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“Come on,” Lance is uncharacteristically quiet in the darkness beside him. Keith can guess how he is feeling. Like the stagnant, black air is seeping into his lungs every time he opens his mouth. “There must be something.”
“There really, really isn’t.” Keith half sighs, rolling over to face Lance, despite the fact that there is nothing to see. He is tempted to reach out, but he doesn’t move any further. With little conviction, he resolves to leave before he falls asleep, so that whoever tries to wake him up tomorrow morning doesn’t think he’s been kidnapped by the Galra.
“Someone?” Lance suggests, stirring slightly- Keith can hear the rustling of blankets. "One person, on the whole of the planet." Keith is shaking his head when he realises that Lance probably cannot see any better than he can.
“No.” He says, earnest. The word seems to expand, grow to fill the empty space. He closes his eyes, and it makes no difference- or maybe it’s brighter, if you count the almost imperceptible pinpricks of colour behind his eyelids. Shiro once told him those only happen when you’re really exhausted, but if so, how come he’s still awake?
“Really?”
Oh, yeah.
“Really, Lance.”
“You know what I miss most?” His words are partly slurred with sleepiness, partly muffled by the pillow. “’sides my family…” Lance trails off, and Keith waits. Curls his fingers into fists in the soft sheets.
“What do you miss most?” He says eventually.
“Everything.” Lance replies, vaguely, but totally earnestly.
He says it with such conviction that Keith can’t help but huff in amusement, even as his boyfriend stumbles on.
“Our rain, our sunshine…” He pauses as if in thought. “The ocean. People. Just… seeing other people, passing them by on the street or…” A yawn interrupts him. Keith is about to tell him that he should shut up and go to sleep, when Lance adds, with as much enthusiasm as someone who is half asleep can possibly muster; “Fireworks!”
“Never really got what all the fuss was about with fireworks...” Keith answers honestly, and it is Lance who stretches out to him, tugging at his arm with all the strength of a newborn kitten.
“No- No way…” His voice is really fading now. “You just haven’t been to the right fireworks display.” He shakes him weakly. “When we go back… to Earth… I’ll take you-“ Another gaping yawn; Keith puts his free hand over Lance’s fingers. They're so much warmer than his.
“I’d like that.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” In an infinitesimally small movement, Keith begins rubbing his thumb over Lance’s palm. “Now go to sleep. If the Galra attack, where will we be without our worst pilot?”
Lance must be almost unconscious, because he doesn’t even pretend to be offended- with one last; “Yeah…” He lapses into silence, and it isn’t long before Keith hears his breathing change.
The two paladins lie side by side, hurtling away from the planet they call home at the speed of light.