Chapter Text
Thinking back, maybe they should’ve seen this coming.
.
.
.
Lance trudges through the undergrowth on the forest floor almost tripping with each step whereas Keith walks through a stream alongside him effortlessly.
They’d been arguing back and forth since they were assigned this mission but now they walk along in silence.
Coran had said they needed to gather some type of plant for one of Pidge’s new crazy experiments. Supposedly it would help with taking damage on the field, a solution to accelerate the healing process during battle so they could hold out longer.
Lance had no idea how that would work but decided it was worth gathering this stupid plant for anyway. What he hadn’t decided was worth it was being teamed up with Keith while they looked for it on this strange planet.
Unzeron was a violently green planet, lush with wide varieties of trees and thick undergrowth, the water here was a pink color, Coran assured them it was perfectly safe but after what happened last time Lance was overly cautious with “water” on planets other than earth, so he avoided the water.
Keith however did the exact opposite, walking through the river alongside them barefoot, relishing in the cool relief it gave. Traveling by foot in their suits was hot, and combined with the humidity it was almost unbearable.
Keith had flown them here in the Red Lion, it had taken at least an hour to find a clearing for him to land it in. They had to go on foot because the plant was only found in the thick forests which was, unfortunately, impossible for the lion to get through.
Coran had said they would find it near the water so Keith had chosen a small stream and was walking in it, following it through the forest with Lance walking alongside it. So far they’ve had no luck.
Until Keith tripped on some roots in the stream and fell flat on his face in the water.
“Shit- !” Keith half shouted, half gasped as he hit the water, he sat up, spitting out the water violently.
“Jesus, I swallowed some of it.” He muttered, wiping a hand down his face
“Well, let's hope it's as safe as Coran said, I wouldn't want to have to carry your heavy ass back to the ship because you inhaled some strange alien water.” Lance joked
“As if you could even lift me with your stick arms.” Keith said, looking up at him from where he was still sitting in the stream, wet hair now slicked back off his face.
“Is that a challenge, mullet?”
“Don’t even think about lifting m- “ Keith gasped as Lance reached down and slung his arm around his upper back and underneath his knees, picking him up bridal style effortlessly.
“Lance! Jesus- Fuck! Put me down!” He sputtered, face rapidly turning red.
“What were you saying about ‘stick arms’ again?” Lance said, looking at the boy in his arms with a smug grin on his face
“Shut u-” Keith begins to say before seeing something in the water “Hey, Lance, look !”
“Oh? Changing the topic now are we? What a sore loser.” He said jokingly before turning to where Keith was pointing. In the stream where Keith had tripped was a root, broken but still attached to the ground on one end, floating up towards the surface. It was a deep purple with white vein-like marks running along it. It fit the description Coran has given them for the plant they were looking for.
“Is that- ?” Lance started, before Keith was pushing his way out of his arms.
Keith scrambled out of his arms and got down on his knees to dig the roots up, lifting them up to examine them further.
‘Yeah! They are!” He shouted, grinning.
After hours of searching they had found it because Keith tripped on the damn thing, Lance joined Keith on his knees and they both dug up the roots in the surrounding area. They put them all in one of the bags Coran had given them, it took them about another hour to fill all of the bags.
“Alright, that's the last bag.” Keith said, cinching it off like the rest, gathering them up they began the trek back, Keith in the stream and Lance on the side like before.
They’re halfway back when Keith starts to feel his head throb, he shifts the bags into one hand to bring the other up to massage his temple, as it starts to get increasingly more painful. Keith’s breath begins to come a bit faster and he turns to Lance to tell him that somethings wrong but as soon as he opens his mouth the world goes dark.
“Keith!” Lance shouts, as Keith falls into the stream again. He drops his bags and rushes into the water, despite his previous worries, and lifts Keith’s head out of the stream.
“Keith? Keith, what’s wrong, Hey!” He says, patting the sides of Keith’s face.
“Shit-” Lance starts, before reaching his hand up to his helmet to open up communication with the castle, “Guys, somethings wrong with Keith, he's out cold.”
“Get him back to the castle, quickly.” Shiro says through the comms.
“On it.” Lance says, He sits up and looks around at the roots, before reaching out and tying the five of them together by the draw strings. He sets the roots down for a second to grab Keith, He takes hold of his waist and lifts him up over his shoulder, wrapping one arm around him. Like a sack of potatoes, he chuckles at the absurdity of it. Before reaching down again to grab the roots.
Lance starts walking faster than before, with the added weight of Keith’s unconscious body, it doesn’t take him long to be short of breath. Two thirds of the way back and he pauses to lean against a tree to catch his breath.
“Jesus, for being so small you sure are fucking heavy.” Lance remarks, before starting back to the Red Lion.
As he reaches the clearing he can feel Red’s presence in the back of his mind, pushing gently against it, he can feel concern and worry lacing her thoughts.
“He’ll be fine Red, he’s gonna be okay.” Lance says, more trying to reassure himself than Red.
When he gets to the cockpit he sits the roots down and then looks around trying to find somewhere safe to sit Keith and still be able to keep an eye on him so he can fly back, the only place to sit is the pilot's chair. He sighs and sits down in the chair shifting Keith into his lap and holding his arms around him to keep him in place. That’s when he realizes he needs his hands to fly Red.
“Hey Red, can you do me a favor and fly us back to the castle?” Lance says
He hears her purr in the back of his mind before the ship starts up and takes off towards the castle. Lance sighs as he sits back and re-situates Keith in his lap, it’ll take them a couple minutes to get back to the castle.
When they arrive Lance carries Keith out and Shiro is there waiting, his face pinched with concern, “How’s he holding up?” He asks.
“Not good as far as I can tell, though he's unconscious his breathing is rapid and he’s burning up.” Lance answers as he starts off at a brisk pace towards the medbay, carrying Keith with both arms now that he doesn’t have the roots.
The medbay doors slide open as they approach revealing Coran bustling about, he turns around and sees them.
“Oh good you’re back! Here, I have a pod ready for him, but he’ll need to be in this first” He says handing Lance one of the sterile white suits they wear in the healing pods.
After Lance and Shiro have successfully gotten Keith’s unconscious body into the suit Coran presses a button on one of the healing pods, the door opening with a puff of cold sterile smelling air.
“Hand him here.” Coran says and Lance shifts the boy over into his arms so Coran can properly situate him in the pod before shutting it and letting it do its initial scan.
Coran hums as he examines the scan intently.
“Well he should be out in a few vargas, must’ve gotten feverish and fainted from the heat. Why don’t you bring those roots to Pidge now?.”
“Will do.” Lance says as he turns to leave, looking back at Keith one last time, his face is slack, devoid of anger for once, he would almost look peaceful if he didn’t appear dead.
It feels wrong.
Lance turns away.
Pidge is surrounded by a bunch of mechanical junk when he walks into the room, a bag of roots under each arm and the others in his hands.
“Hey.” He says as he drops the bags on the ground, tired of lugging them around, making Pidge jump a bit.
“Oh good you’re back! You found the Porphyrian Freuhmus?” They ask excitedly.
“Yeah, after Keith tripped on the damn thing.” Lance says, chuckling a bit at the memory
“Speaking of Keith, how is he? Allura told us something went wrong.” Pidge says, worry seeping through in their voice even though they try not to let it show.
“Unconscious, he was feverish when I brought him in, Coran has him in a pod now.” He says grimacing as Keith’s dead look flashes in his mind again.
“What happened?”
“I’m…I’m not quite sure?” Lance says mentally retracing their steps. “We had been walking, and he tripped… swallowed some of the water and I teased him, that's when we saw the roots, and while we were walking back he just… collapsed?” He said, tone lilting up as if it was a question.
“There has to be some reason as to why he collapsed suddenly, maybe it was a plant or something he touched?” They suggest.
“Well it's certainly not the roots that caused this or else I would have been affected as well.” Lance says before remembering what Coran had told him, “Maybe it was because of the heat?”
“That seems unlikely, we’ve been on planets hotter than that one and he’s never straight up fainted from it.”
“We should get Hunk and then go see if we can figure out exactly why he collapsed, and check on him while we’re at” Lance suggests, moving towards the door.
Pidge hops up off the ground pushing the mechanical junk to the side to follow him, door whooshing closed behind them.
Popping into the kitchen he sees Hunk at the counter whipping up some new alien food with the plants he found from the last planet they visited, Ushrenife.
He was grinding up some yellowish flower called Xanthos when he noticed them.
“Hey guys, heard about the mission, how’s Keith?”
“Coran has him in a pod now.” Pidge says.
Hunk notices the slight twinge in Lance’s face when they say that.
“Well, I think we should make something for him, for when he wakes up.” Hunk says gesturing to the ingredients laid out on the counter.
Lance’s face lights up and Hunk hands him some stuff in a bowl to mix while Pidge hops up on the counter.
The doors of the pod pop open again with a beep and a cloud of white air.
Keith opens his eyes to a blinding white light and takes in the smell of the sterile room, groaning he stumbles forward out of the pod. He trips up on the edge of it and starts to fall face forward but instead of hitting the floor he hits something warm and soft.
“You sure do have a habit of ending up in my arms, huh?”
He looks up and sees Lance standing there, arms wrapped around him holding him up, grinning down at him.
Keith shoots up, stumbling backwards into the pod, face flushing in embarrassment.
“Woah! Hey calm down man! You just got out of that thing, we don’t want to have to put you right back in it.” Lance shouts in surprise as Keith falls inside the pod.
Lance reaches down to pull Keith up off the floor of the pod.
“Thanks.” Keith mumbles, letting his hands drop and finally taking in the rest of the room.
Shiro was standing by the door, Hunk and Pidge were right behind Lance, all looking at him with concern but also relief.
Hunk steps forward and offers Keith a red container he had in his hands.
“What's this?” He hesitantly accepts it from him
“Open it and find out.” Hunk says, grinning.
Keith lifts the lid of the container and gasps, “Oh my god?” He looks up at Hunk with wide eyes.
“Hunk, is this what I think it is?”
Hunk nods his head excitedly, “Lance helped me figure out which food you liked best.”
Keith stares at it for a couple seconds in awe, wondering how the hell they made this in fucking space of all places, he couldn't even make it on Earth!
“Go on, taste it already!” Lance says, handing him a spoon.
Keith took the spoon and scooped a small portion of the desert into his mouth. Coffee. That was the first thing he tasted. “God, I knew it! Tiramisu, my favorite, how did you guys make this?! We’re in space!”
“Well, Hunk has been gathering ingredients similar to ones we have on Earth and y’know Katlenecker produces milk, so-” Lance says looking over to Hunk who nods.
“How did you guys know my favorite food was tiramisu?” Keith asks
“It was Lance who told me, ask him!” Hunk says, pointing at Lance.
Lance's eyes widen and his face turns red. “I uh, may have heard you mention it once or twice?” He says hesitantly.
Keith looks over at him in shock, “Lance that must’ve been like, phoebs ago.”
Lance’s face reddens more, “I- uh? I guess I just have a very good memory?” He responds, sounding unsure.
“Well it's the best damn thing I’ve tasted since we got our asses blasted into space so thank you for having such a great memory Lance,” Keith says, laughing. “And thank you too, Hunk for figuring out how to make this, it's truly amazing.”
Keith closes the container and sets the spoon on top of it and walks over to Shiro next, setting a hand on his shoulder.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
Shiro chuckles, “When will you stop pulling these ridiculous stunts Keith?”
“Whenever people stop needing me to be a pilot of Voltron I guess.” He responds, smiling back at him.