He's Galran.
Blood pounded in my head, in time to the pounding outside.
He's Galran.
My breathing was shorter and ragged, and my mind was numbing over. I felt like I was drowning, drowning in this newfound information that was impossible.
He's Galran.
"Keith." I whisper quietly, out of shock, and I see those inhuman ears twitch at the sound, ever so slightly. That small movement caused my hand to tighten on my bayard, my muscles to tense up.
"Uhnngh...Lance?"
I relax; same old Keith voice. Just softer and more emotional, which was logical considering the circumstances. Maybe I was stressed. Maybe that extinguisher foam made me high. Maybe I was being stupid, and Keith is still Keith, same old human Keith.
"Oh sweet-Jesus-fuck, are you okay?! Are you alright?! Talk to me here!" I burst, all the tears I'd been holding back are now leaking out, dripping onto the floor. I'm not even ashamed when my voice seriously cracks right in the middle, and I end up falling onto my knees, shoulders shaking with quiet sobs. I feel his hand on my head, and hear him softly mumbling "It's okay, it's okay, you're okay." Over and over and over.
"Look at me. Being helped by the one I'm supposed to be helping." I finally sniffed, after the worst of the sobs had passed. I manage to force myself onto one knee and cupped Keith's face in my hands. His lightly fuzzed, purple face lined with dark blood. Those eyes, now a bright, sunshine yellow, flicker under partly-closed eyelids as he struggles to keep them open. His left ear droops in exhaustion, and he's trying not to wince when he breathes.
But he's smiling, a gentle smile that makes me grin too, despite the situation. Distantly, I realize it's the same smile he had when he was helping me up, back when we just finished taking down Sendak back at the Castle. Except this time, the roles have swapped.
"Hey." He whispers quietly. "Wondering when you'd get here." He coughs, and dots my white armor with dark speckles. And my head gets kicked unpleasantly back to the present.
"Holy shit. Are you okay?" I'm talking quietly now, and I've got no idea why. My hands are on his shoulders, and I'm pushing him gently against his seat. There's almost no resistance whatsoever, and I stand up to make sure he's not going to tip over suddenly, he's so limp. His head lolls a little, and he coughs again, weakly.
"M'ribs...ow. I hit my head somewhere..." He groans painfully, and I feel my heart crack a little. Evil purple kitty or not, he looked so hurt, that I couldn't help feeling another cry session coming on.
Except the cry session would have to wait. I was suddenly aware of how the background noise of guns on solid light was gone, and would it be to optimistic to hope they gave up?
Unfortunately, yes. When I turned around, the troops were busy with what looked like a giant net. A giant, evil-purple-glowy net that they were wrapping around the sphere like a five-year-old wrapping a Christmas gift. They did it tightly too, and I saw one unfortunate droid get crushed like a can between the net and the shield.
"Um...that's not good." I tapped into the group comm on my helmet. "Guys...what is that?"
"Give us a tick." Pidge said shortly. Their blue icon popped up again, and I waited anxiously as it spun hypnotically around my visor. Keith coughed again, and I swear my heart stops beating for a minute.
"Pidge! Hurry up." I hiss through gritted teeth; just watching Keith was putting me in physical pain. And knowing I couldn't do anything about it wasn't helping my current emotional state.
"Right right... Here." The icon disappeared and I heard the muted sounds of conversation on the other end. It was probably only a few minutes long, but it stretched like hours. Every second was another painful breath, every half-minute, another broken cough, every pained movement another heart attack.
"Lance? Lance? Are you there?" Coran's voice echoed around my head, taking several moments for me to absorb the meaning in it. I blink; then tear my gaze away from Keith to pick up the helmet again and direct it at the cockpit window.
"Yeah, I'm here. Do you have any idea what they're doing?"
"Unfortunately, I do. That's a Spockuleian hunting net, but they seem to have enhanced the durability of it with Wholockilian Paniemo energy and quintessence."
"Yeah, um, English please. I don't have a galactical Google thing right now."
"What in the universe is.. eelglick and gogoald? But the point is, that is a net that's almost impossible to escape, being made out of one of the toughest materials known in all the universe. If all of Voltron was assembled, maybe there'd be a chance...but I doubt that would be possible with one Lion."
"Ugh." I looked out the window with a strengthened sense of distaste, if that was possible. Red was the fastest Lion out of all of us, but the chances of being able to dart out of the net right after deactivating the force field were slim, and even slimmer with an injured pilot.
"Well, can you send the rest of the lions in through a wormhole or something? Break through, form Voltron, break out?"
"That's a negative. We're barely able to access the viewing system on your helmet right now, we have no idea where you are." "Also, the castle's taken a beating from that last battle, and we can barely afford enough energy to form one wormhole. We're waiting on you to hold out while we recharge." Pidge and Hunk came in, sending one of my last hopes crashing into a black hole.
"Uh, that's a negative on me too. Keith needs healing hole stat, and there's no way he can wait for much longer. Is there any way to speed the recharge process."
"There is; at the cost of the Princess's life. Our only options are for you to wait for us, or we wait for you. You wait for us to come get you out, or you break out yourselves." Came Coran's somber reply, and I felt my heart drop several inches into my stomach.
"Shit." I whispered, not caring if anyone heard or not. The whole situation was hopeless, and tears pricked my eyes again. I felt a sob rising in my chest, and suddenly I was six again, trying not to cry when I crashed my bike and skinned my knee. Except this hurt ten times as much as then, something stabbing at my ribs from the inside of my chest.
And then I look at Keith, and adrenaline floods my mind and the tears are blinked away unshed.
"Guys, I'm not going to give up. Keep talking on ideas, I know you're smart. One of you give me an idea on how to get Keith to be stable." I snap, voice louder then I remembered it, and more powerful. I hear a surprised clamor on the other end, but barely register it as I start searching around the cockpit for anything useful. A legendary robot lion, it's gotta have a medical kit somewhere, right?
As I searched around, something reddish-purple and flashing popped up in my peripheral vision. I looked, and on the display screen of the cockpit was a circular icon, blinking surrealistically in the red light.
"Um, guys?" And they were there immediately, quietly conversing, and I noted the surprised tones in their voices. "What? What is it?"
"Last I saw that, was more then ten thousand years ago." Princess A's talking now, and I could practically see her stunned face in front of me. "That's a control that's only available after several years of hard training. If the paladin were willing to release some form of energy, it would provide an option to expand the force field. If Keith could do that, you could get out."
Cool. Now we had an option. But was Keith strong enough to do it? I looked at him. And then looked away again. And then looked back.
Was it just me, or was he getting fuzzier and more purple by the moment?
Also, he did not look ready to activate magic force field cat magic.
"Uh, would releasing energy be a good idea for him? He's still kinda, um..." My voice faltered. I hadn't told them anything about the new furry Keith. And I didn't know what would happen if I did.
"Um, he's pretty beat up."
"It doesn't have to me physical energy. Strong emotions have energy too. That's how the lions work. Emotions from previous paladins, all built up on top of each other, is enough to keep them moving in prime condition for millennia." Coran said. "Of course, there are other things affecting it, but emotional energy is the key factor."
"So, I just have to make him really mad or something? I can do that." I shut off the comm and turned back to Galra Keith.
Just the sight of him, so broken and weak, made me lose my will. The insult I had prepared to annoy him (hey Keith, when did you find out you were a furry?) dissolved.
Well, that's not going to work.
I stood there pondering, thinking. I couldn't rile him up like I usually did, not in his condition. And I didn't want to do anything that would hurt him, which basically involved all of my ideas (making him laugh till he cried, making him sad till he cried, making him mad till he cried and then punch me in the face).
Then, look! Here came a thought! And not a bad one either!
I could kiss him.
It took several minutes to decide how to go about this course of action. On one hand, I could definitely do it. I definitely wanted to do it, but I was wondering more about Keith. No one likes to be kissed without consent, and even I knew that. If I did it, how would he react? Surprised, definitely. Angry, possibly. I didn't want him thinking I'd taken advantage of him.
But then again, I still needed some strong emotion from him. And based on that stuff from his book, if that wasn't strong, real emotion, I didn't know what was.
I took a deep breath and knelt down beside him. He sensed it and lifted his head up, ever so slightly, eyes flickering like dying candles. Maroon liquid still stained his cheek, but he smiled easily, drowsily.
"Hey, cargo pilot." He mumbled, and I felt that familiar flutter in my chest.
"Oh don't you flirt with me now, not when I'm trying to save your life, mullet head." I murmured back, but now I was smiling too. God damn it, this isn't going how it should be.
"Keith, listen to me. We're going to get out of here. But it's going to need you to do something. And I'm going to have to do something too." I took a deep breath, preparing myself. "I'm going to kiss you, okay? And its going to be our key out of here."
"Uh, what?" I saw his mouth moving, saw the confusion in his eyes, but then I'd already placed my lips against his.
Soft.
That was literally the first word in my head, when my lips touched his. For a kid who'd lived in the desert by himself for almost a year, why were his lips so damn soft?
Warm.
That was the second word in my head. They were so warm, like mom's hugs in winter or cup of hot cocoa.
Hot.
The warmness was getting hot, and I didn't know why. But I liked it, even though a part of me was freaking out about a fever or a combustion or whatever. I pushed it away; it was just a thought, and not an alarming one.
Before I'd known it, I found my hand buried in his hair. His hand was doing the same, and we just stayed like that. Nothing terribly special, looking back on it. Just a kiss. But at the time, it felt like the entire universe was spiraling into perfection.
And then it was over. As much as I hated to do so, I started tasting something metallic and hot on my tongue, and I don't know if Galran blood is poisonous or something, but I pulled away. Keith was blinking like a kid who just had his candy pulled away, and his mouth was opening and closing like a fish out of water. He's staring at me like he'd never seen anything quite like me before, and his eyes are wide like dinner plates.
"Guh...Lance?"
God dammit, that adorable.
"Keith, quick! Pull yourself together! We need to get out of here!" My body went on autopilot, talking and guiding Keith's hand to that glowy sphere. Our ticket out. But on the inside, my mind was something like holy shit HOLY SHIT HOLY QUIZNAKING SHIT I KISSED HIM I KISSED HIM ON THE QUIZNAK WTF
Outside, we watched the force field expand outwards. First slowly, then speeding up, shoving droids around and out of the way. It broke the control console, opening up the metal door beneath us. As we were sucked out into space, the forcefield kept expanding, until the net snapped and fell away like dead snakes.
"Hey guys, any moment now." I whispered into the comm, and immediately the shifting chrome-like portal opened up, and me and Keith were on our way.
To the stars,
And back again,
I would love you even when,
I traveled the universe and saw,
Things that were prettier, with no flaw
People more beautiful, flowers of every hue
But none of those things would measure up to you
Because there's only one person, one of you that I know
And no two stars share the same glow
And no two skies that are the same blue
And no two faces, like yours, to turn to
Only one, only one,
One that I could ever love
One that I would carry,
Even to the stars above
One I would remember,
Decades from now
Memories surrounded by embers
Burned into my brow
So to the stars,
And back again,
Will you love me?
Forever and then.
Hooooollllyyyyyy fuuuuuck. Here it is guys, chapter six. And supposedly the last chapter as well. But it's not over yet!
This is just the beginning. Stay tuned, because sometime in the (hopefully) near future, the next story of this series is coming out. Because I am a clusterfuck and can't be bothered to get my life together and continue this as one multichapter fic.
Anyway, next story we're going to see more interactions of our purple furry with the rest of the crew. And it's going to mcfucking hurt. But stay tuned and leave a review on how you felt about this because that's the only way I'm going to survive school. Sorry if it's a bit of a cliffhanger, I'm not a nice person.
Hope you all enjoyed the ride, and to my American readers: I hope the Presidential Election isn't going to kill you just yet. We still got a few months of 2016 left.
Have a wonderful day/night, wherever you are!