Shiro was just getting ready to leave the ready room when Hunk arrived. He stood in the doorway, one hand on the doorframe and only slightly winded after dashing down the long corridors of the ship in his pursuit. "Shiro," Hunk said, punctuated by heaving breaths. "Wait."

"Hunk?" Shiro said, his helmet held in both hands. "What is it?"

"You can't go," Hunk said, firmly, having caught his breath. He straightened in the doorway and looked resolute. Shiro just looked at him silently, waiting for elaboration, and Hunk felt himself get a little angry, as if he didn't know what any objection might be to his retrieving of two wayward paladins. "Shiro, Keith's in heat," he emphasized.

At that, Shiro did look away, for just a moment, then back to Hunk. "I can control myself," Shiro said coolly. "I appreciate your concern, but I can deal with an omega in heat."

"It's not you I'm worried about," Hunk said, and then gestured and stepped into the paladin's ready room. "Well, it is, but not just you."

Shiro grew quiet and looked at Hunk. "Lance has already been in heat once since we've been here," he said. "Nothing happened then."

"Lance is on suppressants."

"I can still smell him, Hunk." Shiro said, and then turned a faint shade of pink and looked away. "Nothing will happen. I can promise you that."

"No you can't," Hunk said. "I've seen alphas go into a rut before, Shiro; no you can't." He inhaled and said, "I'll go."

It felt like a whole lot longer than the few seconds it took for Shiro to consider this and nod once. "All right," he said. "You go." Shiro pulled on his helmet to access the communicator. "Pidge, transmit those coordinates to the yellow lion. Hunk is going planetside, I'm going to stay in low orbit as backup."

"Roger that," Pidge's voice said.

Hunk nearly jumped when Shiro put his hand on Hunk's shoulder as he passed. "Lance is lucky to have a friend like you looking out for him," Shiro said, and exited the ready room. Hunk let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, and grabbed his own helmet. They couldn't afford to waste any more time.

Lance said, with a wrinkled nose; "this is disgusting."

"Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't think to pack fucking wet wipes or something," Keith said, seated gingerly on the ground and pulling on his boots. "I'll sure remember to keep those in my ready kit from now on. Or maybe condoms." He shifted uncomfortably on the ground and ignored the way that Lance turned pink.

"Where the hell are you going to get condoms in space? Are we gonna stop by the space mini-mart on our way to... wherever the hell we're going next?" Lance wriggled in place a little, and said, "I sure hope these suits are self-cleaning."

"Cool it. I brought some with me." Keith started to try to get up and stopped and frowned. Lance took a step forward and extended his hand, intending to help Keith to his feet but Keith just stared at the outstretched hand as if he didn't know what Lance was trying to do, then hauled himself to his feet without assistance.

"You. You brought condoms." Lance couldn't fathom this at all, and put both of his hands on his hips, leaning slightly forward. "Hoping to get some space booty?"

"Will you stop using 'space' as a descriptor?" Keith said, blushing an equivalent shade of pink. "You sound like an idiot."

"Oh my god, it's to bang Shiro, isn't it. You brought condoms so you could ride Shiro like a horse-"

"Shut up," Keith yelled, and shoved Lance, who had started laughing. "You are such an asshole." Keith started to stomp toward the door, but his stride was weirdly exaggerated which only made Lance laugh harder. "Dick!"

"Do you need a piggyback ride? I can give you a piggyback ri-OW!" Lance stepped out of range before Keith could kick him again.

"I am going to kick your ass later," Keith muttered.

"Hey," Lance said suddenly. Keith ignored him and made a point of refusing to be anywhere near Lance, walking with one hand against the wall and forcing himself to at least attempt a normal gait. "Keith, do you hear that?"

"You mean the fact that you won't shut up? Yeah, I hear that."

"No, that." Lance gestured helplessly around and Keith finally stopped - and he could hear it too, very faint but growing steadily closer.

"Those are engines," Keith said. "Someone's coming!" He stopped leaning on the wall immediately, running toward the exit of the ruin, Lance right behind him. By the time they exited into the street, they both could see the small dot in the sky growing larger by the second.

Without a word they ran back toward the lions, Lance looking up at the sky periodically. "Hey, that's Hunk!" he said, as the now-obvious yellow lion did a low sweep of the city. They made it to where the blue and red lions were still sitting parked, but Hunk did not land.

"Lance, Keith?" Hunk's voice came through the external communicator system of the lion, but not the headsets built into their helmets. "Are you guys still naked? I'm not looking, I'm not-"

"We're not naked, Hunk, jeez!" Lance yelled at the lion. "Don't flying that thing with your eyes closed!"

"Oh, good," Hunk said. "Are you okay? Why haven't you come back to the ship yet?"

Lance and Keith looked at each other. "Keith's lion threw a fit and locked him out," Lance yelled, and he looked at Keith and grinned. Keith shoved him with one hand.

"Oh." Hunk hovered the lion for another moment, before setting it down on the other side of Keith's lion. "Okay, that's kinda weird."

"Tell me about it," Keith said.

"Lance, can you still get to the blue lion?"

"Easily." Lance walked over to the blue lion and put his hand on the particle barrier. Then he walked straight through, as the barrier evaporated around him. He turned around and waved at Keith, who rolled his eyes; then he blew a kiss and Keith turned visibly red under his visor.

Keith walked over to his lion and took a deep breath. "C'mon girl," he said softly, and put his hand on the barrier, and pushed.

The barrier evaporated, much like the blue lion's had.

Keith stood there with his jaw slack, unable to process what had just occurred. "Are you kidding me?" he said, finally, as Lance hooted from under his own lion.

"I don't know what's going on here," Hunk said. "But we need to get back to the ship."

"Yeah," Lance said. "I'm going to take like, three showers. At the same time."

"That isn't even possible," Hunk said.

"It sounds like a considerable waste of water," Keith said, and Lance rolled his eyes and groaned.

Once out of the atmosphere, all systems came back online fully. "Keith, Lance," Shiro said from the black lion, hanging in orbit. "Glad to see you could join us."

Lance very much ignored the weird little tickle that shivered down his spine at the way Shiro said his name. "We would have been back sooner if Keith hadn't gotten into a fight with a semi-sentient red lion," he said, at the same time he heard Keith say, "Sorry, Shiro."

On board the castle-ship, Lance pulled off his helmet and shuddered. "Hitting the showers," he said as he left his helmet on the table – and was stopped by Hunk entering the room, followed by Shiro. Hunk wrinkled his nose at Lance.

"You stink," Hunk said, waving a hand in front of his face. "And not even, like that weekend you decided not to use deodorant, like you're reallyrank, Lance."

"Thank you," Lance said, now ignoring the look that Shiro was giving him, because it was one thing to hear Shiro say his name, but quite another to be stared at like that with only Hunk as a barrier between them.

"That's not a compliment!"

Keith entered from behind Lance, and – well, having been apart even for just a short while to fly the lions back to the ship meant that Lance could now smell exactly how appetizing Keith was. He blushed just a bit, but thankfully both Hunk and Shiro's attentions had been drawn by Keith's entrance.

"Oh god," Hunk said, and pinched his nose shut. "Keith smells even worse. Fuck this, I'm leaving. Shiro?"

Keith raised his arm and sniffed. "I don't smell anything," he said, and looked at Lance, then realized Lance was very much staring at him and looked away. "But I need to hit the showers anyway."

"Keith," Shiro said, and inclined his head. "A word?"

Lance had been most of the way out the door – giving Shiro a wide berth for the moment – and he hesitated, and looked back at Keith. Keith looked from Shiro, to Lance – and then nodded. "I'll be just a minute," he told Lance, who nodded his head and, after lingering a few seconds more, headed out the door to the showers, leaving Keith and Shiro alone together in the ready room.