A/N: For all of you patiently reading and waiting for the klance to begin, I present this chapter. Read and enjoy. As for me, I'm going to try to get some sleep while my next door neighbors throw a party with loud music, banging, and general obnoxiousness that's all audible through our shared wall. *buries face in pillows* Insufferable jerks.

Chapter summary: In which Keith worries, Lance gets warmed up, Rolo doesn't trust the Castle's tech, and Team Voltron arrives at the Balmera.

38: Burning Ice

Keithek crouched by the Blue Lion's pilot seat watching Lance closely. The prince's chest rose and fell at a steady, even pace and his eye was open and responsive to changes in light. No matter what Keithek had tried, nothing seemed to pull Lance closer to the waking world. Coran said he had to just wait. It was maddening and frustrating.

There was no way it was healthy for Lance to be as cold as he was. Keithek had only ever touched dead bodies that had the same temperature as the prince's skin. It made no sense. Keithek was certain that a normal person would have begun to shiver by this point, but Lance remained still.

He stood from his crouch and placed a hand on Lance's unbandaged cheek. The skin under his palm was cold. Seeing Lance in this state bothered him. It just didn't fit with what he knew of the Altean. Ever since Keithek had first met Lance, the prince had been open with his emotions, never hiding what he was thinking or feeling. Keithek had begun to wonder if Lance was even capable of hiding things.

His thoughts were derailed when the chilled skin beneath his palm moved. He blinked and looked down at Lance's face. The prince's eye had closed and he'd turned his face into the red paladin's hand in a weak nuzzle.

Keithek immediately placed his other hand on the side of Lance's neck over his Mark and rested his forehead on his mate's. He wanted so badly so call Lance back from wherever his mind was but Coran had ordered him not to. Then Lance shivered and Keithek stopped resisting. He gathered Lance into his arms and slid into the pilot seat taking the prince's place. He settled his mate comfortably in his arms so Lance's head rested against his chest under his neck and began rubbing his mate's arms to warm him up.

After a few ticks, Lance's eyes fluttered open but he didn't pull away. Instead he cuddled closer into the red paladin's warmth and tilted his head back tickling Keithek's neck with his soft hair.

"Keith?" he called softly.

"I'm here," Keithek answered just as softly. "Are you okay?"

Lance hummed and shuddered. "Cold," he muttered, snuggling closer to Keithek. "What happened? Is Allura-"

"She's fine," Keithek said. "She's with the others."

He felt Lance nod slowly. "What about Rolo and Nyma?"

"Allura's putting them in the prison pods last I checked," Keithek said. "Their ship is too badly damaged to leave them here alone."

Lance sighed. "Won't…forgive them," he murmured drowsily.

"Say awake," Keithek said, nudging Lance gently. "I get the feeling Allura wants us to move back the Lions back into the Castle as quickly as we can. We need to get to the Balmera."

Lance quickly roused himself and sat up, pulling away from Keithek's heat. "Right," he grumbled, rubbing circles gingerly over his temple.

"Headache?"

The prince shook his head and winced. "No, just a little foggy," he said. He turned in his seat and his eye widened when he realized he was sitting in the red paladin's lap. "Um, Keith?"

"You were cold," Keith said, a faint blush in his cheeks. "Coran said I should keep you warm if you started shivering."

"Oh," Lance said in a small voice.

His cheeks burned a brilliant crimson that the Red Lion would be proud of. His eye skipped away from where he was sitting in Keithek's lap to the red paladin's face, then his lips. His blush darkened and he looked away, moving to stand up. Keithek narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip preventing his mate from leaving.

"Wha- Keith?" Lance gasped, placing his hands on the red paladin's chest. "What are you doing? Let go."

"Not yet," Keithek said, never looking away from Lance's face.

"Keith," Lance said, trying to push one of Keithek's hands resting on his waist away so he could stand, "let me go."

"Lance," Keithek said sternly, reaching up with the hand Lance hadn't grabbed and taking the prince's chin between his fingers. He turned Lance's head so the prince had no choice but to look at his face. "Kiss me."

"Wh-what?" Lance gasped, laughing in disbelief. "You can't be serious. We need to get back to Allura."

"Coran made me promise not to make the first move," Keithek said, overriding Lance's voice. "So you have to do it first."

"This isn't the time or the place, Keith," Lance said, trying to pull away from Keithek's grip.

"Do you want me to stop?" the red paladin asked sincerely.

Lance stilled. "No," he murmured.

"Then make the first move."

Lance's eye flickered down to Keithek's lips then back up to his eyes. He swallowed. "Just a kiss?" he asked. "Nothing else?"

"Nothing else," Keithek promised.

The prince sighed and hesitantly leaned forward so his lips brushed Keithek's softly. He never got the chance to pull away. The hand that had been gripping his chin buried in his hair and held him in place, startling a muffled cry from him. An arm wrapped around his back and pushed him so his chest was flush against Keithek's. The hand on his back settled between his shoulder blades and spread out so the fingers could scratch his back through the fabric of his shirt.

The kiss was surprisingly deep. Lance's mouth was filled by Keith's tongue and, though he still had misgivings about this whole thing, he couldn't deny that it did feel good. He was surrounded by warmth that leeched into his body, chasing away the lingering cold that welled from deep inside him.

Kissing Keith was like kissing fire. It burned and soothed leaving his skin tingling and hypersensitive. Heat seeped into his back through his shirt and was breathed into him through the kiss. He shivered and whimpered.

Hot. It was so hot. The cold within him was creeping over his consciousness and only Keith's warmth was keeping it at bay. The Blue Lion purred in his mind and his breath caught as the chill frosted over his senses. His arms slithered up between their chests and cupped Keith's face, tilting his head to deepen the kiss further. He needed the heat or the Blue Lion's cold would freeze him alive.

Don't stop. Don't stop. Please don't stop. Stay here.

He shuddered and gasped, breaking the kiss. He could feel the cold melting with every searing touch from his mate. It sent tremors zinging up his spine. What he would give to have his other eye back, he thought, opening his one eye to gaze at Keith. Just the red paladin's gaze was a flame that Lance both feared and need. He wanted to gaze into that flame clearly.

Keith was a fire that could kill and destroy just as easily as it could warm and soothe. By kissing Keith, Lance was allowing himself to court danger. Strangely, that thought didn't bother him as much as it probably should have. He knew Keith would never deliberately hurt him. Fire never deliberately harmed after all. It simply did what it always had and always would do: it burned. If something got burned, it was because it got too close to the flames and paid the price.

Lance was willingly placing himself close to the flames and hoping they wouldn't burn him. So far they hadn't, but how long would that luck last? The Blue Lion growled in his mind sending another pulse of cold into his chest which in turn forced him to dive back into the kiss to melt away the cold.

This hadn't been the plan. Lance hadn't meant to give in so easily. But the heat… It was right there, all around him, and he wanted it. He needed it. He moaned when another wave of ice crawled through his veins only to thaw under Keith's fiery touch. He was losing himself.

He had to stop. It was too soon. He needed to slow down. There were things that needed to be done. Things he had to see to.

Later.

"Keith."

Allura's voice was like a lightning strike to Lance's mind. "Allura?" he gasped, perhaps a bit more breathless than he meant to be.

"Lance! You're awake."

"I, um, I am yes," Lance said, hyper-aware of Keith leaning forward to rest his head on the prince's neck with an annoyed groan. "Are you alright?" he asked, trying to ignore the red paladin's movements.

"I'm fine," his sister said. "Shiro and I are taking Rolo and Nyma to the prison pods. Pidge is temporarily disabling their cyber-unit so it doesn't cause any trouble."

"That's good." Lance's eye widened and the hairs on the back of his neck rose when a tongue brushed his Mark. Keith wouldn't dare. "Do you need me to bring the Blue Lion in?" he asked.

Keith would dare. Lance had to take a deep breath and hold it when Keith scraped his teeth teasingly over his Mark, licking up Lance's neck to his ear.

"Yes, please," Allura said over the Blue Lion's inner speakers. "We'll be heading to the Balmera as soon as we can."

Lance's eye rolled back and he let his head fall to the side, baring the side of his neck and his ear to Keith who readily devoured the shell of his ear. "I can do that," he said after a moment.

"Lance," Allura said seriously. "Are you alright? Really? Did you merge with the Blue Lion?"

Lance nodded, belatedly remembering his sister couldn't see him. Thank quiznack. "Yes," he sighed, sliding one hand into Keith's hair and gripping it tight. "I'll be fine. I'm just cold." He hummed. "Be there soon."

"Good," she replied. After a moment she spoke again. "Keith, you had better not be kissing my baby brother."

Keith stiffened and Lance sighed gustily. "You'll pay for that, 'Llura," Lance said in a strained voice.

"Get your sorry self back here and tell me to my face," the princess said primly.

Lance reluctantly pulled away from the red paladin's mouth. "We'll be there soon," he said.

"I'll be waiting."

Keith groaned. "That woman-"

"Is my sister so watch your words," Lance said, glaring mildly at the red paladin.

Keith yanked him back into a lingering kiss that Lance couldn't help but return. The prince tightened his grip on the red paladin's hair before running his fingers through the strands. He opened his eye and glanced quickly up at the halfbreed's ears. He let his eye close again when Keith nipped his tongue teasingly.

As payback, Lance moved his hands up through Keith's hair until his fingers brushed those ears. When he began massaging the ears, Keith made an adorably strangled sound that Lance gleefully swallowed. His laughter was muffled by Keith's mouth when the red paladin held him closer.

However, their positions were less than comfortable for this game. Lance was situated on Keith's lap so his right side brushed Keith's body. He'd managed to twist his torso so that he could face the red paladin as best he could. But his legs were still pinned between Keith's right knee and the armrest of the chair and he couldn't tug them free with so little leverage to work with.

"We need to stop," Lance said, breaking the kiss. "Before my sister comes in here." He nuzzled Keith's cheek, brushing the warm skin with his nose. "Or worse, Coran."

Keith grumbled and pulled Lance in for one more kiss, nipping the prince's lip when he let go. "Fine," he breathed against Lance's mouth, smirking when the prince instinctively leaned closer to the warmth. "I think I've warmed you enough for now."

Lance's face burned and he scrambled out of Keith's lap. "I'll just, um, fly the Blue Lion back to the hanger," he said. "You should do the same with the Red Lion."

"I should," Keith teased, grinning.

"Get out of my chair and do it, you idiot," the prince order, flustered.

The red paladin shrugged and stood, striding confidently out of the cockpit to the Blue Lion's exit ramp. "Let me know if you ever want to be warmed up again," he tossed over his shoulder.

"You wish," Lance muttered. The chill was still there, like an ice core, but the rest of the prince's body was warm and comfortable. The Blue Lion rumbled in his mind and he got the distinct impression that she was laughing at him. "Don't you start too, Blue," he said.

She didn't stop making that sound the whole flight back to the hanger.

"These things are safe, right?" Rolo asked, staring at the cryopods lining the hallway in the bowels of the Castleship. "I mean, thanks for not killing us earlier," he said quickly, "but I hope you didn't spare us then to freeze us to death now."

"It's perfectly safe," Coran said, typing in a code that should have activated the first pod. Instead, nothing happened. "Hm, strange."

"Strange?" Nyma said, eyeing the pod suspiciously. "Strange doesn't sound safe."

"What is it Coran?" Allura asked, stepping up to her advisor and leaving the two captives in Shiro's capable hands.

"Well, it's odd," Coran said, leaning back from the keypad and studying at the cryopod itself. "The pod should have turned on, but it didn't." He shook his head. "I guess we should add that to the list of minor issues we're having."

"Issues with the Castle?" Shiro asked. "You never mentioned that before."

Coran shrugged. "Well, it wasn't much of a problem before," he said casually. "Just minor nuisances. Probably due to the Galra installing their crystal into the Castle and corrupting the system."

"We need to clear as much of the Galra crystal's influence from the systems as possible," Allura said. "Can you get any of the other pods to work?"

"Well, that's just it," the advisor said, turning his gaze to the princess. "This is the last cryopod I've tried. The others aren't working properly or aren't working at all. Some probably won't work because they haven't been properly maintained but the ones that do work are sporadic and I wouldn't trust them to be safe yet."

"You said they were safe!" Rolo cried, leaning away from the cryopod like it was going to bite him.

Allura sighed and crossed her arms. She turned to her prisoners, dropping her eyebrows low over her eyes in a frown. "I guess you got off lucky this time," she said. "We'll confine you both to a room until we finish with the Balmera."

"How do you know we won't try to escape?" Nyma asked warily. Rolo nudged her and shook his head.

"Because if you did, then you'd be flying right to the Galra," Allura said with a sly grin. "And I'm pretty sure that's not what you want."

Nyma's shoulders drooped in agreement. Allura lifted her eye to her black paladin and nodded to him. "Take them to the training arena and turn on the invisible maze. That should keep them busy while we deal with things out here."

Shiro's eyes widened and he chuckled. "Yes ma'am," he said. He took Rolo's elbow in one hand and Nyma's in the other and pulled them down the hall to the lift which would take them to the training arena on the upper floors.

When Shiro and the prisoners were out of earshot, Allura turned back to her advisor. "Do you think this is the Galra crystal's influence, or his?" she asked quietly, glancing at the only active cryopod in the hall where Sendak was kept.

Coran narrowed his eyes and looked over his shoulder at the frozen Galra commander's pod. "I think it's the crystal," he said slowly. "We haven't tried moving Sendak's consciousness to a memory core yet. He shouldn't be able to affect the ship in his current state unless we do that."

Allura pursed her lips and nodded. "Keep an eye on him," she said.

"I most definitely will," Coran said sincerely.

"Is that it?" Pidge asked, staring at the enormous asymmetrical thing filling the Castle bridge's forward view screens.

"Yeah, that's it," Hunk said standing from his paladin pilot chair.

"It looks…like a desert down there," Shiro said hesitantly.

Hunk nodded. "It does. It's alive but the Galra's mining is killing it."

Coran pulled up life sign readings from the Castleship's scanners and overlaid it on the Balmera's visible appearance. "As you can see," he said, gesturing to the colors displayed on the screens, "it's not doing well at all. The poor thing is definitely suffering. I'd say at this rate, it won't be long for this world."

"No," Allura whispered, gazing up at the Balmera heartbroken.

"We're not going to let that happen," Hunk said. He turned to face the princess and his team in determination. "We're going to save the Balmera and we're going to save Shay. Coran and I promised them we'd do this."

"We know, we know," Pidge teased, holding her clasped hands up to her cheek in mock adorable. "Your girlfriend needs her brave knight in shining armor to come swoop in in his Yellow Lion and save her."

Hunk shot his friend a flat look. "I'm serious Pidge," he said.

"I know you are," she said. "I'm just messing with you."

"We're ready to help any way we can," Shiro said, studying the readings from the Balmera on the view screen. "I'm guessing the surface is covered with mining equipment."

"It is, but most of the Galra troops will be inside the Balmera," he said, turning to the screen. He joined Coran by the controls and pointed at a few locations on the image. "These are some of the mining holes. There are tunnels that connect these and run throughout the inside of the Balmera. We'll have to do something to lure the Galra out so we can attack them."

"Why can't we just go in there and blow them up? That'd be a lot easier," Keith said, ignoring the look of amused disbelief Lance was giving him.

"Because the Balmera is alive," Allura said. "If we accidentally hit it with our weapons, we risk harming it and the enslaved Balmerans inside. It would be a massacre."

Keith flushed and looked away. "Oh, sorry. I didn't think about that."

"I think that is the main power generator," Coran said, pulling up a zoomed in image of a black metal fortress with purple energy arching across a row of conductors. "If you destroy that, the Galra should come to the surface without a problem."

"Keep an eye out for that tower though," Keith said, pointing to the tower at the far end of the power generator. It had three spikes at the top that glowed with the same purple energy as the energy that arched across the main building. "It's a weapon. It's powerful, but not as powerful as an ion canon. But that also means it doesn't take as long to recharge between shots."

"Good to know," Allura said. "You can take care of that then. Coran and I will remain in the Castle in the cloud cover. We're still working on removing the influence from Sendak's crystal so our power levels and systems aren't at full yet. We won't be much help to you I'm afraid."

"Okay, but how will we know if all of the Galra come to the surface or not?" Pidge asked.

"She's right," Keith said. "The real Galra won't come up to the surface if they can help it. They'll send the sentries up instead."

"Not to mention the fact we'll have to differentiate between the Galra sentries' signals from the Balmerans'," Hunk said.

"If we use the Biothermal Life Indicator Point Technology," Allura began, pulling up a holographic image of a small, egg-shaped device from her controls, "then we'll be able to do just that. We'll also be able to track their movements and any potential road blocks as well." She grimaced. "Unfortunately, that means one of you will have to fly around the Balmera and drop the devices into the tunnels personally in your Lion."

"I can do that," Pidge said, raising her hand. "I was able to upgrade the Green Lion while Lance was recovering with the invisible maze's cloaking technology. I can fly around the Balmera in stealth mode and drop the BLIP Techs that way while you guys take care of the power generator."

"BLIP Techs?" Allura asked in confusion.

Pidge adjusted her glasses and looked at the princess strangely. "It's an acronym," she said slowly. "We use those for words or phrases and stuff that are too long or too much of a pain to say. Biothermal Life Indicator Point Technology is a mouthful. BLIP Tech is easier."

"You're telling me," Hunk said snickering.

"I have to agree with you there," Shiro said with an indulgent smile.

"I see," the princess said. She blinked and shook her head. "BLIP Tech it is then, I suppose."

"Alright," Shiro said. "I'll take care of the main power generator then. Keith, you worry about that tower weapon. Lance, Hunk, you guys work on disabling the mining rigs around the area and Pidge, you get those BLIP Techs into place."

"Yeah!" Hunk cheered. "Okay guys, let's do this! Let's go kick some alien butt!"

"You humans have the strangest way of saying things," Lance said with a teasing smirk.

"Says the alien," Pidge snarked.

"Hey," the prince said, "who's the alien here?"

"I don't know," Pidge said, tucking her hands in her pockets. "Who's getting their butt banged up?"

"WOAH NANANALALALA NOT LISTENING!" Hunk shouted, slapping his hands over his ears.

"Calm down you two," Shiro said, although a blush was coloring his cheeks. "Save your energy for the battle. You were able to nap on the way here so hopefully you're all awake enough for this."

"I could use some coffee right about now, but otherwise I'm fine," Pidge said.

"Oh man, coffee," Hunk said sighing dreamily.

Shiro sighed too, startling the group. "What I'd give for just one cup of the stuff," he mumbled.

Hunk and Pidge winced. "Okay, that's settled," Hunk said. "We're making a pit stop back on Earth to get some coffee."

"I'm behind that 100%," Pidge said.

"Coffee will be our prize for winning," Hunk said, holding out his fist to Pidge. "Brofist."

"You betcha," she said, meeting Hunk's fist with her own. She smirked and tossed Lance a teasing wink. "Well, coffee for us humans. You aliens will be too busy get your butts bange-"

"LALALA!" Hunk said, yanking his fist back and covering his ears with his hands. "BROFIST TAKEN BACK! NOT LISTENING. MY EARS AREN'T BLEEDING!"

Shiro sighed heavily and gazed skyward wondering what madness dropped him into this crazy family. He didn't regret it one bit.