize it was a dick move. 

It was then, during their conversation on the way home, that Shiro had admitted that Adam and him had called it off right before the mission. Keith, naturally, told him that was an insane secret to keep for seven years, most of which they spent in each other’s heads. 

And, sure, Adam was probably so pissed off that he thought his only option was to call off the engagement. But Keith had been just as mad, if not more, and it’s not like Keith had just stopped caring for Shiro. Keith had only met Adam a few times, hardly enough to form a proper image of the guy in his head. But each of those times, the love that he’d had for Shiro was palpable. There was no way that calling off the engagement would have changed that.

So, Keith had some incentive to get Shiro back on Earth, and Shiro had some incentive to never do that, actually. 

The call with Kolivan is a jarring reminder that there are things in life that you just can’t cope with losing. For Keith, it’s Lance. For Shiro, it had probably been Adam.

He can feel his fear for Lance’s safety turn into frustration, and since he’s been banned from the training room as of thirty minutes ago, he settles for finding the only other source of his current problems. 

Keith finds Shiro holed up in the observation deck alongside Lance’s sister. They’re just sitting there, silently, and he tamps down the feeling that he’s missing out on something. He clears his throat, loud enough to startle Veronica but subtle enough that it doesn’t sound too intentionally disruptive. 

The look Shiro gives him tells him that the last part wasn’t quite true. 

“Can I talk to you?” Keith opens with, hoping his frustration isn’t at the forefront. “Alone.” He adds, since Shiro insists subtlety isn’t his forte. Veronica looks miffed for a second, before shrugging and stalking off. 

“Are you feeling okay?” Shiro says, but his tone suggests he’s a little upset. About what, Keith can’t tell. 

“This isn’t about me.” He responds. Which, it really isn’t, this time. It’s not lost on him that Shiro had been the one paladin to stay on the Castle while the others touched down on Earth, and no matter how much he might insist that it was for Keith’s sake, he likes to think he knows the man better than to believe that. 

Shiro raises an eyebrow, but stays otherwise silent. He’s always been the type to hear Keith out first. 

“You didn’t go back to Earth.” He says. It’s as blunt as he can be without actively demanding an answer. He respects Shiro too much to ask him to his face to confirm Keith’s suspicions.

“Keith,” Shiro starts, and it’s that tone he uses when Keith has been particularly stubborn about something, and when he had told Shiro that Kerberos wasn’t a good idea. 

Keith’s been too preoccupied with his injury shit to actually pick back up on that conversation. Except he’s healed now (mostly), and he doesn’t have the capacity to think about Lance right now. 

So. 

He cuts Shiro off, and it has the man looking chagrined. He knows what’s coming. Clearly it’s been on his mind, too. “You didn’t go back to Earth. And don’t give me the bullshit that it was for me. You even made Lance leave.” 

Shiro looks at him helplessly for a moment, like he understands that Keith has got him all figured out. 

“If you already know then why ask?” he says, turning back around so he doesn’t have to look Keith in the eyes. 

“Because it’s stupid.” He replies, going over to sit where Veronica had just been. He gets a raised eyebrow in return. 

“You’re being stupid, Shiro.” he apparently has to clarify. The bemused expression remains on his stupid brother’s face. “You should have gone down to Earth. To him.” He says, like Shiro isn’t purposely being obtuse. 

“You don’t understand how bad it was before I left, Keith.” He says finally, voice quiet. He feels bad, almost, if not for the fact that Shiro has no way of knowing what it was actually like,  because he’d gone off into space and vanished. 

“He texted me non-stop, after.” Shiro seems unresponsive, if not for the glance he sends Keith from the corner or his eyes. “He wouldn't have done that if he didn’t care, Shiro.” 

“You were a kid, of course he would check up on you, Keith.” He still doesn’t turn to look at him. “It doesn’t mean anything.” 

Keith bites back a groan. Leave it to his level headed brother to be this stubborn when it came to his own issues. What a hypocrite. 

“You know how crazy that sounds, right? I only met him, like, twice.” Keith exaggerates, hoping his point comes across. “He only texted me because of you.” And, Keith’s not really the type to spell things out, but it might be the only way to get Shiro to actually listen. 

“Fine,” Shiro relents, “But it’s been nearly a decade since then, Keith. It would be unwise to think he waited for me all of those years.” 

Which, shit, yeah, is a good point. He tries to picture it. Would he have stayed single if Lance vanished for eight years? Probably. But he’s actually not that good of an example for things like that, all things considered. He waited for his mom and he’d never even seen the woman. Anyway, Shiro’s words actually successfully have him silenced. It would be one thing if they’d only been missing a year or two. But they’ve been gone much longer than that, and it would be cruel to dangle the hope of normalcy in front of Shiro after everything he’s been through. 

Shiro snorts at Keith’s silence, knowing he’s been had. So much for continuing the argument.

Keith’s immediate panic has fizzled out, though. Lance and Krolia are capable fighters, and turning off both of their comms at the exact same time couldn’t have been anything but deliberate. Should they need to contact anyone, they have the ability to turn them back on, too. 

“Still,” Keith says, “Just come back with us? Lance’s family likes you well enough I’m sure they’d give you a room.” He tries to keep his voice neutral, but that look is back on Shiro’s face that tells him he’s failed again. 

“Whatever,” he huffs childishly. He loads it with as much petulance and misery he can muster. If Shiro can’t be guilted by normal Keith, maybe acting like teenage Keith might inspire some dormant guilt from his brother. He picks himself back up from Veronica’s spot. Shiro makes an aborted move to follow him, before thinking better of it. 

“I’ll think about it!” Shiro calls out, just as the door slides shut behind Keith.

Neither Keith nor Shiro notice that she hasn’t shut the door fully. Sue her for being nosy, but there’s not much she can do for Lance here, and if she thinks about it she’ll go crazy. What’s a little eavesdropping if it preserves her sanity? 

Keith had looked angry when he’d interrupted, and she was glad to move out of his way, except the tone he takes with Shiro sounds more miserable than anything. Maybe that’s just what he sounds like when he’s mad. 

She can tell where the conversation is headed just from Keith's opening alone. It’s no secret that Adam W., top instructor of the Garrison, had kind of lost it when Shiro disappeared. As much as someone of his caliber could “lose it”. He’d been adamant with the institution that they needed to do everything they could to ensure the return of the missing staff, or at least send a team to recover their bodies for the sake of the families (which, it was also not a secret that he was no longer included as such). There had been at least three public arguments involving the man and Garrison higher-ups, all of which made the news with various amounts of support for either party. 

After the kids had gone missing, Adam had reached out to Veronica’s family. Shamefully, she can admit that they never responded. It’s hard to say if it was because they were too caught up in their own grief, or too caught up with Adam’s past connection to the supposed perpetrator. Now that she knows better, the poor guy was probably reliving the worst day of his life except with his ex-fiance's little brother. Yikes. 

What Shiro and Keith both don’t know, though, is that after they’d gone off to do their Voltron thing, Adam had quit his job at the Garrison. She’s not privy to any of the details, only that he had clearly noticed how shady the Garrison had been about the whole ordeal, took a very public stance on it, and then “quit” soon after. 

There’s no way in hell that Adam isn’t still waiting for news about them. Keith’s been gone the past seven years, so while Shiro’s rebuttal has him stumped, Veronica knows better. 

“Whatever,” She hears Keith snap, and the shuffle of feet tell her that it’s time to go. 

Keith catches her awkwardly positioned just a few steps away from the door. That guy is fast . She can't even pretend like she hasn’t been caught listening in. 

She’s less mad at him than she was before, and can admit that he looks, well, rough. The dark circles, the haggard expression, the way he’s still slightly hunched in the direction of what she can only assume was his fatal injury. It’s clear that Lance’s mission is weighing on him as much as Veronica had ( fine, wrongfully ) hoped it would. 

“Did you still need to talk to him?” He asks, jerking a thumb in Shiro’s direction. It’s painfully civil compared to the glare she’d given him on the way out after that call. It’s also entirely neutral and detached, and she’d rather he be mad at her back than whatever distancing thing he’s got going on right now. 

“Actually,” She says, trying to make her expression more friendly. His skepticism tells her she needs to work on it. “Can I talk to you?” 

Surprise flits over his face, and then grim acceptance. He’s so easy to read it’s no wonder Lance attached onto him like a barnacle. 

She’s not in the mood right now to bring up Lance, or their relationship, or even Keith’s personal life at all. Instead, she’s got a sure way to bond with him without any of those topics. 

“It’s about Adam.” She says, and if he didn’t suspect eavesdropping then it’s been confirmed now. His eyebrows shoot up, and any defensiveness in his body language disappears. 

“What about Adam?” He asks. His face tells her he’s totally intrigued. 

“I think I can help you convince Shiro to go back.” she says vaguely, casting her hook. 

Keith approaches her more, he’s looking more open to her than he’s ever before. Of course it’s talking about his brother that gets him to open up. Not like she’s his fiance’s sister, or anything. 

“I’m listening.” He says, bait successfully taken. 

“Adam really did all that?” Keith says, putting his water pouch down. She’d caught him up to the Garrison drama, giving him all the details she could remember. She’s got her own water pouch, awkwardly accepted from Keith’s hands, and is leaning against the cool metal of the large room they’ve settled in. 

He decided the best place to continue their conversation was somewhere Shiro couldn’t overhear. Which, for some reason, ends up being the training room. Keith justifies this by saying he’s “banned” and “no one would look for me here because of it.” Veronica feels like he’s got that entirely wrong, but who is she to question it?

“He was really vocal about what he thought the Garrison was plotting,” She says soberly, nodding. “It was really hard on him after you kids left,” Keith snorts at the word kid but lets her continue. “From what I can tell, he’s probably dying to get you guys back.”

Keith stares into the expansive room thoughtfully, (at least she hopes, otherwise he’s been zoned out this whole time.) 

“There’s no way of really knowing unless we talk to him, though.” She shrugs, putting the ball in Keith’s court. 

Keith’s head perks up and then turns to face her. His eyes are weirdly purple, now that she’s actually looking properly without any strong emotions clouding her judgement. Really purple. A brief memory flashes in her head, or glowing yellow eyes in the dark. But she had just imagined those in the kitchen after her research, Keith really had nothing to do with that. 

He’s giving her a weird look now, a mix of exasperation and confusion. Oops, he’d been talking to her and she’d missed it. 

“Sorry, what was that?” She says, blinking the memory away entirely. 

“I said that I could call Pidge and Hunk again and see if they can contact Adam for us.”

“You could do that this whole time?” Why exactly had he not thought of this sooner? 

He shrugs. “Shiro’s not the only one who was worried about how much time has passed. But after what you told me, we have a better shot of him hearing us out.” 

He sounds more hopeful than he has in days, which, all things considered, isn't saying much, but it still makes her feel good. 

“When should we call them?” She asks. The two of them likely also have those little alien devices Lance used to be glued to back home. Did Luis take one with him when he went back down? She can’t remember. What she wouldn’t do to talk to her family right now. 

It’s only been a few days for her, but the homesickness is creeping into her chest as the hours keep passing. Talking to someone on Earth sooner rather than later would help. She can’t wrap her head around how Lance managed to do this for seven whole years. 

“It’s late on Earth right now, we can call them in a few hours,” he says, eyes shifting around the room like he’s looking for something. 

He’s walking over to the stand of weapons, then. He’s done talking, and Veronica can’t help but roll her eyes at the dismissal. There’s a glint in his eyes, though, as he turns to Veronica, a friendliness that he hasn’t shown her before. His moods seem to change unpredictably, it seems. 

“Be my lookout?” He motions his head towards the door.

What happened to being banned? She laughs, and he gives her a small smile back before rolling his shoulders. 

“Start training sequence.” He calls out to the room.

Veronica slouches against the wall further. She’s definitely not going to be on the lookout for anyone. It’s probably best if he’s caught and scolded, considering his gait still alludes to him being in pain. But, she’s not going to miss out on Voltron’s top fighter (according to Lance) actually showing her some fighting. 

It takes her a moment to realize that the Blue Paladin has stopped following her. She turns around to find him looking back at her, stricken, but a quick scan of the staircase tells her that there are no threats present. 

“Krolia.” He says weakly. “I thought of something,” 

They do not have time for this.

She waits for him to continue, keeping an ear out for anyone approaching. 

“The target was never the intel. It’s Keith.” She blinks at him, waiting for him to elaborate. 

He goes in detail into his trail of thought, with all evidence pointing to a targeted attack at her son, rather than anything the Blade was after. 

“Right now? Guess what they’re probably after?” Lance says. 

“Us.”

He nods grimly, but she can't tell if his eyes are wide with fear or something else. 

She has been foolish not to notice this, and feels even more so knowing that Lance figured it out before she did. She had been too distracted by the mission, just like she had been when Keith got hurt. It makes sense, though. No other Blade missions recently had encountered such sabotage or failure. 

Personal vendetta was hardly something that a dignified member of the Blade of Marmora would consider. There was nothing personal when it came to the Blade. Or rather, there should not be. Clearly this individual thought otherwise. Clearly, this individual was not fit to be a part of their organization any longer. 

“Our positions are compromised,” She says, and she can actually name the expression on Lance’s face this time. It is the one he uses when Keith tells him information he is already privy to. 

“We should quit while we still can.” He says, his body already turned around. 

“What about the mission?” She means for it to come out stern, but even to her own ears it sounds adrift. 

“Krolia, the most important thing we could do right now is return safely.” It’s not lost on her he’s talking to her as if she is some beast to tame. Low and gentle. Commanding. 

He is right, however. Usually, the intel would take precedence. But whoever organized the information was trying to set them up, and it would be useless to try and continue. 

“If the intel is that important, then Kolivan can send another team to retrieve it.” He continues, mistaking her silence for dissent. 

They’ve hardly made any distance in the ship, and returning would be a simple task. 

“We should return to the ship.” He returns her statement with a firm nod, fully turned around now. Finding their way to their ship would be uncomplicated and fast. They have already wasted too much time here. 

The stairwell lights begin to flash, an alarm following shortly after. 

Lance cusses loudly, uncaring of the noise he makes. She can not help but agree with the sentiment. 

“It had to be that kid.” He says. The one she let go. In a moment of weakness, she had seen her own child in the eyes of the enemy, and it had cost them this. 

“It does not matter. We will handle the soldiers as they come to us.” She pushes past him, taking the lead again. He makes an offended noise, but she does not have the time to care. 

It was placed upon her to make sure Lance came out of this unharmed. A mission personally given to her by Keith. She would have to see it through. 

There is movement outside of the stairwell door. They have two options. They can either fight their way through however many people are gathered there, or keep heading upstairs and find another way back to the ship. 

There is no movement coming from upstairs. It seems as though everyone onboard has assumed they’ve made it to the upper levels already. If no one has gathered on the floor above them, they might have a chance at being able to wait for an opening and coming back down when everyone is searching for them on higher levels. 

She motions back up to Lance, who, despite looking unsure, nods in agreement. 

They make their way back up the way they were originally headed. She keeps her feet light, an insignificant task considering Lance has no qualms about making as much noise as possible. 

They emerge on the other side to an empty hallway, but she can hear noise off in the distance. It is likely that all staff capable of fighting have been sent upwards to try and capture them, much to their advantage. 

It is easy to slink back into the shadows. They need to look for another way down. The stairwell behind them is already filling with the noise of footsteps. 

Despite the lack of maps, the ship is easy enough to navigate. Most ships follow similar layouts to allow pre-programmed droids to be able to guard any craft. The Galra were not expecting their own people to use this against them, and they were egotistical enough to assume no other species would be freely roaming around to figure it out. It was, ultimately, one of the many reasons they were successful in taking down the empire. 

“These hallways all look the same.” Lance whines. It is lost on her how Keith put up with it. 

“That is to our advantage.” She chides, hoping it will convince him to make less noise. 

Abruptly, she has to hold an arm out to stop the both of them from walking. She can hear a group of soldiers up ahead, as well as some coming up from behind. 

“Shit.” Lance states, likely having heard them too. 

They were going to have to fight their way past, regardless of which direction they chose. 

Lance’s bayard shifts in an instant, turning into a long, thin sword. The technology is similar to that of her own blade. She had never gotten the chance to ask the Alteans about it. They were uncomfortable with her presence and she had never felt like being under their scrutiny for so long. The sword, too, is something she has seen him wield before. She’s only seen him use it against Keith during training, and considering his accumulation of losses, she is doubtful for its success today. They do not have time to dwell on that, though. 

The crowd in front of them is fast approaching, those leading it already within their line of sight. She makes the first move, jumping out of the shadows to catch them unaware. 

Fighting comes to her easier than breathing. The first man is dead before his colleagues have even registered her presence. The soldier behind him hardly has a chance to blink away the spray of blood before she is on him, too. 

He moves quicker than she thought he would, and her first swing is dodged. He is armed, but a gun is futile in a close range fight like this. Despite his speed, he’s sluggish compared to her. She’s able to grab the wrist of his armed hand and squeezes, as his grip loosens on the gun, she wedges her blade into the gap in his armor near his shoulder. It’s nowhere near a fatal blow, but it incapacitates him long enough for her to throw him down and dodge the third soldier approaching from the side. 

As she turns to apprehend him, she catches a glimpse of Lance. 

He is good with the sword. Very good. Either Keith is better than she remembers him being, or Lance has been holding back during training. He moves less gracefully than any member of the Blade would, his stance more grounded as if he is still using a large gun. Despite that, he’s able to move around the soldiers with ease. 

The man on the floor makes a grab for her legs, fighting past the injured shoulder. She kicks him hard, and his resounding groan only seems to encourage the other soldiers. 

They’re becoming increasingly outnumbered, and the leading strategy of fighting is becoming ineffective. They need to run, but the opening never comes.

It’s after a few minutes of close combat when she hears Lance shout out. He’s down. To her surprise the Galra do not immediately kill him. Instead, his bayard is kicked further away from his body, and two of the soldiers are restraining him. Notwithstanding his struggle in their grasp, they don’t move. Instead, he gets a heavy pound to the skull with the back of a third soldier’s gun. 

The distraction is enough for three more to advance on her. 

“Give in and we won't kill him.” One of them sneers. If it was any other member of the Blade, she might have still made a run for it. She detests the part of herself who, despite it being Lance, still wants to make a run for it. 

She gives in, and a larger soldier kicks in her legs from the back, making her kneel. Her blade is pried out of her hands, and thrown in the same direction as the bayard. 

She does not often use Earth phrases, despite the many months she spent on it. But it seems appropriate now. Keith was going to kill her.  

Chapter Text

Hello everyone! Sorry for the long wait. This is both bad news and good news. 

Bad news, this fic is forever going to be incomplete. 

Good news... Im rewriting it as its own new fic, that will be finished.

The original was going in a direction I found hard to take control of, so I'm going to start again, and make edits to the original story along the way. 

It's essentially going to be the same exact fic, but I'm going to have Keith be asleep a teeny bit longer...for angst reasons lmao. 

The first chapter of the new fic is already up, and you can check it out here. The first chapter is virtually the same as this fics, with about 800 extra words added here and there. The chapters that follow will be modified to follow the new plot. 

Thank you to everyone who has read up to here, and I hope to see you in the revised version ;)