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Lance woke up slowly, and then very quickly. “Keith…?”
His boyfriend nuzzled against him. “Yes?”
“Is… is that you?”
Keith’s yellow eyes groggily met Lance’s. “Who’d you think I was? Pidge?”
“It’s just… you… you’re…”
“Sleepy? Yeah. Come on, babe, it’s too early. Let’s go back to sleep.”
“Keith, no. You… You look like a Galra.”
“Oh, and you think you’re a more pleasant sight in the morning?”
“I’m being serious.” Lance flung the sheets off and put Keith over his shoulder, carrying him into the bathroom.
“What the hell? Put me down!”
Lance set Keith down and turned him to face the mirror. “See what I mean?”
Keith didn’t respond, except to say, quietly, “Get out.”
“What?”
“Leave me alone!” He pushed Lance out of the bathroom and locked the door behind him. Lance lingered for a moment, ear against the door. Inside, he heard his boyfriend pacing.
“Keith…”
“Go away!” Keith banged on the door, startling Lance enough to take a few steps back. He left the room, making his way to the dining room in a trance.
“You’re up early,” Hunk said, food in his mouth. “Where’s your better half?”
“He’s… he’s in the bathroom.” Lance replied, still in a trance. Pidge and Hunk exchanged glances, noting his odd state.
“…Everything okay?” Pidge asked carefully.
“Hmm? Yeah, he’s just… not himself today.”
“…Is he okay?”
Lance sighed, slumping into a seat and reaching for food. “I don’t know.”
Shiro and Allura entered, then, already dressed. “Great!” Allura exclaimed. “Everyone ready to train? Today I wanted to work on your combat skills outside of the lions. Lance? Where’s Keith?”
“He probably won’t be joining us today.”
“Is he okay?”
Lance stood up angrily. “Why do you guys keep asking me that?! Sure he’s my boyfriend, but that doesn’t mean I can always speak for him! He won’t be joining us today—end of story.”
“Lance, we’re just worried about him.” Shiro said, reaching a hand out even though the other was out of range.
“Me too!” Lance threw his hands up in frustration. “I’m really, really worried about him, but he won’t talk to me.”
“Maybe he just needs some time.”
“Yeah,” Lance looked back to the hallway towards his room, half-heartedly expecting to see Keith, dressed and, well, human.
--
Lance couldn’t focus at all during training. All he could think about was Keith, but that didn’t stop his teammates from going after him. Maybe he deserved it after the way he treated them at breakfast, he thought, until Pidge grazed his back, resulting in a fairly nasty gash. As soon as he was given a break and his wounds were taken care of, he discreetly left the training room and made his way to his room—to Keith.
The bathroom door was still locked. “You know,” Lance began, “I haven’t gotten to brush my teeth today because of you.”
No response.
“Keith? Please let me in.”
This time, a small, defeated voice replied, “I don’t want you to see me like this.”
“I already have.”
“Have you told them?”
“Of course not, babe. Now open the door.”
“No.”
Lance let out a breathy laugh. “Look, man, I’m coming in whether you unlock the door or not, so stand aside.”
“What? What are you—“
Lance shot the door handle with his blaster, destroying the lock and throwing the door open. Inside, he saw Keith plastered against the counter, tears stained on his cheeks. He lifted his chin in a greeting, reaching around his boyfriend for his toothbrush.
“You’re a shit,” Keith said, pushing Lance to the side and trying to hide the small smile that was playing across his features.
“Don’t make fun of me.” Lance’s voice was muffled by the toothbrush. “Dental hygiene is important. You expect me to kiss you with morning breath?”
“I… wasn’t expecting you to kiss me like this.”
Lance spit the remainder of his toothpaste out and pressed himself against Keith so hard and so fast that he banged his head into the wall. Upset as he was, Keith couldn’t help but to wrap his arms around Lance and pull him closer. As he pulled slowly away, Lance pressed his forehead against Keith’s.
“You smell better as a Galra.”
Keith laughed and lightly shoved Lance. “I took a bath. I just smell clean.”
“Sure. That’s it.” Lance said, smirking annoyingly big.
“Maybe you should become a Galra. That way you’d actually smell nice for a change.”
“Says the one who constantly smells my clothes!” Keith felt his face turning red, but Lance went back to being serious. “Babe, we need to talk about this.”
“I know.”
“How do you feel?”
Keith looked from the tile floors to Lance, surprised that that was his first question. “How do I feel? I feel… I feel like I don’t know who I am. Like everything I once knew about myself was a lie.”
“So about how you felt when you first saw me, then. Okay.”
“Lance, be serious, for once.”
“Sorry, I’m bad at this.” He cleared his throat. “Go on.”
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and I don’t think I can go on being a paladin. Not like this.”
“Keith, no, don’t say that! You have to keep being a paladin!”
“Lance, look at me! I’m a Galra!”
“I am looking at you, Keith. I’m looking at you, and the only difference I see is purple skin, anime-freak ears, and yellow eyes. Nothing else has changed. You’re still the red paladin; you’re still my favorite competitor; you’re still an idiot; you’re still my boyfriend; and you’re still the one I love.”
Keith was quiet for a moment, refusing to meet Lance’s eyes. “Anime-freak ears?”
“Yeah! You know how they always go around wearing cat ears? They look just like your ears! Keith, maybe instead of turning into a Galra, you turned into a furry.”
“Oh my god, Lance. Wouldn’t that make you have a beastiality kink?”
Lance paused at that. “Okay, fine. You’re not a furry.”
Keith laughed, and his stomach rumbled. “Shit, I haven’t eaten today. What time is it?”
“It was 2:30 last I checked.”
“Damn. Do you think you could sneak me some food?”
“Or you could come out of the bathroom and get your own food.”
“Lance, please. If I could, I’d erase the image of me like this from your mind. I don’t want anyone to see me like this, especially you, but I didn’t really have a choice in that.”
“Keith, they’re going to know eventually.”
“The longer I can put it off, the better.”
Lance sighed. “Fine, but only if you come out of the bathroom.”
“Deal.”
In the kitchen, Lance found everyone huddled at the table, speaking in hushed tones.
“I wonder what could be going on.”
“Do you think they’re fighting?”
“Do you think Keith found out about that con girl?”
They still didn’t know Lance was in the room, so he spoke up, startling the group out of their huddle. “Thank you for your concern, but Keith and I are not fighting, and there was nothing with the girl on that moon!”
“You had a pretty big crush on her,” Pidge said.
“I did not! Besides, Keith got his revenge on me that night. It involved me being handcuffed.”
“Okay, didn’t need to know that.” Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.
“Anyway, what’s up with Keith?” Allura chimed in.
“Um, he’s not feeling well.”
“Oh, then I should go check on him.” She began to stand up.
“No! No, that’s… That’s not necessary.”
“Lance, if Keith is sick, I want to help him.”
“No! You can’t go near him. He doesn’t want to see you guys.” Lance noted the hurt expressions on everyone’s faces. “I mean, he doesn’t want to get you guys sick.”
“Oh… I guess that’s fair, then.”
“Yeah, he just wanted me to grab some food for him, so I’ll be off.” He scrambled out of the kitchen, carrying a plateful of green goo.
When he returned to his room, he found Keith looking at himself in the mirror, his shirt off. “What’s the opposite of purple?”
“Um… orange? Why?”
“Do you think if I put orange on my skin, it would balance out the purple, and I could look like a normal human again?”
“No. I think if you put orange on your skin, you’d look like an Oompa Loompa with anime-freak ears and yellow eyes.”
Keith gave Lance a look.
“I’m just saying! Anyway, here’s your food.” They both took seats on the bed, facing each other. Keith picked at his food.
“How do you think they’ll react?”
“The others? Hmm… Hunk probably wouldn’t have too bad a reaction. He may be startled, but I think he’d get over it fast. Same with Pidge—they’re too smart to think you’re a real Galra. Allura and Coran might have a bit more of a reaction, just because they have more experience in this war. Now, Shiro… He’s been imprisoned by the Galra and has some pretty nasty memories involving them. He’s smart, like Pidge, so in theory he’d know it was you, but he also has PTSD, so he might also try to kill you on sight.”
“Lance, you’re supposed to make me feel better.”
“Sorry! I told you I’m bad at this. Maybe if I gave them an introduction, like, ‘Hey, this is going to seem really weird, and it is, but don’t freak out.’ Maybe then they’d have a more positive reaction—especially if I bring up how hard it is for you.”
“Don’t do that, Lance. Don’t tell them it’s hard.”
“Keith, it’s not like they haven’t seen you break down before.”
“That’s not the point.”
“Look,” Lance took the plate of picked-at goo and set it aside, pulling Keith closer to him until he was sitting in Lance’s lap, legs wrapped around him, “they all love you. Not like I do, of course, or I’d have to fight someone, but they support you. We’re a team, Keith. We stick together through thick and thin, no matter what. Galra or not, they’ll accept you. Galra or not, they’ll love you.”
“That’s gay.”
Lance rolled his eyes. “And you say I have a hard time being serious.” He kissed Keith gently, leading him to a laying position on the bed, legs still wrapped around Lance’s waist. Keith helped him shed his jacket and shirt, tossing them unceremoniously onto the floor, followed by their pants. Lance nibbled on Keith’s neck, his hands reaching to comb through Keith’s hair. He rubbed Keith’s ears, resulting in a whimper, then a shove.
“Lance!”
The other laughed. “I’m sorry; I just can’t get over those damn ears. Besides, you liked it.” Keith’s face flushed, shutting up because Lance was right, and he wouldn’t be able to convince him otherwise.
Lance didn’t make love to Keith because it was the thing to do in this situation—nor did he do it to make Keith feel some sense of normality. He did it because Keith needed to know he was still loved, and that he was still wanted. He did it because he felt Keith’s need to be close to him—as close as their bodies would allow—because as much as he refused to admit it, he didn’t want to be alone.
As he finished, Lance whispered into Keith’s jawline, “I love you,” and kissed the skin there to make the words sink into Keith’s body.
Keith breathed heavily, his fingers laced in Lance’s hair. “I love you, too. Thank you, Lance.”
“Well I knew I was good, but ‘thank you’? Surely, that’s a bit much.” Lance found himself on the floor with a loud thud. “Hey! Was that necessary?”
“Get over yourself!”
“Nah, I’d rather get over you.” Keith made a face. “Get it? Because I’m the Dom?”
“I would walk out of this room if I could.”
“Yeah but you’re naked, so you can’t.”
“That’s not what I was talking about.”
“Keith, they won’t care. I promise.”
“This is like coming out all over again, except worse, because this time instead of just ‘Hey, I’m gay’ it’s ‘Hey, I’m one of the aliens we’re trying to kill’.”
“You’re not one of them; you just happen to look like them.”
“Lance, I look like them because that’s what I am!”
“No. You’re Keith. You may look like a Galra, but that doesn’t mean you feel the same way they feel. You’re not one of them; you’re one of us. You’re a paladin of Voltron, and you’re a Galra. That’s not a bad thing.”
Keith sighed and tugged his knees to his chest. “This is going to take some time.”
“And that’s okay.” Lance cupped Keith’s face in his hands. “Did you accept the fact that you were gay overnight? No. It’s a process, and one you won’t be alone for. Now come on. Let’s introduce you to the rest of the team.” Lance headed for the door.
“Lance?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re not wearing pants.”
Lance’s face turned red. “N-neither are you! God, Keith, I can’t believe you were about to go out there as a naked Galra! That would’ve been embarrassing.”
--
“Allura, gentlemen, and Pidge,” Lance nodded at everyone respectively. “I’ve gathered you all here today because Keith has discovered a new side of him that he will need some time to accept. I expect all of you to be supportive during this time and only make the occasional joke—but if it’s not funny, you lose joke privileges.” Lance cleared his throat. “You’ll be surprised, shocked, and maybe angry at first, but despite this new side of Keith, he’s still the angry red paladin we know and love.”
“Lance, get to the point.” Shiro sighed.
“Fine, ruin my fun. Keith… Keith is a furry.”
Hunk gasped dramatically. “What’s a furry? Is it contagious?”
“Lance!” Keith yelled from the other side of the door. “Quit with the furry jokes!”
Lance pouted, and when he spoke again, his voice was much more serious. “We’re not sure why, and we’re not sure how. Honestly, I’m not really focusing on that until Keith feels more comfortable exploring it, but when he woke up today, Keith looked like this.” He opened the door, showing everyone his purple boyfriend. They all gasped, and Keith grabbed for Lance’s hand, hoping he wouldn’t notice how sweaty it was.
“Keith? That’s really you?” Pidge asked, their voice struggling to remain calm.
“Yes,” he nodded, “it’s me.” He looked to Lance for support, who nodded. “Like Lance said, we don’t know why I turned into a Galra, but as far as I know, I’m still the same person. I still intend on being a paladin.”
Hunk spoke up next. “How do you feel, man?”
“Less like shit than I did earlier.”
“This might help us, actually,” Allura said, strategic as always. “If this is a permanent change, or if you learn to control it, we could infiltrate Galra ships a lot easier. You could go undercover.”
“That… sounds terrifying. I hope I never have to do that. Shiro? You’ve been awfully quiet.”
“I’m just shocked.” Shiro spoke softly.
“Me too. It’s going to take some getting used to for all of us.”
“Keith, this must be really scary for you.” He nodded. “If you ever need someone to talk to—someone who is actually serious most of the time—I’m here.”
Lance stepped protectively in front of Keith. “Hey,” he said defensively, “if you’re trying to move in on my boyfriend, please don’t, because I would definitely lose to you.”
The tension in the room lifted as everyone laughed. “Don’t worry, Lance. Your relationship is safe.”
“Good. That means I can rub Keith’s ears whenever I want!” He turned to Keith, hands poised for the strike.
Keith blushed and covered his ears, running around the room to hide behind his teammates. “Don’t!”
“Why? Because you like it?”
“No! Why would I like it?”
“Because you’re a furry!” Lance chased his boyfriend around, chanting, “Keith is a furry! Keith is a furry!”
Keith, in turn, was chanting as he ran away, “Beastiality kink! Beastiality kink!”
“Well, it’s nice to know they haven’t changed.” Pidge said, a smile creeping at the corners of their mouth.