Warning: Minor season six spoilers

Keith didn't know how it was possible to miss someone right in front of him, but here he was.

Shiro laid on the hospital bed, motionless. The heart monitor beat faintly in the background. His chest heaved up, and then down again. His lips quivered as he exhaled. His snow white hair twitched from the breeze coming in through the window.

He was alive. The machines said he was alive, and the doctors too. But Keith still felt as if he had something to mourn. An emptiness ached in his chest and he mused that perhaps it was there all along and he just hadn't taken the time to notice it in the rush of space.

He didn't know what he was mourning. His lost childhood. The time he spent in space and the people they lost while they were there. Shiro. There was just too much clouding his mind.

There was something about being away from Earth that made him feel untouchable. Truly, all the paladins felt it. They knew it was real and that any wrong mistake would get them killed, but it was so, for lack of better words, out of this world. So out there.

Now, back on Earth over two years (for him) later and he felt so grounded. Suddenly, gravity weighted back down on him twice as heavy. Suddenly, he was just human again.

(Though that wasn't entirely true after learning of his galran origins but that's beside the point).

He sat in the chair of the hospital room. Keith never liked hospital rooms. He never liked the nurse's office, either. It reminded him of death and of pain. So many tragedies happened here, he'd think.

Still, he heard a baby crying as he walked here. It was so incredible, really, to see life being created after so long. He forgot, while in outer space, that people could settle down. Find love. Take time to themselves to put good into the world, without running around forcing it. He wondered if he'd ever be able to do that.

His pondering continued as he waited, as he had been for days, for Shiro to wake up. The drone of the TV played absentmindedly in the background, telling for the umpteenth time since their return of the ships from space. Lost in his thoughts, he did not even hear the creaking open of the hospital door or the sound of shoes against the ground, like the click of the hospital clock.

No, he did not notice someone else's presence until there was a gentle hand on his shoulder, causing him to jump.

He sat up straight and turned around, eyes narrowed in trained ferocity. It was an instinct he had grown after so long in outer space. If someone had so little presence, they were almost never good news.

To his surprise, the perpetrator was his darker-skinned companion. Lifting his hands to show his good intentions, Lance greeted Keith with one of his gentler smiles. Keith relaxed with a sigh. In the short time they had spent together, Lance certainly became a pillar for him to rely on.

Keith felt a jacket draped over his shoulders as a familiar olive garment warmed him. Next to him, the seat lowered with the weight of his partner.

"Hey," Lance greeted, finally breaking the silence. "Seen us on TV?" he inquired, looking to the newscast. Leave it to Lance to be concerned with the public.

"They showed our families."

Oh.

Lance paused, realizing his mistake.

"They showed the garrison, too. You probably won't believe this seeing you dropped out and all, but they didn't only advertise me, Hunk, and Pidge missing. You were there too," he noted. An uncomfortable silence fell upon them. Leave it to Lance.

Keith sighed, not knowing what to say. Lance, Pidge, and Hunk had visited their families. Allura and Coran were working with Samuel Holt to create a replica Castle of Lions. All Keith had done was wait in the hospital room for Shiro to wake up, occasionally visiting his lion to assure her he was still alive.

"Talk to me," Lance begged.

Silence.

"Please."

Keith turned away as Lance placed his hand on his shoulder again.

"You know you're welcome to stay with me, right?"

He sighed. "Yeah. Thanks."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong."

"Clearly something is wrong."

"What do you want me to say!" Keith exclaimed. He groaned, brushing his fingers through his hair furiously. "We're on Earth. Lotor is gone. Zarkon is gone. Everything should be fine, shouldn't it?"

Lance's hand moved to his back, rubbing in circle gently.

"So why… why do I still feel so lost?" Keith let out a sob, falling into Lance's chest. "Why can't I just be happy? We won, didn't we?"

Lance continued holding Keith, trying to calm him. His heart ached to see him in such a state. He didn't know how to help him.

"Winning doesn't always mean the work is done," Lance stated calmly, trying to pull together his thoughts in the most comforting way possible. "We're on an uphill battle right now. We're not finished."

Keith breathed out loudly, rubbing his face. He kept whispering under his voice. "I'm so tired." Over and over again he said it until his soft voice and sobs were all that filled the room.

"But…" Lance trailed off. "It's okay to hurt." There was a hitch in Keith's voice. He paused, looking up at Lance. "And it's okay to take a break. No one is asking you to wear yourself thin. We're all taking a break right now."

Lance looked to the TV screen again. It showed a video of the lions first touching down to Earth.

"We will always be the paladins of Voltron, but we won't always be on the battlefield." Keith sighed, his shoulders fully relaxing as he slumped down against Lance.

"Go home, Keith. I'll come with you if you don't want to be alone," Lance interlocked his fingers with Keith's. "It is time we put our lives back together."

Soon, Keith was following his fellow paladin out the hospital doors.

He had forgotten what life was like on Earth. But, just maybe, he could remember again how it felt.