I don't own Voltron. (I wish I did though!)

Keith was in his room, now fully healed thanks to Lance. For some weird, unknown reason he couldn't stop thinking about the blue paladin, about Lance- fragile, broken yet beautiful Lance.

Wait, what, beautiful? Since when is Lance beautiful?

"Since forever. You've just finally accepted it." A tiny voice in the back of his head told him.

Shit, it was right though, he had always thought it. He loved Lance. That thought both inspired him and terrified him. He loved Lance- beautiful, fragile, caring, suicidal, Lance.

It hit him like a brick wall. He hadn't realised it before. He was in love with Lance. What the fuck was he meant to do about it? He'd had crushes before but being in love was something new and foreign. Was he meant to go talk to Lance? There was absolutely no way he felt the same way. Not to mention, Lance was under enough stress and pressure at the moment.

It wasn't until dinner that he saw the blue paladin. He was actually eating something which was a good change. Keith tried not to look at the blue paladin and just eat his meal. He did sneak a peek at Lance though.

Gods, he's adorable.

And cute…

Damn, I wish he was mine.

That I could hold him.

Take all the pain away.

Lance looked at him curiously. Keith realised his "quick peek" was not quick but had turned into a stare. His face flushed red and he looked away.

"You okay there Keith?" The blue paladin asked, oblivious to why Keith was looking at him.

"Ye-yeah, everything's fine, good, great." He stammered out.

Oh gods, what am I doing?

He's going to think you're an idiot.

What do I say?

Lost in his thoughts, he didn't realise Allura and Lance left to go try doing different face masks. Everyone else was looking at him oddly, trying to figure out why he was acting so un-Keith-like. He was usually quite confident and here he was stammering and blushing over a simple question.

~~~~Time lapse~~~~

Lance and Allura were in Allura's room trying on different face masks. There were ones that kind of smelt kind of like a mixture of rose, lavender and lemongrass, others that smelt like berries and others like fruit. They really enjoyed trying out all these different things. They talked about random little things, asking about different things on Altea and Earth and generally stayed away from delicate topics.

They were trying a face mask that smelt like salty rose and Dettol to Lance and giggling at something silly Allura had said when the door wooshed open. Keith poked his head through Lance's door, he wanted to talk to him about these weird things he was feeling. He heard giggling. Something rose up within him that he had no idea how to describe, it wasn't anger or sadness or protectiveness but it was kind of all of them, ugh, he hated this unknown feeling. What was it?

Still giggling slightly, Lance said, "Hiya Mullet, wassup?"

It took Keith a few seconds to react, "Oh, what? No-nothing. Don't worry 'bout it. Bye." He quickly fled back out the door.

"I don't think I've ever seen him act that way." Allura stated a few seconds later.

The two beauty lovers quickly dismissed it though and kept talking about beauty stuff. Lance was feeling happier, he didn't know if it would last but at least it was there for a bit.

~~~~Time Lapse~~~~

"Start level 15," called Shiro.

The paladins were trying to improve on working and fighting as a team, being able to trust one another and get used to working in sync. They mostly worked together well besides a few mishaps here and there. When they had finished, Allura and Coran came through the door.

"Good job Paladins. You all did very well. Keith and Lance though, you did well but you need to get used to working as a team and not just relying on yourself." Allura congratulated.

Shiro then added, "Obviously you have your reasons for having to rely on yourself when you're fighting and they're important, but we need to be able to work together too. Just something to work on."

Allura gave a slight nod to Shiro and everyone started leaving, although Keith stayed behind and as Shiro was about to leave he piped up," Hey Shiro, can I talk to you for a second?"

Shiro was like a big brother to the red paladin, Shiro would be the best person to talk to about all this weird stuff he was feeling.

"Yeah, what's up? Are you okay?" The black paladin asked.

"Yes. No. Well, I really have no idea, which is why I want to talk to you…" Keith replied and drifted off towards the end.

"So, are you going to tell me or are we just going to stand here all day?"

Keith started rambling, "I-I think I'm in love with Lance. It's giving me all these weird emotions I have to deal with. Like earlier I went to go talk to him and he was giggling away with Allura and I had no idea what I was feeling. Then there's love too, it's so weird and new and scary but it might not be love, it might just be infatuation or fear or something. Also, super protective feelings, what the fuck's with those? He's just my teammate…"

"Woah, woah, woah, I'm going to stop you there, you're starting to talk faster than I can keep up." Shiro halted him, "First of all, it's fine being in love. Emotions are good, you don't have to 'deal' with them in the way you think you do. I might be wrong but when you went to talk to him and he was with Allura, the emotion there might've been jealousy…"

"I don't get jealous!" Keith burst out.

The black paladin gave him a side eye look and said, "Really? Then why are you getting defensive about it?"

"Oh."

"Yup, let's go on, if you're feeling all these other things, it's probably love. After all these things that Lance has gone through, it's probably pretty natural to be feeling protective over him, especially since you have a crush on him. He's gone through hell, of course you want to help him and make sure he never feels like that again."

"Oh."

"It'll be fine, now chill and go have a shower."

With that Shiro left and Keith stayed for a few minutes, trying to digest everything the brother-like paladin had explained to him. He grabbed his jacket and went off to hit the showers before lunch.