When Lance wakes up, there's a few breathless moments where he can't move. Outside of the door, Keith is pacing the perimeter of the room. Hunk is sitting against the wall, head tilted against the frame, and fast asleep. Lance wants to open his mouth, to tell Hunk how mad he is at him for this, but he still can't move. Is something wrong? Is he stuck in here, with his mind awake and eyes open, but unable to move for another week?

He can't feel his chest, but he knows that his breath is hitching, and not enough air is coming into his lungs to cope with his panic. His head is swimming, and oh god, he's gonna die in here, isn't he? He doesn't want to die, not in a small, little box, unable to move, not like this. He wants to go out in a blaze of glory, and cojeme, he can't believe his friends are just sitting there, unaware that he's fucking dying!

Then his body slowly starts to regain feeling, first in his fingers and toes, and then spreading to his arms, and torso and face. It's slow, like defrosting ground beef, but he's finally able to move enough to raise a hand to the door and push it away.

He falls out of the pod to the ground, and breathes, his lungs finally able to take in sufficient air. Hunk startles awake by the door, and Keith stops his path to walk over, but lance barely notices them. All he can think about is that he's finally breathing again.

After a while, he calms down, and notices other things, like how his wounds still tingle, and how Hunk is muttering apologies and how Keith is stroking his back in awkward, uneven strokes.

He sits up, and knocks Keith's hand away. "I told you that I didn't want to go in there." He hisses through clenched teeth.

Keith steps back and crosses his arms, the worry on his face replaced by annoyance. "Did you really want to form Voltron with three wounds? Even if we could've let you heal naturally, you would've slowed us down." More than you already do. Lance adds on.

"Doesn't matter. I said no." Lance's stomach growls, aching from being empty for so long. He still feels somewhat weak, but stands up anyways, refusing to use the walls or anything for that matter, as support.

Hunk watches him nervously, but doesn't offer any help. "Sorry." He mutters again, and Lance acknowledges him with a nod.

It takes too much effort to be mad at Hunk for long. He's too sweet, too kind to stay mad at for long. Keith, on the other hand, is a different story.

He doesn't say anything to him as Lance walks away, anger lingering, even as he cracks a few jokes about food goo and laser guns.

OoOoOoO

Keith is scared of bugs.

Lance realizes this almost as soon as they start walking. The sound of exoskeletons crunching beneath their feet is a constant accompaniment as they trek deeper into the caves. Their lions are too big to fit inside, and their speeders draw too much attention. Allura had said something else about disturbing the wildlife too, so even though both Lance and Hunk had complained, they had decided to walk.

It was dark in the cave, and moss hung from the ceiling like bodies hanging from a noose; it gave the illusion that this was all just a haunted house attraction, which kinda made it a little less scary. For him at least.

Keith winces at every crunch, and keels his eyes focused straight ahead. For the first time in his life, he doesn't run ahead, and chooses to hang back between Allura and Pidge, who lead the group.

Lance ghosts his fingers on the nape of his neck, and he shivers, slapping at it feverishly.

"Fucking bugs." He mutters. Lance snickers. "What?"

"The big, bad Keith is afraid of a few bugs." Lance teases. Bugs were simply a part of life; Lance was used to finding a roach or two around the house, or a millipede walking up the outside door.

Keith flicks him off and picks up his pace, joining Allura and Pidge in the front of their little posse. It doesn't take long to reach the center of the tunnel, which opens up into a large cavern. The Galra look almost like ants, from how high up they are, and Lance can barely tell what they're doing. Luckily, Pidge had brought her binoculars, and between her and Allura, they quickly decipher what's going on. Lance zones out. It's really not all that interesting to him; he just needs to be told where to shoot, so instead, he focuses on Keith.

He's crouching near the entrance, not leaning on anything. Lance can't imagine that it's a comfortable position to stay in, even briefly. His eyes are shut, and his hands shake ever so slightly. A few of the bugs are actually alive, and more than a few scurry over the walls and their shoes. Lance doesn't notice them; he can't feel them, and mostly only hears them, a soft pitter-patter on the plastic.

A trail of the roach-like creatures walks over Keith's shoe.

Lance watches as the red paladin freezes and then goes into an absolute frenzy.

He falls back onto his hands as he kicks the bug off if his shoe. Crushed bug juice stains his palm and he shrieks, lifting it from the ground. He loses his balance again, and falls onto his back.

"Get 'em off, get 'em off, get 'em off!" He shrieks, flailing his arms and legs as he attempts to get up. Pidge watches the Galra below nervously as Allura attempts to hold him still.

"Calm down." She hisses, as she forces him to be still. Lance is ninety percent sure that he's gonna have bruises later; Allura is so much stronger than them, but is rarely aware of her strength.

Her words do little to calm him, and if anything, only seem to aggravate him more. One of his kicks makes its mark, and hit her squarely in the stomach. She keels over and releases him from her hold.

Keith's started hyperventilating, and Lance knows that if he keeps this up, the Galra are going to find their position. Not to mention, having an anxiety attack isn't all that fun either.

Lance brushes Allura aside and lifts Keith off of the ground. It's not at all an easy feat because of all of his frantic movements, but Lance manages to hold him.

Keith stops resisting once he realizes that the bugs are no longer touching him. His breathing does not steady, but it's still a marked improvement.

"The bugs are gone." Lance says, eyes trained on Keith's. "We're not in the cave right now, alright? Let's play pretend."

Keith nods, and his eyes finally leave the scurrying walls to meet Lance's.

"Good. Good. Okay, so imagine that we're in the forest. And it's fall, yeah, and all the leaves are falling." Lance's grip starts to slip. He hopes that Keith will calm down enough to let Lance put him down. "So, when you put your feet down, you hear them crunch underneath you. And when you fall, some of the rotting leaves are a little wet." Lance continues as he lowers his feet to the ground. Keith doesn't shriek or resist, so he takes it as a confirmation to keep going. "But you don't mind, because it's fall and everything smells like change and I'm right there beside you, and everything's alright."

Keith leans against Lance as he takes a few deep breaths, and then nods. "Thanks. I'm good now."

Allura shoots Lance a grateful look, and they hurry to complete their mission.

A few days later, the high of battle finally wears off. They each leave their self-imposed solitude, and become social creatures once again. Or at least, as social as Keith can possibly be.

Keith doesn't say hello as he sits down on the lounge couch. He stares determinedly at the tv screen, which is showing some Altean space opera. After a while, Lance ignores him and continues reading his new comic, recently acquired from the earth store in the spacemall. He turns the page and reads anxiously as Captain Magnificent is pounded repeatedly with the hammer of justice.

"I'm sorry." Keith says suddenly.

Lance looks up from his comic, his finger between the pages to hold his place. "What?"

"I'm sorry for forcing you into the pod. If it was anything like the bugs we were for me," He hesitates, moves his eyes from the screen to meet Lance's. For once, his eyes don't seem angry. They look like an apology. "I'm really sorry."

"It's okay." Lance says, and he's surprised to find that he means it.

Keith nods, and turns back to the cheesy space opera. They've reached a certain kind of truce, and although Lance won't easily forget, he's not mad at him anymore.