Alarms were blaring throughout the Castle. The shields were down, the lions were unresponsive, the equipment was out of control and the ship was decisively heading towards a red giant.

And yet, the two boys who were locked inside a mostly empty storage unit seemed unaffected by the chaos, or their impending doom.

They sat side by side on the cold floor, looking almost bored.

"So," Lance said, "I guess you not running around and punching things mean you do believe her?"

"I trust Pidge," Keith replied. "Besides, she's either telling the truth or she's a psychic," he added, as he recalled Pidge patiently explaining that yes, they were stuck in a time loop and they were having this conversation 17th time, and it was 17th time out of 21 loops because the first time she didn't know he would get sucked into space while trying to get to his lion and he was impossible to reason with the next 3 times. No, she didn't know why she could remember and he couldn't. She had told him all the plans he had come up with so far, and how all of them ended in blood and tears, in detail. She had also mentioned that she knew when he was a kid he had an imaginary friend named Mrs. Puffy and that he was afraid of her. So yeah, Keith was a believer and would sit quietly as Pidge worked on a solution to get them out of this.

He turned his head and looked at Lance. "Don't you?"

"I do," Lance said, glancing at him and away. "Though at first I was convinced she made it all up to get back at me."

Keith shook his head slowly and asked, "What did you do?"

Lance grinned, eyes sparkling with mischief. Keith looked down, scratching the back of his neck.

"I'm glad you asked, mullet. Let's just say during training the gladiator stopped and asked her if it had a soul."

"You did not!"

"You'd be amazed what you could do with one Olkarion cube and some help from more technologically apt friends," Lance said proudly and giggled. "Oh man, you should have seen her face."

Keith laughed despite himself. "You always did bring the worst in Hunk. Why are you like this?"

Lance bumped his shoulder against Keith's, staring at the boy with a lopsided grin. "You know you love it."

Keith mumbled something as he turned his gaze back to the walls. Lance retreated, his expression suddenly sullen.

The room was silent again, until Lance got on his feet and started pacing. "I'm cold," he explained when Keith gave him a look.

"What does it matter?" said the raven haired boy. "We'll reset soon anyway." Reset, he thought, not die. He hadn't asked Pidge if she remembered how that felt.

Lance stopped his pacing. "Dude, by this logic what's the point of anything, since we are all gonna die at some point?" He sat down beside Keith again and hugged his knees to his chest.

"Not the same thing."

"So if I was hurt you'd let me bleed out just so you could have some peace and quiet until the reset huh?"

Keith stared at his open palms resting in his lap, brows knit.

"Is that what you think of me?" he asked quietly.

"I don't quiznaking know what to think of you," Lance said. "After all this time, I still don't have a clue."

Keith kept his hands in his lap, formed into fists as Lance added in a small voice, "I just thought maybe that's what you think of me. I guess you are not interested in making friends… with me, at least."

Keith laughed in disbelief. "You're one to talk!" he said. "Not like you ever wanted to be friends with me. You don't even want me around; I don't think you could have made it clearer!"

"That's not…" Lance began, and sighed. "I have been an ass," he admitted, to Keith's surprise. "I gave you shit when you were here, gave you shit for leaving… You'd think I don't know what I want!" He let out a huffed chuckle. "But man, you make it so easy."

Before Keith could protest to this, Lance reached out to his helmet from where they had piled their armors, tried to activate the comm and failed. He tossed the helmet to the other side of the room. "Useless," he muttered.

"What was that about?" Keith asked, watching him in confusion.

"Dunno, I just wanted to check how others were doing," he said and added defensively, "I know we will reset okay? Even so, I just don't want anyone to go through this alone…"

"That's… thoughtful of you," Keith said, feeling a strange warmth in his chest. He looked at Lance, only to find him looking back. The room was dim, but he could still make out the peculiar tone of blue of his eyes. He suddenly felt his stomach drop and broke the eye contact, inching away.

He wished Lance would say something then, loud and obnoxious, or tease him about his hairstyle, challenge him to something silly. Anything but this awkward silence, anything but his resigned posture that just made his heart beat faster with the desire to put his arms around him. What the actual quiznak.

"Pidge said this will be the last time, if everything goes according to the plan," Lance said out of the blue.

Maybe Keith was reading too much into it, but he sounded almost nostalgic.

"That's good," he replied dumbly.

"Ask me something," Lance said.

"What?"

Lance moved closer, put a hand on Keith's shoulder and leaned in to face him. "Ask me something," he repeated. "Anything. I promise I will tell you anything you want to know."

"Lance, what's the point?" the black paladin asked as he tried to squirm away, but Lance's grip on his shoulder kept him pinned. "We are either going to reset, or we're all gonna die. Nobody will remember anything in either case!"

"Precisely!" Lance said, beaming.

"You don't make sense!"

"Your face doesn't make sense!" Lance drew back with his childish comeback, taking his ridiculous scent of citrus and sea away with him. Though Keith should have known by now that Lance didn't really back down easily.

Sure enough, Lance spoke again.

"So if I am in this moment right now, and if I feel what I feel, why shouldn't I do something about that?"

Keith turned away, eyebrows knit together. Why shouldn't they indeed? It was the perfect setup, a cop-out with no consequences. The worst would be about an hour of feeling humiliated. Yeah, Keith could endure that much.

"Okay," he said, and took a deep breath to steady himself.

He still wasn't ready for the next words that came out of his mouth.

"Are you in love with Allura?"

To his surprise, Lance smiled. Keith tried to ignore the heat creeping up his neck.

"She's amazing," Lance said. Keith was thankful that he didn't question his motives. Hell, he wasn't really sure about his motives. "Brave and beautiful, strong and vulnerable, kind, caring, smart…" Lance continued.

Oh. "That's a yes then," Keith said flatly.

"It's just… Safe," said Lance. "I know it won't happen. I know she'll never see me that way. I don't even want her to. No risk of a broken heart's agony." His face twisted into an expression akin to anger. "To answer your question; no Keith, I am not in love with her. I'm just a coward."

"Oh," Keith uttered. "I mean, you are not a coward, man. I know you are not, and Red wouldn't let a coward pilot her, so that alone should be proof enough." He is not in love with Allura. He knows he is not in love with Allura.

"Thanks," Lance said, barely audible. "So should we make this a two way thing? I know I offered to answer anything, but you think you can also answer some?"

Keith shrugged. If he was going down, he might as well sink all the way to the bottom. "Sure."

"What do you think of me?" Lance asked. "And be honest. You don't need to filter it for the sake of Voltron, or your leadership responsibilities. Be brutal, samurai."

Keith gaped first, then closed his mouth, stared ahead, then stared at the ceiling, then at his feet—

"Sweet quiznak Keith, you are killing me!"

"Alright, alright! I was just thinking!" He cleared his throat and Lance gave him a look, his eyebrows dramatically raised.

"You talk too much," Keith said. "You're loud and you drive me insane sometimes. And I don't understand what's your deal with my hair!" Lance snorted at that, ready to comment but Keith went on. "But you have a good heart, better than most, certainly better than mine…"

Lance wanted to protest, but Keith ignored him. The dam was broken. "You are kind and thoughtful, and so stupidly selfless sometimes. And you are talented. I don't know why you keep underestimating yourself, and keep comparing yourself to others. You don't have to do that! You don't need to be someone else, if you want to improve your skills, just practice and be a better version of you."

Now Lance was the one looking away. Keith had stood up, his back against the storage door, hands in his hair.

"You saved me," he said softly, dropping his arms to his sides. "When Shiro was lost, and when I didn't have a clue how to lead, you saved me. I was falling apart, and I was breaking us apart, and you held us together Lance, you held me together. And I never even thanked you for it. You are always there, for all of us, and somehow you know what to do, what to say to make it better and I hate it that I cannot do the same for you! I don't know how." Keith stopped and took a deep breath. He took two steps towards Lance, stood in front of him until he looked up into his eyes.

"So this is what I think of you," he said. "I think you are a noisy, annoying idiot; and you are amazing and I like it when you call me samurai." His face was burning, and his hands felt clammy. "Lance, I think I—"

His sentence was cut short when suddenly the castle shook and he lost his footing, dropping ungraciously on his butt.

"Oh, shit man, you okay?" Lance asked, snickering as he held out his hand. Keith swatted it away and pushed himself up to a sitting position, grumbling. The floor was steady again, but he wasn't sure he could say the same about his heartbeat.

"Laugh it up asshole," he said, but couldn't hold back his smile and the bubble of laughter came after it.

They laughed until there were tears in their eyes and they were out of breath, then Lance scooched closer to Keith, leaned in and wiped the tears from his cheek with his thumb. "Thank you, samurai," he whispered, his warm breath fanning the black paladin's lips.

Keith was a deer in the headlights. Even after Lance sat back with a sigh, all he could manage was a side glance, using only his eyes because his neck was refusing to move. He wasn't sure if he was breathing.

"What," he croaked, "do you think of me?"

Lance slid his back slowly down the wall and clasped his hands behind his head.

"You make it seem so effortless," he said. "I resent that. I resent your natural talent. I hate that I can work my ass off, and still won't be able to come close. It used to feel so unfair. So I was jealous, but also awestruck. I didn't know how to deal with any of it. I used to think, if I get you to acknowledge my existence, even that would be a victory." He laughed. "It was clear you wouldn't acknowledge a cargo pilot, I mean, why would you. So I was an ass. No different than James quiznaking Griffin, but at least he got your attention. Hard. To his face." He looked pleased for a moment.

"You… remember that?" Keith asked, finally able to move freely, though his mind was still on fire with one thought: Lance touched my face.

"Yeah. I remember everything about you and your stupid mullet, Keith," he said, letting the words sink in. "I thought you had it all. It had never crossed my mind that you could need a friend back then." He turned to his side and propped his chin in his hand. "I am sorry."

Keith felt his walls coming up once again, reinforced by panic. He didn't want to feel sorry for himself. Didn't want to regret what he didn't have in the past. He was not weak. He didn't need pity. He was fine on his own. He would always be fine on his own. His eyes burned. It wouldn't have worked. He would have rejected his friendship even if Lance had offered. He would have driven him away. He'll probably still do it anyway. Nothing had changed. He was still that defiant little kid, glaring at the world to hide how scared he was of getting hurt. The part of him that wanted so desperately to reach out would never win.

But then Lance sat up again, ran his fingers through his hair and gave Keith the saddest smile he has ever seen. "You are fierce, and loyal, and I trust you with my life, Keith. You are more to me every day and I don't know what to do with it, so I guess that's precisely when I turn into a noisy, annoying idiot."

"You are only saying this because you know we will forget," Keith said.

"Yes," Lance replied and stood up. He offered a hand to Keith, and this time he didn't refuse. They stood face to face, frozen, until Lance spoke.

"Speaking of which, we are running out of time."

He was waiting, Keith realized. Waiting for him. So he reached out, and pulled him into a kiss. The panic dissipated, and the walls crumbled.

Lance responded immediately, pulling him closer by the waist and deepening the kiss. They stopped to breathe, forehead against forehead; and then their lips met again, and again, and again.

Keith paused, his mouth on Lance's neck, chest heaving as he felt Lance's heart thumping against his ribs.

"I don't want to forget this," he breathed, and Lance held him tighter, his hands under Keith's shirt, leaving a trail of fire in the wake of his touch.

The red paladin nuzzled his neck, dragging his lips over his skin as he whispered, "I'll remember for the both of us."

Keith's head snapped up, eyes wide with shock to see Lance wearing a lopsided smile.

"I am sorry that it took me 20 times of losing you to figure out how I felt," he said, pressed his lips to Keith's once again just before the intense heat hit the ship and everything went to hell.