Keith gets whumped

by Love_Hyuneee

Summary:

“Yeah,” Shiro numbly agreed before tapping Keith’s cheek, “he’s out of it. They must have drugged him with something.”

That was when Keith opened his eyes, not all the way, but enough to see his glassy stare. Half-lidded eyes shifted from Lance to Shiro, and Keith let out another heartbreaking noise before he was retching.

*

A collection of Keith-centric one shots.

Chapter 1: Human sacrifice

Notes:

This first chapter is a lot darker than what I normally go for, so if you want lighter whump then skip this chapter!

Prompt; Human sacrifice

TWs; non consensual drug use, mild torture, description of injury

 

(You can request a prompt if you want!)

“Princess, are you sure about this?” Shiro asked, “you’re the one who handles diplomacy, not us.”

“Yeah,” Lance agreed, “we’re supposed to sit there and look pretty, not strike bargains with aliens. That's you and Corans job!”

“We wouldn’t send you out there alone if we knew you couldn’t handle it,” Coran butted in, face now visible on the lion's video feed, “this species is typically very calm and nice. All you’re attending is a party they're hosting in your honor!”

“Oh, well,” Lance shrugged, “a party I can handle.”

“Just be polite, smile, and leave at an appropriate time, not too early,” The princess shot a warning look to Pidge and Keith, and Keith felt himself bristling. It was easy for her to say, she would be the one staying on the castle ship. Apparently, they had repairs to do and settled down on a nearby planet in the same star system. He wondered why they didn’t just settle down on this planet, but Keith figured Allura would get onto him and call it the ‘rudest idea she had ever heard,’ so he kept his mouth shut.

Diplomacy meetings weren’t his thing. Parties even more so. He would let the people like Lance and Shiro handle the talking and hopefully he would be able to find a good corner to take shelter in.

“Is there anything we need to know about these aliens that we’ve never seen before?” Hunk pointed out, “Have I mentioned that we’ve had no interaction with them at all? Like, whatsoever?”

“You have made your concerns very clear, Hunk,” Allura sounded exhausted, but Keith was with Hunk on this one. Something was fishy about the whole thing, but maybe that was just his body going against the idea of a large social gathering. He figured that in space he could get away from those, but he had better luck staying in his desert shack.

“The species are known as the Platogens-”

“Huh, sounds like Pathogens-”

“Thank you, Pidge,” Allura continued, “and they haven’t been in communication with any other species for quite a bit, even my Father had trouble getting a hold of them, but this is about to change. I believe this is the first party they have ever hosted, so do not mind them if they are a bit… awkward about it.”

“No parties? Ever?” Lance asked, sounding like someone had just kicked his puppy, “well that’s about to change, right team? Let’s party it up!”

…

“Come on? Team? Buddies?”

“So,” Keith blatantly ignored the blue paladin, “isn’t it a bit weird that they’re suddenly branching out? I don’t like this.”

“Well Keith, you never like parties,” Lance teased, “no need to be so paranoid all the time.”

Allura cleared her throat before Keith could reply, “You must not mess this up, do you hear me?”

“Understood Princess,” Shiro replied, “about to breach the atmosphere in a few ticks, we’ll spend an estimated four varga before leaving.” The comm system clicked off after that, though if they said anything Keith wouldn’t be able to hear it anyway over the sound of gravity pulling them downwards. It wasn’t as much as a sound, but more of pressure mounting in his ears, but after flying for a few months he had gotten used to the feeling.

Once they pushed past the cloud coverage Keith noted that the planet below them was mostly flat, open lands. Good for a battle but terrible if they ever needed to find coverage. There went the idea of landing their lions somewhere where they could be hidden. It didn’t take long for them to come across the civilization with large buildings and cobbled paths leading all the way to a castle, though the castle was nothing like the one they were used to.

“That thing looks kinda…”

“Medieval?” Pidge supplied for Hunk.

“Yeah, that.”

“Guys,” Shiro warned, “there’s not much resources on this planet besides what they can mine, so the scenery is going to look a bit… different.”

“Spooky is the word you’re looking for, bossman,” Lance joked nervously.

“Let’s just land and get this thing over with,” Keith forced their conversation to a halt, and he could practically feel Shiro’s thankful smile. They ended up landing just behind the stone castle in what looked like a courtyard of sorts.

Keith was reluctant to leave the comfort of the red lion, but he haltingly climbed out of the cockpit to meet with the other paladins anyway. There was already a figure standing outside waiting for them, and now that Keith was out he noticed finer details.

The castle and the courtyard’s night atmosphere was lit up by torches hung up along the wall, casting shadows, and the cobblestone under his feet somehow was harsher than normal, Keith could feel the coolness seeping in through his paladin armor.

“Welcome,” the alien held out a large clawed hand to Shiro, who took it with his prosthetic one. “I am one of the several representatives of this land, please, come in and enjoy the festivities.” The alien's tone was robotic and its face didn’t so much as twitch from the large smile.

“O…kay,” Lance whistled lowly, letting Shiro walk in front of him.

“Not so eager to get to the party now, huh?” Pidge asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No, it feels like we’re being walked to our execution!” Lance hissed under his breath, shutting up only when Shiro reached back to elbow him.

Keith didn’t know how good these aliens' hearing was, but he firmly kept his mouth shut, not wanting to find out. Once they reached the banquet room, all movement ceased. Keith felt a shiver run up his spine as dozens of milky white eyes stared owlishly. Even Shiro took an apprehensive step backwards into Keith and Lance.

“Paladins of Voltron,” the one who had led them to the castle, introduced, “royal court. Party, commence,” he clapped, and just like that, the population had resumed their mingling.

“They all have that weird smiley expression on their face,” Hunk pawed at the back of Pidges armor, trying to hide behind her, “my gut is telling me that not even alien cuisine is worth this.”

“It’s… it’ll be fine buddy,” Lance patted Hunk’s shoulder. “Remember, they’re awkward and don’t know how to throw parties, maybe they think smiling will help ease the tension? Either way, Lancey Lance is about to show them how a real party is done. Maybe I can find a girl here who doesn't smile creepy.” And just like that, Lance disappeared into the crowd of aliens who were a head taller than even Shiro.

“As much as I hate to say it, we need to follow Lance’s example,” Shiro admitted, “spread out and try to be nice.”

Soon enough everyone left and Keith was the only one standing at the entrance way. His feet felt grounded, weighted down and unable to move. Something, some force, was driving him to blow this weird ass popsicle stand. Maybe it was his unwillingness to celebrate, or how stiff the aliens had been moving, the stone sinking in his gut told him otherwise.

Keith took a calming breath and forced himself to walk along the stone etched walls of the gala, ignoring the strange otherworldly looks the species was shooting at him. Anytime he passed, their heads mechanically turned as if sensing him.

Oh god, maybe they could tell he wasn’t fully human?

Keith swallowed down the nausea climbing up his throat and tried to play it off by leaning against a stone table that was attached to the floor. On the table were delicacies, and it was good to know that at least Hunk was nearby at a separate table, eyeing the food suspiciously before shoving a spoon in his mouth. Another alien was next to him, probably describing each of the food items.

Keith’s stomach rolled when he got a good look at the food. There was nothing solid, it was all soups and stews. It was probably all the species could eat with their limited food sources, but Keith knew well enough that in every ecosystem there had to be a good source of meat. If they only had little, then where did the rest of the meat go?

“Hello paladin,” Keith jolted when one of the aliens spoke from next to him. Keith didn’t even sense its presence. “I hope that you are enjoying this gathering immensely.”

“Uhm,” Keith coughed into his fist, “Yeah, yeah, this is a great… party you have here.”

The smile on the other’s face twisted upwards even more, “That is wonderful news to hear. Though I must ask why you seem so withdrawn, the other paladins have spread themselves out and socialized with each of us while you sit here.”

Keith bit back what he would normally respond with- That’s none of your damn business- but for the sake of not screwing up this gathering, he shrugged instead. “Humans are different from one another, and some people are more laid back than others.”

“Hmm,” the other alien contemplated, as if individuality was a hard thing to swallow. Keith had noticed how the other species acted, looked, smiled, and walked the exact same way. Just like a damn cult. “I see, very well then.”

The other alien stayed by his side for an uncomfortable amount of time despite Keith now obviously giving him the cold shoulder, staring out into the endless crowd. If he distorted his vision, it looked like he was looking at a large mound of cotton with the color of the paladin armor occasionally peeking out from the folds.

“Hey man!” Lance called, trotting up to Keith, “I know you’re not big on this scene, but-” his eyes immediately shot up to the alien that was silently standing besides Keith. Almost close enough to brush shoulders with him. Keith shivered at the thought, not wanting to know what their pearl white skin felt like.

“Is there a problem?” Lance asked, tilting his head to the alien.

“No,” Keith waved off the blue paladin, “It’s… it’s fine, I have it handled.”

“If you say so, dude,” Lance shrugged before turning his back to them and skipping off to wherever Hunk was.

Keith blocked the other out for an entire varga before it finally spoke to him again, like an alarm clock. “You really must try our delicacies, we brought our best stew out for this day. Here you go,” clawed hands grabbed at a ladle, holding it up to Keith’s mouth.

Before Keith could wonder just where he got this sudden bowl from, since it hadn’t been on the table, the stench nearly made him double over. He pedaled away from it, his back bumping the wall, nearly hitting a torch. “No thanks,” Keith put a hand up, “I’m goo-”

A slimy hand suddenly pushed him further against the wall, then moved to plug his nose and shove the entirety of the large spoon into his mouth. Keith tried his best to make a sound, but none would come as the chunky substance filled his mouth until he was forced to swallow it in order to breathe.

He highly doubted he would be able to get any help from this angle, as well as with how the other aliens were probably blockling the paladin's view.

Suddenly, the world spun around Keith and he was forced to grapple onto the alien in front of him to stay on his feet. It kept a tight grip around him, dragging him upwards. Panic and nausea clawed at Keith’s insides as he tried to force his eyes to stay open, but to no avail. Despite the torches flames brushing against his back, Keith shivered from the coolness sinking into his bones.

“You left yourself vulnerable, paladin,” the alien hissed, the smile never leaving its ugly face, “we only need one of you to get the job complete. It’s a good thing we did not even have to try to separate you.”

Keith’s legs collapsed beneath him, his fingers gripping uselessly at the aliens shoulders in a vain attempt to scratch its moist skin. To Keith’s horror, he didn’t black out. Instead, his body went limp, eyes closing, but he was awake, he could still hear everything. Feel everything. It was like he was comatose with no control over his body.

He swallowed down fear when the alien moved him, dragging him from the gala and the crowd and out to what Keith assumed was a cobble stones hallway. The echoes of chatter became distant while Keith scrambled to gain his bearings, to at least get his toes to move. Instead, the dragging sound of his feet against the cobble and the heavy breaths of the Platogen (hot and curling against the back of his neck) was all he could hear.

Keith should have expected something like this to happen. They had been told to discard their helmets with their lions with some shitty excuse of “It is hard to read humans face expressions with helmets on” and now there was no way for the paladins to contact each other or avoid getting hurt.

The alien said that they had only needed one of the paladins, so Keith could mark off a personal attack, no matter how personal getting a spoon shoved down his throat was. There was obviously a paralyzing sedative in whatever was in that stew, and Keith could only hope that his Galra side could flush it out quick enough to get him out of the situation.

But of course, it was never that easy for him.

Suddenly, he was dropped harshly to the ground, the back of his head clacking against the floor painfully. His head swam and his mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and Keith was horrified to learn that he couldn’t even reflexively jerk away when a hand was on his jaw, pushing his head from one side to the other as if to examine him.

“A paladin of Voltron should be a good offering, enough to sustain our village for a very long time,” a new voice said, and it sounded older, more withered. “It is a good thing we called for this gathering, a wonderful idea on your part.”

“Oh please Elder, this Human practically gave himself to us.”

Keith’s skin burned at every new contact of the aliens hands on him, probing along his body starting from his face.

“Hmm, his eyes are fluttering, are the drugs working as they should?”

“Yes elder, he is paralized but aware.”

“Hmm,” the hands brushed his cheeks before poking past his lips and grasping onto his bottom row of teeth, pulling his mouth open. “Ah, this is not a full Human, now is it? Half Galran, i presume.”

Keith tried to scream and kick, to get the aliens away from him, but all he managed was a pressed groan.

“He is responsive enough vocally, though the fact that he is a mix of species makes him a perfect candidate. Prepare him for the process, I shall be back within half a Varga. He shall be ready by then.”

“Yes Elder!” Many voices chimed, maybe about four that Keith hadn’t noticed before. What the fuck was the process? What were they preparing him for? Keith didn’t want to find out. He tried to get his unresponsive body to just move, but failed when hands grabbed onto his ankles and wrist, pulling him up from the ground to place him on something higher. It was even colder than the floor, and with a sharp stab of dread, Keith realized he must be on an examination table of sorts.

The aliens around him spoke like he wasn’t there, examining him and pointing things out while busting around. Soon enough the slimy hands were stripping him of his paladin armor, leaving him in only the pants of his undersuit.

No

No

No

Keith’s tongue wouldn’t cooperate as he heard a metallic tray set down, right next to his head. He wouldn’t even be able to open his eyes and see what was going on around him, wouldn’t be able to mentally prepare himself for whatever the sick aliens were scheming.

Suddenly something cold came in contact with his chest, something sharp and jagged, before pressing down and tracing. Tracing marks and shapes until Keith saw fireworks in the back of his eyelids. If he weren’t drugged to hell and back, he would have bit through his lip to keep from screaming, but instead, all he could do was let out pained noises and gasped breaths.

“The mark is complete,” One voice garbled, but sounded like it was underwater due to the piercing ringing in Keith’s ears. “Get a tooth sample and continue with the marking process.”

No

No

No

Hands wrenched his mouth open, stretching and pulling at his jaw until a large object was shoved far into it. Hands were gripping his hair, pulling his head upwards, and Keith could feel the object against his tongue, cold and stony and wrench-shaped.

“A back molar should suffice, then a nail sample as well.”

Keith felt the drool pooling at the top of his mouth from it being open for so long in such a strange position. He could feel even more scalpels carving away at his wrist. He could feel a smaller object prodding at his fingernails. He could feel everything.

But he couldn’t move. Couldn’t blink. Couldn’t even scream in agony when hands grasped at the wrench in his mouth, aligning it with his furthest molar, before pulling.

 

---

 

 

“Has anyone seen Keith?” Shiro asked, trying not to let the worry laced in his tone show. Off of a hunch, he had searched the entire room, corner to corner, for the red paladin only to come up empty on his search.

He had gathered Pidge, Lance, and Hunk near the doorway to avoid any confrontations.

“I saw him when I was getting snacks, but that was about two varga ago,” Hunk shrugged, “don’t eat the stew, it’s not worth it.”

“I saw him chilling with some other alien dude by the wall,” Lance offered, “I figured maybe he had made a friend. Everything seemed okay…”

“How long ago was that?” Shiro’s tone was less of a question and more of an order. He could feel his prosthetic arm instinctively flaring up.

“Lets not jump to conclusions,” Pidge placed a hand on his arm, lowering it, “maybe he went to the restroom or something and got lost.”

“Or maybe he went back to his lion?” Hunk supplied.

Shiro knew his team all had valid points. Skipping out on the party to go to the restroom or hide out in his lion was a very Keith thing to do, but something was nagging at his gut, telling him that something more sinister was at play here.

“We need to split up and search every inch of this place until we find him,” Shiro decided, ignoring the way the other paladin's faces dropped with concern. “Me and Lance will head out to the lions and contact Allura before doing a sweep of the courtyard, Pidge and Hunk will stay with each other at all times and search down the corridors. If someone tries to stop you, use any means necessary. Understood?”

“G-got it,” Hunk replied, looking like he was about to hurl. Shiro could only hope he was making the right decision here, because if he was wrong then they had just ruined an alliance, but at the same time, he wasn’t sure what the princess was thinking when she ordered them to this planet.

He wasn’t sure if he wanted to make peace with these aliens. Something was very obviously off.

“You could have let me go with Hunk,” Lance whispered as he followed behind Shiro down the path to the courtyard, Bayard ready, “I mean, I doubt Pidge will do anything to calm his nerves.”

“A long range fighter and another long range fighter wouldn’t work,” Shiro replied, “stay on guard, there's no cover from here on out.”

To Lance’s credit, he remained silent behind Shiro as they silently made their way across the courtyard to their lions. Black immediately lowered her head to let them inside, “Lance, stay and guard the front while I contact the castle.”

“You got it.”

Shiro trusted Lance’s shooting skills enough to leave him alone, cursing under his breath as he reached for his helmet he left in the pilot seat. “Shiro to the castle, can anyone hear me?”

Static.

“Princess, are you there? Coran? Pick up, this is an urgent situation.”

More static, and if Shiro were an impatient person then he would have given up by now, but his ears strained until he heard a faint voice over the comms.

“-hiro, Shiro! Are you there?”

He let out a sigh, “Yes, yes it’s me.”

“What seems to be the situation? You aren’t supposed to make contact with me until another Varga.”

“There’s been a change of plans. Keith’s missing and something here is off. We need you to have the castle ready and orbiting the atmosphere because when we find Keith, we’re getting out of here.”

Shiro could feel Allura’s disappointment radiating from the comms, “Yes, but has the alliance failed? Keith could simply be hiding away as normal-”

“A peace treaty is not more important than Keith and that's final,” Shiro hissed, “be ready.” With a click he terminated the private comm link before shoving his helmet on and leaving blacks cockpit.

“The princess will be ready for us as soon as possible,” Shiro answered Lance’s silent question as he exited his lion, though Lance wasn’t focused on him, no. One of his eyes was closed and he was peering through his scope somewhere off to the left.

“Lance?”

“Shiro,” he lifted his gaze from the scope, though his eyes remained glued to the distance, “Shiro, t-theres something wrong.”

Lance was scared. Lance was terrified.

Something curled in Shiro’s gut as he quickly crouched next to the blue paladin, “What is it? What did you see?”

With shaky hands, Lance offered Shiro his gun. Shiro quickly peered through the scope in the general direction Lance had been looking, and that's when the flames caught his eye. Torches stuck out of the tall grass, circling around the only tree in the clearing like some kind of homing beacon. ‘

The tree was large and twisted up to the sky, leaves bristing almost as if it were alive. Shiro inhaled sharply when he noticed something shimmering against the tree. Chains. Something was chained to the tree. Whatever it was, was on the opposite side.

“What in the hell,” Shiro breathed, slowly lowering the scope as if the scene would disappear. “What’s happening here?”

“I saw movement in the tall grass,” Lance whispered, his voice almost lost in the wind. “Whatever it was, it was huge and hunched over. If it stood up, it would probably be taller than that tree.”

“We need to check it out,” Shiro decided. Already crouching low.

Lance scrambled behind him as they waded through the grass, “Are you kidding? Shiro, you’re our fearless leader and I would follow you to the end of the galaxy but isn’t that big beautiful mind of yours telling you that this is a bad idea? A very bad idea!”

“Lance-”

“I mean, I saw a creature in here somewhere, and now we’re sitting ducks!”

Shiro would have taken the lions if it wouldn’t have gained the aliens' attention. Pidge and Hunk were still inside, he didn’t want to create a hostage situation. “Lance,” he said steadily, “Keep that gun aimed and follow me.”

The night was dead silent with only the rustle of the singular tree up ahead. The torches casted looming shadows the closer they got. There were no aliens out here, Shiro realized, once they reached the edge of the ring of torches.

Shiros’ arm glowed a bright purple by the time he was bypassing the barrier and ducking before rounding to the other side of the tree and-

He had to turn away to avoid throwing up. From behind him, Lance lost his dinner.

The sight hadn’t seemed real at first, but when Shiro blinked the shock away to look back, Keith was still there, dangling from the tree branches. The chains dug into his wrist, all of his weight leaning on his tied up arms in such a way that his shoulders would pop out of their sockets. A stress position.

Shiro’s eyes unwillingly traveled further down and he almost wretched at the crimson color etched into Keith’s skin like a brand, the design slit into his wrist traveled further down to his chest, where a symbol that Shiro had never seen was displayed in Keith’s blood.

They had carved into him.

They had carved into Keith.

“Oh my god-” Lance choked from behind him, and all sense of silence had been broken. Shiro didn’t waste anymore time, snarling as he cut through the chains from Keith’s arms, catching him by the waist to keep him from hitting the ground. Keith’s body was limp and cold, and when Shiro set him down he scrambled for a pulse.

It was there.

It was faint, but it was there.

“Holy crow how did they do all of this in… in,” Lance held back a sob as he crashed to the ground on the other side of Keith. Shiro noticed the blood spouting from Keith’s mouth, and with relief he realized it wasn’t internal bleeding. It was obvious that a tooth had been taken out.

A fucking tooth had been taken out from Keith’s skull while they were forming a treaty with these sick aliens.

“His nails,” Lance said, breathless as he delicately held up Keith’s right hand to showcase the nailless finger beds. A quick glance to the other hand proved that only one hand had been affected.

“Keith?” Shiro asked, voice cracking, “Keith, buddy, I need you to wake up now. It’s me, Shiro.”

Keith’s eyelashes fluttered and a strangled noise broke past his cracked lips.

Shiro was going to kill-

“Hey,” Lance said, tone gentle as he cupped Keith’s face without looking up at Shiro. “We need to focus on Keith right now, we can bring their castle down later, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Shiro numbly agreed before tapping Keith’s cheek, “he’s out of it. They must have drugged him with something.”

That was when Keith opened his eyes, not all the way, but enough to see his glassy stare. Half-lidded eyes shifted from Lance to Shiro, and Keith let out another heartbreaking noise before he was retching.

“Shit,” Lance was quick to help Shiro move Keith to the side, and after even five minutes of Keith trying to throw up, nothing left his mouth.

 

“It must be the drugs they gave him, they could be reacting badly to his system,” Shiro mumbled, then hefted Keith up in a sitting position, back to chest. Keith’s head lolled against his shoulder, mouth wide open as if he was struggling to breath. Shiro took a calming breath before bringing two fingers, his mechanical ones, and pressing them into Keith’s mouth until he found the soft part of the roof of his mouth. He pressed down until Keith listed to the side, finally discarding the drugs from his system.

“We need to get him back to the castle, now!” Shiro ordered, sliding one of Keith’s arms over his shoulder and standing up. Lance was quick to take Keith’s other side, and under the torch light, he looked three shades too light.

The rest was a blur. Shiro saw red.

By the time he got Keith back to his lion, he was shivering from blood loss. Somewhere along the way Pidge and Hunk had joined them in their lions, but Shiro was too focused on how blue Keith’s lips looked to acknowledge them.

In the distance, the red lion raged. Shiro could hear her cry of anger as she sent the castle toppling down. Shiro hoped that whatever creature had been lurking got to all of them

“Why would they do this?” Allura finally asked in horror, once they were back inside the castle and Keith was in the healing pod. He was expected to make a full recovery with no scars left behind. His nails and missing tooth would even grow back.

Shiro crossed his arms, something dark on his tongue.

“They were using him as a human sacrifice.”

Chapter 2: Wisdom Teeth aches

Notes:

No major trigger warnings for this one!

Prompt; Wisdom teeth removal

(Request are welcome :)

It started as a dull ache in the back of Keith’s mouth. Like other aches and sores in his body, he had resolutely ignored it in favor of doing something else that will cause even more aches and sores. It had been fine for a few days, and tolerable for the few more after that.

By the second week, though, the pain had migrated from the back of his mouth and to his jaw, feeling like it had fractured every time he opened it.

And halfway through that same week, the pain had spread even further and to the back of his skull, burning hot when he chewed and lingering when he talked.

It was just Keith’s luck that he would end up having a dental problem in space, but how he was going to deal with it, he had no idea. So like most aches and sores in his body, he ignored it until it became very apparent to the rest of the team.

The week had started off like so.

On Monday, (Pidge had made it a point to keep track of the days in space, even if Keith thought it didn’t matter) the castle's alarm started to blare bright and early in the morning. Keith had been so disoriented that he rolled right out of bed and nearly put on his paladin armor backwards. By the time he made it to the main viewing deck, he was disappointed to realize that even Lance had beat him. (had he slept through most of the alarm?) Allura was calmly scrolling through their distress signals.

“Uhh, princess, where's the giant fleet of enemy ships?” Lance asked, and for once Keith was glad that there was someone else who asked the questions he was too tired to ask himself.

“Hmm?” She looked down, bright eyed and ready for the day, as if she hadn't even realized they were there. “Oh, that alarm was no real threat, I just wanted you all up this morning and I figured it was best to keep you on your toes.”

The garrison trio all let out a collective groan and Keith mentally backed up the sentiment.

“Princess,” Shiro sighed wearily, “there is a reason for drills, but it would be nice if you would tell us the night before so that some of us could at least try to get some sleep.” He rubbed the back of his head, and Keith didn’t miss the dark circles under his eyes. He was speaking for himself and the rest of their crew.

“What’s the point in telling you? That way you would already be prepared, would you not?”

Keith had a feeling that she wouldn’t ever get the point of the situation, and Pidge seemed to sense the same thing, because after taking off her glasses and rubbing her face she looked as wide awake as she could possibly be at five in the morning. “Why did you want us up bright and early anyway?”

“We will be using this morning to prioritize the descriptions encrypted in these distress signals, code red for the urgent, yellow for the matters that can be sorted out at a later date, and green for the unnecessary ones. I fear that there will be significantly less green signals than red and yellows.”

“We could have at least had a few more hours of sleep,” Hunk groaned, “Not cool man, not cool.”

Keith was inclined to agree, because waking them up before the sun would even rise on Earth just to sort alien files was not a good way to start a training day. The Princess still didn’t seem to understand the limits of the human body, despite the long and detailed conversation Shiro had with her about boundaries.

Keith put his head down and pinched between his eyebrows before his hands trailed down to rub sorley at his jaw. Even the rubbing sensation sent a spike of pain through his skull.

“Keith?” Shiro asked, somehow he had materialized right next to him. Keith tried not to wince when he looked up to notice the team had spread themselves across the room, all going through files half-asleep. Shiro was looking down at him, brows pinched with concern, “are you okay? You haven’t said a word this morning.”

Keith waved him off, “M’fine,” he offered, not opening his mouth any wider than he had to, “Jus’ tired.”

For some reason, Shiro seemed to be even more worried, but before he could say anything else, Keith turned his back to him to find his own corner of the room to do his work in. He guiltily tried to ignore the looks Shiro continued to shoot at him from across the room.

Tuesday hadn’t been as bright and early, allowing Keith to get up at a normal time, though maybe that had been a curse in disguise because waking up on his own allowed him to feel the painful hot ache of his jaw. It allowed him to lift his head from his pillow slowly and let out a disgusted noise at the sheer amount of drool that had traveled from his mouth and onto the pillow that night.

Keith managed to close his mouth all the way as he went through his morning routine, showering and toweling dry his hair (he forwent brushing his teeth because the last time he had tried to do so, it took a lot of coaxing to get the brush out from between his teeth.)

By the time he emerged from his room, he nearly ran into Lance in his haste to get to the training room.

“Whoa buddy, where's the fire?” Lance asked, hands up as he backed away from Keith.

Keith glared at the blue paladin, “Didn’t you forget we had group training exrasizes today?”

Lance’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline, “Dude, you okay? We had training a Varga ago. You didn’t show up so Shiro went to check on you then came back and said to let you rest. Are you sick or something?” Lance reached forward to brush Keith’s bangs back and feel his forehead before pulling back, “Hmm, you are a little warm. A small fever?”

Keith let that information process in his brain. Apparently, it was a lot later than he thought it had been. He flushed in embarrassment at the thought of Shiro walking into his room to see his drooling mess. If Keith was being honest with himself, he did feel a little warm, but he figured that had been from the shower.

“Oh, dude, you’re all red now. Maybe you should skidaddle back to bed and not infect the rest of us, yeah?”

Keith rolled his eyes, and even the movement of his eyes in his skull somehow made his teeth hurt. “‘M not sick, you can stay away for all I care.”

“Wow man, your voice sounds a bit different, like you have something shoved in the back of your mouth.” Lance wiggled his eyebrows, “Whacha got back there Keith?”

Having enough with the conversation, Keith pushed past Lance, continuing on his path to the training deck. If he missed training, then he was going to make up for it.

Lance watched him walk away with one eyebrow raised, “...Weird.”

On Wednesday there was a knock at Keith’s door and Keith had dragged himself from bed, not caring to look at himself in the mirror before his door slid open. Pidge stood on the other side of it, and Keith looked down further so that he wasn’t staring at the top of her fluffy hair. Even if he wasn’t that much taller than her, it was still a stretch.

“Hiya Keith,” Pidge mumbled, not looking up from her laptop, “Shiro told me to tell you that the Princess doubled us up on training and that it’ll be tomorrow, bright and early.” She droned, looking like she didn’t even want to be in front of Keith’s door at the moment.

Great, another day of getting up at four in the morning when Keith couldn’t even sleep because his damn teeth were trying to grow a second set of teeth without his permission.

Pidge adjusted her glasses, “but I think that today is a relax day, so people like us can stay shut in our rooms all day if we feel like- Whoa!” She had finally looked up to see the mess that Keith was sure he looked at the moment. “You look like you’re a zombie on one of those B-list zombie movies,” she supplied, very helpfully.

Keith gave her a deadpan stare, letting her know that her opinion was not needed or wanted. Of course, she continued anyway. “I mean seriously, your eyes are so sunken and your skin’s all clammy. Man, you’ve gotta get more sleep, even your jaw looks swollen and oh-” she reached up, and much to Keith’s horror, used her sleeve to wipe the drool away from his lips.

He didn’t have enough restraint to not make a pained noise and back away.

Pidge halted in her movements, “you’ve gotta be sleepwalking or something,” she decided, then backed away from his doorway, “whatever, i’ll catch you later.”

Keith had never felt so glad to be alone.

Later that night, Shiro had fished him from his room and dragged him to the large altean dinner table. Keith grumbled and took his normal seat, Shiro on one side and Lance on his other, before zoning out of their conversations. This was one thing he had to get used to in this space castle, actually socializing with people and having ‘family dinners.’ Keith didn’t think he ever really had a family dinner in his life before flying to space in a giant blue lion, and the only company he had to talk to in the desert was himself and the lizards that snuck in occasionally.

But he knew that the act of dinner with the team was important to the others, because they were still adjusting to not being around their families and stranded with only five very different people and two aliens who didn’t understand Earth culture.

Keith had managed to fix himself up to at least look decent after Pidge had visited, but he was sure he still looked like a walking corpse judging by the suspicious glances the others sent him. Shiro’s probing glance was almost becoming overbearing from right next to him, but at least Allura and Coran went along as usual, not noticing anything out of place.

“Keith, man,” Hunk suddenly interrupted Corans long monologue about his great-grandfather, “you haven’t touched your food, do you not like it?”

Keith’s eyes widened as he looked down at the colorful plate. It looked more appetizing than anything he had eaten in space so far, and his stomach ached for a meal, but he didn’t trust his jaw to not fall off if he tried to open it wide enough to get a fork in there.

“No, I'm sure it’s good, Hunk,” he said, trying to avoid the yellow paladin's puppy eyes, not wanting to offend him, “but I'm just not hungry.”

“But I haven’t seen you leave your room all day,” Lance pointed out.

“What, were you waiting outside my room?’ Keith shot back, ignoring the pain when he formed the ‘O’ vowel of the word outside.

Lance flushed and immediately looked back to his plate, playing with his food. The room filled with silence and Keith was shocked at the lack of retort from Lance.

“Well,” Allura broke the uncomfortable silence, “we can always save your food for when you find the urge to eat.”

Keith would have smiled appreciatively at the princess, but instead he settled for a small nod. The room slowly went back to normal conversation and thankfully, Keith managed to sneak out and avoid any investigation from Shiro.

The next morning had been the worst by far. The pain pulsated throughout his whole head, and maneuvering out of bed was painful enough. That was when Keith remembered just why he was being woken up by the castle's alarm.

They had morning training.

He groaned at the thought of throwing himself around on the training deck, but soldiered on anyway. He checked to make sure his paladin armor wasn’t backwards before stumbling out of the room and onto the training deck. The team was already waiting, helping each other stretch out their sleepy muscles.

“Nice of you to join us, Keith,” the princess said from the training deck, “you may run an extra lap around the deck as a warm up.”

Keith had never hated royalty more than in that moment.

After everyone was stretched and warmed up Coran’s voice cracked over the speakers, “alright paladins, one on one sparring to start out the morning, then individual rounds with the gladiator. After that, we will have a team match against the gladiator and following that is weapons training. Then you will be granted a twenty minute break only before…” The man droned on and Keith watched as his teammates' faces fell even more as he continued.

“Are you trying to kill us?” Lance complained.

“Yeah, that can’t be right, believe it or not princess, we are not Alteans and we cannot train for the whole entire day-”

“Enough!” Allura interrupted Pidge’s rebellion, “start and we shall see your limits.”

Now Keith was convinced that she truly was trying to kill them.

In the end, Keith hadn’t even managed to make it past the first exercise before the pain became too much. He had been partnered with Lance, who was jumping around far too much for Keith’s liking.

“What’s got ya moving so slow today, Mullet?” He asked, and Keith couldn’t tell if he was imagining the slight worry in the other tone, “you aren't still sick from the other day are you?”

Keith ignored Lance’s banter and went in for a punch, though he was too slow. Lance, like a viper, had grabbed his arm and pulled Keith over his shoulder, sending Keith crashing to the training decks floor.

“Did that actually work? Holy crow!”

Keith was too blinded with pain to respond, let alone open his eyes. His teeth had clacked together upon contact with the floor and that sent a fiery hot surge throughout his entire body. Trying to hold in a moan at the throbbing and attempting to catch his breath from the pain, Keith curled in on himself.

Lance’s cheering stopped.

“Keith? Keith? Hey Keith, talk to me,” Lance’s voice grew closer to his ears, assaulting his brain. There was a thud from next to him and hands were on his arm, trying to pull Keith to his back to assess the damage.

“Guys!” Lance called, sounding panicked, “There’s something wrong with Keith!”

The sound of training around them gradually subsided and soon enough Keith could feel the whole team's presence surrounding him and Lance. The next time he opened his eyes, his head was cushioned by Shiro’s legs and he was staring up into a flashlight.

“No head trauma,” Coran noted, backing away. Keith’s fingers idly twitched and it was then that he realized Lance was clutching onto his hand. When Keith met his gaze, Lance looked away, guilt-stricken.

“What’s causing him so much pain then?” Shiro asked, “he can’t even talk.”

Keith couldn’t help but groan in agreement, causing Shiro to shift even more in worry.

“I think I know what it is,” Pidge announced, looking down at Keith with disapproving eyes, “it’s his teeth. Do you see how swollen his jaw is? Does anyone know if he’s had any dental issues in the past?”

The others all murmured to themselves, shaking their heads before Shiro answered, “It has to be his wisdom teeth. The dentist had always said his mouth was too small for the teeth and that it would later cause complications.” He looked to the two alteans who were gathered around in worry, “but how are we going to find dental assistance in space?”

“I don’t suppose Alteans have a dentist, do they?” Hunk asked, biting at his fingernails.

“No,” Allura shook her head, “Coran nor I are expert enough to extract one's teeth. Though there is a planet nearby that has some of the best teeth workers in the known universe.”

Shiro nodded, “set a course straight for there. If Keith can’t even talk, then we don’t have time.”

Distantly, Keith wanted to laugh at the situation. They were treating his stupid wisdom teeth like they were a major injury that the healing pod couldn’t fix.

“Keith, buddy, I hate to ask this, but can you open your mouth?” Lance asked, still crouching at his side, “we need to get a good view of the swelling so we’re sure what's going on.”

Keith really didn’t want to do that.

He stubbornly turned his head away, ignoring Shiro’s amused glance.

“Come on Keithy, open wide!”

Keith blatantly ignored the metal spoon Lance had in his hand. Where did he even get that thing? But before he could further refuse it, Shiro placed a hand on either side of his head to hold it still. Keith shot him a look of absolute betrayal, hoping it was very evident, before Lance used the spoon to place between his teeth and wrench them apart.

It was painful, but there was something about the situation that made it hurt just a little bit less. Lance peered into Keith’s mouth with the flashlight Coran had handed him, humming. “Hmm, yeah, they’re definitely inflamed.” he leaned back on his heels and Keith clamped his jaw shut with an audible clack, “Keith, how could you let them get this bad?”

He shrugged.

“My little sister had to get her wisdom teeth taken out and she hid it from the rest of us, too embarrassed about what could happen when she was hopped up on the medication, but hers still weren't this bad. You’re gonna give Shiro even more gray hairs if you keep this up!”

Keith spared a guilty look to Shiro, who had let his face go in favor of keeping him on the floor. “Lance is right Keith. We’ll arrive on the planet soon, get this procedure done, and maybe even get dentist appointments ourselves, before spending a week relaxing with no morning alarms.” He sent a warning glance to the princess, who shrunk under his gaze. “But I promise, either way, we’ll be a thorn in your side until you're all better.”

Keith flushed and turned his head away from his teammates and Lance grinned, “Aww, you embarrassed him!”

 

---

 

“How long is this gonna take?” Hunk asked, pacing the floors of the small dentist office, practically wearing it thin. As it turned out, the alien species that dealt with teeth were tiny, even smaller than Pidge. When they first saw Keith they were eager to learn about a new species' tooth structure, and it hadn’t taken them long to figure out how they were going to extract the teeth. (Coran, thank god, had provided them with gas that would be able to knock Keith out despite his Galran DNA.)

“Hunk, it should be any minute now, calm down,” Shiro sighed, exasperated.

“Yeah Hunk, you’re making me anxious just looking at you,” Lance chimed in, “I don’t see what the big deal is, I mean wisdom teeth shouldn’t be that hard to take out.”

“Oh sure ‘what's the big deal’” Pidge mimicked, “says the one who was holding Keith’s hand and singing ‘here comes the airplane’ just to get a spoon into his mouth.”

Lance flushed bright red at the others laughter, “Shu-shut up, I was worried I had knocked his head into next week!”

“Yeah, sure Lance. That’s exactly why.”

To the side of the office, Allura and Coran shot each other confused looks, probably wondering what ‘here comes the airplane’ was. Shiro was too exhausted to explain. The small aliens had offered to check on their teeth as well, and it wasn’t the most pleasant feeling having them scrape tools against his teeth. The overhead light and the examination table had reminded him of his time imprisoned on a Galra ship a bit too much, but he had managed. (Of course, only after being told he had about three cavities. He hadn’t been able to brush his teeth when he was too busy fighting for his life for a year. His tooth health was something they would worry about later, right now, they were here for Keith.)

As if reading his thoughts, the door to the office opened and a taller alien exited, followed by a very drugged, very loopy Keith. His hair was in disarray and the lounge clothes Shiro had forced him to wear were wrinkled, but he didn’t look harmed. His mouth was stuffed to the brim with cotton, making him look like an overgrown chipmunk.

Shiro didn’t crack at the sight, keeping a straight face as he grabbed one of Keith’s elbows to help guide him out of the room, Hunk taking the other one. Keith’s hazed eyes glanced around the room in confusion before they landed on Shiro’s face.

Shiro knew that Keith wasn’t in his right mind when he yelled out a muffled “Sh’ro!” Cotton falling from his mouth as he broke their grip to wrap his arms around Shiro.

“Whoa, don’t fall,” Shiro instructed, pulling Keith away once he had filled his hug quota.

“‘Ure here!” Keith ignored him, reaching up to pat his white tuft of hair, “Why do you got a… a cloud on ‘ure head?”

From next to him, Lance cackled, “Oh man, he is so high right now!”

“What is wrong with him?” Allura asked, “I do not understand.”

“This is typically how humans react to the gas that me and Coran concocted,” Pidge informed, “that is why he is acting like…”

“A child?”

“A very happy puppy?”

“A creepy Keith.”

They all stopped to look at Keith, who was muttering to himself, letting Shiro and Hunk guide him outside of the dentist office. After a moment they scrambled over each other to get past the door.

“This is a castle?”

“Yes, Keith,” Shiro answered for the ninth time, very patiently.

“And it can fly?”

“Yes Keith.”

“Can you fly?”

“No Keith.”

“But you have… a c-cloud on your head? Can you not float?”

“Unfortunately not.”

“Do you want to see what can fly?” Lance suggested, lighting up when Keith immediately turned to him. He would have tripped over his own feet if Hunk and Shiro hadn’t steadied them. They were slowly but surely making their way to the lounge's couch.

“Yes!”

“You have a flying magical robot lion.”

Keith frowned, flinching when the movement hurt his face, even when numbed. “Tha’s not real. There’s no such thing.”

“Uh, yes there is, I can show you!”

Once they finally got to the couch, Keith was plopped down and ordered to sit still. Shiro had to bat away Keith’s hand every other minute when he tried to reach for his mouth and investigate the cotton. There was some blood mixed with drool falling past his lips, but at this point, no one had cared.

“You have… white hair too,” Keith pointed at the princess, and she smiled.

“Yes, yes I do Keith.”

“Are you a cloud too? Like.. like Sh’ro?”

Allure frowned, “I’m afraid not. I am an alien, Princess Allura of Altea.”

“Aliens aren’ real.”

Coran gasped dramatically, as if Keith had personally wounded him. At this point, Pidge and Lance were on the floor, laughing so hard that it was barely audible. Shiro shot them a fondly annoyed look before once again grabbing Keith’s wrist and pulling his hand away from his swollen mouth.

By the time an hour had passed, the crew was all exhausted from answering Keith’s questions. But suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped, Keith closed his glassy eyes and conked out on the spot.

“Man that was quick,” Lance yawned, “but it is getting late. Maybe Keith has the right idea for once.”

Soon enough, everyone had filtered out of the common room, leaving Shiro to drape a blanket over Keith and poke a cotton suave back into his mouth that had been trying to escape. What an eventful day it had been.

Chapter 3: Mind games

Notes:

Prompt; Flashbacks

(A paladin mental training gone wrong.)

TWs; Child abuse, graphic violence

Keith knew that there was a chance the other paladins thought he was a bit heartless. He didn’t argue against it, because if the shoe fit then there was no denying it, but maybe his definition of ‘heartless’ was different than theirs. Of course, Keith knew he was far from it.

The others were having a hard time adjusting to their sudden departure from Earth, in fact, they vocalized as much during their lounge times. Keith didn’t know when lounging had become a therapy session, but he listened to the others describe their families through sobs with a detached kind of fascination.

Everyone had something to say, Lance talked about his large family enough to where Keith knew each and every single one of their names. Hunk was similar, his family not quite as big but just as loving. It took a bit longer for Pidge to admit her family had been captured by the Galra, but she was confident that they were out there and they were alive, it was only a matter of time until they found them.

Shiro, ever the dutiful leader, had listened intently and offered them a shoulder to cry on. Sometimes he would even talk about what he missed on Earth, the smells, the plants, the wonder of humankind towards space. Adam.

It was then that Keith realized that he was the only one that was perfectly fine and prepared to spend the rest of his life on this castleship. He didn’t have anything to go back to besides the barren desert shack he had struggled to live in for a year.

So, he didn’t join in on those conversations, and if the others noticed, then they didn’t say anything. (Of course there was always Shiro, silently offering up his ear, but Keith had always shrugged and claimed he had nothing to cry over.) Trapped on this castleship with five people and two aliens, Keith was less lonely than he had ever felt in his entire life while the rest of his team felt isolated and more alone than ever.

Keith didn’t have a right to talk during their lounge room therapy sessions.

Instead he focused on training, and group training sessions had become far more common lately once they got into the swing of things. Keith didn’t mind them, it was a way to keep his mind and body occupied while waiting for an attack, and it also proved to be a good way to avoid other people. Though the training that had annoyed him the most, and that he wanted no part of, were the mind exercises.

They poked and prodded at the barrier of his brain, and once the tendrils managed to sneak through his mental blockade, they wrapped themselves around precious memories. After leaving those ‘meditations’ Keith felt more keyed up than relaxed. Violated.

Somehow, using the mind headbands was more exhausting than fighting the gladiator. Thankfully, Coran seemed sympathetic and always let them off the leash, allowing the paladins leave the room with tired minds.

Just when Keith thought mental exercises couldn’t get worse, he was proved wrong.

That morning he had woken up with a start, wading his way through murky memories to get out of bed and stumble to the communal showers. It was blissfully empty by the time he exited the showers, meaning it must have been earlier in the morning than he thought because he knew Shiro liked to take early morning showers after his jog around the perimeter of the castle. Luckily, Lance and Hunk preferred night showers.

The morning cycle for the castle hadn’t even been activated yet. Keith towel dried his hair as he walked along the ghostly corridors. He could practically feel how full of life it had once been. But now it was an empty shell of the king's home. Keith knew how that felt.

The thoughts of the ghost lingering around made Keith shiver and he hurried back to his room to change to his armor for the paladin's morning training session.

A few Varga later found Keith and Shiro helping each other stretch on the training deck, Keith sitting on the floor as Shiro pushed his back forward so he could reach past his feet.

Like normal, Pidge and Hunk were the next to filter in, droopy eyed and tired, followed by Lance much later. Once they were all present, the princess and Coran, instead of greeting them from the viewing deck, entered the room and closed the door behind them.

Keith suddenly felt like a trapped animal.

“As you can probably tell, today’s training will not be normal,” Coran announced, sounding way too chipper for how early in the morning it was.

Pidge tilted her head in question, “What, so no fighting the gladiator?” Keith could sense the relief radiating off of the garrison trio when the princess nodded in affirmation.

“No physical fighting today, instead, Coran and I have noticed a certain…” The princess thought, as if she was choosing her words carefully, “gloomy atmosphere here as of late. We intend to fix that.”

Coran cleared his throat, “Yes, I believe the Earth term for what you Paladins are feeling is called… sickness of the home?”

“You mean homesickness?” Shiro corrected.

“Yes, that is correct, number one. Homesickness is the word I was searching for. We have noticed that many of you miss the Earth, so today you will put the training headbands on, and they will choose an important memory at random to showcase to the other Paladins.”

Keith tensed. A random memory? From next to him, Shiro put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“Think of this as a bonding exercise,” Allura continued, picking up from where Coran had dropped off, “it is a way to show a bit of yourself to the others, and with that, trust will be formed among you.”

“Wait wait wait,” Lance yawned, as if he was just zoning in on the conversation, “how do we know what memory it’ll show?”

“There is no way to predict,” Coran shrugged, as if he hadn’t just crushed Keith’s hope for this exercise, “It will choose a prominent one in your development, such as learning a new thing, or experiencing something you have never experienced before.”

“Great, just checking,” Lance grumbled as he took his headset before getting comfortable on the floor. Reluctantly the others followed his lead, taking their places in their circle. It was the same order they sat at the table in, Lance, Keith, Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk. Allura and Coran, apparently, had opted to not join in on the training because they sat off to the side.

Keith felt bitter, but swallowed it down to put the silver headband on his head.

“Now, everyone must focus,” Coran’s voice faded off into the distance, “it is okay to relax, just close your eyes…”

 

---

 

“Ma, pa!” Lance called excitedly. Keith watched with interest, noting that he didn’t seem too much younger than he was now. Maybe this was around just before he entered the Garrison. Lance sprinted through a relatively large house, sliding across the wooden tile and surfing down the railing of the stairs.

He had a note of some sort clutched tightly in his right hand, held protectively to his chest.

“Lance?” a woman, who Keith assumed was Lance’s mother, called back from the next room. Lance skidded across the tile before breaking into an even larger grin.

“I made it!” He waved the envelope around in the air, also happening to wave away the smoke that was wafting in the kitchen. “I’m a fighter pilot!”

Lance’s mother pulled away from the stove, turning it off before Lance was on her, wrapping her into a hug and lifting her feet from the ground. “That’s great! I’m so proud of you, love,” she grinned, Lance doing another twirl before setting her down to the ground. She firmly placed a kiss on each side of his cheek before pulling away.

“I knew you had it in you!”

Keith couldn’t help but feel something twist in his gut at Lance’s memory. In a sense, he was glad he had punched Iverson in the face and washed out, if only Lance could take his place, but at the same time, there had been no mother or father to kiss his cheeks when he made it into the program. Of course, there was Shiro and Adam, the two had tried their best to celebrate by taking him out to dinner, and that had been one of the happiest nights of Keith’s life, but after that it had quickly turned sour.

The smell of a feast overtook Keith’s senses and suddenly they were at a dinner table. Keith scanned the room and it's warm wallpaper, worn at some parts, revealing the homieness of the room. The tiles were dark in a stark contrast, yet just as worn. Lance smiled as he listened to his little Nephew, bragging about how Lance was going to explore space and bring an alien home.

Keith resisted the urge to laugh right along with Lance, for a different reason. The irony. The food looked delicious, and yes, Hunk made due with the space herbs and spices, but nothing would come close to an Earth worthy meal. Keith eyed all of the proud faces of Lance’s family, and they were a huge one. Sure, Keith had heard Lance counting them off, having to use more than two sets of hands, but it was different seeing it in person.

Keith saw a few more glimpses of the happy conversation before he was suddenly warped back to the cold, harsh training room. They all sat in silence for a long moment, lingering smiles on their faces, and from next to Keith Lance let out a wet chuckle.

“Well, there’s my crazy family,” he rubbed furiously at his eyes, “man, I miss them so much. It was nice to- to see them again.” He let out a shaky breath and regained his composure, no one else saying a further word.

The next memories shown had been Hunk and Pidge.

Hunk was significantly younger, using a step stool and reaching out on his tippy toes to stir batter in a bowl that was half his size. It was nice to see that cooking had been a part of him all of his life. He had been cooking with his grandma, he had explained later, and that it was a core memory because the cake he made had been the last one they shared together before she passed away.

Lance had pulled the yellow Paladin in for a hug before they all settled down for Pidge.

Keith wasn’t surprised to see her and her family eating dinner the night before the Kerberos mission, Matt excitedly chattering about dried peas. It was happy at first, but soon enough the news of the Kerberos mission was televised and Pidge had been in shambles, insisting to her mom that it wasn’t pilot error. There had been something more sinister at play, and it seemed that Pidge and Keith were the only ones in the universe who had believed so.

A flash of Pidge cutting her hair, eyes watering.

Another flash of her entering the Garrison with Lance and Hunk as her crewmates.

Once they were out of the memory, Pidge had immediately taken her glasses off to rub at her eyes.

“You okay?” Hunk asked, softly and concerned, but they all knew that Pidge was made of much tougher stuff than most of them sitting in the circle.

“Well, for those who wondered about my reaction to the Kerberos mission…” She trailed off, setting her glasses back onto the bridge of her nose. They all ignored her red rimmed eyes.

“We’ll find them” Shiro reassured, “they’re fighters, the both of them.”

“Thank you, Shiro,” she sniffled, “let’s get on with this exercise, it’s exhausting.”

Keith was inclined to agree, because he may not have been there for their memories, but their emotions were strong enough for him to feel second hand. He snuck a glance to the viewing deck to see Coran and the princess looking down at them in a mix of curiosity and pity. Keith had the urge to slap the headbands on them so they could get a taste of their own medicine, but before he could rise from the ground, Shiro’s memory had washed over him like a tidal wave.

It took Keith a long moment to realize that he was seeing himself, just way younger, probably from when he was in middle school. Shiro was there, as well as Adam. “Keith! We knew you could get in,” Shiro grinned, looking young and like he had not been kidnapped by aliens for a year. Keith had almost forgotten how he looked with all black hair.

It was Adams turn to ruffle his hair, “Now we just gotta fix that attitude of yours,” he teased good naturedly.

“Well I'm sure your recommendation helped me out a lot,” Keith shrugged, bashful as he looked to the ground. He hadn’t been used to compliments and praise before Shiro and Adam had appeared into his life. At first he hadn’t tried to rely his happiness on the two of them, even if they were probably the only good part of his adolescence years, because he knew that everything good in life had a way of slipping through his fingers.

“Don’t be like that,” Shiro clapped a hand on Keith’s shoulder. No prosthetic arm. “Accept the compliment, what do you say we take you out to eat?”

Keith’s eyes shot up to Shiro and the man chuckled, leaning back up, “never could resist food, huh?”

No, Keith had been running on three meals that week, but he wasn’t about to tell Shiro that. Instead, he let them celebrate as they ate at a nearby restaurant, one that they frequented on many occasions because Shiro loved the hamburgers and Adam loved the salad. Keith ate the chicken tenders and fries, the kids meal.

The three of them talked, they talked about upcoming trip plans, they talked about Keith’s simulation test, they talked about meaningless things in the face of the war they didn’t know would be coming.

Once out of the memory, Keith could feel the stares aimed for him and Shiro.

“So you did know Keith from before the Garrison!” Lance exclaimed, “I knew it!”

Shiro shrugged, “It was no secret, i would have told anyone if they had asked, that is of course, if Keith wanted me to.” Shiro gave him a look, a silent question. Are you okay?

Keith nodded.

“Man, middle school Keith and now Keith didn’t change at all,” Hunk observed, “but Shiro you…” His trailed off, leaving only silence to ring throughout the room. Keith knew what they were all thinking, that Shiro had looked so much younger, so much happier with Adam, two human arms, and no hair that had been turned stark white from stress.

Keith had been lost in thought for so long that he forgot that he was the only one left. Before he could take the headband off, he was assaulted with a bright flash, back to the past. Back to where he shouldn’t be.

Rain droplets clung to the grass around his beat up sneakers, the humidity clung to little Keith’s skin like a boa constrictor, sapping his energy. Dark clouds hung low and fog swirled in the atmosphere, though that wasn’t what Keith was focused on. Instead, his eyes were glued to the headstone, cracked and miserable, that had his dad's name etched into it for all to see.

He had thought about this day a lot. He had thought of the small outcome of people who came to visit. He had thought if his mom was ever going to come back to pull him from this nightmare. He had thought that maybe the world could treat him just a little kinder after the back to back heartaches.

He was wrong.

In Front of Keith, he watched numbly as the smaller version of himself stared down at the grave, devoid of any emotion until it came suddenly, like a knife to his chest. A sob had ripped itself through his small body, and with growing horror, Keith realized that everyone was going to watch along with him as his little body kicked at the grave, clawing at it until his cheeks were raw with tears. The rain came later, after little Keith had cursed his Father out for leaving him and curled up right next to the headstone until he fell asleep.

Keith felt the emotions tearing at his seams, and he ignored his own hot tears spilling past his cheeks. It was as if an old wound had been ripped open after just barley healing.

The memory became fuzzy in his head, and with a growing sense of relief, Keith thought that the memory was over and he could wake up from this mess and ignore the others in favor of stomping to his room.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, as the distant memory blurred, a new one took its place, milky white at first until it slowly morphed into another one. Keith squinted until, like a puzzle, the pieces of the scene were locked in place.

Once Keith realized where he was, he wanted to throw up. He should have guessed this would happen, because the most important things he learned in life was that there were good and there were bad foster families. Some seemed nice at first, all smiles and happy introductions until the door closed and Keith was hidden from prying eyes. Some were mean off the bad, unenthusiastically lugging him back to their place only for the bonus from the government.

Of course, there were the rare few that were happy and genuinely enjoyed having Keith as a foster kid. But those hurt Keith the worst, because in the end they had all apologized profusely once it was Keith’s time to leave. After the first few nice families, Keith had lost hope of them adopting him because he realized that there was a family before he got there, and weaving him into those complicated family ties was more trouble than it was worth.

This memory though, this was one of the harshest homes he had lived in. There weren’t many kids, only two other ones besides him, and they were both significantly younger. Keith had been in the Garrison at the time, his first year living in the dorms, and because of that he wasn’t home often. (The other two siblings, twins, Nina Nandia, didn’t spend their time there either, because Keith had found alternative places to let them sleep while he wasn’t there.)

But it was inevitable if he lived at home legally, to show up when he didn’t have anywhere else to go. The Garrison was on break for the winter holidays, and when Keith discovered the twins were back at home he decided to stay with them. A full house for the first time in a while.

Keith watched as the memory shifted, morphing with his thoughts until it locked in on the two story house. The interior was mostly wood, the curtains drawn and the walls a dull gray color. Keith had never wanted to see this place again.

He watched as his younger self returned for holiday, backpack slung over his shoulder. It was around ten o’clock by the time he snuck in silently. The lights were off. Little Keith seemed to relax after a moment of listening for any noises. He dropped his bag and slowly made his way up the stairs, avoiding the third and fifth steps because they always creaked and creaked and creaked-

“Not even gonna say hi?” A low, slurred voice had asked from the guest room's doorway once Keith had finally settled in. “Brat, I didn’t even know you were staying, no warning?”

Like a horror film, Keith slowly turned his head to face the man. He wasn’t all that impressive with a smoker's lung and a definite liver failure in his future, but he was imposing.

Keith had backed up as the man entered his room until the back of his knees hit the bed and he couldn’t move any further. He bit back a snappy response, instead biting his lip and keeping his head low. “No, I'm sorry.”

Keith was thankful he hadn’t gone into the next room over where the twins were to say hi, because once the blows started hitting harder and harder it was impossible to keep quiet. It always started like this, slapping him around for fun until his face was black and blue and he had fallen to the floor. At that point, the man always complained about his fist hurting, and started to use his steel toed boots instead.

The smarter foster families in the past had used phone books and kicked him where he could cover with clothes, but this one had known well that there was nowhere Keith could go. No one he would tell.

He didn’t really care as long as Keith was hurt and docile by the end of the day.

A few snaps of broken ribs, that luckily hadn’t penetrated his lungs.

The angry throbbing of his broken nose.

Keith had learned to mentally check out. To think about the blue skies and piloting through the clouds like an obstacle course with Shiro at his side. Shiro. Keith wondered how he was doing. Hopefully a lot better than he was.

Keith could imagine him and Adam sitting by a fireplace in one of the Garrison apartments in their knitted sweaters and holiday spirits. He could imagine moth and luna, their cats, nuzzling into their laps as they drank hot cocoa.

He could imagine himself, sitting on the couch with them. If only he could tell them. It only they could take him in and-

At the image Keith felt a sob bubble past his lips, and suddenly the beating subsided enough for Keith to open a bruised eye wearily. The man was watching him with insane fascination, a grin curling at his lips revealing his black teeth. “You’ve never cried before. Is this a holiday present? For me?”

And suddenly it got a whole lot worse.

Keith was sent stumbling out of the room and into the hallway. He didn’t even have the energy to stand so the man dragged his body for him until, with sickening dread, Keith didn't know what was about to happen until it was too late.

“Let’s see how long it takes ya to pass out now that I got ya crying, huh?”

Keith was kicked down the stairs, each wooden edge hitting a new part of his body until he reached the bottom and curled into a protective ball. He didn’t have time to recollect himself until his stomach was lurching. His ribs cried out in agony as he threw up onto the floor.

Oh no.

Oh God please make it stop-

“Now you go and stain my floor with your tears and vomit?” The man asked, somehow appearing right next to Keith, crouching down. Isn’t this what he had wanted? “You’re gonna have to clean it all up, so get to it.”

A large hand lifted him by his hair and promptly shoved his face into his own vomit, smearing it around until Keith’s lungs burned to breathe. The smell was like a sucker punch and Keith had the urge to vomit again, but instead, he lifted his head and spit blood out onto the man's shiny leather shoes in a sudden bout of rebellion.

He wasn’t about to break Keith, dammit.

The shoe reeled back and caught him in the temple.

“Lick it up, it better be gone by the time I'm back.” Footsteps left and about ten minutes after the sound of the main door being opened and closed, Keith finally managed to lift himself from the cold floor. Maybe his foster Father was going out for his drink, or perhaps cleaning supplies and a body bag. He would never know.

Stubbornly, he limped his way to the bathroom, leaning heavily against the wall until he reached his destination. Ignoring his reflection, he washed the blood and vomit from his face until he was sure all that stained him was his new bruises. It took only ten minutes for his legs to give out on him completely and for him to realize that he was, in fact, bleeding from the back of his head.

He didn’t realize he had a concussion, probably from falling down the stairs. He wouldn’t fall asleep. He could do this, he may not have been beaten quite this bad before, but he was no stranger to pain.

“Nina, Nandia?” He called, voice hoarse and painful sounding, “you can come… come out n-now!”

From his place, back against the wall next to the front door, Keith watched as the two girls emerged, eyes welling up with tears. Keith was thankful that they hadn’t been treated like him. He had taken all of his Fathers attention every chance he got and they were blissfully unharmed.

“Keith!” They called, stumbling down the bloodied stairs and curling into his hold. He held them as they cried and wiped his own tears away against the crowns of their heads.

Finally, the memory faded.

But it wasn’t like Keith noticed, he was too busy struggling to breathe. In, out, in out, out, out out, in, out-

“-eith?” A panicked voice asked, “Keith, listen to me.”

Keith couldn’t see anything anymore, no memories at all. Where was this voice coming from? Has he gone blind? His heart jackhammered in his chest as he wheezed. He flinched back violently when something warm touched his cheek. The cheek that should have been bruised and battered, yet he felt no pain, just apprehension.

“Keith, you’re at the castle of lions,” the same, deep voice reminded. It was nothing like his foster fathers, in fact, it was comforting. “Open your eyes, I promise you’re safe.”

Keith was tired. So tired. He was tired of sticking with his gut and he was tired with this life, so he trusted the voice and slowly opened his eyes. It was then that he was painfully reminded he wasn’t in the garrison anymore. He wasn’t living with that man anymore. Shiro was here with him now.

Once the tears were no longer obscuring his vision and his breath had finally returned from it being punched out of him, he realized that he was no longer sitting in a circle. His back was against the training room's wall, like a cornered animal, and the others were all watching with horrified faces. Pidge, Hunk, and even Lance had tears in their eyes, as if they had been sobbing for him.

And that was strange.

Why would they cry for him? Maybe the sight had just been traumatizing and a little graphic?

Shiro was close, almost directly in front of him with that worn look on his face. Keith could sense the anger sizzling under his skin and had to remind himself that it wasn’t aimed towards him. Or at least, he hoped not.

“Are you with us now?” He asked, tone a lot calmer than he looked.

How long had Keith been panicking?

He slowly nodded once he realized that he wasn’t injured anymore. They were just memories, vile, unwanted memories that he had blocked out.

“Okay, I’m going to take that headband off of you,” Shiro informed, telegraphing his movements as he moved to brush Keith’s hair out of his face, like he always used to do when he was younger, before pulling the headband off and dropping it to the floor.

It was then that it hit Keith like a freight train. He hadn’t been the only one to relive himself getting brutally beaten. His whole entire team had, and the two Alteans looked just as haunted. They had seen it too. He was vulnerable, like his skin had been peeled back for the whole world to see what was inside.

“Keith, I need you to breathe with me, just like I taught you,” Shiro instructed, slowly reaching for Keith’s hand and placing it against his chest.

Keith didn’t realize that he hadn’t been breathing.

Shiro’s breaths were exaggerated as Keith followed the steady rhythm of his chest. Up, down, up, down, up-

He couldn’t help it.

A sob wracked through his bones, and the room froze. Then another, and another.

He didn’t want them to see him like this. The only six other people on the castle didn’t need to know he was weak and unwanted and that no family had ever spared the time to help him in his life-

Shiro opened his arms, an offering of protection and shelter, and Keith would have been stupid to refuse it. He crawled forward and collapsed into the man's arms, hiding his face into the crook of his neck. He was sure Shiro was reassuring him, his chest buzzing as he talked and voice low and soothing, but Keith couldn’t hear any of it over the roaring in his head.

He closed his eyes and blocked everything out.

Eventually, he was weightless and his head was spinning, and later he was placed onto something soft and cushioned. It wasn’t a hardwood floor. Keith gave into sleep suspiciously quickly.

 

---

The week following the exercise everything was off. They had not done any mental training since, and Keith was sure it had everything to do with his freakout. He was sure that somehow Shiro had convinced the Alteans to call it off, or even yelled at them, if the tension between him and Allura was anything to go by.

The others were nice. So nice during the times they saw him, but it was almost as if they wanted to say something to him, mouths opening but no words coming out. Keith waited patiently, but when nothing ever came, he simply retired to his room for the night.

Lance had looked devastated and didn’t even tease him. Without the banter, the ship felt bare. Hunk had been sympathetic, piling meals and sweets on top of one another. Keith could tell he was trying to be slick about sliding him extra cookies using his stress baking as an excuse, but he appreciated it anyway. Pidge was emotionally stunted and didn’t like socializing, but sometimes Keith caught her fingers pausing over her key board whenever he walked by, then resuming about five minutes later.

Shiro checked in on him about three times a night, his patrols increasing.

Then finally, the string has snapped.

“Keith,” Shiro knocked on his doorframe. Keith froze solid for about twenty seconds, turning around in fear that he would be there, standing, watching, but instead it was just Shiro. He let out a sigh of relief.

“Yeah Shiro, what's up?”

“I- or well, the team needs to talk to you.”

Ah, there it was. Keith had silently let Shiro lead the way, imagining if he could escape through an airlock. Emotional conversations weren’t his thing.

And, as it turned out, it was very emotional. As he walked in, the other paladins already had red rimmed eyes. It started off with Hunk, spilling his guts about how terrible it was that Keith had been treated that way. Then Lance, angrier, claiming that if anyone treated him like that again then he’d shove his Bayard where the sun didn’t shine. Pidge was more pragmatic, less sensitive, and backed up Lance’s claim.

When Keith looked at Shiro, the man looked like he had aged twenty years. He sighed, full of exhaustion and sadness when he met his gaze, and Keith tensed, waiting for the pen to drop. He waited for the team to claim he was weak for not fighting back, but none of that ever happened.

“I’m sorry Keith,” Shiro’s voice cracked, “I’m sorry I ever let that happen to you-”

Before he could say anymore, Keith pulled him into a hug. “‘S not your fault Shiro,” he said, voice muffled by the fabric of his shirt, “shitty things happen and i’m not there anymore.”

He wasn’t there anymore.

He wasn’t there anymore.

He wasn’t-

More arms wrapped around him, not like a cage, but like blankets wrapping around his childhood, warm and soft and endearing. Something inside of Keith’s heart pulsed and twisted.

“What do you say Keith?” Lance asked, and Keith turned his head against Shiro’s shoulder to get the best view of the blue paladin he could in their hug pile.

“Huh?”

“We’re adopting you,” Hunk supplied.

“Well, not literally of course,” Pidge interrupted from somewhere near Keith’s ribs, “but we’re a family now and nothing can change that.”

Whatever had been ripping at Keith’s chest finally broke through, and he let himself smile, big and giddy with childlike joy. Somewhere in the past, young Keith was smiling just as big.

Chapter 4: Keith is out of his element

Notes:

Not any TWs for this one!

Prompt; Drowning (Lance teaches Keith how to swim.)

Jumping around from foster home to foster home as a kid meant that Keith never really had opportunities to act like a child. He watched as a mother and a father swung their kid in between them at the age of ten. He watched from outside the pool gate as his foster family took their biological child swimming at the public pool. He watched as the kids rode their bikes to school, racing to see who would get there first.

Keith had observed, but he had never experienced.

Suddenly having to live in an alien castle meant that he wasn’t the only one learning how things worked. He wasn’t the only one learning how to use the altean dishwasher. He wasn’t the only one learning how to suit up in armor in under thirty seconds and he wasn’t the only one piloting a giant robotic lion.

But, even so, the fact would always linger that the others would always have the advantage of childhood.

Keith had stumbled across the altean pool when he first explored the corridors of the castle by himself. It was humongous and looked deeper than any pool Keith had seen. The water looked just the same as the kind back on Earth, though the effect of the crisp and clean white of the tile gave it more of a lighter look.

He had gulped and immediately backed out of the room, overwhelmed.

The next time he visited it was with the rest of the Voltron crew. Once the news of the ship having a pool spread, they immediately called for a pool day and dragged him along with them as an excuse for ‘team bonding.’

Throughout the day Lance had complained how a pool day inside of the castle would never compare to one down on Earth. How none of them could get sunburnt from the sun and how none of them could lounge in lounge chairs and grill hamburgers by the poolside.

Keith didn’t know what he was talking about, but neither did Allura or Coran, so he wasn’t completely alone. (But they were aliens and had an excuse for their confusion.)

Keith had insisted on staying by the edge of the pool, legs in the water as he watched the others play a match of marco polo. The others gave him weird looks, but didn’t fight him any further on his refusal to join them, probably assuming he was doing his ‘lone wolf’ thing again, as Lance had claimed.

They could think what they wanted, it’s not like Keith wanted to get in with them anyways. His swimsuit was uncomfortable on his skin, a fabric that he did not enjoy. It was his signature red, and in fact, the others had their swimsuits according to their lion color. Apparently the princess had swimsuits of all shapes and sizes in a storage closet somewhere and passed them off to the Paladins.

Even Shiro had opted to get into the pool with his purple swim trunks, looking happier than Keith had seen him in a while. Lance whooped and hollered, cannonballing into Pidge and Hunk. The two didn’t yell at him, instead they retaliated by splashing him profusely.

Allura and Coran relaxed at the edge of the pool next to Keith, taking the time to lounge and talk amongst themselves.

Keith had never felt the urge to learn how to swim as a child. He had lived in a desert for most of his life, and none of the foster families had bothered to teach him. God, Keith would have rather died than ask Shiro or Adam or any of the Garrison instructors to teach him. He was content. He was just fine-

Keith was so occupied in his own thoughts that he didn’t notice Lance crouching down behind him until he was whispering into his ear. “Scared of the water, mullet?”

Keith did not jump. He did not.

He turned his head back to Lance with an unimpressed expression, “maybe I just want to enjoy my day away from you. I could be training right now, but instead you drag me out to the pool to watch you play marco polo.”

Lance shrugged and moved to sit next to him, “it was worth a try, I mean I wouldn’t blame you if you were scared of the altean pool, it is very deep and the drain looks like it’ll suck you right up.”

Huh, it did, didn’t it?

Keith shoved Lance with his elbow and Lance shook his hair dry like a dog, getting Keith all wet. Keith didn’t mind, it actually felt nice. “Why are you sitting with me? It looks like they’re about to do another rendition of sharks and minos as their lions.”

“Eh,” Lance shrugged, “been there, done that. I’m taking a rest. I miss the water, you know? I want to take a moment just to feel it around my legs.”

This was probably the nicest conversation Keith had with Lance in a while.

From next to Lance and Keith, the two Alteans finished their conversations and rose from the pool tile with determined looks on their faces. That couldn’t be good.

“Paladins!” Allura called, and it took a moment for the others to swim back and tread water around them. “Me and Coran have decided that as an exercise, we all shall play monarch of the poolside!”

Lance raised an eyebrow, “Monarch of the… what now?”

“Well number three, it is where two designated people are tasked with keeping the other players in the pool at all times!” Coran informed.

Hunks face lit up with recognition, “Oh, so king of the hill?”

“Percicley,” the princess answered, even though she probably had no idea what king of the hill was. “Now, as the two people who have played it before, me and Coran shall be the monarchs while the rest of you paladins try to overthrow us!”

The others chimed in their agreement, and Keith got up to go to the side and escape the blast zone, but before he could, Allura hooked her hands under his arms and lifted him up like he weighed absolutely nothing.

“Seeing as Keith hasn’t gotten into the pool once, it is appropriate that he should be thrown first.”

Keith’s heart leapt up to his throat and he started to thrash in her hold, grasping at her hands. “Princess, i’m not playing,” he tried desperately, “put me down, i’m not getting wet.”

“Princess,” Lance backed him up, “maybe you shouldn’t-”

“You have all taken too long to save your teammate!” The princess laughed as she launched Keith far into the middle of the pool where he wouldn’t be able to touch the bottom.

Where he wouldn’t be able to touch the bottom.

Keith couldn’t see past the bubbles surrounding him. The rush of cold water was so sudden, so paralyzing, that he couldn’t move. He could only squeeze his eyes shut and hold his breath despite needing to hyperventilate as he finally tried to claw to the surface, except he didn’t know which was was up and which way was down and-

His lungs violently shook in his chest, demanding to be used, and he couldn’t resist his body's natural instincts. He inhaled and the icy water infiltrated his body. He coughed and hackled to get it out.

He was drowning.

 

---

 

“Princess, maybe you shouldn't-” Lance was promptly cut off by Allura throwing Keith into the water like he weighed nothing.

“Oh, it is on!” Hunk cried, him and Pidge suddenly teaming up on the Princess while Shiro had pulled himself up to challenge Coran, all laughing. But Lance, Lance wasn’t focused on any of them. Instead, he watched with bated breath as Keith didn’t resurface after a full ten seconds.

Ten valuable seconds, as Lance had learned during his time as a lifeguard.

He knew he wasn’t wrong, he had seen the horror in Keith’s eyes the moment Allura threw him into the pool. Instead of helping Shiro tag team Coran, he yelled at them to all stop with the most commanding voice he could, right before diving into the water after Keith. If he had his whistle, he would have blown it to get their attention but a shout would have to do.

It took only a moment for his eye to adjust to the water, and when they did he immediately spotted Keith, sinking lower and lower. Bubbles poured from his mouth, breaching the surface, and the fight left his body fairly quickly.

Lance desperately swam after him, legs and arms pumping as he wrapped his arms around Keith’s waist to kick them up to the surface. Lance was thankful for his recent strength and conditioning training, but he was even more thankful when soon enough there was another set of arms taking Keith by the hands and helping Lance lift him to the surface.

Lance didn’t even realize how much his own lungs had been aching until he and Shiro breached the surface, Keith held above the water in between them. His head hung limply and Lance made sure to keep a hand on his forehead to assure that he didn’t face plant into the water as he and Shiro desperately swam to the poolside.

Pidge and Hunk were already waiting, hauling Keith’s listless body onto the tile. Pidge immediately checked his pulse, crying with frustration when she could feel none. “Clear!” Lance immediately shouted, pulling himself up to straddle Keith and start compressions. Allura watched on in horror, Coran consoling her, but Lance wasn’t focused on that.

He was focused on pressing down against Keith’s chest.

Pump.

Pump.

Pump.

With a sickening crack, Lance realized he had broken a few of Keith’s fragile ribs, but he continued anyway. After a few more sets of compressions he leaned down, pinching Keith’s nose and sucking air into his mouth before clashing his lips against Keith and blowing life into his lungs.

Once more.

Another time.

Finally, Keith let out a gurgling cough and Lance immediately pulled back, turning him onto his side so he could cough up the water onto the tile. There was so much. There was so much of it just pouring past Keith’s lips.

Lance didn’t realize how much he was shaking until Shiro urgently nudged him off of the red paladin. Keith moaned and Lance caught sight of the purpling bruises on his chest before Shiro lifted him up, Coran chasing after him as they ran to put him into the healing pod.

“Nice work Lance,” Pidge breathed, Hunk nodding in agreement.

“Yeah dude, looks like that lifeguard training really paid off.”

But Lance didn’t take the time to bask in their comments, instead, he fiercely turned to the princess. Once she saw the fury in his eyes, she blinked, not accustomed to such a look to be on his normally carefree face.

“I apologize,” she sighed, “I did not realize Humans like Keith could not swim.”

“You apologize?” Lance spat, getting up in her face, “You- you apologize?”

She nodded, “well yes, I do believe that is what I said.”

“Do you ever pause to think about others? Did you ever pause to think about just why Keith was sitting at the edge of the pool and not getting in? You don’t just throw people into pools Allura! On Earth i’ve seen it go bad so many times you don’t just manhandle-”

“Lance!” Hunk cried, he and Pidge bodily pulling him away from the princess. “Lance, buddy,” he tried again, watching as the blue paladin's chest heaved, “go take a breath. Swim a lap or something.”

Instead, Lance stormed out of the room.

Of course he had known that Keith couldn’t swim. The red paladin may think he was all slick watching them from the poolside, but Lance was a lifeguard of four years and he’s seen Keith’s expression on many little kids faces before, Little kids who watched their friends and family swim from the poolside with wanting because they hadn’t yet learned how to swim themselves.

Lance couldn’t have a paladin living in the castle that didn’t know how to swim, now could he?

 

---

 

The first thing Keith had felt upon escaping the healing pod was a rush of embarrassment. He had nearly died infront of his whole team just because he didn’t learn how to swim like they had as a child.

He let his numb muscles flop down gracelessly into Shiro’s awaiting arms, and once he finally gained his bearings, he used Shiro’s arm as leverage to stand. Keith realized that Shiro was the only other one in the room, he must have shooed everyone away to save Keith from further embarrassment. “How are you feeling?” Shiro asked, concern and no judgment in his tone.

“Like I just drowned,” Keith deadpanned, “where is everyone?”

“In the Kitchen, Hunk made you a meal and everyone insisted on helping,” Shiro answered, “we can wait a few minutes, if you want.”

Keith took a deep breath and exhaled. His lungs didn’t rattle, there was no water in them, he had to remind himself. “You aren’t gonna get onto me?”

Shiro frowned, “for not knowing how to swim? Of course not, it’s not your fault you were dealt less than ideal cards at birth and I’m sure the others understand that too. Keith, they’re nothing but concerned for you, and the Princess wants to apologize, she sees her mistake.”

“Well yeah,” Keith scoffed tiredly, “I would be concerned if she didn’t.” After a few long moments, Keith collected himself and pulled Shiro along, still clutching onto his elbow. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”

He had been flooded with concerned comments by the others as Shiro helped him lower himself down onto a seat. Keith felt a twinge in his ribs and realized they must have broken when CPR was performed on him. Who had done that anyways? He didn’t remember much after being thrown into the water.

“Are you breathing okay?”

“Wow, that pod didn’t take long to heal your ribs-”

“I hope this meal is good enough for you after, y’know, drowning.”

“Keith I am so so sorry-”

Keith held up a hand, shutting all of them up, “What’s done is done. Let’s just forgive and forget this ever happened and never talk about it ever again. Understood? Please?”

Hunks doe brown eyes filled with sympathy and he nodded along with the others, “Sure thing buddy, sure thing. My lips are sealed.”

After a moment of silence, Keith realized something. It was too quiet. He scanned the table and realized that Lance was nowhere to be found. He didn’t want to look like he cared where the blue paladin was, but it would have at least been nice to have him here to interrupt the growing silence.

“Lance is in his room,” Pidge adjusted her glasses, answering his silent question, “he refuses to be anywhere near Allura after- after what happened.”

Keith was floored. Lance was… mad on his behalf? He willingly turned a shoulder to a beautiful alien princess he had been flirting with for a month for Keith’s sake? Had he even woken up from the healing pod or was this some twisted alternate reality?

“It’s true Keith,” Shiro admitted, reading his disbelief like an open book. “He was the one who dove in after you first, and when me and him got you out of the pool he was the one who performed compressions.”

Keith flushed at the thought. Lance of all people had been the one to save him?

“Yeah man,” Hunk continued, “and when Shiro carried you off to the pods, Lance tore Allura a new one. I have never seen him so pissed in my life.”

Keith gritted his teeth, “I thought we agreed to never talk about this again.”

“Right, sorry Keith.”

 

---

 

A week had passed and things were still strange. The tension between Lance and the Princess had mounted, and Lance occasionally shot Keith glances from the corner of his eye, as if he wanted to say something, but held himself back.

They had only had one conversation after the incident, and in it Lance had suddenly lifted his shirt before pulling it down after a moment, satisfied, and walking off. Keith had flushed bright red at the intrusion and looked to the rest of the team in question, who looked just as flustered and confused.

It was only later that he figured out Lance had been checking to make sure his ribs weren’t bruised from his compressions. Keith should probably thank him, but the one time he tried Lance put a hand up, saying that it was his job.

Keith guessed he was the blue paladin, but was he getting paid for this? Was everyone getting paid for saving the universe and Keith was the only one who hadn’t?

The next time Keith had had a meaningful conversation with Lance was late at night, around midnight to be exact, if the castle's light cycle was anything to go by. Keith couldn’t sleep, he could only think of water surrounding him before he was up and moving, changing into his swimsuit.

If there was a weakness he could learn how to conquer, he would do so, and water was no exception. Slinging a towel onto his shoulder, he took shakey steps towards the pool area, and that was when he had seen Lance.

The blue paladin was in the dimly lit water, the lights giving it a dark blue hue, gracefully backstroking across the pool in an almost lazy fashion. Was this where he came when he couldn’t sleep? He swam and Keith trained.

“Keith?” Lance’s voice startled him out of his stupor, “what’re you doing here? At the pool?”

If Keith was in his right mind, he would have turned around and walked out of the room then and there, but instead he sighed and moved to sit along the edge. He tried to think about how he was going to phrase it. He was going to somehow get over his fear of water and learn how to swim all alone?

“You wanted to learn how to swim, right?”

Keith coughed, “Uhm, yeah, I did.”

Lance swam up to him, placing his hands onto the edge of the pool right between Keith’s legs. He looked up at him with those eyes, calculating and concerned, “You know it’s not too late, right? You still can, learn how to swim, I mean.”

Keith gazed across the surface of the water, it rippled and shimmered. Water was something that Keith had learned to admire from a distance. It was beautiful yet dangerous, unpredictable. Yet, Lance seemed perfectly in his element.

“I know,” he breathed, “maybe I still can.”

“Come in,” Lance said suddenly, “I’ll teach you the basics tonight if you want.”

Keith’s eyes widened, and when Lance didn’t break into laughter and claim that he was joking, he relaxed slightly. “You want me to just… hop in?”

“Yeah,” Lance patted the water in front of him, “Altean pool doesn't really come with a shallow end, sorry, but we can make due. Man, Altean babies must be ripped or something.”

Keith stared at the water and it took a full ten minutes for him to gain the nerve to slide into the water, and throughout the whole time, Lance hadn’t uttered a single mocking word. When Keith was fully in, gripping the edge, Lance put a hand on his back, “there, not so bad, is it mullet?”

“Yeah,” Keith was inclined to agree, because the water wasn’t grabbing him and dragging him down. It was calm, stagnant, and clung to his heavy bones. It made his aches and sores feel nice. “Maybe not.”

“Alright, we’ll start simple. I’ll teach you how to float on your back, that way, if you ever fall in, you won’t drown.”

Keith raised an eyebrow, “Float?... On my back?”

“Yep,” Lance said, popping the P, “I’ll show you.” He demonstrated it, simply leaning back and letting the water carry him for a full ten seconds before treading water again. Keith blinked. He didn’t even know that was possible.

“...Okay,” he said apprehensively, following Lance's movement as he leaned backwards, hand still gripping onto the side of the pool. Once he was fully on his back, he took a leap of faith and let go, and almost immediately he was under the water. Before he could panic or choke, Lance’s warm hands were guiding him back to the surface.

“Sorry buddy, that's on me, I should have explained it better,” he chuckled sheepishly, “you don’t hold your breath. It’s very important that you breathe normally and relax so that the air in your lungs can keep you at the surface.”

Oh, Keith had gone about that all wrong.

“Ready to try again?”

He nodded and leaned back, water obscuring his ears and all around his head. Lance kept his hands on his back, ordering him to relax his muscles, and when he finally deemed it okay to let go, Keith didn’t drown. His face remained out of the water, and he felt himself smiling in victory.

“That’s it man!” Lance shouted, his enthusiastic voice echoing throughout the large room. For the rest of that night with Lance, Keith had spent it relaxing on his back until he perfected the art of floating. It was nice to see the pool's rippling water reflected onto the ceiling, almost like a night light. Water wasn’t Keith’s element, but he could see why Lance was beginning to like it so much.

The next day, Lance didn’t say anything about their night swim lesson to the team, and the next night, Keith had met up with him to learn how to tread water. The night after that one had been holding his breath underwater for as long as possible. Keith had even managed to swim down with clumsy limbs and touch the bottom of the pool.

It took about a week for Lance to bring out the foam kickboard. Keith had no idea where he had gotten the thing, but didn’t question it as Lance guided him across the pool instructing him that strong kicks were an important base to every stroke he would learn.

It took about a month for Keith to perfect freestyle and backstroke, but by the time he got them, he couldn’t help but feel like he had been missing out his whole childhood. One night, when he and Lance were just floating, staring up at the ceiling, Keith had managed to say it.

“Thank you, Lance.”

“No problem, Keith.”

And that was all there was to it, no more words needed.

A few weeks after Keith felt confident enough to swim in the pool alone, Lance had come knocking at his door with a heinous grin on his face that told Keith he was up to no good. “Before you say anything,” Keith grumbled, still ruffled from his interrupted sleep, “I don’t want to take any part in whatever you're scheming.”

This was all strange in itself because usually the scheme would be against Keith.

Lance wiggled his eyebrows and Keith mentally wished he would stop doing that. It was creepy. He leaned against his doorway, “Oh but Keithy boy, I think you do.”

And Keith was stupid enough to sigh and give in, allowing Lance in his room just so he could get back to sleep as soon as possible.

“So, Hunk wants to have another pool day, but doesn't want to seem insensitive like the big bear he is. I think we should do it,” Lance shrugged, and Keith could already sense where he was going with this conversation, “and since the others think you still can’t swim…”

“I’m down,” Keith said with a straight face, “let’s do it.”

 

---

 

It had taken a lot of convincing on Lance’s part to get the team to have another pool day after what happened at the last one, but after roping them in they were all enthusiastic. It had turned out a lot like the last one, and the princess even brought out chairs for them to sit in, (but when she claimed she couldn’t bring a grill because she didn’t know what it was, Lance had reassured her that it was fine. He couldn’t stay mad at her for too long.)

“Keith, are you sure you’re fine with this?” Hunk asked for the millionth time just before they all jumped in the pool. Keith waved away his worry from atop his lounge chair, insisting that it was perfectly fine.

“Let’s get this party started!” Lance cheered, diving into the pool. The good thing about deep Altean pools was that no one would ever suffer a spinal injury from diving.

After about twenty minutes of Keith lounging at the poolside, Lance decided it was time to set the second phase of their plan into action. “Guys!” He called, standing on the poolside, “How about we play a nice game of King of the Hill?”

“You mean monarch of the poolside?”

“Yeah yeah, whatever.”

Allura spared a worried glance to Keith before nodding, “I would not be opposed. Lance, will you be the monarch?”

Lance winked, “of course I will princess, hit me with your best shot. There is one person I would like to eliminate first though,” Lance promptly grabbed Keith from his chair, lifting him up in his arms. He took a second to let the looks of terror filter over the others faces before he rocked Keith to the side, like a baby he would mention, before throwing him as far into the pool as he possibly could.

“Wow, I got more distance than I thought I would.”

Lance’s comment seemed to snap the others out of their trance and they all simultaneously dove after Keith. Shiro had been the one to emerge with Keith, forcing the red paladin to wrap his legs around his torso like some kind of Koala. Lance laughed at the sight and the others gave him distressed looks.

“Lance!” Coran hollered in disbelief, “How could you! Now Keith is-”

“Keith is fine,” the red paladin butted in, lifting his head from Shiro’s shoulder, making the man jump in surprise.

“You were faking it?” Shiro asked, looking like he had just recovered from a heart attack.

“Yeah,” Keith said blankly, like he was reading the words off of the script Lance had given him. “You just got Keithed.”

It took a full ten seconds of dead silence before Hunk and Pidge were in hysterics. Poor Shiro looked so, so tired, and the Alteans were beyond confused. Lance shared a victorious look with Keith before jumping into the water with them.

“You- you learned how to swim?” Shiro asked, letting go of his death grip on Keith to let him tread water along with the rest of them.

“Uh-huh,” he nodded, “I didn’t think Lance would be good for anything but he can teach people how to swim just fine.”

“H-hey!” Lance squaked indignantly, “Take that back right now!”

“No,” Keith deadpanned, and Lance tackled him, pushing him underwater as the both of them laughed. Lance could see a lot more pool days in their future. They may not be anything like Earths, but the people he was with easily made it better.

Chapter 5: Be who you areeee

Notes:

Prompt; Fainting, bonding

This is mostly Shiro being proud of Keith not gonna lie.

Keith hadn’t been doing too well lately, and that much was very evident by the other pilots of Voltron. He had been spending way too many hours on the training deck, and even the princess had to stop and frown at the hours logged by the red paladin because apparently it was unhealthy even to altean standards.

Shiro knew that Keith hadn’t been getting much sleep either because everytime he stepped out of his room at midnight earth time to do his nightly rounds, the light to Keith’s room was always on.

They all knew where this was stemming from, the exhaustion and the overworking, but none had the heart to bring it up. It was no secret now that Keith had alien DNA, Galran, to be specific, though once the bomb had been dropped the red paladin hadn’t lingered to actually have a conversation with the rest of them.

He had shut them out.

Even Shiro.

He had been missing meals lately, choosing to skip out on them in order to train or hide out in his room. During team training (that took place at least three times a week) he worked well with them, but never looked them in the eyes. As if he was waiting for something, a taunt or even a punishment.

Shiro would never forget the way Keith had physically flinched away from him when he raised his arm for a quick victory high five. Keith thought he was going to hit him, and nothing could describe the pain in his chest.

It was obvious that the team was in for a long discussion on the matter as soon as possible, though ‘as soon as possible’ would have to wait for a few days because the princess and Coran were off on another planet embarking on a diplomatic meeting while the Paladins guarded the castle.

And watched Keith continue to deteriorate before their very eyes.

Shiro had desperately tried to get through to Keith in those times, sitting off to the side, pretending to be interested in working the altean weight machine when really he was just keeping a close eye on Keith’s training progress. On the way he swayed in place while still ordering the simulation to up a level.

Pidge never talked about the elephant in the room, instead she simply buried Keith in technical codes and analysis, which Shiro knew he appreciated.

Whenever he did show up for meals, Hunk made sure to give Keith an extra serving, and to keep things normal Lance tried his best to keep up the banter. But the atmosphere was always tense as if Keith was ready for things to go south. As if he had an escape plan mapped in every room incase one of the Paladins decided to corner him.

So yes, a conversation was needed. It was needed very badly.

But Shiro was patient because he knew Keith and he knew the red paladin would run away if he wasn’t ready to talk, (which, he obviously wasn’t.) That, and the fact that both Alteans needed to be present because Shiro caught the look of inner turmoil Allura had on her face every time she saw Keith.

She needed this conversation just as much as him.

It had been two days since Allura and Coran had left for the diplomatic meeting and the team was getting skittish. No distress signals had popped up and no Galra ships had tried to destroy them (which in the grand scheme of things was good, but not good for the mounting paranoia.)

To burn off the excess energy, Shiro ordered for a training session that none of the paladins had argued against.

“So, what’s it today captain?” Lance asked, the last to bound into the room. He had his armor backwards, but Shiro decided not to comment on it because at least it was on. Pidge and Hunk looked at him eagerly and Keith kept his stare to the floor.

“Just because the princess is gone doesn't mean i’m taking it easy on you,” Shiro smirked and watched as the Garrison trios faces fell.

“You disappoint me,” Pidge grumbled, and Hunk shrugged sheepishly as if saying ‘what can you do?’

“Let's do hand-to-hand, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge, I notice you lack sorley in that area so you two will be taking on me and Keith. No Bayards allowed.”

“No no no Shiro, my man, my pal, please think about this,” Lance begged, “we’re gonna get creamed-”

“Great,” Shiro clapped Lances back as he and Keith got into position, “then you know what to expect and overcome. Now, begin the training sequence.”

If Shiro was being honest, he picked hand-to-hand training partly because it was an area that needed work, but mostly because it was Keith’s favorite exercise to do. Despite that, the red paladin wasn’t as sure footed as he usually was, and a lot of times Shiro had to block blows for him while he recovered.

Shiro opted not to get onto him because Keith was obviously beating himself up over his mistakes by the end of the session despite him and Shiro coming out victorious.

“Man,” Lance heaved for breath, placing his hands on his knees as Hunk and Pidge fell to the floor next to him, “I am never doing that again. Totally unfair.”

“We had the advantage,” Pidge pointed out as Shiro handed off hydration packs to the team. Once everyone had calmed down and was no longer struggling to breathe, they gathered into the debriefing circle as they always did, though this time there wasn’t an overbearing Altean pointing out all of their mistakes, just Shiro kindly steering them in the right direction.

“Lance, you tend to guard your right side more than your left, leaving an opening. Work on balancing that out.”

“Yeah yeah dad, got it.”

Shiro ignored him, “Hunk, use your superior size to get an advantage, don’t be afraid of your own potential.”

Hunk reeled back, “Yeah b-but what if I accidently like hurt one of you. Like, I could seriously damage Keith if I decided to body slam-”

“Keith will be fine,” Shiro reassured, “he can handle himself, and we have healing pods here if needed. But war is no place for not fighting to your full potential, understand?”

Shiro was just about to move onto Pidge’s performance, when suddenly there was movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head to look at Keith, who had swayed and put a hand on Lance’s shoulder to steady himself.

“Uhm, Keith, buddy? Did we actually manage to injure you or something?” Lance laughed nervously, voice tight with concern. Keith didn’t look up from the floor, his hold on the blue paladins shoulder tightening until Lance was grabbing his elbow and Shiro was reaching out and-

Keith’s legs buckled from underneath him and he instantly went limp. Shiro quickly latched onto the red paladin's arm while Lance took the other, shouting in concern.

“He must have passed out,” Shiro said when Keith’s head lolled to rest on his bicep, “lay him down in the recovery position.”

Lance paled, nodding shakily as he and Shiro lowered him to the training decks' metallic floor, turning him to rest on his side. Shiro had never seen Keith so pliant before because even before all of this happened and when Keith fell asleep on the couch with him and Adam, he was always tense.

“He’s like, four shades lighter than what he should be,” Lance panicked, “and that's saying something because he has the presence of a paper towel roll-”

“Lance,” Shiro cut in, brushing back Keith’s bangs to feel his forehead. There was definitely a slight fever there, he must have overextended himself. “Calm down. Hunk, Pidge, grab the medical kit, another hydration pack, and a rag if you can find one.”

“On it!”

“O-okay!”

 

The two ran off and Lance anxiously watched as Keith’s eyelashes fluttered against his cheeks, but his eyes didn’t open. “Is there nothing else we can do?”

Shiro shook his head grimly, “all we can do is wait and be there for him when he wakes up.” For a second time, Shiro went over Keith’s vitals, which weren’t life-threatening but not what he would have liked either.

“Keith you idiot,” Lance said in a tone of sad fondness, “why do you do this to yourself?” Lance ran his long fingers through Keith’s hair, and the red paladin made a noise in the back of his throat at the contact. The blue paladin looked up to Shiro, “You’re awfully calm and collected about this.”

Shiro sensed the silent question and shrugged, “this isn’t the first time Keith’s worked himself this hard. When he was younger, he passed out sometimes, a very unhealthy habit.”

“Hmm, well, Keith isn’t the healthiest person, now is he?”

“No, no he is not.”

Shiro mentally counted as Hunk and Pidge returned with what he asked, and he was quick to wet the rag and hold it up to Keith’s forehead. Keith sighed at the contact, and they watched in bated breath as he slowly came to after a few more noncommittal noises.

Keith’s eyes were hazy as he opened them, and Shiro was quick to move his hand away, knowing it would startle him once he was fully conscious. “Keith, are you with us?” He asked, noting how the others followed his lead and scooted back to give him some space.

Keith murmured something under his breath and his eyes opened slightly wider as he blankly looked onwards to the training room floor like it was a beautiful sunset.

“Keith?” Shiro asked again, and this time the red paladin actually jumped.

“Wha-” he rolled over to his back, blinking away the dots that were no doubt swarming his vision as the lights blinded him. Pidge turned down the flourescent lights of the training room. Keith looked at all of them flatly, “I passed out?”

“Yes, yes you did,” Shiro confirmed, right as Lance said, “Dude, you’re not dead!”

Keith winced at the noise and looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there at the moment. “Keith,” Shiro started, “you need to treat yourself better-”

“Save it,” Keith bit, shifting his weight onto his elbows all while looking guilty, “Let’s just… lets just have this conversation later?”

Shiro heaved a sigh, “Okay buddy, okay,” he placed a hand on Keith’s back and helped him sit up. He and Lance assisted him to his feet, but that's all the help Keith would accept, and Shiro watched helplessly with the rest of the team as Keith trudged back to his room.

“Well, that was stupid of him,” Pidge said bluntly, and Lance nodded in agreement. “The mullet really outdid himself this time, he’s ready for a lecture from space dad Shiro, I'm sure.”

“Enough with the nickname,” Shiro signed for what felt like the fifteenth time that day before, “he doesn't need a lecture for me to tell him what he doesn't already know. What he needs is… is reassurance.”

And that, the team would try their best to provide.

Keith didn’t show his face to them until another two days later when the Alteans returned from the successful diplomatic meeting, Allura ordering them to establish what had happened over the past few days while Coran informed them of the alliance details in return.

Apparently, the aliens had been a hard bargain to convert to their side, but the alteans were good at what they did. Shiro had the distinctive feeling that if the paladins had tagged along then the alliance would be in shambles before it was even formed.

“So you mean to tell me,” the princess started, stomping her way to the lounge room with the rest of the team in tow, “that Keith has been overworking himself to the point of fainting like a small Altean child.”

“Hey hey,” Surprisingly, Lance interveinced, “go easy on him princess, you know it’s been hard on him lately with the whole Galra reveal thing.”

Allura sneered, “Yes, I would be quite appalled to find out that I have Galra DNA also. Keith knows that training all he can will not hide him from who he truly is, he will have to find another way to hide-”

“Princess?” Hunk warned, sounding slightly horrified once they reached the lounge room.

Allura blinked, facing the others to see the hostile looks on their faces. Shiro felt something vile burn in his gut at the princess's confusion, and even Coran looked off put by her sudden hatred. Though, it wasn’t sudden was it? She hadn’t openly berated Keith, but behind his back he was free game. Shiro had tried to be patient, he really had, but enough was enough.

“Princess,” his tone was firm and more harsh than any of the others had heard. Allura furrowed her eyebrows in surprise, looking around as if wondering if he was addressing her or some other princess in the room. “There is no reason to talk about Keith and belittle him when he’s already having a hard enough time accepting himself.”

“Well yes, that is because-”

“His life didn’t just start on this castle with us, princess,” Shiro continued, watching closely as Allura backed into the couch and sat down, “he had the same issues fitting in on Earth, and if you’re going to act this way towards one of your paladins then you can find another black paladin. I’ve known Keith since he was a kid and I know where his loyalties lie. Do you know where yours lie, princess?”

Shiro heard a small “Oh shit,” from Lance, but refused to look back in order to stare the princess down. Coran shifted uncomfortably but didn’t intervene, instead setting a comforting hand on her shoulder. He bent down to whisper something into her pointed ears and realization dawned upon her face after a solid minute.

“I apologize,” she finally said, looking down with a guilt-ridden face, “it is unfair for me to judge him by his heritage when he had been so loyal to my- to our cause.”

The steel that had binded its way through Shiro’s chest softened, “Don’t apologize to us, apologize to Keith.”

Lance hopped up from his place on the couch, already headed for the hallway, “Mullet will try to dip on us if we call him down for a meeting. I’ll go grab him!”

They all sat tensley in the room, reflecting on the events that had just transpired in silence until Lance returned, arms crossed. “It took me forever to convince him to get out of his room, you guys owe me one.” He plopped down onto the couch next to Shiro and pointedly away from Allura while Keith slowly edged into the room, his sharp eyes scanning the situation.

Shiro’s heart squeezed at his apprehensiveness, though it wasn’t like he blamed the one with the abandonment issues that stemmed from childhood. Shiro once recalled what Adam had once told him in regards to Keith, that to earn his trust all he would have to do was be consistent and there for him when he needed it.

Shiro guiltily thumbed at the edge of his prosthetic where the Galra metal met flesh. He had a lot of consistency to regain after Kerberos.

“Keith,” Shiro finally said, because making him stand there like an object on display wouldn’t make the situation any better, “you’re not in trouble or anything, we just wanted to say…”

“We’re sorry!” Hunk jumped in, sensing Shiro’s loss of words. “Man, we were just trying to give you space to process, but we probably look like grade A jerks who’ve been avoiding you.”

“Yeah,” Pidge piped up, guiltily adjusting her glasses, “we thought that never broaching the topic would make you comfortable, but we let you struggle alone, and that isn’t right of us.”

“It may seem like you’ve changed,” Lance sighed, shoulders slumping as if he was holding the weight of the world. They all were. “But you’re still the same old Keith to us, Galra or not.”

Keith looked like he had been properly thrown through a loop, eyes wide and hair slightly ruffled. He had probably been asleep before all of this, Shiro realized. Then, he shuffled his feet, looking very out of place in the stark white room. “But I'm Galra?” He asked, then pointed to the general direction of the cargo hold, “I have my stuff packed and a ship ready I can leave-”

“No!” Shiro along with the rest of the team yelped, scrambling to block the exits of the room, “Keith, you don’t need to leave. You don’t need to train yourself to death either, just-” Shiro felt something hot and heavy rest on his tongue, “we aren’t going to abandon you just because a mom you never knew was half Galra. That’s not- do you really think we would do that? Do you really think I would do that?”

Shiro’s voice cracked at the end of the sentence and Keith looked up at him with big bright eyes, “No, I don’t think you would,” then his gaze slowly moved to rest on the princess. So that's what he had been so skittish about.

“Keith,” Allura admitted, tone a bit too harsh for the look on her face. “I apologize. I apologize a million times over. I was so blinded by my own hatred towards the Galra empire,” Keith flinched, but her voice became softer, “that I didn’t realize how classist I was towards one of my own Paladins. I understand if you would not accept my apology outright, but know that you will always have a place on this team.”

And there it was, Shiro saw the exact moment that Keith’s shoulders slumped and he accepted defeat. He accepted to once again let the paladins back into his walls and to trust that they wouldn’t leave him in the dust. They would have to back up their words, but Shiro was sure they wouldn’t have a problem in doing so.

“I see,” Keith nodded, trying to pretend that his voice wasn’t shaking. For a moment Shiro was afraid he was going to pass out again, and put a steadying hand on his shoulder just in case. Instead of brushing him off, Keith leaned into the touch. “It’s okay princess,” he murmured, “I know what the Galra empire did to your world.”

Allura perked up with a smile, clasping her hands together, “Wonderful!” She cried, and just like that the foggy atmosphere that had hung throughout the castle for the past weeks dissipated. All it took was a good conversation.

”Now number four,” Coran’s tone took that of a lecture as he forced Keith to sit down with the rest of the paladins. “You no longer have to fight back the urges of your Galra side!”

Lance frowned at the way Keith’s face reddened, “wait wait wait, Coran, what’re you on about this time?”

 

“Well, number three, a half-breed takes on distinct characteristics of both species. The human gene is more dominant, of course, though it is impossible for number four to at least not have Galra instincts! It would be easy for him to hide things such as elongated nails or slit pupils because the human side is much more prominent.”

Lance smirked and Shiro already knew where this was going, “oh, so you mean like, if I tickle Keith or something then big fluffy cat ears are just gonna sprout out from his head?”

“I am not sure what a cat is, but precisely!”

Lance looked over to Keith with a gleam in his eyes and his fingers outstretched, and Keith promptly stood up to sit on the other side of Shiro. Smart option.

“I’ll get you one of these days,” Lance promised.

“Welp! It is against the Paladin code to conceal one's true self,” Coran tisked, “do not be afraid to be who you truly are, Keith.”

In the background, Shiro could hear Pidge and Lance snickering and singing ‘Be who you areee’ and Keith left the room because that was enough socializing for one day. Shiro was just proud he had stayed through the whole conversation.

 

---

 

The weeks following the conversation, Shiro and the rest of the team noticed little things changing about Keith, though whether it was because of what Coran had told him, or he had no control over said changes, none of them would know.

They first noticed it in a group training session. They were battling the training drone on the highest level they had dared to, and when Shiro looked over to Keith swiping at it with his sword, Lance providing cover fire, he saw it. Keith’s eyes were slitted and had a dim yellow haze over them.

Shiro had seen this happen before, when Keith was laser focused on something or in the thick of battle, but Keith had always blinked it away. This time, though, Keith didn’t bother to hide it. Shiro had never been so proud and none of the team mentioned it because the eyes only seemed to make Keith’s fighting style sharper and more agile when he wasn’t trying to hide them.

Later, Shiro had walked into the lounge after one of his morning jogs around the castle to see Keith napping on it like some big oversized cat. One arm was slung haphazardly off of the couch, and upon closer instruction Shiro could see the claws replacing the normal nails in his nail bed. A nail file was resting on the floor, and Shiro realized he must have fallen asleep while filing his sharp tallon-like nails.

Shiro chuckled to himself and sat on the floor in front of Keith, taking his hand in his and grabbing the nail file to finish the job in a slow manner. Keith hadn’t woken up, only grumbled under his breath as he let Shiro handle his hands until the nails wouldn’t nick anything he grabbed.

“Night buddy,” Shiro said, bemused as he threw a blanket over Keith and left for the shower.

Later that morning, Lance had gasped and ran around, looking like he saw a ghost when in reality he had just seen Keith snoozing away for the first time. Apparently, Lance had ravaged through the whole castle for nail polish. 

Pidge and Hunk found his new claws very useful, occasionally asking him to open a panel without the use of a screwdriver, and each time Keith had done the task without complaint, looking almost bashful.

Then came the fangs. Keith had a habit of baring his teeth at people to compensate for his youth when he was younger, but it had carried all the way to his teenage years. It was a defense mechanism and once, when they were battling a particularly pesky Galra soldier, Keith flashed his teeth.

Except his teeth were fangs, elongated until they poked past his lips. Shiro wondered if it hurt, but Keith looked very, very comfortable.

Apparently, as Allura would explain later, flashing fangs was a sign of dominance. The distraction had brought them enough time to take down the Galra, who had seemed miffed by the gesture.

Maybe it was the Galra version of the middle finger, just much, much worse.

Then came the even more cat-like features. Lance had riffled through the storage room and found the Altean equivalent of a laser pointer, the light red and glaring. Before Shiro could tell him to put it down so they could finish sorting out the storage, Lance grinned and flashed it on a nearby wall.

Keith’s eyes turned to slits and he immediately pounced for it like a fire had been lit under his body. Much to Lance’s enjoyment. Keith had left the room bright red, ordering that they never speak of it again. (Shiro knew that Lance kept the laser pointer anyway.)

Sometimes, when Keith was exceptionally mad, his skin would take on a purple tint. It was cool, and Lance had asked if he could glow in the dark (to which Keith flashed those fangs and jabbed his sharp claws into the blue paladin's ribs.)

The latest thing that Shiro had noticed was when the team had all gathered for a team bonding night. The nights mostly consisted of Pidge, Lance, and Hunk showing the alteans classic Earth games and movies, while Keith and Shiro occasionally dropped by, but this time everyone was present because they found a DVD player at the space mall that would connect to the Alteans hologram system.

Shiro had been the last one awake, though his eyes were heavy as the credits to ‘The Princess Bride’ played over the screen. This also meant that he watched as the movie night session had somehow turned into a cuddle session that he had somehow gotten dragged into.

Allura and Coran were conked out on the left side of the long couch, heads leaning against each other and the space mice in their laps. Next to them, Hunk was laying down with Pidge tucked securely under his arm like she was a football.

Somehow, Keith had managed to fall asleep with the presence of the others, because he was laying with his back facing the hologram and his head on Shiro’s thigh. Even more surprising, Lance of all people in his sleepy haze had chosen to migrate over to Keith, slinging his arm around the red paladin's waist, curling in on his back.

Then Shiro heard it. At first he thought the sound was a distant rumble from the sound system, but upon further inspection the sound was coming from the puddle pile. Keith, to be more precise.

Shiro had always known that sometimes Keith made strange sounds. Chirps, when he was happy, a coo that could be translated as a grunt when he was sad. But he didn’t know that he could purr, and he didn’t know that he could purr so loud. The sound resonated through his chest, projected across the room and lulling Shiro even more to sleep.

He reached down to brush his fingers through Keith’s hair feeling so overwhelmingly proud that he was comfortable enough to fall asleep and make those noises in the presence of the others. The last thing he saw was Keith shifting to get more comfortable, turning in Lance's arms to smush his face against the blue paladin's chest and yeah, being half-Galra had changed Keith significantly. Just not in a bad way.

Chapter 6: Keith hibernates

Notes:

Prompt; Hypothermia, body heat

 

Let me hear your thoughts in the comments <3 I’ll be out of town so it may be a little bit before I write again.

Keith had never enjoyed the cold. Thankfully, he had never had to live in extremely cold environments since the foster homes he was bounced from were always in the South with the more Desert inclined habitats. Living in that Desert shack alone for a year though, with no running water and little food, showed Keith just how unforgivable the Desert could be. Once a week he would hike miles for the stream that ran through the canyons to bathe himself and he would hunt the small critters when it became too taxing to drive to town.

The nights were the worst of it, because as hot as it was during the day, the temperatures dropped significantly at night until Keith felt like a popsicle. He would curl up in the very corner of the unsturdy couch, wrapped in his jacket because blankets were a want, not a need, and shivered himself to sleep. A few times, he would wake up disoriented a full two days later, unsure of why he had slept for so long.

He brushed it off though, because laying out in the heat, curling in on himself contently was when he felt the most relaxed.

In space, there was none of the sun's warmth. Just the castle's cool tile underneath him and the hum of the generator producing fake heat. Apparently, Alteans liked to keep their castles cold because the only warm place was Keith’s room, which he made a point to keep warm.

After a while, he grew used to it and that was that, though, of course the cold would find a way to rear its ugly head soon enough.

“Paladins, we have a small task we must complete before we leave this star system,” Princess Allura announced at their morning gathering. (Only after waking them all up with the alarm system at six in the morning and watching them all stumble into the room, disorganized. Did Alteans even sleep?)

“What do we need to complete that we haven’t already? We freed all of the planets and convinced them to join the Voltron coalition?” Shiro asked, and Keith had a bad feeling about this, because anytime she mentioned they had a ‘small task’ to complete, it ended up being a monumental effort on the Paladins' part.

Allura pulled up a holographic image onto the castle's screen, revealing an icy planet that looked eerily like Kerberos. From next to Keith, Shiro stiffened.

“This is planet zero, as the inhabitants of this system call it, mainly because it is the only uninhabited planet in the system. It has no real use to others besides its gravitational pull, which is why the Galra haven’t attempted to claim it for themselves.”

“With all due respect princess, if there's no one to save then why do we have to check this planet out?” Lance asked, looking like he was just now waking up.

“I am getting there,” she sent him a glare before continuing, “This planet contains a rare mineral that could be used to power the castle in emergency situations. The residents in the system have allowed us to land and collect these minerals as we please before we depart.”

“Oh,” Pidge shrugged, adjusting her “This doesn't sound like a full Paladin job.”

“No, it is not,” Allura agreed.

“There's a ‘but’ somewhere in that sentence, isn’t there?” Hunk asked, “Mineral retrieving missions never go according to plan. Do we not remember what happened on the Balmera?”

“I’m afraid Hunk is right,” the princess sighed, “planet zero has unpredictable weather outburst, making it impossible to get a full coverage on just where the cave systems that hold the minerals are located until you touch the surface. I have implanted navigations into the suits that sense the essence to the crystals and should guide you in that direction, but your lions will not be much of a help in the situation. You will have to land and then travel on foot.”

“I’m out,” Pidge said immediately, “take Hunk with you, he knows how to work the tech. I need to help Coran with castle maintenance before we do another wormhole jump.”

“What? Hey, don’t volunteer me,” Hunk whined, to which Lance replied, “you’re great at these missions! You even found an alien girlfriend last time.”

“I suggest Lance flies the blue lion,” Shiro added, “blue works the best under extreme low temperatures and visibility.”

“That's right,” Lance puffed out his chest, “Blue’s got us covered.”

“I suggest you bring one more person, a close combat fighter in case things go south,” Coran suggested, looking between the red and black paladins. Keith stared at the icy covering of the planet, swirling snow storms enveloping it, then he looked to Shiro who looked like he would rather be anywhere else.

He was wincing.

It only took a moment for Keith to realize that being on that planet would hurt Shiro more than it would him. He knew well that scars and old wounds tightened up and tensed in the cold weather like phantom pains, and if Shiro stepped foot into the atmosphere then his body would suffer.

That, and it looked hauntingly like Kerberos.

Keith may not like the cold and he may be from the Desert, but he stepped up anyways, “I’ll go. Shiro and Pidge can stay here and help with the castle.” He wouldn’t be much help with that anyways. Keith knew he did the right thing when Shiro didn’t even argue, giving Keith a relieved and thankful smile. Keith just nodded back as the rest of the team looked on in confusion because usually it was Shiro who volunteered for these sort of missions, Keith not wanting anything to do with something that wasn’t fighting.

“Well, that should suffice,” the princess said after a moment, “we shall arrive shortly, suit up.”

Lance groaned, pushing his hair back from his face, “we don’t get at least a few varga to sleep before we get our asses handed to us by the cold?” Suddenly, he looked much more awake, “oh, wait, do our suits have a super cool cold feature that changes the way we look? Maybe a feathery scarf?”

Allura frowned, “Unfortunately not, you have no need for camouflage on this planet.”

“That is unfortunate,” Lance agreed as they all disbanded from the main room. Before Keith could turn on his heel and make his way to where his armor was kept (in his lion's hangar was the last place he had left it) Shiro’s prosthetic hand grabbed the crook of his elbow.

“Keith,” he looked like he wanted to say something, but instead he settled for a simple, “thank you.”

“We're just collecting minerals,” Keith shrugged and Shiro dropped his grip, “It’s no big deal.”

Keith watched as Shiro’s face morphed over many emotions before resting on his normal blank one. “Still, thanks. I have a… a bad feeling, be careful.”

Keith patted his shoulder, “I’ll make sure not to trip on snow.”

Shiro did not look amused, but before he could say anything else Lance’s voice sounded over the comms of the castle's system, he and Hunk were already in the blue lion. “Let’s get this show on the road Keith, we don’t have all Quintant.”

“Actually, this mission will last as long as you want it to, we can afford to lose a Quintant,” Allura corrected him.

“It’s just a figure of speech, princess,” Hunk supplied and Keith could hear Coran saying excitedly, “Oh! Write that one down in the Earth dictionary!” Before their voices faded from down the hallway where he, slowly just to annoy Lance, headed to his hangar to put his armor on. When he reached Blue’s hangar she bent down and opened her mouth, letting Keith in.

“Blue, I told you to lock him out!” Lance groaned as Keith slid in next to Hunk, death gripping the headrest, and he was thankful when he did because the moment the hangar opened Lance did a massive loop that made Keith’s feet leave the floor momentarily.

Yeah, this would be a great mission.

Do it for Shiro, Keith thought to himself, do it for Shiro.

Once they breached the atmosphere, Keith understood exactly what the princess meant by low visibility. Lance had probably flown right into a storm because the snow whipped around them violently, and all the three could see was endless white. Keith had never seen snow before, but if this was what it was like then he wouldn’t mind never seeing it again.

“Land Lance, land!” Hunk shrilled once they hit turbulence. Keith thought he would kneel over then and there and throw up on the cockpit floor, but to his credit he clapped a hand to his mouth and held it in. How far they’ve come.

“I’m- i’m trying but it’s kinda hard to see where i’m landing with all of this snow!” Lance had a white knuckle grip on the controls, looking around in panic. Keith could feel the cold seeping into the cockpit and he wondered how much worse it would have been if they’d have taken red.

Keith put a hand on Lance’s shoulder and leaned in, partly because he lost his grip on the seat and instinctively grabbed onto him and partly because he didn’t want them all to die on a mineral extraction mission. “Lance! Close your eyes and see through Blues, like Shiro did in that one training exercise.”

Lance sputtered, “I’m not an empath Keith! There's a reason only Shiro could do that!”

“Well you have to do it or we’re all dead!” Keith hissed, putting a hand over Lance’s helmet before the blue paladin could swat him away. “Just close your damn eyes.”

Lance seethed and the lion shuddered some more, and just when Keith thought the ground should be getting near soon, the blue paladin let out a surprised laugh. “I’m doing it! Man, this is so weird.”

Keith slowly removed his hands and let Lance guide the lion to the ground.

“I guess the lions can see way better than us in their environments,” Hunk speculated, looking a little green. “Because there is no way that should have been possible.

“I don’t think I can do that again.”

“Well you don’t have to,” Keith pulled up his wrist piece and tapped on it until a beacon popped up, not too far from them, maybe a couple of miles off. “We can wait out the storm once we find the minerals. It’s calming down a bit now, I'm sure this is our break.”

“We’re probably just in the eye of the snowstorm or something, I say we go back to the castle and wait for a clear day,” Hunk chuckled nervously when Keith and Lance shot him a look.

“I don’t think snowstorms have eyes, dude, it’s not a hurricane,” Lance got up from his seat, following Keith’s lead and pulling up a beacon. “I don’t normally agree with the mullet, but this is our chance. We need to move fast.”

Hunk whimpered as the blue lion lowered her head to spit them out. The moment Keith stepped out into the knee deep snow, his legs almost buckled under him. He saved himself, grabbing onto the mechanical lion's paw. Suddenly, a weight shifted on top of his chest like a warm blanket, except, there was nothing warm about the current weather. It made Keith want to turn back into the blue lion before he could become a human icicle.

“Man, I didn’t think I'd see snow again!” Lance chuckled as he plopped down into a pile, spreading his arms and legs out around him.

Keith’s eyes felt heavy, but he forced them open as Hunk and Lance had a mini snowball fight.

Ice seeped through his suit, sinking into his bones like a disease.

“Are you feeling the blue lion up?” Lance called over to him, “Get off my lady, Keith. I’m sure you missed the snow too.”

“I’ve never seen it,” Keith shrugged, stepping away from the Blue lion and ignoring the sudden vertigo as he wrapped his arms around himself. “Why would you throw it at each other, it’ll just make you more cold.”

He tried his best to keep his teeth from chattering.

Lance and Hunk looked concerned for very different reasons.

“You’ve never seen snow?! I mean I know you’re Texan and all of that, yee haw, but seriously dude?”

“You shouldn’t be cold, Keith,” Hunk furrowed his eyebrows, “the suits hold our warmth in, trapping it. If anything, you should feel warm. Do you have a tear in your armor somewhere?”

“Let’s just get this over with,” Keith bit his tongue to stop it from growing heavy in his mouth as the other Paladins shrugged and they finally departed to the beacon's point. Occasional flurries of white trickled from the gray skies, and Keith tried his best to avoid it like the plague, even going as far as to take shelter behind Hunk from the winds because he wasn’t past that. If the yellow paladin noticed what Keith was doing, he thankfully didn’t say anything.

The walk continued and Keith’s sudden sleepiness intensified the longer they were out in the cold. He stumbled over his own numb feet a few times as they high kneed it through the snow, and Keith resoloutley ignored the pins and needles spreading throughout his whole body.

There was a sleepy loll and Keith wondered why the other two weren’t talking like they normally did. Upon closer inspection, he could see their lips moving, but heard no sound. Either they were on a private channel or his helmet was malfunctioning again.

He was too drowsy to care.

Lance’s voice suddenly crackled in and out as they came to a stop, and Keith realized they reached their destination, even if in front of them was a frozen plain of… nothingness.

“Where- cave system?” Lance asked.

“I don- ow,” Hunk shrugged, and Keith was sure his helmet needed to be replaced.

They both said something before looking back to Keith. Then, Lance was asking him something but he wasn’t sure what, so Keith just stared at him until the blue paladin huffed in frustration, stomping his foot into the snow.

Luckily, or unluckily for them, that was how they found their destination.

All around them snow fell, and it took Keith an embarrassingly long time to realize that they were the ones who were falling, right into the cavern system they were looking for. They must have fallen for a while because when Keith’s back hit the snow covered cave floor, even with the armor, it took his breath away.

Keith groaned and struggled to get to his side and sit up with his heavy limbs. He was sure his back would be bruised within half a Varga, but when he opened his eyes the cave glowed a bright blue all around them, crystals embedded in the walls.

Hunk and Lance were already on their feet, Keith catching little bits of their conversation as he used the wall to drag himself up.

“-Found it!”

“-Only… need… sample. Fabricator at the castle-” More static.

Keith got the gist of it, they were collecting a sample so they could find a way to get the hell out of there. They fell too far to climb up, and their jetpacks wouldn’t be of any help, clogged and frozen.

Keith found his eyes closing, opening occasionally to see where the other two had moved off to. He leaned even further against the cold cave walls, looking for the warmth that had been sapped from his body, his muscles contracting to produce its own heat.

Keith always hated the cold. It made him so… so… sluggish…

“-eith?” Keith blinked owlishly as Hunk suddenly appeared in front of him, worry etched onto his face. Lance was next to him, looking less worried and more weirded out.

“Wha?” Keith tried to get his mouth to cooperate, but it wasn’t working. Moving was like trying to run through molasses. Everything in Keith’s system was telling him that it was safe to sleep, in the cave and away from the storm with two other paladins with him, and Keith, ever the slave to his own instincts, did just that.

His knees buckled and his vision went black. He felt giant, warm hands grabbing him by the arms and easing him to the floor. He heard panicked voices before his ears were buzzing, blocking the outside world out. Keith could barely register his own fear as his body went slack and he drifted.

 

-

 

“Go on a mineral extraction mission, you said, it’ll be easy, You say,” Hunk huffed as he placed the last crystal in a vial, stuffing it in a compartment in his belt. “Now we're stuck in a cave underground for who knows how long.”

“Well I didn’t expect this either, buddy!” Lance threw his hands up in the air, “I thought maybe it was my turn to find an alien girlfriend! But now all I have is ice.”

“Allura said the planet was uninhabited, hence the name zero,” Hunk replied, unimpressed. “Keith, did you find a way out of here before Lance drives us crazy?” He asked, turning around to face the red paladin, only to see him leaning against the wall heavily, looking ashen.

“Uhh, mullet, you don’t look so good. Please don’t tell me you’re sick.” Lance and Hunk approached him, and when Keith looked up to them his violet eyes were half lidded.

Hunk blinked, chest flooding with worry. “Keith? Are you okay?” Directly after he asked the question, he was forced to grab onto Keith's arms before he could crash to the cave's ground for the second time that day.

“Whoa!” Lance cried, helping Hunk maneuver him down. Keith instinctively curled into a fetal position, and it was just then that Hunk realized he was shivering.

“Shit, his suit must be malfunctioning, is that why he wasn’t answering earlier?” Lance panicked as Hunk checked his pulse, but strangely enough…

“Keith’s asleep, his pulse is super slow but everything else is normal besides the fact that he’s freezing cold.”

“Weird,” Lance took one of Keith’s limp wrists and dangled it in the air, meeting no resistance. It was strange to see someone as uptight as Keith so … limp. “Are you saying he’s hibernating, like a bear or something?”

“I don’t know,” Hunk mused as he took Keith’s helmet, feeling along the rim of it until he came across a crack that should definitely not be there, right in the place where the glass met the armor material. It would have been impossible for any of them to notice. “His helmet is messed up, so the temperature regulators in the rest of his suit are malfunctioning, his comms probably are too.”

Lance flushed red, “Oh, that’s why he wasn’t answering earlier?” He reached down to take the helmet off of Keith and tap on his cold cheek. Keith only groaned and curled in on himself even more.

Hunk patted his shoulder, “there was really no reason to yell at him, Lance.”

“I know I know,” they both stared at the slumbering paladin before Lance tapped into the comm system of the castle, only to receive static.

“Oh great, we're stuck here, Keith won’t wake up no matter how hard we slap him, and we have no signal!”

“That’s not necessarily true, it’s the crystals that are blocking the signal, I can reverse engineer a helmet to use the crystals as the very line of communication,” Hunk offered, and Lance nodded eagerly.

“It may take a while and I, personally, don’t want to return to the castle with a nearly hypothermic Keith so…” Hunk smiled, “you’re on Keith duty!”

“Wait, what!”

“You received the same Garrison training I did, so you know how to keep him warm. I need to go collect crystals so I won’t be far,” Hunk completely avoided looking Lance in the eye as he walked to the opposite end of the cavern, much further than he actually needed, to get more samples.

“I thought we were friends,” Lance grumbled to himself as he looked back down to a snoozing Keith, whose nose was starting to look as red as his lion. Oh yeah, he was definitely catching a cold from this, but Lance would try his best.

Keith was far too gone in la la land to even notice what Lance would be doing… right? Yeah, Lance told himself as he carefully maneuvered Keith into a sitting position so he could slide the chest plate from his torso. Keith shivered some more at the loss of weight and Lance quickly moved to shuck the rest of his armor, leaving him in his body suit. After a few more moments of consideration, Lance shrugged before he stripped his own.

His armor would only get in the way anyways, as Hunk said, the only threat on this planet was the snow.

Lance enjoyed the cold, so he took his helmet off to bask in it, only to realize that it wasn’t the coldest weather he had been in. Sure, he lived in Cuba and enjoyed the heat, but Lance had always had a soft spot for the cold water at nights and the few vacations they went on to the mountains.

“Don’t remember this,” Lance said gruffly as he sat down next to Keith, letting his body heat radiate onto his, “I hope I get knocked out or something.” It seemed that sitting side by side wasn’t enough for Keith, because he instinctively leaned in, his cold face nosing into Lance’s neck like he was seeking warmth.

Lance knew this wouldn’t cut it so he sighed, and scooped Keith from around the waist, plopping him down in front of him. Like a snake, Keith wrapped his legs around Lance and sat on his lap. Right. On. His. Lap.

Lance felt like he was going to suffocate when the others arms circled around his neck, his face still firmly remaining in the crook of Lance’s neck.

Lance had always wanted to hold Keith, but he didn’t expect it to happen like this, on an alien moon with the red paladin at risk of hypothermia and with Hunk sneaking glances back at him. Lance couldn’t tell if he was wingmanning or being the worst friend ever, but he would let it slide just this once because he couldn’t exactly get up.

Keith made a rumbling noise in the back of his throat, shifting ever so slightly and making Lance wheeze in the process. “Keith, buddy, when are you going to wake up? No offense, but you’re like a boa constrictor right now.”

Keith didn’t respond, only nuzzling deeper.

Lance didn’t know how long they sat there, but when Keith’s shivering increased he tried his best to remain calm and wrap his own arms around his back, trying his best to keep his core warm. Keith sighed at this and Lance hummed, crossing his numb legs so that Keith wasn’t sitting right on top of his thighs.

By the time Hunk exclaimed an ah-ha from across the room, Lance’s legs had gone numb and Keith had only slipped deeper into his sleepy state.

“Did you get it?” Lance yelled over to his friend as Hunk jogged closer to them.

Hunk grinned mischievously, “we can make a facetime call with the holographic… whatever, i’m not explaining.”

Lance’s eyes widened, “Wait, facetime?!” He didn’t have any time to say much else before a screen lit up in front of them, a bar loading at the bottom until finally, the castle's main deck came into view.

“Paladins?” Allura asked, standing at the main controls, “we lost contact with you for several Varga.” Wow, it had really been that long? “what has happened and how do I have a video feed of you?”

Hunk explained the situation and Lance watched, mortified as Pidge and Shiro entered the room, pausing at the sight before them. Pidge immediately whipped out her phone for pictures and Shiro raced up next to Allura.’

“We crashed through the cave system, turns out it was under us,” Hunk explained, “I got the crystal samples but there was too much interference over the comms to connect with you via helmet so it took a little bit to form a connection for a call, but I managed. We don’t have a way out of the cave system though. That’s only one of our problems, we need out fast-”

“Keith,” Shiro interrupted Hunk’s rambling, “Keith? What’s wrong?”

Keith didn’t answer, not that Lance had been expecting him to. Instead, he only grumbled sleepily and shifted impossibly closer to Lance.

Shiro frowned, but before he could ask anything else Hunk filled him in. “We don’t know what’s wrong with him. His helmet was damaged meaning he’s cold, but he’s not hypothermic yet. He fell asleep a few Varga ago and hasn’t woken up since, it’s almost like he’s…”

“Hibernating!” Coran exclaimed from the other end of the video chat, “I don’t know how I could oversee this, but Galra are creatures whose bodies shut down in extremely cold temperatures. Granted, it is not nearly cold enough to send him into such a state there, but he doesn't have the fur to protect him like the other Galra do.”

“Did no one know about this?” Hunk asked, and Lance chimed in for the first time, “Keith hasn’t even seen snow before, I doubt it. Shiro?”

“No, I’ve only seen him get sluggish a few times back at the Garrison, but I always thought he was overworking himself.” Shiro admitted, looking guilty.

“This is not your fault,” Coran patted Shiro on the back, “no one could have known. Once there is a break in the storm we’ll send a lion down to fetch you lot, no worries. Just be sure to keep number fours temperature up as much as possible, we’ll warm him up back at the castle with heating supplies.”

Coran bustled somewhere off screen, probably to go find the heated blankets, and Allura said something inaudible because right as her voice came through the signal was lost and the holographic screen fizzled out.

“Well, looks like we’re alone again,” Lance supplied unhelpfully.

“At least we connected with them, if i’m reading the weather patterns right, then there should be a break here soon and we’ll be saved,” Hunk, ever the optimist, put his holographic weather whatever he had away. Then, he frowned, “he’s not looking too good.”

Keith’s lips and nose felt icy against Lance’s neck, raising the hairs on the back of his arms. “I can feel him getting colder.”

“I have an idea, i’ll help since my work on the crystal is done,” Hunk said as he started to strip his own over armor before laying down on his side and patting in front of him, “put Keith between us, i’m sure two space heaters are better than one.”

“Finally, someone here to help,” Lance grinned as he flattened his palms along Keith’s back and lowered him with his back facing towards Hunk, “I run hot, but Keith was sapping it all from me like some angry ice cube.”

Hunk chuckled as Keith unconsciously scooted closer to him, his back to the yellow paladin's chest, Hunk’s burly arms wrapped around his shoulders and rubbed warmth into them. “I like sleepy Keith, he’s a lot more fun to be around.”

“Yeah, that’s because he’s not talking,” Lance grumbled as he took his place on the other side of Keith, letting the red paladin draw him in until they were sandwiching him.

“Don’t be mean, I can tell when you’re bullshitting and Lance McClain, you are bullshitting.”

“Language Hunk,” Lance replied in his best Shiro impression, wrapping his arms around Keith’s waist as Keith’s face once again found the crook of his neck, a little closer to his collar bone this time.

Hunk only laughed as he wrapped a leg around Keith, Lance following his lead and covering him with his other leg, all three of their limbs getting tangled together.

Keith eventually jammed his frozen fingers between his chest and Lance, and Hunk watched sadly. “Breathe some life into his hands, dude. Garrison training?”

“Oh, right,” Lance recovered as he took Keith’s covered hands in his and huffed hot air onto them. He felt Keith’s fingers twitch as he rubbed them together, and only after Lance’s own arms grew tired did he strategically place his hands under his arms.

After another Varga or so even Lance was beginning to feel the effects of the cold. He was sure his nose looked red, but not as red as Keith’s ears and his cheeks… Oh yeah, he was definitely getting sick from this.

Allura should have added feathered scarfs to the Paladin armor, they would have really come in handy in this situation.

“Hunk?”

“Hmm?”

“Is Keith dead, or is he just an iceberg.”

“I can feel him breathing, he’s fine, Lance.”

“Hunk?”

“Hmm?”

“If we think birds can fly, do crabs think fish can fly?”

“Lance, I would tell you to go to sleep right now if I didn’t want you to accidentally suffocate Keith with your chest.”

“Hunk?”

“Hmm?”

“Thanks for being my pal.”

“Anytime buddy.”

They only had to wait for half a Varga before a familiar rumbling sound was heard in the distance. It wasn’t long before the black lion's head was visible through the hole the three of them had created when they fell.

Before Lance could move his stiff bones, Pidge was already grappling down from a line with a large grin on her face, snapping pictures all the way down.

“Pidge, put the camera down.”

“I don’t think I'll do that Lance.”

Lance and Hunk struggled to untangle themselves from the pile, and it took a lot of teamwork before they were both standing, dragging Keith up to steady him between them.

“We have to grapple up holding him?” Hunk asked nervously as three more lines were dropped down, “I don’t think we can do that.”

“Lance did silk dancing, I'm sure he can manage.”

“That’s true,” Lance shrugged as he took one of the lines and wrapped it around Keith’s torso, keeping a good grip at the end of the line before grabbing his own and hefting them up. “He shouldn’t fall as long as Hunk helps out.”

Hunk looked wearily to his own line before scrambling up it and sacrificing an arm to keep Keith’s head from drooping down too much.

The ride back to the castle was mostly tense and silent. Shiro was tense and even looked to be in pain, but Lance brushed it off as worry for Keith, who had napped on the cockpit floor with Hunk and Lance, but when Shiro dropped Lance off at his lion, Pidge took his place.

Lance arrived at the infirmary just in time to see Shiro placing a still asleep Keith down onto the infirmary bed, stepping back and letting Coran wrap the red paladin in multiple heated blankets like a human burrito. He even offered two to Hunk and Lance, and Lance took his gratefully. It was blue and he would definitely be sneaking it back to his room.

“He’ll be okay?” Shiro asked, sitting at the edge of the bed, “Do I need to go grab a sweater for him?”

“That would be advised,” Coran nodded, “and some of those warm pants you humans like so much.”

“Sweatpants, Coran,” Pidge said as Shiro left in search of the clothes items, “They’re called sweatpants and us paladins earned our rights to make them with the fabricators.”

Pidge was obviously very territorial over her sweatpants.

“I don’t even think Keith owns pajamas,” Lance grumbled, “he seems the type to sleep in his normal clothes like a psychopath.”

Soon enough, everyone dispersed to do their own things, Hunk claiming he was going to the kitchen to make warm soup and tea for the three of them. Lance pointed out that Keith’s would probably get cold and he’d have to microwave it when he woke up, but Hunk didn’t care. Pidge and Coran had to attend to help the princess store the crystal sample away and start the wormhole process.

Leaving Lance to help Shiro wrangle Keith out of the uncomfortable bodysuit and into sweatpants and a hoodie that most definitely did not belong to Keith and most definitely belonged to either Shiro or Hunk.

“Couldn’t find any pajamas?” Lance remarked.

 

“He sleeps in his day clothes,” Shiro confirmed Lance’s suspicions and Lance nearly gagged at the thought.

“Tell me more about the mission,” Shiro sat on the other side of Keith’s bed as Lance filled him in calmly.

 

-

 

When Keith woke up, he felt like he was being dethawed in a microwave, and not in a good way. He felt like that cold pack of chicken nuggets that got freezer burned over time.

When he opened his eyes, his vision swam. He was warm, incredibly warm, but his chest felt cold at the same time. Distantly he could remember vivid memories, flashes of the previous day, but that was as far as he could think before his brain stalled.

“La’nce?” He asked, his voice a croak, “Unk?”

“They’re all around you,” A smug voice replied, and Keith nearly jolted out of bed when he spotted Pidge sitting in the corner of the room, typing away on her laptop. “I’m on watch Keith duty,” she answered his silent question.

They’re all around him?

Keith patted the bed next to him only to discover that at the foot of the bed Hunk’s body was draped over his legs, a bowl of soup and a cup of tea on the table next to him. They were steaming. When Keith tried to move his hand, it was covered, covered with Shiro’s own and the black paladin was slumped to his side, head bumping against his ribs.

Then, there was Lance, who was propped up against the wall behind Keith. He was quick to discover that his upper body was laying on Lance’s legs, his head on his thigh. Lance’s head was leaned back and he was no doubt asleep, but his fingers were in his hair like he had been playing with it before he drifted off.

Keith shot Pidge a withering look, and in his morning voice he growled, “whatever pictures you took, delete them. Now.”

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 3 of Keith-centric