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It was safe to say that the last battle had gone fairly badly. The planet had emerged victorious, but not without significant damage to the infrastructure and loss of life. The Paladins too had all come out of it significantly battered, and with the Castle low on power from that dinky particle barrier (seriously, couldn’t the Alteans have done better?) they’d had to be ferried over to the nearest planet-side hospital to be treated.
Keith had to be pulled out of Red after being propelled out of control by the shockwave from an exploding warship and crashing into the side of a mountain, despite his best efforts to keep the descent controlled. The hit on the head he’d taken in the ground skirmish probably hadn’t helped with that. Then his right leg had snapped on impact and he’d been flung across the cockpit (because again, Alteans didn’t think to put harnesses in the damn Lions). He’d lost consciousness, regained it, and lost it again, and the last thing he remembered was being hauled out of the Lion by people dressed in white.
Now he was waking up, and the first thing he saw was white. White walls, white tile floor, white bed with white metal bars on either side to keep him from rolling off in his sleep, and a white blanket pulled over his legs. Even the medical equipment to his left, all the way down to the tube stuck in his hand, was white.
He quickly decided white was his least favorite color.
The next thing he noticed was the fact that he was alone. The room was fairly small, with no windows and a sturdy looking metal door, and none of the other Paladins were in there with him. At first he didn’t think it was a big deal-- they were probably just in other rooms being treated for their injuries-- but suddenly it became a very big deal when he tried to move one of his hands and found that it wouldn’t budge. And maybe he’d misunderstood the purpose of the bars on the bed, because now he noticed how his wrists were bound to them with white cloth that wouldn’t tear no matter how hard he pulled, and his ankles were likely the same seeing as he couldn’t move them either.
After several moments of jerking against the bindings to no avail Keith made himself stop and tilted his head back against the thin pillow, trying his best not to start hyperventilating already when he’d just woken up.
He probably wasn’t on a Galra ship.They had a pretty strict dress code of evil purple only. So if he was still on the planet, why was he tied down? He’d hit his head pretty hard-- it was possible he’d been woken up earlier and been confused and uncooperative. He almost expected it of himself at this point.
The door opened, and his head sprang up.
A person stepped inside, petite, barely taller than Pidge, and clothed head to toe in more white. Even a veil covered their face, preventing Keith from seeing who it was. He could only assume it was a nurse.
He cleared his throat. “Uh, hey,” he said awkwardly, and the nurse paused at the foot of his bed. “I don’t know what happened earlier, but I’m ok now, you can untie me.”
The nurse stared. Or, at least their head was turned in his direction. With the veil he couldn’t see their eyes. He guessed they were staring.
Without a word, they turned on their heel and rushed from the room.
“Hey! Wait! Let me up!” But the door was already shut tight, and Keith let his head fall back to the pillow with a disgruntled groan. Thankfully he didn’t have to wait long-- in only a couple of minutes the person returned, this time accompanied by another robed and veiled shape. This one was bigger and wider, and immediately stopped at the foot of the bed and braced white-gloved hands on the bars.
“This is your one warning,” they hissed to Keith’s astonishment. “If you continue to resist you will be given a sedative.”
“What? What did I do wrong? Why am I tied up?”
The person growled at him. “Do not test me, halfbreed.”
Halfbreed? Oh hell no.
Keith bared his teeth at the two aliens, giving his wrist restraints a good yank. “Let me go, I didn’t do anything wrong!”
The larger shape made a displeased ticking sound and waved a hand at the smaller one, who made their way over to the IV line and selected a needle from one of the trays. Keith’s heart rate immediately picked up, reflected on the blue screen next to his head as rapid jumps of a needle.
“Don’t touch me with that! I didn’t do anything! Let me go, I’m a Paladin, you can ask Princess Allura--”
It was all for nothing. The alien had already inserted the needle into his IV line and pressed the plunger. He struggled against it, tore at the cloth restraints until he could feel it rubbing his skin raw and shouted as loud as he could, but whatever was in that needle was fast acting. Before the nurses had even gotten to the door his eyesight had begun to look fuzzy.
A few minutes later everything dimmed to shadows.
Lance woke with a loud groan and an instant wish that he hadn’t opened his eyes. His head was freaking throbbing from where he’d hit it on his dashboard when Blue went down, and the all white aesthetic of the hospital really wasn’t helping matters. Turns out these people didn’t have pain receptors, so even though their healing tech was awesome, it still left behind aches and pains that the pods would’ve known to heal.
Rubbing his eyes, he managed to sit up. He couldn’t remember much from the day before when he’d been brought in-- all he could recall was people in white and a long room filled with other people.
Turns out he was right. Across the way from him was Pidge, still asleep. The curtains on either side of his bed were pulled back, allowing him to see Hunk to his right and Shiro on his left. Shiro was properly fucked up, and judging by the number of bandages wound around his head probably wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon. But Hunk was.
“Hey, Lance,” he said with a half smile when he noticed Lance sitting up, “You’re up. How’re you feeling?”
“My head hurts,” answered Lance, “But otherwise I feel fine. You?”
“Arm is sore.” Hunk rotated his right shoulder, the one that had been dislocated. “But that’s all.”
Lance gave an answering hum, sweeping his eyes around the pale room again. Something wasn’t quite right. Something was missing.
Oh. Right. Duh.
“Do you know where Keith is?”
Hunk frowned and glanced about, as though he hadn’t noticed. “Uh, actually no. Maybe he needed surgery or something?”
Lance chewed the inside of his lip. “We should probably find out. We don’t want Shiro waking up and freaking out that he’s not here.”
“Good point. But who should we--”
As luck would have it the door to their room swung open that very minute, admitting a little white-robed nurse who scurried over to Pidge’s bed, probably to check her vitals.
“Excuse me?” They froze at the sound of his voice, slowly looking over their shoulder at him. The veil was a little unnerving, but Lance plastered his best smile on his face and pushed on. “I was wondering if you knew where our friend Keith was? He’s the Red Paladin, he should’ve been brought in with the rest of us.”
The nurse straightened and turned to face him completely, hands folded in front of them.
“The Red Paladin was placed in isolation,” they said evenly, making Lance’s smile slip.
“Isolation?” Asked Hunk, “What for?”
Their fingers twitched. “It is hospital procedure that all halfbreeds be kept in isolation for the duration of their treatment.”
Both of their jaws dropped.
“Are you-- you can’t be serious,” Lance stuttered, but the nurse remained impassive under their veil. “He’s not dangerous, you can bring him here with the rest of us.”
“I’m afraid that isn’t allowed,” said the nurse with a shake of their head, “But if you would like to visit him--”
“Yes! Yes, we would.” Lance quickly tossed back the covers on his bed and hopped to the floor, Hunk mimicking his motion. The room was cold in his gown, but he made do with wrapping his arms around himself and followed the nurse out of the room with a determined gait.
He couldn’t believe it. Putting Keith in his own room all by himself just because he was Galra? God, and he’d thought he left racism behind when they left Earth.
It was several minutes’ walk to the area of the hospital Keith was in, and by the time they got there Lance had nursed his rage to the boiling point. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Hunk wringing his hands, probably more concerned with Keith’s condition than angry about the circumstances.
The door they stopped in front of had three locks on it. It took the nurse way too long to open them (in Lance’s opinion) and the moment they had he was squirming past them and into the room.
Keith was laid flat on a bed lined with bars, an IV in his hand that none of the rest of them had, and oh quiznack, they’d actually freaking tied him down.
“Why is he tied up?” Hunk demanded while Lance was still speechless.
“Halfbreeds are unstable,” the nurse said in a monotone, like a robot reciting its programming. “The restraints are for the safety of others.”
“Well unrestrain him,” snapped Lance, already moving up to Keith’s head. “He’s not dangerous.”
“I’m afraid that’s against protocol.”
Keith’s head was turned away from Lance, his dark hair spilled across the pillow like ink. Hesitantly, aware of how light a sleeper Keith was, he reached out and tapped his shoulder. It jerked a little, but to his surprise Keith didn’t move otherwise. With a frown he turned Keith’s head to face him and had to smother the resulting gasp.
Keith was awake. Well, his eyes were open, but his pupils were so dilated they practically devoured his entire iris and he was clearly struggling to focus.
“What did you do to him?”
“He refused to follow protocol. We are authorized to use chemical restraints in such a case.”
“Chemical restraints--” Lance bit into his hand to stop the waterfall of swear words he wanted to deliver. Were these people absolutely out of their goddamn minds?!
Keith blinked a few times and shifted his head, his brow beginning to furrow the way it did whenever he was confused. Which happened a lot where Lance was concerned.
“L’nce?” Aw hell. He didn’t even sound like himself. He sounded so… small. Lost and confused. Not like their fiery, stubborn Red Paladin.
“Hunk,” Lance said in a low, dangerous voice, not taking his eyes off of Keith the whole time. “I need you to go get ahold of Allura.”
“Yeah,” he croaked in answer, “Yeah, I’ll go do that.”
Lance turned to look at the nurse, half expecting them to try to stop Hunk, but had his attention immediately drawn back when Keith let out a plaintive whine.
“Don’t, don’t go,” Keith slurred, and to Lance’s horror his disoriented eyes began to shine to tears. “Don’t go, Lance.”
“I won’t.” Forcing words through the lump in his throat was almost painful as Hunk practically ran from the room. “I’m not going anywhere.” He awkwardly took one of Keith’s bound hands in his, trying to ignore how long it took for Keith to squeeze back, before that damned nurse spoke up again.
“Halfbreeds are only allowed five doboshes of visiting time per quintant, I’m afraid your time--”
“Screw off,” he snapped at the nurse, hunching protectively over Keith. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Paladin, I will be forced to call security if you will not abide by protocol.”
“I’ll tell you where you can shove your protocol.”
The nurse looked at him blankly for a moment, perfectly calm despite him practically seething, then turned and quietly left the room.
Keith was still whispering to himself, the tears on the edges of his eyes threatening to spill at any moment.
“Don’t go, don’t go, don’t leave me alone, don’t want to be alone again.”
Lance swallowed. “It’s ok,” he said hesitantly, unsure of how to go about comforting Keith. Usually this was Shiro’s job. “It’s ok.”
Keith squeezed his hand until his knuckles turned white and he felt his finger tips go to static, but he didn’t let go.
Then the door opened again, and he heard the thump of heavy boots on the floor, and his stomach sank. Maybe in his armor with his bayard he would have a chance, but barefoot in a hospital gown recovering from a concussion? His chances were slim to none.
Still, he put up the best fight he could against the security personnel. He had plenty of motivation, especially when they finally succeeded in pulling their hands apart and Keith had started to sob in earnest, yanking on his restraints and generally turning into a hysterical mess.
He’d never seen Keith cry before.
Eventually brute force won out against even Lance’s legendary clinging skills and they peeled him off of Keith’s bed. He struggled and clawed and kicked, screamed even louder than Keith, but he might as well not have for all the good it did either of them.
They dropped him in the hall outside the room and left him there.
Shiro woke up to an absolute mess.
Allura was in their hospital room, arguing heatedly with a number of white robed figures while Hunk hovered and paced behind her. Pidge was propped up on her pillows typing away on a screen with murder sparkling in her eyes. And, most alarmingly, neither Keith nor Lance were anywhere to be seen.
“Oh God, what’s happening now?”
In a flash Hunk was by his bed, talking at a million miles per hour. Shiro had to ask him to slow down three times before he could understand what he was saying, but once he got the gist of it he flushed with anger so quickly he was surprised he didn’t spontaneously combust right then.
He didn’t even wait for Allura to figure it out. He got right out of that bed and marched down to the room Keith was being kept in ( held prisoner in ), ignoring the veritable fleet of nurses dogging his heels trying to get him to stop.
He found Lance pacing in the hallway outside, fuming with red-rimmed eyes. The moment he saw Shiro he was talking, babbling about what they’d done to Keith and how they’d made him leave. Well, that wouldn’t be a problem for him. He’d put every security guard in the building in a coma if he had to.
He didn’t bother with convincing a nurse to unlock the door. He merely powered up his prosthetic and melted the locks out of the door before shoving it open and storming inside, a hurricane of indignant Paladins behind him. And there was Keith, tied down and alone and high as a kite.
He was crying silently when Shiro reached him, not even bothering to open his eyes when Shiro touched his cheek. He merely turned into his palm and sobbed.
“Please,” he whispered through the tears, “Please.”
Shiro stopped hearing anything else.
He slashed the restraints where they were tied to the bed, not bothering to untie them from around Keith’s limbs before hauling him up into his arms. Keith reached up, managing to cling to his shoulders with a surprising amount of strength, and pressed his face into Shiro’s chest.
“Stop what you’re doing,” said a voice from behind him. “Halfbreeds cannot be treated here unless--”
The only thing that kept Shiro from spinning around and decking them was the fact that his hands were full. As it was he turned on his heel and stormed past all the people that had crowded into the room without seeing them.
“Your services are no longer needed,” Allura was saying as he walked out into the hallway. “We will finish treating the Paladins at the Castle of Lions.”
Shiro, having just woken up, wasn’t sure where to go from here. He was angry enough to just smash through the walls until he found the way out, but thankfully Hunk tugged on his arm and directed him down the right hallways.
Somewhere through the haze of anger he could feel his limbs shaking. A headache raged behind his eyes. After all, he had only just woken up, but he refused to set Keith down, even when both Hunk and Allura offered to take him. The rest of the Paladins followed along behind him like a pack of ducklings, all of them barefoot and still in their hospital gowns, all the way back to the Castle.
By the time they got there Shiro was flagging. There was still a buzz of conversation around him, probably the Princess and the other Paladins offering suggestions as to where he should take Keith, but he couldn’t make out the words.
Not the infirmary. Keith was still drugged up, the last thing he wanted to do was scare him.
His bedroom was an idea, but the room was small and was mostly white, which Shiro was more than aware could freak him out.
So the lounge it would be.
Kneeling down to deposit Keith onto the sofa was a blessing for his wobbly legs, but at first Keith wouldn’t let go. He fastened his arms around Shiro’s neck and clung until Hunk came up behind him and gently peeled him away, laying him back on the cushions. Shiro let his head fall forward to the cushions as well and let his eyes close for a moment.
Now that the rage was gone, now that Keith was safe, all he really wanted to do was cry.
The other Paladins converged on them. Pidge clambered onto the couch at Keith’s feet and began to undo the knots of cloth tied around his ankles. Hunk gave Shiro a supportive pat on the back and rose to his feet, saying something to Coran about getting salve and bandages, while Lance mirrored Pidge, perching himself on the arm of the couch and pulling one of Keith’s arms into his lap to undo the wrist restraints.
Lance’s hands were trembling. A bruise was darkening around his eye, which Shiro would have to remember to get Coran to look at. Later.
“I can’t believe they did this,” Pidge was muttering to herself, angrily tossing one of the cloth scraps over her shoulder. “I cannot fucking believe they did this.”
Lance slid down from the arm of the sofa, pulling Keith’s head into his lap. He was being surprisingly soft with the Red Paladin, running his hands through the tangled locks of hair and biting his lip. Whether it was from holding back anger or tears was unclear.
Someone draped a blanket over Shiro’s shoulders, then moved to do the same to Lance and he realized it was Coran, looking unnaturally solemn. He put one over Pidge as well just as Hunk returned with the supplies.
Keith dizzily turned his head and made bleary eye contact with Shiro. His eyes were still glazed, but Shiro could tell he was trying his best to make himself focus.
“Shiro?” He mumbled, and Shiro forced a tiny smile.
“Yeah, it’s me. You’re ok.”
Keith swallowed. His eyes flickered a bit, like he was trying to look around but didn’t have the energy, before he gave up and just looked to Shiro for answers.
“... Safe?”
“Yes, Keith, you’re safe now. We won’t hurt you.”
“Don’t leave.”
“I won’t. Promise.”
Keith let his eyes close.