Chapter Text
"we need to do something about zarkon. the quintessence has corrupted his mind, it won't take long until he decides to kill us all."
the voices echo through the long, quiet hallways of the castle, grabbing the attention of the young altean prince, who left his chambers to grab something to drink. he sneaks closer to the room where the voices are coming from and takes a small peek. he recognizes them immediately, his father and the paladins of voltron. he quickly hides again behind the wall.
"what could we possibly do? if zarkon decides to attack, we will be at a huge disadvantage." "we still have the lions." king alfor chimes in after keeping quiet for the entire conversation. "zarkon doesn't have access to the black lion anymore, while we still have ours." the king stands up from his seat and approaches the rest of the paldins. "yes alfor, but we can't form voltron. he has entire fleets of galra crusaders, while we only have 4 separate lions."
the prince listens carefully. he's known zarkon for his entire life, he was basically an uncle to him, it's incredibly hard to accept the possibility that he might attack altea. he swallows as an attempt to get rid of the knot that has formed in his throat.
"you're underestimating the strenght of our lions, trigel. but, if you believe it to be safer, we should start making a backup plan, in case we end up cornered." the other paladins agree and sit down to start planning for the worst case scenario.
the prince can't listen to any of this anymore, so he quietly rushes thowards his room, hoping it was all a bad dream. as he opens his door, he hears a voice from behind.
"lance? what are you doing up at this time?" he quickly turns towards the tired voice. his sister stands in front of him, rubbing her eyes. "allura" he chuckles nervously "you scared me. i... uhm... i was just getting something to drink" the princess immediately notices the nervous tone in lance's voice. "you're lying to me." allura's eyes narrow as she slightly glares at her brother. "no i..." he lets out a deep sigh before looking at his sister with a guilty expression. "i really went to get something to drink but then... i heard our father and the paladins of voltron talking..." "you evesdropped on the paladins?!" allura tries not to scream at him. "wait- wait please let me tell you what i've heard." the princess lets out a deep sigh before letting the prince talk. lance explains everything he heard, from zarkon's corruption, to the lack of troops on their side.
"zarkon might attack altea...?" allura covers her mouth with her hand "you better not be joking lance." "i'm not, i swear." the siblings keep quiet for a few moments before the princess finally breaks the silence. "we should go to sleep, i'm sure our father and the paladins will think of something." lance agrees. they both go back to their rooms but neither of them manages to get any sleep.
the night was just the quiet before the storm. as the sun rises, explosions start outside of the castle. lance runs out of his room, sprinting thowards allura's. as the door opens, the prince sees his sister in front of the window. as he approaches her, the horrifying sight of destruction presents itself before them. alteans running for their lives as building collapse, engulfed by flames.
"allura..." she turns thowards the prince "lance we need to find our father." her voice filled with horror and urgency. lance quickly nods and they start running towards the entrance of the castle.
"LANCE, ALLURA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? GO BACK INSIDE RIGHT NOW" king alfor screams, protecting his children from the galran soldiers. "FATHER WE CAN'T LEAVE YOU HERE. WE-" allura feels a hand on her shoulder. she turns, startled. "coran we-" "there's no time princess, we need to go" coran signs the siblings to follow him inside. the two hesitate before finally complying.
they quickly get to the command center of the castle. "we need to activate the castle ship" the prince's eyes widen and he looks at his sister, who has the same panicked expression on her face. "coran we can't leave our people, our parents, here. they're gonna kill everyone-" "i'm sorry lance, king alfor has given us clear orders" coran clearly looks contrary to the king's decision, but doesn't oppose. "coran please there must be something we can do to help here instead of fleeing-" before allura could finish her sentence, the castle rises from the ground, slowly leaving the planet. allura runs to the window, banging her fist against it and screaming for her father. lance can't even say anything as he gets closer to the window, slowly sliding his hand down the glass.
a few minutes after leaving the atmosphere, a loud mechanical sound starts from far behind the ship. the siblings quickly look outside and the sight fills them with horror. world destroying cannons spanning across all of altea's skies, charging. before the realizations could hit them, they had already fired. their beloved world, their people, all gone within seconds. a huge energy wave hitting them, causing a turbulence.
"altea... our home planet... is gone..." allura says in between sobs. lance is still processing what happened "our parents... they're gone..." "there's no time, we need to get to the cryogenic chambers." coran says, trying not to cry too. "the castle of lions will take us to a safe place..." "and then what? what are we gonna do once we wake up? everything will still be... gone" the prince clenches his fists "lance, your father made you two the key to reunite voltron once new paladins will step forward. you need to survive for the universe to be saved one day." the siblings look at eachother, uncertain of coran's words. "one day you will avenge our planet."
they finally make their way to the cryogenic chambers, stepping in. lance takes a deep breath before feeling the cold engulfing his body and his consciousness slowly fading.
"what the hell just happened?" keith kicks open the box he was hiding in and looks around. he massages his shoulder before looking around the room.
he quietly makes his way around the hallways, finally finding a window. "this doesn't look like altea... what happened? why is the castle in space?" he looks around, confused. "i need to find what i came here for, hopefully i get payed extra after a trip in deep space" he sighs, sneakily making his way into a big room. "this must be the terminal. hopefully the information i'm looking for is here." he approaches the station and places a hand on it. 3 cells rise from the ground, slowly opening. "fuck this definitely isn't the terminal-" before keith could say anything else, a young guy falls in his arms. keith quickly puts him down and takes out his blade, pointing it at the altean. behind him, another 2 chambers open, revealing 2 other people. as they all open their eyes, keith points his blade to all 3, one after the other, to be sure they wouldn't attack him.
lance scratches his head before looking up at the person standing in front of him. "who are you-" his eyes quickly widen as he sees the blade in front of his face "you're galra" he quickly moves back, covering his face with his arm "who the hell are you three- hey you don't you there move" he turns to coran, who was trying to sneak towards the door. he signs him to sit back down and coran complies. "who the hell are we? who the hell are YOU? and why are you in our castle?!" lance says, annoyed by the galra man standing in front of him "lance, please don't make him angrier..." "lance? as in the altean prince?" he raises an eyebrow as he observes the guy in front of him carefully. "so you must be... princess allura?" keith turns to the princess as she nods. "you're not much of threat in an empty castle then" he lowers his blade, turning to coran "what about you old guy?" coran is now fuming but decides to avoid arguing with the galra. "i'm coran, the king's advisor." "so you're not a threat either, good." he puts his blade back in the scabbard and carefully observes the people in front of him. "and you are? you interrogated all of us but we still don't know who you are and why you're in our castle" allura glares at her brother, afraid the galra could still hurt them. keith completely ignores lance's questions, turning to coran. "hey king's advisor, why are we in space anyway? the castle was on altea, surrounded by guards like a varga ago." the three alteans look at eachother, suddenly remembering what happened, their faces filling with grief. "altea... was destroyed by zarkon's fleet... we are the last alteans remaining from the planet" "oh..." the galra man looks at them with a hint of compassion. "i get how painful it must be, i saw my own home planet being destroyed too" lance looks at the galra with a surprised expression, he didn't expect empathy from a member of the race who destroyed their planet, especially not one who threatened them just a few doboshes ago.
"this does compromise my job though..." the galra sighs talking under his breath. he turns to lance, finally willing to answer his questions. "my name is keith." "keith? doesn't sound like a galra name." lance says jokingly, allura glaring at him again, still untrusting of keith, while coran signs him to stop joking around. "because it's not a galra name, i picked it up from a planet i landed on during one of my past jobs. it's a good cover name." he chuckles, all three alteans surprised by the sudden relaxation of the guy. "huh..."
"i originally infiltrated the castle to gather intelligence for one of my employers, i'm a mercenary. but, since he's likely dead, i doubt i'm gonna get paid, so the job is off." he turns to the siblings, an idea sparking in his mind. "say, since you're stuck in space without anyone defending you, would you like a bodyguard?" lance and allura look at eachother, then at coran. the ginger man sighs and turns to keith. "well, i don't think we're gonna get much of a use out of the treasury in the castle, and some defense for the prince and princess would be ideal." "great then, i'll be your personal bodyguard." keith gives the two a slight smile as lance looks at him with a slightly unsure expression. he stands up from the ground, also helping his sister.
lance looks attentively at the galra they just hired as he escorts them to the command bridge. "so, keith..." keith turns slightly thowards the prince as he keeps walking. "mh?" "we know nothing about you." the altean observes him carefully. "you know i'm a mercenary, isn't that enough?" "i'd like to know more about you too, keith" allura chimes in, her guard still up, but her curiosity also showing clearly. keith sighs. "well then, what would you two like to know? i'll reply unless too confidential." lance notices the same formality and composure as their guards back on altea, despite him being quite aggressive earlier.
"well, first, how come you're not on zarkon's side? i thought the galra were extremely loyal." allura asks the question, even though it lingered in all three alteans' minds. "i am loyal, just not to one who would kill his own kin mercilessly. i haven't been on his side ever since the quintessence started corrupting the emperor's mind, and his kindness with it." lance and allura look at eachother, seeing this as a completely valid reason to stop serving someone, they had seen the shift of personality themselves after all. "how old are you? you seem pretty young for a mercenary." keith looks slightly surprised by the jump from topics. "i'm 19." "a year older than us" the princess replies, slightly surprised. she turns to her brother, who has the same expression on his face. "that's right." the twins keep asking questions to their new employee for the entire way, getting short answers, but still getting to know the galra a bit better.
they get to the bridge, coran quickly approaches the commands, checking how long has passed since they departed. his disappointment shows on his face as he realizes how far away they still are from their destination . "seems like keith here has awakened us barely 3 vargas into our voyage." the galra chuckles slightly. "my bad, you weren't exactly what i was looking for." lance observes keith, paying close attention to his movements. "i could open a wormhole, this would make our journey faster." allura says with a smile. she hasn't had the opportunity to open one in a long time. "great idea princess, the commands are all yours." coran makes way for the princess. as she steps on the platform, keith notices lance's eyes on him, but doesn't comment on it. it's clear to him that the prince rightfully doesn't trust him yet.
the wormhole opens and the castle of lions passes through. on the other side, a blue planet lays before their eyes, that's where king alfor thought they'd be the safest.
the castle finally lands on the new planet. it's a far cry from altea's landscapes, its flower fields, its beautiful cities, but they all figure they'll get used to it eventually. they'll eventually get used to altea not being there anymore too.
they decide to explore this new place with keith leading the way. "we don't know anything about this planet's creatures, are you sure you can take them in a fight with just that small blade?" lance expresses his worries, coming off as slightly rude, and earning himself a small glare from keith. "this small blade has slain more fierce creatures than you have probably seen in your life." lance clears his throat and looks away, not expecting this threatening reply. "good to know."
they keep walking for a while without encountering anything threatening, except keith's replies to lance's passive aggressiveness. "i'm kinda hungry..." allura sighs at her brother's complaints. "we should have some food back at the castle. shall we head back keith?" keith stops walking and turns to them. "yes, we've made sure nothing dangerous lives around here, we can head back." as they turn around to go back to the castle, lance stops them. "i want to see keith hunting something to eat." the others exchange confused looks as to why keith would need to hunt when food is a resource they have more than enough of. "i need to make sure he's actually good with the blade before putting my life in his hands." the prince crosses his arms. "you've been putting your life in my hands since we left the castle." "i... yes but i want to see you in action still." allura and coran look at eachother, knowing there was no way for lance to change his mind. "you do you lance, but we're going back to the castle. keith, do you mind escorting us?" the galra nods. they walk back to the castle of lions, and after the door closes, keith and lance head back into the forest.
"i know you don't trust me, but i can assure you i know how to handle hunting for food" the mercenary keeps looking forward while walking. "i'm gonna have to see it for myself, how can i trust your words? you're-" keith stops in his tracks, finally turning thoward lance while crossing his arms. "galra? is that what you wanted to say?" the prince gets quiet, looking away. "i thought so." he starts walking again, the next few minutes are silent, keith focusing on locating a prey while lance just looks at the floor, guilt slowly creeping up on him. "you know, one time, i was stuck on a planet similar to this." the altean looks up, not expecting the galra to speak. "i was alone for 3 weeks before someone picked up my distress signal. i had to hunt for my food and gather resources to survive the cold nights. the temperature excursion was insane, it felt like i was gonna turn into a block of ice." keith turns to him and chuckles. seeing him speak like that makes something shift inside the prince, maybe a newfound awareness of keith being an individual and not just a galra, or maybe something else. while reflecting on this something, lance ends up staring at the mercenary for slightly too long. "are you okay? did you freeze?" keith smirks at his own pun as lance snaps back to reality. "no i... i was just thinking and got... carried away in my thoughts..." lance tries to hide the embarrassment he's feeling after realizing how long his gaze lingered on the other.
suddenly, a few sticks crack behind a bush nearby. keith signs the prince to stay quiet as he slowly approaches the bush. a hog like creature is eating a few berries growing from the roots of a plant. he turns to lance and mouths "seems edible enough" before jumping the creature kinda cat style. the prince can't help but chuckle at that.
a few minutes of fighting later, they have a local specialty to eat. they're now quietly heading back thowards the castle. "hey i'm sorry for... assuming things based on you being galra..." keith turns to him, slightly surprised by the prince's words. "it's fine, really. you just lost your planet to my kin. i actually expected you to take longer to divide me from those who actually did it." he sighs, scratching the back of his neck. "it took me way longer to divide the alteans as a race from the destruction of daibaazal." the prince looks down with a hint of sadness and guilt in his eyes, but when he looks back at the galra, he sees him smiling gently at him. this takes lance extremely off guard, making his cheeks flush a little red. the rest of the walk is a comfortable silence, the altean stealing a few glances at keith.
"dinner is served." keith says, carefully laying the animal on the table. "wow keith you actually got a... something? what is this animal anyway?" the galra and the prince look at eachother and shrug. "a hog-thing..?" lance looks at the hog-thing, thinking for a moment. "allura we're on a new planet, how are we supposed to know what it is?" coran pops his head over from the next room. "well we could check the planet encyclopedia king alfor left for us." the 3 teens look at eachother quietly for a few seconds. "well that would have been great a few vargas ago when we went in the forest to make sure nothing dangerous lives nearby." "well i didn't think about it. but now i did, so follow me."
they follow coran to the terminal room. keith's first thoughts were how actually easy it was to get there and how the hell did he end up in the wrong room, but thinking back, he's kinda glad he went the wrong way. it takes them a few minutes to find the animal in the encyclopedia. "what is that name?!" lance looks at the page, extremely confused on the pronunciation. "seems like the name is in the local tongue, i'm unsure of how to say it too." allura at least tries, but, at this point, they all assume it's pronounced with sounds only the natives can make. "i'm gonna keep calling it hog-thing." lance crosses his arms in defeat as his sister and keith nod along. "well good, seems like it is edible! there's also a few recipes listed that we could try. i better get to the kitchen."
an hour or so later, they find themselves at the dinner table. there's a few different dishes with food made out of the hog-thing and after they taste them, it doesn't take long for it to finish.
"coran, you're actually a great cook." keith starts cleaning his plate in the sink. "well thank you keith. it's all thanks to my grandfather, he was the one who teached me how to cook. he actually made this castle too, a man of many talents." "he must have been great." keith chuckles. lance is sitting on his chair still, looking at keith, who's still talking to coran. ever since what happened in the forest, he can't shake this weird feeling in his gut every time he thinks about or looks at keith.
"lance, you're staring at keith." lance snaps back and quickly looks away. "i wasn't staring at anyone. you're seeing things allura. i was just... thinking and stuff..." the princess raises an eyebrow, definitely not buying it. "listen, i know you don't trust him because of what happened to altea-" "it's not like that, i know it's not his fault." allura raises her eyebrows in surprise while lance crosses his arms and looks away. "then why are you staring at him so much?" "i don't know." the prince slides down his chair, covering his face with his hands. "i don't know and it's extremely frustrating..." "lance, did something happen?" the guy debates in his head if he should actually tell his sister about the forest thing, and ultimately decides to cave in.
the prince tells her about the weird gut feeling he's been having since that conversation im the woods. "lance, do you think you might.." lance sits backs straight in his chair and tenses up. "absolutely not. i just met him, and also he's a guy. i'm not one of those... people." allura looks unsure at her brother's reply, but knows how he feels about these things, so she doesn't push it. "fine, you'll figure out that gut feeling eventually." allura stands up and walks back to her chambers while lance sits there, his body still tense. he can't help but still stare at keith, who's laughing while sharing stories with coran. his eyes wander around the galra's face. he has a pretty smile, and his hair covers his face just the right ammount. his gaze falls on keith's eyes as he turns towards the prince. they're a nice shade of purple, a really nice shade of purple. this might be lance's new favourite color. "hey lance, wanna hear more about my mission on altea? i got to travel around a bit before heading to the castle." lance snaps back once again, a slight red tint covering his cheeks. the prince crosses his arms, his fingers digging in his skin. "i'm... pretty tired actually. maybe another time..." keith looks slightly disappointed as lance stands up and leaves to get to his room.
as soon as the door to his room closes behind him, he falls to the ground. "fuck." he covers his face with his hands. "fuck. fuck. fuck. FUCK." he shakes his head, running a hand through his hair. "allura can't be right. i'm not one of those... fags." his eyebrows furrow while the memory of keith's smile comes back to him. he bites his lower lip slightly, trying to hold something, anything inside. he hits his head lightly with his fist, shaking his head again. "what am i supposed to do now? this is all wrong." lance tries to lay down on his bed, rolling around every few minutes, but he ends up not sleep a single minute during the following night, he can't help but think about keith's pretty eyes, while guilt courses through his entire body.
the next morning, lance drags himself to the kitchen, clearly exhausted by the sleepless night. "lance you look terrible." allura is shocked by the uncured appearence of her brother, which is extremely rare for him. "i barely closed my eyes last night." the prince lays his head on the table, trying to rest for a bit before eating breakfast, when a bowl is placed in front of him carefully.
"you should try to rest tonight, those eyebags don't suit you." keith chuckles as he sits down on the chair in front of lance's with his own bowl. the altean's cheeks slightly flush pink while he avoids the galra's gaze. "well, it's not like you should care." the prince starts playing a bit with the food in his bowl, not actually eating any. keith notices lance's weird behaviour, but decides to just observe him rather than point anything else out, but allura thinks it's best to do the opposite. "lance, you're acting extremely weird. and stop playing with your food." lance just sighs and starts actually eating. he can feel keith's eyes on him, which doesn't help him trying to overcome those wrong feelings. "is it about what i suggested yesterday? did you actually think about it-" lance's cheeks flare up extremely fast. "allura please stop talking. i told you it's not like that."
they keep going back and forth while keith seems extremely curious about this whole situation. as he observes the siblings' conversation, he happens to meet lance's gaze, which makes the altean stop talking for a few seconds to observe that beautiful purple again. allura obviously notices and calls him out on that. "could you stop longingly looking into keith's eyes for a second and actually answer my question?" a knot forms in the prince's throat and his heart starts beating fast because of the panic. "ALLURA." the comment makes him extremely embarrassed to the point of standing up and rushing outside of the kitchen to hide in the bathroom.
"what was that all about?" allura looks at keith as if he was genuinely stupid. "you're actually so clueless." the princess lets out a loud sigh. "whatever. he's gonna tell you when and if he wants to." she sits at the table, leaving the galra extremely confused, but he just shrugs it off as they keep eating, a bit of curiosity still brewing inside of him.
lance feels his heart beating fast in his chest as he tries to calm his breathing down. everything around him starts to become blurry. "why can't allura just keep quiet?" he hits himself in the head with his fist repeatedly. "i need to get over this as fast as possible. this is not right." he tries splashing his face with water to chill out a bit, but that doesn't really help. the sound of the faucet slowly fading out as heartbeat becomes so loud, he can feel it in his ears.
a sudden knock interrupts his panic attack, making everything go quiet. "lance?" the prince doesn't answer, he just covers his mouth, trying not no make a sound. "lance, i know you're there. can you tell me why you've been acting strange all morning?" the warmth that keith's preoccupation towards him makes him feel is just making everything worse. "go away keith." he says, with the knot in his throat almost suffocating him. "are you not feeling well? are you still upset about altea?" unfortunately, as much as lance would rather his destroyed home planet being his biggest worry, right now he has to think about problems he can actually solve. lance thinks for a second before realizing altea is actually a good excuse. "...yes i... i need a moment." a small sigh can be heard from outside of the door. "fine, come to me if you need anything." the prince doesn't respond, he just falls back on the floor, thinking about what he could do to make all this stop.
about an hour later, lance is finally feeling a bit better, still tired by the sleepless night, but capable of going on with his day. he opens the door, only to find keith sitting on the floor. the prince freezes while his cheeks flare up and, for a moment, he considers locking himself in the bathroom again. but that wouldn't make keith leave, would it? the galra's head turns to lance, those damn purple eyes looking into the altean's. "lance!" he stands up quickly. "are you feeling better?" lance is still standing frozen in the middle of the doorframe, shocked. "you waited for me to get out...?" "of course. i'm your bodyguard, it's my job to make sure you're doing fine." of course he didn't do it because he cared, it's his job. how could he care after knowing him for a day anyway? the altean gets annoyed at his head for letting his crush get to him. "of course." the two just stand awkwardly for a moment before keith interrupts the moment. "you haven't finished your breakfast. you got so little sleep, if you don't eat you're gonna collapse." lance nods as they quietly head back to the kitchen. lance finally eats his food, observing keith as he cleans his plate, just like the night before.
"hey allura, can i ask you something?" keith catches up to the princess, who's walking through the allways, trying to find something to ease the boredom with. "sure keith, ask me whatever. i'm quite bored anyway." the galra nods. "what's up with lance? he switched up for no reason." the princess is quite surprised keith hasn't caught up yet, but decides not to out her brother. "he does have a reason, it's just hard for him to explain." "can you though?" allura takes a deep breath. "it's not up to me to tell you. all i can say is that he's in a moment of..." she pauses, trying to find a term who wouldn't quite reveal her brother's feelings. "... self discovery? maybe a bit of a personal crisis too." keith tilts his head slightly, trying to make something out of the few hints he has been given. "huh..."
they keep walking for a few minutes without speaking, while the galra is thinking. "what do you think about lance?" the mercenary is quite surprised by the sudden question, he hasn't really thought about it. "well, it's a bit early to have a fully formed opinion on him, but i'd say he's a complex person. he's not as shallow as other royalty i met. not referring to you princess, of course." he chuckles. "i see... no other more feeling-wise opinions?" this is quite a risky question for allura to ask, but judging on the cluelessness keith has shown previously, she's quite confident he won't catch on. "feeling-wise?" keith thinks for a moment. "he's nice, well he was yesterday at least. i liked our talks in the forest. he's not of many words, but he makes those few count. having him around when he's not sleep deprived is actually quite warming." allura observes him carefully as he's saying this. honestly, she kinda wishes for her brother not to end up heartbroken, like with the girls he liked before. keith keeps talking. despite knowing lance for a day, he sure has a lot to say, and that makes the princess a bit more hopeful.
"you oberve people a lot, don't you keith?" the mercenary stops talking to think for a moment again, this seems to be a little habit of his. "i observe people i find interesting more carefully." "do you think lance is interesting?" keith replies without thinking. "i do. i feel like he has a lot to say that he keeps for himself. i like to get to know this kind of people the most." allura nods, happy that there's at least a slim chance her brother might finally have his good ending, if he gets over his homophobic complex first, of course.