The following story contains some spoilers for season two of Voltron: Legendary Defender
His hair stuck to his skin as he ran; normally he'd be eager to grab a post-battle shower after a prolonged fight with the Galra, but at that precise moment Lance was more worried about what'd happened to Keith.
The battle had been tough, so much tougher than normal because they weren't able to form Voltron...
...because they were a paladin down.
But it wasn't the battle that had him worried about Keith, it was Keith's scream.
It'd been pained, a sound that'd torn to the centre of the other paladins as they'd fought, an agonized cry that had nearly caused Lance to accidentally plough head-first into a Galra cruiser. He'd never heard something like that from Keith, and he had to admit he was scared.
When the Red Paladin had eventually responded, his voice had sounded gritted with residual pain, and the comms had been audio-only.
So Lance was running. He wanted to know how bad Keith had been injured, and how long it'd be before he was back up to fighting force.
Because they couldn't afford to lose another paladin, not so soon.
"Paladins, we've taken Keith to the Infirmary." he skidded to a halt as Allura's voice addressed them. "Please report to the common room, we'll let you know how he is as soon as we can."
He stood agape, looking in the general direction of the hidden speakers that made up the castle's comm system.
Lance had been beaten to the common room by both Pidge and Hunk, who both sat anxiously on the low couches, talking in low tones. They looked up as he entered the room wearing similar masks of concern.
"Any word on Keith?" Pidge asked.
Lance shook his head. "I know as much as you do." he settled tiredly on the couch between them.
"I've heard him hurt, but I've never heard him like that." Hunk remarked, he both looked and sounded deflated.
"Pshh, I've heard worse after he's had a bad session on the Training Deck. Remember when he ended up with a broken arm because he'd set the difficulty too high?" despite his effort to lighten the mood, even he didn't really buy into it. Hunk was right; they'd never heard the Red Paladin like that before.
Vargas had dragged by without any updates, which had done nothing for Pidge, Hunk or Lance's patience, the combination of battle fatigue, worry, and anxiety was starting to make them irritable with each other. Needing to break the cycle of them snapping at each other over the smallest things, Lance had decided to organise a mini-rebellion.
"Okay, so those in favour of going up to the Infirmary despite what the Princess said, say 'aye'."
"Aye." Hunk responded.
"Aye." Pidge agreed.
They'd only just risen from where they were sitting when Allura's transmitted voice called out to them: "Paladins, please report to the Bridge."
The three of them ran along the corridor to the Bridge, their hearts racing together as conflicting emotions warred within them. They'd debated whether the news was bad or good in the elevator ride up, and were now running on adrenaline reserves.
The doors to the Bridge slid open, and the yellow, green and blue paladins skidded to an awkward stop. Coran and Allura were stood near the command podium, talking with Keith, who had his back to them. At the other paladins' arrival, the two Alteans stepped forward, while Keith stayed where he stood.
"We'll address the battle with the Galra shortly, but we wanted to let you know that despite what we all heard over the comms, Keith hasn't been hurt."
"He isn't hurt?" Pidge asked sceptically. "We've heard his battle cries, that was way more intense."
"Why'd you guys have him in the Infirmary for so long?" Hunk added.
"Yeah." Lance agreed.
Allura and Coran shared a look, and each of the paladins noticed how the older Altean didn't meet their eyes. He frankly looked uncomfortable.
Lance looked past Allura to where Keith stood, still with his back to them.
"Keith, buddy, you going to come over here, or do we have to drag you?" Lance shouted, trying to muster some of his usual humour. Allura placed a hand on the Blue Paladin's shoulder and gave him a look.
"Lance…"
Keith shifted, and finally spoke. "It's okay Allura, they'd have to see me sooner or later." the Red Paladin turned, and he tugged off his helmet.
Keith still looked like Keith, in his facial structure and in hair, as mussed as it could be from being inside his helmet for the last several vargas. But he also looked so different now, his pale flesh replaced by a fuzz of violet-coloured fur, while his hair was now roughly eggplant in shade. His ears had changed completely, and like Kolivan and Ulaz, his eyes were now a solid amber, devoid of obvious irises.
"Whoa." Pidge gaped, before quickly closing the difference between them and Keith. Hunk was hot on the Green Paladin's heels, who was now standing on tip-toes to get a better look at the Red Lion's pilot. Lance remained where he stood, not because he was scared of Keith... well, any more than usual... or because he hated him... any more than usual.
"So fuzzy..." the Yellow Paladin spoke in awe. He began to reach a hand out to Keith's face, withdrawing it quickly when the other paladin glared at him. "Sorry, sorry. I couldn't help myself... you just look so soft and cuddly."
"I wonder if the follicles for all that fur were already there beneath your skin, or if they... spontaneously grew? I wonder how your ears changed... no wonder you were in pain, that'd be some massive structural change."
Allura caught Lance's line of sight, and he glanced at her. "You're not going to talk to him?" she whispered.
He glanced back at Keith, before returning to her. "He's not going to want me there. Look at him, he's already freaking out inside and only keeping it together so that he doesn't scare Hunk or Pidge." his shoulders drooped a little as he turned back to look at his fellow paladins from afar. "He needs space, not an inconsiderate joker making things worse."
The evening had worn on, and after Hunk and Pidge had finally given Keith a bit of a break from gawking at him, Allura and Coran had proposed some of their speculation about why Keith had changed from smooth, pink-skinned, black-haired human to violet, fuzzy-furred, eggplant-haired Galra-Human hybrid, the general consensus that it was a physical reaction triggered by the extreme stress of the battle.
Battle fatigue had eventually begun to set in, and Pidge and Hunk had headed off for bed, while Allura and Coran went to check the castle's systems for any damage.
As for Lance...
Lance had been pretty quiet as soon as he'd seen Keith, and he'd kept his distance until he'd left the Bridge, a little after the other two paladins, and it got to Keith, as much as he hated to acknowledge it.
Sure, he'd butted heads with Lance on more than a few occasions, they were never going to see eye-to-eye on everything, but they were starting to get on better, and they had to for the good of team Voltron. Seeing suddenly how distant the Blue Paladin was, it upset and pissed Keith off more than he wanted it to. He'd already had to work through a difficult phase in his relationship with the Princess; he didn't need to have to go through that again with the most stubborn-headed pilot after himself.
"Yaaagggghhhhh!" he bellowed with more force than was necessary as he drove his bayard's katar into the Gladiator bot. The combat droid stumbled backwards, before dissipating into blue light.
Keith wiped the sweat from his brow and took a breather to let his pulse subside a little, noting with a wrinkle of his nose that he even smelt different when he sweated compared to before he'd changed.
Just what else do I have to look forward to? He wondered to himself as he aimlessly paced the floor. Malting? Feeling warmer? Shower drains clogged with purple fur? Lance'd love that...
And just like that, his frustration and irritation at Lance resurfaced.
He shook his head and narrowed his eyes; he didn't want to think about Lance right now. "Start training level three."
He'd handle things with Lance eventually, for now he'd rather kick the quiznak out of the training robots.
Lance had been tossing and turning in his bed for nearly a varga with little luck of drifting off. Despite feeling so tired, he couldn't fall asleep, so he went to one of the places in the castle that most easily got him relaxed: the observation deck. He'd started frequenting it as soon as they'd first discovered it, a little bit before the incident with the corrupted wormhole.
He'd found that watching the field of stars drifting past the... glass? Viewer? Monitor? (He'd never been sure exactly) ...helped to put his thoughts into perspective, and that it had a calming effect on him. It wasn't quite the same as standing out in a rainstorm, but it was a close-ish second. The motion was soothing, a backdrop of calm against which so many battles had already been fought first against Zarkon himself and his forces, and then the reorganised empire under Lotor's command.
During his time at the Garrison, Lance had seen so many archive photographs of space and nebula, from the long-decommissioned Hubble Telescope, but space had such a vibrancy to it that the photos never fully captured.
Space was beautiful; it's just a shame they had to spend so much of their time in it fighting for their lives against someone who'd extinguish that beauty for their own pursuit of power.
He'd lost track of how long he'd been sat there, wrapped in his blanket watching the stars, when the doors behind him swept open quietly, issuing in only a small amount of light from the hallway. He glanced over his shoulder to see Keith there, dressed like he'd been using the Training Deck.
"Hey." Lance greeted, though it wasn't his usual wattage.
Keith took a few steps into the room, his posture tense and defensive. "Is this going to be a problem for us?"
Lance frowned, confused. "What?"
"This." Keith repeated, gesturing towards himself. His hair almost looked like its old shade of black in the low light, his fur almost blue. "You barely said a word to me earlier, and kept your distance."
A horrible realisation settled in Lance: that his attempt to give Keith breathing room could've been taken as him being unsettled by his appearance.
"Whoa, no, no no no!" he stood up, the blanket slipping from around his shoulders. "This isn't what you think!"
"Then what is it?"
"I wanted to give you space, Pidge and Hunk together are overwhelming on a good day, and it was obvious you were uncomfortable. I didn't want to throw me into the mix when you were already dealing with a lot."
Keith processed what Lance had said, and the Blue Paladin was relieved to see a relaxation in the Red Paladin's posture, something confirmed by the hesitant tone in Keith's voice:
"You don't hate me?"
Lance shrugged. "No more than usual."
There was another silence, one that was eventually broken by a very quiet, very short chuckle.
Keith took a few more steps towards Lance. "Can I... Can I join you?"
"Sure." Lance nodded as he sat back on the floor, Keith sitting down to his left a tick later.
They watched the stars for a bit, before Keith broke the silence again: "Aren't you tired? Why aren't you asleep?"
Lance shrugged again, accidentally nudging Keith due to their close proximity. "I couldn't sleep." he chuckled quietly. "Sometimes I just get wired after we've been fighting the..." he paused, realising the word he was going to say. "...Zarkon's army of jerks, I just can't fall asleep even though I feel dead tired. When I do, I come here. It's... it's relaxing watching space. Sometimes it helps me fall asleep."
Keith's amber eyes narrowed slightly as he considered this thoughtfully. "I come here too sometimes, after I've been training." he admitted. "I wasn't actually coming here to find you when I found you... I guess I just... lucked out." When Lance didn't respond, Keith continued. "I think about how I could've done things differently, how Shiro would've done them."
Lance glanced at Keith, noticing how much moister the other paladin's eyes looked despite the low light. "He'd be proud of you."
Keith looked at him, dark brows furrowed into a frown.
"You're not the only one with doubts." Lance admitted. "Pidge, Hunk... even Coran and Allura, they put on a good face, but we've all got our doubts, our hang-ups. Shiro wouldn't have picked you to lead Voltron if he didn't think you'd be able to." Keith looked away, digesting what Lance had said. "We'll find him. If he's alive, we'll find him."
"Yeah." Keith agreed, a bit more emotion in his voice now. "Lance?"
"Yeah?"
"Would you like me to stay?"
Lance's response was delayed by a languorous yawn. "Sure."
They continued to watch the stars in silence until Lance eventually drifted off to sleep. Not wishing to disturb his fellow paladin, Keith pulled a bit of spare blanket over his own shoulder, and continued to watch the stellar expanse beyond the castle wall until he too had drifted off.