It happens so fast, Lance can't even pinpoint where it all went wrong.
He remembers what came before. They were flying, racing really, in the name of 'training' to the farthest moon, a small red rock that the locals had testified as barren and remote. No one was supposed to be there, which was fine by them. Pidge and Hunk and Allura and Coran were great, but even so, you needed to have time to yourself at some point. And while the castle was huge, and full of unexplored rooms, Lance really wanted to go somewhere that he hadn't already seen. After all, he had gone to the Garrison to be a pilot; it had always been his dream to see the stars.
If Keith hadn't come with him, it would've been a leisurely flight, but as always, Keith brought out his most competitive side. After exchanging some banter, they had ended up racing.
Lance sits up, and leans against the wall. It feels grimy and sticky, and if it were any other time, he would've had a fit about it, but for now, he welcomes the support. His head is spinning, like he's been on the tilt a whirl a few too many times. He takes a moment and looks around the cell for Keith, and finds him sprawled out in the middle of the floor. He doesn't look injured, and Lance was see the rise and fall of his chest, so he doesn't try to move him.
What made them crash? That's the real question. Lance closes his eyes, and sighs in relief as the dizziness abides. It was after they had gotten to the moon, he remembers. On the dark side, where the moon's radiation and mass masked the signature of pretty much everything, a Galra ship had been lying in wait. Lance's guess was that they were going to attack the planet again after Voltron left. Since they got there first….Well shit.
Because of the radiation, no one was gonna know that they were missing for a while, and by then, they could be long gone.
Keith moans lowly, a sound like one used in a cheesy horror movie. Lance opens his eyes, and is glad to find that his vision has settled. He sets his gaze on Keith, who is slowly sitting up.
"You good?" Lance croaks. Damn, it feels like he hasn't talked in days, and it's quite possible that it's true.
Keith stands up, and clutches his stomach as he crosses the room. He slides down the wall to sit beside him and utters a low. "Yeah." before leaning his head on Lance's shoulder.
Lance is almost too shocked to talk for a moment. Keith never touches other people first. Not when Pidge needs a hug, or Shiro needs a hand (no pun intended). He'll live with human contact, but he never starts it. Lance regains his voice. "Yeah, well, my head's killing me and I'm pretty sure we've been captured. You remember what happened before we got here?"
Keith lifts his head to shoot him an incredulous look. "You don't remember?"
Lance shakes his head, annoyed. "I just said that."
Keith put his head back on Lance's shoulder. "We were ambushed. We were going around the moon, when a Galra ship ambushed us. We were severely outnumbered, and the lions probably would've been captured if you didn't have the idea to send them back to the castle. We ejected, landed right on the surface, and we forced them to pay attention to us." Keith laughs bitterly. "We caused a lot of damage before they caught up with us."
Lance stares at his hands. They have cuts on them, and he can see a bruise forming on his wrist. Keith's gloves still cover the majority of his hands, but from what he can see, his hands are just as banged up. "It looks like they caused a lot of damage too." He says softly.
The door opens (Lance hadn't even noticed that there was a door.), and a Galra commander steps inside. Two droids flank him, guns brandished in their arms, their tips glowing and ready to fire. The commander isn't as tall as Lance would've expected, but he's built. As in, big enough to lift a car if he wanted to.
The Galra smiles, showing off a mouth full of sharp teeth. "I never would've expected to have two paladins simply fall into my hold, without my interference."
Lance wants to say something, in fact, he has something just perfect to respond with picked out, but Keith pushes his hand into Lance's and squeezes like he's trying to break it. Lance is pretty sure that's a hint to keep quiet, so he bites his tongue and waits for the Commander to continue.
"I would've had those lions too, and boy would I have had a pay-off for those. Now, while I do have to keep you alive until I get you back to Command Central, there was nothing that said I had to get you there unharmed." He snaps his fingers and two of the droids step forward. "Now don't you worry, boys. It won't be for nothing. We'll ask some questions and make this into a little interrogation. Who wants to go first?"
Lance isn't going to be able to plan something on his own, and he's not skilled enough to fight his way out of the cell hand to hand. If anyone's going to do anything, it would be Keith who had the big idea. He drops Keith's hand and raises it into the air. "Pick me. Pick me. Pick me." He says, as if he's trying to get the teacher to pick him, rather than a bloodthirsty general.
The General shakes his head. "Ah, there it is. You probably volunteered because you're the selfless type, huh? In that case, get the Red one. It'll tear the Blue one up more to know that it's his fault." He grins maniacally as the two droids reach for Keith. Lance knows that's it's probably a better idea to sit tight and not get injured, but hell, he's not letting them take Keith, not without a fight.
Keith hisses. "Don't."
He lunges at the droid on the left, and knocks him to the ground. Lance bangs his fist on his head, trying to dent it, until the Commander himself pulls him off of it. He throws him against the wall so hard that his breath is forced out of him. Lance's head is spinning again, and his vision is so blurred that he can barely see Keith, as they drag him out of the door. He's not giving them any easier of a time than Lance did.
Lance can't help but feel a little bit smug that they at least did some damage before being separated.
The Commander steps forward and grabs Lance by the collar, before slamming him back down again. "You'll get your turn, Blue. Until then, sit tight."
He leaves, along with Keith, and Lance is left alone in his cell. His head keeps spinning until he feels so sick, he can't even keep his head up. He leans forward, to throw up, and ends up falling as he retches, just beside his vomit. As his vision fades into darkness, he hopes that Keith will fare better than him.
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
Keith tries his best to memorize the twists in turns that they take, but it's hard to concentrate after all the hits that he's incurred. His head hurts, and stomach hurts like hell. If Lance hadn'tve gone crazy like that, Keith could've held off on the resistance until he had a better opportunity. Keith thought that Lance knew better than to try and volunteer. Obviously not.
The droids drag him into a room and throw him onto a lab table. Keith flails his arms, but there's too many of them- enough for one to match each of his limbs. They hold him down, and strap him to the table. Once he's secure, they step back, allowing the general full access to him.
The Commander rolls his sleeves up and steps to the side of him. Keith can hear the sound of metal clanging on metal, and he tries not to think of the things Shiro told him about. He yanks on the straps fruitlessly as the Commander smiles down at him. "I'll give you an easy question first, eh? How many planets are you in alliance with?"
Keith glares at him but doesn't answer.
The Commander laughs. "Great! Great! I get to go ahead and mess with ya, then." He places a towel over Keith's face, and then pours water over it.
Keith immediately starts to gag. He can't get any air; all he can feel is water, dripping between his lips, into his nostrils and into his lungs. It stops, and the Commander lifts the towel, giving him a chance to breathe. "Got an answer for me yet?"
Keith doesn't do anything but breathe in deep ragged breaths. The Commander shakes his head and replaces the towel. He pours water again, and asks the same question.
"Not your style, eh?" He puts the cloth back on the table and pulls another tool from the table. A knife, Keith dimly recognised, before it was driven into his arm.
Keith couldn't help but cry out as it dug into his skin. It hurt so much more to be stabbed, then it did to simply be beaten. Beatings left you sore and aching, but stab wounds left a sharp pain that you couldn't just ignore; they reminded you of how close you were to not living, to not feeling that pain anymore.
He cut again, this time at his forearms, on the sides away from his veins. "How many are stationed at your main base?"
This time, he didn't even pause for Keith to answer the question. He just continued to slash, as if he was carving art out of Keith's skin.
Finally, he stops. His face is sweaty, and he's panting like he's been running a marathon. He gently places the knife back on the table and motions for the droids to release him. There's less of them here now, probably because he knows that Keith can't resist like he did before.
They drag him back to the cell as the Commander trails behind. "We'll see if your friend can hold up as well as you. I think he's a bit more talkative than you, don't you think?"
Keith doesn't reply.
They practically toss him into the cell, but luckily, Lance is there to cushion his fall. The door shuts, and they are left alone.
"Oh my god, Keith!" Lance says, hands hovering above his body, as if he's afraid to touch him. He probably is, Keith thinks. His whole body aches, and his clothes are in tatters. Keith slowly sits up, only for Lance to gently force him back down. "Stay still. You're fucking hurt, Keith and it's my fault. I should've left the impulsiveness to you."
Keith grabs Lance's hand again, and squeezes reassuringly. "Next time, yeah. I thought that I had all of the impulsiveness that the team needs. You have to balance me out. Level head and all."
Keith hopes that the Commander won't be back for a while. He doesn't know how well Lance will hold up during his torture, and he really doesn't want Lance to get hurt from all of this. He's already blaming himself for getting them into this mess; he doesn't need to deal with physical pain too. They sit in silence for a while. It could've been minutes or hours; in that cell, time passes strangely. Then Keith starts to feel sleepy, and he knows that sleeping isn't an option. Not yet at least. A question dawns on him. Lance doesn't like him (or is oblivious to Keith's little crush on him, anyways). So, why did he blow up like that earlier?
"Why'd you have such a fit over me, anyways?" Keith asks.
Lance was probably nodding off too, as his head jerks back up as the sound of Keith's voice. "Huh?"
"You didn't keep your head like you usually do. On the Balmera, you were the one who reminded me not to be rash and just blow everything up. It just doesn't seem like you, to suddenly go crazy like that."
Lance doesn't answer for a moment.
Keith wonders if he fell asleep again, when he opens his mouth to reply. "I-"
Just as he starts to speak, the door opens and the Commander strides in. "You wanted to have a turn, Blue?"
Keith is pushed out of Lance's lap, as two droids pick him up and drag him away. Lance doesn't fight this time, but Keith is, until three more droids enter the room and pin him to the ground. With a knee in his back, and his arms pushed to the ground so hard it feels like they're being welded together, he can do nothing but watch as they drag Lance away, the answer to his question frozen on his tongue.
OoOoOoOoO
Lance really wishes that he had told Keith why right away. After all, it's not like Lance didn't know the answer, right off the bat.
He had gone crazy because he liked Keith.
He didn't like to think about it. He really shouldn't have any attraction at all towards a boy like that, with a mullet and a rebellious streak a mile wide. He should hate him, for how much they fight, and for all of the times that Lance has been reminded that he was only a fighter pilot because of Keith's absence. But he doesn't. Somewhere down the line, hatred and competition became attraction. And now Lance can't get him out of his head. The thought of Keith, the guy he'd had a crush on for over a year now, being tortured all because of Lance wanting to go for a flight has him going mad. He couldn't just let that happen, so he fought like it were the end of the world, like Lance would die if they took Keith without a fight.
It obviously didn't get them anywhere, cause Lance was going to be interrogated too.
The droids stop dragging him, and he realizes that he hasn't paid attention at all to where he went. If he did manage to escape, he wouldn't even know where to go. Lance doesn't have time to berate himself any more, as the droids slam him onto the table. He manages to lift his head, preventing it from being slammed anymore (Lance is ninety percent sure that he has a concussion.) but he can't do anything about his back.
He doesn't bother to struggle against the ties holding him down, and instead waits patiently for them to finish. The Commander is smiling as he rummages through the metal tray beside him. Then Lance gets an idea.
Back in High school, Lance had been one of those Drama buffs. He'd been the lead of the school play four times, and each one had required a faked death. Maybe he could fake passing out, and could avoid the torture. After all, why bother torturing someone who's unconscious?
Lance starts to breathe deeply, as if he can't get enough air. The General glances at him before going back to looking over his tools. Lance keeps it up for a moment, and tenses his body. As the Commander turns back to him, Lance fakes choking and rolls his eyes back in his head. He closes his eyes and relaxes.
His heart is beating like crazy, and he hopes that the Commander doesn't hear.
And then he feels the Commander's hand around his left leg, right in the middle of his shin. Lance doesn't react, not until the Commander starts laughing and starts to squeeze.
"I've been doing this for years, Blue Paladin. I know better than to trust a fainting spell." The Commander squeezes harshly, and his leg snaps, with an audible crack.
Lance screams, his voice covering the Commander's words for one breathless moment.
"Oh, no!" The Commander says in faux shock. "I forgot to ask the question."
A droid steps into the room, and Lance can barely hear him over his own sharp shrieks. "Commander S…. to the bridge."
The Commander looks at Lance disappointedly. "Well, I suppose we'll have to resume this later. Take him back to his cell."
The droid is joined by another one, and together they unstrap him from the slab, and start to drag him down the hall. They don't pay any attention to Lance's leg, which drags uselessly behind him. At least it's starting to feel numb, Lance thinks as they continue through a series of twists and turns. At least I didn't say anything, he thinks dejectedly.
They drop Lance in the middle of the cell as soon as they arrive, and then leave without a second glance. Keith pulls him into his lap, and ghosts his hands over his leg. "You're going to need a healing pod."
"Yeah. Probably."
Keith shakes his head. "No, damnit. You're leg will be totally screwed up if we don't get this fixed soon."
"Got it." Lance manages. God, he feels so sleepy. He know he shouldn't, cause concussion and all, but he really just wants to lay his head in Keith's lap and close his eyes until the Commander comes again. But wait. He still wants to tell Keith about how he feels, before he passes out or they are separated again. He starts. "I really-"
Something crashes into the ship, and the whole things shakes dangerously in recognition. Lance tumbles out of Keith's lap and onto the floor, and he cries out at the sudden movement of his leg.
"What was that?" Lance whispers, eyeing the ceiling suspiciously. If the darnn thing is gonna fall in, he at least wants to have some fair warning.
"I-" Before Keith can finish speaking, a loud roar resonates through the ship.
The sound is familiar. Just as familiar as Keith's voice, or the thrum of the castle's engine beneath him. The lions, he realizes. The others have found them.
All that they have to do now is wait.
Now's the time, Lance chided himself. They're alone and for the most part, safe. When else will he be able to tell Keith? If he doesn't do it now, Lance doesn't think he'll ever be able to say it.
Best to get it over with, like pulling off a band-aid, he thinks with a grimace. "Keith?"
"Yeah?"
"I like you."
Keith sputters, and looks up from the wounds that he's been wrapping. "What? Where did that come from?"
"You asked earlier," Lance explains. His face feels hot and he has to resist the urge to look away. "Why I lost my head. It's cause I like you."
Lance can't tell Keith's reaction from his expression beyond that he's surprised. His mouth opens and closes like a flailing fish and his eyes are wide as Lance has ever seen them.
Outside, they can hear the sound of Pidge's voice, muffled by the thick door.
"Hey!" Lance yells. "We're in here!" He tries to stand and use the wall as a crutch, but Keith stands beside him and drops Lance's arm around his shoulder.
"I thought you hated me, actually." Keith admits as they limp towards the barred window.
"I was jealous maybe, but I've never hated you. I thought you hated me." Lance replies before yanking on the bars. "Hey! It's Lance! And Keith!" He adds.
"Well if you had've cleared that up sooner, I would've told you."
Lance is half distracted by the figures outside of the window, and by his attempts to stick his hand between the bars. He barely hears him.
"Told me what?"
"That I like you too."
Lance stumbles back, setting the two of them off balance. It results in the two of them landing on the floor, Lance's leg saved from further injury only because he kicked it up as they fell. Keith rubs the arm that he fell on and glares at Lance.
"Why'd you fall? We were perfectly in balance."
Lance blushes. "You surprised me is all."
Before Keith can reply, the door is sliding open with a hiss. Pidge states down at them, her expression changing from one of surprise, to relief, to amusement.
"Looks like you guys were getting comfy in here, huh?" She says mischievously, offering Keith a hand.
"Shut up." Lance retorts, as she helps him up and takes one arm over her shoulder. Keith takes the other an
and they stumble out of the cell. "How'd you find us anyway?"
The little green gremlin smiles smugly. "We're all biochipped. I couldn't track you guys until the radiation wasn't interfering, but after that, it was a piece of cake."
"Wait, you did what?" Lance and Keith ask at the same time.
Lance snorts. "Wow, we even think alike."
Keith offers a small smile. "I guess we do."
(If you want to read other chapters posted exclusively on mu tumblr, check out VoltronWordDump on tumblr.)