-past, before they got lenses, Next morning, Lance's room-
(Lance's perspective)
He'd forgotten he wasn't sleeping alone on his bed if the cherry scent hadn't hit him before he awoke. He blushed furiously.
He was sort of...cuddling Keith.
The mullet was still sound asleep, his nose against his neck, and Lance held him close to his body all night. God, what was he doing? Keith was his rival/friend. Granted he felt guilty for the terrible things he'd done to Keith and wanted to make up for it by giving him company (he didn't know what else the mullet actually wanted anyway), but this sort of closeness was a little too weird. It wasn't normal.
His hand began moving, trailing to his left arm, but stopped when his fingers felt the rough surface of the bandages.
What lay underneath it...he had a bit of an inkling of what it was, but refused to believe it.
The ruggedly handsome (Lance hated to admit it) blonde haired man... he had terrible streaks of scars, specifically on the left side of his arm. And that dream he had of a galra girl murdering a Russian doctor, she too, had those scars on her left arm. Questionable clues, but they seemed connected, especially to Keith.
His thoughts stopped when Keith shifted a bit, enough for Lance to know the raven haired boy woke up.
"God, I can't remember the last time I slept like this," Keith murmured to his neck, hands still clutching onto his t-shirt as it had the whole night. "Feeling safe to sleep so deeply with no weapons around me."
"Good morning to you too," then he blinked, processing what he said. "You sleep with weapons ?"
He shrugged. "Just in case. There is either a gun or a blade underneath my pillow.
"Oh," was all he could say.
He hummed, saying nothing for a few heartbeats. Keith pulled his face away from his neck, sitting upright on the bed. "Thank you..." He said, looking away.
Lance frowned , propping himself upon an elbow. "Should I be worried that your thanking me more than once for something this small?"
"You don't know how much this means to me," Keith replied.
"How are you feeling?"
Silence...
Lance tensed, but keith shrugged, saying, "Bit better I guess. Especially after my condition from that argument I had with Shiro."
"So about Shiro—"
"I don't want to talk about it," he snapped sharply, his expression bitter. "It's-it's complicated. And personal... and stupid since it's my fault."
Pain flickered in those violet eyes, and guilt punched Lance's gut. He sat up, and before he knew what he was doing, he hugged him from behind as he did last night. "I'm bad at words in a situation like this, he said. "But I know this is what you need."
Whenever his younger siblings and nephews were upset, he usually did this as comfort was what they needed. And Keith needed this more than ever. He buried his nose at the mullet's shoulder, breathing in that cherry scent.
Damn, it was getting addictive, and harder for him to not let go.
Keith said nothing, his slender body giving in as Lance held tighter.
—past, way later, after They got the lenses and Slav, Lance's room, late night —
Two nights in a row, Keith slept in his room. First Keith wanted to, second Lance offered. They were back to back again, and part of Lance wanted to open his eyes, turn around and ask him dozens of questions. His mind was filled with them, he couldn't sleep... well, he did occasionally doze off. But still...
He knew Keith hadn't fully recovered. Allura didn't even thank him bringing the lenses with Hunk, but Keith just brushed the cold looks off, saying something about Elena.
Elena? Who was Elena?
When the mullet realized what he blurted, he panicked and ran off. Why?
Keith shifted a bit, possibly turning to him. "Hey," he whispered. "Are you asleep?"
"Yes," He slurred in response.
A pause. "Then why did you answer me?"
"I'm sleep talking. Also known as Somnilogny. Just ignore me."
He heard the mullet sigh behind him. "Did you ...d-do you think we can pull through tomorrow."
"After all the hell we faced this whole year, you think we can't?"
"That's exactly my point. In those battles, we struggled a lot. Not just taking down a whole fleet, e-even that ro-beast faced today was...imagine a 100 more of them in Zarkon's mainship. It's horrifying to think about it...what we're not ready for it?"
Lance groaned. It wasn't the matter of 'we', not the way he said it. He meant him. What if Keith wasn't ready for it.
"We'll just do it," Lance replied.
"What?"
"Look no one is, okay? Even being the defender of the universe. We do what we have to do. It's like doing your final exam that would determine whether you would be in the same rank as Shiro or Matt Holt..." His eyes snapped open and turned his head to look at Keith. The raven haired boy was staring down at him at him. "You did good in that, right? Compared to the other cadets your schedule was pretty fast."
"I got kicked out 2 days before I could take the test.
Lance flinched. Bad example. Keith sighed heavily again. "That's not all. What Shiro said today. He was right. Voltron wouldn't be needed anymore after we win."
The tanned boy smiled. "Yeah, in a couple of days we'll be back to old friends and loving families and—" he stopped himself. "And— you don't have any..of those..." his expression grimed as Keith looked away. "I'll just shut up now..."
God why was he so terrible at this?
"I'm...I'm not going back..." Keith whispered.
He instantly got up. "What?" He demanded, Keith covered his mouth with a hand, gesturing him to speak softer. He swatted it away angrily. "Why would you—why? He harshly whispered.
"I don't belong there,"
"Because you're half galra?"
"And other reasons..." Keith bit his lip. "And I was o-offered to join the blade of marmora ."
He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "And you're considering it?!"
He shrugged. "Me and a guy named Victor talked about It casually... but a part of me always knew my life would be better off in the battlefield. I can't live an ordinary life like you. It's impossible."
Impossible? He choked at that thought. To hell it was it was impossible!
"Lance?" Keith frowned, reaching out to touch his shoulder. But Lance grabbed him suddenly by the shoulders and pushed him down to the mattress. Keith helped as Lance hovered him. This was probably the fourth or fifth time he was doing this. "Lance?" His tone was uncertain and wary.
"The heck's wrong with you?" Keith blinked by his reaction. "Why do you have such thoughts in that smart head of yours? You want to throw everything away just because your galra?"
Keith was good at everything, he out smarted Lance in every possible way. He could single handedly do things without trying. He was a perfect and ideal cadet the garrison was looking for (minus the arrogant, wild and temperamental behavior). He even had the Takashi Shirogane as his mentor of all people. Lance envied the mullet for all those things, and made him his rival back in the garrison. But now he's... why couldn't he...Why couldn't see that?"
Keith stared at him, surprised. But his eyes softened as he said, "I'm not throwing away everything... it-it's not like that... I just want to avoid certain people."
"Like who?"
"Like my cousin... for starters..."
Cousin? That guy had a relative? "Why?" He asked, trying to softened his tone.
"I'm dead to him,"
Everything stopped. Moved, and stopped again.
Keith had said it so bluntly, and forced the words out while trying to hide the pain in his voice.
Lance eased his grip.
I have no one left. No one, those words replayed in his head.
Keith had a lot on his shoulders, and faced most of them emotionally this whole time. The negative reputation he had in the garrison would remain if he returned; no family, no friends back on earth waiting for him; Allura hating him because of the galra blood that ran in his veins, and the fight he had with Shiro recently...
His life was basically hollow right now.
Keith said nothing as he looked up at the ceiling blankly with each passing heartbeat.
The tanned boy swallowed hard. He flopped down onto the bed quickly, wrapping his arms around the raven haired boy's waist.
Keith pressed his face to his chest, but did not squirm or push him away as he said, "I don't want your pity." Half his words muffled.
Lance held him tighter. "This isn't pity. I want you to know that you're not alone. And as teammates and friends, I'm willing to share the burden with you."
A pause. "What did you ...just say?" He lifted his head up.
They stared at each other's eyes. "I'm willing to share the burden with you," Lance repeated more firmly, his fingers were gently stroking the black hair before he knew it.
"..."
"Keith?"
He quickly buried his face to the tan boy's chest. "Thank you... so much," his voice broke."
Keith needed him. Needed anyone, actually. But due to recent events, Lance was all he had.
I was worried, Keith admitted when they thought Kelly was the traitor in the planet Disho. Despite the negative vote between the two of them during that time, even now, he still cared. He was worried. He even went looking for him.
A part of Lance thought he may have misunderstood Keith entirely, especially considering how fragile he was in his arms.
Lance closed his eyes, fingers still stroking the black hair. "You're welcome."
—Next morning, Lance's room—
Lance was asleep, but was slowly waking up by the harsh whispers. His eyes were still closed, but for some reason , his ears listened to the conversation that was going on behind him. Keith wasn't lying next to him, he could tell. The cherry scent that was addictive to inhale again and again was faint, and nowhere near him.
"—never thought I'd find you sleeping here with him. I thought the two of you disliked each other," someone said.
"Where else did you expect me to be other than my room?" A familiar voice snapped.
"With the current situation, and your unpredictable mental health, I rushed to this castle's prison cells praying you weren't torturing yourself."
Lance's eyes shot open, and it took all his self control to not turn to Keith.
He heard the mullet chuckle weakly. "It does seem like I would, doesn't it? But I know better than start pitying myself now. I know better than cut my own skin...letting it bleed, and do whatever sucidal maniacs do. Depression got the better of me once, but that was a long time ago."
A heavy silence surrounded, and Lance's mind went blank. Utterly blank.
The unfamiliar voice spoke, "What happened to you 12 years ago, Kitten? What happened back then that caused you to be so selfless and reckless to push yourself this far and not care about your health and condition?"
"I can't talk about it. I just can't...it's too painful just thinking about those days..."
A pause. It was getting more heavy and intense, Lance had trouble breathing.
"I believe your word of not having dead thoughts...but I also think you like to suffer. The number of scars on your body— they maybe deep and worn, but it is not beyond repair with my gift. I offered to heal them, but you declined. I know you want to throw yourself in the battlefield to collect more scars. You want proof that you are paying for whatever sins you've committed until one of those fights get you killed. I know this because I've been doing the same damn thing ever since my sister died. I never forgave myself, but—"
"Enough," Keith whispered sounding miserable.
Lance's heart thundered. He swallowed, even though there was nothing else to swallow, he nearly choked.
"Victor, I can't talk about this...not-not now. And I'm reminding you again, I may look and act, but I'm not your sister. I'm grateful for everything you've done for me, but please...please don't treat me like her. Oh, and make sure you dispatch Cain if you see him. Whatever truth and information he got from me— I get the feeling he knows more than I let on. God I wish I hadn't forgotten that damn interrogation. Stupid truth drug."
"About Voltron?"
A sigh. "About...everything...especially about my past. If he knows what I've been through...what I can do..." a pause... "He needs to die.."
Lance's heart thundered again. He gulped. For those words to come out from Keith's mouth...
"It's sick to say it but I can't allow an enemy who knows so much about me walk around freely. Everything about me—my intel isn't something people would ignore. Things will change—bad. They'll see me more of a major threat— and me being a paladin of voltron isn't part of it. I just hope Cain hadn't told Zarkon...Please get rid of him..." he harshly whispered the last part.
"Consider it done," he replied, sighning heavily. "I'll see you later, I suppose."
"Yeah, I'll see you soon."
A snap.
The white walls of Lance's room had a faint purple glow before returning back to normal. He heard the mullet sigh, walking to the bed. Lance did his best pretending to be asleep, his heart was beating rapidly within him. He felt his hair get stroked gently with slender fingers.
"You won't tell anyone about this," Keith whispered to his ear, feeling that hot breath. "Please."
Before he could react or say a word, Keith pulled away and left his room.
He sat up, staring at the door for sometime.
Just...Why was he like this? And who was the guy he was talking to?
His phone rang, and he picked the video call. "Hello?"
"Morning, Lance," Pidge's face appeared on his screen, her hair still looking unbrushed, "Have you seen Keith? He wasn't in his room."
"Oh, he just left," he blurted without thinking.
A blink from her. "What?
Might as well tell her. "He slept here last night because I knew he didn't want be alone, so—"
"Keith slept with you?" She screamed with disbelief , and he flinched.
"Look, I know we don't get along, and I know—"
But Pidge wasn't listening. Her face flushed. "Just don't tell Shiro." She ordered.
He blinked. "What?"
"Don't!" She urged. "Just don't...you owe me big time." Then the phone screen went black.
Lance scratched his head. Oookkaaayyy...
—present—
They all watched Shiro collapse to the ground with shock. The girls screamed as they rushed to their fallen leader.
Lance found Keith at Shiro with a hurt expression. He took a shaky breath. "You better give Hunk now," he said not turning to the galra behind him.
Cain smiled wickedly, sauntering to him. "A dead is a deal," he said, licking his lips.
The blue paladin frowned when he saw the mullet quickly slip something in his mouth before turning to the assassin. The galra hadn't noticed as he drew his dagger from his bloody cloak. The sound of the blade whining made the tan boy gulp, but he jumped when Cain slammed the pommel of the weapon to the side of Keith's head with lightning speed.
"Keith!" Lance found himself shouting as the raven haired boy fell to Cain. "You bastard! L—"
But the galra was gone in a blink, and so was Keith.
IMPORTANT! PLZZ DONT IGNORE
Okay, so sorry for the delay...a lot of it. I know I promised you guys more chapters, but unfortunately last week, breaking news hit my face like a brick and shook my world to crumbles as my exams have been rescheduled to a closer date and I really, REALLY need to study like a lunatic (will be in hiatus again anytime soon). So I won't be able to post to many chapters as it takes time and I hope you understand. (If I fail my exams, I have to repeat a term while the rest of my classmates move on and that would be the end of me and a lot of burden for my parents.)
Sorry again.
Marry Christmas 🎄 !