We've got another POV change today, this time to Lance! Gotta give not only my semi-regular shout out to trope-appreciation-tuesdays for providing inspiration, but also a special shout out to the mod the-wandering-whumper since they have declared two different tropes used here to be "their jam". ;) Don't expect the chemical pneumonia part of this to be medically accurate haha. This is called science fiction for a reason.
Day 13 - Chemical Pneumonia/Oxygen Mask
Warnings: death mention, respiratory distress, needles
The Yadselites were brilliant scientists. Pidge and Hunk had been in their element all day, oohing and aahing and making googoo eyes over all the equipment and experiments they were being shown.
Lance? He was the opposite of in his element. Sure, some of that stuff was pretty interesting, once someone, anyone, bothered to explain to him in plain English what the heck they even did. But most of the day had been a whole lot of science-speak that he only understood every five words of, and he had zoned out so many times that he was about to fall asleep.
"So, it's a gas that does...what exactly?" Shiro asked. At least he wasn't the only one who didn't get the techno-babble speak.
Pidge pushed her glasses back up on her nose with one finger. "It incapacitates the Galra. Basically it's like throwing in a smoke bomb before the SWAT team goes in."
"Yeah but this doesn't just make their eyes water," Hunk added. "Sounds like by the time you got in there every Galra would just be lying on the floor."
"Dead?" Shiro sounded a mix of fascinated and horrified.
"No, no," their tour guide, Rokuba, assured in that perpetual soothing tone that was part of the reason why Lance was falling asleep. "Only, as your Green Paladin says, incapacitated."
"So it would, like, do our work for us? I'm okay with that." It wasn't like he minded how difficult his job was. He just wouldn't mind if it was a little less difficult.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Keith had taken a few steps backwards away from the group. Oh. Right. Galra-incapacitating gas, half-Galra Mullet. He'd probably be a little nervous, too, if it were him.
"Is it safe for other species...humans, for example?"
"Oh yes, very," Rokuda smiled. "The gas targets a very specific combination of genes that are only found in Galran DNA. For humans, Yadselites, and all other species, there is only a light, sweet smell." She reached for the canister. "If you will allow me to demonstrate…"
Before Lance - or apparently anyone else - could even think to protest, a flowery-smelling mist erupted into the air. Shiro and Hunk both shouted and lunged for the canister. Lance spun around to face Keith, who had clapped a hand over his nose and mouth and was staring at the gas in wide-eyed panic.
Then Pidge was bodily shoving him out of the lab, everyone following close behind while Rokuda stammered out multiple apologies. Ignoring her, Shiro shoved his way forward and clapped his hands onto Keith's shoulders.
"Keith! Keith, talk to me. Are you okay?"
Keith coughed.
But it wasn't, like, a terrible sounding cough. Just pretty much your typical "I have a tickle in my throat" cough, not one that seemed like he was about to keel over and die.
Slowly, he lowered his hand, swallowing visibly. "I...I definitely inhaled some. But...I think I'm okay?"
They all let out a collective sigh of relief, despite the fact that he didn't sound all that sure. He wasn't choking or falling over, so that was as good of a sign as any.
"Dude," Hunk groaned. "Don't scare me like that!"
Keith's nose wrinkled and he looked as if he was about to protest that it wasn't his fault, but Pidge interrupted. "Either you didn't inhale enough to do any damage, or you don't carry all of the right genes for it to affect you."
"It could be either," Rokuda offered. "We have not yet tested the effects of a minuscule amount, or on any species mixed with Galra. Again, I apologize greatly, your heritage momentarily slipped my mind."
Shiro gave her a tight smile. "Well, he seems to be alright, so that's what matters."
The tour continued. Vargas passed, or at least it felt that long. By the time they finally, finally got back to the Castle, Lance had completely forgotten about the incident with the gas.
Everyone gathered at the bridge so that Allura could lecture...ahem, brief them on the diplomatic meeting they'd be having the next day. Lance and Keith were standing side by side, the former tapping his foot rapidly, about to have a nervous breakdown if the Mullet cleared his throat one more time.
And of course, he did.
"Dude!" Lance exploded, throwing his hands up in the air. "Stop it with the throat clearing already! What is your problem?"
Keith's eyebrows knitted together, and he raised one hand to his neck. "Sorry. My throat is just…" He covered his mouth with his jacket sleeve and coughed.
"Our briefing is almost done, and then perhaps you should drink a hydration pouch," Allura suggested. "However, it will be much easier for me to finish if there are no more interruptions."
"Sorry," both boys mumbled in unison.
They fell quiet as Allura resumed, not even any more throat clearing from Keith, though it kinda sounded like he was having to try really hard not to. The breaths he was pulling through his nose were loud and extremely deliberate. Lance was torn between still being annoyed and starting to be concerned, but leaned definitively more toward concerned once his breathing began to stutter both in and out.
Shooting glances out of the corner of his eye, Lance pressed his lips together and wondered if Keith was somehow even paler than usual. There was a strained look on his face, and Lance was debating whether or not he should interrupt again to ask if he was okay when Keith lost his battle to hold everything in and burst into a coughing fit.
The rest of the room fell silent as he doubled over, sounding like he was about to hack up a lung into his sleeve. Shiro crossed to him and rested a hand on his upper back.
"You okay, bud?"
Keith nodded through the last of the coughs, then straightened and swiped his hand across his eyes. "Yeah," he rasped. "Sorry. 'm fine." He sucked in another labored breath, and coughed once more.
Coran edged his way toward the door. "Perhaps I should go get you that hydration pouch now."
"Yes, please," Shiro answered for him.
"Sorry, 'llura. You can -" Keith tried to draw another breath, but it seemed to get stuck in his throat and sent him into another coughing fit.
"Would you quit trying to talk?" Lance protested. "You're clearly not okay right now."
"'m fine," he whispered, but then his eyes went wide and he froze, his mouth hanging open as if to gasp in more air but the sound of his heavy breaths had completely stopped.
"Keith? Keith!" Shiro shook his shoulder. "Hey, look at me, what's going on?"
Without further warning, Keith listed to the side, stumbling a few steps until he was falling practically into Lance's arms. He scrambled to catch him before he slammed into the ground, though they both went down in the process.
"What the heck, Mullet?" Lance would never admit it to anyone, but he was scared. Keith's head was laying on his shoulder, the rest of his body sprawled out inelegantly in his lap, and his eyes and mouth were still open wide. This close he could just barely make out a faint gurgling noise coming from the back of his throat.
Lance snapped his attention up to Shiro, who was crouched next to them. "He's not breathing. Shiro, he's not breathing!"
Their leader bent over with his ear next to Keith's face, then suddenly scooped him up off of Lance, standing and immediately breaking into a run. The others followed, looking just as alarmed as Lance felt.
"What's going on?" Allura demanded.
"I don't know," Lance replied, "but he needs the infirmary, now. Page Coran!"
He was close on Shiro's heels when they entered the infirmary and Keith was dropped down onto a cot. His lips had taken on a blue tint, and he was definitely paler than usual this time. Hovering over him, Lance waved his hands around frantically, desperate for something to do to help but unable to think anything past, he's not breathing he's not breathing he's not breathing.
"Here!" Pidge launched herself into his field of vision with something in her hands that she slapped down over Keith's nose and mouth. An oxygen mask. Lance felt an inkling of relief at seeing the device, but it was quickly overshadowed by fear.
"His throat, though. His throat was...if it was closed up, then he still won't -"
"I know." Shiro's voice was terse, all his attention focused on the boy who might as well be his brother. He stroked his human hand through Keith's messy black hair, pressing his bangs back from his forehead. "I know. But I don't...we need Coran in here."
"He's on his way," Allura assured.
"I'm here!" The advisor burst into the room with all his usual gusto, and Lance felt his chest loosen the tiniest bit. Immediately snatching up the scanner, Coran frowned and mumbled to himself as he waved it over Keith's prone body. After examining the screen for only a tick, he spun around and pointed at a cabinet against the far wall. "Number Five, I need an injection of stavunairalducord!"
As the only one of the humans who could read Altean, Pidge accepted her assignment right away and dashed to the cabinet, rummaging until she found the correct item and bringing it back to Coran just as quickly.
"Thank you, Number Five." Twirling the needle around in nimble fingers, he popped off the cap and plunged it none too gently into the side of Keith's neck. Lance flinched and cut his eyes away.
"What is that? What are you doing?" Shiro demanded.
"Number Four has extreme swelling in his throat and lungs, preventing air from passing through. This injection will begin to take the swelling down while we prep him to go into the healing pod."
Sure enough, as Lance watched, Keith's chest began rising and falling again, almost imperceptibly. Behind the oxygen mask his mouth relaxed, and his eyes fluttered shut as if in pure joy of being able to breathe. Shiro slumped a bit when he saw the reaction, though his hand never stopped carding through the black hair.
"What does he need the pod for?" Hunk asked, wringing his hands together.
Coran was already methodically beginning to remove Keith's jacket and gloves. "To clear out the foreign substance that caused this reaction, and also to heal the damage that it caused. Whatever it is, it seems to have started eating away at the lining of his lungs."
"Foreign substance?" Lance echoed.
Pidge gasped. "The Yadselites' gas! You know, the...anti-Galra stuff!"
Groaning, Shiro dropped his forehead into his hand. "How could I have forgotten? But I never expected it to take this long to have an effect. I should have brought him back to get checked out right away."
"He seemed fine, though," Pidge offered. "It must have something to do with him only being half, or because it was just a tiny amount."
Coran hummed. "Well, whichever it is, it's a nasty little bugger. I'd hate to see what would have happened if he had inhaled any more."
"Is he...gonna be okay?"
Lance had been almost certain that Keith had lost consciousness by that point, but his eyes slitted open then and found Lance's. His hand twitched, and Lance glanced down to see him giving a weak thumbs up.
Coran chuckled. "Yes, I think he'll be just fine. That is, if we get him into that pod as soon as we can, so let's give him some privacy to get changed, shall we?"
Hunk ushered everyone out of the room, eager to let Keith start healing. Lance kept looking back over his shoulder at the pale, still figure on the bed. He was pretty sure he wouldn't be relaxing at all until the Mullet was up on his feet and throwing jabs at him again. The feeling of him collapsing into his arms and the sound of his struggles to breathe would be sticking with him for a long time to come.
A/N: Yay for hopeful endings! Drop me a line...or a word...or a few paragraphs!