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2.
--
And I had the week that came from hell
And yes I know that you could tell
--
“Meet Norepinephrine,” Coran says, only beginning to build up on his momentum. He watches Keith flick the spoon of green go around the bowl.
“If you’re going to sit me through this, you should probably hurry up.”
“Has anyone ever told you that patience is a virtue?”
Keith smirks. “I’m the Red Paladin for the very same reason why the answer to that question is a no.”
Keith glances at the other side of the corridor where Lance seems to be heavily engaged in a conversation with Hunk and Pidge. When Lance looks over at him, he pretends he doesn’t need to wipe his hands against his jeans nor calm down his apparent erratic heartbeat. Keith decides that this whole falling in love thing was a complete nuisance.
Coran audibly sighs while enlarging the image on screen. “Moving on; Norepinephrine or sometimes known as Noradrenaline, affect s you in such a way that you start having sweaty palms and a pounding heart.”
Right on the spot, Coran.
“And where’s Lance?” Allura asks, her multicolored eyes scanning around the room. Keith finds himself doing the same, unused to the silence that hangs in the air without the usual loudmouth to fill it up.
As if right on cue, the doors behind them open up to reveal no other than the loudmouth himself -- Lance McClain, a long blue robe draped over his equally blue pajamas. Keith’s eyes make their way from Lance’s face to the tips of his cat-themed slippers -- what the fuck? A part of Keith’s slightly sleep-muddled brain doesn’t fail to notice that Lance looked freshened up -- literally the incarnated version of ‘ I woke up like this. ’
At the sight, Keith wants to haul himself out of an airlock. That, or quite possibly haul himself at Lance. Keith doesn’t quite understand why Lance, looking like he’d just got up from bed, was suddenly the most eye-catching thing in the room. He watches as the Blue Paladin pads over towards them, and Keith matches the beat of his heart to his every step. Needless to say, Lance is a fast walker.
And when he does eventually get nearer, Lance yawns. “Good morning, everybody. What's going on?”
Keith doesn’t miss the deadpanned expression on Allura’s face. “Coran and I have been up for hours getting the Castle back in order. We had to run a test on the alarms, and we decided to test you as well. Guess which one failed.”
After a series of complaints from Hunk about the early and sudden call time, Keith’s eyes struggle to adjust to the dim lighting as Allura darkens the room to display an array of stars and planets around them. The princess seemed to be fixated on trying to get the five paladins to understand the gravity of the situation but as much as Keith wanted to absorb every word she says, the only thing he has swimming in his head is the way the blue holographic stars reflect in Lance’s eyes.
At some point in Allura’s lecture, Lance glances at Keith and the latter can’t help but feel like a deer caught in the headlights. Keith quickly looks away, suddenly feeling like it was a mistake putting on his gloves today. He didn’t even know hands could sweat that much.
Keith finds that by the time he figures out how his limbs work, the other paladins are already walking towards their entry points to the hangars. Apparently, Allura had ordered them to get to their Lions. He quickly picks up his pace, walking towards the red-lit opening, but not before stealing another glance at the doorway next to him.
“Bet my lions faster than yours,” Lance says, as he lingers by the doorway. Keith finds himself doing the same.
“Weren’t you listening? Allura just said that Red is the most agile--”
“Blah blah blah, Keith. Tell you what, I’ll race you to the Lions.”
“Could you for once take anything seriously?”
“Nu-uh, not while I can help it,” Lance sends him a grin and practically shoves himself towards the doorway leading to his Lion.
With hands as wet as the fucking Pacific Ocean and a heart beating faster than it takes for Allura to berate him for lingering behind, Keith walks through the doorway.
And even when everything’s red, all he can think of is blue. He can’t help it.
“As you can quite tell,” Coran says, giving Keith a knowing smile. “The increased heart rate caused by the Norepinephrine, is often the reason behind you feeling hot and flustered when Lance so as much notices you.”
Keith blanches, suddenly feeling exposed. “You say this like you’ve seen this actually happen.”
Coran’s smile only grows wider.
When Hunk and Pidge fall into the abyss on the training deck floor, Keith has no choice but to back up until his back touches Shiro and much to his chagrin, Lance.
“Protect your teammates or no one will be there to protect you!” Coran’s voice booms over the speakers overhead. Keith shifts his shield to the left deflecting the ray as a drone sends a blue laser beam at him. He barely has a second to breathe as another beam speeds from his right, aiming directly at Lance.
Protect your teammates or no one will be there to protect you.
He blocks it. The drones suddenly pick up speed and the beams seem to be coming from everywhere at once. His arms begin to ache from the intensity of both the weight of the shield and the fact that he had to shift it every couple of seconds just to save Lance’s sorry ass.
Protect them or no one will be there to protect you.
A beam nearly hits him in the face but he moves the shield at the last second, deflecting it just in time. From behind him, Keith hears Lance grunt as a particularly strong beam slams against his own shield. He feels Lance stumble backwards, his back grazing Keith’s. He realizes that Lance had just taken a particularly nasty blow for him. Training or not, it sends a chill down his spine.
Protect them or no one will be there.
“You keeping up over there, Keith?” Lance calls out breathlessly. The sound of his voice surprises Keith that he almost forgets to reply. It nearly causes him to miss a block, almost sending Shiro down the abyss.
“Just concentrate on keeping me safe,” Keith manages with the Automatic RollTM of his eyes. He hears Lance scoff in indignation.
“Me? I own this drill. You're the one who needs to concentrate.”
It goes without saying that Keith suddenly turns red in the face, feeling like Lance could read his thoughts. He actually contemplates on dropping his shield and exposing himself to the beams so that the ground could literally swallow him up .
But a few ticks later, it seems Lance does the job for him. One second he’s raising his shield and in the next, he’s shrouded in darkness.
“At least you lasted that long,” Pidge’s voice calls out in the darkness.
“Would’ve been longer if Lance had just shut up,” he says back.
“You sure that’s what you wanted? You seemed really into the bickering going on up there. I could hear you two from down here.”
Keith is thankful that it’s pitch black because he’s sure he’s just about as red as his armor.
“Well, are you going to deny it?” Coran asks as he scrolls down on the screen.
“No.”
“Take two steps forward.”
Keith adjusts the mic, carefully analyzing the maze laid out on a holographic screen in front of him. It looked relatively easy solve -- the only challenge here was having Lance cooperate with him. So naturally, the entire thing is just a gigantic pain in Uranus -- if you catch his drift.
He hears Lance groan through the comm. “Oh, no. Not Keith. Why does he get to be the man on the mic?”
If Keith should’ve found that offensive in anyway, he didn't feel it nor show it.
Protect him or no one will .
Coran’s voice crackles from all around the room. “Now just sit tight. You’ll get your turn.”
Lance whines once more before facing towards the front. He sees Lance’s shoulders rise up as he takes a deep breath, absolutely sure that Keith would fail him. He sends a quick glance back at Keith from the floor below and locks eyes with him. Keith expects a threat or an insult thrown at his face, but all he’s met with is a stare so sharp that Keith finds it hard to draw his eyes back to the layout of the maze. When Keith doesn’t hear any more complaints, he goes back to directing.
“Like I said, take two steps forward, turn right, and take three steps that direction.“
And because he’s Lance McClain, the boy who always seemed to have a perpetual earplug when it comes to being bossed around, he takes a step to the right first. Keith winces as he sees an electric shock run through his body as Lance lets out a loud yelp.
“You did that on purpose!” Lance yells, turning around. Keith frowns at the screen, fully aware of Coran standing beside him, monitoring his reactions. As much as he wanted to yank off the headset, he knows the old man wouldn’t approve.
“You're not listening,” Keith says, trying to keep his emotions at bay.
“You said, ‘Turn right’,” Lance spits back, glaring at him. Keith can’t help but roll his eyes for the umpteenth time that day.
“But, before that, I said, ‘Take two steps forward.’”
Lance deepens his frown for a second before turning once more.
“Two steps--AHH!” Lance swivels around to face Keith, eyes burning in frustration. “We're switching places right now !”
Keith takes a quick glance at Coran, not quite sure what to do. The man’s face breaks into a smile and utters the two very words Keith wanted to hear the least at the moment. “Switch places.”
“Do I have t--”
“Keith, if you don’t get your ass here right now , I’m purposely going to let you run into a wall,” Lance yells as he’s walking out of the maze which was now visible. With dread filling his insides, Keith stands up from the monitor and walks down to the lower floor. Along the stairs, he bumps into Lance who is on his way up.
“You’re probably going to let me run into a wall anyway,” Keith comments.
“I won’t, because unlike you, I’m not shit at giving directions.”
“Well, you’re shit at following them.”
The stare that Lance gives him makes his mouth run dry. “I’m getting you out of that maze. Just watch me, Kogane.”
With that, Lance walks the rest of the way up. Keith stands still for a couple of seconds before making his way down to the training deck below. He stands at the center of the room and as soon as he’s there, the maze rises up in front of him.
“The instructions are the same: lead Keith out of the maze. You must learn to trust in each other,” Coran says.
Keith hears the crackling of the comm as Lance places on his head set. Lance’s breathing is loud in his ears and he can’t help shudder because it was almost like Lance was right behind him. The maze quickly disappears and so does Keith’s sense of security.
“Okay, Mullet, take two steps to your right.”
Keith tentatively steps once. Then twice. He lets out a breath of relief as nothing seems to shock him. He glances at the control room where Lance was looking at the monitor with the most intensity he’s ever seen on the guy’s face.
“Take three steps forward.”
Keith moves. No shock.
“One step to the right.”
By some divine intervention, Keith is still alive and unharmed. He doesn’t know how Lance is doing this and he doesn’t know it’s possible that Lance’s voice over the comm is equally as calming as it is flustering. He knows Lance is calculating and watching his every move. Keith finds that he’s unable to properly concentrate after a few seconds.
“Then turn to your left -- no your other left -- Kogane? Do you know your left and right?”
“Right, sorry.”
“No, left , you idiot.”
“That’s not what I mea-”
“Boys! Time is very valuable possession,” Coran’s voice interrupts.
“Yeah, yeah, let’s get on with it. But hey, Keith hasn’t been shocked once ,” Lance says gloatingly.
Lance spends the next five minutes giving Keith directions ranging from left and right and even all the way to duck and jump. He doesn’t know how they’re able to work as well as this but by the end of those minutes, Keith finds that he’s actually enjoying it.
“And then forward. All the way.”
Keith takes a step and as soon as he does, the lights of the maze flicker on behind him. He’s out. Keith is unable to say anything, purely surprised that Lance was able to direct him safely out the maze. Coran breaks the silence.
“Congratulations, boys! You’ve done it!”
“More like I did it,” Lance interjects.
“Whatever, Lance,” Keith says.
“Jealousy, thy name is Keith.”
Keith sighs loudly and removes his helmet. His hair is dripping in sweat and the fact that he was quite aware of Lance watching his move every step of the way in this exercise did not help his case.
When they meet outside the training room, Lance gives him his trademark smirk. “Told you I’d get you out.”
“Seems you did.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” Lance looks over his shoulder as he makes is way over to the kitchen. “I still hate you.”
Keith cracks a smile because, truthfully, he’s a constant disappointment to himself and is in all likelihood unable to resist the gravitational pull of Lance’s grin.
“I still hate you, too.”
“Norepinephrine also helps you stay alert and focused,” Coran says.
“Ha,” Keith slams his hand on the table. “Now that’s something Lance clearly doesn’t have.”
"What is it that you human adolescents say? Check yourself before you... wet yourself?”
Keith snorts. “Wreck yourself.”
“Ah, precisely. If I recall correctly, there was one time when neither of you were quite alert and focused.”
Lance’s voice crackles in Keith’s ear.
“You still going, Keith?”
Aside from the rush of falling into open air, Lance’s voice the one thing Keith is sure of. They’re in the middle of an exercise -- something about trusting their lions, as Coran had put it. Keith just thinks that it’s just a fancier way of saying that the were being thrown off a cliff and forced to man a feline aircraft in pitch black darkness.
“You know it,” Keith answers back. “You?”
He hears Lance laugh through the comm. The rest of the paladins’ voices seem to fade in contrast in comparison to Lance’s. Keith isn’t quite sure if it’s because Lance was naturally loud or it was because Keith always found himself tuned to Lance’s channel; whenever Lance said anything, Keith automatically listened -- even if it was to shit-talk him, which is exactly what was going on.
“Going? I'm speeding up!” Lance says, and somewhere to his right, he hears the loud zooming of something large speeding past him. He suspects that it’s Blue with her idiotic and headache-inducing pilot.
“Oh yeah?” Keith goads as he picks up his speed a little. At the midst of this, Keith admits that he’s always been a sucker for competition. Ever since he could remember, he had never backed down from a fight -- regardless if it was over something as petty as whose Lion could go faster. He was going to win.
“Must be getting close,” Lance taunts. In the background, Keith can faintly hear the sounds of the rest of the team pleading for them to cut it -- something along the lines of “let it go” and “can we actually focus for once?”.
But this is Lance , he thinks, and he was not going to back down nor let him go.
So he answers back, “Must be.”
“You getting scared?”
“I’m not scared!”
Keith understands one thing -- it’s that Lance always talks to him like this. He always talks to him like they were in this secret competition that only the two of them were in. And here they are, neck and neck, as Lance had said a few days ago, and it’s suddenly something that has always been. Keith thinks, in a sense, that Lance had always been there. Whether it was competing with him in tests scores and stimulator performances or even racing headfirst from the sky with an inevitable crash looming ahead, it has always been Lance and Keith, neck and neck, and Keith loves the thrill of it.
Keith, as he realizes too late, was far too gone to remember to pull up. He feels Red slam onto the ground below, the loud clang of metal ringing in his ears.
There’s static in his ears. Then a voice.
“I win.”
Something inside Keith’s chest collapses -- gives up .
You win, Lance.
“That was one time, Coran.”
"Alright, alright, settle down,” Coran says as he looks up the last bullet point. “But I must ask, have you ever felt like those little winged creatures were fluttering about in your insides?”
“You mean butterflies?”
“Yes, those! It says that Norepinephrine is responsible for that sensation.”
“Fuck Norepinephrine then,” Keith grumbles.
Keith stomach rumbles as he looks on at the food displayed at their table. An entire day’s worth of training was sure to make someone feel the urge to devour their weight’s equivalent in food -- space goo or not. As Keith sits down next to Pidge, he feels is appetite diminish as a familiar figure plops down at seat to his left.
“Hey, loser.”
“That was once , Lance,” Keith rolls his eyes. He looks back at Coran who seemed to be explaining something about the ‘healthy nutritional values and benefits of space goo.’ Lance opens his mouth to retort but before anymore bullshit can make it out of him, he suddenly feels something appear over his hand. In an instant, he feels it tug on his hands and suddenly, he’s locked in arms with Pidge and fucking Lance.
And Lance, who seemed to be looking at their hands in horror, exclaims, “Hold the phone!”
Keith almost snorts at how utterly embarrassing his choice of words were. Hold the phone? More like hold the fucking --
“You get to feed each other!” Coran exclaims, and suddenly, Lance isn’t on the top of the list of who Keith wants to smack at the moment. “Like a pack of Yalmors!”
Keith knows for sure the five of them were definitely not a pack of Yalmors -- whatever they were -- happily feeding each other in unison, because as Lance leans to his left, he just so happens to land Keith’s hand into his plate. They both glance at it and look up at the same time.
“Oh nice,” Lance deadpans, “You defiled my food goo.”
“It was your fault! This is ridiculous,” Keith says back, dodging the splashes of goo Hunk was making as he tried to eat. Keith takes a glance at Allura who seemed to be fuming in her seat.
“Do Earthlings ever stop complaining?” she says, setting down her spoon.
“Can’t you just give us a break?” Shiro says -- and Keith knows shit’s about to go down because Takashi ‘Shiro’ Shirogane is taking no one’s bullshit right now. And that man has just about as much patience as Keith doesn’t. “Everyone’s been working really hard today.”
And for some reason, Shiro’s statement resonates through his soul because Keith stands up, exasperated. Not only is he starving, but his hand is covered in goo and that same hand was stuck to an egomaniac’s. Keith was not having it.
“Yeah!” Keith yells, well aware of everyone’s eyes on him, especially a specific pair of blue ones. “We’re not some prisoners who for you to toy with like- like--”
To his surprise, said egomaniac comes to the rescue with his arm punching the air, dragging Keith’s along with it. “Like a bunch of toy prisoners!”
Keith is too much in shock and mortified to do anything besides become the awkward mess that he is. “Yes! Thank you,” he pauses. “Lance.”
The boy sends him a pleased smile and Keith tries to ignore the spreading heat in his cheeks. The bickering between the seven of them continues up until Pidge had seemingly crossed the line and now had goo splattered on their face. Then, Keith, fed up with today’s exercise, explodes.
Picking up his bowl of goo, he takes his aim. “Go loose Pidge!”
Needless to say, they result into a full fledged food fight. Keith picks up another scoop of goo and aims it at Coran, who was sending one right at Lance. Keith watches as the green goo hits Lance square in the face and he can’t help but laugh at the flames that dance in the Blue Paladin’s eyes.
“Get him, Lance,” Keith finds himself saying. Lance glances at him and breaks into a mischievous smile.
“Already on it, Keith."
At some point, halfway between their alleged food-related rebellion against the two Alteans, Keith finds himself at a momentary epiphany. Because here he is, standing with a spoonful of space goo in one hand (with Pidge calculating the trajectory probably), and in his other is the sweat-inducing proximity of Lance’s hand. He takes one look at the head attached to that hand and makes the biggest serendipitous mistake of his short miserable life.
Because there Lance was, face half covered in green go, laughing. It sticks to his hair and slides down his armor and he’s still laughing. It sends a flurry up his stomach that felt more like ten thousand Galra ships than the average butterflies. His eyes are still glistening under the white fluorescent light and Keith’s mind takes an involuntary trip back to the first time they met. It's the same laugh -- just an octave lower but Keith recognizes the lack of slow build, how Lance explodes without warning. There is nothing overly pretty about his laugh; it was just, well. A laugh.
But Keith -- Keith is caught in the aftermath. As the dust floats around and until the silence is the only thing that is ringing, there is a figure in the clearing gray smoke. Keith takes a closer look, observes the familiar curves and hard edges that make Lance who he is, and suddenly Keith cannot get himself to breathe. The debris had settled in his lungs and had made a home in him.
But you see, Lance is also Keith’s first breath of fresh air.
In one moment, Lance is the grenade and in another, Lance is the hand reaching out to help him from the rubble.
And it is here that Keith suspects that Lance will be the death of him.
“However,” Coran pauses as his gaze flits back to Keith for a second. Within that second, Keith feels the slight hesitation in the Altean. “Noradrenaline has numerous effects on different parts of your body. You may be familiar with the ‘fight or flight’ response?”’
“All too well, I think.”
“You see, this particular biochemical is released from the brain as a reaction to stressful situations.”
Keith can safely say to himself that he had been afraid only three times in his life.
The first was the waiting period before finding out if he was accepted into the Galaxy Garrison. It had been excruciating, more so for a person with an obvious lack of patience. As much as he’d like to say he was undeterred, the fear had gripped his spine and stayed there. The second was when the newscaster had announced that there was an apparent failure in the Kerberos Mission. He had thought he had lost the only friend he had.
The third is now.
The smoke finally clears from Keith’s vision, leaving him to cough up some dust. From the hallway outside, he sees the ruins of the main control room. There were wires sticking out from the walls and chunks of equipment had been strewn across the floor from the explosion.
“The crystal!” Allura yells, her eyes falling immediately on the castle’s powersource. Though Keith’s eyes don’t even see the crystal nor its pieces scattered on the ground. Keith’s eyes immediately land on a blue heap on the floor, still and unmoving. Keith feels his heart drop to the floor.
“Lance?” Allura says as her gaze finally drops. “Lance!”
The princess quickly runs over to Lance who was lying unconscious on the floor surrounded by debris. The rest of the team short follows, but Keith can’t seem to get his limbs to move. He almost cries in relief the moment the Blue Paladin lets out a groan.
“We have to get Lance to the infirmary!” Pidge yells, falling beside the said person. Keith wants to do just that. Something in him -- he doesn’t know quite what it is -- wants to take Lance and haul his ass into those freaky healing Altean pods. He wants to take Lance away from all of this. He’d seen the look on his face earlier as he recounted his memories back in Varadero and he had seen the way Lance’s face fell. He had watched the boy slowly walk towards the top of the stairs and away from the festivities. He had wanted to go after him -- he swears it. It’s just that Keith understood that when someone wanted to be alone, the best thing to do is to really leave them alone.
But Keith also understands that sometimes, when people leave, all they want you to do is to run after them. It’s what he had wanted someone -- anyone -- to do for him back at the Garrison. It was probably the dumbest thing to ever come across his mind, especially with Shiro suspected dead, but it was the only thing he knew to do. It was just -- he wanted someone to chase him across the wasteland or maybe block the exit doors and tell him to stay. There was a brief moment when Keith had thought that Lance would be the person to run after him, but he had been wrong.
But Keith, looking at Lance now -- battered and semi-conscious -- realizes something. It had been backwards the whole time. He had spent his whole life running, flying when he should be fighting. But here is Lance and all he wants is to go home and Keith is sure as hell he was going to fight this time. If not for himself, then for Lance and the whole team.
So when the King of the Arusians barges in with a plea for help flying off his lips, he’s just about ready. He wants to fight the Galra and he wants to let them know that he wasn’t a force to be reckoned with.
“Will you not help us?” the king asks, the tremors running through his voice.
“We’ll help you,” Keith begins to say. “We just--”
Lance’s groan cuts him off. His voice dies in his throat and he takes a glance at the fallen paladin. He tries to ignore the dread filling his chest and tries to ignore his urge to up and run out of there. It claws at his ribcage and tries to worm its way to his heart. But he was going to fight this time.
He is going to fight the Galra. He isn’t a force to be reckoned with.
(And it is here that Keith knows that Lance will be the death of him.)
“Often times, when a person is angry--” Coran gives Keith a pointed look. Keith pauses from trying to swirl his goo into a slimy green abyss to return back the stare.
“When a person is angry, the brain releases stress hormones such as Norepinephrine.”
“Let me tell you a little something, Coran,” Keith says, flicking the spoon upwards so that the goo splatters on the table. Coran gives him a steely stinky eye, which does not bother Keith at all. “My brain will be releasing Norepinephrine if you keep up all that subtext.”
“I think all of us can agree that you release an awful lot of this biochemical.”
“I do not .”
“You’re doing so right now.”
Keith is out of breath.
Allura’s wispy silver hair slowly unravels out of her tight bun as they run towards the castle. When he had found out about Sendak’s plan of separating the Paladins, he couldn’t believe he hadn't figured it out sooner. The air had suddenly turned cold despite the flames dancing all around him.
“I can’t believe he tricked us,” Keith pants as the cross the walkway towards the main entrance of the castle. Allura casts a side-ward glance towards him, worry in her eyes. “I can’t believe we left them.
“Keith,” Allura lets out. “Don’t blame this on yourself.”
“But--”
His voice gets cut out by the sudden purple lights that appeared on the castle walls. Keith knows the eerie glow and had seen it enough times to know that it had something to do with advanced Galra technology. They’re halfway across the pathway when the particle barrier began to come down like a curtain, agonizingly slow, yet Keith just knows they wouldn’t make it.
The wall comes down with a loud boom and the dust flies up all around them. Coughing and shielding their faces, both he and Allura stare up at the fully activated particle barrier. In frustration, Keith bangs at the shield, knowing full well that it wouldn’t do anything.
“We’re too late,” Keith murmurs. He can’t help the frustrated yell that makes it out of him.
“They have control of the castle,” Allura says and it’s the first time Keith hears fear in her voice. She had always been the steady pillar that the five paladins could lean on during life or death situations. “They’re taking Voltron!”
Keith halts in the middle of uselessly banging on the shield. He had forgotten that the whole reason this was happening was because of Voltron. They are here on this foreign planet, light years away from home because of Voltron. He had yelled at Pidge to staying because he understood the importance of forming Voltron.
Yet at this moment, all his furious and fear-muddled brain could think of was Lance lying on the floor. He was there right now with Shiro. He didn’t even know if they were alive.
In desperation, Keith takes out his bayard and watches it transform into a sword. Just before he swings it, he looks at Allura. “Can we break through the barrier?”
“No. And whoever has taken the Castle has a crystal, which means they'll be able to fly the ship. We have to stop them,” Allura replies.
Keith frowns. “How are we going to do that?”
He’s about to either stab the particle barrier or maybe yell out in frustration for ten straight minutes when Pidge’s voice comes out through his comm.
“I’m inside the castle,” Pidge says, their voice a whisper. “Sendak has taken over and he's preparing for launch. He's got Lance and Shiro.”
A cold weight settles in Keith’s chest. Suddenly, his armor feels too tight and the sounds of the fire crackling and the Arusians cries of alarm seem far away. He faintly hears Allura giving Pidge a complicated set of instructions. He doesn’t understand how Pidge, the youngest of the paladins, could afford to stay so calm. His mind wanders back to the brief argument they had earlier about family -- he had said that everyone in the universe had a family.
The thing is, prior to Lance blindly flying them into space and landing them here, Keith hadn’t been able to say that. Not everyone in the universe had a family because he didn't have one. But as the days and the weeks passed, Keith began to understand in small, minuscule trickles what it meant to have a family. He sees it in Hunk’s home cooked meals, regardless if they were alien space food. He sees it in Shiro’s firm disciplining and headstrong dedication. He sees it in Allura’s caring tone and Coran’s undying loyalty. He sees it in Pidge’s carefree demeanor. And surprisingly, he sees it in Lance -- in his smile, in his laugh, in his jokes and taunts.
This is his family.
And so when Pidge’s consistent voice stops sounding in his comm, he’s brought back to the present. The fear creeps up and returns. There’s dust and rubble flying everywhere and the walkway -- the entire castle -- seemed to be shaking.
“I’ve lost connection with Pidge!” Allura yells as she stares up at the castle in horror. “It’s taking off!”
Keith, admittedly, had felt anger before. It was the main reason he had been booted out from the school he had wanted so badly to get into. But hearing the silence in his comm and the hopelessness in Allura’s tone has him close to overdrive. He knows he’s about to do something either stupidly reckless or stupidly brave (he might have thought of something that was both) but much to his and the Altean princess’ relief, Pidge seemed to have figured it out on their own as the castle soon stopped shaking.
There’s a sudden crackling in his ears and Keith lets out a relieved breath as Pidge’s voice comes back in. The relief doesn’t last too long as soon enough, the sounds of fighting comes in and he just hopes that Pidge stays alive. He hates not being able to do anything.
“Pidge is smart,” Allura says like she’s trying to comfort Keith. “We’ll make it in time.”
The way Allura says this tells Keith that she seems to be comforting herself as well. There isn’t much the both of them could do while their friends were stuck inside a fortified castle with the universe’s doom’s day army.
But there’s nothing to do but wait.
“When faced with a situation that is potentially dangerous, we either find ourselves running away from such a situation or staying to face and stand up to it.”
“Alright, but how does this relate to me and my ‘feelings’ towards Lance again?” Keith asks, making quotation marks around the word ‘feelings.’ He still quite thinks that it’s bullshit.
“Be patient!” Coran raises a finger. “You have to understand all there is about what your frail human bodies undergo when experiencing such emotions -- good or bad. I’m quite positive you’ve felt both at a certain point and I’m willing to bet my moustache that it involved a certain Blue Paladin.”
“I’m willing to bet my mullet that you’re wrong.”
If there is anything that all five paladins could agree on, it’s that Keith Kogane hates waiting. No matter how hard he tries, his patience never seemed to last longer than Lance McClain’s attention span -- which was pretty fucking short, if you ask him.
So when the Arusian sun began to make its way up the horizon and the flames have long died down, Keith is on the verge of exploding. Then suddenly, Allura gets the genius idea of the day and decides to telepathically communicate to the mice. Keith had seen a lot of weird things in his life, but nothing like being an apparent mouse-whisperer gave him the creeps.
But he soon resolved to never doubt the mice nor look at Allura weirdly for communicating with mice after the particle accelerator suddenly collapsed.
“It worked!” Keith yells in amazement, although it sounded more like a question when it came out. His face couldn’t help but split into a smile and he didn’t wait for the barrier to fully disappear before running back inside.
His good mood quickly disappears when they reach the room where the crystal was located. Sendak has Pidge gripped in his hands and Keith watches them struggle to get free. He quickly whips his sword out, surveying the surroundings.
“Stand back!” Sendak commands, his arm giving off the same purple glow as the crystal behind him. Keith raises his sword higher, feeling the blood rushing in his ears. He’s about to run head straight to what might possibly be a successful attempt at saving Pidge or an embarrassing showcase of his untimely death, but before he even gets there, a sudden beam of light appears from behind Sendak.
Suddenly, Keith then finds himself staring into a set of tired blue eyes instead of hateful yellow ones. Keith would know those eyes anywhere. They didn’t have to glow under a fluorescent light for him to recognize them.
Amidst the chaos, the Blue Paladin locks eyes with the Red Paladin and sends him a weak smile. Lance’s gun disappears and transforms back into a bayard just as he slips back into unconsciousness. Keith stands rooted on the spot, too shocked to move. It’s only when Shiro gets up from his kneeling position and stupidly runs with his hands bound to his back at a heavily armed Galra commander that Keith remembers to move. Keith would also remember to berate Shiro for his impulsiveness afterwards.
Keith watches the fight in a blur. He forgets the fear that had crept in his bones, telling him to run. Instead, he remembers a cocky smile and tired blue eyes and suddenly, he’s running straight at Sendak. He doesn’t back down when he lands on the ground several feet away after a particularly strong throw and he doesn’t back down as Pidge gets up from across the room and fights Sendak, who was twice their size.
He definitely doesn't back down when Sendak took his sword in a death grip. Allura yells at him from behind and with all the strength he could muster, he kicks the Galra commander hard in the chest and sends him flying backwards. A shield immediately pops up, keeping him locked in there.
And Keith doesn’t even think -- doesn’t even wait. He’s goddamn tired of waiting and so as soon as the fight is over, he finds himself running straight for Lance.
“Lance,” Keith reaches a hand down. “Are you okay?”
He’s just about to pull Lance up, but seeing the boy’s injuries and the fact that he looks just about ready to pass out again, he decides against it and kneels down next to him. It’s only when Lance lets out a quiet groan that Keith realizes he’s still holding Lance’s hand. He stares at their intertwined hands, suddenly forgetting what to say.
“We did it,” Lance says suddenly, looking at the floor. Keith frowns in confusion, but Lance looks back up at him and smiles. “We are a good team.”
Keith doesn’t think it’s possible, but as Lance shoots him another weak smile, Keith’s tight seams unravel. It’s the way Lance’s face is covered in dirt and he still manages to look the most radiant in the room. It’s the way his eyebrow quirks a little, like he’s unsure, like he’s testing out the boundaries. It’s the way his eyes crinkle at the sides and it’s the way Keith feels Lance’s hand grip his a little tighter.
Lance is incandescent and although Keith had been told never to touch anything that could burn him, Lance is the only warmth the Red Paladin had felt in a long time.
He doesn't mind the heat.
“Your mullet is dead and gone, boy!”
“I wasn’t serious about the bet, okay? I can’t believe you remember that,” Keith exclaims, turning red in the face. Coran only laughs.
“But apparently, Lance can’t. ”
Needless to say, Coran is to be blamed for the explosion of green goo on the table afterwards.
“Alright, Keith, that’s quite enough!” Coran chuckles, holding his stomach. “Just wait till you hear about Oxytocin.”
“Oxytocin could kiss my ass.”
“Speaking of kissing.”
--
But you're like the net under the ledge
When I go flying off the edge
You go flying off as well
--