Chapter Text
"But have you seen Pocahontas?"
Keith groans in annoyance, quickly slamming himself against the wall, just barely avoiding a few lasers that nearly kill him. He takes just a moment to blame his slip up on the distraction by cursing under his breath, but gets over it and rolls away from his position as soon as it's clear. He slices the soldier in half with his sword, and only then does he answer the boy that's standing just a few feet away.
"Yes, Lance, I've seen Pocahontas. Is this really the time to be discussing it, though?"
Lance scoffs, and glances over at him to mockingly repeat, "Is this REALLY the time to be discussing it?" A brief pause ensues while he screams at what Keith assumes to be another soldier (Keith is too busy taking down a row of his own to check), and then Lance returns a quip in his normal voice. "It's always the time to talk about Pocahontas. She's a badass."
Keith rolls his eyes, and is about to reply when Pidge joins their conversation, sidling up between them. "I'm glad you two have time to chat about cartoons or whatever, but we're sorta busy at the moment."
This does nothing to silence Lance, however, who stops what he's doing to express his outrage at their addition. "CARTOONS?!" he bellows, turning towards them with a crazy look in his eyes.
"You've really done it now, Pidge," Hunk huffs as he runs past, followed by even more enemies. He's correct, as Lance immediately begins to rant about Pidge's comment even after they run off to assist Hunk.
"The Disney princesses are MUCH more than cartoons, Pidge!" Lance screams. "Those girls are idols! Mulan saved China, Moana saved Motunui, Tiana and Cinderella worked hard to get what they wanted, and-OOOF."
He falls to the ground with a heavy thump, cut off mid-spew by a soldier that snuck up behind him. Keith hears him screeching and turns to assist, but before he even makes it halfway back to Lance's side, a voice interrupts.
"END TRAINING SESSION," Shiro yells from the side of the room. Keith can immediately sense that he's pissed, and opts to quietly slide to a halt and wait to be addressed. Pidge and Hunk do the opposite; they both groan in agony, dropping their weapons to the ground and letting their bodies fall close behind. The simulation had been running for quite a few ticks, hence Lance's boredom that resulted in his immediate need for conversation.
The bots all silenced, Shiro takes long strides to stand in front of the four younger paladins, all on the ground save Keith, with an unpleasant look on his face. Pidge and Hunk scramble to their feet and stand up tall, mimicking Keith, but Lance stays on the ground rubbing the back of his head.
"Ow, that one really got me," he grumbles.
"Is this just a big joke to you?" Shiro bellows angrily. Keith flinches just a little- Shiro is usually the calm, collected adult in every situation. This time, however, his tone suggests that he is anything but calm. "This isn't playtime, Lance. We have a mission. Us paladins need to-"
"'To always be ready, for whatever mission comes our way next,'" Lance interrupts and finishes for him, a bored tinge to his voice making itself apparent. The way he's sitting can only be described as cocky; he’s leaning back on both of his elbows, one leg flat on the ground and the other leisurely bent. The only way he could be more of an asshole at this moment in particular is if he was noisily chomping on gum. Keith prays to whatever higher force there may be that Lance would keep his obnoxious mouth shut.
"I know how to fight, Shiro. These training sessions are stupid."
"Lance-" Keith interjects, trying to diffuse the situation. He takes a few steps forward but Shiro holds a hand out.
"Quiet, Keith," he growls without even looking at him. "All of you, out."
Hunk and Pidge meet eyes and silently walk out of the room, but Keith stands his ground and continues staring at Shiro, calculating his next move. At this point, Lance finally realizes he's about to be yelled at, and gets to his feet. He probably knows he messed up, but does nothing to mend the situation; he just stands there. Shiro glances around to see if everyone else left, and his eyes twitch upon seeing they haven't.
"I'm not leaving," Keith tells him flatly. "You're angry, and I get that, but you need to calm down."
"You think I'm making you train for no reason?" Shiro asks Lance, ignoring the other in the room completely. "That I'm just doing it for shits and giggles?"
Keith bites his tongue in an effort to keep his mouth shut when Lance rolls his eyes and crosses his arms at the older paladin. "No, Shiro, I just think it's a bit excessive. We've won, like, a BUNCH of battles, so obviously we've trained well."
Shiro outright laughs at this, somehow resonating a sarcastic nature, and Lance narrows his eyes. By the time Shiro's done laughing, Lance is pissed too.
"What's so funny, Shiro? Really, I'm just dying to know," he bites.
Shiro just shakes his head and softly questions, "You just don't get it, do you?"
Lance throws up his hands, exasperated. "Get what?"
Keith knows that whatever happens next is really going to mess up the entire team. Everyone has been on edge since their last mission, a failure. The paladins arrived to a distress call late only to discover that the planet had already been conquered and stripped of any useful materials. They got held up on another planet not that far away, and didn't manage to get there before the Galra destroyed everything. Sure, they'd failed missions before, but somehow it made it worse when they could have stopped it if only they had arrived earlier. It'd only been a matter of time before someone snapped. Out of everyone, though, Keith would never have expected Shiro to be the one to crack under the pressure of their guilt.
"That I'm only trying to make you a better fighter!"
Shiro's tone is accusing, as if he's daring Lance to argue back. Lance, being Lance, takes the bait and argues back.
"Suddenly I don't know how to fight? Yeah, that makes sense."
"I didn't say you didn't know how to fight, I said to make you better than you are."
"Oh, and I'm not a good fighter now?"
"Not compared to the rest of us!"
There it was. Out of anything Shiro could have said, that was probably the worst insecurity of Lance's he could have aimed for. He realizes it straight away too, blinking his anger away once he sees Lance's hurt expression. Everyone knew that Lance feels like he is inferior to the rest of them. He had mentioned it on late nights when they all hung around bottles of alcohol, too wasted to have a filter on his fears and feelings. Keith thought he was the only one to pay attention to his teammate's ramblings, but now it's apparent that he isn't. The rest of the paladins were kids- Shiro, though, is an adult; he's been through more shit than all of them. Keith couldn't believe that such a low blow came from someone they all looked up to.
"What the fuck?" he says, summing up his thoughts, staring at the older man in shock. He knows that Shiro feels bad purely by his expression, but that doesn't change the fact that he said what he said. Lance huffs, turns, and begins towards the door in a hurry, obviously trying to escape the situation.
"That was horrible, Lance, I'm sorry," Shiro says, trailing after him. Before he can get too far, Keith stops him with one of his hands and a gentle shake of his head.
"I'll go after him, Shiro. You can apologize later." He pauses and takes a step back, about to walk away when he adds softly, "I know we're all stressed out, but that was messed up, dude. I'm just saying."
With that, he follows Lance out of the door and into the hallway. Pidge is standing there, a confused expression adorning their face. They try asking what happened, but Keith is already far ahead, trying to catch up to Lance's long strides.
"Lance!" he yells. Regardless of his name being called out, Lance keeps navigating through the hallways to nowhere in particular, trying to escape his tail. It's no use, though, as Keith has always been the fastest out of all of them. He finally catches up, and calls out his name again, directly behind him this time.
"What?!" Lance barks out, suddenly stopping and spinning around. Keith nearly topples into him and is about to yell for him to watch it, but the words die in his throat when he sees tears in Lance's eyes. His face immediately softens and he takes a step back. "Oh, Lance," he says quietly.
Lance huffs and turns away, crossing his arms angrily. "You can make fun of me for being a baby all you want," he mutters, defeated. He's surprised when Keith reaches out and untwists his arms. He's even more surprised when Keith steps in front of him and interlocks their hands in a comforting gesture (something he never does on account of how little he likes being touched.)
"You're not a baby for being upset, Lance."
He says nothing in return, looking down at their hands and lightly rubbing his thumb on one of Keith's gloves. Feeling the texture of it is a good distraction from the situation. It doesn't last long, though, because the red paladin insists on talking it out. One of his hands reaches up and grabs Lance's chin, forcing him to meet his eyes.
"Lance. We are all stressed out and tired. What Shiro said was said out of anger, and not true. You know that."
The sincerity in his voice and the gentleness in his eyes convinces Lance it's the truth. He nods and pulls away to wipe his eyes, slightly embarrassed. Keith isn't done though, because as quickly as they stepped apart they're back together again, closer now, because Keith decides to give Lance a hug.
Quite frankly, it's pretty shocking. Keith has never been the kind of person to give hugs, ever. He's always been the loner type, the boy that would prefer being by himself rather than with a friend or group. Although it's gotten better since he became a part of Voltron, he still chooses to keep his distance most of the time. So when he envelopes the both of them in a hug, Lance is both surprised and overjoyed that he's on Keith's short list of hug-worthy people. And Lance, being Lance, can't help expressing his joy.
"I'm special enough to get a hug?" he asks, half joking, half curious. Keith laughs into his neck, a deep chuckle, tickling his skin with the little puffs of breath.
They pull apart and Keith mumbles, "Maybe I needed a hug, too."
Lance smiles at him even though his head is down and replies, "I'm glad I'm such a big help."
After that, they fall into a slightly awkward silence, and Lance's smile slowly fades off of his face. With a sigh, he slides down the wall and onto the floor, tilting his head back and closing his eyes. He hears Keith do the same beside him just a few seconds later, and cracks open an eye to peek at him.
Keith is looking down at his hands, which are hanging between his bent knees. Lance opens the other eye once he knows he's not being watched and wonders what he's thinking about. He gets his answer a few seconds later when Keith says, "I know that Mulan and Tiana are probably the best princesses, but I've always been a sucker for Cinderella."
Lance is intrigued, and stays quiet, hoping for an explanation. Keith furrows his eyebrows, definitely debating whether or not he's going to go in depth. He opts for it, a small sigh escaping his lips before continuing. "The whole 'hard-working orphan that does what she can' really resonated with me when I was little." He lets out a small chuckle, but Lance doesn't see what's funny. "I had the evil stepsiblings and stepparents in some of the homes I went to, I just never really made it to the fairy godmother or marrying a handsome prince part of the story."
Lance searches the side profile of Keith, wondering how to respond, but Keith beats him to the punch by clearing his throat and looking up. Lance begins to blush, caught in the act of checking the other out, and averts his eyes.
"I, uh, I really like Tiana," he manages to choke out, finding something interesting down the hallway, refusing to look back at Keith.
"Yeah? Any reason?"
Lance just shrugs, and hopes his face isn't as red when he finally turns around. Keith is still staring at him, but Lance is almost sure that he can handle the intense eye contact.
Almost.
"My mom and dad had to work pretty hard before my older siblings could get jobs to help out," he babbles. "I guess I just like her work ethic." He pauses, opens his mouth, looks like he's about to say something else, and then shuts it again. He resolves his internal conflict of whether or not to continue by quietly saying, "I wish I would have known you before we went into space."
Keith gets a little sparkle in his eye when he replies back, "Yeah?"
Lance gives a curt nod with a small smile on his face. "Yeah," he confirms, "Maybe I could have been your fairy godfather, gotten you a date at the ball."
Keith snorts and shakes his head, and Lance chuckles. He'll take it as a win. There's another silence, but it isn't awkward this time; it's comfortable. They sit there for a little while, stupid content smiles adorning their faces. Suddenly, Keith turns and faces Lance. His face is an open book, and Lance knows whatever he says next is important.
"Lance, I just wanted to tell you-"
He's interrupted by the alarm that begins blaring throughout the castle, alerting them that they're under attack. Keith forgets what he was about to say and jumps to his feet, extending an arm out to Lance who takes it and follows suit. They share a quick glance and immediately take off running towards their lions.
"What's happening?" Keith yells once they get into the loading bay. Shiro and Pidge are already in their lions, but Hunk is still putting on his armor just outside Yellow.
"The castle is under attack by a small fleet of alien ships!" he responds. "Allura thinks that they’re from the planet we just passed and that they decided to attack!"
Keith curses and finds his armor, still in a pile from when Shiro made them take it off for the second half of their training earlier that day. He knows that he's supposed to be focusing only on the battle that is about to occur, but his mind keeps wandering back to his conversation with Lance. Maybe it's just all of the emotions running rampant throughout the team that lead him to nearly say what he was about to. In all honesty, Keith isn't sure if he's regretful or relieved that the alarm made him hold off on his confession. By the time he's ready to put on his helmet, he's bitten his lip hard enough to draw blood from being so indecisive in his thoughts.
"Uh, Keith? That's my helmet."
Lance's voice snaps him out of his short stupor and he looks down. He is, indeed, holding a blue helmet rather than a red one. Flushing, he thrusts it out at Lance and switches their helmets, quickly putting his own on.
"Let's go," he says, finally managing to slide into battle mode as they both run towards their respective lions. In no time, all five paladins launch into space and easily find the small fleet of aliens that are firing at the castle. In only a moment, Shiro begins barking out orders and a plan of attack. As there are only around 12 enemy ships, the paladins assume it will only be a short battle before the aliens retreat.
Per usual, it's not that simple.
"What is their DEAL?" Lance yells after ten minutes of seemingly unnecessary battle. Only a few of their ships had to return back to their planet; otherwise, the battle was still going on just as intensely as it was when it started. "We didn't do anything to them!"
"I don't know, Lance," Pidge replies over the comm system. "Perhaps they're working with Zarkon?"
"Could be," Hunk says, "But if that's true, we have to hurry up and get out of here. Galra could be on their way here right now."
They fall silent after that and try to focus on the battle. Keith and Pidge drop to attack from below while the other three raise higher, and each paladin focuses on their own couple enemy ships. After having destroyed countless members of the fleet, the team simultaneously draws the same conclusion.
"There are more of them," Keith whispers, taken aback. It's true; while each of them were dodging and weaving to avoid and land attacks, other ships presumably from the same species joined the battle.
"We have to retreat," he says at the same time Lance says, "We have to form Voltron!"
There's a brief pause before they both begin arguing.
"What do you mean, retreat?! Voltron doesn't retreat!"
"There are too many of them, Lance! We should get out before we get hurt!"
"Are you serious? We can't just leave! Hello, we're the defenders of the universe. We have to, oh, I don't know, PROTECT THE UNIVERSE!"
"Lance, I-"
Keith doesn't get the opportunity to finish whatever he was about to reply with. One of the ships taken down from above manages to slam into him while he’s too busy arguing to pay attention to the rest of his team’s actions. Red immediately careens to the side, damaged heavily by the impact of the enormous vessel and rendering her flight impossible.
The next few seconds both last an eternity and the blink of an eye; the other four barely understand what's happening until the severity of the hit makes itself known when the other ship spins the other direction. Red’s entire left flank is crushed inwards. The jostling realization that Keith is going down hits them at the same exact time, and yet they only watch as Red begins descending, pulled by the world below’s gravitational pull. Lance is the first to react, snapping into action as soon as he comprehends the situation.
"KEITH!" he screeches, horrified, immediately abandoning his post in favor of diving after Keith.
Inside Red, the collision makes Keith fly out of his chair and hit the wall. Even with a helmet on, he smashes his head extremely hard and falls to the floor. Debris falls around him as he tries to get up, but his vision blurs and he collapses back down. He hears Lance call his name even through the buzzing in his ears and tries to reply, but he only manages a weak noise before losing consciousness completely.
His lion shuts down at the same time that he gets knocked out, accepting what comes next for her. Regardless of how fast Blue is going, Lance doesn’t manage to catch up to Keith before Red plows into the planet below.