Archive of Our Own

The battle. It was over. It was finally over…

Lance sat down heavily, panting, his bayard on the ground next to him. God, he almost never wanted to use that again, but with the war still raging on throughout the universe, it wasn’t like he had any choice. His helmet thudded against the wall and he stared at the ceiling.

“Fuck…”

This wasn’t their first battle, but it was certainly the largest, and longest by far. If it weren’t the Altean technology powering his bayard, any normal rifle would have given out a long time ago, too over-heated to cycle.

His body ached. For almost two days straight, team Voltron had been battling through squadrons of Galra, mostly drones, but with the occasional platoon of foot soldiers and a commander. It felt like it was never ending. It wasn’t but for the last few hours that they were finally able to infiltrate the base to free the prisoners there. Lance was exhausted. For forty-eight hours, there had been nothing but shooting, shooting, finding a new location, more shooting. Wash, rinse and repeat. If he had to give the Galra credit for anything, it was sheer numbers. Guess it came with ruling the universe for ten thousand years.

Wearily, he leveraged himself to his feet, bayard loose in his hand before it disappeared to wherever it went when he didn’t need it. Looking around, drone parts littered everything, the walls were cracked, and the purple lights from the Galra base flickered. If everything was going according to plan, this place was going go up in in smoke soon. He had to get out.

“Everyone clear?” Shiro called over the coms.

“Engine room cleared.” Hunk and Pidge were safe.

“Hangar is cleared,” Lance chimed in. He was too tired for his usual jokes.

“Good job, team. The command deck is clear too.” Shiro added after a moment.

That was four out of the five of them. Lance waited. Where was Keith? He was sent to the prison level and was supposed to meet up with him to get the refugees into escape pods. Was he on his way?

“Anyone hear from Keith? …Keith buddy? You there?”

He listened to the comments from the rest of the team and suddenly refugees started pouring into the hangar. There were dozens of them. Lance couldn’t stand there and worry about Keith anymore, he had to focus on them. He directed them to the escape pods, grabbing an arm from a drone to activate the control panels for them and punching the code in to get them to the castle.

When he could, he asked about Keith. Each refugee only told them that the red paladin opened their cells and pointed them down the hallway to the hangar. So Keith was alive. Okay, that was good. But where the hell was he?

Sooner or later, there weren’t any more prisoners to get into the pods, the hangar was empty, save for Lance. He dropped the drone’s arm to the floor. None of the rescued aliens knew where Keith was. Neither did the team.

“Has anyone found him?” he said to the coms, his voice was tight. It wasn’t like to Keith to drop off the coms.

Shiro ran into the hangar. “Still no sign of him. We’ve checked the prison level, nothing.”

He had to be somewhere. There was no way he had slipped in with the refugees, Lance had checked every one of them.

His lion pressed comfortingly into his mind, sensing his rising panic. Even with Keith being his rival, he was his teammate and friend above all else, and having him missing wasn’t something he could handle. She assured him that Red was still with the other lions.

Where was he?

“You’re sure, Shiro? He wasn’t there?”

Shiro nodded. “We checked everywhere. He wasn’t on the pods?”

"No." Lance pried off his helmet and raked a hand through his hair. "I asked almost every single one of them if they saw him and they basically said no. Like, he opened their cells, pointed them here and ran off."

Shiro put a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him, but it really was no use. Lance shrugged it off and started walking back to the lions. “Maybe he lost his helmet or something. Or his coms are broke from being hit. He can't be gone because Blue just basically said that Red was still there."

"Lance, we will find him, don't worry, he can't have gone far." Siro was trying to reassure him the best he could, but at this point, there was no consoling Lance.

He didn’t even know why he was so frantic about Keith being missing. Who worries over their rival like that? Lance shoved his helmet back on and started to fiddle with one of his gauntlets. He pulled up a map of the Galra base they were in and he could see that Pidge and Hunk were waiting for them back at their lions. Blue was there and Red’s signal was steady. So where was Keith?

There was movement out of the corner of his eye. Keith’s name involuntarily fell out of his mouth. Lance took off down the hallway, lingering Galra soldiers be damned. Shiro called out after him, but Lance was already gone.

He saw a flash of white and red disappear around the corner ahead of him.

“Keith!”

His call went unanswered but he kept barreling down the corridor, swinging around the corner, only to see another flash of Keith’s armor farther down the hallway.

“Quiznak, Keith! Just stop!”

Lance was panting from the wind sprints through each section of the base. Keith was leading him on a wild goose chase and this was getting ridiculous. They spend the last two days in this hell hole, forced to separate right off the bat, never getting a chance to rendezvous, and this fucker can’t seem to sit still. Shouldn’t he be exhausted like everyone else? Like Shiro wasn’t even chasing after him.

It took three more turns and Lance found himself, staring at Keith’s dirty and beat up uniform, the boosters on the back were damaged, and his shoulders were slouched in defeat.

“What do you want, Lance.”

Of all the-

“What do you mean what do I want? What the fuck is that supposed to mean, Keith? We have to go, not playing some game of tag!”

“Just leave without me.”

Lance yanked off his helmet and threw it to the ground. This was beyond stupid. Who the hell did Keith think he was to stand there and tell him to leave when not just three weeks ago he was telling Pidge the same fucking thing.

“No! What the hell, Keith?” Lane shouted, incredulous. “Keith, we have to go, Pidge and Hunk rigged this place to blow any minute!”

Just as he finished, he could hear the faint calls for both of them to get back to the lions. Blue was pressing into the back of his mind, calling for him to return to her, to safety. But he wasn’t going anywhere. Not without Keith.

The other boy still hadn’t answered, nor had he turned around. Lance stomped forward and gripped his shoulder.

"Whatever it is, it can wait, Keith, we have to go.”

Keith shoved Lance away and turned to him, yanking off his own helmet. Lance stepped back out of shock.

“I can’t, Lance! Don’t you see? I’m the fucking enemy now, and I don’t even know how the hell it happened.”

Keith was…okay, saying he was purple was putting it lightly – because it was true – and if it was even possible Lance swore that his hair was even fluffier now. He saw the wide yellow eyes staring back at him, nothing but fear in them and his ears were pinned against his head.

And in all honesty, Lance couldn’t give a flying fuck about what his teammate looked like right now, they had to leave. He narrowed his eyes in determination. No, something like this could be taken care of after they left the Galra base.

“Nope, just because you’re, what – a purple cat? – doesn’t mean I’m going to leave you behind. Everyone is waiting, and we are going.” He grabbed Keith’s arm and began to drag him back down the hallways they came through.

“Lance-what? No, just leave me here!” Tried as he might, Lance wasn’t going to let go of him.

“Keith, I don’t care,” he said with a sharp tug to get Keith moving again. He quickly stooped and picked up his helmet.

“Fu- Lance, please! Listen to me!”

“You know listening isn’t my specialty.”

Keith groaned and kept struggling against him, but he had done way more than just fight the last two days and normally Lance would have been stopped by now. Right now, he was dragging Keith around like a kitten.

“-ance…time…-castle…” Hunk’s voice sizzled from.

They were almost there. Just before the entrance to the hangar, Lance stopped and turned back to Keith.

“Put your helmet back on.”

“I told you, I’m not going! Red won’t even let me near her, Lance!”

If Lance could roll his eyes any harder, he would. Pidge would be proud. Blue was antsy in the back of his mind, some of Red’s nerves transferring to her and the rest of the lions. He could tell that Red was only concerned if her paladin was alright, and not dead somewhere in the base. Considering he wasn’t, she would calm down as soon as Keith was in the pilot seat.

“Uh huh, okay, Keith, keep telling yourself that. Just put your damn helmet on and let’s go. We have like two minutes to get out of here and back to the castle.”

“And I’m telling you that Red won’t let me near her!” Could he get any denser?

Lance scoffed and pulled his helmet on, ignoring the immediate influx of com chatter, switching it off without a second thought. The team could wait for the moment. He took Keith’s own helmet and shoved it on his head, ignoring his protests.

“Dude, Lance- what the fuck, stop!”

Helmet safely on, Lance grabbed his arm again and dragged him into the hanger. When was Keith going to get it that he wasn’t going to leave a teammate behind – even if it’s a guy like Keith.

As soon as they were in the hangar, the red lion pounced, roaring and towering over her paladin. Keith yelped and grabbed onto Lance’s arm, hard enough that he hissed and pried Keith’s fingers off of him. Free, Lance loped over to Blue and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Red scoop her paladin up and launch. Serves the guy right to be knocked around in the lion for making him chase him throughout the Galra base.

Blue welcomed him warmly, purring as he ran up the ramp. The adrenaline from chasing Keith was wearing off and his body was feeling heavy again. God, this sucked. He felt like he could sleep for weeks.

When his seat slid forward to the controls, everyone opened up the video com links, giving him worried looks. He flew Blue out of the hangar before giving any of them his attention.

“What happened?” Pidge demanded, her eyes were narrowed and she seemed a little weary. It wasn’t often that Lance ever really got the upper-hand on Keith, let alone drag him around like that.

Lance gave his characteristic smirk. “Keith just needed a little bit of encouragement from yours truly to get his ass moving.”

“Are his coms off? He’s not responding,” Hunk asked.

“His helmet got hit or something.” Lance shrugged and exited the atmosphere.

“And he won’t answer the video coms. What’s up with him, Lance?”

He had no idea how to answer that. Sure, he played Keith’s sudden appearance change off with a sarcastic remark, but that didn’t mean he had any idea how to tell the rest of the team. Personally, he thought it was Keith’s responsibility to tell them, but Keith had the emotional range of a peanut in his opinion and would rather run away from his problems. The chase through the base being case in point.

“That’s on him. Maybe he got his ass handed to him from a Galra commander or something and is embarrassed to tell us about it.” Yeah, keep playing it cool, Lance, they’ll figure it out sooner or later. Like when they get back to the castle.

The castle wasn’t too far from the planet they were on, hidden behind one of its moons. He spotted the red lion just outside of the castle. It almost looked like Keith was arguing with his lion, Red was thrashing her tail and her head was low.

Lance closed all the screens from the rest of the team and opened a private link with Keith.

“Why aren’t you going in?”

Keith had tugged off his helmet again, and his hair was a mess. Yellow eyes looked back him, desperate. “I…I can’t.”

Lance sighed and slouched in his seat. This was stupid. Keith was a broken record. “What happened? Two days ago, you were human and ready to challenge anything that moved. Now you’re Galra and scared shitless.”

Keith flinched and gnawed on his lower lip. Lance caught a flash of sharper than normal canine. Looked like everything changed about, Keith, not just the skin, ears, and eyes.

“I had to fight a druid, I think. It wasn’t Haggar, though. A different one.”

Lance raised an eyebrow. “So druids can change other aliens into Galra now?”

“Huh? I don’t know, I barely remember fighting them, let alone beating them.”

Indicators popped up on his display, the rest of the team was inside the castle. Now it was only the two of them out in space.

“Then tell me what you do remember. And make it quick, everyone is worried about you.”

Keith scowled, giving Lance a full view of his new fangs. Yep, those are definitely sharper than the average humans. “What part of ‘I don’t remember’ don’t you get, Lance?”

Can they get through one conversation without bickering? This was getting ridiculous.

“Look, Keith, unless you want to explain to the rest of the team by yourself what happened, then go ahead and land in the castle. But if you want help with this – and you can’t tell me you don’t cuz your ears say everything, bud – then spill. You fought a druid. What happened?”

Keith’s ears were pinned against his head again, this time out of irritation. It took him a moment before he sighed and caved.

“I fought the druid and they threw something at me. I don’t know what, but it was purple. I blacked out for maybe a moment and I woke up like this.”

It wasn’t the best reveal, but it would do. Lance could work with it. “No mind tricks?”

Keith shook his head. “No, just a lot of teleporting before they threw that thing at me.”

Well, whatever the thing was, it was something that made Keith the way he was now, which was totally weird in Lance’s opinion. He was pretty confident that Keith was human, a grumpy and surly human, but human none the less. Lance scratched the back of his neck as he thought. The team would buy the druid thing, but…well, there was no ‘but' to that. Keith fought a druid and the druid did this to him. The medical scanners in the castle would be able to give them a better story about what actually happened to him. From what Lance could see, it altered all of his genetics, and that didn't seem like something you could change back if you wanted to.

Blue moved on her own and nudged the red lion towards the castle. Guess the conversation was over and now was as good as time as any to go and tell the rest of the team.

“Well, there’s not much we can do about it now, bud. Might as well-”

“Wait!” Keith’s ears flicked up and back down again. “What about…”

Lance gripped the controls and looked at his teammate, his rival. It was slightly unnerving to see Keith scared. Granted, he’s seen him scared before – back when he fought Zarkon for the first time and nearly torn apart in a corrupted wormhole. Yeah, his video feed was stuck broadcasting to all of them, so everyone got a good picture.

He took pity on Keith.

“Look, if you’re worried about Shiro, Allura, and Coran, don’t. They’ll understand, just tell the truth. Hell, even Pidge will get it. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Keith’s head shot up and he glared at Lance. “The worst that could happen is I’m dropped off on some random planet and left to die. They’ll find another red paladin.”

“Oh, please,” Lance scoffed, “Could you be any more dramatic? I don’t know if you noticed, but Red was actually worried about you? So, you’re going to be the red paladin for the foreseeable future, Keith, cuz I really doubt that Red is gonna let anyone else pilot her. Now get your butt inside. I’m tired and hungry.” He angled Blue so that she kept pushing the red lion towards the castle. “And I dunno about you, but Hunk is hungry too, so if you want any food, we gotta get moving. C’mon, chop-chop.”

Keith rolled his eyes and turned off the feed, Red zoomed away. So food was what it took to get Keith to listen? Alright, cool. Lance followed after him, landing his lion in the hangar next to Keith.

Everyone was waiting for them, even Coran came down from control deck to see what all the worry was about. Lance exited Blue, giving her a quick pat before she closed up and he took off his helmet. Red still hadn't opened up and he glared through the lion to where Keith was. If he kept stalling, it was only going to make matters worse. Shiro had the worried dad face on, Hunk was close to tears, Pidge was starting to get pissed, and who knew what Allura and Coran were thinking, but both of them looked concerned. Like, for real dude, just get it over with. Rip it off like a band-aid.

It took a few minutes, but eventually Red opened up and Keith was standing at the top of the ramp, looking really unsure. Lance wouldn’t blame him for wanting to stick it out in Red until the night cycle rolled around, but food was at stake here and none of them have eaten in twenty-four hours. If he didn’t start moving, Lance was prepared to go up there and drag him out. They were all tired, Keith being a drama queen wasn’t getting them any closer to their beds. And let’s not forget the food. The food is very important.

Just as Lance opened his mouth to goad Keith into moving, he started taking steps down the ramp, and just like Blue, Red closed up and straightened once his feet were on the floor.

“Keith, is everything alright?” Shiro asked slowly.

Keith was staring at his boots, not looking up, but nodded his head anyways.

“Bullshit,” Lance sang quietly.

“Language, Lance.”

How many times was he going to roll his eyes today? Lance didn’t say anything, despite the burning need to tell Shiro that he’s said worse over the coms before.

Shiro turned back to the red paladin. “Keith?”

“I-I’m fine.”

“Uh, bro? Don’t wanna be the downer here, but, uh yeah, you don’t sound fine. Like at all,” Hunk stammered, he sniffed too. Yep, the tears were ready to fall. “Like what happened to you, man? You fell off the radar for like, hours.”

“Coms got messed up in a fight. Nothing big,” Keith muttered.

He really wasn’t putting anyone at ease, but considering Lance basically had to pull his teeth out to get him to talk… Okay, that wasn’t really true, but Keith did try his patience, and that was stressful enough.

“Then why didn’t you answer us when you made it back to your lion?” Pidge cut in. Her eyes were narrowed behind her glasses.

Involuntarily, Keith lifted his head to defend himself, mouth open as he was about to form his first word. Nobody missed the way his fangs glinted. Pidge’s eyes widened and she stepped back. Shiro’s face instantly darkened and Coran stepped in front of the princess, who brought a hand to her mouth in shock. Hunk was speechless, but he didn’t move. Lance was the only one who didn’t react at all.

Keith remained silent and ducked his head almost immediately. Lance eyed everyone, waiting for someone to say something to reassure the guy. Shiro was practically Keith’s older brother and he should have been jumping to comfort Keith, his year as the Champion be damned. (Lance didn’t really mean that, but how could any of this be Keith’s fault and why were they judging him for it?)

The silence stretched between all of them, no one wanted to be the one to break it. Good thing Lance was cranky and impatient enough to end the awkwardness for right now.

"Look, guys, is this really what we are going to do? He's still Keith. The freaking guy with a mullet! He's still the red paladin!" he exclaimed, making eye contact with everyone.

“What the quiznak happened to him!? He’s a Galra!” Pidge hissed.

“Big fucking deal. It’s not like he chose to be one!” Lance snapped.

“So? That just means he’s been one this whole time!”

“Listen, Pidgeon, he just found out!”

“Lance, he’s fucking purple and has teeth! That can’t be something that just happens over the past two days.”

“So? Shit happened down there!”

Pidge scowled. “And you expect me to believe that magic did that to him?”

“What other explanation is there?”

“Uh, science? And none of it says that Keith turning purple and growing fluffy cat ears is possible.”

“Well, he’s standing right here, looking exactly like that.”

“It’s possible that he was replaced with a clone or he’s been Galra this whole entire time. Maybe he was experimented on-” Pidge launched into full science mode but Lance didn’t let it get too far.

He stepped in front of Keith and heard Red growl. “Do you really think that, Pidge? Do you really want to go there?”

Pidge all but snarled at him. “He’s the enemy, Lance! I bet-”

“Pidge, Lance, that’s enough.” Shiro cut them off and stepped between them, stopping Pidge from getting into Lance’s face. “We don’t know what happened, and throwing accusations like that is serious.”

Lance crossed his arms but didn't step away from Keith. Pidge huffed angrily and matched Lance’s pose. Lance still couldn’t believe he was defending the guy. If it had been him in this situation, he was pretty sure Keith would have thrown him to the wolves and let him suffer the judgment. Oh no, he was not going to let Keith get off scotch free from this.

Allura and Coran still hadn’t said anything, but neither of them had relaxed any. One look at Hunk told Lance that he was ready to hug everyone, just to stop the fighting…please.

Shiro took a deep breath and looked over Lance at Keith. “What happened, Keith?”

Keith was slow to respond and Lance almost answered for him before he spoke. “There was druid at the base…they hit me with something and turned me into-into…into this.”

Lance turned to see him pull off his helmet and stand there with his head down.

His was hair wasn’t as fluffy as it was earlier, sweat dampening it. Ears out, low and close to his head, and everyone could now see that his was skin was purple. Keith bit his lip as he waited for the judgmental comments to start flying at him. But they didn’t come.

Lance had turned back to face everyone again. They were all shocked, just like he was, but they all had the luxury of being able to stop and stare at their teammate.

Still, no one spoke. Alright, fine.

“Okay, guys, that’s the story. M’sure the healing pods could give us a better description, but I don’t know about all of you, but I would really like to get some of that space goo and maybe hit the showers.” Lance reached back and grabbed Keith’s hand – yes, his hand – and began to drag him out of the hanger. “In fact, yeah, a shower sounds great, and we could all use ‘em, by the way, cuz, like for real, we stink. C’mon, we just fought for two days straight and we are standing around debating Keith’s skin. His skin, people…”

He kept rambling until they were officially two or three hallways away from everyone. No one had followed them, and Lance was kind of thankful for that. He dropped Keith’s hand and stretched.

“Lance, I…”

“No no, thank me when they all get over themselves. For now? We shower. I’m tired of smelling you.”

Keith scowled. “Oh, like you smell any better.”

Lance matched his scowl. “Still smell better than you, batty.”

“Have you – wait, what? Oh, do not tell me you just called me a bat.”

“Dude, would you prefer being a called a cat? Kitty? Kitten? Any of those are fair game now.”

“You could just call me by my name, dumbass.”

“And where’s the fun in that? It’s not like ‘Keith’ is a good start for nicknames and ‘mullet’ is getting old too.”

They turned down another hallway, one leading to their rooms. They bickered the whole way, nothing was out of place, and Lance would admit he forgot about what happened to Keith. It wasn’t like his new appearance kept him from trading insults with the guy. So what was the point of treating him any differently than before?

It turned out that Keith had some Galra in him from the very start and the pods couldn’t revert him back to his human state, so Keith was stuck being purple. When they all found out, Pidge was ready to launch into an ‘I told you so’ speech that Lance didn’t even let begin. His icy stare was something that none of the other paladins had seen before, and for once, they didn’t try to say anything about the situation. Keith was Keith, and that was all they had to worry about.

Hunk was the first one to come around after that. The big guy had a huge soft spot for fluffy things, and Keith's new ears won him over. Keith never let him touch them, though, in fact, Keith didn't let anyone touch him for the longest time. He even refused to train with any of the others. It wasn't something that the team really questioned, considering Keith wasn't big on physical contact in the first place. At least he showed up for the team exercises.

Allura and Coran were the next to start treating Keith like he was normal. Everyone had their adjustment periods and it took them a day or two analyze all the data from the pod to make sure it was irreversible. Alteans based a lot of things on science from what Lance understood, but after grilling Keith for as much information as possible, they relented and went about their business as if Keith never changed. It was a huge relief for Keith, Lance could tell that much. The whole time Keith had been pretty tense. The team knew all about the relationship between the Galra and Atleans, but Lance watched as Keith's guilt ate away at him. No matter how much Lance, Allura, or Coran told him it wasn't his fault, Keith stuck to the point that he looks like the enemy now because he let the druid get a lucky shot in. If Lance was being honest – and he always was – he wanted to throttle Keith for thinking that, but what could you do when the Red Paladin was notoriously the most stubborn team member throughout Voltron history?

Needless to say, Pidge and Shiro took the longest to get over themselves. One, Shiro was a Galra prisoner for a year and he was still dealing with the PTSD from it, and two, Pidge was holding a grudge against an entire alien race for tearing her family apart. Everyone could understand where they were coming from, and Shiro was making an effort, but it still didn’t stop the way he would freeze for a second whenever Keith entered the room. Pidge kept to herself, always tinkering with the alien tech they found along the way. Keith also took it upon himself to avoid the two of them too. The way he deflated when Shiro put his guard up or Pidge gave him a brief glare before turning her attention back to her projects was enough to tell Lance that he was barely coping. More often than not, when either of them entered the room, Keith was soon to leave.

Lance’s patience was wearing thin, and he almost had a boundless amount considering the size of his family, but that was beside the point.

As soon as Keith left for the umpteenth time, Lance finally decided he had enough.

“How long is this going to keep going?” he asked to no one in particular, but Shiro was in the room. Why did he care that Keith was accepted again? He was his rival, right?

Shiro didn’t meet his eyes, but he could tell it pained their leader to be at odds with another teammate. It wasn’t as if Keith was going out of his way to be antisocial and reclusive, even if that was his nature to begin with. But now, after acting like he thought he belonged, Lance was slowly watching him turn back into the guy they found in the desert all that time ago.

"Shiro, I don't mean to be a hardass, but, dude, you're really important to him and – and I don’t – but like, can’t you just talk to him?”

“I know, Lance, and I am trying.” Shiro clenched his prosthetic with his other hand. “But even after my year as a gladiator…and the way Zarkon nearly took the Black Lion away from us, it-it hasn’t been easy.”

Lance knew and understood that Shiro was trying, but was it too much to ask for him to at least talk to Keith? “You can just tell him that instead of just looking at him like he’s a kicked puppy or something.”

Shiro only nodded, not offering any more conversation. Lance ended up leaving the room after that. He made his point and told Shiro to try talking to Keith. He still didn’t get why he was going out of his way for him either. He kept telling himself it was because Keith was a teammate, and begrudgingly one of his friends. (What could you do when you’re stuck in space with six other people?)

Maybe it was time to talk with Hunk.

Lance stuffed his hands in his pockets and made his way to the Green Lion’s hanger. If Pidge was there, oh well, she could use a word or two from him too, but the point was to talk to Hunk.

Honestly, Lance always saw himself competing with Keith. Sure, after the bomb went off in the castle and he had heroically saved Coran from the explosion by taking it himself, they did have that one bonding moment that Keith was hung up on for the longest time. But he could prove that he was smart and strong enough to keep up with him, and not jump in front of bombs in his free time, but Coran was important, more important than he was.

Blue was there in an instant, reassuring him. She did that whenever his thoughts drifted down that route, and for that, he was thankful. His thoughts were scary sometimes, and she was on a short list of people – or things in this case – to get him out of them.

He turned another corner and hunched his shoulders. In any case, he hated thinking like this, but with everything that has happened, from the wormhole incident to their latest battle, to Keith being a Galra now, he hadn't had time to think until now.

Lance groaned and shook his head. Yeah, he really needed to talk to Hunk.

Another corner and he was in the Green Lion’s bay, and sure enough, Hunk was there with Pidge working on some type of project. Pidge noticed him first and barely even acknowledged his raised hand in greeting.

Hunk popped up from behind the machinery, a streak of alien grease reached from his nose to his ear, like he swiped the back of his hand across his face.

“Hey, Lance!”

Lance made his way over and stood behind Hunk, “Sup, bud? What are you guys working on this time?”

“A scanner for…what was it again Pidge?”

Pidge glanced up, pushing her glasses up her nose before looking back down to the machine. “It’s a scanner for druid magic.”

“Yeah that! We keep coming across them and Keith has run into them twice now, and then there’s Shiro. But the closer we get to Zarkon, the more there will be.”

Lance side eyed Pidge’s head as they continued to tinker. “How are you supposed to pick up their magic, though? It’s…magic.”

Hunk launched into a really technically detailed answer that went over Lance’s head. It had something to do with the scans from Keith and the small sample they got from the Galra quintessence from just before they were thrown into a wormhole. That was all Lance could get from it.

"Hunk, buddy, my man, that's great, but you're getting too into it for me." He laughed, giving Hunk a clap on the shoulder.

“Haha, sorry, man. But what’s up? Tired of hanging with Keith?”

Lance’s face scrunched and he looked away. “That is none – that – no!”

Hunk raised an unimpressed eyebrow before he resumed tinkering too. “Look, dude, I get it. The fact that he told you first of all people-”

“I resent that.”

“- just means that you two have gotten past your rivalry on some level. The guy trusts you.”

Hunk had been hanging around Lance long enough to just know that he was going to add his own thoughts in the middle of Hunk's, so it was best to keep talking that way Lance couldn't take over the conversation with his nonsense.

“Okay, for one, we are still rivals, that hasn’t changed. And we had one bonding moment. One! Nothing more, nothing less.”

Pidge peeks over the machine at that. “So you admit to having a bonding moment?”

Lance spread his arms. “Since when did I say that?”

“Uh, you just did, dude.”

“Okay, whatever, Hunk. That’s not the point anyways.” He crossed his arms over his chest and sulked.

“Then what is the point, Lance? If you couldn’t tell we are busy.” Pidge went back to fiddling with some, pulling wires out here and there to untie and retie them together in different combinations.

“Well, I don’t know about you guys, but this team hasn’t been feeling very teamy, lately.” The eye-roll he got from Pidge was case in point.

“Come off it, Lance. Not everyone gets over things as quickly as you and Hunk do.”

Lance’s turn to roll his eyes. “Seriously, Pidge? Keith hasn’t done anything to you, yet you’re treating him like he will betray us any second.”

“He’s been part Galra this whole time-”

“Yeah, and he didn’t know until he was hit with the druid magic.”

“How could you possibly know that? He could be lying to you.”

Lance pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. For someone so smart, Pidge was being the densest person on this ship, denser than Keith.

“He hasn’t lied to us once, Pidge. Ever since we got stuck in this mess, Keith has shared everything with us. Wait, I take that back, he’s shared everything that would be useful to the team. He told us about Blue. He’s had all our backs in all of the fights we’ve been in. Not to mention him and Red are, like, the best duo ever on this team."

Hunk dropped his wrench, the loud clang making everyone jump. Pidge was staring at him like he had grown a second head and Hunk hadn’t even bothered with his wrench.

Lance looked between the two of them. “What? Do I have something on my face again?”

Hunk huffed and reached for his fallen wrench. "Lance, do you listen to yourself sometimes?"

“Because you just complimented Keith.” Pidge narrowed her eyes fixed her glasses and squinted at him. “Did you hit you head while training earlier?”

Lance wrinkled his nose. “So what if I complimented the guy? The dude could use the ego boost since everyone has been shitting on him lately.”

Pidge’s expression soured, her moment of shock over. “I’ve already told you, Lance…”

“Uh huh, he looks like the enemy, blah blah blah. Well, hate to break it to you, short stack, but he’s still our teammate, whether you like it or not.”

“He has a point, Pidge,” Hunk added in. “So, Keith has cute fluffy cat ears and looks different from the rest of us now. He's still Keith and even I can tell that the team bonding exercises are rocky because of you being…iffy around him."

Lance nodded. “Exactly what he said.”

The small paladin scowled at both of them. “Okay, fine.” She didn’t meet either of their eyes and started working again, a little more urgency in her movements.

It wasn't exactly what the type of conversation Lance was expecting, but it was something. Hopefully, Pidge would start treating Keith like she used to.

He leaned over and looked at what Hunk was working on. “So other than picking up druid magic and because Keith and Shiro had run-ins with them…Is this to make up for Keith?”

Pidge sparked a couple of wires and hissed as her fingers singed. “That’s none of your business, Lance.”

He straightened up, a knowing smirk on his face. “Knew it. But I’ll leave you guys to it.”

And with that, he walked out of the lions' bay with a wave over his shoulder.

Shit, he never talked to Hunk about what he wanted to.

Over the next few cycles, because days didn’t truly exist in the castle, Hunk and Pidge managed to get the scanner to work and hooked up to the alarm system. They must have been exhausted to actually think that was a good idea, because the next thing they all knew, everyone was on the command deck – in uniform to Allura’s delight – but groggy and ready to hurt whatever disrupted their sleep. Yes, it was in the middle of the night the scanner decided that now would be a good time to go off. Turns out Pidge forgot to code in Keith’s and Shiro’s signatures into the program. It was screaming over Shiro’s arm and Keith’s DNA.

Pidge scrubbed at her eyes, trying in vain to get rid of the tired feeling in them. “Sorry, everyone, false alarm…”

“It’s fine, Pidge. At least it works, right?” Keith yawn, hiding his fangs behind his hand.

“Of course it works. But all of you can go back to bed, I can fix this in five minutes.” She turned back to the console she was sitting at.

Lance yawned loudly and exited the room, but not before he heard Keith say good night to everyone and the quiet reply from Pidge. He grinned to himself. About time.

Now that Lance was awake, he knew he wasn’t going to make it back to sleep for a couple more hours. He made it back to his room to change out of the paladin armor and back into his pajamas, but instead of staying in his room to relax, he grabbed his robe and headed for the observation deck. Nothing like some stargazing to put him in the mood to sleep again.

It was his favorite past time, reminded him of home just enough to remind him what he was fighting for. Most of the time it was just him.

Tonight wasn't one of those nights.

When Lance walked into through the door, he found Keith already sitting there in his jeans and a black t-shirt. His big fluffy ears stuck straight out and he was looking at the stars, lost and forlorn.

“Keith?” Lance asked. His voice was quiet.

Even with as quiet as Lance was, Keith still jumped and reached for the knife he kept laced through his belt. When he saw that it was only Lance, he visibly relaxed and turned back to the stars.

“Hey.”

Lance frowned at Keith’s empty voice. He stepped forward to sit down next to Keith.

“You okay, man?”

Keith shrugged. “Peachy.”

Lance sighed through his nose and looked out at the galaxies around them. “You don’t sound peachy, dude.”

Lance saw Keith’s ears flick back and forth, uncomfortable and irritated. But Keith didn’t say anything.

The taller boy sighed again and slouched his shoulders. “Look, if it has anything do with the scanner thing, you know Pidge meant well.”

“That’s not it.”

Lance glanced at Keith. He didn't say anything, though. Over the past few days, he had learned that pestering Keith about what was bugging him was the fastest way for Keith to shut him out. For as much as he bemoaned Keith with his stupid hairstyle and how good of a pilot and fighter he was, he never truly hated him. So he stayed quiet. Eventually, Keith started to talk when it became clear that Lance wasn't leaving any time soon.

“Do you know what it’s like to hate yourself for something that you can’t change?”

Lance hummed. Of course he did, but he kept those feelings liked up at tight as possible. Blue was there to reassure him and scold him on the occasion he was having a particularly bad day.

But, as much as he wanted to keep that all to himself, Keith asked an honest question.

“Yeah, plenty of things,” he said finally.

Keith raised an eyebrow at him. “Hard to believe coming from the most obnoxious paladin in the history of Voltron.”

Lance snorted, biting back a laugh. “Oh please, I can be quiet when I want to be.”

“Sure, Lance.”

Lance stretched his legs out and leaned back on his hands. "I grew up in a family of overachievers. My big brother was a star football player and incredibly smart, almost on Pidge's level. He went to college and got some ridiculous degree. Then my sister went and became a lawyer, hah, who would have thought she would ever become a lawyer of all things? Then my other brother went and became a tech engineer like Pidge – maybe that's why I get along with her – but he's a wiz with computers, and I think he had plans to go to grad school for it all."

“Why are you telling me this?” Keith asked when he stopped talking.

Lance side eyed him. “Well, I have a point I’m trying to make, even though you seem to know everything about me.”

Keith flinched at his tone and looked away. Lance stared for a second longer before turning back to the stars.

"And, well, then there's me. The cargo pilot at the Garrison. Even though it wasn't really said outright, they all expected me to fighter class. Imagine the way they are reacted when I called home the next day to tell them. I know they meant well, but it didn't stop the disappointment in their voices. Lance didn't follow in his older siblings' footsteps."

“Lance…”

He laughed. It sounded so hollow, even with Blue pushing at the back of his mind, telling him all those things were wrong, he kept going.

“So for a year at the Garrison, I was the disappointment child, even though I was top of the cargo class. But that didn’t compare to my siblings being the top of their classes, even my younger siblings were doing well comparatively. They were all able to meet their goals and succeed… I was – well, I was the only one who fell short.”

Lance felt tears building up, and he swallowed hard, fighting them. He didn’t dare look at Keith. If he did, he was sure to break, and as much as he was finally getting along with him, he still had his image to uphold. Normally he never tried to compare himself to his siblings, he understood that they weren’t going to be the same as him, or he them.

So brooding about it was going to get him nothing in the long run, but sometimes…sometimes he just couldn’t stop those depressing thoughts, the self-depreciation. It happened, and yeah, he had Hunk to get him through it, but now? Now he had Blue too, and the rest of team Voltron.

Keith sighed and leaned forward, wrapping his arms around his knees. “Y’know, you’re none of what you just said you were.”

And now Keith.

Lance looked away. “The point was that the Lance you think you know isn’t the one that actually exists, Keith. I mean, let’s face it, I wouldn’t be here if not for you guys saving my ass all the time.”

“And you’ve saved ours just as many times, Lance. I mean, fuck, you saved Coran after knowing him for what? Two days?”

“I’ll have you know as much as I love the guy, I’ll consider taking a bomb for him the next time. Cuz damn that hurt…”

Keith scowled at him. “You wouldn’t.”

“Yeah, true, it’s because I’m such a nice guy.” Lance gave him a lopsided smile, but Keith remained stoic. He knew.

They were both quiet for a while. Neither of them really wanted to talk, and Lance was busy telling Blue that he was fine. The scolding he was receiving was more than enough to give him a headache, and he knew that this wouldn’t be the last he’s heard it from her. She was just as tenacious as he was in getting her point across. Guess they really were made for each other by some twist of fate.

“Even with all that you claim to hate about yourself, you still look yourself in the mirror.”

Lance raised his eyebrows and looked over at Keith. His chin was resting on his forearms and his ears were low. The grip he had on his arms was tight, his claws digging into his shirt.

“I…I don’t get what you’re trying to say, Keith.”

“How else is here to put it? I can barely look at myself, all I see is the enemy. The monsters that took Shiro and forced him to fight in those – those Gladiator matches. I see the people – not things – who ripped apart Pidge’s family. And I, I see the fucking aliens that destroyed Coran’s and Allura’s home. I can barely stand myself, Lance.”

Lance sat forward half way through Keith's rant and stared at him hard. Hearing Keith talk about his own insecurities was new territory for both of them. Keith kept to himself, occasionally talking to Shiro, but never to Lance, that much he knew. Now? Keith had no one else to go to. Granted he had Hunk, but Hunk was…well, Hunk. Great for the emotional pickup, but not really the best for the downfall. Lance wasn't either, but he was convenient…

Okay, he could do this. Being there for Keith was something he could do.

“Keith, we still trust you. You’re still our teammate.” The sincerity in his voice made Keith flinch.

“Lance.”

“Keith.”

“You’re not understanding what I’m-”

Lance held up a hand and interrupted, “Oh, I’m well aware of what you just said, Keithy-boy. But! But the deal is, even if you can’t trust yourself, you can’t believe in yourself, you can’t stand yourself, then…then I’ll do it for you.”

Yep, he went there. Why the fuck did he go there? Lance, you idiot, now he’s going to turn you down. Why the hell did he say that? Lance turned his gaze to firmly stare at the stars, not daring to look at Keith until he said something.

 “…You’ll…what?” Keith gawked at him, yellow eyes wide, ears twitching.

Lance exaggerated rolling his eyes and sighed before looking at Keith again. “Please don’t make me say it again, do you know how weird this is? I’m sitting here supporting my rival-”

“I was never your rival, Lance.”

“No, shush. I’m sitting here supporting you, Keith Kogane, the coolest pilot from the Garrison and the freaking Red Paladin of Voltron. I am not gonna say it again.” Lance shut his mouth before he spouted off any more compliments that have been stored in his head over time. All about Keith. God, what was he? A fanboy? Hah.

“Did you just compliment me too?”

“I did no such thing, now take it or leave it. Have me as your friend, or we can go back to hating each other. I don’t care which it is, but I can’t stand seeing you looking like a lost kitten.”

“What are you going on about? I am not a cat! And I never hated you!?”

Lance shoved Keith’s shoulder. “Yeah, explain the ear thing then, they’ve been swiveling like radars this whole time. And sure you did, you just couldn’t keep with my charm. It’s okay to be jealous, Keith. Now. Are you gonna accept or not, cuz I wanna go back to bed.”

Keith blinked his stupid wide eyes at him and was quiet for a tick. His ears only still for a moment after Lance pointed them out before they were back to moving around, doing whatever Galra ears did. Lance was almost too busy watching his ears to notice the small nod.

Keith was actually accepting his help?

“Wait, wait, that’s a yes?”

The red paladin rolled his eyes and shoved Lance back. “Yes, I’m saying yes and I’ll do the same for you, you idiot.”

They stared at each other for a moment, not really believing that they were agreeing to this. Friends willingly. Not only that but each other's support system? This was all new for them. Lance couldn't stop staring at Keith, and the other boy didn't look away either. This was happening.

Lance beamed at Keith. “’Bout damn time, mullet”

“I thought you were done with calling me mullet.,” Keith deadpanned. Yeah, the moment was over.

Lance waved him off. "Doesn't mean you still have one. I only said that mullet was getting boring, but it's a nice throwback, amirite?"

Keith rolled his, a small smile breaking through his mask. “Whatever you say, McClain.”

“Anytime, Kogane.”

“Lance! On your six!”

“Got it, thanks!”

His shield blocked three shots before he raised his bayard and returned fire at the training drones. Keith covered his side from two more shots as Lance swung around shot down another.

It had been a month since Keith had changed, and everything was settling into a routine. Shiro, Pidge, and Keith all reconciled with each other, and Lance felt that he could finally let his guard down. It was as if that whole time, he was just waiting for someone to attack Keith so he could jump in and stop it all. He had spent all of his time with Keith during that time too. Something that still hasn’t changed. Not after they agreed to keep each other going.

It was routine for them. The trained together, they argued together, they relaxed together…they were always together. No one questioned it, and neither of them felt the need to bring it up. It was an unspoken rule that, where either of them went, the other was sure to follow for some reason or another.

What surprised Lance the most about this was the lack of teasing. He and Hunk had grown up together and even if Hunk was the first one to say his jokes were the funniest things in the castle, he was also one of the first to jump at the opportunity to tease him. Hunk teased him about all of his crushes while they were at the Garrison. It was kind of the reason why he dragged Hunk along on all of those hair-brained schemes that landed them in Iverson's office more times than they could count. And he wasn't even going to think about what his family would do or say. Yeah, those were nightmares to stay away from.

Lance and Keith switched positions again, slashing and firing at the drones. They were on a fairly advanced training level, and they found out the higher they went, the more they had to rely on each other. They were almost a synchronized team.

Key word being almost.

Lance took a step back, avoiding and oncoming drone and stepped on Keith's foot. The red paladin shouted wordlessly and yanked his foot away, knocking Lance off balance and throwing his shot wide, giving the drone a wide opening. Within seconds, Lance was hit with the butt of a blaster, toppling him over into Keith.

“Shit-!”

They crashed into a tangled heap on the ground. The drones started to close in them.

“End train-ing se-quence…” Keith grunted.

All the bots dulled and feel to the ground, lifeless.

Lance groaned and rolled off his teammate, changing his bayard back to its original form. “Man…we almost had that one too…!” he moaned into the floor.

Keith grunted again in response, staying on the floor just like Lance. “We would have had it if you didn’t have two left feet.”

“Excuse you! If anyone has two left feet it’s you, Kogane. I actually know how to dance.”

“What are you going to do with that? Dance with the Galra when they get too close?”

Lance snorted. “Hah, they would be falling over themselves to dance with me once they realize how good I am.”

“I’m pretty sure they would rather shoot you first before they found out.”

“Okay, rude. My dancing is amazing, thank you.”

Keith huffed and rolled over to stare at the ceiling. “Could have fooled me.”

“Wow, okay, that’s cool, don’t believe. One day, I’ll show you – just… today is not that day.”

“Yeah, yeah, okay.”

Both of them laid there, panting as they came down from their rush.

Lance caught himself staring at Keith, and he would have looked away, but Keith looked paler than the dark purple he normally was these days.

“Hey, man? You feeling alright?”

“Peachy.”

Lance sat up, concern furrowing his brow. "No, nono, I'm being serious. You look pale if that's even possible with being purple and all."

Keith’s eyes widened a little and he sat up to stare back at Lance. “How pale?”

“Like a few shades? I don’t know.” He rubbed the back of his neck. Why did it suddenly feel so awkward to look at Keith?

He glanced away just as he felt a blush crawling up his cheeks. It lasted for only a few seconds before his eyes were on Keith again.

…What?

Lance could have sworn that Keith was paler, but now he was back to the same shade he’s been for the past month. Trick of the light maybe? Lance shook his head and made to stand up, limbs exhausted from training all day.

“Welp, I'm gonna hit the showers. See you in the kitchen?" Okay, why was he saying it like that? They weren't together…they weren't together, right?

Dear lord, Lance, get it together. You can spend time with your teammate who just happens really attractive and not make it weird. Wait, why was he even making weird in the first place? Granted he had Hunk help him realize that he didn’t outright hate Keith anymore, but they never talked about Lance actually having feelings for him. That was uncharted territory, and not something Lance wanted to get into right now. Oh no, this was getting to be too much.

The whole time while Lance was having his mini-meltdown, Keith was busy staring at the ceiling, lost in thought. Did he look paler? That couldn’t be possible. Allura and Coran both said that the druid magic switched his dominant genes, he was stuck like this. It wasn’t going away.

Keith stood up, groaning a little. He and Lance had trained a little harder than normal, and while his body could take the beating thanks to the Galra in him, his muscles were not used to the strain he would put on them sometimes. Rolling his neck and shoulders, he popped all the joints, relieving some of the tension in them.

“Yeah, I’ll see you there in a bit.”

His comment made Lance jump and the taller boy stuttered out an ‘okay’ but leaving the training deck. Lance looked…off. Off was the best way to put it, but Keith had other things to worry about at the moment, he could talk with Lance about it later, it wasn’t like they were apart any longer than sleep allowed anyways.

Keith didn’t really mind the gradual change from training alone to Lance always training with him. It was practical. He knew how he would handle himself in a solo fight, but fighting as a team was another animal. It took them awhile but they were getting the hang of it, and it certainly improved the whole dynamic of the team building exercises. They were no longer bickering with each other…okay that was a lie. They still bickered, but if you listened closely, you could hear that there was no malice in it. They were still competitive, but it didn't interfere with the rest of the team, not like it did before.

He took up stretching to make sure he wouldn’t be stiff later. Keith never understood how Lance could simply walk off the training deck, hit the shower, and walk around like he wasn’t just put through the ringer an hour before. The one time he forgets to stretch, and he’s moving like an old man for at least a day.

Once he was finished, he made his way towards the command deck, knowing that both Coran and Allura were there. If he was lucky, maybe Pidge would be there too. She always had valuable insight.

“Keith! What brings you here, my boy?” Coran greeted him.

Both of the Alteans were looking at schematics of the ship, looking for places that needed repairs and reboots to the systems.

“Well, I had a question for both of you. Got a moment?”

“Well, we were going through a systems check…”

Allura turned and gave Keith her full attention. “Coran, the systems check can wait,” she interjected. Keith’s expression was myriad of emotions, confused being the most prominent. “What’s on your mind, Keith?”

The boy shifted a little, suddenly uncomfortable with all the attention on him, but he shoved it down and spoke, “I was training with Lance and when we were done, he mentioned that I looked paler.”

Coran fiddled with his mustache. “Are you sure that it wasn’t because you were feeling ill after training?”

“See that’s the thing, I feel fine.” Keith crossed his arms. “I haven’t felt…wrong, but as far as I know, my skin hasn’t changed colors.”

Allura hummed. “No fever?”

Keith shook his head.

“Princess, do you think it has something to do with the druid magic fading from his system?”

“I don’t think so, Coran,” Allura said as she turned to the console and pulled up Keith’s scans. “The magic Keith was subjected to forced dormant genes to become active, and others to deactivate. It is not something that would fade after time.”

Keith stared up at the scans, the diagnostic of his DNA, the before and after. It really looked like he had changed species. It always struck him how much he had changed since becoming a Paladin. Who would have thought that he had some alien in him? Keith wondered if any of the others had genetics similar to his, dormant alien genes waiting to be discovered.

“Hmm, very true. Keith, did Lance happen to mention how much paler you appeared?”

Keith shrugged. “A few shades? Whatever that means.”

Coran kept fiddling with his mustache as he turned back to the scans. "And then you reverted back to your normal color?"

“Judging from Lance’s reaction, yeah.”

 “Interesting…” Allura placed a finger to her lips, deep in thought.

Coran began to mutter to himself. “Could there be Altean DNA somewhere buried that got activated too? ...No, we would have seen that in the scans before…but that’s an Altean ability…”

He kept going, leaving Keith in the dark. He looked to Allura and she was lost in thought too. Keith glowered, he hated being left out of the loop, especially when it concerned him. His ears flattened as he his head sunk lower and lower the longer he was left out.

Suddenly, Allura turned to him, eyes bright. “We need to get you to a pod.”

 Keith balked. “What? Why? I’m perfectly fine.”

“No no, it’s just for a scan. I have an idea!” She closed down all the scanners and began to talk rapidly to Coran while ushering Keith out the door. “I think it has something to do with Altean DNA!”

Coran was close to follow. “You think there are some traces of Altean DNA in Keith?”

“It’s a possibility. I don’t think it’s enough to actually allow him to consciously change form, but I want to make sure before we decide on anything.”

“But Princess, what are you planning?”

By now they were inside the medical bay, and Keith felt invisible.

“Guys, I’m right here…”

"Yes, we know that Keith, just hop in the pod and we will tell you everything after we do the scan." Allura practically shoved him inside the pod.

Keith stumbled in and turned around as the glass closed around him and froze him temporarily. What the hell was going on? Why did he need a scan?

The pod didn’t put him to sleep, just kept him immobile. A minute later, the glass opened and he stumbled back out, disgruntled from being manhandled into the pod.

“Okay, I’m out, what are you two thinking?”

Allura held up a hand and was studying the scans, brow creased in frustration. Coran was right beside her, his expression similar. Keith all but growled at being ignored again.

A tick later, Allura turned to him, a smile on her face. “Good news! You’re not just Galra, you’re Altean too!”

Keith gave her a deadpan stare. “Yay.”

Another thing to make him feel out of place.

"Oh, please, Keith, at least act a little bit more excited!"

“Actually, Princess, he has a reason to not be excited,” Coran noted. He pointed at a place on the screen. “The scan is mixing up the Altean energy in his system with Altean DNA. Look at the old scans, nowhere is there any markers for Altean DNA.”

Allura instantly deflated.

“So what does that mean? Can someone explain to me what the quiznak is going on?” Keith bit.

Coran began to explain, pointing at various marks on the scan. “Altean energy is latching onto your genetic makeup and confusing the pod into thinking you have Altean DNA.”

Keith’s ears flicked back and forth with confusion. “So what’s that mean? Am I being converted to Altean?”

Allura spoke before Coran could explain further. “What it means is simply you have been receiving Altean energy from the pods. All of you have.”

“But, it’s interesting how you were a different color a moment ago when you haven’t changed since you approached us,” Coran added.

“Do you think that it could just be a side effect from the energy?” Allura asked.

Coran fiddled with his mustache. "It must be, but none of the other Paladins have shown this symptom before."

“It must come from more exposure. Keith has been in the healing pods more than anyone else lately, simply to understand what happened to him, yes? So maybe it’s happening then.”

“Ah, that must be it.”

Keith frowned. So it was possible for him to not look like a Galra anymore? Could this actually be something he could achieve? He could hardly look at himself, the light layer of fur, the unnerving yellow eyes, all of it made him want to attack himself. He saw himself as the enemy, even though the team accepted him. Even with Lance constantly encouraging him to leave his room, to step outside the training deck and socialize, Keith still didn’t feel like he belonged. Yes, they could form Voltron, but that Keith could feel Red pull away from him sometimes, the urge to fight pushing her from him.

“Do you think it’s possible to have complete transformations?” Allura’s question pulled Keith out of his head and back to the medical bay.

“We would have to run some tests, but it could be something we could study further into. The question is: how?"

Coran leaned into the scans, reading the fine print. Allura was right nest him, looking at diagrams of Keith’s body.

“So…what both of you are saying is that I don’t have to…look like this anymore?” he asked, hopeful.

Allura turned back to him, a bright smile on her face once more. “That’s the hope. We both know that you are uncomfortable with the way you look at present. You having the ability to control your appearance can prove to be advantageous as well.”

Keith let out a deep sigh he hadn’t realized he was holding in. Him looking like a Galra had given team Voltron an advantage in infiltrating Galra ships, but it held them back from rescuing prisoners or meeting with other aliens. Prisoners automatically assumed that he was there to torture them, and what free planets they came across all thought that Voltron would betray them sooner or later because of a Galran amongst their ranks.

"Coran, what can we do? Alteans have the ability to change our shape embedded in our DNA. We should be able to add to Keith's genetics the Altean gene that gives us that ability yes?" Allura was swiping through more scans, pulling up Altean records and comparing them to Keith's.

“It would work in theory, but remember he was human first before the druid attacked him? He still technically human, just showing his Galra traits. As much as Alteans and humans appear to be the same, with some differences, I fear that if we attempt to genetically splice Altean genes on to human, the result could possibly kill Keith. Not to mention the processes to attempt such a thing would certainly kill him as well.” Coran glanced at Keith quickly gauging his reaction. “As much as I’m for that idea, I believe that we should look at other routes instead.”

Keith slumped. It was his first thought too, implant the Altean genes onto his own and hope for the best. "So what else can we do?"

Both of them were silent for a tick, and Coran lit up, pulling up a completely separate schematic. The one of the Balmera.

“Now this is a stretch, but I think it will work. Allura was able to transfer energy to the Balmera to revitalize it. With that in mind, her focus was on healing the Balmera. It takes Altean energy to change a being, much like the pods are set heal with the energy, the Princess could focus on giving you the energy to shift at will.”

“But that doesn’t explain how he was already changing before.” Allura was following along just fine, but that was a fact that they hadn’t explained yet.

Coran pointed at Keith. "That is because Keith here wanted to change, psychologically he has been hurting from not being himself, there was an emotional disconnect that the pods have been picking up on and therefore trying to give him the necessary energy to fix what was causing the problem."

“That’s brilliant, Coran!”

Excitedly, both of them began to work away at the console before them. Keith was ignored, but for once he didn’t really mind that they were talking about him as if he weren’t there. They had a solution, a goal to reach. He could look like himself again. Finally, he would be able to meet the other’s eyes without feeling any sort of guilt about his appearance.

He slumped to the ground and just stared. It felt like it had been forever since he had been changed into a Galra, forever since Lance made it his mission to always make sure Keith was going to be okay, that he was taking care of himself. For so long, Keith had been bottling up all his frustrations, all his guilt, only taking it out when he was training alone. Even that happened rarely. Now with Coran and Allura beginning to theorize how to transfer enough Altean magic into his system to give him the ability to lose the ears, lose the purple fur, to be human again. It was like a dream come true.

A weight was lifted from him, something he hadn’t even known was there. Over the past month, Keith had forced himself to accept that he was going to be like this for the rest of his life. Out here in space, he had to be practical, he couldn’t sit around and just hope that the druid magic would wear off and he would return back to normal.

But now? With this kind of chance?

Allura and Coran were still talking, but he couldn’t sit still anymore. Keith stood and began to pace, and even then that wasn’t enough for him. Now he just had so much pent up energy, he wanted to do something, needed to do something. He needed to tell someone –

Lance.

Keith rushed out of the room, a hurried ‘I'll be back' to Allura and Coran, and soon he was running through the castle hallways, looking for Lance. Ever since that one night on the observation deck, Lance had listened to all of his problems, insecurities, and random thoughts. He grounded Keith in more ways than either of them thought he ever would.

The irony of it all made Keith smile and shake his head as he ran. To think the two paladins would be getting along on their own. They were always arguing before, and Keith had had the impression that Lance could honestly give less than two shits about him. But when Lance spilled his own worries and shortcomings, it made Keith realize that there was more to the boisterous blue paladin. As much as he claimed to not be worried, he was just as scared as the rest of them.

Keith took a corner and nearly ran in Pidge. He danced around her and jogged backward.

“Hey, Pidge! Allura and Coran could probably use your help in the med bay!” He smiled brightly. “Let them know I’ll be right back.”

He didn’t even wait for her response before he turned around and disappeared down the next hallway.

Keith skidded to a halt in front of Lance’s door. He burst through the door, not even bothering to knock.

“Lance! You’re never go-”

Shit.

Lance looked at him confused, his arms through his shirt. He was just about to pull it over his head when Keith had rushed in. Keith spun around, now feeling incredibly awkward. Yeah, he needed to always knock. (Was Lance always that toned?) He completely forgot that Lance had left to shower. Goddammit, he was an idiot.

“Keith? What’s up?”

Keith flicked his ears but didn’t turn around. No way. Play it safe, Keith.

“Oh, um, Allura and Coran thought of something to get me, well, back to normal.”

Lance spun him around, a grin splitting his face in two and shirt thankfully all the way on. “Dude! That’s great! I know you’ve been iffy lately, and this is like, awesome!!”

Lance’s smile was contagious and Keith couldn’t stop the one that was spreading across his face either. “Yeah, it is, isn’t it? C’mon, Allura and Coran are gonna try something.”

He took Lance’s hand and started to lead him through the hallways. Never mind the fact that he was holding hands with Lance, but Lance was letting him. There were only two times where this had happened: once after Lance pulled himself out of a coma to shoot Sendak and the second time to lead him out of the hangers and away from the others when he had changed into a Galra. Both times saw themselves in extreme situations, and this wasn't. Not in the slightest. But neither of them was pulling away, and Lance was letting himself be towed around the castle till they got back to the med bay.

Walking through the door, Keith immediately dropped Lance’s hand. Pidge was there, speaking with Allura and Coran about how to do the energy transfer.

“I think it would work better to use the pods,” Pidge was saying, “They amplify the energy you’re trying to use, and it’ll be easier on Keith.”

“If we go that route, Keith will be in stasis and potentially any pain that may occur can be bypassed thanks to the pod,” Coran agreed.

Allura frowned and tapped her chin. Her eyes caught Lance and Keith standing in the doorway as Coran and Pidge discussed what they could do. She smiled at them. "Keith! Lance! Maybe you could help us."

“Sure, Princess!” Lance had an easy smile on his face and he was excited. Excited for Keith.

Keith felt his ears flick towards Pidge coughing, muffling a comment about the two of them being together. He rolled his eyes and ignored the comment. He focused back on Allura and Lance. The princess was filling the blue paladin in and he was nodding along like he was actually following.

“So, even if you go with the pod idea,” he said, motioning to one them, “You would have to reprogram it for you to transfer your energy to another. Right?”

Coran stroked his mustache and hummed. "Correct, it would be a permanent change for the pods."

Lance looked over at the pods. They needed them for the prisoners that they liberated from Galra bases. Even with all of them knowing first aid, the pods were there for the ones with more severe injuries. Losing one could mean the life or death of other refugees. Double since they needed two for this to work.

“Then why doesn’t Allura do it the same way she did for the Blamera? Like it could be like the Vulcan mind meld thing.”

The what now?

Everyone turned to look at him, confusion written all their faces.

“What? Star Trek anyone?”

“Lance…that show is ancient. What were you even doing watching it?” Pidge asked.

“Mi Abuelo. He would watch it all the time and it was cool, even with the terrible special effects.”

Pidge rolled their eyes and turned back to the pod she was working on, seeing if the coding for the pod was anything they could do in a day. “Anyways, I think Lance is right. The direct transfer would be the fastest way to get Keith back to the way he was. The pods would take me a few days to recode, even with Hunk's help, and after that, there's no guarantee we can return it to normal…though given enough time, we could make it so two of the pods had a separate setting instead of just the one…”

Lance and Keith tuned her out as she typed away, muttering to herself about specific lines of code and needing to know more Altean before changing the pods. Keith’s ears were perked as he watched Allura and Coran studied multiple scans and records. Both of them were frowning in concentration. The records held all the time Alteans had performed energy transfers from what Keith could understand. Apparently, it wasn’t as uncommon as they had originally thought, but it still had never been done on someone who wasn’t Balmera or Altean. Forget ever trying it on a –

“Found it!”

Coran quickly projected a medical entry from well over twenty thousand years ago.

“As you can all see here; the energy transfer has been successful before on a Galra.” Coran was smiling at Keith, and the red paladin smiled back. This was going to work.

When Keith glanced at Lance to see what he thought, he found the taller boy frowning slightly. He was reading the record intently, looking like he was trying to decipher each line of medical jargon from Altean to English.

Allura saw it too. “What’s your concern, Lance?”

He hummed and finished reading before answering. “It says that…uh, Chlah…Klavek, yeah Klavek, ended up being dependent on the energy transfers. So, would that make Keith dependent on it too? And doesn’t that take a lot out of you too, Princess?”

“You’re missing a small detail, but yes, he would be dependent on the energy transfers. The first few are only taxing, they get easier over time, and progressively less frequent,” Allura reassured. “This will give Pidge, Hunk, and Coran time to work with one of the pods and add the extra setting for transfers, that way he will not be completely reliant on me for the energy.”

“Only you can do this? Why not Coran as well?”

Keith flicked his ears. Lance was sounding like a worried mother, asking all these questions. Couldn’t they just get on with it?

Allura answered him easily. “Only those from the royal family can perform this ritual. My great grandfather, Tyulk, performed this ritual when the Galra were our allies. Klavek wanted the ability to change her shape to be able to study other life forms throughout the universe. She used it for research, but this will serve the same purpose as that. Keith will be able to use it to appear human while remaining Galra."

Lance nodded and reread the record. Allura’s explanation seemed to appease him, but Keith wondered why he wanted to know such things. It wasn’t like they were rushing into this. They were a little, but Coran and Allura have learned to make snap decisions over time, especially since waking ten thousand years after their people’s destruction.

Keith looked over to Allura, who was watching him, gauging his own reaction. They had a general idea of the risks that could happen with this. Technically, he was only half human and half Galra, so the number of side effects that could happen were immeasurable at best. But the benefits outweighed the costs. His mouth pressed itself into a firm line of determination. It was now or never.

They were going to do this.

Allura met his eyes, determination set in hers as well. She motioned for him to walk over to the bed. "I think we have discussed all that we can. Keith wants this to happen, we should get to work. Coran, can you grab the training headsets?"

“Right away, Princess.”

Keith padded over to the bed and sat on the end. Lance looked apprehensive. Was he worried about Keith being hurt through this? Keith wanted to tell him that he was going to be okay, but his voice was stuck in his throat.

His ears must have given him away because Lance caught his eye and gave him a small smile and nod. He returned it.

A few minutes later, Coran came back with the training headsets, one for Allura and one for Keith. Both Pidge and Lance watched as they put them on. Keith laid back on the bed and Allura placed a gentle hand on the side of his face.

“I do not know if this will hurt, but we will stop when it becomes too much for you.” She placed her other hand over Keith’s heart and closed her eyes.

Keith closed his too. A warm feeling spread throughout his body, filling him to the brim. Through his eyelids, he could see the soft blue light, the same that they all saw when Allura was healing the Balmera. Keith could feel the energy latching itself onto his very being, encompassing all of him. The longer it went on, the brighter the light got. He couldn't even feel Allura's hands on him anymore.

The blue light turned white, the warm feeling was hot. The intensity increased, same with the heat. He clenched his teeth and pushed through the growing pain he was feeling. Everything was hot. No, it was searing. Not even the desert got this hot, but he wasn't going to let it get the better of him. His teeth creaked and all his muscles tensed. He could get through this. Just breathe, breathe.

Breathe…in…out…

Then nothing.

Somewhere along the way, he must have blacked out. He remembered the light getting hotter and hotter and then blackness. His body was sore, not the kind of sore from after a good workout, this was the feeling of pushing his body past its limits. It was anything but pleasant.

Keith tried to open his eyes and groaned at the bright light. Couldn’t they turn down the lights in here?

“…ith?...an ...ou he...e?”

He couldn’t tell who it was, the voice was too garbled. All of his senses were flooding back to him.

A warm hand latched onto his. “Hey, Keith? You with us?”

That was Lance, he was the only other person he has held hands with and be that warm and soft. Even after the few months of training.

He managed to grunt. Blinking, he found Allura and Lance leaning over him. The two of them blocked out the worst of the light. Damn, why did he feel so sore?

“Did...did it…?” he croaked. Even the feel of his voice made his throat burst into flames.

Allura knitted her brows as she looked him over and then straightened to examine something. “I was able to give you as much energy as your body could handle. I don’t know if it was enough for you to shift into your human appearance. You can try once the energy has settled.”

Keith let out a long breath. Okay, everything went along with what they predicted. He glanced at Lance. The blue paladin looked concerned, still holding his hand. He squeezed Lance’s hand. He was going to be fine.

Lance grinned and shook his head. What Keith didn’t realize was that he had started screaming from the transfer. Allura had also reached her limit and was forced to stop shortly after the screaming began. He had lost consciousness after that. The princess told them that it hadn't been enough to even try a full shift. Keith might be able to change small parts of himself, but that would be all for the next few days while Allura recovered.

Just thinking about watching Keith go through that again made Lance shudder. He's heard Keith yell plenty of times, but never has he heard him scream because of pain. Keith was tough, and he never let on that things were getting to him. But with all the time Lance had been spending with him lately, Keith’s tells were a lot more noticeable than they had been.

“Keith, you will need to rest for the next few days,” Coran advised. “Your body just went through a tremendous amount of stress and will need some time to adjust. If anything begins to feel out of place, you must tell Allura or I right away. We don’t know what side effects you may be subject to before you have full control.”

Keith nodded along with the instructions, and Lance could feel it in his gut that if there was going to be anything wrong, he would be the first to know.

Allura fed Keith more instructions about what to look for, and the basic sensations when he began to shift. Granted that he shouldn’t be able to do that until he had more energy transferred to him, there was no telling exactly how much he had. Add in that his coloring had changed slightly before all this, Keith’s ability to change his appearance may happen much sooner than any of them might expect.

And that was how Lance found himself hanging out with Keith in his room, reading some of the translated schematics for their lions. Lance couldn’t tell if he was doing this out of obligation or that he wanted to be around Keith. Or if Keith was doing the same. The whole hand holding thing that happened in the med bay was messing with him. And even before that? In the hallways? What about that? He wasn’t even paying attention to what he was reading. His whole mind caught up on the fact that he held hands with Keith, twice, and neither time Keith tried to pull his hand away. Not to mention it was the first time Keith had grabbed his hand to drag him somewhere, not the other way around. And it was nice? Keith’s hands were calloused, but they weren’t rough – arggghhh forget it.

Lance shook himself and forced his eyes to actually read what he was supposed to. It was something about…fuck he couldn’t even figure that out. What was with him today? Training went great till he stepped on Keith’s foot (yes, he will admit to that) and then they found a way for Keith to go back to normal. It's what he wanted from the very beginning of this when Lance found him in that Galra base. Just…why…

He found himself standing.

“I’m going to go hang with Blue.” He didn’t wait for Keith to answer, he really needed some time to himself, sort his feelings out, or whatever was going on in his head.

But either way, he needed to clear it. Lance knew that he was going to be dead weight if this kept up.

Blue’s hangar was empty. It normally was. Lance wasn't big on giving her upgrades like Pidge, or just tinkering like Hunk. Yeah, he did maintenance, but other than that, he came to be with Blue when he just needed to talk.

As he walked up to his lion, Blue purred in the back of his mind, understanding that he just needed her reassurance. Lance was thankful that fate provided him her comfort and her ears. If anything, she was the best listener he knew. It wasn't like Hunk couldn't do the same thing for him. Lance just felt that this was a time where he needed, to be honest with himself and his lion. What he wanted to admit was something that could potentially upheave the whole dynamic of team Voltron, and he kinda didn’t want to unload that on Hunk right now.

Lance stepped into her cockpit. Alarms blared.

Immediately the castle was in action.

He didn’t even stop to think about what the plan was going to be. The protocol for when you’re with your lion when the alarm goes was to get into your armor and launch. The rest of the team would relay the information to you as the mission unfolded.

Lance ran to the back of Blue. His flight suit and armor were there and within minutes he was suited up. Out in free space, he hailed the rest of the team.

“What’s the sitch? Galra command ship?” he asked over the coms.

It took a moment but soon Allura appeared on the corner of his dash. “Multiple Galra ships, but they haven’t seen us yet. Head to Epra, the planet below.”

“Are we just clearing them out?” Hunk asked, his feed popping up next to Allura’s.

“Yes. Do what you can, do not get the local populations involved. They have no military and are harmless.”

“Copy,” the two of them chorused.

The blue and yellow lions raced to the atmosphere of Epra, tailed by the green, red, and black. Shiro gave them orders, and everything went according to plan.

Until Red crashed.

Yellow was shot down next.

Lance watched from the air as Keith and Hunk staggered from their lions. Keith’s helmet was gone, and the Galra were on them in no time.

Lance tried his best to give them cover from the air, but Epra was a forest planet, trees were everywhere. Drones marched in between them and the more Lance took down, the more that filled their places.

Hunk told him to get out of there and give cover to Pidge on the next ridge. Shiro attacked the Galra ships on the plains. They were spread too thin.

Everything happened in a blur. Hunk was trapped, Keith couldn’t be reached. Lions were flown back to the castle.

One didn’t make it back.

An hour later, they received a transmission. Commander Ousk presented them with an image of Keith kneeling and chained to the floor. His ears were low, and through the video feed, they all could tell his breathing was labored. Blood ran down one side of his face, burn marks littered his armor, and one leg had been shot.

“The Galra Empire would like to thank you personally, Princess Allura, for providing them with a new addition to our ranks. Vrepit sa,” Ousk crooned before cutting off the feed.

No one moved.

Lance couldn’t breathe. They…there was no way. Keith had to still be with his lion, he had to still be with Red. He collapsed to the ground. No, this shouldn’t have happened. If he had stayed…if he hadn’t listened to Hunk…

A wormhole opened, and a battle cruiser disappeared through it, taking Keith with.

That was how the Galra acquired the red paladin of Voltron and Lance felt powerless.