1…2…3…4…5…6…

Keith's gaze studied the table and those who sat at it.

Him, Shiro, Hunk, Pidge, Allura and Coran…but where was Lance?

A question each member at the table was asking themselves. Gazes wondered but words reminded silent. It had been a long day. Each of the paladins were exhausted and in need of some food and rest but Lance remained unseen. An unusual occurrence at dinner time no matter the previous events of the day. The moment of silence lasted a second longer.

"…Does anyone have an idea where Lance may be?" Allura spoke up, drawing the attention of blank stares to her seat.

Their expressions alone gave away the answer. Coran rubbed the back of his head with a deep frown, "Maybe he's asleep in his room? I mean it was an eventful day."

Shiro crossed his arms and heads turned towards him. "Maybe someone should go check up on him to make sure everything's okay," he suggested.

Keith fidgeted in his seat. The deep worry weighing down his chest is what made the words spill from him mouth. Releasing a wave of shock to those at their seats.

"I'll do it."

His tone was dull and unconcerned yet everyone's eyes widened as their jaws dropped to the ground. This was the last thing they expected of him and he knew it. Lance and he were rivals. They argued, complained, fought and didn't show an ounce of care about one another unless it was in serious situations. So for him to say something so out of the blue instead of Hunk, well he couldn't help their reactions. Shiro was the first to break from his shock and smiled encouragingly.

"That would be amazing Keith, thank you," He replied.

With a blank expression Keith nodded and excused himself from the table.

The Castle was silent aside from the gentle humming of the engine and power system. The unfamiliar technology sometimes still came as a shock to Keith but he couldn't deny that the palace often felt more like home then his little house in the desert. There was just something around in the atmosphere that felt comfortable and secure. Like someone was always there to care and watch over you. He guessed that's what a home felt like.

The halls were long and lit up by small blue lights at the top of the walls. Each the same yet each lead to different destinations. He took the ones that lead down to the dorms. Not too far from the control room and with the map of the palace already in his head it made things all the more easier.

Keith mindlessly twisted and turned around corners while his thoughts twisted and turned around themselves. What was he going to say to Lance? Hopefully nothing. If the blue paladin was already asleep he didn't have plans on waking him. But the feeling in Keith's chest told him that Lance's beauty sleep wasn't going to rescue him from a conversation today. He'd had the strange feeling since he saw Lance walk out of Blue after the mission. Something seemed off in his expression as he apologized to everyone about the near capture of his lion due to his recklessness. Keith was mad at first and was ready to lecture the paladin but stopped short when for a moment, the boy's smile faltered and his eyes twinkled with what seemed to be tears. It was quick slip of his mask but enough to stop Keith in his tracks and warn him that something was up. Sure Keith hated the blue paladin majority of the time but that didn't mean he didn't care about the other's emotions when they got out of hand. He did care for the man, honestly, and that's what had cemented and block of worry in his chest.

His heart started to race when he realised he was getting close to Lance's room. Geez, Keith had no idea what was wrong with him. Maybe it was because he had never had a proper, civil conversation with Lance before but what guaranteed that this time he would. Slowly he counted his steps until he stood in front of the door.

1,2,3,4,5…10…25…35…50

And there it was. Keith stopped short, just far enough before the sensors picked up his presence. He tried to think over what to say but decided that he'd work it out.

Keith stepped in front of the door, knocking gently. "Lance? Lance, are you in there?" he called but after a minute of waiting no one answered. "Lance I'm coming in," Keith warned before stepping forward as the automatic door slid open.

The room was dark save for the line of light glaring in from the hallway. Overall all of their bedrooms where small but the view of space often made up for it. The wall beside their beds could retract into a glass window. In Lance's room, the view of space blended into the surrounding darkness. As the door shut behind Keith – cutting off the only light source - it almost gave off the illusion that you were walking in among the stars.

"Hey Lance, are you in here?" he asked quietly.

Sitting atop the bed was a figure obscuring a patch of stars from sight yet it ignored Keith's question and reminded silent. Keith wavered awkwardly at the door, unsure of what to say. So he walked forward a bit more.

"Everyone's waiting for you in the dinning room," Keith explained but yet again there was no answer. "Lance? Are you okay?" he finally asked.

The figure shifted but remained silent. So there was something wrong. Keith walked up to the bed and took a seat next to Lance who had wrapped himself up in his blanket. His face was hidden in the darkness but Keith swore he could see something shimmer. Just great. He had no clue how to deal with these kinds of things so why did he volunteer for it in the first place? Stupid, stupid.

The two sat in silence for a while. Staring out into space. Keith counting the stars, guessing/making up constellations among the tiny dots. Lance glancing to the boy beside him every now and again, his mouth parting open before closing again. Unspoken words were forming a lump at the back of his throat making breathing a difficult task as he fought tears away.

Back at home, even with such a big family, Lance had only ever truly broken down in front of his mother. The one person he trusted and knew wouldn't judge him for his ridiculous judgments about himself. It wasn't often he had those thoughts. I mean he had a great family who loved him, he had friends who he could make laugh and he had achieved majority of what he had worked so hard for. But like every other human, Lance had his bad days. Where sometimes the constant stress became too much or too many negative comments or failures brought him back to the darkness everyone knew. In those times, that is where he would turn to his mother for support. But this time she wasn't here. Her hugs, kisses and comforting words were all the way back on earth. She wasn't here to tell him everything would be okay even though Lance had almost lost the blue lion today due to his recklessness behavior. Maybe because it wasn't okay. The Blue Lion was an important piece of Voltron, without it the universe would fall into Zarkon's hands. And if Lance was naïve enough to have it stolen because of his stupid behavior then what was his worth in the team?

Keith shifted beside him, reminding him that he wasn't alone. Lance looked down and almost chuckled as a thought popped into his head.

"Uh…Keith?" Lance spoke up, hesitant.

The other's head snapped up with wide eyes at his voice. Even in the darkness, Lance's eyes had adjusted to lack of lighting so the mixture of shock and patience that outlined Keith's features was a comforting familiarity.

"Yeah?" he answered.

Lance took a deep breath, fire at the end of his nerves. "Do – uh – do you ever doubt yourself sometimes?" He asked, pulling the blanket tighter around his head, refusing to make eye contact.

Keith was taken aback by the question. No one had ever asked him such a thing before and he didn't really think about it very much. "Well…uh," he scratched the back of his head, "Of course, not all the time, but yeah."

Lame. He was so lame. Although despite Keith's inner accusations, Lance smile faintly. He never expected a better answer from Keith no matter how much he hated him sometimes. Well maybe hate wasn't the word. Keith turned to look at the other boy, sudden thoughts entering his head.

"Lance?" He whispered cautiously. The blue paladin's head turned to face Keith, despite his face hidden behind a veil of shadows. Keith squinted trying to make out the rollercoaster of emotions Lance must be riding on to ask such a question. Yet with no results he asked anyways. "Do you doubt yourself? Your value to Voltron? Your importance to this team?" he relayed the questions to him.

Silence.

Keith resisted the urge to curse under his breath. He hated being right on occasions such as these. There was a rustle of sheets as Lance pulled the blanket down to completely cover his face. The action almost made Keith's heart crack. Although the reality of the situation didn't come as much of a surprise to the red paladin. They were the defenders of the universe, they were paladins of Voltron, they fought battles, rescued planets and it's inhabitance, they flew between the stars in an alien ship with alien allies from a destroyed planet. Sure they had a lot of responsibility to uphold but in the end they were still teenagers. Leaving Earth didn't change that. Finding the Lions didn't change that. Nothing could of changed that. Each and every one of them are still trying to figure out their place in this universe, so of course there are going to be moments where one of them break or have doubts about themselves. It's what teenagers are best at. Keith would know. That didn't make the situation any better though.

"Well if you're not going to answer, could you at least share some of the blanket? It's freezing in here," Keith asked ignoring the subject for a minute because it really was cold in the metal room.

The other hesitated but eventually Lance pulled the blanket off his head and handed the whole thing to Keith, who shook his head at the gesture. He shuffled closer until their knees were touching and wrapped one corner of the blanket around his should before snaking his arm behind Lance's back and flung the other corner over his shoulder, moving his arms back so he could pull both corners together between them. Keith kept a stoic face but the slight red ting on his pale cheeks was ever present even if it was hidden. In the end the two were wrapped up comfortably, side by side, in the warmth of the blanket and each other.

"K-Keith?" Lance stuttered confused.

The red paladin waved a hand in the air, dismissing any upcoming question on statement. Lance closed his mouth trying to ignore the heat rushing to his own cheeks. Had he said something? What was Keith doing?

"You're an important part of Voltron Lance and not just because you pilot the blue lion," Keith began, staring expressionlessly at the stars behind the glass. "Because in all honesty, we're not the best team there could be out there to protect the universe, majority of the time we've got no fucking clue on what to do when in a battle against the galra even if there is a plan to follow. Whether we've succeeded so far because we're lucky or something else, I have no idea, but somehow we've managed to do it and I think one of the reasons why is because of you."

When Keith glanced to the side, Lance's head was still bowed as he stared at some spot in front of him. "Despite everything we've been through so far, we're still only teenagers and dealing with stuff like this is hard, even for me. Yet after every mission you manage to make every room you walk into lighter, you make people laugh no matter what mood they're in or what situation we may have dealt with earlier. You…you have a talent to pull people out of their darkest abysses with a few simple words or a smile and that is something none of us could ever do. Lance I believe if you weren't apart of this team, if you weren't our sharpshooter, then we wouldn't have come as far as we have now because people succumb to their deepest and darkest thoughts when faced with situations like these. One by one we all would have broken, unable to form Voltron, unable to stop the universe from falling into Zarkon's hands. You may be annoying but you bring light into the world when all we can see is darkness and I'm sorry that we don't thank you for it as we should but I want you to know and remember that without you, we would have fallen and everyone we care for would have been domed into a future of pain and loss. So for all the times we haven't said it, thank you Lance, thank you."

Silence fell.

Keith fidgeted where he sat. No one said anything more and he believed that was what made his heart beat dramatically in his chest. Waiting for a response was agonising. Did he say the wrong things? Was he not clear enough? God, he had no idea but he wished Lance would just say something! Finally there was a wet chuckle.

"Never thought you'd say something like that, us being rivals and all," Lance whispered with a trembling voice.

Keith smiled, still staring at the stars. "You were the one who started the rivalry," He pointed out, "In retrospect I never thought of you as a rival, sure you annoyed me to no extent and that's the main reason why I continued our little arguments but I never thought of you as a rival, more like an inspiring companion."

That had done it. There as a loud sob catching Keith's attention as his head flung around and saw something small fall onto the blanket. He looked at Lance who was now holding his head in his hands. He felt the blanket move as the blue paladin's shoulders shook. Keith froze for a moment. Lance was crying. Lance was crying! Never before had he thought he'd whiteness such a thing, he'd hoped he'd never have to. Lance's sobs echoed through his chest. Unsure on what he should do, Keith reached forward – letting the blanket fall from their shoulders – and wrapped an arm around Lance with a hand resting on the back of his head and pulled him against his chest.

Instead of the expected rejection, the broken boy turned around so his body was facing Keith and laid his head on his shoulder, sobbing as his hands clenched onto his black top. Keith's arms temporarily removed themselves from Lance in shock before regaining himself and wrapping them back around the Lance's shaking body, hold him firmly against his chest. He was never going to let Lance break, even if that meant he had to hold the boy together himself, so be it. Keith ran a comforting hand through sobbing boy's brown hair, unconcerned about moving anytime soon. No words needed to be said as the two boys held onto each other like they were all they had left in the universe.

Shiro, Pidge, Hunk, Allura and Coran walked together down to the bedrooms. Keith and Lance had been missing for some time bringing up the decision to go check up on them just in case. When they reached Lance's bedroom (the first guess) Shiro gently knocked on the door calling for anyone inside. When no answer came, Pidge suggested the check inside just to make sure. So as the other's hung back, Shiro stepped in front of the sensors and the door slid open soundlessly. The room was pitch black. He could barely see anything in front of his nose once the door closed behind him.

"Lance? Keith?" He called silently.

Still though, there was no answer. Frowning, Shiro reached over to a switch that turned the lights on. A small chuckle escaped his lips as he was met with the scene before him. Lance and Keith laid on the bed, soundlessly asleep in one another's arms. It was a rare and amusing sight that made Shiro wish he had a camera with him to capture the moment. Smiling he turned the light back off.

"Finally," he thought as he exited the room.

"Well are they in there?" Pidge questioned.

"Yes, they're fine, and I think it would be best if we left them to themselves for the night," Shiro answered, "They can get their own food tomorrow or if they wake up latter."

And with that he began walking back to the dining room. Every glancing at one another with confused expressions as they wondered what Shiro had seen behind the door.

thank you for reading. Sorry if it was rushed I try not to but that's how my writing ends up sometimes. Anyways I might do more but probably not so thank you once again for reading and I wish you an amazing day!