"Good work team. I know there were a few hiccups in the plan but you all did your part in helping free that planet from Galra. You should be proud."

Shiro's praise was answered by smiles and pats on the backs from the team of paladins. Pidge was already fiddling with one of her technical projects, a tablet in her hands as she tapped away, probably planning up some new modifications for something. She didn't look up from her work as she spoke in a bored tone.

"It was a tiny planet; we couldn't even land all our lions on it. It was more like a moon of a planet. It's hardly worth celebrating."

Hunk was already on his way to the kitchen, in search of food as he replied.

"I think the people living there were pretty happy about it. I'd say we've earned a celebration dinner. I'll get started on that."

Lance pulled his helmet off, looking pleased with himself.

"We really should have stuck around after those Galra ships left. The little people on that moon planet might have thrown me-I mean us a parade!"

Shiro rolled his eyes even as he smiled.

"We don't do this for the thanks Lance. We're defenders of the universe. I think the title is its own reward."

"Yeah, yeah but parades have music and dances and streamers. Plus sometimes they hand out little candies and I haven't had anything sweeter than that gross space juice stuff since we left earth. I need my sugar man."

Keith pulled off his helmet, shaking his hair out as he started walking to his room.

"What is it with you and parades?"

Lance started following the red paladin down the hall, pulling his own helmet off to carry under his arm.

"I just think it would be cool if we got to- hey wait, Keith, hold up. Where are you going?"

They had gotten to the cabins and the dark haired boy was already half way in his room, ready to shut the door as soon as Lance let go of it.

"I'm trying to get away from your stupid as soon as I can." Really, he was drained. The Galra had been using the planet as a gas station for their ships. Making repairs and picking up supplies, there weren't many guards but Keith had taken them all on his own as the others handled the Galra ships that tried to defend their stolen planet.

Keith was good in combat and he enjoyed it but today he was left tired and a little dizzy from their mission. All he wanted was a shower and a nap.

Lance pulled his team mates door open further, stopping Keith with a hand to his arm.

"No, dude, I mean.."

He trailed off.

Keith sighed, looking at the boy with half lidded eyes. But whatever joking expression he was expecting to see on Lance's face there was only concern. He was pointing to Keith's back, which was stupid because how the hell was he supposed to look at his own back? But then he saw the blood on the floor.

"Oh."

Now that he thought about it there was a warm, wetness underneath his paladin armour and his back did hurt a little.

Lance's mouth hung open as he lent closer for a look at the wound.

"Oh? That's all you can say? How are you not feeling that? It looks like someone stabbed you."

Well there was that one Galra guard that Keith had fought off, it had momentarily gotten a hold of his bayard when he was on the ground. And, yep, he must have been stabbed.

Keith shrugged.

"I think it was one of the guards I took down BY MY SELF. Because you guys were busy."

Lance rolled his eyes.

"If you needed help you could have asked for it you dummy."

"I didn't need help; I was fine on my own."

"Obviously not!"

"I took them all out! We saved the planet!"

"It was a tiny planet and you got stabbed in the process! Why do you have to so stubborn about everything?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because you're a part of this team and we need you! We can't form Voltron if you're dead, Keith!"

The red paladin groaned and stormed into his room, however the yelling had worn him out further and the room began to spin.

Lance was still yelling at him.

"You always have to be so competitive, always have to be Shiro's favourite. You won't even let anybody help you when you're bleeding out on the floor."

"I'm not-!"

Oh. He was on the floor. Keith let out a low growl as he realized he was on his knees, his legs unwilling to hold him up any longer. Lance came to stand in front of him, reaching out a hand to pull his team mate up. Keith wasn't having it, smacking the other boys hand away as he swayed.

"Get out of my room Lance."

The blue paladin sighed, looking down at the other with a mixture of irritation and pity.

"You need to get to the healing pods and you can't make it there by yourself. Just let me help you."

Keith's hand shot out at that, grabbing onto Lance's outstretched wrist. He was so dizzy he had to shut his eyes to keep out the blurring colours of the room. He could feel Lance tense as he grabbed his arm, remaining stiff and still as if moving might scare the injured boy off.

"No. No healing pods."

Lance tried again, this time with more concern in his voice. Keith was going to pass out if he didn't get the bleeding stopped. He needed to be in a healing pod but the usually sombre boy was trembling, his voice pleading as he insisted he not be put into cryo sleep.

"Keith, you're bleeding out."

The dark haired boy shook his head, slumping further to the floor, his grip on Lance's wrist slipping to grip his hand instead. His gloved fingers were clumsy and soft on Lance's, as if he wasn't aware he was gripping the blue paladin's fingers.

"No healing pods. Please, I can't be frozen in those things. Alone. I can't."

Lance softened at the boy's half muttered words. After living alone in a dessert he had finally been thrust into a family, Lance could understand why the prospect of being alone would be a grim and unwelcome one.

He knelt down in front of the panting boy, gripping his shoulders to keep him from slipping to the floor. Keith's hand was still gripping Lance's arm, as if for reassurance.

Lances voice was soft, understanding.

"You'll be asleep the whole time. You won't know any time has passed until you wake up. It'll be fine."

Keith shook his head, locks of hair swaying slightly as they hung in front of his lowered eyes.

"No. Please just…help me clean it up. Coran has that magic alien healing stuff just.. we can put a bandage on it or something. I don't want the others to know, they'll put me in a pod."

Lance froze, blinking. Keith had said please. Like, a few times now. And, blame it on the blood loss or whatever but the boy was actually sharing. Like, feelings and stuff. Lance couldn't deny his plea for help. He sighed.

"Fine. I'll help you. Let's get this armour off first so I can see what the damage is."

Keith blew a relieved breath out, slumping a bit further towards the floor.

"Okay."

Lance shuffled around, placing his hands underneath the other boy's arms and heaving him onto his feet. Keith kept his eyes closed as he was dragged towards the bed, landing on the mattress with a huff and a groan of pain.

"Sorry, sorry."

Lance had gentle hands for someone so usually filled with energy. Lance didn't often sit still, being naturally rambunctious and troublesome but Keith was hardly jostled as Lance removed his armour. The red paladin sat, exhausted, on his bed and allowed himself to be moved around by his team mate, Lance occasionally lifting his arm or tilting a leg in order to slip the pieces off.

Once done, Lance sat behind him, gasping a little as he saw the wound.

"Dios, there's a lot of blood Keith. Luckily your armour was pierced right through so there aren't any pieces stuck in it. Hey, I'm gonna get something to clean it with, don't fall asleep alright? I'll be right back."

Keith grunted and felt the bed shift as Lance left. The heavy click of his boots faded out the door and down the hallway, leaving the room in silence. Great. He hadn't wanted to be put in a healing pod because he'd be frozen and trapped alone, and now here he was bleeding, in pain and alone.

Lance was probably going to get Shiro or something. Keith really didn't want him to. On the one hand it would be nice for Shiro to be here because he'd say something like "Everything's gonna be okay, Buddy. We'll get you fixed up in no time." And he'd take care of him and make him feel better. But on the other hand he'd do it with that sad concerned tone of his and he'd probably be upset that Keith hadn't told him.

"Why wouldn't you tell me you were hurt? You have to trust me Keith, you have to trust this team. We're all here for you but we can't help you if you're so determined to shut yourself out."

Ugh, imaginary Shiro was right. Keith knew he should trust his team more but being around people was hard enough after so long on his own, trusting them was a whole other matter entirely.

He liked the team. They had each other's backs and they cared about each other. They cared about Keith. But every time he'd had a family in the past they had been taken away from him. Or they'd left him for some important space mission that they only came back from after a year.

"Hey! Keith! Mierda despertarse! Wake up!"

Keith's eyes snapped open as two warm hands gripped his shoulders, shaking him a little. Lance was sitting in front of him, his face pinched with worry. He sighed, and closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and shaking his head.

"I said don't fall asleep."

Keith blinked at the boy, his heart still thumping erratically from the abrupt wake up call.

"Sorry."

Lance glanced at him again, a nameless look in his eyes. Keith couldn't tell what he was thinking so just stared back at those bright eyes until they looked away.

"I got some supplies from the infirmary."

His voice was quieter now, gentle again as he had been before. He moved to sit behind his team mate, pulling packages open and sorting supplies.

"I'll have to clean it first which might be painful, it looks pretty deep. I'd give you some pain killers but I don't really like the idea of you falling asleep so quick after losing all that blood. That's also why I took a little long, you left a trail of blood from the hanger. Didn't want anyone finding it."

Keith made a noise to acknowledge he'd heard. He really wanted to sleep, but apparently Lance knew best.

"How do you know how to do this?" He wasn't sure what 'this' meant. Cleaning wounds? Hiding blood trails? Taking care of someone he had sworn was his rival?

Lance's voice was soft and close as he leant down, pressing a wet antiseptic swab around the gash on Keith's back.

"I used to be a life guard at the beach near my house. You have to take a first aid course to do it, cause you know, saving people usually requires knowing how to actually save them."

"Really?" Keith meant about the lifesaving but of course Lance replied with. "Yeah handing a drowning person to someone that doesn't know what they're doing is generally frowned upon."

Keith made a noise between a snort and a sigh. He could practically feel the half smile Lance no doubt had on as he relented.

"Yeah, I was a life guard. I grew up near the water so it was really the best job ever. I got paid to sit on a beach all summer."

Keith flinched as the antiseptic stung the cut, Lance's hand pressing against his back comfortingly as he mumbled an apology.

"Ever saved someone?"

Lance's hand paused momentarily before continuing on, carefully cleaning the wound as well as the blood from the paladin's skin over his back.

"No."

There seemed to be a story there, a 'I did my best but they didn't make it' kind of story but Keith didn't push. If Lance didn't want to tell him he didn't have to.

Keith wasn't very good at making people feel better, wasn't used to having to, but the silence seemed to indicate that he should say something to make Lance feel better.

"You know…."

"I know what? Okay, this might feel weird, the bottle says it helps speed up the healing process but I'm not entirely sure what its gonna do. Hold still."

Keith did as instruct though he was a little wary about the idea of Lance using unknown alien medicine on him. There was a hissing sound, like something being sprayed out of a can and then a warm tingling mist settled over Keith's back, where the gash was. The wound went numb, feeling warm and sticky.

Lance pressed careful fingers around the wound, peering closely at the gash.

"It's stopped bleeding, so I'd say that's a win for the healing mist. I'll bandage it anyway, to keep anything from getting into it. What were you saying earlier?"

Keith blinked, rolling his shoulders a little as he tried to get used to the strange numb warmth on his back.

"Uh, just that, you help save people every day. Entire planets and races of people that have been under the Galra empire for thousands of years so… Shiro is right. You should be proud."

This whole comforting others thing was hard, especially since he couldn't see Lance's face to tell if he was doing it right. But Keith could hear the slight smile in Lances voice as he replied.

"Thanks. I am. It's pretty cool being able to help people every day. I just wish my family knew what I was doing. And that I'm okay. Raise your arms a bit."

Damn. Keith thought he was done with the comforting thing. He had nothing else to say to so he simply lifted his arms to allow Lance's deft hands to spin bandages around his chest, securing the gauze he had placed over the wound.

Once Lance was finished he stood from the bed, Keith watching him silently as he gathered the stolen medical supplies. There was a lot of blood soaked gauze and Keith felt a little sick at the sight of his blood smeared on Lances hands and paladin suit.

"I'm gonna get rid of these and clean up a bit. You should eat something."

Lance disappeared into the bathroom and Keith looked around his room, realizing he had some rock things they'd found on one of the planets they'd visited. The rocks were blue and tasted like cookies but had a texture more like carrots. Hunk had discovered their edibility and everyone had grabbed as many as they could and stashed them away.

He was trying to get them out of his cupboard when Lance came back in.

"Hey, what are you doing! Get back in bed!"

Keith let himself be pushed back onto his bed, eyebrows drawn down over his eyes as he watched Lance tut at him with a disapproving look.

"You said I should eat something. I was getting those cookie rocks out of the cupboard."

Lance went over and got the bowl of the blue rocks out, bringing them over to the bed with a glass of water.

"That was more of a mental note to myself, not a suggestion that you get up and move around. You lost a lot of blood, you could pass out or reopen the wound if you don't stay still."

Keith said nothing, taking a blue rock and watching Lance frown at the bowl.

"You can have one."

Lance looked up, surprised.

"What?"

"You can have one." Keith pointed to the bowl, not understanding why Lance wasn't getting it.

"Oh, thanks yeah. Sorry, I'm just really tired. That battle with the Galra took ages and then there was worrying about you and-"

This caught Keith by surprise. His face went blank, utterly confused.

"You were worried about me?"

Lance rolled his eyes, a half smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Yes, you idiot. People worry about other people when they've been stabbed you know."

Keith narrowed his eyes, the space cookie paused half way towards his mouth.

"But, I'm fine. You fixed it."

Lance laughed and pushed the blue mound to Keith's mouth with a finger.

"Yes, very observant of you. Now eat your rock."

Keith reluctantly obeyed, still eyeing the blue paladin as he tiredly ate his own space rock.

Once Lance was satisfied that Keith had eaten enough blue cookies and drunken all his water he carefully helped him lie down in a position that wouldn't hurt his back.

"You warm enough?"

Keith hummed an affirmative as he lay on his chest, waiting patiently as Lance tucked his blankets around him. He expected the other boy to leave once he'd said goodnight but Lance simply yawned and pulled a chair up to the side of Keith's bed, plopping himself down in the seat and leaning back as if he was in for a long stay.

"What are you doing?"

Lance rubbed his eyes, sounding tired as he started pulling his gear off with much less grace then when he'd taken it off Keith.

"Sitting."

"Why?"

Lance tossed his armour to the corner and slumped back down in the chair.

"Because if I went back to my own room and left you to sleep on your own I'd worry about you slipping into a coma from blood loss or something. Or a head wound, did we check you for head trauma? I probably should have done that."

Keith frowned, ignoring the other boys rambling.

"That's stupid."

"Yeah well, I can't help it. I just had your blood all over me and I read about people not waking up after blood loss and trauma and-"

Keith interrupted, shaking his head a little as it rested heavily in his pillows.

"No, I mean, you're tired. You should sleep."

Lance shrugged.

"I'll sleep in this chair."

Keith started shuffling on the bed.

"No that's dumb too, you can just share my bed."

Lance's face seemed to redden at that and he seemed suddenly more awake.

"What? I-uh."

Keith rolled onto his side a little, taking up the side of the bed closest to the wall in order to leave enough room for Lance.

"Come on. It'll be fine, I don't snore or anything."

Lance, still blushing, finally got some words out.

"I, uh.. ."

Kicking his shoes off the paladin carefully climbed in the bed, accepting Keith's offered half of the blankets. They weren't big beds and Lance could feel the heat of Keith's body as he lay beside him. Lance lay stiff and tense on the mattress, not wanting to move and jostle Keith. Or brush against him in a weirdly intimate manner because they were sharing a bed now and they could totally accidently press against each other in their sleep.

"Goodnight Keith."

Keith sighed, tiredly and moved softly under the blankets, getting comfortable on his stomach in the small space available.

"Goodnight Lance."

Keith's breathing evened out quickly, falling asleep after the exhausting day but Lance waited, though his eyes dropped.

He was in Keith's bed. Keith was grumpy and secretive and he had not only let Lance take care of him but now he was sharing a bed with him? Weird day. Good, weird day.

Lance snuck a peek over at Keith's face in the dim light. His dark hair was splayed out on the pillow and fell around his face and over his eyes as usual. Lance, unable to help himself, lifted a careful hand to brush back the hair covering Keith's face.

Keith had long eyelashes. That might have been a weird first thing to think but he did. His eyes were closed and his cheek was pressed to the pillows in a way that made his lips pout slightly and god he was adorable. Lance smiled a little at this softer, innocent side of Keith.

He knew he didn't hate the red paladin as much as he made out but he didn't know what to do about actually liking the guy. How stupid was that? Having a slight, almost, maybe crush on someone just because of their stupid hair and their low silky voice. And the way they moved through combat, as light and graceful as if it were a choreographed dance. Not to mention that beautiful smile that only came out once every three hundred years and a laugh that made Lance feel like if he didn't get to kiss those pretty lips he might never breathe again.

Damn it.

He sighed at his own stupidity and closed his eyes, allowing himself to fall asleep in Keith's bed.