As it turns out, not thinking about Keith was a lot harder than Lance had thought it would be. Mostly because he knew that apology was awful. He tried to get a few minutes alone with Keith, he really did, but Pidge kept taking Keith away from him. Every
single time for the last 4 days.

Hunk thought it would be best to distract Lance with some target practice. Meanwhile, Pidge had roped Keith into helping her with some modifications on her lion.

"Pidge, what do you think Lance has been trying to tell me?" He twirled his knife around his fingers, clearly uninterested in whatever Pidge was doing.

"Keith, he made you cry. He doesn't get to talk to you."

Keith sighed. "Pidge, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I don't need you to protect me."

"Yes I do!" She shouted.

"...Pidge?" He lowered his eyebrows, more concerned than angry. Since when was Pidge responsible for him?

Pidge looked away from Keith. "...you remind me of my brother, okay? And wherever Matt is right now, I just hope he's okay. So, if you're happy, at least one of you is okay…"

"Pidge, you know what would really make me happy?" Keith nudged her shoulder.

"Hm."

"If you would let me talk to Lance."

"...you just want to look at his butt." She pouted.

"Wha-no I don't!" Keith felt his face getting heated.

"Oh please! You like Lance's butt and you know it!"

"I definitely do not like Lance's butt, Pidge."

She looked at him with a small grin and one eyebrow raised. Also known as the face of evil. "So when you guys start dating I can tell Lance you don't like his butt?"

"Pidge! We're not even-you can't tell him that!"

"So I should tell him you do like his butt?"

"I'm leaving. You can't say anything about Lance's butt, under any circumstances." Keith left before Pidge could argue anymore. He went to find Lance, which took him quite a while since the training deck is usually the last place Lance wanted
to be.
"Ahem."

Hunk and Lance lowered their bayards and turned to the door where Keith was standing sheepishly.

"Oh, Keith…" Lance stood up straight. "What's up?"

"Can I talk to you for a second? Uh, Pidge is allowing it…"

"Really? Good, I need to talk to you too." He bounced over to Keith and pulled him into the hallway for more privacy.

Keith's heart was racing. He hadn't planned what he was going to say, but all he could focus on was the fact that he was finally alone with Lance.

"I just… I need to apologize, again, because my first apology really sucked. I feel really bad for what I said and I didn't mean to upset you, I'm just worried about you and I hate that you keep getting hurt, and no offense Keith? But you really
need to stop using your body as everyone else's shield."

He nodded quietly.

"And, also…" Lance looked down and scratched the back of his head. He was a little nervous, actually, despite how many times he practiced what he would say once he finally got to talk to Keith. "We… we all do care about you, Keith. And
I know we're rivals but, you know, I'm happy you're here. I don't know if I can see anyone else piloting the Red Lion."

"...really?"

"Yeah. No hard feelings?"

"Well I just wanted you to know, um…" Keith blurted out. "I-I'm sorry too. You're right, I should be more careful."

"We all should. You wouldn't have to defend us if we weren't always about to get hurt." Lance punched his arm playfully.

"Yeah, you're right." Keith smiled. He was glad to get that off his chest, and to hear what Lance had to say. But it occurred to him that he might not get time alone with Lance after this, depending on how upset Pidge actually was about this.
"Hey Lance?"

"Yeah?"

"I… I really like y-"

"PALADINS! GET TO YOUR LIONS!" Allura's voice rang throughout the castle as red lights started blaring.

"Quiznak, come on Keith!"

"Wait, Lance?"

"Dude come on!"

They ran to their lions as fast as they could. Keith tried to empty his mind. They needed to be ready to fight whatever was out there, and they would need to be able to form Voltron, and that wouldn't happen if he was panicking over Lance.

"Allura, give us a rundown." Shiro said.

"There's a Galra fleet approaching, we have reason to believe Pidge's father and brother may be on board one of the ships."

"What?!"

"Which means we can't blow everything up, we have to think of something to take down the Galra without destroying the ships." Hunk said.

"Wait, Allura, why didn't you tell me you knew where my family was?!" Pidge yelled.

"We didn't want you to be disappointed in case it wasn't true." Coran jumped into the conversation. "But everybody needs to focus on coming up with a plan!"

"So basically we're flying around in circles until further notice?" Keith groaned. "This is a suicide mission."

"I don't care, if my family is here then they can fire at me all they want!" The green lion flew straight at one of the ships. "I'm going to find them!"

"PIDGE, WAIT!" Shiro scolded, but there was worry in his voice. "You have to wait for us to figure out a plan, you're going to get hurt!"

"I don't care!"

"I'm coming with you!"

"Keith!"

The red paladin leaned forward in his seat, ready maneuver his way through the dozens of Galra ships to get to Pidge. He wasn't going to let her do this alone.

"Keith, remember when I told you to stop getting hurt?! You're going to get hurt! You both are!" Lance's voice called through their helmets. "Get back here so we can do this together!"

Pidge wasn't listening.

Keith followed her into one of the ships.