Don't Blame It On Me

"Not your-You shot me down!" Keith said angrily as I got back on my feet.

I shook my index finger in his face. "N-n-n-n-n-nope, you are not pinning this on me. You were flying a freakin' Galra fighter… What was I supposed to do!?"

"Maybe try to figure out what's going on before you start blowing things up!"

Was hot-head Keith really trying to call me impulsive? "Are you serious right now?" I asked.

"Do I look serious," Keith said firmly.

"You're like the most shoot first ask questions later guy I know!" I yelled. "It's like my grandma says: 'People who live in glass houses should change in the basement.'"

"Don't you mean shouldn't throw stones?" Keith asked in a sarcastic tone.

"No! Well, yeah, probably that too." That actually might have been what she said. I like mine better.
"Doesn't matter, point is this… is not… on me."

"In what conceivable way is this not your fault?" Keith asked.

"I had no way of knowing it was you. I if you'd left a note, or-"

"Why would I leave a note?" he interrupted. "I thought the planetoid was deserted."

"So you admit that it was your mistake!"

"I didn't even know it was you until I had you pinned on the ground! Your armor was covered in so much snow you're lucky I recognized it before I killed you."

"Yeah," I grumbled. "You're lucky I hadn't made my move."

Keith raised his left eyebrow slightly. "Sure."

"Whatever. But even if you did, then when you went to find Allura you'd be all like: 'Well, I'm here now, and oh by the way I KILLED LANCE!'"

Keith looked confused for a tick. "Are you saying Allura is here?"

"Of course, she went with me to—" my eyes narrowed—"but you wouldn't know that 'cause your never around."

"I have important things to do," Keith said angrily.

"Look," I said, trying to drop as much of my attitude as I could. It wasn't easy. "I'm used to you dropping in on us whenever." I looked around at the smoking ship and frozen tundra and shrugged. "Of course, this time is a little different."

"This isn't a joke," Keith snapped. "You've put my entire mission in jeopardy."

"I just shot down a Galra ship that I thought was out to get me," I said, not really hiding that I was pissed all that well. It isn't like I wanted to shoot him down. That ship would have been useful. "You put the mission in jeopardy. If you'd told us where you were going-"

"That's not how the Blade operates," he interrupted. "Our missions are secret. Even amongst ourselves." He looked down, and I saw him drop his shoulders a bit. For the first time he didn't look like he was in a fighting stance. "It's complicated. The Blade of Marmora has been fighting the Galra Empire for millennia. They have their way of doing things, and they don't like to deviate. It's all about being objective, putting the mission above your feelings. Above people. That's a big part of what Kolivan has taught me. Not letting my judgement get influenced by my emotions."

My mouth dropped open. That sounded really cold. "Hold up-Are you saying you care more about your mission then helping us?"

For just a tick Keith actually looked a little hurt by that. "Of course not. My mission is important, but if we are going to defeat the Galra and rebuild, the universe needs Allura's leadership." He shrugged. "And you're not completely useless," he admitted.

I put my hand on his shoulder. "I feel the same way about you," I replied with a cheesy grin.

Keith frowned slightly and waited for me to remove my hand before he continued. "Kolivan won't be happy, but he'll understand." Something changed slightly in Keith's expression, a look in his eyes that almost reminded me of Shiro. "Just surviving is not good enough anymore. The Blade of Marmora must put an end to the Galra Empire once and for all, and that requires Voltron." Every once in a while Keith says something that actually makes me kind of respect him. Not often enough though.

"Maybe once we get back we can help with your mission," I suggested. "Of course, that would mean telling us what you're doing…"

Keith sighed. "Six quintents ago the Blade intercepted an encrypted Galra intelligence report. They had been going through old records and discovered evidence of a missing Altean cruiser that may have been stranded in the Necrosis Nebula millennia ago."

"A cruiser," I repeated.

"Armed with the most advanced weapons of the time. Not only could the Galra potentially use the weapons, but the technology on board might help them develop countermeasures to the Castle itself. My job was to find it first and make sure nothing valuable fell into Galra hands."

Of course, Keith was Galra hands, but I knew what he meant. "I think we found something from the ship you're looking for."

"What sort of thing?"

"A mine. It's what damaged our ship. That and hitting the asteroid."

Keith's mouth dropped open for a second. "You hit a mine and an asteroid?"

I knew that look. It was his I can't believe how much Lance screwed up look. "I never hit a mine," I said. "I actually avoided the mine. By hitting the asteroid. Look, it was way more impressive than it sounds."

"You intentionally hit an asteroid?" Keith said in the same tone.

"It was the only way too-" I took a deep breath. I'd done about the best that could be done in that situation, but I shouldn't have been it to begin with. "Alright, some mistakes were made," I admitted, not wanting to go into any more detail. I'd already had that conversation with Allura, there was no way I was having it with Mullet. "But we're here now. If you focus too much on your last mistake, you won't have time to make the next one."

"Where was this mine?"

"Yeah, I was a little too concerned about, ya know, not getting blown up to pay much attention to the coordinates."

"If we can figure out where it was," Keith said, "I can narrow my search area."

"Your search area?" I echoed in frustration. I guess that little Shiro look before was a fake. "Shouldn't we be focused on, you know, surviving?"

"We might be able to do both," he replied quietly while staring at the remains of his fighter.

"I get it's important," I said, trying to be as patient as I could. Despite what he said, he was still focusing on the mission. After chasing Zarkon under Keith's command we'd all tried to convince him that sometimes you got to think about the team and other stuff. I guess it's true what they say: you can lead a horse to water but you can't get him drunk. "We can't risk it," I continued. "Not with Allura's life at stake."

"We might need to do both," Keith said like it explained everything.

"You're not listening to me. We need to focus on staying alive until the Blade comes looking for you."

"The Blade doesn't operate like Voltron," Keith said in an annoying tone. To be fair he has a lot of annoying tones. "A scheduled check-in could be intercepted. Eventually Kolivan will assume something happened, but not for some time."

That wasn't good, but it wasn't terrible. Keith had to have supplies with him, and if rationed them enough… "At least someone knows you're here—no one at the Castle knows to even look in the nebula."

"They know," he said stiffly. "That doesn't mean they'll come."

My whole body went cold. "W-w-what? But you said-"

"I said Kolivan would understand if I deviated from my mission to help Allura. But he doesn't know she's here, and all members of the Blade of Marmora are expendable."

My heart sank a little. It's no secret Keith is super irritating and kind of a grade-a-jerk, but he's also a member of the team. Even if he was on sort of on a working vacation or whatever. The idea that someone would expect so much of him, earn his trust, and then willingly sacrifice him really did not sit well with.

"Not to me."

A/N: This was fun to write. Hopefully it was fun to read. While in previous chapters there has been a lot of introspection, I feel like when Keith shows up he tends to bring out the juvenile side of Lance, but as we know there is some respect there too!

Special thanks to L.E-Rae, Myherogal22, LaraAelric , Shastelly, Paladianofvoltron, Star, riverofdaydreams, Yeet, LBthebookworm, DissectionKit, 011100101011, and HalcyonDays for the reviews!

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