Notes: First sorry for being so slow on all my stories. RL stuff, you all know how it goes. Second hope everyone enjoys and poltro is a word I semi made up for Arusian chicken.

Chapter Eleven

Lance fiddled with the collar of his jacket, then ran his hands down the opening, his left hand fiddling with the tiny handle of the broken zipper. The zipper had been broken when Lance found the jacket, everyone in his family told him to get it fixed. But he couldn't, he wouldn't - he remembered his grandfather in this jacket, he never zipped up no matter how windy, or wet a day would get. Lance knew the zipper had been broken a long time. It was his grandfather's jacket and now it was his. He wasn't going to fix the zipper. He didn't need the jacket closed to know it protected him, or offered him shelter. All that was in the memories; the bonus factor was he looked hot in the jacket. He'd learned that day after his grandfather's funeral, when girls had flocked around him not because he'd lost his grandfather because they thought he looked so cool in the old brown leather jacket.

Looking down at the broken zipper, Lance idly wondered what his grandfather would do now, here, in the hallway with the letter he had in the right pocket. He asked the question: What would Grandpop do or say to him in this situation. In the past he'd heard a few things like: Fly fast and shoot furious. You kiss that girl if you like her and you show her what makes a McClain a McClain boy. Never argue with your mother, your grandmother, or the woman you plan to marry about the things that really matter. Only argue dumb stuff, to get them all hot and bothered, rile them up. Lance, it makes them cuter... Your granny used to get the cutest little wrinkle...well it's permenant now between her eyes, you've seen it boy how it...

His grandpop could ramble, Lance thought. He'd never led Lance wrong, he'd handled it better than his parents when he came out as bisexual, and to think he'd been the one Lance had worried about the most. He shook his head remembering. Knew a man like you when I was in the Garrison, best damn wingman I was ever partnered with, that'd be your Great Uncle Mick, you only met a few times when you were kid, he died to young of that damn cancer... Lance remembered the guy, more from stories than meeting him. He'd been Grandpop's best friend. It figured. Grandpop had been made to be Lance's best mentor and perfect idol. And someday, Lance wanted to be able to wear the jacket when he couldn't zip over his belly too, so he was never fixing the zipper.

He couldn't figure out what Grandpop would do in this moment but tell Keith the truth, so that was what he was going to do. He pushed the button to announce to Keith he had a visitor. He hoped Keith didn't try to run him off this time, he was starting to get tired of the avoidance. The least Keith could do was walk to the dinning room with him. The team always ate meals together, Lance knew Keith couldn't avoid him there but he rather do this privately but Keith gave him the bum's rush, he would tell Keith about the letter over dinner in front of everyone else.

The door opened, Lance got a whiff of whatever kind of shampoo, and other hair products Keith used on his hair that made it smell like he'd been walking on a beach. Coconut tanning oil, sea-salt? Lance didn't know but always made him wish they were closer to the Arusian oceans, he'd only managed to get down to one once. They were gorgeous, warm and perfect and to far for a member of the Voltron Force to go. Lance wondered if he could talk Keith - and then Coran, into allowing Allura - into a team trip to the beach with the Lions?

"Lance?"

"Oh, heh," Lance laughed at himself. "Sorry, I started daydreaming about something, you smell like a beach, it's distracting. Look, so, here is the thing, I've heard from Sven," Lance decided that saying directly was his best bet.

Next thing Lance knew, he was across the hall, back plastered against the wall and Keith was frisking him, strong hands, going every where on his body a note could be. He let it happen, it was rather fun and not at all unwelcome. He hadn't gotten any good sex in over a month, maybe longer. Plus, Lance was curious to see if Keith was ever going to ask him about how he heard from Sven, if there was even a letter in any of his pockets like Keith was looking for, but then he saw it. A flash in Keith's eyes, which were aimed at his jacket, which Keith so far had had the respect not to touch. He knew it was off limits, it was always off limits.

Lance blocked Keith's hand before it got near the pocket of his jacket. "Not the jacket," Lance snapped.

"Give me the letter, he had to have sent you a letter, there have been no incoming communications from Pollux since Allura contacted Romelle about the crash."

"Yes, it's a letter."

"Give it to me."

"No," Lance said, trying and failing to get away from the wall, he was fighting a brick wall, crap he was stuck between a real wall and a wall of muscle. And Keith had his hands on his jacket. But damn it he didn't want Keith to read the letter. Sven talked way to lovingly about Romelle in the thing. Lance didn't want to see that fact register with Keith, so he quickly pulled his left arm out of his jacket to block Keith getting his hands into the left pocket, pulled the letter out of his right pocket and waved it under Keith's nose, as he let his jacket fall to the floor with an eye roll. "Can we leave my jacket out of this?"

Keith's eyes went right to the letter and he reached. Lance smirked, stretched his right arm as high as he could over his head that he could and really enjoyed the fact he was taller than Keith by a few inches. Keith could jump, but Lance could hold on him. "Give it to me!" Keith shouted.

"No. Let's talk about this," Lance yelled finally ducking around Keith, and getting into the middle of the hallway. Only to have Keith grab the collar of his shirt and pull him backward, slam him into the wall again. Lance rolled his eyes, he wasn't really fighting back because it was just - silly. This was silly.

"Give me the letter, Lance," Keith said, in front of him now, grabbing at the front of his collar, glaring into Lance's eyes.

Lance realized he was cold and he lowered his eyes and noticed his shirt had complete ridden up, his damn nipples were showing. He - hell the two of them - looked ridiculous. He started to laugh, which did not make Keith happy.

"I'm going to really punch you soon, McClain."

"Will you calm down," Lance said.

"No."

"He just wanted to apologize to me about the crash. He's getting better, Romelle is helping a lot. That's all he said, Keith. It's short, it's not full of details, okay. I just wanted you to know he contacted me. Okay?" Lance hurried it all out, because Keith did look like he was thinking about hitting him hard enough to punch him out. All so he could grab the piece of paper in Lance's hand.

Keith went quiet, almost too quiet, Lance had to strain to make sure the guy was still breathing. He could hear it but Keith was motionless, quiet, he couldn't read anything anymore in Keith's dark eyes. His friend had gone to that place Keith could go, where no one could touch him, reach him - it always scared the shit out of Lance. He couldn't stand it, so he lowered his right hand, let the letter fall to the floor and put his hand on the back of Keith's neck. Keith's hair tickled the back of his hand, Lance ran his thumb up and down the nape of his neck and met Keith's gaze and hoped the guy saw him.

"Hey, come on, talk to me about this, will you? Cause you made me drop my jacket to the floor...you owe me, Kogane." It was weak, but he was aiming blind here, real heart to heart talks were not his strength.

"He wrote whole sentences?" Keith asked, his voice low, barely a whisper. Then his grip on Lance's collar broke, his hands fell onto Lance's skin. Hot palms, against his ribs, and a forehead fell on his right shoulder.

Without knowing it, Lance's right hand, started to go up and down, Keith's upper back, barely poking out from behind the veil of his hair. He swallowed hard at the question, because it made him wonder what horrible things Keith was envisioning for Sven. "Yeah, whole sentences, in English. He's good, he's Sven, Keith. He's... I still think he's just not ready for us, he maybe where he was when he was here. But he's not catatonic."

Keith looked up and met Lance's eyes, he looked resigned to Lance which wasn't the emotion Lance was expecting. "If he said he was in love with Romelle, you don't have to protect me you know. I'm, I'm as over him as I think I can be," Keith whispered.

Lance searched Keith's expression, trying to gauge the truth of the statement but he had no idea. He didn't know, he'd seen Keith tear himself to pieces over Sven. He'd seen how being in love with someone who didn't, couldn't love you back tore Keith apart. Sven and Keith had found some way to make it work, to be friends, teammates, Keith healed. Keith had a fucked up friends with benefits relationship with Lance. Lance had his own reasons for it, he had his own reasons for never caring for any one past a certain point - why let his heart get trampled on. Keith was the closest he had to relationship and it wasn't one at all.

"He doesn't say much at all," Lance said. "He says she's been a rock."

Keith made a face. "A rock? Who says something like that?"

"Sven apparently?"

"He always sucked at writing English."

Lance laughed and Keith smiled about halfway which was better than nothing at all. "We good, you going to mauling me in the hallway?" Lance asked. "Cause, I like at least a drink first sometimes..."

Keith rolled his eyes and was about to say something else when they heard footsteps coming towards them. They broke apart, however Lance could feel Keith near him, just shade too close to him. Guess, the avoiding is over, for the moment, Lance thought. He bent down to grab the letter, and his jacket off the floor as Keith hissed, "Lance, fix your shirt," just as Lance saw his favorite pair of female feet come around the corner.

Allura's toes were painted pink, she had on pair of silver sandals with hard soles. Lance moved back up, pulled his jacket back on and then tugged down his shirt. Allura had stopped when she saw them but hadn't said anything yet. She was looking between the two of them. She was taking in the picture they presented. Two guys, with rumbled up clothes and hair, who were still pushing and pulling things back into place. Out of one the corner of his left eye Lance saw Keith, run a hand through his hair, and with his other eye he watched Allura's expression. He shifted his full attention to her eyes, he wanted to see what her sight and her intuition told her had been going on before she arrived at the scene.

"Were the two of you fighting?" she asked, finally after a few minutes.

Keith sighed, audibly and guiltily. Lance didn't need to look over at him to know he looked caught, embarrassed and like he had stick up his ass - though considering how much of a bottom Keith was he should look happier when he walked around all uptight and cranky. Lance pushed the thought out of his head, because now was not the time to crack himself up.

"I heard from Sven," Lance said, because he felt no guilt about what had happened. He knew why it'd happened, hell he'd almost expected the tussle. He'd thought it'd be mostly verbal and not so physical. But hell, it'd been kind of fun, though on the ridiculous side of things. Lance also knew that Allura was worried about Keith too. He'd seen her watching Keith, walking around with the storm cloud over his head, looking worried and unsure of how to help him. She also cared about Sven herself and her relationship with Romelle. If Sven was doing better, than Romelle may start speaking to Allura again. Pollux and Arus would be again working on their renewed relations.

Only her eyes moved, she stood still studying them both like they were a puzzle. Lance could feel Keith wanting to squirm but refusing too underneath the scrutiny. Lance himself enjoyed it, he liked it when her eyes were on him. He winked when her gaze locked with hers, she blushed and bit her lip. Looked down for a moment and then looked back up at him and asked, "How is he?"

There was something in the way she said it, that Lance wondering if she was asking about Sven or Keith. He darted to eyes to Keith for a nanosecond and chose his words carefully. "Sven seems to be about what he was like before the crash; he mentioned Romelle being a big help to him. He wrote to me to apologize, which was unneeded," Lance paused. "I was thinking that after dinner, I'd try to contact him on Pollux to tell him his apology isn't accepted because there wasn't a need for one. What do you think Keith?"

Keith looked straight at him, with wide open black eyes, and for that brief moment looked vulnerable but then Keith had himself hidden again. Nothing to see behind his dark irises. Nothing revealed. "Want to be there?" Lance asked?

Keith nodded.

"This is wonderful news, then! Sven is on his way to recovery, I'm sure he'll respond to your call Lance." Allura said her voice full of genuine optimism and sincerity. Then she frowned and shook her head them. "But you two are late for dinner, which is why I came to get you. Nanny is unhappy. The food is getting cold..." she gave them both a fake stern look and turned around. "But." Allura turned her head back at them. "I think under the circumstances she will understand your tardiness, we just won't tell her you two were fighting in the hallway."

Lance started to walk after Allura, but noticed Keith remained standing behind, so he stepped backward instead of forward. He put his hand on Keith's shoulder. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I...yeah," Keith looked at Lance and gave him lopsided smile. "Maybe, tomorrow, we could go into the village together. For drinks?"

Lance grinned. "That'd be great," he said. "Bout time you stopped brooding here in the Castle all time," he swung his arm around Keith's shoulders. "Come on, we don't want Nanny to send us back here to our rooms without dinner for making everyone wait. Hunk might threaten to eat us."

Keith laughed.

Lance grinned.

Allura looked back over her shoulder at them from further up the hall, Lance caught her eye and winked. "Don't worry, beautiful, we're on our way."

~~.~~

Nanny had lost her anger the moment she found out why they were late for dinner, and offered to reheat anything for anyone who wanted it. No one took her up on the offer, since Nanny always made sure the food was piping hot, it had cooled down enough to eat without going cold. Allura took the seat she preferred at the table, the one she'd always used as a little girl. Her father used to sit where Coran sat now, and her mother where Keith sat. He was on her right and Lance sat on her left. They'd both slid into those seats from the first dinner they'd eaten at the Castle, and it had remained so for every meal ever since. Hunk and Pidge, sat across from her and Lance, with Nanny sitting next to Hunk - that was once she finally sat down.

Coran every now and again tried to get her to sit at the head of the table, or at least where Keith or Nanny sat, saying it wasn't correct etiquette for the Crown Princess to be sitting where she was but Allura wouldn't budge. It'd been her seat since she was a child, she wasn't going to change it now, plus she liked where she sat. she liked having Lance and Keith surounding her and being able to look across at the friendly faces of Hunk and Pidge. It gave her a family again, and she was surrounded by it and the protection it offered her. It wasn't the physical protection that she craved it was the comforting protection, the security, the laughter, the familial feel.

They laughed, they made fun of each other, Hunk and Lance burped and Nanny scolded them. Pidge spilled things and Nanny made a fuss about him staining his clothes. Coran and Keith watched over them all, and Keith and Lance would usually tell stories until Keith started to talk business, which Lance wouldn't take seriously until he finished his meal.

Right now she was being quiet, and letting Hunk and Pidge ask Lance their questions about Sven. She was eating her vegetable salad, with grilled poltro1 and keeping a careful side eye on Keith. He seemed different from when she'd left him by the lake. At the lake he'd seemed withdrawn, deep inside himself, she had felt she had helped him a little bit but not as much as she had hoped. He was keeping something to himself still, but the news seemed to have lighten the burden more than their talk, but something was still going on with him. He kept leaning back in his chair and glancing over at Lance. It was strange, Allura could feel Keith staring at the back of Lance's head, it was as if the path his gaze was on left a trail in the air behind her, and she could feel it on the back of her neck. It was a heavy stare, Keith didn't dare do it for too long, but when he did it was heavy and it felt like he was waiting for Lance to catch him looking.

It must be about Sven, she thought as the dinner went on. He had more questions but he wouldn't want to ask them in front of everyone but he wanted Lance to know he had them. He needed to say it and discuss it before Lance tried to contact Sven. Pidge and Hunk had invited themselves along to sit on on Lance's call. Allura felt a pressure to have her hope Sven would reply to Lance be true, when she'd said it to Lance and Keith she'd been sincere in her belief but in waiting and talking about it...

They hadn't heard from Sven or Pollux for almost six months, Sven had written a short letter to Lance. What if she'd gotten all their hopes up? What if she'd gotten Keith's hopes up? She frowned and stabbed her last piece of poltro hard.

Lance whispered in her ear. "Hey pretty, you just went from smiling to frowning, what is it?"

She shivered. Lance's voice rolled down her spine, every time he bent down and whispered into her ear. Every time. She hoped no one noticed her sprout goosebumps up and down her bare arms, she shouldn't have worn a halter dress to dinner, she thought. Then she tried to remember the question, she looked up from her stabbed poltro and met his eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked again.

Allura could hear Keith talking to Coran about something they had discussed but not come to a conclusion about in one of the many meetings that had gone earlier in the day, Keith was busy and he wouldn't hear. She still leaned in closer to Lance, caught a whiff of leather, and something smoky and woodsy which for some reason made her want to keep leaning in and blush. She focused on her reason for leaning in closer and whispered. "I'm worried he won't answer, we'll get the same run around." She then looked over her shoulder for the briefest of seconds.

Lance's eyes seemed to zoom in on Keith, in a stare that matched the heaviness of the one that Keith had been sending periodically throughout the dinner behind her back at Lance. Lance had glanced a time or two at Keith behind her head but had kept missing him, now though Keith suddenly turned from speaking with Coran and met Lance's eyes.

Allura though she was between them and couldn't really see either one clearly, felt strange, she felt invisible and she felt as though they were having some strange silent conversation that she knew they needed to have. Part of it was about Sven, about not getting their hopes up, but there was something else...

There was that thing she was always missing, there and palpable between them. Heavy, it was in the air, she could feel it when their eyes locked. When they looked at the other one when the other one wasn't looking. She knew it was there, and she realized that right now it'd made the whole table go silent.

"I think we should realize," Keith started to say.

"I think you should shut up," Lance said interrupting him.

Keith turned back to him.

Allura knew were Lance was going and she weighed the options and decided she agreed. She rather hope than not hope. "I agree," she said, looking at Keith with a smile.

"You do?" Keith said, then he looked at Lance. "What is she agreeing with?"

Allura found herself blushing, realizing that maybe she shouldn't have assumed she knew what Lance was thinking.

"She's agreeing that we're going to go into the control room, contact Pollux, and I'm going to ask to speak to Sven, regarding his letter without any pessimistic thoughts about if he'll answer or not."

"He'll answer," Hunk said. "He contacted Lance, he wants to talk us. Or, him, anyway. He'll be happy to see our all faces. We won't overwhelm him, we'll just make it quick."

"If he only wants to talk to Lance, and you, we'll leave," Pidge said, looking at Keith.

Allura took in all four of them then, it was unspoken but it was obvious to her that Keith and Sven were the closest, or seen as the closest by everyone else. Yet, to her from day one Keith and Lance had always seemed the closest. Sven was part of it, a third, a part of a trio but...No it was Keith and Lance who were the closest. Allura was sure of it. Why that wasn't known to the group, she didn't understand but she knew it to be true. She decided to take another risk. "Keith, we'll also give you and Lance time to talk alone before we all go in. I interrupted you two talking before, so I'm sure you didn't get to ask all your questions."

Keith's gaze left Lance and fell on her, it wasn't quite so heavy but she felt a comfortable weight from his mind to hers, it was saying something she couldn't quite intuit and she sighed inwardly wishing she could grab onto it. "Thank you, Allura," Keith said with a small smile.

She blushed, something that always happened when Keith gave her a rare genuine smile. They were like falling stars she thought, they didn't happen too often, she wondered if she should make a wish, then chastised herself for being such a little girl. She decided to focus the remainder of the dinner focusing on what was left of her food and drinking her water.

Before she knew it, Lance and Keith were walking ahead of her, Pidge and Hunk towards the control room. Lance had his arm swung around Keith's shoulders again and his head bent down toward his ear. They were talking to low for her to hear anything they were saying, but she caught Keith smiling a couple times and took it for a good sign, he was feeling hopeful. Something he hadn't been in regards to Sven and the situation of Sven's issues for the rest of them. That was a good thing, but other thoughts kept interrupting her thoughts and making her want to hang back behind Pidge and Hunk so they wouldn't see her face during red. Lance was whispering, bringing his voice down all throaty and low, she remembered how it'd caused a shiver to roll straight down her spine to her... She felt chill just at the memory of it, her stomach flipped and Keith's smiles lit up his face, enhancing everything handsome about him. She was finding herself staring at them both too hard, and too long.

It wasn't becoming a princess, she heard in her head in Nanny's voice. She really wished she could get that out of her head...

~~.~~

Keith

I don't think I breathed for the first five minutes Lance was speaking to Pollux. I sat on his right side, unseen to the video camera on our computers and thankful, Allura was standing on the far left, behind Hunk so I could grip Lance's thigh. I needed too, I think I bruised him but he said nothing at all, just gave me a look when my hand reached down and a slight nod to let me know he understood. I was nervous, I told himself, I told him I wasn't sure this was a good idea after all. Especially with all of us here, it was why only he was on camera at first. My throat felt was it was closing. I expected the guard to give the standard spiel about how they had orders to not allow anyone to speak to Sven because he was under the Castle's protection while under the Prince and Princess's supervision of his medical needs.

I keep trying to remind myself that though Romelle feels like a stranger to me, she isn't to Sven. They connected in a way I can't understand, or I do understand when I think about him, or Allura. I met Sven and I felt like I'd found a person who'd been missing from life all that other time. With Allura, I met her and it was if I'd always known her, the more I know her the more sure I am we were meant to be in each other's lives. It's rare to find those things, if Sven found it with Romelle, if he found more than connection and found love...

I was so busy reminding myself that Romelle wasn't a stranger to Sven, I almost missed the fact the guard reacted to the fact Lance said he was calling the Castle to respond to Sven's letter. When I realized it was going on I saw that the guard looked shocked, suspicious and he started to question Lance.

"A letter mailed from this planet, from Holgersson?"

"Yes," Lance said and he pulled out the letter from his pocket, it was separate from the envelope but he found that too and pulled it out, he flipped it over so the guard could clearly see the stamps, codes, the writing on that marked Sven as the sender.

The guard stared at it for some time, I watched gripping Lance's thigh tighter and tighter, until Lance put a hand over mine, I let go a bit but I couldn't completely. Then the guard stood up. "Please wait."

None of us spoke a word, I had to move my hand, Allura came up and moved herself between me and Lance, she took my hand and put her other on Lance's shoulder. I can't explain how her hand in my helped me but it did, she has such a calm quiet strength and though I could see her worry and hear it in her breathing, she still radiated a sense of 'wait and see, don't panic.'

And I shouldn't have been. I keep feeling too deeply but he's my...I guess he'll always be Sven and though Allura doesn't know about him and I, she understands the friendship and the depth of feeling nonetheless.

Romelle sat down at the chair in front of Lance. Lance sat up straighter, Allura moved into the field of vision. Romelle gave them both a weak smile of hello, she looked upset. "Colin tells me, Lance has had a letter from Sven?"

Lance nodded. "I got it today. He's apologizing about the crash."

Romelle let out a sigh. "I see," she sighed. "As you know we're a few hours ahead of you. They have to give him a sedative or he gets no sleep, they give it to him at nine, it puts him straight to sleep..." she trailed off. "I need to speak with him, I didn't know... I think I've screwed up..." she burst into tears.

Lance slid out of the seat, I think Allura said something to Romelle as she slid into the seat, all I know was we all walked out of the room at that moment. The four of us stood there for about ten minutes, then Hunk and Pidge decided they had things to do so they took off. I stood there staring at the door, wondering what had Romelle crying, why she hadn't know about the letter, if Sven was safe.

Lance was quiet, hands in his jacket, leaning against the opposite wall. He must've been really worried too, maybe I should've tried to talk to him but I couldn't help wondering if I should just go get Sven. It curled around me, this urge to run and get him, protect him and make sure he wasn't hurt. I started toward the door, it was a minute movement but Lance's voice stopped me cold.

"He wants to be there."

I stopped.

"Whatever the mix up is over there, he wants to be there. The letter was about him needing to get the apology to me. Nothing else, Keith. He talked about needing her, I told you that. The rock thing," Lance shrugged.

I closed my eyes.

"You can't fix him."

Lance has that so many times. I looked up and I looked at him. He looked handsome, but worried, he had his hands out of his pockets and I knew they were ready to grab me. He'd done it again. Figured me out, known what I was thinking. Finding me predictable.

"I know." I admitted.

He might have said something, or maybe not. Who knows but Allura walked out then. She gave us a small smile and asked about Pidge and Hunk. We told them they had some things to take care of. She nodded and explained that Sven had been wanting to contact Lance for awhile but she wasn't letting him, angry at us still for the crash and for him being catatonic.

"Me you mean," Keith said.

"She didn't say that," Allura said. "I think she spread out the blame, Keith. As we were talking a nurse came in and admitted she smuggled the letter out for him. Romelle is going to talk to him in the morning and there going to contact us tomorrow afternoon. Romelle says who he talks too and for how long will be up to Sven."

Tomorrow afternoon.

Ominous words.

I'm afraid. What if I see him and it grips me tight again, all the love, because it's not gone. It can't go, falling out of love who you still love and like isn't... It's not the same, and maybe it's because I'm a possessive bastard but fear I'll see his gray eyes and serious face and want to keep him again. But he'll be on a screen, with her, far away. And then what, I'll feel broken and I'll make a mistake and wrap myself too tight around Lance...

Which...I might have already slipped up there. I can't decide if it's healthy step forward or me letting his brown eyes and his damn sarcastic laugh beguile me. I can't take it back though. Tomorrow, Lance and I go for drinks.

Tomorrow looms.

1 poltro - Arusian Bird much like Chicken.