Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The entire planet was in shambles. The people of Agnara had been under Galra occupation for centuries: completely dependent on their oppressors for all basic needs, but still only receiving just enough to keep most of them alive and working. Needless to say, the Agnarians were not in good shape when Team Voltron first arrived, but now their home had fallen too. Unfortunately, this had become all too familiar territory for their little team. They at least knew where to start with making things right for this planet, but that knowledge only came through trial and error- during the last however long they had been fighting this war.

Lance honestly couldn't keep track anymore, but he also suspected there wasn’t a definite answer. Time dilation, interstellar travel, alternate realities… it was just too much space absurdity for even the smartest of their team to try to make sense of. Lance started to focus on smaller units of time and quickly realized that just about anything could happen in a week, so why look much further than that?

For example, the past week had been one almost-sleepless blur. A week ago, he was on the Castleship, baking a cake with Hunk, with no urgent matters to attend to. One distress signal and a week later? Just in numbers- he piloted Blue for 19 hours straight before even landing on Agnara and took down 74 Galra ships in that time. The war continued to wage on after he touched down at the front lines. He shot down 22 more enemy soldiers before things calmed down enough for the team to handle their opposition more civilly. That was also too much for Lance to make sense of. At least at that point in the week they were all allowed naps on a strict rotating schedule. The mission got easier from then on, of course. Once the commotion died down and the team was reunited, there was nothing that could stop them from saving the day.

What Lance could make sense of, though, was that the tyrants were finally gone. After a week of fighting, the Agnarians were finally free to be their own people. Still, Lance couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. From where he stood, on a hilltop at the edge of the city, he could see nothing but the rubble and destruction that they would be leaving behind. The capital city, Hispida, was hit the worst out of anywhere else on the planet. It's where the Empire had built its primary station and most of the fighting had taken place. He knows beyond doubt that Voltron did the right thing by freeing this planet, but the people here will undoubtedly struggle more than ever in the coming days.

Lance sighed and threw himself back against Blue, who was also getting a well-deserved break upon this hilltop. He let himself slide dramatically down the lion’s metallic hull until he finally sank into the plush yellow grass. It was pretty close to Earth’s grass if he ignored the pillowiness of it all.

His thoughts were still pretty dark and dreary, but honestly, you wouldn't even know this place was just an active war zone, based on the citizens' high spirits. Lance could feel the relief flowing from every being he talked to today. They told him about the abysmal conditions the Galra Empire forced on them and how they could hardly process that any of this was happening. They told him how they thought Voltron was a fairy tale, or at least had more important things to do than save them. They all seemed thrilled for a fresh start, even with everything around them destroyed. He had heard the same sentiments from almost every planet they had saved, but he still didn't feel like they were doing enough. There was so much that these people needed. But the Agnarians are safe and happy for now, so that has to count for something.

The team had already spent nearly all of their first peaceful day on Agnara, handing out every last ration, medication, and item that could be used as a temporary shelter from the Castleship. Pretty much all of Hispida’s infrastructure was destroyed by the Galra soldiers during the battle, likely as a final “fuck you” to Voltron before they died for the cause (or in some cases, fled in fear in tiny pods, because the threat of Voltron had started to have that effect on the more cowardly soldiers). Lance knew that tons more resources were on the way- enough steady support from around the universe to get Agnara back on its feet and even to self-sufficiency in just a few years. This process had become commonplace, thanks to Coran and Allura’s endless coordinating with The Alliance.

He couldn't help but wish it could all happen faster, but he had come to learn that these things took time. He had to remind himself that they were always doing everything they could. He had to embrace the calamity that came along with their efforts. If Voltron stayed in one place for too long, they could lose entire planets and fall behind in their war efforts. He was constantly thankful that they now had The Alliance. It made weeks like this easier, knowing that someone would show up after they left and clean up the mess their lions had made.

“Hey team, Pidge and I are running late… We had a little disagreement about how to power the extenders and ended up getting a little ahead of ourselves. But, the good news is they have some pretty cool features!” Hunk’s voice in his helmet startled Lance out of his thoughts.

Lance switched his comms on to reply. “No problem, buddy! I’m the only one here so far, but I’ve got enough muscle to help you nerds unload the equipment when you land.” He smirks at the remark, idly flexing his overworked arms for his own amusement.

“Wow, thanks, Lance. You’d better warm up, though- each unit weighs a whopping 8 pounds. Wouldn’t want you to throw your back out.” Pidge snarked back instantly over the channel. Lance just sputtered back indignantly and mentally cursed their quick wit. Before he could come up with a decent reply, another familiar voice chimed in.

“I hate to interrupt the Lance slander, but I want to let you guys know that Shiro and I will be late, too. The kids at the orphanage talked him into bedtime stories, and we still haven’t finished unloading all the aid supplies.” Keith huffed into the comms, obviously lifting something heavy while giving the update.

“Aww, that's so cute! Shiro is secretly such a big softie.” Hunk cooed.

“Well, the big softie has left me to finish unloading by myself, so I’m not finding it very cute right now.” Keith forced out the word cute like he had never said it before in his life, and honestly, Lance wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.

“Well, well, well, looks like Lancey Lance is early for once. I’m like a beacon of responsibility over here, waiting for you guys.” Lance proclaimed while he picked at the spongy grass.

Keith immediately took the bait. “Just because we are all running behind doesn't make you early,” he deadpanned, like arguing with Lance was second nature at this point.

Lance just grinned. “Yeah, whatever, delinquents. I’ll be here when you guys decide to show up!” he said and clicked the comm back off, ensuring that he got the last word over Keith.

But then Lance was alone with his thoughts again. He didn’t consider before he did his witty sign-off… He supposed he could finish up his mental roundup of the week.

It probably wasn’t the most sophisticated method, but he liked to imagine neatly tying up all the dark thoughts- like the ones he had been having just moments ago- and literally throwing them away. Into a trash can, out of an airlock, into a volcano; doesn’t matter, they weren’t in his head anymore. With that out of the way, he would be able to move on and prepare himself to do the last of what could be done here. Then he would move on to the next mission. Easy. He usually did this part in the darkness of his room in the castle, frequently cutting into his beauty sleep and worrying about how little time was left until morning training. It felt kinda nice to get it over with early, instead of agonizing about it later.

Now that he had put the complicated thoughts behind him, he could go over the plan once more. He readjusted himself against Blue and allowed himself to rest his eyes for a moment. To help think, of course! Christ- he was tired, though. He didn't even realize until now that his arms were nearly numb after supporting his bayard and hauling supplies for so long. Lance huffed and begrudgingly opened his eyes again, just in case. He wouldn’t let himself stray off task, and he definitely couldn’t let the team show up to find him asleep on the job. He had a reputation he was fighting tooth and nail to repair.

All that was left for Voltron to do on Agnara was reconnect four vital transmission towers that were hit just outside of the city. Each paladin was to plug in an extender to the tower, while Shiro supervised on the ground and Allura and Coran ran connection tests from above. Once they have ensured that the Agnara were able to keep in contact with Voltron and their other new allies, the team would move on to the next planet in need. Lance almost started to wonder what they would face on their next mission, but had to stop himself again. For his own sanity, he's had to stop trying to guess, because he's literally in space and has learned the hard way that they have absolutely no basis for what to expect each day. All he could do was take it in stride.

He felt a little useless sitting here while the others were still finishing up. Team Punk had been off inventing vital technology all day. All he did today was move boxes of supplies into Blue’s cargo hold, deliver those boxes, and then return to the Castleship for more boxes. He was like a glorified deliveryman at this point.

In his opinion, though, Shiro and Keith had the toughest assignment today. They had been stationed at Hispida’s orphanage this morning, and those types of assignments always took a little bit more time and mental energy. It was a delicate situation, trying to comfort all of those children (and the few frantic adults in charge), without promising too much and disappointing them in the long run. Lance used to be put on Alien Ankle-Biter duty a lot in the beginning because he was naturally the best with kids. But it didn't take long for Allura and Shiro to realize that he was prone to getting distracted by (and attached to) the little ones, so he had been placed elsewhere recently. Everyone was shocked the first time Shiro suggested that Keith go with him to deal with the kids, but it turned out that the children love trying to break Keith's awkward demeanor. According to Shiro, it was a huge improvement for him, too, because the kids liked bothering Keith more than trying to disassemble Shiro’s robot arm.

Lance almost didn't believe it when he dropped off another load of supplies with Shiro earlier and saw Keith walking around with a toddler on each hip and a dozen more ragtag kids following him around like he was their hero. Lance was going to make some kind of smug remark about how Keith looked like a tired housewife, but then he noticed a bunch of the little braids in Keith's hair and bolted before he could give his brain time to analyze how that made him feel. He instantly decided to just write it off as jealousy and moved on- Keith refused to let Lance even touch his hair, but he would just let a bunch of grubby little kids go crazy on it!? Unfortunately, before Lance got out the door, Shiro gave him that look that made Lance think it was probably way too apparent how he actually felt. Fuck, Lance had to get better at hiding whatever that feeling was.

The blue paladin was once again startled out of his thoughts by his friends. The Yellow and Green Lions wooshed over him, producing a gust of air that could have knocked him off the hillside if not for his cozy spot against Blue. The ground trembled under the weight of their landing, and Yellow’s hatch immediately popped open- cuing Lance to push up off of Blue and to check out the cargo. He wondered what they could have possibly come up with this time. They had only been given a couple of hours to design and gather everything they needed for the project, but apparently pulled it off, as usual.

Lance strolled into Yellow’s cargo bay and was relieved to see only four toaster-sized boxes. Of course, they were sleek and glowing with otherworldly power, but still pretty small, considering the job. He was half expecting to be building literal cellular towers tonight. That wouldn't be the craziest thing he's had to do with nothing but his lion and his very annoying space family in his ear. This was going to be a piece of cake.

“Lance!” Hunk exclaimed as he hopped out of a hatch from above. He gathered Lance into a bear hug that lifted him off his feet. “How'd the last of the supply drop-offs go?” he said, backing away to give Lance enough air to reply.

“Easy as pie, man. Allura must be happy with me, ‘cause it was basically nothing. I’ve actually been hanging out up here for a while.” Lance bragged.

“Either that or she was tired of your complaining,” Pidge commented as they made their way up the ramp into the cargo hold.

Lance scoffed and prodded at one of the glowing rectangles in front of him. “So we just plug these in?” Lance asked.

Pidge swatted his hand away and pressed three fingers along the corner, causing a fabric strap to eject from the top. “We will have to calibrate them and run a few tests from the castle, but yeah, you just plug it in,” they grinned and lifted the extender by the strap, swinging it towards him semi-threateningly.

Lance quickly snagged the strap out of their hands and threw it over his shoulder like a purse. “Very portable,” he noted. “What about the tower parts? I saw them on my flight over, and they don't look functional at all.”

Pidge just shrugged. “Yeah, those are crumpled for now. The Agnarians will have enough supplies and manpower to build them back in a couple of weeks.” They grabbed the next box on the stack and held it up triumphantly. “But, these babies will put out a strong enough signal without needing the extra amplification.”

Hunk snatched the second box out of their hands and deployed the stap on it as well. “Technically, they will only be able to reach one galaxy over, but there are five other allied planets in that range, so it's good enough for now. They can at least send messages for the others to relay to us. Once the actual towers are back up, the range will be like six hundred times further.” He threw the box over his shoulder- purse style, of course-  and noticed Pidge giving him a dirty look. “It's still impressive! I'm just saying that the towers are an important part of the puzzle,” Hunk noted, while posing like a handbag model for Lance with his new accessory.

Lance couldn’t help but laugh as he continued to exchange increasingly ridiculous poses with Hunk. “Are you sure we don’t need to get some kind of tower action going before we leave?” he pondered halfheartedly. He really didn’t want to sign up for extra work, but if it needed to be done…

Pidge rolled their eyes at their antics and grabbed yet another box. “Well, I doubt Allura has enough free time on our schedule for us to teach you and Dr. Death Defying how to build Deep Space Network antennas, so this will have to do for now.” They reluctantly deployed the strap on the box and held it awkwardly in front of themself, obviously trying to discourage the purse pantomimes.

“I take offense to that! I got an A- in Basics of Engineering, and my Tio is a lineman!” Lance said. The other two paladins give him unimpressed looks. “Okay, fine, maybe I'm not qualified to build space towers, I get it.” He poked at the last extender box until the strap came out and swung it over his other shoulder. Lance his way out of the cargo hold while Pidge and Hunk followed along, talking about some last-minute logistics. He couldn’t follow along with the more advanced technobabble, so it was easier to tune it out when he knew it was beyond his capabilities.

As soon as he was back outside, he lugged both of the boxes down onto the ground between Yellow and Green. He watched as they bounced strangely on the grass for a moment- man, this grass was really throwing him off. The boxes weren’t necessarily heavy- 8 pounds each, according to Pidge- but he was already so tired. He wondered if that was how his mama felt all those years while she ran errands with an overflowing purse and diaper bag- and no less than 5 children in tow. Actually, she probably had it worse, he reasoned.

He looked at the two boxes in front of him and realized that he had unconsciously decided to take responsibility for Keith’s. It's probably not that deep, but he really hoped that no one else would acknowledge it. Not that there was anything to acknowledge, or any particular reason he would do that, or that he would care if anyone did notice.

Wow, very convincing, Lance. Keep up the good work. He mocked himself in his own head.

Damn, he needed some more sane coping mechanisms.

“Okay, team, Keith and I just now managed to get out; the kids really didn't want to let us leave.” Shiro’s exhausted voice droned through the comms.

“We are heading back to our lions. Should be less than 10 doboshes, if the map’s calculations are right.” Keith added on in the feed.

Lance turned to give Pidge a smug look and pointed to his helmet, as if to say Watch this. “Sure thing, Dr. Death Defying." Pidge just rolled their eyes again and plopped down against Green’s paw.

The pause was long enough to make Lance wonder what the hell Pidge was referencing and if maybe it had been offensive, but then Keith finally spoke up. “The future is bulletproof. The aftermath is secondary. It's time to do it now and do it loud.” Huh? It sounded like Keith was reciting a well-known poem, but Lance had no idea what it was from.

“Not this again.” Shiro groaned, and with that, a little bloop sounded off to signal he had left the channel.

“Killjoys, make some noise!” Pidge cackled into their comms, absolutely delighted by Keith’s lackluster performance.

“Yeah, I figured you were the one who put him up to that.” Keith chuckled fondly and blooped out of the conversation.

As soon as they were all off the line, Lance whipped over to Pidge. “What was that?! Since when do you and Keith have inside jokes?” he pointed down at Pidge accusingly.

“Actually, I think those were just My Chemical Romance lyrics.” Hunk pushed past Lance and joined Pidge to lounge under the shade of their lion. The green paladin nodded, but then looked taken aback by Hunk’s unexpected musical knowledge. He just laughed and clarified, “My cousin Lelei had a pretty intense emo phase. I don't know all the lore and stuff, but the music is pretty fun,” he explained as he stretched out against Green’s giant paw.

“Wow, I'm kind of impressed.” Pidge hummed in approval before turning back to Lance. “Anyway, Dr. Death Defying is a character from one of their Albums. I figured you'd steal the nickname, but his reaction was way better than I expected. Extremely monotone, but I'll take what I can get.”

Lance moodily dropped to the ground across from them. “That's stupid, since when do albums have characters?” Lance pouted. He dug his boot into the grass and tried to reach solid dirt. He needed something to fidget with; something to keep his body busy and his mind off the topic he could feel them inevitably approaching.

“Hey, I get that you're jealous because Keith liked someone else's joke, but you don't have to take it out on MCR.” Hunk teased as he nudged Lance’s boot with his own.

“I'm not jealous!” Lance insisted, crossing his arms and shoving back at Hunk’s foot.

“Please, you've been practically begging for his attention since the night we found Blue.” Pidge pointed out, already scooting away from Lance’s long legs to avoid retaliation.

He attempted to kick at them, but Hunk swiftly pinned Lance’s ankle with his own. “I’d say longer than that, honestly. You should have seen how he acted at the Garrison before Keith left. He would tune out entire lectures because he was too busy staring.” Hunk gossiped to Pidge, like Lance wasn't right there.

“I wasn't staring at him. I was fantasizing about kicking his butt at the Flight Simulator!” Lance jerked his leg away out from under Hunk’s hard enough to set his friend off balance and stuck out his tongue. It was a bit childish, but it got the point across.

Hunk was unbothered by the slight and just grinned. “You were fantasizing about something, alright.” Pidge found it hysterical- laughing so hard that it made them fall back against the green lion’s hull and slide over into Hunk’s side.

Was it really that funny? Sure, they had a point, but Lance was really trying to keep it together here! Back at the Garrison, he wasn’t even aware that his obsession with Keith blurred with infatuation. He genuinely was that clueless. Hell, it even took him a few months in space to really understand what was happening. He hadn’t allowed himself to put a name on that feeling, but he wasn’t completely stupid- despite what the rest of the team may think.

But Keith was his friend now! They got along more often than not, even if it still sounded like constant bickering to everyone else. More importantly, it felt different recently. It felt like Keith finally wanted to be his friend, too. He wasn’t great at showing it at first, but what other explanation was there when Keith Fucking Kogane was inviting you to the training deck (or the pool, or the observatory, or to work on Red) every day you’ve had off for the past few weeks? Lance technically had everything his 15-year-old self ever wanted! He was a Fighter Pilot working under Takashi Shirogane, on an important mission with his best friends, one of whom was- did he mention- Keith Fucking Kogane! The stakes were unbelievably high. He couldn’t just acknowledge that he had a huge crush on the guy; it would literally ruin everything.

Fuck. He just admitted it to himself, didn’t he?

Lance let out a horrible groan of frustration and realized he was pulling at his own hair. Hunk looked a little shaken by the reaction and more than a little remorseful for the teasing. He tentatively reached out to pat Lance’s knee and gave him a sheepish smile. “Sorry, man, I know it's a sensitive topic. I got caught up and went too far.” Hunk nudged Pidge, not so subtly hinting that they should apologize too, but they just got a determined look in their eye. God, sometimes Lance couldn’t wait until they grew up a little. He loves the kid, but sixteen-year-olds are mean.

“If you've liked him for that long, why haven't you done anything about it? Do you need our help or something?” Pidge shot back up in excitement and continued before Lance could even get a word in. “Oh, I got it! I can lock you guys in the elevator again!” Lance wasn't even surprised that they thought that was a good idea.

"No, Pidge, that's deranged- and I never said I like him.” He covered his face in exasperation- and also embarrassment- but peeked through his fingers in search of Hunk’s support. “Hunk, buddy, back me up here,” he whined.

Hunk looked conflicted, but ultimately frowned and shook his head. "Sorry, man, you know where I stand on the matter. I know you have issues with it, but you can’t just ignore it forever. That has to be bad for your brain, or your heart, or something." Lance gave another pained moan and dissolved fully into cushy grass.

Yeah, he did know where Hunk stood on the matter. He made it very clear a couple of weeks ago, while Lance was lying on the floor of his room and venting about Keith. Hunk very politely proposed the idea that Lance was maybe way too into Keith to keep denying it. He also heavily implied it was a little rude for Lance to keep denying it to his best friend, who had to listen to him gush about Keith all the time. Lance, of course, denied knowing what he was even talking about- which Hunk told him was completely ridiculous. Hunk was so frustrated that he set an ultimatum: Lance could admit to his feelings or shut up about Keith. Lance knew his friend was just trying to help, but he just couldn’t do that. He hadn’t even let himself address the situation in his own head; there was no way he was going to be able to say it out loud. So, Lance promptly shut up.

He had regretted that decision more than a couple of times recently, but he wasn't going to give in now. He hoped that Hunk wasn’t taking it personally, because that night was the closest thing to a fight that they had ever had. It was all his fault, honestly, for being so emotionally constipated. But he had a lot going on, with the Space War and all! He didn’t want to humiliate himself by admitting to anyone- even his bestest friend- that he had hopelessly unrequited feelings for Keith. On the other hand, he hasn’t had anyone to rant to about Keith for a while, and it was really starting to boil over. Especially with all the extra time they had been spending together.

Hunk smiled reassuringly and gently poked Lance in the arm. "All you have to do is admit you like him, and I'm all ears again." Then, Hunk looked over at Pidge and mock-whispered, "I gotta be honest, I kind of miss him waxing poetic about Keith's silky mullet." He did air quotes and everything, as if that was something Lance actually said!

"I never called his mullet silky!" Lance protested. He was glad he was staring up at the sky, because he could feel the blush really start to overtake his face and ears.

Hunk smiled even wider, like Lance had walked straight into his trap, "Yeah, you're right. What you actually said was that when we get back to Earth, you’re going to buy Keith the five most expensive conditioners you can find to see which one makes his hair the silkiest." Hunk smugly clarified, while Pidge was already on the ground cackling again.

Fuck. Okay, Lance might have actually said that. It sounded completely ridiculous in retrospect, but at the time he was definitely making some kind of valid point. Lance sighed and sat back up across from his two tormentors. "Dude!! That was a private conversation- plus I'm pretty sure you’re taking that completely out of context."

"Sure, man." Hunk sat back against Green and folded his arms. "All I'm saying is the situation is pretty dire. You cut me out, so maybe Pidge does need to get involved. You obviously aren't going to do anything about it, even though he's totally into you."

Hunk and Lance’s eyes both went wide at the slip, while Pidge’s laughter suddenly cut off in the background. Lance tried to steady himself before speaking.

“Yeah, right. I know you guys have your theories, but it's not like he told you that.” He studied both of his friends carefully, but neither replied. “He didn’t actually say that, right?” They may be two of the smartest people in space, but he was not about to just take their word for it.

Pidge and Hunk both stayed quiet in response to that. Lance was completely shocked at how fast both of their demeanors changed from unashamed teasing to nervous silence. They just gave each other sideways glances, communicating something that Lance wasn't in on. He was going to go insane if he didn’t get an answer.

“Oh my god. What does that mean?” Lance pointed an accusing finger at both of them, moving it back and forth to signify the hesitant exchange he could clearly see happening.

Hunk broke first. “I mean, he didn't say that to me specifically, but- OW.” Pidge elbowed Hunk right in the ribs and gave him a dirty look. Lance wanted to ask a million follow-up questions, but two roars sounded overhead. He looked up to see Black and Red arriving, on course to land next to the other three lions.

“Oh, thank Alfor, they're here.” Pidge hopped up, happy for the subject change- even though they were the one who started this whole thing in the first place.

Lance frantically scrambled up to the yellow paladin before he could get up and away from the conversation. “Hold on! Hunk, who told you that?” he pleaded, belatedly realizing he was probably coming across as super desperate. The ground shook a little from the force of the two giant mechs landing next to them, but he didn't let it distract him from his goal.

“Gosh, I'm really sorry, man. I think I already said too much.” He looked truly sympathetic, and Lance knew it wouldn't be right to pressure him for more information. He couldn’t corner sweet Hunk like this. So he stood up and set his sights on The Gremlin.

“Pidge, you have to tell me if Keith said something to you! It's like entrapment or something if you don’t at this point!” he begged as he followed them back over to the stack of extenders.

They just gave him a genuinely pitying look and then glanced behind him at the brothers who had just arrived. “Sorry, Lance, you know I can’t do that. Feel free to take it as a huge, glaringly obvious hint, though.” They awkwardly pat him on the shoulder, then ran past him to greet their friends.

Chapter Text

“Okay, Paladins, we’re running behind, and we don't have a lot of daylight left. Thankfully, Hunk and Pidge have pulled together a pretty simple solution to Agnara’s transmission problems, so this shouldn't take very long.” Shiro started the briefing as he sternly poked around his tablet. He seemed annoyed at himself, probably because he was usually never behind schedule.

He stood there for a moment trying to get the relevant instructions pulled up, and the other four paladins automatically gathered around and straightened up. Shiro’s calm but commanding tone tended to sober them up faster than the castle’s alarms at this point. Keith, the best little soldier of them all, stood next to him, listening to Shiro’s every word like his life depended on it. Lance found it hard to blame him because most of the time their lives did depend on listening to Shiro’s every word. But right now? Keith’s listening face was way too intense. His brows were furrowed, and his lips were pressed into a thin line. Had this guy ever relaxed? Lance leaned a little on the toaster tower while he examined Keith’s expression. He could almost feel Pidge’s disapproving scowl in his peripheral, but decided that he owed their little boxes no respect at this point.

Shiro’s tablet finally spat out a small holographic map in front of them. The map was obviously simplified to reflect only what they needed to know for their mission, probably thanks to Coran. Their poor human brains could only handle so many new measurement systems and reality-shattering scientific discoveries. Coran must have realized this pretty early on, because he quickly stepped up as their cultural filter and translator. For someone who loved Alien mumbo-jumbo, he was also very good at disentangling excess information that could slow the mission down (or completely stop the more scientifically minded paladins in their tracks). The map before them showed their current location and four marked spots in the shape of a rectangle, presumably the towers.

“I will remain here, at the initial meeting point, with the lions. The towers are in bad shape, so this is as close as we could land without risking further damage.” Shiro stated, pointing at their spot on the map. “I'll be assisting the Castleship in establishing a connection with the extenders and running diagnostics. I'm also here to be a central contact point between all of you, so please reach out if you need anything.” He paused and looked around to make sure the message was received.

By now, everyone on the team has had instances where they should have asked for help, but chose not to. It was almost funny because this part of the speech used to only be directed at Keith. But at this point, Shiro had realized that all of his paladins had developed their own complexes that kept them from reaching out for whatever reason. Coming of age in a war would do that to a person. It was honestly impressive that Shiro was able to guide them all through it so well. Lance was still a little offended, though, when Shiro’s gaze snagged on him longer than the others. Shiro had tried to talk to Lance about his supposed inferiority complex, but that felt a little ridiculous. You couldn't look at the rest of the team- magical ancient aliens, child prodigies, greatest pilots of their generation- and tell Lance he was anything but a realist. He could keep up with the team, he could be there to support them, but he wasn't irreplaceable like the rest of them.

Shiro moved on, apparently satisfied with their nods and mumbles of agreement, and shifted so he was pointing toward the towers to the left of them on the map. “Pidge and Hunk will go to these two towers. The first one is approximately a mile west of here. Once you arrive, one of you will stay and the other will go another half mile directly north to the second tower.” Pidge and Hunk nodded in confirmation.

Shiro turned his attention to the red and blue paladins. “Keith and Lance will follow the same directions, but to the east.” He pointed to the other side of the map, showing two identically spaced location markers. “Each one of you will bring an extender to plug into your tower. Our readings show that the base infrastructure should still be stable enough to connect. Once it's plugged in, Allura and Coran will be doing most of the work from the Castleship.”

He turned off his tablet, taking the holographic map with it, and sighed. “It's been a long week, and you guys have been working hard. We just have to wrap this up with one more low-stakes mission. Take a walk, plug in your box, and just hang out until the readings are clear. After that, we can all get back to the castle and crash for a while. Allura said it will take a couple of days- well, quintants- to get to our next stop, so I'll take that as a well-deserved vacation for all of us.”

The team sluggishly picked up an extender each and parted ways. Lance trailed behind Keith, who had been the first to grab a box and head off. It was kind of funny how Keith always walked with so much magnitude, like nothing could stop him, no matter how serious the situation actually was. Lance thought it was arrogance at first, but he had come to realize that Keith was just like that- purposeful in every move he made. Lance also didn’t mind the view when he inevitably ended up following Keith around on missions like a lost puppy.

Okay, maybe he was accepting this whole crush thing too fast. He couldn’t just be acknowledging Keith’s ass now; that’s a problem for so many different reasons. Lance was already jittering with nerves at the idea of being alone with Keith. He tried to reason with himself that it was technically nothing new, but he couldn’t stop thinking about what Hunk had said. Did Keith like him? Pidge said to take it as a hint, so he let himself theorize for once. He kept replaying the last bit of the conversation in his head, trying to be as rational as possible. But the only logical conclusion was that Keith told someone on the team that he liked Lance, and the news had gotten back to Hunk. Hunk was secretly the biggest gossip on the team, so it made sense that he would get excited and let something like that slip.

Lance couldn’t be getting his hopes up like this.

“You're being awfully quiet back there,” Keith said, glancing over his shoulder at Lance.

Lance was caught off guard, but quickly had an idea, “Yeah, I’m trying to figure out how you're going to fix whatever those kids did to your hair,” he quipped. It wasn’t a complete lie; he was multitasking by checking out Keith’s ass and mullet.

Keith immediately deflated in frustration, like he had already been very aware of the damage. “I am not looking forward to undoing all of this tonight. I swear one kid was weaving in pieces of straw.”

Lance jogged forward to catch up with Keith and tried to act as casual as possible before making his proposal. “Ya know, I could help you sort it out.”

“How did I know you were going to say that?” Keith scoffed. Lance was almost hurt, but Keith had that smirk on his face again. The one that always appeared when he was giving Lance a hard time for fun, not rivalry.

Lance took that as encouragement to keep pushing. “I'm just saying! I used to do my sisters’ hair all the time, so I know what I'm doing,” he reassured.

“So you've told me a hundred times since we've been in space,” Keith pointed out.

“A hundred times and you still haven't let me help you with that bird's nest.”

“Calling it a bird’s nest isn't helping your case.”

“I mean, there are twigs in there right now soooooooo…” Lance teased. 

“I'll pass. I can just cut them out if I need to; it doesn't make a difference.” Keith gestured to his Marmoran blade, and Lance honestly couldn’t tell if that was a joke or if Keith actually cut his hair with a shapeshifting alien sword.

“What? No! You can't just hack at it!” Lance chided.

“Why not? It's just a couple chunks.” Keith appeared serious now, groping around at the most tangled parts of his hair, seemingly trying to decide which chunks to cut off.

“You'd rather cut chunks out of your hair than let me help? It seems like you're afraid of me at this point, Red.” Lance challenged him. A challenge was always the best way to get what he wanted out of Keith.

“It seems like you're a little too desperate to get your hands in my hair.” Keith accused with a smirk. Wait, was he flirting? That definitely came off as a little suggestive, but Keith was just trying to rile him up. Honestly, a lot of the “bickering” they've done while hanging out the past few weeks could count as flirting if it were anyone but him and Keith saying it.

Hang on. Had they been flirting with each other this whole time? What the fuck was happening?

Lance didn’t even realize he had stopped walking until Keith was about ten paces in front of him. Keith turned around and raised his eyebrows, prompting Lance to give some kind of reply. Lance’s mouth went dry while Keith studied him. Fuck, he forgot to even deny the hair thing, but it was too late now.

Keith just shook his head disapprovingly. “See, now you're acting all weird. Maybe I’d let you touch my hair if you were less suspicious about it.”

“I'm not suspicious!” He was finally able to get out. Then his brain booted back up. He marched right up to Keith, poking him in the chest. “You're the one who's making it a big deal. I'm like soooo casual about it- I just want to help or whatever.”

For some reason, this made Keith crack a full smile. Lance had only seen him smile like this a handful of times. He could feel the blush rising on his cheeks, and he immediately lost all of the conviction he had just summoned up. Even more embarrassingly, Keith started to laugh right in his face. “Okay, maybe suspicious isn't the right word, but casual definitely isn't either.” He shook his head again, this time like he understood something Lance didn’t. He turned around to carry on to the demolished tower that was now within view, but continued knowingly, “You definitely have an ulterior motive, Blue. I'm just still trying to figure it out.”

Christ, Keith was totally onto him.

Lance, as casual as ever, just pshawed at Keith’s accusation. He approached the tower slowly, distancing himself from Keith to try to quell his ever-rising panic. Why did Shiro always pair them together anyway? He could really use a break from this guy right about now.

As Lance approached, he could see Keith fiddling with some wires that were hanging out of the base of the tower. He finally found a large, round plug and jammed it into the matching slot on the extender, which glowed even brighter in approval.

“That was easy,” he mused. Then he turned to Lance and extended his hand, “Give me that one and I’ll go get the other one set up, too.”

“What? And let you do all the work?” Lance questioned, now skeptical of Keith's motivations.

“Come on, I was cooped up inside that orphanage all day. I need to move around before we’re stuck back on the ship,” he insisted.

Lance hesitated for a moment before giving in and handing over his extender. “Fine. Knock yourself out, dude.”

Keith slung the strap over his shoulder and gave Lance a somewhat goofy-looking salute before heading north to the second transmission tower. Lance couldn’t help but smile at how much of a nerd Keith had revealed himself to be.

At the Garrisison, Lance figured that Keith thought he was better than everyone else but, fuck, Lance was guilty of that too. Half the time when he was complaining, he was just talking shit on Keith. He regretted that now. Behind that stony exterior was a socially awkward dweeb who was so into knives that it made him seem edgier than he was. Lance literally never would have guessed that a couple of months ago. He had assumed Keith was some kind of biker punk, with the leather and fingerless gloves. Turned out Keith just had sensory issues and very specific fabric preferences. Although he did steal Shiro’s hoverbike one time, which Lance had to admit was very biker punk of him- even if only for twenty minutes before he was caught.

Lance sighed and leaned against what was left of the tower. He really didn’t want to be alone with his thoughts right now. Now that he had let himself admit he was into Keith, there were all kinds of dangerous trains of thought he would have to navigate. Like, should he tell Keith? That was typically the next course of action, but there was no way he was ready for that. He had never been shy about his crushes before, so he had no basis for this hang-up. Keith was too important to mess things up with. In the past couple of weeks, Lance had been hanging out with Keith more than anyone else. And he knew that Keith was a huge loner by default, so he must consider Lance a pretty close friend to be seeking him out all the time.

Even larger than that was Voltron! How were they supposed to function as a team if Lance made a fool of himself and the vibes got super awkward around the castle? That would suck; they would probably have to find a new pilot for Blue just so they could form Voltron again.

Hell, there was a good chance Keith already knew and was just being nice. You're a little too desperate to get your hands in my hair? Keith was totally calling him out earlier. That was probably the nicest way Keith could think to say- Hey man, please stop being obsessed with me. This was all so humiliating. He had apparently been holding this torch for Keith since he was fifteen, so why give in now and mess things up?

That was final then. Lance wasn’t going to say a word, and he was going to be as normal as possible about his not-so-newfound crush. Maybe he would even give Keith some space for a few days, just in case he did know. He doesn’t want Keith to feel like he's being pursued or something. No more of the cute teasing that they so often fell into, either. That was a slippery slope to Lance getting flirty, apparently. This would work. He just had to be normal about Kieth, something he had never been able to accomplish since the first time he saw him. No big deal.

Lance let out another cry of frustration. At least there was no one to witness his meltdown this time. This was just all too much for him to handle. He wished Hunk and Pidge had never even brought up the topic, because now this was going to be consuming his every waking thought for the foreseeable future. He couldn’t entirely blame them, though. Hunk was right; this had been a long time coming. Lance just wanted to be purposefully obtuse about it forever. Was that too much to ask?

He pushed himself off the wall and checked on the extender. It was still glowing and whirling with power, and the team hadn’t checked in yet, so he still had nothing to do. He was so pent up, and he had been doing a whole lot of nothing today. Not literally nothing, but compared to the action he normally saw, today was as slow as it got. He had been thinking too much today; he needed to keep busy instead. The worst part was that he couldn’t even go hash things out in the training room when he got back because that was exactly where Keith would be. Curse that stupid samurai insomniac, always training then walking around the castle all hot and sweaty.

It pissed Lance off even more that he just admitted that he found sweaty Keith hot. That was exactly why he had gone to such great lengths to ignore this whole ordeal in the first place. Now that he was letting himself think about it, all kinds of mortifying details were rising from his severely repressed psyche. Just the thought of Keith in the training room was driving him crazy now. Lance couldn’t help but think about sparring with Keith, and the way the light in his eyes would shift as they squared up. Lance often found himself mesmerized by the subtle transformation from respectable paladin to half-alien lethal weapon. He made fun of Keith’s intensity a lot, but God, nothing was more thrilling than being pinned to the training mat by Keith and those determined purple eyes.

Fuck, there was no way he could be normal about this now.

Another bout of anger rushed over him, and he kicked the base of the tower. A couple of stones crumbled off, but thankfully, he wasn’t strong enough to cause further damage. He dropped to the ground, leaning against the spot he just kicked, and started taking deep breaths to calm himself down. He realized that he might be having a panic attack, something that usually happened late at night in his room and not in the middle of a mission. He breathed in for four seconds, held, then out for four- just like Veronica taught him when he was little. He had been hyperventilating, shaking, sweating, and a loud buzzing was taking over his hearing. Weird, he didn’t remember the buzzing happening before, but he supposed that your body could do all kinds of crazy things under duress.

Just as his breathing started to even out, he felt an intense stabbing pain on the back of his neck. He yelped and flew onto his feet. The spot instantly throbbed again, and he slapped at it, making contact with something solid that wasn’t him or his suit. The buzzing stopped, and a large insect fell to the ground.

“Oh Shit!”

He was in so much pain he almost couldn’t think, which wasn’t as preferable as he thought it would be. He was such an idiot. Of course, it was a bug buzzing and not his own head. His entire body tensed in reaction to the pain. All he could do for a moment was curl in on himself and cry out. His neck was searing, waves of pain radiating out of the spot. He fell to his knees and groped at the back of his neck. He tried applying pressure, but it didn’t make a difference.

He forced himself to breathe again; he needed Vero’s trick to work right now more than ever. He shakily pulled air into his nose as slowly as he could manage in this state- then he held for four. He exhaled and repeated the process a few more times. The pain was rolling over him in waves, but after a minute or two, the initial shock started to subside. It was still really bad, but he was able to think about what he should do next.

As much as he didn’t want to admit to his fuck up, he had to let the team know. Who knows what kind of crazy venom he was just injected with! He unmuted his comms and attempted to sound calmer than he was currently feeling.

“Okay, guys, don’t freak out, but- OW,” he cut himself off when a particularly bad wave of pain washed over him. Screw being calm, this was really bad.

“Lance! Lance, are you okay?” Hunk's voice was the first to come in over his helmet.

“Actually, no, I'm not okay! I just got stung by some kind of alien Murder Hornet!” Lance let himself whine to his best friend. The heat of the pain was so intense that it started to make him nauseous.

“Oh, come on, we haven’t even started the calibrations,” Pidge complained. Did he mention sixteen-year-olds are mean as hell?

Chatter quickly took over the line, and he couldn’t keep up. He was trying not to barf into his helmet when he heard Shiro give the order, “Keith, you're closest to him.”

“Already on it,” Keith affirmed. Great! Just his fucking luck!

Lance knew he shouldn’t remove his helmet yet; he had to keep in touch with the team. But he was on fire, the flame coming from the back of his neck and burning as far as it could reach. Everything under his suit hurt, and he had the urge to rip it all off.

“Lance, what exactly is a hornet? Is it still trying to murder you?” Allura worriedly demanded.

“It's a big, scary bug that hurts you, and one just fucking stung me! I slapped it off, but the pain isn’t letting up,” he panted.

“He's definitely not being murdered. We verified that none of the fauna here is deadly before we touched down. But I’m running an inquiry on the biological data they shared with the Alliance now to see what venomous insects are indigenous to the area. It’s most likely the alien equivalent of a wasp sting. Hurts like a bitch, but not deadly.” Pidge said.

“Language,” Shiro chided. Pidge blew a raspberry into the mic.

That was a relief to hear, because he was almost convinced he was dying. But, rationally, he knew that Coran carefully checked every planet they visited to ensure it was habitable for Humans, Alteans, and Galra. He made sure to verbally inform them of the major things, like whether the atmosphere was breathable or the difficulty of the terrain. But he also made pamphlets that he sent to their tablets, detailing all of the possible deadly hazards. Lance trusted these people with his life, so if they were sure he wasn’t dying, then he was going to be okay.

More discussion must have taken place while he was writhing in pain, because Coran was now on the line spouting directions. He was the closest thing they had to a doctor, so he tended to take charge whenever an injury occurred. Thankfully, he had been doing an excellent job at keeping them alive so far. Coran could totally fix a bee sting, Lance reassured himself.

“-and Number Four, I need you to find the bug and bring it back to Shiro. Keep it in good shape, too. No more slapping, even if it's alive- I need it to be identifiable!” Coran commanded.

“Okay, you guys know the drill- helmets on and suits sealed until we get back to the Castleship. Coran, can you get the decontamination chamber up and running in the hangar?” Shiro requested.

“Already on it, Shiro. Can't have any unwanted passengers-” Coran was confirming his orders when Lance finally threw his helmet off.  He belatedly registered that there could be more bugs on him; that he probably disturbed their hive when he kicked that tower. He felt like he was covered in them. While he knew that wasn't possible- he would be able to see them if they were as big as the one that had already stung him- he couldn't overcome the urge to get everything off of himself. His skin burned and crawled. Everything seemed to blur as he frantically reached around his side to unclasp the armor.

Finally, after some scrambling, Lance was able to heave his chest plate onto the ground. He immediately reached toward the back of his neck, where the bug must have squeezed into the gap between his helmet and unsealed collar. The protrusion from the sting was already extremely noticeable by touch alone and almost sizzling with heat. He had to take a deep breath and steady himself, lightheaded from the pain and fear flowing through him. He did a quick pat down of his shoulders and torso, checking once again that it was only his skin crawling and not actually more bugs. It all checked out, but the feeling wouldn't stop.

He should have been replying to the team; his suit should have been fully on and sealed. He needed to calm down- it's just a bug, he reassured himself- but the sensation was all encompassing. Instead of calming down, he continued to chase the phantom insects. He started to move down to unfasten his utility belt, but he was stopped by an ice-cold shock to his body. He involuntarily froze, then looked up to see Keith in front of him. He was right there, out of breath and sweaty, looking at Lance with so much concern that it made him dizzy. It was almost like a dream—one of the ones where he had no control and things were just happening all around him.

The fire was extinguished. Just like that, the pain was gone.

“Lance, what are you doing? We've been calling for you over the comms.” Keith demanded, pushing Lance just a little to get his attention. Usually, that would be more than enough to bring him back to reality, but the contact made time feel even slower.

Weird. Keith was right there, examining him, but Lance never even noticed him approaching. Even weirder, Lance reflexively grabbed onto one of Keith's hands. All he knew was that he needed the contact more than anything else he could imagine. Keith’s presence was an instant relief to his senses. He briefly wished they weren't in their gloved suits- that he could feel his skin on Keith's. Maybe that would be enough to make his head stop spinning.

“Hey. What's going on?” he sounded softer now- more concerned- as he studied Lance. When the blue paladin still didn’t reply, Keith met his eyes and seemed shocked by what he saw. He reached up with his free hand and placed it on Lance’s jaw. The shorter boy used it to guide Lance’s face down and then to the left and right, studying his eyes. Lance couldn’t breathe.

“Your pupils are completely blown. Did you hit your head?” he asked, brows drawn in concern.

The question kicked Lance back into action. “No, I wasn’t hit in the head, a bug stung me!” Lance snatched his hands off of Keith and took a step back, out of his hold. It felt inappropriate to be touching him like that, no matter how much he needed it. He didn't want to be obvious. He couldn’t let Keith find out.

He didn't even know why he was freaking out so bad, anyway. He was stung, sure, but he didn't feel too bad anymore. No more pain, at least. The most uncomfortable thing at the moment was his racing heart; still trying to find a steady rhythm through all of the panic and confusion. Worst of all, though, Keith was still right there- looking at Lance with those big, worried eyes. God, he was so pathetic right now. He would do anything to make Keith stop looking at him like that, but he couldn’t move to save his life.

“I know, but -” His eyes fell from Lance’s eyes, down to his injured neck, and widened. “Shit, Lance, it got you pretty good.” He started to reach toward the inflamed bump, but, to Lance’s dismay, pulled back at the last second. His brain yelled at him to do something, anything, to keep Keith from putting more distance between them.

“Wait! Don't you need to check it out? I can't even see it, so you should probably look at it for me.” Lance insisted, grabbing Keith’s hand and guiding it back towards his neck.

Keith stalled for a moment, going along with Lance’s movements, before retracting his hand. “I wouldn't even know what to look for. We just need to get you suited up and back to the castle, then Coran and Pidge can take care of it.” Keith insisted as he turned away, on a mission to retrieve the blue accented chest plate from where it had bounced off in the grass.

All Lance could do was stare and step closer to the red paladin. It felt like Keith's entire existence was punching him in the face- except Lance had been punched in the face by Keith’s literal existence many times, and it had never felt quite this refreshing.

Keith raised back up with the armour and was visibly startled at their proximity. “Lance. You need to put your armour on.” Keith tried more sternly this time.

“What and ruin the view?” Lance involuntarily retorted, cracking his most charming smile.

Keith flushed red, and it took Lance a second to understand why. Did he really just say that?? Lance ripped the armor out of Keith's grasp and impatiently started to fasten it back in place. New plan: follow Keith’s instructions and shut the hell up. Lance obviously wasn’t fully in control of his own actions right now, so he needed to be careful. Keith would get him back home safe; he had always believed that.

Speaking of Keith, he was just standing there looking at Lance with an expression caught somewhere between confusion and mortification. It was kind of cute, especially since it was so rare that Lance got to see a new expression on that stoic face. Lance looked around for his helmet next, and Keith came back to reality. “Uh, Coran said we need the bug,” he said, pulling one of their mandated sample bags out of the pouch on his belt.

“Oh, yeah, it should be right over there, dead. It was really big and red, I think.” Lance pointed helpfully to the spot that he had kicked. He pushed his helmet back on and looked to Keith for approval. Keith still looked disturbed.

“Are you still in pain? It sounded pretty bad over the comms…” he questioned.

Lance crinkled his brow in thought. “Yeah, it was really bad for a minute there, but I feel a lot better now that you're here,” he said, before he could even realize that sounded like a bad pick-up line. “Not like that, of course. I mean, the pain is literally gone! I kind of feel like you’ve put a spell on me, honestly…” he laughed awkwardly. Lance was really bad at shutting up.

“Okay,” Keith drawled out. “You stay right here- I’ll get the bug and update the team,” he said. Lance stayed put while Keith walked over to find the culprit. He was animatedly talking on comms, but Lance couldn’t hear what he was saying. Did he open a private line so Lance couldn’t hear? Lance’s brain flooded with concern. What was he telling the others about? Was he mad at Lance?

He decided it was in his best interest to ignore Keith’s instructions for just a moment so he could get close enough to hear. He crept up while Keith had his back turned and caught some of what was being said. “No, I mean really weird. Way weirder than Normal Lance. He said I put a spell on him!” A beat of silence. “No, Shiro, I’m not an idiot. I would know if he was flirting with me. I think the bug did something to his brain!” Keith scoffed. “Whatever. You guys can see for yourself, I'll bring him back to you now.”

Keith stood up, specimen bag in hand, and Lance did his best to act casual- surveying the horizon innocently. If Keith noticed, he didn’t show it. He just waved Lance on to follow him back to the rendezvous point. 

Lance really did try his best to shut up, but he really wanted to talk to Keith. Hear his voice, get a reaction out of him. Maybe even rile him up a bit, and get a glance of those cute little fangs when he inevitably sneered back at Lance to shut up. Possibly, if he ticked Keith off enough, he would shove him- hands splayed across Lance’s chest. He probably shouldn’t try to start an actual fight, but just annoy him a little? The pros outweighed the cons in his opinion.

“Maybe you should carry me.” Lance dropped about halfway through their short journey.

“I am not going to carry you.” Keith sighed. Damn, he must be exhausted. He sounded like he had no fight left in him, and Lance couldn’t have that.

“Aw, come on! Just like old times, ya know? Bonding Moment and all of that?” Lance ribbed.

“Great idea. Then you can deny it happened and humiliate me in front of the team again, for old times' sake.”

Ooookay, that wasn’t the right thing to say.

Lance mentally kicked himself for being such a jackass. He really just wanted Keith’s attention, and that was the only way Lance knew how to initiate it. Was he always this obnoxious to Keith? He spent the next couple of minutes playing back months' worth of interactions in his head. It didn’t take long to come to the conclusion that he was kind of a jerk to Keith. Not totally awful, but more like an annoying grade schooler pulling on his crush's pigtails. It was so bad that he was embarrassingly sure that if Keith actually did put his hair in pigtails, Lance would be tugging on them within seconds. His mama would be ashamed of his behavior. She always talked about how he was a little gentleman, but look at him now.

He could see the lions in the distance, and that meant he was almost out of time. He had to break the tension, without taunts or jokes, preferably. Maybe he could try something mature, like apologizing?

“You know I didn't mean it like that, man,” he spoke up again.

“Okay, Lance.” Ouch. Well, to be fair, that wasn’t even an apology. He decided to try again- with full sincerity.

“No, really, I’m sorry I said that. And for the record, I really didn't remember- I still don't, honestly. But Hunk and Pidge have filled me in… and told me I was a complete asshole about it. They still haven't let me live that down, actually,” he rambled, hoping he was saying the right thing.

Keith looked beyond uncomfortable with the topic and brushed Lance off again. “Whatever, it's not a big deal, all things considered,” he waved his hand through the air flippantly.

Lance moved even closer to Keith to drive home the point. “Well, I think it is a big deal! What if I woke up and I did remember- or was at least a little more cool about it? We could have been hanging out this whole time, but I was the one holding us back,” he insisted, bumping Keith’s shoulder with his own.

Keith softened a little at that, but still didn’t let his guard down. “Lance, it was months ago. It really doesn't matter that much.”

“But I hurt your feelings, and I want to apologize!”

“Since when do you care about hurting my feelings?”

Lance frowned, and tears welled up at the accusation. Of course he cared about Keith’s feelings! He was just a mess and didn’t know how to show it. God, the whole ‘months of denial’ stunt had really made a complete ass of him. 

“I’m sorry I made you feel like I didn’t care,” he choked out and then sped up towards his lion. He had to pull himself together; he didn’t want Keith or Shiro to see him cry.

Lance stomped up to Blue, but Shiro caught him by the shoulder before he could get inside. “Nope, you're going to stick with me for monitoring. Coran sent me notes on what to look for, so I’m going to check you out while the others finish up.”

“Shouldn’t we be getting him to the medbay?” Keith questioned as he handed over the bug.

Shiro opened the bag and took a picture of it with his tablet. Lance heard a ping in his ear, signaling that Shiro had forwarded the image to the whole team. His helmet prompted him to open the attachment, and he annoyedly rejected it. He didn’t care about the stupid bug; all he could think about was Keith.

“You reported that the pain subsided, and we verified that none of the fauna here is deadly, so Allura made the call that they would finish the mission. Luckily, this is an easy one, so they already have two of the towers connected,” he explained.

Shiro immediately started to poke and prod at Lance, using his tablet to seemingly take the teen’s vitals. He briefly removed Lance's helmet and took several different scans of the wound. Lance quickly lost interest in the check-up and ended up watching Keith instead. The shorter boy was semi-frantically pacing around the red lion. Now and then, he would stop and buff a spot on her hull or tinker with something, but it was obvious he was just trying to stay busy. Lance wished he could help. He was tired of seeing Keith so frustrated and on edge. There were times when they hung out where Lance felt like he got a glimpse of a different Keith, unburdened and happy, but his walls inevitably went right back up.

A big gloved hand waved in front of his face, and then his attention was back on the black paladin. “Your vitals look good. I suppose your heart rate is high, but that's to be expected. From what I can make out on the scans myself, the damage is equivalent to something like a tarantula hawk sting. Momentary debilitating pain, followed by a burning sensation, intense swelling, and redness- but no lasting damage.” Lance had already shifted his focus back to Keith, but Shiro snapped his fingers in front of the younger paladin's face. “Lance, did you hit your head?” He asked, looking slightly more concerned than before.

Lance ripped his attention off of Keith again. “No! Did Keith tell you that?” he probed.

“No, but he did say you were acting weird and that your pupils were so blown he couldn’t see the irises.” He examined Lance’s eyes, “They’re still pretty dilated, but that could be the adrenaline,” he concluded.

“Well, I hate to disagree with Keith, but my head is completely fine and normal.” Lance declared.

This, however, didn’t soothe Shiros' worries. He looked suspiciously at Lance before clarifying, “You literally love to disagree with Keith.” Lance started to sputter out an excuse, but Shiro waved him off and engaged the comms, this time including Lance on the line. “I’ve finished the exam and I’m sending the data your way now, Coran. His vitals are stable, and the scans are consistent with a severe but non-lethal insect sting. However, I want you to do some further testing once we get him to the castle. He’s okay, just a little… off.” Shiro directed. Lance gave up his argument unusually fast; all of his brain power was locked on Keith again.

“I told you he was acting weird!” Keith shouted into the comms. Lance could see him throw his arms up in frustration, while still scorching a path into the grass around Red.

“Yes, well, I have identified the culprit from the image you sent me, and your observations sound consistent with this creature’s sting.” Coran sounded a little awkward, which was very unlike himself. He cleared his throat and concluded, “Just know he is going to be perfectly fine, and we will get into the stranger details once he arrives. I am prepping the medbay now.”

Now, that concerned Lance. If he was going to be fine, then why was Coran being so evasive? He could tell Keith was having the same dilemma because he looked over at Lance anxiously. But once he noticed Lance was already staring, he quickly snapped his attention back to his lion.

Lance took a seat on the ground next to Blue and focused on his breathing again. His head was so clouded that it made him feel distanced from his own body. As he sat there, across the small field from Keith, he could feel the hot pain start to return to his neck. It wasn’t nearly as bad as before, but it still made him feel slightly frantic. His brain told him he needed to be closer to Keith. It was crazy, but deep down, Lance knew that was true. He truly believed that Keith was the only thing that could relieve his symptoms. But there was no way he was going to give in to that. He just had to wait, and Coran would fix him up.

A few more agonizing minutes passed by before he could see Pidge and Hunk returning. Admittedly, he only noticed because they were coming from the horizon behind the red paladin, which Lance hadn’t been able to let his eyes stray from. Hunk jogged the last couple of yards, past Keith and straight to his best friend.

“Lance, you scared the bejesus out of me! Are you okay?” Hunk fretted over him, making sure everything was still intact. Lance was still focused on Keith, who was now ranting at Pidge.

When Lance didn’t respond, Shiro chimed in. “Coran said he will be fine. He's just a little… preoccupied at the moment,” he explained on Lance's behalf. He looked over just in time to see Shiro gesturing between Lance and Keith.

Hunk just tilted his head in confusion. “Well, that's not exactly new. I’m more worried about the sting.”

Shiro grimaced. “I think there might be cognitive effects from the venom. He quite literally hasn’t been able to take his attention off of Keith for more than three seconds since they got back.” Shiro said.

Hunk let out a reflexive laugh, and that really got Lance’s attention. “You know I can hear you guys talking about me, right?” he scolded, and fought to keep himself from immediately looking back at Keith. “This isn’t funny, Hunk! I need him so bad, but he's all the way over there,” he pouted.

Hunk choked on another laugh but quickly pulled himself together for his best friend. “I'm so sorry, Lance. You're right, this isn’t funny, just extremely ironic. Let's get you back to the ship and see what's going on.” Hunk wrapped an arm around Lance and guided him to Blue. For some reason, the contact was a little weird. Lance had never found contact with Hunk uncomfortable before, but he was itching to get away.

The paladins all filed into their lions at Shiro’s command and returned to the hangar. The flight was exceptionally short because the Castleship was already stationed just outside of Agnara’s atmosphere. Lance could deduce from the chatter on the comms that the transmission tower mission was a success, despite his accident. He honestly couldn't bring himself to pay too much attention because Keith was completely silent on the line. It was unreasonable, but the silence made him burn with concern for the other boy.

Once they arrived, Coran shooed them all into the decontamination chamber. It was sort of like an inflatable hazmat tent, and they had only had to use it a handful of times, usually just out of extreme precaution. The chamber soaked them with chemicals and blew them dry, all the while Lance made his way through the cramped room to stand next to Keith. He was still having trouble paying attention to everyone else, but he would have had to be blind to miss the inquisitive looks being shot his way. Whatever, they just don’t understand, he reasoned with himself.

They all unsuited and changed into the plain sweat suits Coran provided. They had only ever worn these after the decontamination protocol, so it probably had something to do with their armor being potentially exposed to hazardous material. It all felt like overkill in this case, but better safe than sorry, he supposed. Lance made a point of staring directly at the ground while changing. He wasn’t a creep, no matter the fact that his brain was currently begging him to sneak a peek at the red paladin. He was so fucked up.

When Coran and Pidge finally directed Lance toward the medbay, he couldn’t help but ask, “Can Keith come too?” Keith looked mortified, once again.

But Pidge just mischievously smiled and said, “Sure, why not.”

Before Lance could think it over, he was grabbing Keith by the hand and dragging him along. Now that they were out of their armour, he could actually feel Keith's skin touching his own. Keith didn’t even have his usual fingerless gloves on, so it was full, dizzying skin-to-skin contact. Any anxiety that had built up since they last touched evaporated once again, and the dull heat at the site of the sting cooled. 

Coran sat them down on one of the medical cots, while Pidge started to compare the bug data with Shiro’s initial examination of Lance. He really couldn’t keep track of any of it. He almost didn’t care, because, settled on his thigh, was his hand wrapped in Keith’s. He wasn’t sure if he had looked away from their intertwined hands since they first connected. Lance looked up at Keith's face and noticed it was unnaturally red. He was engaged in the conversation Pidge and Coran were having, and Lance belatedly realized he must be recounting what he witnessed after Lance’s sting. He watched Keith’s face go through a series of emotions and then turn toward him expectantly.

“Uhhhh, what?” Lance sheepishly asked, trying to figure out who asked him what.

Pidge sighed. “Okay, Keith. Thanks for filling in the gaps, but I think you're too much of a distraction for him right now.”

“Actually, I forwarded some information to Shiro that he will need to go over with you, if you don’t mind. The rest of the team should be waiting for you on the bridge!” Coran chirped as he grabbed Keith by the arm and gently tugged him out of Lance’s hold.

Keith looked hesitant to leave, but nodded. Lance must have looked as distraught as he felt, because Keith awkwardly reassured him, “You know you're in good hands, Lance. They’ll fix you up and I'll see you at dinner,” he encouraged, before leaving.