Chapter Text
The air was flat and suffocating yet it still filled Keith's lungs with a taste that didn't sit right in him. The flavor wrapped its sticky fingers around his throat and clenched as tight as it could without breaking him apart from the neck down. His nose was drowned in a mucus sensation that made it hardly plausible to even confirm it was still attached to his nearly beheaded body. His lips were chapped and numb, cracking like the floor tiles in his old house back on earth. If it was any other scenario he could consider comparing it to sculltrite lenses that would break in two easier than ripping apart a sheet of printer paper. But now all he could think about was earth. His old house, his friends, Shiro, even the galaxy garrison. He remembered the dizzying feeling of peering down at his fathers blurry tombstone, feeling a familiar hand rub his back as he stared down at the uneasy sight. He still wonders about his mother, if she is alive, if she even knows he is- barely. Hanging on by a thread would be sugarcoating the situation. He drifted in and out of death, something he wasn't accustomed to and didn't yearn to be. Death never had scared Keith before, but he had never been so close. He could feel the heat of welcoming flames but also the sincereness that he would make it past the clouds. Was this purgatory? That might be a fate worse. He had never questioned any path he had picked until now. The past two years of his life, every choice he made led up to this moment. There was no very beginning, no one moment that sparked an option, nor a life or death scenario. His chest warily shifted up and down, feeling like lifting bricks with his pecs, yet everytime he would exhale the weight would double. He was ready to give in, he had been fighting for hours, minutes, seconds, anything. But he couldn't stop breathing, he just couldn't let himself take that final breath in, let the darkness overcome him, or the light. The light itself was standing above him, the light that had shined on his untanned face for two years. He still fought to stay alive, to hold onto the piece of clarity that was holding his teammates hand. He would always be his teammate, friend, fellow paladin, buddy, he couldn't bear to think of all the nicknames he had said for the last time without knowing it. The hand gripped his tighter but the sensation of the gloves wouldn't budge. He was slipping into the dark bottomless pit that was lifelessness. What was death? Was it a great escape or was life the sequence of running away from the unavoidable? Was he still running? He was slowing down for sure, his legs would give out. He already couldn't feel his toes, he knew from trying to wiggle them. They didn't budge, he had never felt so out of control, he hated it. He was trapped in his skin without the willingness to do anything about it. He wouldn't hear Allura's accent when she spoke lightly, the way she hauled a positive attitude around even though she fought for something she knew would never return. She did not fight to avenge her father, she fought to make sure no one ever would have to feel the way it felt for her. Keith would never wake up in the middle of the night to hear Hunk pacing the halls, he always did that when he worried. Most of the time he had some dessert in his left hand while he scratched his head with his right. The form of breathlessness he couldn't escape now wasn't the similar one he got from when Pidge hugged him too tight. It wasn't like when she would wrap her arms around his armored torso and cling on like a magnet. Her glasses would poke him in the stomach and just about fall right off her face. Her hair would flatten at the front and she would take a second extra to fluff it back up before heading back to her lab station near the bridge. Coran would think of King Alfor whenever he looked at the red lion, Keith knew that. He wasn't mad. Shiro would sleep in Keith's room a few nights after, longing for even his scent or maybe crossing his fingers the stupid red jacket would still be hanging up. He would reflect on the memories they had over the past almost decade and relive every mistake he made. Only though, when he stepped in Keith's barrack he would find the sheets messed up and the pillow unfluffed. Lance had slep-
“KEITH!” Lance held onto either of Keith's shoulders, shaking him awake.
Keith woke up like a flash of lighting, sitting straight up and clocking Lance right in the chin. Lance's hand flew to his face to hold the damaged area.
“Lance” Keith's voice broke over the ‘a’, a warm feeling came over him as he took in a deep breath.
“Dude are you alright, I could hear you from the other side of the wall, I thought these things were soundproof.” Lance put his hand flat on the wall, Keith watched in dismay.
“You could h-hear me?” he gulped, frazzled at what he possibly could have been saying. He hardly even remembers what was happening in his dream
“Yeah you were… yelling.” Lance hesitated
“Yelling?”
“Well not like screaming but, you sounded like you were dying it was really weird.” Lance sat on the edge of Keith's bed, reaching his arms behind him to prop himself up, stretching out his spine.
“Must have had a bad dream or something.” Keith said, still dazed.
“Allura told me to come check on you, we were worried.” Lance said into the air, which was much clearer than Keith had gotten used to.
“Holy shit how loud was it?” Keith ran fingers through the top of his hair, fluffing it up.
“She called you down but you didn't respond so we assumed you were just getting ready.”
“For what?”
“Some bonding exercise, I thought we wouldn't do those again but since we had trouble forming Voltron during the battle yesterday she is worried our relationships are falling apart. You not showing up probably worried her more.”
It was just then that Keith noticed Lance was in his paladin armor, the bed sunk near his own feet which made sense from the extra weight. “Fuck, she already hates me. She is probably gonna blame the whole incident on me.” Keith pulled his hands down his face, dragging his lips until he let himself fall back onto the pillow.
“Relax man, she will let it go. I could just tell her you have a migraine and that's why, she might think you’re brain damaged but it wouldn't really surprise anyone honestly.”
“If you dont leave now im gonna get a migraine either way, no reason to have to lie.” Keith smirked from under his shaggy mullet.
“Ha-ha, very funny.” Lance tried to hold back a smile from sarcasm. “Just come down to the training deck soon.”
“What are we even doing? Maybe I could milk this concussion and avoid it all together.”
“Ugh, it's so boring, we are doing the mind reading thing while someone is talking to us, like a buddy system. I wish I got to skip too.” Lance groaned, standing up off of Keith's bed.
“Just stay and pretend that I needed help or something.” Keith offered, yawning and getting out of bed.
“Help with wha-” Lance trailed off, watching Keith strut to his bathroom in his signature black shirt paired with black boxers. His shirt hugged his back muscles when he lifted his arms above his head to stretch. His calves became more defined with each step before he closed the door to the bathroom. Lance sat back down on Keith's bed until his back touched the wall.
Keith's head poked out of the bathroom, “Tell Allura we will be down in like ten minutes.” the door shut again.
Lance cleared his throat before turning on his comm and informing Allura about their situation
“Take your time, Coran is…eager to be a part of the bonding.” Allura responded, her voice tired and wary already.
“Sounds great, you should join in too, it might be fun.” Lance offered.
“I am not a paladin of Voltron.” Allura responded, her tone fair
“Neither is Coran, you can't keep excluding yourself. Hunk would probably be happy to be your partner.” Lance sighed, coaxing Allura into participating.
“I suppose.” Allura said begrudgingly, a long exhale escaped with the cut off of her intercom. She was prone to assume everyone thought of her as the princess and not an equal, she was treated with the equality of a friend but the respect of a princess, sometimes they went interchangeably to her disadvantage.
Lance took off his helmet and set it on Keith's pillow. the sound of struggling echoed from the small crack under the bathroom door.
“shit.” a small voice whispered under its breath.
“You okay in there Keith?” Lance called out, hearing louder clangs he began towards the door, pressing his curious ear against it.
“I’m… fine” Keith said breathlessly, more grunting came shortly after
“...are you sure? you sound like something's wrong?” Lance wasn't buying it, he knew Keith well enough to know he would never admit if he needed help
“this stupid chest plate would click in place!!” Keith admitted, halfway embarrassed but mostly irritated.
“Want me to help?” Lance was cautious with his words. If he had phrased it as a command; ‘let me help you.’ He would've been shooed out of the room.
“...”
no immediate rejection? No yelling?
“...yes.” it was a flat response, but the door unlocking with a delayed click was invitation enough
Lance didn't give Keith enough time to change his mind before swinging open the door and hopping inside. Keith stood in partial humiliation and lack of chest plate. The black undersuit hugged his torso tightly, defining the puff of his muscles and indents of his shape. The chest shell was sitting on the countertop with Keith sulking over it in frustration, he couldn't seem to shake the dream out of his head. Lance grabbed the hard shield and instructed Keith to hold his arms slightly up and out. He obliged and tilted his head for the best angle. The chest plate was stubborn and didn't go on after multiple tries from different angles, positions, nothing would work.
“Okay hold still im gonna try and force it.” Lance declared, bracing himself to put his whole might into this shove.
“How am I supposed to get it off then!” Keith screeched.
“Thats a problem for later, Keith! Hold still!” Lance, being one for dramatics, might've been blowing the urgency out of proportion. Nevertheless, Keith stood still and squeezed his eyes shut, scrunching his nose bracing for impact.
Lance stood on his tip-toes and grunted, pushing the item over Keith's head, making it almost past his shaggy mullet before his feet slipped, toppling both of them over. Keith hit his head on the shower door with a bang followed by a curse under his breath. Lance flailed on top of him, his limbs falling loosely over his body. They were both breathing heavily, recovering from whatever fall damage they had just taken. It wasn't soon after that they realized their… position. Lance awkwardly cleared his throat and stood up, brushing himself off after being back on two feet. He held a hand out for Keith to grab onto, which he ignored. It took them another moment to realize the chest plate was, in fact, over his head and attached to his upper body.
“Told ya it would work.” Lance smirked, receiving a much deserved eye roll from his friend.
“Shut up.” Keith turned away fast enough to hide the smile growing on the corners of his mouth. Lance pretended not to see it so it wouldn't ruin his pride.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
“Peanut butter, peanut butter cookies, peanut butter and chocolate…” Coran said repeatedly, trying to distract Pidge. Her intergalactic headbands showed a hologram of the green lion, it glitched every few seconds. Her face visibly disturbed every time it would hitch.
“Coran, you are supposed to be distracting. Those are things she likes!” Alllura gibed
“We are getting the basics down.” Coran argued, his mustache puffy to match his aggravation.
“Try to trip her up once and awhile.”
“alright…peanuts!”
The picture faded immediately, Pidge grumbled and opened one eye, mentally flipping the bird. She had quickly found out the middle finger in Altea had no meaning therefore making it overall pointless to use when someone got on her nerves, which most of the time was Coran. She was determined to find an alien gesture with the same effect.
Hunk and Shiro were struggling, Shiro was telling Hunk a child's tale he had read in the Altean library hidden on the castle ship. It was most comparable with Hansel and Gretal, except there was no witch or house of candy.
“Then she children would leave Beizd crumbs as a trail for when they would return hom-”
“Wait a second.” Hunk was missing the point of the exercise by flipping his eyes open and scratching his chin, “What's Beizd? Is that like bread? Or some type of cake?”
“Hunk, focus.” Shiro was getting tired, anxious for the return of Keith and Lance.
“alright fine, keep going.” Hunk closed his eyes again.
“...return home, but just then a Tunple-”
“Okay, what are these words!” Hunk flung his arms in the air, exasperated that he wasn't very good at this practice.
“You're missing the point, you need to clear your head of these distractions. try to tune me out next time." Shiro was kind, showing compassion when he was truly enraged at the insubordination of his teammates. He was hesitant to ask Coran if they could switch partners.
Allura sighed watching her peers interact, they were all sitting in a stalemate, waiting for the two boys to arrive.
like magic, the doors to the training deck slid open, lance was in the middle of some story about his nephews back on earth and keith was sporting an annoyed expression, same old lance, same old keith.
“Keith.” There was joy and relief in Shiro's voice, as if saying finally
“Keith, are you feeling any better? How is your head?” Allura reached her hand up to hover above Keith's head before he awkwardly ducked out of the way.
“Good, Lance helped me get back on my feet after a weird dream.” Keith gave credit, also in the process trying to shift the attention onto his friend. It did not go to plan.
“aw Keith! you lovable little dork!” Lance wrapped his arms around Keith in adornment.
“get off me.”
“Paladins, now that you all are here,” Allura brought the attention back to the task at hand. “we need to discuss the next plans to defeat Zarkon and the Galra race.” a small shift of eyes led in keith's general direction. God, it stung everytime they did that. “the evil Galra race, the ones working for Zarkon. We can use help from the Blades and our allies.”
“Does this mean…” Pidge stood up, a light reflecting off her glasses didn't hide the sparkle in her iris.
“We are finally going to defeat Zarkon.” Shiro finished.
“This is huge. Does that mean we will be able to go home?” Hunk's voice was yearning, it broke Allura's heart to think of being so far from home, she tried to have empathy and be grateful the paladins had offered her a place on their home planet. Coran too, obviously.
“I know not when or…if we will return to Earth. what i am aware of is that it isn't a completely out of bounds idea.” Allura wasn't one to lie to the paladins, especially about such a sensitive topic such as the thought of going home.
“We shouldn't get our hopes up.” Kieth chimed in. He could've worded it differently and more…hopeful but what else would anyone expect from him?
“We take it step by step, focus on the task at hand, like Allura said.” Shiro shot her a glance, a content smile washes across both their faces.
“so…what's the first step?” Lance spoke up, eager to see his family again.
“We need to go to Altea.”