Chapter Text
"Stop!"
A loud voice reverberates throughout the stadium and everything stops, a tense hush falling over the room. There's a long silence, the crowd exchanging confused looks. And then the speaker steps forward, overlooking the main balcony with a devious grin.
"Hello, Blue."
— — —
Tiny, spherical drones circle through the air around a tall figure. From that figure shoot fast bursts of blinding white-blue light, striking the drones one by one until they’ve all fallen to the floor, circuits shorting with little electrical zaps before the red lights on the face fade into nothing. Sharp claps startle him and he whips around to see a familiar face.
“Pretty good, sharpshooter.” Shiro stops in front of him and grins, “I think that’s your best time yet.”
Lance beams at the praise, absolutely eating it up. “Should’ve seen me earlier, I was on fire.”
“Must be why you’re so hot right now.”
His entire face goes beat red. He is indeed covered in sweat from hours of training, but that’s not what Shiro means. Before he can get a word out though, he hears heavy footsteps approaching.
“Aren’t I supposed to be the one training into the middle of the night?”
Lance’s eyes roam over the man standing in the doorway and if he had any less self control, he’d lick his lips. And then he’d lick Keith’s lips. And other things. An elbow to his side pulls him out of his thoughts and he glances up to see an amused look on Shiro’s face.
“Why are you even up, Lance?” Keith asks, completely oblivious to what’s happening.
“I’m just nervous with the big battle coming up. I don’t feel ready.”
That’s the least of it, but he won’t tell his boyfriends that. They have their own stress about the battle to deal with, they don’t need to know the extent of his worries. Shiro pulls Keith in close and kisses his temple, laughing at the sleepy groan.
“Well, we can’t beat Zarkon without getting any sleep, so go on.” He ushers them forward, reveling in the yelp Lance lets out when Shiro’s hand swats his ass. “I’ll be there soon, I need to check on something.”
He nods, grabbing Keith’s hand as he reaches him. It’s a simple gesture, but he loves it. He’s never been the physically affectionate type, probably from years of solitary living, but he has a soft spot for Lance and basically lets him do whatever he wants. Which is great for Lance because he’s a hundred percent all about physical touch, especially when the person he’s touching is Keith. Shiro too, obviously, but Keith is more withdrawn and that’s what makes it that much sweeter, especially with the way his face is burning up right now.
“Come on mullet, let’s get in bed.” He wiggles his eyebrows at Keith which just earns him an exasperated groan, but their hands stay locked together.
“Whatever.” Keith huffs.
— — —
The first thing that comes to his attention as he stumbles forward from the cryo-replenisher is that it’s eerily quiet. Lance looks around and that’s when he sees why. The rest of the paladins are in the other pods, faces peaceful. He’s confused for just a moment before it all comes rushing back to him.
The Galra. The battle. Zarkon.
Zarkon.
Lance stares absently at the pod he just fell from, thoughts a mess. They had done it, they’d defeated Zarkon. He’s dead. A wave of relief washes over him. The war’s not over yet, but they took out their biggest target. Without a successor, the Galra empire would fall into chaos. Sure, they’d still have to rescue planets under Galra rule. Just because their chaos is imminent doesn’t mean they aren’t still a danger. But it's far easier when they're vulnerable like this.
“Number three!”
He turns at the sound of Coran’s delighted voice and grins at the Altean man.
“Coran, how’s everyone doing?”
He remembers them all returning to their hangars and making their way to the medbay to get checked out, but Lance was the first to go into a pod. Understandably too, he was pretty roughed up when they got back. Part of their battle had been in the lions, but it ended on solid ground. He’d definitely bruised more than a few ribs, had some lacerations scattered across his body, and one particularly nasty stab wound in his side. The worst of it though was the gaping gash across his face from one of the drones. He can see in his reflection from Keith’s pod that the gash is gone now, not even a scar left.
“Mostly minor injuries.” Coran reports, “They should be waking up soon.”
Right on cue, there’s a hiss from in front of him and he steps back, catching a very disoriented Keith. His arms are cool around Lance’s neck as he hugs him close. Just-woken-up Keith is the absolute cutest, and he proves it by pressing a kiss to Lance’s cheek and smiling up at him.
“Pretty,” He mumbles, eyes slipping shut a moment before opening wider than before. “Fuck I just said that out loud.”
Lance laughs and grabs his cheeks, kissing him on the lips with an adoring smile.
“Yes you did. Luckily, everyone else is in the pods.” Keith lets out a sigh of relief, but then Coran pipes in.
“Except for me, of course!”
Keith jumps back in surprise and embarrassment at having been seen being affectionate. Coran doesn’t care in the least though, aside from a general curiosity for human courting rituals. Which Lance has told him countless times is not what they call it. Not that he seems to care.
There’s another hiss that distracts them all and both Lance and Keith rush forward to catch Shiro as he falls. The others follow over the next few minutes and as everyone slowly wakes up, excited chatter fills the room.
They beat Zarkon.
— — —
The following week is pretty uneventful as they all recover emotionally from the battle. The lions and castle ship are also in great need, so they spend what time they can tending to them. And as things settle down, a pit starts to form in Lance’s chest that he can’t seem to shake. Nobody else seems to have the same feeling, so he goes a few days before he can’t keep it in anymore and tries to talk to Allura.
“What do you mean, something’s wrong?” She’s looking at him with more than a hint of skepticism.
“It’s been a week and a half with no news, don’t you think that’s weird?”
He hears a throat clearing behind him and looks back to see Keith and Shiro standing there.
“What’s weird?” Shiro asks.
“We all know that just because Zarkon is dead, doesn’t mean that the Galra aren’t still a threat. But they’ve taken a huge hit, and it’s going to keep them occupied for quite a time. I think we can allow ourselves to relax right now.”
Lance groans, “I’m just saying, it wouldn’t hurt to be careful. I think we should-”
“Shiro, what do you think?” She cuts him off.
Lance looks at him, brow furrowed with concern and hoping that he’ll agree. Shiro looks caught off guard and definitely unsure on what to do. When he doesn’t say anything, Keith decides to step in.
“I agree with Lance, actually.” He shrugs, “The castle and the lions still need more repairs, but we’ve underestimated them before.”
“I don’t know, guys.” Shiro finally speaks, “The way they scrambled after we killed Zarkon tells me they won’t be quick to regroup, if they even do. He’s been their only ruler for 10,000 years, it won’t be easy to find someone they deem worthy of taking his place. It’ll give us plenty of time to recover and fix everything, and then we can start strategizing on how to liberate the remaining planets.”
“Precisely!” Allura claps her hands together with a finality that makes Lance flinch.
Keith backs down, but Lance looks around at them like they’ve lost their minds. Is it really that much extra work to take a few precautions? And why is Keith, of all people, backing down so easily? The Galra have shown them time and time again that they’re not to be underestimated. Shiro and Allura are right, to an extent, but anything can happen.
He tries to relay this to them, but Allura huffs impatiently, “Lance, the matter is resolved. Shiro and I lead this team, and we agree that there’s no cause for concern any time soon.”
His mouth shuts and the pit in his chest grows.
— — —
Lance tries to act normal after their talk, but it’s not easy. It’s been a while since he’s had the team, specifically Allura and Shiro, shoot him down. It’s bringing back feelings that he buried a long time ago. In fact, he hasn’t had very many issues since Shiro and Keith had confessed to him and dragged him into one of the best things he’s ever experienced. It had served as a pretty great distraction for the emptiness he’d been going through until then.
And things had kind of changed after that too. Ideas which usually would have had everyone calling him ridiculous or stupid, were instead greeted with sincere consideration. A couple of times they even went with at least something he’d said. So to have them immediately dismiss his concerns, especially when the solution was so easy, hurts a lot. They’d have to take time from working on their lions, but it would be worth it to make sure they were safe.
To make things worse, Shiro tries to talk to him about it. At first he thinks that he’s going to apologize, but is quickly proven wrong when Shiro tells him that he shouldn’t worry so much about the Galra, and focus on fixing Blue. And when he added on that he was lagging behind everyone on repairs, Lance bit his tongue and started avoiding him.
Which isn’t an easy feat when you’re dating, so he ends up isolating from the whole team. Not that anyone notices other than Keith. He’s not the most observant person, but it’s apparent to him when Lance stops spending nights with them and doesn't smother him in affection anymore that something’s wrong. And being the person he is, Keith faces it head on.
— — —
“Lance, get your ass over here.” Keith snaps from the training deck door.
His head whips up at the attitude in his voice, but a smile lights up his boyfriend’s face. Keith laughs as he crosses the room and plops onto the couch next to him, bumping shoulders.
“You’ve been weird.”
“Wow, thanks.” Lance rolls his eyes. “You’re weirder.”
Keith leans in and bites his cheek, eliciting a yelp from him as his hand reaches up to shield his injury.
“Were you raised in a zoo?” He exclaims.
Keith shoots him a deadpan look, “I was raised in a shack in the desert.”
Lance pauses at the way he says it, and then he sees the twitch of Keith’s lips and shoves him back, “You ass, you’re getting too good at that.”
His lips stretch into a grin and for once, Keith takes his hand with a tight squeeze.
“I’m serious, you’ve been off lately. You haven’t slept with us in like, a week! And you’re always the one whining at us.”
Lance’s smile fades at that and he pauses before sighing, “It’s nothing. I guess I’m just a little more tired from the battle than I thought.”
“That’s definitely a lie. Like 95% certain.”
“You can’t be definite with 5% uncertainty.”
“I can do what I want.”
“Okay, Mr. Tough Guy, but that’s just math.”
Keith kind of looks like he wants to punch him, but he settles for an annoyed groan instead.
“Whatever, the point is that I know that’s bull. Shiro’s worried too.”
Lance scoffs, “Yeah, sure. Is that why you’re here alone?”
He tries not to let it show, but there’s a level of anxiety that he has when it comes to himself and Shiro. He’s insecure because he and Keith are both definitely too good for him, but Keith is too honest of a person for Lance to not believe in his feelings. But Shiro is different. He never really paid much attention to Lance, aside from shutting down all his ideas. And he's good at hiding his own feelings for the sake of the team.
And then out of nowhere, the two of them confess to him. Things between them are amazing and there’s plenty of kissing and touching and cuddling, but he’s left wondering a little too often if Shiro is only with him because of Keith. He can’t help but notice how often Shiro automatically gravitates towards Keith and how, in those moments, the attention he gets is almost like an afterthought.
“He’s with Allura right now.” Keith sighs, “He wanted to come but she needed him and it seemed pretty urgent. I said I’d talk to you.”
“Wow, you volunteered to talk about emotions ?”
Okay he definitely wants to punch him now.
“Can you drop the act for like, two minutes?” He snaps.
Lance flinches, mumbling in response. “Sorry.”
He must look pretty pathetic because Keith scoots closer and rests their foreheads together.
“No, I didn’t mean to snap like that. But I’m worried about you, for real.”
Maybe he should talk to him. They could even wait until Shiro is done so that they can all talk. He can voice his doubts and either they’ll reassure him that he’s wrong, or Shiro will admit he’s not really that interested. Hopefully Keith won’t leave with him if he’s not.
He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. “Do you remember the other night, when I was talking to-”
A shrill alarm cuts him off and they hear Allura’s voice over the castle’s alert system.
“Paladins to your hangars immediately! We have an incoming Galra battleship.”
Fuck.
— — —
When Lance’s eyes open, it’s dark. He can’t see much around him, but it gets a little easier as his eyes start to adjust. He kind of wishes that he couldn’t though, because what he sees makes him feel sick.
He’s in a Galra cell.
The events leading up to this all flood back to him and he collapses against a wall, tears starting to fill his eyes. The second they’d left the hangars, the large ship was firing shot after shot at them. Allura had ordered that Pidge go in to get information from their systems and shut down the weapons system, and Shiro told him to go in and watch her back. Everything had been fine until they were almost back to their lions and a shot had fired right next to her. Lance had been quick to turn around and fire back, lasers hitting spot on as drones zoomed around the corners towards them.
As soon as he confirmed Pidge made it to Green, he took a couple more shots and then turned tail to get back to Blue. Before he could take more than a few steps though, there was a harsh blow to the back of his head and he’d fallen to the ground and blacked out.
He was right, and because nobody had listened to him when he’d talked to Allura and Shiro, he got captured. If he weren’t absolutely terrified, he’d want to shove it in their faces. A small part of him hopes that they’re regretting not listening to him, but it fades quickly. Of course they are. Bitter as he is, that’s his family, and he hates thinking of how scared they must be.
A loud clanging noise distracts him and he scoots over to the door of the cell, peering out. There’s a dim purple light and a shadowy figure approaching that has Lance bolting back. He barely remembers them taking him, but that’s probably got something to do with the pain on the back of his head that’s starting to become more and more noticeable the longer he’s awake.
Hidden back in the shadows of his cell, Lance watches the Galra walk past his cell, a large gun held across her chest. He feels small in there with no armor and no bayard. He’s still got his undersuit on and covering up most of his skin at least. It’s cold in the cell, and after some crawling around he finds that it’s completely empty. No blanket then.
Lance lets out a shaky breath and slides down to the floor, curling up tight. It’s okay, he tells himself, the team will be able to find him in no time. This is probably just some stray battleship that came across the castle. Of course, it was beating the shit out of their lions and the castle, especially with repairs not finished. But with Zarkon dead, he can’t be sure if there’s a price on their heads still or not.
He looks up at the ceiling and feels a sharp twist in his gut. Keith is probably going out of his mind, and Hunk is probably either stress eating or crying or both. Pidge is most definitely already looking through the information she had gotten to try to track him down. And Shiro…
Obviously he’d be upset and worried, but Lance can’t help but think that maybe he’s relieved to have Keith back to himself. It helps knowing that at least Shiro is there for Keith. That they’re there for each other. As much as he doesn’t want Shiro to be in pain, he hopes that he misses him too. Lance certainly does. All he can think about is the last time they’d all slept together in Shiro’s room. Before that stupid conversation.
Lance had been lucky to be the one sandwiched between them, and he smiles at the memory of warm bodies and bare skin pressed up against him. Shiro was a cuddler, so no matter how they started the night, whoever was next to him would end up as his personal body pillow. And Keith was so much more open when it was just the three of them in the confines of a bedroom. He’d wrap his arms around Lance and sleep with his face buried in his shoulder, shoving at Shiro when he’d try to steal him away halfway into the night. It was one of the only times that he felt completely safe, like nothing would ever happen to any of them as long as they were there together.
But the comfort of those memories doesn’t last long. He’s not back home on the castle ship squished between his two lovers. He’s in a cold, dirty, Galra prison cell.
Alone.