Yeah, the lions were wrecked.

Yeah, so was Shiro.

Yeah, so was Keith.

God, this was so fucked up.

Keith made a mistake; taking on Zarkon was definitely a bad idea and now he was paying the price. Actually, make that the whole team-Shiro and he were both marooned on some jungle-y planet in a sector of space that he hadn't studied from the stars. Hunk, Lance, Pidge, Allura and Coran were...well, God knows where they were. Probably on stuck on some random planet as well.

Keith had dragged Shiro out of the wreckage of the Black Lion and dropped him onto a giant leaf that was practically on steroids. Shiro's condition looked critical; an arm fracture, possibly-concussive head wound over his right eye, and an abnormally twisted ankle wasn't as easy on the eyes as his face.

Keith took that back. Shiro was a magnificent creature whether he was injured or not.

Quit dawdling, he sniped at himself. Hello Keith, BANDAGES.

Maybe there was some supplies in their lions. A first aid kit, food, water, anything.

Thankfully, he did find a first aid kit in the Red Lion. Unfortunately, there were no bandages or gauze because they needed to patch up Lance in the last mission. Dammit.

The Black Lion yielded some rewards too: he managed to salvage some water canisters and crackers out of a compartment in the cockpit. Better to ration these as much as possible; who knew if the food here was edible?

Keith grimaced at his inventory. Yep, antiseptic and a single healing cube would definitely heal a broken Shiro. For the meantime, anyway.

Activating his bayard, Keith swung the sword through several thin branches of the massive trees above them. Huge leaves drifted to the ground, and Keith immediately got to work on cutting them up to wrap into tourniquets.

Keith shook the antiseptic bottle and sprayed some onto the open wound on Shiro's arm. He whimpered and fidgeted at the stinging pain. "Shh," Keith whispered. "It's alright. The pain will go away in a minute."

Of course, his words were futile. Shiro was still asleep. Idiot. He's not a child.

He's a cute child though.

Agh, leave me alone gay thoughts.

Shiro shifted in his concussive state, muttering incoherent words faintly. Something about Haggar and getting the fuck off him. Keith pursed his lips as he tied the set for Shiro's arm. PTSD was a son of a bitch.

Ah, well. Comfort came later-as of now, Keith just needed to stop the blood flow and make sure Shiro was okay.

But of course Shiro would be okay. He was fucking Takashi Shirogane. Legends like him didn't die.

Right?

What the fuck am I doing? he mentally hissed. Focus.

And so he focused on saving Shiro. Yeah. Just saving Shiro.

As the ankle set's sap started to dry (no gauze? When in doubt, improvise), Keith faced a dilemma.

To wrap the leaf-bandage over Shiro's eye, he had two ways of doing so:

1. Awkwardly set the bandage from the side of Shiro's head and take a long-ass time in doing so, possibly risking the factor of time and loss of blood.

2. Straddle his waist, pretend not to realize that this was Keith's wet dream but with more blood and death, fix the wrap quickly and pray that Shiro didn't wake up.

Actually, the real question was: risk Shiro's life in exchange for non-humiliation, or do the one thing he's been wanting to do since before the Kerberos mission to save his crush's-ahem, he meant leader's-life?

Fucking hell, why was this even a question?!

And so Keith Kogane promptly bit his lip, swung a leg over Shiro's waist, and went to town on tightly wrapping up his eye.

Keith was about halfway done before Shiro's head twitched.

His hands shot away from Shiro's face, fear creeping into his eyes. Holy shit he was not ready to have to explain this to Shiro-

The black paladin murmured a few wistful noises, head tilting to the side peacefully.

The cold sweat breaking out on Keith's neck ebbed away. After staring at Shiro for any other signs of wake, he returned to wrapping the leaf-bandage.

After double-knotting the makeshift eyepatch (force of habit), Keith awkwardly climbed off of Shiro. A moment passed where Keith simply looked at how the thin beads of light slipping through the canopy framed Shiro's face, and goddammit that scar was cute as fuck-

Shiro reached to unconsciously scratch his fractured arm.

Immediately Keith's brain seized into overdrive. Was blood clotting against the set? Was Shiro going to open the wound again? Was Shiro allergic to plants? WAS SHIRO HAVING AN ALLERGIC REACTION TO LEAVES? HOLY SHIT MAYBE THERE WAS AN EPI-PEN IN HIS LION OR SOMETHING, MAYBE HE COULD MAKE SOME SORT OF CLARITIN-JUICE WITH THE LOCAL PLANTS. WAIT, LOCALS...WHAT ABOUT THE LOCALS? WHAT IF THEY WERE HOSTILE? WHAT IF THE GALRA HAD INHABITED THIS WORLD TOO? WHAT IF HE HAD TO FIGHT AND DEFEND SHIRO BUT HE COULDN'T TAKE ON AN ARMY BY HIMSELF, AT LEAST NOT WITHOUT HIS LION, BUT HIS LION WAS BUSTED-

"Keith, calm down. I can literally hear you thinking too hard."

Keith's attention snapped out of his thoughts, and his eyes widened as Shiro chuckled at him.

"You did this all, right? Thanks, Keith," he said warmly.

Said Keith only nodded quickly. "Wait a second, I'm gonna go find some water." Thank God he packed water in the back of the lion; best way to stall. Maybe he could just talk casual? Yeah. Casual.

He ran back to Shiro with two canisters in hand. "I, uh, didn't think you'd wake up this fast," he commented.

Shiro shrugged awkwardly with his one available shoulder. "I kinda felt you climbing all over me," he replied.

Keith's face could've lit on fire and it would've been perfectly valid.

"It was for a tourniquet, okay?" he hissed, and Shiro laughed.

"Yeah, I know. Thanks again."

"You're frickin' welcome."

"You're starting to sound like Lance."

"Don't compare me to him, I don't get any of his memes," Keith huffed, sitting up. "You should sleep, Shiro."

The black paladin gazed at him as if trying to solve a confusing puzzle. Several silent seconds passed between them before Shiro sighed and closed his eyes again. "You should fix up that arm of yours," he said. "Looks like it's pretty soaked."

Keith glanced down at his forearm. It looked as if his real skin has burned away to a...dull amethyst.

Oh shit.

Keith sprang up and sprinted towards the lions. "Sleep well, Shiro," he called, and suddenly he wished Shiro never woke up.

Mhm yes I hinted to AO3's "What a Healing Pod Can't Repair".

I meant this to be fluffy but it wasn't the right setting? I'll probably rewrite this later, but I wrote it at 3 AM and my brain had no time for deleting everything and restarting.

I have a personal headcanon that Keith tends to think I'm worst-case scenario a lot, and that's why he doesn't understand a lot of Lance's/Hunk's happiness, etc. So you got a taste of that, I guess. Dropped in a Galra!Keith thing, meant to go more in detail with ears and all but I'm honestly too tired right now so...g'night guys.

Voltron doesn't belong to me ;^; but if it did then Shiro wouldn't have the possibility of death in Season 2 ahhhhhhh

Hope you enjoyed ^^

-Cheshire