Chapter Text
"Hunk, these better be the best alien plants I've ever had." Lance grumbled as brambles grabbed at his suit. He really hated hiking.
"Buddy, I promise!" Hunk smiled brightly beside him, holding the brambles out of the way for Keith and Shiro. "It was the tastiest plant ever! The way the flavors mixed-" Hunk started to gush, only to be cut off by Keith's complaining.
"Lets just hurry up and find it. I'm sick of this planet." He grumbled, tugging a mean looking thorn out of his suit.
Lance hated to agree with Keith all people, but he had to. This planet sucked, big time. It had no intelligent life, so they had to do all the hard work themselves. The flora was crazy dense, the four of them were sure to be sporting scratches on any spot where they they weren't covered. Still, Lance couldn't let Keith be rude to his best friend.
He wheeled around to face him, a scowl on his face. "Hey! Don't be like that, jerk face, Hunk is trying to let us experience a delicious meal!" He jabbed a finger in Keith's face, hitting the top of his helmet. "Lighten up." Lance hit a stubborn bramble as hard as he could, in lieu of Keith's face.
He could see Hunk and Shiro bracing themselves, both of them well aware the two could start brawling any moment, Shiro looked ready to grab the scruff of Keith's neck like a kitten.
Lance had his attention focused on Keith's very angry face, the both of them tensing their muscles in a valiant effort not to start swinging and the other's face.
"I don't know about you," He huffed as he turned to face Lance, "but this planet sucks. All I want to find this stupid plant and go back to the castle." Keith's grip on his bayard tightened, and he was clenching his teeth so hard the muscles in his jaws were spasming.
"Keith, Lance, we're all irritated from the hard trek, why don't we all take a break, then try continue looking?" Shiro tried to ration with them, but neither of the boys could hear him over the sound of their yelling. Nor could they hear Pidge's warning that crackled through their coms.
"Uh, guys? Don't start fighting right here, I'm seeing a cliff very close to you on your 6 o'clock." Her warning fell on deaf ears, Lance had already tackling Keith, knocking their helmets off as they hit the ground.
"Hello? Earth to Lance? Keith? Hunk please don't tell me they're fighting - they're fighting aren't they."
Hunk and Shiro winced as they boys smacked into the dense soil, affirming Pidge with small noises as they watched the boys grapple with each other.
"Ugh! Get off of me Lance!"
"Let go of my hair, Mullet!"
"Did nobody hear me! Cliff, right where they're fighting? Stop them?" Pidge yelled, right as Keith and Lance rolled to the left, directly off of the cliff. Hunk and Shiro surged forward to stop them, grasping at nothing while they tumbled through the air, screaming all the way down.
Lance felt like they were falling for ages, and that they hit hundreds of branches on the way down, too. He and Keith held each other tight, which Lance would deny doing if Keith dared to mention it. Keith's hands were warm on his back, and his chest was solid against him-.
He was knocked from his traitorous thoughts when they smacked into the hard ground, rolling through branches that snared their arms and legs. When the finally settled, Lance groaned loudly against Keith, shoving the man off of him roughly.
"Aurgh!" Keith cried, flailing his arms, managing to hit Lance square in the face.
Lance let out a strangled cry, opening his eyes for the first time since his reacquaintance with the ground. They were laying in a small clearing, surrounded by sweet smelling flowers. Their helmets were nowhere to be found, awesome. They were lost.
"Great," He grumbled, "Lost, on a stupid planet with stupid Keith." He sat up slowly, while Keith huffed from the ground. "Get up Mullet, we gotta try and find our back to Shiro and Hunk."
"This is so your fault." Keith spat. He forced himself up, wincing the whole way.
"My fault! Are you hearing yourself?!" Lance whirled around, his hands on his hips. "We wouldn't be here if you weren't such an asshole to Hunk!"
"And we wouldn't be here if you had a smidgen of self control! You always jump at the first opportunity get mad at me!" Keith yelled into Lance's face, getting as close as possible.
"Whatever. Lets find the others." Lance scoffed. He crossed his arms and turned away, willing himself to be calm. Just his luck. Falling off a cliff? Whatever! They fought the Galra almost every day, that was nothing. Falling off a cliff and getting stuck with Keith? The worst thing in the quiznaking universe. He'd take the Galra any day.
He walked over to take a look at the flowers, anything to not have to see that stupid mullet and those stupid eyes that seemed to form slits when he was mad. Those stupid fangs that showed in his scowl-
He shook his head hard, staring at the flowers in an attempt to ground himself. They really did smell good, like his mothers beautiful flowers from home. Ignoring his irritation at Keith, he gestured for the man to come over.
"What is it?" Keith asked skeptically, walking over slowly, as if expecting the flowers to bite him.
"Dude, chill. They smell good, don't they?" Keith looked at him like he'd sprung a new head. Nonetheless, he leaned in and smelled them.
"I guess," He shrugged, nodding. Lance smiled, looking back at Keith.
He held his hand out, "You mind if I borrow your knife for a sec?" He asked, "I wanna keep a few of these, they remind me of home."
Keith's calm-ish look fell, and he looked at Lance's hand distrustfully.
"Pretty please?" He smiled as charmingly as he could. Keith looked like he'd been punched in the throat. He made a strangled sound, but dropped his knife right into Lance's waiting hand.
Lance couldn't believe Keith was actually letting him touch his precious knife, so he moved quickly before Keith decided that was enough. He grabbed the stem of biggest and brightest flower, already imagining how it'd look in his room. With a swing of his arm, the flower… Exploded all over his face?
He blinked away the pollen now filling his eyes, sneezing all the while.
"Quiznak!" He yelled, dropping the damned thing. He cursed some more, rubbing his eyes furiously. "Keith, buddy?" Lance realized that Keith was suddenly silent, he turned to look at him, worried he'd choked or something on the pollen and was dead on the ground. What he saw instead was honestly worse.
Keith had his eyes fixed on Lances face like he never wanted to look away. His hand reached forward, almost landing on Lances chest before Lance managed to stumble backwards, staring at Keith with a horrified expression.
"Oh my gosh whats wrong with you, HUNK! SHIRO! HELP?" He glanced around wildly, stumbling away from whatever had replaced Keith when he wasn't looking. Keith was still staring at him, letting out frankly the saddest noises Lance had ever heard. Every step Lance took backwards, Keith followed him.
Lance's savior came in the form of Hunk crashing into the clearing, panting like he'd run all the way there.
"Lance! What's wrong? Are you hurt, is Keith?!" Shiro burst into the clearing behind him, looking between the two frantically.
Lance raised his hand up, stopping Shiro from checking for injuries himself. "We're fine, well, I am." He realized that maybe, just maybe that wasn't the best thing to say to Shiro. The man looked ready to shove them into a healing pod for the next year.
"Lance, buddy, what happened?" Hunk asked, marginally calmer than Shiro. He stepped forward, glancing worriedly between Keith — who was still edging closer to Lance, eyeing him up like prey — and Lance.
Lance rambled out the quickest explanation possible, ducking behind Hunk. "I cut one of the flower over there, and now he's all freaky like this! Get him away from me please! He's giving me the creeps!" Keith made an upset noise at that. "Mullet, please do something other than whine at me! You're freaking me out!" He peaked over Hunk's shoulder as he pleaded.
Shiro approached Keith slowly, his eyes shining with worry. "Keith, is everything alright?" He placed a hand on his shoulder, seemly lessening the trance Keith was under.
He mumbled dazedly, "Lance... Lance." taking a step forward towards him.
Lance let out a yelp, gripping Hunk tightly.
"Uh, guys? I think Keith is sick or something. Pidge, can you come grab us with your lion?" Hunk eyed Keith as if he were a rabid beast. Lance agreed with him, he was starting to think Keith was about to pounce on him, if the look in his eyes was any indication.
Pidge said something Lance couldn't make out, but the relieved sigh Hunk let out was answer enough.
"Yep, that pollen really did a number on him!" Coran nodded sagely.
"Ya think?" Lance asked flatly, looking up from where Keith was grasping his arm tightly, looking up at him happily. The entire ride back had been hell, Keith wouldn't stop snarling when anyone got within a meter of Lance. He only calmed down when he could hold onto Lance, murmuring happily into Lance's shoulder, where his face was firmly pressed.
"Yes, my boy! Considering the flower you described, it's safe to assume he was infected by the pollen of the Datura flower!" Coran smiled like they all understood what that meant.
"The whatnow? What's wrong with him? Is it permanent!?" Lance looked around wildly, shaking Keith wildly, who only held him tighter.
Allura's gentle voice interrupted his spiral. "Lance, calm yourself. The Datura flower releases a pollen that, when Galra are exposed to it, causes their instincts to go haywire. Whoever they lay their eyes on first, they become fixated on them. Being territorial is a good way to describe it." She explained, making to place a soothing hand on Lances arm, but Keith's low growl — an honest-to-god growl — stopped her quickly.
"In short, Keith views you as his, and will for the next few days to a week." She concluded, glancing over at Keith, then him, with an apologetic look.
"A week? Are you kidding? I have to deal with this for an entire week?!" He cast a horrified look in an oblivious Keith.
"Well, Number 3! It could be worse!" Coran told him cheerfully.
All of the paladins —sans Keith, who was happily cuddling Lance's arm— looked at him, all mutually horrified.
"Literally how." Lance and Pidge asked together, both exasperated.
"Since Keith is only half Galra, the pollen will have a much lesser effect on him than it would a full Galra." Coran explained, "On a full Galra the effects could last as long as a month!"
Lance was reeling. Keith was gonna territorial over him for as long as a week? How was he gonna sleep? Play video games with Pidge? Change?! Every time he'd tried to subtly shake Keith off in the lion, Keith had scowled and dug his nails in. A groan passed his lips, he glanced over at his biggest nuisance for the next week. Keith did look almost cute like this, his eyes closed contently. Lance angrily shook his head to clear that thought, then turned to Coran.
"So, is he an oversized cat for a week, or will he go back to himself after a bit?" He asked, unsure of which option he was praying for.
"Excellent question!" Coran replied cheerfully. "As the pollen sets in more fully, and his brain gets used to this instinct, he should return to mostly his normal self." He concluded thoughtfully. Everyone watched how Keith was very clearly not acting like himself.
Allura added on, "By tomorrow, he should be his usual self," Then her face scrunched up as she realized her mistake. "Well- er, not usual but-" Lance shut her down by raising his hand - the one Keith wasn't clinging to like an oversized koala.
"I get what you mean ." He waved his hand, shutting her down. He had already resolved himself to a terrible week, and he sure didn't need Allura of all people telling him how terrible it would be.
Hunk awkwardly interjected. "So, what do we do if Zarkon attacks us?" He played with his hands nervously, "Is Keith gonna be able to fight with us?" He looked at the man who was firmly pressed into Lance's side, eyes closed like he was sleeping, seemingly oblivious to the conversation happening around him.
"We'll cross that bridge if we get to it." Shiro said firmly, placing a steady hand on Hunks shoulder. "We're gonna get through this, just like everything else."
Lance rolled his eyes inwardly. Yeah, easy to say when it wasn't you Keith was all cat-galra-y for a week. Nonetheless, he smiled weakly at Shiro and the rest of Voltron, who all looked at him with varying degrees of pity.
"Can't we just stick him in the healing pod for a week?" Pidge asked bluntly. Lance nodded along with her brilliant idea. It was perfect! Lance didn't have a feral cat on him for a week, Keith got to save most of his dignity, what wasn't to love?
"Hes not hurt in anyway, in every sense of the word hes perfectly healthy." Allura cut through his fantasy instantly and mercilessly, not even entertaining the idea, how rude.
Pidge shrugged, "Whatever, more blackmail for when he's normal." Lance really hated that idea. His fist was already aiming for her arm, but Keith had his arm tightly in place, holding it firmly. Lance clenched his jaw, already sick of the stupid Dexura or whatever flower.
The rest of the day wasn't horrible he supposed. Keith was still in the 'Mindlessly cling to Lance because his brain is scrambled' faze of the pollen, so he just went about his day as normal. Well, as normal as he could with a basically full grown man always holding onto one part of him. The worst bit was when Lance had to go to the bathroom and refused to let Keith follow him in. He swore he could hear faint whimpers outside the door, which really ruined his first moment of peace.
When it was time for bed, Lance was loathe to part with his nightly bath, but he didn't think Keith would be able to not break down the door. He sighed, detangling himself from Keith to slip on his (very fashionable, fuck you, Pidge.) night robe, and flop onto his bed for some well deserved r n' r. It was only when he felt another weight settle onto the bed did he realize he'd forgotten something very important.
"Keith, buddy?" He asked into the dark room, turning towards the vague silhouette of Keith kneeling on his bed.
"Mhm?" Keith murmured, pausing for a second. Lance swore he could see Keith's eyes glowing faintly in the dark.
"Should we.. make a bed for you? Ya know, the beds are kinda small," Sitting up, he asked nervously. "I'm not sure we both could fit, yeahhh I'll find so bedding, I'm sure we have some spare-" A solid, warm body pressing against his cut him off.
"Oh okay." Lance said weakly, his voice a couple octaves higher than normal. It's not like he'd never had sleepovers before, heck he slept in Hunks room at least once a week when he got too homesick, but never in the same bed. He'd curl up on a pile of spare comforters and pillows, the aching in his chest soothed a bit by Hunk's steady breathing.
But… this wasn't horrible. Keith was so warm beside him, and his solid beside his own touched the ache so deep in his chest that not even Hunk had reached. Lance slid back down onto his pillow, and allowed himself to be lulled to sleep beside Keith.