Keith woke up with a pounding head and the taste of blood in his mouth.

"Red? Red, talk to me." Keith set about undoing his safety harness, the display in front of him offline. He had no idea where he was, but he was alive and that was enough for him.

Faintly, there was a hum and a flicker before the pilot cabin lit up. Red rumbled.

The trees broke our fall.

So they'd landed in a forest. That was a good start. Forests meant shelter, food, and a water supply. He hoped nothing was poisonous; he had no idea how long he'd have to spend on this planet. "How's Blue?"

She is still offline.

"Do you know where she is?"

A stones throw to our left.

Keith made to stand up, his head spinning and forcing him to slump back down. Whoa. Not entirely what he had expected. He looked down at his lap and saw that blood was dripping onto it. Gingerly, he touched his chin. It felt wet.

Great.

Are you hurt?

Red almost sounded meek.

"I'll be fine." Keith huffed, dragging air into his lungs in a desperate attempt to get his head to stop spinning, damn it. "Just need a moment."

I did what I could. I'm sorry I didn't do more.

"You did more than enough. I should be dead right now." Keith patted the chair as if Red would be able to feel it. "Thank you."

Red almost preened, pausing and letting a deep aggressive rumble roll through her when they heard a loud bang to their right. Keith hastily found his bayard.

He refused to die here.

Sucking in a deep breath, Keith pushed himself upwards and staggered to the exit, dripping blood along the floor. His tongue felt sore. He suspected that he'd bitten through it in the crash.

Something was digging into his thigh. Absently he ran his hand down and removed whatever it was – it felt squishy yet hard. He glanced down.

He wished he hadn't.

It was one of his teeth.

Feverishly, he ran his tongue over the teeth in his mouth, counting each one. His front teeth were safe, something he was immensely pleased about, but his back teeth…

He was missing at least three.

How the fuck had he even managed that?! He quickly activated the bottom half of his helmet, he had no idea if he'd even be able to breathe outside of his lion.

"Easy, Red. Open up, I'll go take a look."

You are hurt. I am safe.

"But Blue's still unconscious, and we don't know what Lance is like. What if whoever shot us is out there?"

Red didn't reply, uneasily rumbling to herself before, reluctantly, she opened her hatch.

Please be quick.

He slipped down the hatch, steadying himself so he didn't end up shooting off the end. His mouth throbbed with pain now that he registered the fact he was missing teeth, blood still spattering down his chin.

The ground was marshy and saturated, every indent a pool of liquid. His helmet beeped at him to tell him the atmosphere was safe for him to breathe, but he still kept it firmly in place. Introducing fresh blood to an unknown ecosystem was a bad idea – who knows how the wildlife would react to it? Keith sure as hell didn't want to find out.

He gently stepped out, grimacing as his foot was sucked into the ground with a wet schloop. Thankfully he only sunk down around an inch. Still clinging onto Red, he placed his other foot down to receive the same result.

The planet wasn't going to suddenly eat him.

Somewhat assured by this discovery, Keith set to scouting out where Blue had landed. The bang they had heard could wait, damn it. He had to make sure Lance was okay, first.

Team came first. Team always came first.

The ground squelched and made that disgusting schloop noise with every single step he made. Being quiet was damn impossible, so he had to quietly accept his noisy fate as he trudged through the undergrowth.

It wasn't exactly a forest. There were trees all right, but they were giant mushrooms. A voice in the back of his head whispered about a primal Earth, back to when the land was first being colonized. Maybe this was a planet that was going through the same process? Keith hoped they didn't make the same mistakes.

But that just confirmed what his helmet was telling him; if this planet was indeed mimicking a primal Earth, then the atmosphere was somewhat safe to breathe. The oxygen concentration wasn't the same, but it was better than nothing. They'd just have to breathe harder.

His shoe made an especially mushy noise, and he reluctantly lifted his foot to find that the ground was coming up with it just like gum. Oh, that was revolting. With a grimace, Keith tried to ignore it and pushed on.

And then, a flash of blue. His heart leapt into his throat and he began to run.

Lance!

His legs aching from struggling against the gloopy ground, Keith slumped against a mushroom-tree. He could see Blue from where he was, the lion curled up much like Red was. Sucking in a deep breath, Keith pushed himself up from the tree and made his way over to her.

"Blue?" He shouted as loud as he dared. Blood spattered against the inside of his mask, much to Keiths disgust. That would be a bitch to clean out.

The blue lion stirred, golden eyes flickering with life before puttering out. Keith got as close as he could, placing a hand on her muzzle. "Blue, you gotta wake up."

Her eyes suddenly ignited with light, and a mouth full of teeth was suddenly roughly shoved into Keith. She growled at him as she slowly unfurled her body, tail rising up as though she were about to strike.

"Blue it's me, it's Keith!" Keith hastily backpedaled. Oh, shit. He truly, truly hated that the lions were incapable of vocalization to anyone but their paladins.

He also hated that Red was still curled up somewhere else and was not going to be getting between him and the business end of the taser on Blue's tail.

Slowly, Blue seemed to calm down. Almost uneasily, she sat down with a huff. Keith frowned at her, briefly glancing behind himself to see if Red had appeared, or if Black had turned up to put the other lion in line, before turning back to Blue.

Her hatch clicked open, and Lance stumbled out.

"Lance?" Keith shouted over to him in slight disbelief. The taller boy staggered slightly, using Blues leg as something to keep himself steady, before he slowly looked up at Keith.

"Keith?" He shouted back, voice distinctly weaker. Keiths eyes flicked down to where Lance was clutching his side. His armour looked singed.

"Lance!" Keith ran towards him, ignoring how his feet slid on the marsh. He knew he had been hurt, damn it! Stupid stupid Lance! Keith skidded to a halt next to him, hands shooting out to help steady the other. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"About what?" Lance tried to play off, his breath wheezing.

"Don't try to play fucking coy." Keith snapped at him. "Come on, get back in your lion. I'll go grab Red, then we can figure out this mess."

Keith helped Lance back up into Blue, Lance trying to wriggle out of his hold at every opportunity. Keith couldn't see his face through his visor, so he had no idea what kind of facial expressions he was pulling. Strangely, Lance wasn't being too vocal about anything.

Lance slumped down onto the floor in Blue, chest heaving. Sticky red had started to leak out around the hand clamped down against his side.

Keith supposed that he didn't look much better, either.

Red pushed against the edge of his presence, humming at him.

You've been gone a while.

'I found Lance. Are you able to move?'

I will try for you, my paladin.

'Let me know if you need me to help you.'

Red purred in reply. Keith turned back to Lance and the matter at hand.

That armour had to come off.

"Where's your first aid box?" Keith demanded. Ever since the first time they'd managed to get themselves injured in their lions, the five had insisted that each of them had basic medical supplies with them. Allura and Coran had seemed offended at the notion, however they had made an incredibly compelling point; not everyone could go into the regeneration chambers at once, and if they had gotten separated, they'd be fucked.

It was a conversation Keith was glad they had, because it became very, very useful in situations like this.

Lance weakly gestured to his pilot seat. "Under there."

Keith scrambled over, ignoring the blood spatters on the floor as he dug under the chair for the medical kit. It was covered in doodles that Keith supposed Lance had made in a moment of boredom. He undid the latches and grabbed an antiseptic wipe, a wad of gauze, and a length of bandage.

He looked back over at lance.

Make that two antiseptic wipes.

He shuffled back over and dumped the things down next to himself before reaching forwards and trying to pry Lances hand from his side.

"Let go, you're not helping."

"But it hurts!" Lance whined.

"It's gunna hurt more if you don't let me get to it." Keith threatened. Lance grumbled at him before removing his hand. Keith sucked in a breath sharply as he looked at the burn.

They'd really need more than what they had on them, truth be told. He wasn't much good at dealing with burns.

"Okay, now you need to strip."

"E-excuse me?!" Lance choked indignantly. "Is this why you said you weren't interested in that kind of stuff? You're gay?" He turned his head, and Keith didn't even need to be able to see his face to know what expression he was pulling.

"Wh- no!" Keith spluttered. "I need to get access to your burn!"

"And this isn't good enough?" Lance whined.

"You know it's not!"

I have found my sister. How is the paladin of blue?

'He's being very fussy.'

I am not surprised, my paladin. Please be fast, the stars are setting.

Lance fumbled with the latches of his armour, his hands not quite sure where to go. After a few moments of watching his pitiful attempts to undo it himself, Keith batted away his hands and took the armour off himself. He was glad the helmet covered his entire face - Lance wouldn't see how red he had gone. Keith hated touching others when he didn't have to.

Lance was pretty useless at this point, so Keith rummaged in the first aid kit for some scissors so he could hack off the fabric obscuring the wound in his side. Lance could bitch and complain about it all he wanted after - Keith was going to be having none of that nonsense while he tried to stop Lance from getting horribly infected on the weird, moist planet they were on.

He shuddered at his disgusting choice of words. Jesus Christ, moist - who even said that anymore?

"How long have we been here for?" Lance shakily asked as Keith dabbed at the burn, cleaning it of any body fluid.

"I don't know." Keith replied. "But our lions are online, and if push comes to shove we can repair them ourselves."

"You don't think they'll come for us?"

"They will. Shiro wouldn't allow anything else."

Keith secured the bandage in place and rolled back into his heels to assess his work. Not perfect, but it would have to do.

"What should we do?" Keith asked. His stomach had a dull ache permeating throughout it; for once he saw why Hunk had a snack stash in his lion.

"I don't know." Lance huffed in reply. "This atmosphere is safe for us to breathe, right?"

"Yeah." Keith nodded. "I think this planet is like Earth was during the Silurian."

"The what now?" Lance sounded perplexed.

"The time period?" Keith raised his shoulders at him.

Lance just slowly shook his head. "Nope. No idea."

Keith sighed and rubbed a hand down the front of his helmet, the closest he was going to get to his face. Especially when he was covered in his own blood. "Basically, there's nothing really out there that can do us a lot of harm."

"So we're kinda safe?"

"Relatively speaking, but I don't think we're alone." Keith was about to continue when he heard a schloop noise.

"Get Blue to close her hatch." Keith hissed, "Now."

The hatch quickly shut, locking the two Paladins inside.

Paladin? Paladin, what is wrong?

'Who's outside?'

I see only a spider.

Red brushed a picture across Keith's conscience, and he latched onto it.

That was a huge ass spider.

'Why is it so big?!' Keith hissed, 'Arachnids are meant to be smaller in low oxygen concentrations!'

I do not know.

'Frankly, I'm not going outside when that thing is out there.'

They will leave soon enough. I doubt it will see much of a meal in myself and my sister.

'Hopefully. I want to take off my helmet already.

What is stopping you from doing so?

'I've managed to weld it to my face with my own blood.' Keith honestly replied. 'I'd rather deal with that inside you than with Lance two feet from me.'

An honour, my paladin.

Keith slumped down on the wall opposite to Lance, his body starting to register his injuries. Part of his tongue being missing and a few teeth being knocked out was old news for his body - now it was screaming at him that his legs were aching and sore and probably bruised beyond reason, and that his back wasn't much better off. His ribs hurt, but thankfully it just felt like bruising. His neck was fine, and he suspected his hands had something to do with that given how stiff they felt.

"How're you feeling?" Lance suddenly asked him. He had taken off his helmet, revealing a slice going across his forehead, blood dribbling down his face and thankfully missing both his eyes. His bottom lip was split and swollen purple.

Keith assumed he felt just as bad as he did, and probably worse.

"I've been better." Keith replied, looking down at the blood on his lap. His blood. "Nothing painkillers and a nap won't fix."

Lance snorted with laughter. "I hate how true that is for you. I bet if I cut off your leg you'd be back in the training deck before we could say amputation."

Keith frowned at him. He was rather fond of his legs; he didn't like to think about losing them. "Don't get any ideas." He warned.

Lance waved him off. "Nah, course not."

Keith could feel Reds amusement bleed through their connection, and he offhandedly glanced towards the visual when he saw a shadow fall over Lance.

Spider.

It was the spider.

"Oh, god!" he yelped, falling backwards in shock.

Lance laughed at him before he turned and looked at the spider himself, releasing a high-pitched shriek as he tried to scramble away. "Gross gross gross gross!"

"Why is it so huge?!"

"I don't know! Why would I know!"

"I don't know!"

Keith felt more than heard Blue growl, the sound vibrating his body and shaking him to the core. It didn't feel right when Blue did it. The spider quickly scrambled away, the two paladins staring at the visual and watching it disappear into the surrounding forest. Keith relaxed marginally before he realized Lance was far, far too close for comfort, and that he was clinging onto his chest armour.

"Uh, Lance?"

"Yeah?"

"A little space would be good. Please."

Lance jumped away as if he had been burned. Whatever apology he stuttered went ignored by Keith, who was now working on leaving Blue.

"We can work out this mess in the morning." Keith said, Blue finally opening up. "I'm going to see what I can do for Red."

"Uh, yeah, sure." Lance awkwardly replied. "Do you think there are more of those things out there?"

"There probably are." Keith replied as he slid down onto the marsh. "Just something we have to anticipate."

Lance audibly gulped as Keith took out his bayard, releasing his sword as he carefully edged his way around Blue, looking for where Red was. She was sat in front of Blue, and her hatch obediently opened when Keith ran over to her.

I do not think I am able to move on my own much more, my paladin.

"That's fine." Keith replied as he hobbled up the slope. His legs felt as though he had been run over repeatedly by an 18-wheeler. "Where do you hurt the most? I'll see what I can do for you."

My pains are yours, my paladin.

"Red." Keith said with warning.

My side is sore. Where I was shot.

"I'll take a look." Keith put his bayard back away again, glad that he didn't have to slice through any of those disgusting spiders, and carefully prized his helmet off. He hissed sharply, feeling his skin ripping before he took in a deep breath and ripped it off like a plaster. The helmet was dropped as Keith gasped, hands immediately flying to his face.

Ow, ow, fucking ow.

Paladin? Paladin, are you okay?

"I'm fine." Keith grimaced, pretty sure he'd reopened a wound or two. The inside of his helmet was caked with dried blood. Cleaning it would be a bitch. "Just took my helmet off."

Red rumbled in assurance, and something else Keith couldn't quite place.

Keith shakily removed what armour he could, knowing he wouldn't be able to wriggle into the tighter spaces of Reds interior to fix her with it on, and he grabbed the first aid kit. He couldn't exactly get dried blood into her circuits, after all.

With nothing to use as a mirror, he simply had to guess where the cuts were. Thankfully, the antiseptic burned whenever it encountered a wound so he quickly found all of them on his face. It hurt. There were a lot.

He'd probably scar from this.

He didn't have any family to care, so he supposed it didn't really matter.

Once satisfied, he stowed the first aid kit away again and pulled out the small tool box Allura had insisted that they bring with them. While Keith knew very little about repairing robotic lions, his expertise laying in Earth vehicles, he supposed that it would have to do and hope his guesswork was enough.

"I'm sorry if this hurts, Red."

It will be worthwhile, my paladin. Your efforts are welcome.

Keith popped a panel off the side, following the sensation of a phantom ache in his side. It danced on the edge of his conscious, and he could only guess that it was Reds pain he was feeling.

Poor girl.

He found a few wires that had been twisted out of shape, mangled, unplugged and sparking. He gently teased the kinks and knots out with his fingers before taping up any exposed wire, and plugging things back in using pure guesswork. The way the ache in his side subsided, he guessed that he had got it right. He carefully closed the panel back up again and sat back with a sigh.

His head hurt.

"Anything new happening outside?"

There is dust.

Keith staggered over to the pilot chair, leaning against it for support as he looked outside. Sure enough, there was a large plume of dust in the distance, slowly growing like ash did on an erupting volcano. A moment later, he could hear a boom and Red shook slightly.

"What was that?!" Lance shouted over the comm.

"I think… something's making the rock explode?" Keith replied uncertainly. "Hunk said that we'd been shot down by the planet, right?"

"I'm not sure I like where you're going with this, Keith."

"I think something's quarrying over there."

Keith staggered back over to his armour and began to tug it back on, ignoring how his joints screamed at him to stop and at how his muscles ached. He had to go investigate. He had to know why they were shot down.

"Keith, don't you dare go over there!"

Keith didn't reply.

"Right, that's it!" Lance snapped, the sound of him slapping his thighs carrying over the comm. "I'm coming over!"

"Red, do not let him in." Keith said, smirking when Lance spluttered in indignation. He heard Lance swearing to himself, cursing out Keith and red and the damn planet. A few moments later, just as he was about to put his helmet back on, he heard a banging at the hatch.

"Keith! I mean it!"

"I'm going!" Keith struggled with his helmet, the mechanism jammed by the dried blood. Damn it!

The hatch clicked open, and Keith whirled around to see Lance standing triumphantly at the base before he stalked up towards him.

He glared at the monitor. Traitor.

Red rumbled in amusement.

When Lance was clear of the hatch, Red snapped it shut again. No escape here, little paladin.

"Wow, you look awful." Lance laughed at Keith.

Keith frowned at him. "You don't look much better."

"Whoa, whoa, hold up," Lance laughed as he knelt down in front of him, "Wait, are you lisping?"

"I bit off a chunk of my tongue."

"You did? Wow." Lances eyes flicked down to the blood spattered on his abdomen and thighs. "… Where is it?"

"Probably somewhere with some of my teeth." Keith replied, sighing as he resigned himself to his fate.

"I did wonder why you look like a chipmunk." Lance cheerfully replied, sitting down next to the hatch. Bastard.

Keith slid down to the floor opposite Lance. Red was smaller than Blue, so getting some distance between them was… slightly harder. The pilot cabin was significantly smaller than it was in Blue – if Red had been on Earth, Keith wasn't sure that they'd all have been able to fit.

He would have left Lance behind.

"Better than looking like a fish." Keith muttered in reply. Lance made a sound of indignation, but didn't push any farther. When Keith glanced at him, he saw Lance look down at his hands, all scrunched up on his lap.

"Do you think they're looking for us?" Lance asked.

"They are." Keith replied firmly. They were. They had to be.

Uncertainly, Lance nodded. "Yeah. Okay."

"You're worrying over nothing." Keith said, "Shiro wouldn't let us down. Besides, they can't form Voltron without us."

"Sometimes I wonder if that's all we are. Just tools to form Voltron."

"We're its paladins, too." Keith hoped that was comforting. He always sucked at comforting people.

"Do you think that's all Allura will ever see me us?"

Of course. Lance and his little boycrush over Allura, he should have seen it coming from a mile away.

Allura has no time for little children, Red rumbled. Lance looked around himself, hands shooting out to steady himself as the interior trembled.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing, she's just talking shit." Keith ran his fingers through his hair. Damn, he needed a comb. "I don't know. Probably? Hate to break it to you, but I think she's more interested in revenge than your flirting."

Lance slumped down with a pout. "I don't know what else I can do to get her attention." He whined.

How about you just leave her alone?

Keith bit what remained of his tongue to stop himself from saying it aloud. He'd definitely regret it, just as much as he regretted biting his tongue. Damn it, it was so sore!

"Maybe act like an adult for once." Keith settled for instead. Slightly more diplomatic.

Just.

Lance slumped even further. "But I aaaaaam!"

Keith simply raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you, now?"

There was a beat of silence, before a meek "Nooo…"

"Exactly." Keith looked over at the visual, the sky slowly turning amber. Sunset. With a sigh, he started stripping off his armour. He didn't particularly fancy sleeping in it. "We should sleep, it's getting late."

"What if someone comes?"

"Red will let us know."

Red purred in reply. Yes, she would.

"If you're sure." Lance awkwardly replied, following suit and taking off his own armour. Keith watched him in the reflection of his helmets visor.

Bruises. So many bruises.

Keith was transfixed when Lance lifted his arms above his head, his shirt rising slightly and exposing his abdomen. Bruises the colour of storms peppered his skin, and Keith swallowed hard.

Stop it, he scolded himself. It wasn't going to happen. It was never going to happen. Better to settle with what you have than to ruin it in a moment of stupidity.

Keith hastily went back to taking off his armour. His jacket was somewhere, it would make a good pillow. Discarding the last piece, he turned to rummage around the pilots seat for his jacket. He glanced up at Lance again, unable to stop himself when he heard a clatter. Oh, shit, he was wriggling off the bottom half-

Lance was looking straight at him, eyebrows creased quizzically.

"What?"

"Why are you still here?" Keith found himself saying. No, no that's not what he wanted at all – he didn't want Lance to go, he'd spend the entire night worrying!

"If I leave you'll sneak out." Lance replied with all the authority he could muster. "So I'm staying to make sure you stay put!"

"Sure, whatever." Keith grabbed his jacket and walked back to where his armour was. He folded up his jacket and dumped it onto the floor before settling down, his head laying on it.

Five minutes of near silence followed, Lance finally wriggling free of the metal and settling down himself.

Then, "How long do you think they'll take?"

Keith groaned. "I don't know. Maybe they'll be here by tomorrow?"

"I hope they are."

"Miss Allura?" he teased.

"Maybe."

Keith's heart twisted in his chest. "If you sleep they'll get here faster."

"Are you being sassy with me?"

"Me? Never."

"Lair."

Keith simply curled up tighter into himself and squeezed his eyes shut.

I fucking hate spiders.

I'm so glad the first chapter was so well received! I didn't write in the lisp Keith would get for ease of reading, but just know it's there. Sorry if that ruins the illusion for some!

I also updated the tags as in my sleep deprived state last night, I missed a few. Go me.

I can't say when I anticipate the next chapter to be out, but I hope that it's soon! I have work and university to juggle, please pray for me.

~Llama