Voltron Season 9

“You’re in love with Keith?” Allura asked, shock creeping into the edges of her voice. And Lance felt shame curl hot in his stomach. Not for loving Keith of course, because even though it hurt, he could never be ashamed of his love for Keith Kogane. He was ashamed of all the promises he’d made to Allura that he’d convinced himself he could keep when, deep down, he always knew he couldn’t. He could never stop loving Keith. 

“I’m sorry,” Lance said. “I’m a flirt, and I woo and I chase but, now that I finally have this relationship that I’ve been striving for I realize… Allura, you are one of my dearest friends and I never want to use you that way.”

“What way?” Allura asked, with a calm curiosity rather than the heat Lance had been expecting. 

“Like a-like a salve or compensation,” Lance said, throwing his arms up in the air in distress where he sat across from Allura on her bed on the Atlas. Allura looked away from him. 

“Lance…” she said, and Lance braced himself for an unparalleled reprimand. “I’ve been… doing the same.” Lance stopped wincing and blinked at her a few times.

“What?” 

“I have to confess, I had… feelings for Lotor.” She spat the name like venom, and afterwards, it looked like it had physically pained her to say it. “I thought this,” she continued, “us, could be mutually beneficial. But what you say is true, it’s not right.” 

“So, you don’t love me that way either?” Lance asked. 

“I’m sorry,” Allura said, “I didn’t think I’d ever love again after…” she trailed off. “I still don’t.” 

“Me neither,” Lance said, and Allura looked up. “I’ll never love again, I mean. I know it’s not the same–” Lance tried, and before he could say anything further Allura leaned forward on the bed and hugged him. Lance hugged her back and they shifted into a more comfortable position. 

“Thank you for telling me,” Allura said. Lance nodded into her shoulder. 

“What do we do now?” Lance asked. 

“I think we can decide,” Allura said, pulling away to look Lance in the eyes. “We can go back to just being friends, or, if we think that this relationship can still be mutually beneficial, we can stay the way we are.” 

“Like friends with benefits?” Lance asked stupidly.

“What does that entail?” Allura asked.

“Nevermind,” Lance hastily backtracked, “It’s not fitting for us, don’t worry about it.” Allura shrugged it off, apparently trusting his judgment. “But, I think… having someone close the way we’ve been,” Lance gestured to their proximity on the bed, “has been good. Do you agree?” 

Allura nodded. “I do,” she said. 

“Alright. So, we stay as we are?” Lance asked.

“We stay as we are,” Allura confirmed, leaning to rest her weight against Lance’s chest. He held her there.

***

Allura was the only one that knew the secret Lance kept closest to his heart, and now she was gone. Two years after the lions left, Lance still remained at home on his family’s farm. Besides her anniversary he rarely left the planet, he was rarely invited anywhere that is, as he and his Voltron family had drifted apart. Of course, all of them were busy or at least that’s what Lance told himself, but then again there was always that nagging voice in the back of his mind calling him a burden, ‘the dumb one’. Today was the first day he had left the farm for a while when it wasn’t for a major holiday. 

“¿Vas a salir? (You're going to go out?)” his mom asks, sounding surprised. Lance winces.

“Si,” he says, schooling his expression.

“¿Está todo bien? Apenas está amaneciendo. (Is everything alright? It’s barely sunrise.)”

“Todo está bien, mamá. Keith ha estado en el espacio durante meses y regresará hoy, (Everything's fine, mamá. Keith has been in space for months and he’s just getting back today.)” Lance half-lies. While it is true that Keith is returning, it isn’t exactly a momentous occasion for him to have been away. He’s leaving the house because he needs an excuse to do so in the hopes that it will clear his head, maybe stop the days from blurring together, stop food from always looking so unappetizing, and if he’s really really lucky, maybe stop the nightmares. And what better way to do that than to have Keith Kogane boss him around a bit? It would be like a breath of fresh air, a wakeup call. 

“¿Oh, Le vas a dar la bienvenida? Entonces no volverás por un tiempo, déjame darte algo de comida para que te la lleves, (Oh, you're going to welcome him? Then you’ll be out for a while, let me give you some food to take with you,)” his mother insists.

“Oh, Realmente debería ponerme en marcha, (Oh, I really should get going,)” Lance says, trying to sidestep his mother.

“Tonterías, espera ahí, esto solo tomará un segundo. (Nonsense, you wait right there, this will only take a second.)” 

Lance sighs and does as he’s told, already dreading the embarrassment of presenting Keith with homemade baked goods and seeing his face light up all warm and– No no no no no no. Not going there.

“Aquí dáselos a tu amigo. Estos tienen unos días de antigüedad, pero aún así son buenos, (Here give these to your friend. The cookies are a few days old, but they're still good,)” she says, “Y aquí también hay algo de comida para el camino. (And here's some food for the road too.)” 

“Gracias, mamá,” Lance says, taking the tupperware. 

He places the container in the passenger seat when he gets to his car and turns on the hot air to fend off the morning chill. 

“Le dices a Keith hola de mi parte, (You tell Keith hello for me,)” his mother calls, waving him off while he backs out of the driveway. 

“Lo haré, (I will,)” he says, waving back. Then he turns onto the dirt path leading out of the farm and drives away watching the fields of juniberries pass by outside his window. 

It’s a long drive to the Galaxy Garrison, a long time to be alone with his own thoughts. He tries opening the window to let the cool wind blow his thoughts away, and tries cranking up the music, but eventually they all come back. The war is over, Lance is home, and yet he’s still afraid and now he has no excuse. Now he is afraid alone. He told his therapist that once, back when he was seeing a therapist, and she told him they should unpack that, so he stopped making appointments. 

While Lance stayed home and battled his nightmares, Keith continued his peace efforts among the stars. He never stopped, he never wavered, and now Lance is going to have to face him. The thought was a sobering one as most thoughts of Keith were, besides the rouge golden hour dream of the black paladin beside him in bed. It’s not that he hasn’t seen Keith, it’s just that he wasn’t invited this time. He bears no excuses. 

He was going to welcome Keith home. Quiznack . 

Lance parks his car around the back of the Garrison and spends another moment behind the wheel. “No one knows,” he whispers to himself. No one in the universe knew besides Allura, he's never told another soul, not even Hunk. The only proof of his feelings for his old partner or his agreement with Allura are in his diary, well hidden in a locked box in the back of his closet. He was going to go in there, tell Keith that he just so happened to be stopping by and had no idea that Keith was even getting back today, and they would chat, and Lance would feel alive for the first time in months, and everything would be fine. He drew in a breath through his teeth and let it out, “You got this sharpshooter.”

When Lance steps into the Galaxy Garrison, the ceilings are even higher than he remembers. The entire space is alive, not just with people, but with action. For a moment his feet move on their own and he is taken back into a familiar routine, each step taken with purpose. 

“Lance,” someone calls, and he whips his head around to see none other than Pidge Holt bounding towards him. This was their domain after all, he really should have expected this. He oofs when they run into him and returns the embrace. “You’re like a wall of muscle,” Pidge complains.

“Well, I work hard, Pigeon,” he counters. 

“Yeah yeah, what are you doing here?”

“Oh, umm…” Pidge’s eyes light up at his hesitation like a predator sensing weakness.

“You’re here to see Keith,” the gremlin decides. 

“What?” Lance asks, his voice too high in pitch, and he clears his throat subtly, “Keith’s not even on world is he?”

Pidge watches him with unconvinced eyes, “Well it just so happens,” they say, “that he’s getting back today.”

“Oh! Then I guess I’ll have to say hello.”

“Yeah, I guess you will,” Pidge says, “This way; you’re just in time to welcome him.”

When they enter the docking bay Lance mentally face-palms again, because of course Shiro is here too. The only person who wasn’t there (because that was just his luck) is Hunk.

“Lance,” Shiro greets.

“Shiro,” Lance mimics, putting on his most cheerful smile. They meet in the middle for one of Shiro’s bone crushing hugs and when they pull away Lance is smiling for real. 

“What are you doing here?” Shiro asks.

“I just came down here to get out of the house,” Lance says before Pidge can butt in, “and then I heard that Keith happens to be getting back today.”

“Well, isn’t that great timing,” Shiro says, sounding genuinely pleased. Behind them Pidge hums skeptically. 

Just then the doors to the bay next to them open, revealing Keith standing here shaking out his hair like a dog. “Keith,” Shiro greets loudly enough to startle Lance out of his impending mullet-induced cardiac arrest. Kosmo trots up behind Keith and pants in Shiro’s direction. Keith waves to Shiro, then spots Lance behind his brother and his face lights up into a brilliant smile leaving Lance to curse himself internally. 

“Lance!” Keith shouts in that low voice that Lance missed so dearly, “What are you doing here?” Lance opens his mouth to respond just before Pidge says,

“He’s here to see you.” And if Lance thought that smile couldn’t get any bigger, boy was he wrong. Lance draws in a deep breath and reminds himself to be the bigger person. 

“It’s been a while,” Lance says smoothly. 

“It has,” Keith says, “what’s in the bag?” Lance looks down at the tote bag in his hand that he’d stuffed the food into, just now remembering its existence.

“Oh, my mom sent me with food for you, she says hi by the way.”

“Really?” Keith asks, absolutely delighted. Lance can feel Shiro’s confused stare at the back of his head but presses onwards. 

“The cookies are a few days old.”

“That’s fine,” Keith says at the same time Pidge says “COOKIES?!”

“I’ll share,” Keith promises. 

“You bet your ass you will,” Pidge says.

“Language,” Shiro scolds. And then they all break out laughing at the ridiculousness of it all, Lance included. 

The four of them move to the kitchen to unpack Lance’s food and get a few more snacks from the vending machines to make a big enough meal out of it. They sit around a table in the cafeteria while Keith stoically recounts his mission and Pidge shares about their newest projects. Shiro brings up Adam’s work with him on the Atlas and Lance talks about how much Silvio and Nadia have grown. 

Lance picks at his food while the others continue talking, then slips most of it back into a container for later. When he tunes back in they’re talking about the success of Hunk’s intergalactic restaurant. He’s about to chime in when he notices that Keith is looking at him strangely. And why wouldn’t Keith be looking at him strangely? That was certainly a question with less feasible possibilities than why he is. So, Lance presses on and rejoins their conversation, doing his best to ignore Keith’s piercing gaze until the end of their late lunch. 

When the meal is over Lance packs the containers back into his bag. Out of the corner of his eye he sees the others leaving and he does his best to swallow the lump in his throat and not be offended at their lack of goodbye. But, when he turns back around he’s startled to see that Keith’s still there. “Hi,” Lance says stupidly, already berating himself for it as the single word escapes his mouth. 

“Hey,” Keith returns cooly, “Are you feeling alright? You hardly ate anything,” he says, straight to the point as always. 

“Fine, just not hungry. I had a big breakfast,” Lance lies, and Keith seems to let it go. Kosmo then leaves his post beside Keith to trot up to Lance, so Lance delays his escape to reach out and pet him when he gets close enough. Clearly a mistake. 

“It really has been a while, hasn’t it?” Keith asks. 

“You’re never around,” Lance says, harsher than he meant to. This was a mistake. He looks up to see Keith’s brow furrowed. “Sorry,” he says quietly, his voice pleading for understanding, but that only makes Keith’s frown deepen. “I guess I’ll see you around then.” Lance grabs his bag, turning away.

“You’re leaving already?” Keith asks, sounding almost disappointed. 

“It’s a long drive even on the hyper roads,” he excuses. 

When Keith approaches him, and Lance intends to say nothing but a final goodbye, he gets caught in Keith’s stare for a moment, physically unable to look away. “Walk me to my car,” he says instead.

“Of course,” Keith responds, grabbing his leather jacket off his chair. Kosmo follows behind them without being told and they make their way out of the building, leaving through the side door so they won’t run into their friends again. Keith looks deep in thought the whole way out, and Lance enjoys the opportunity for his staring to go unnoticed. 

It really wasn’t all Keith’s fault that they’ve grown apart. Lance has grown apart from most people, because he just got tired of reminding them he was there, got tired of them expecting him to remind him. Got tired. “We’re here,” Lance says, stopping Keith from power walking past his car, “It was nice seeing you.”

“Ya, it was nice seeing you too,” Keith says awkwardly, still not looking entirely present. And if Lance cried on the way home, that’s between him, his diary, and the wind. 

***

Three weeks later, Lance wakes up to Rachel peeking her head in the doorway to his room and excitedly whispering, “ Tienes un visitante. (You have a visitor.)”

“Qué -” Lance responds blearily, but before giving any clarification Rachel races off back down the hall. 

Lance stands and dresses leisurely, slipping on a pair of jeans and grabbing his hearing aid off his nightstand, assuming that Hunk has come by unannounced. Then, he wanders downstairs for breakfast and his morning chores. When he descends the last step, he turns the corner to find Keith standing awkwardly in his entrance way, surrounded by his relatives. 

“Mierda,” he says before he can stop himself, drawing Keith’s attention, and then, “RACHEL! Why didn’t you tell me Keith was here?!”

“I told you, you have a visitor,” she calls from down the hall. 

“I’m sorry,” are the first words out of Keith’s mouth, “I shouldn’t have come by unannounced.” 

“It’s fine,” Lance insists without thinking, “Let’s get you out of this entrance way, shall we?” He leads Keith back out of the house and down towards one of the fields under a large, shaded tree. “What are you doing here, is everything ok?” he asks. Keith still looks a little frazzled from being left alone with his family for so long but composes himself.

“I just wanted to see you,” he says, and Lance stops in his tracks. Keith stops with him when he looks back at Lance he frowns. Lance realizes he must look dreadful, not only because he just rolled out of bed and didn’t even take the time to do his skincare routine, but now he’s letting the pain show on his face. “I realized after you came to the Garrison that… you might not mind me coming by,” Keith continues.

“I might not mind?” Lance asks.

“I just mean that I realized you might want to see me, and I hadn’t thought to consider that,” he admits honestly. The wind blows a bout of juniberry petals around them and Keith’s eyes leave his for a moment to watch them. Lance’s eyes don’t stray for a second as he sums up his courage for a moment of honesty that would come easier to Keith than breathing. 

“I missed you,” Lance says, and Keith’s indigo eyes widen, “mullet,” he adds on too late, and Keith smiles. 

They go to sit under Lance’s favorite tree and… they just talk. Keith lets Lance talk for hours, catching him up on every little thing that has happened since they last saw each other, and then everything he neglected to mention the last time they were together. Lance thinks that it feels good to let Keith see him (most of him) and to feel that closeness again. He took it for granted when they were spending everyday together, sleeping on the same ship, sharing every meal, and working towards the same goal. Yesterday he felt like Keith used to know him better than anyone, but now, looking into Keith’s open expression and intense eyes, he can let himself believe that’s still true.

Keith claims his life to be uneventful, then proceeds to detail his latest adventures in saving alien children, rebuilding entire planets, and solving political disputes. Lance is absolutely elated to find that he hasn’t changed. He doesn’t know if his heart could take another return-from-the-blades total shift in character, not when it feels that he’s just learned to let go of the version that he once lost. They only stop talking when Lance’s mother calls them in for lunch, and today Lance eats. Just as he thought, Keith was the one who could grant him the clarity he had been searching for.

When they’re done eating, Keith politely dismisses himself. The whole family gathers at the door to see him off, demanding that he come again soon, and Lance finds himself glad that Veronica is still at the Garrison and can’t take the opportunity to flirt with him in their home. When they’re finally left alone outside the front door Lance looks at him. Really looks, in case this is the last time he sees him in a while. 

After receiving his Altean markings from Allura, which shifted his DNA, Lance grew three inches, giving him a solid inch on Keith. (Not a comfortable two inches like before but he’ll take it.) There’s a new scar on Keith’s chin, opposite to the big one, this one just the remnant of a nick or a scratch, still fresh and pink. He’s handsome as ever, clean shaven and standing tall with a fire behind his eyes and a tight shirt stretched on over his broad shoulders and slim waist. “Come back,” is all Lance says when he finally breaks the silence. 

“I will,” Keith promises with soft sincerity. 

Lance watches him walk out to his bike and waves him off when he revs the engine. 

***

Keith doesn’t make him wait for long. His next mission only lasts a week, and he lands his cruiser at a dock only 30 minutes away from Lance’s home that Lance didn’t even know existed. This time they do something Lance hasn’t done in ages: they spar. 

“Not bad Mcclain,” Keith says.

“Don’t patronize me, you just knocked me flat on my ass three times in a row.”

“You’re out of practice,” he says, “we’ll get you back in shape, farm boy.” That makes Lance laugh as he’s trying to stand up and it comes out sounding like a wheeze. 

“Whatever you say, team leader,” Lance jests before going to jab Keith in the side while his guard is down. But, of course, Keith’s guard is never down, so the other just smacks his hand away. 

The following time Keith visits, he brings an extra sword with him. It’s a broadsword like the one Lance’s bayard transformed into what feels like so long ago now, but that iteration never saw action with Lance. “Let me teach you how to wield a sword?” Keith asks him. And of course Lance would, but not without a little familiar bickering. 

“Why would I want a sword when I could just use a gun?” Lance asks, taking the blade, “You know they say never bring a sword to a gunfight.”

“I’ve managed just fine,” Keith points out, “and besides, not everything is a gunfight.”

“First, you’re an exception, and second, I refute that,” Lance says, pointing the sword at Keith’s face. Keith bats the blade away, unbothered. His coolness in this situation would have set Lance’s blood on fire at one point, but now he knows it has nothing to do with some holier-than-thou attitude. Lance knows this silence is meant to be interpreted as a challenge, just as he can easily read his other silences to mean focus or fatigue or trust or barely restrained anger. Keith directs Lance’s stance and his grip on his weapon and takes his own position. “Don’t stop moving,” Keith tells him, “Don’t give me the chance to strike.”

“Fat chance of that,” Lance mutters. And as soon as Keith makes his first move the fight is all but over. 

***

The sun comes up late one winter morning and Lance’s dreams escape him. He rises from bed and retrieves his hearing aid from its box on his nightstand. The small machine squeals as he adjusts it, rousing him more fully from sleep, and the sound reminds him of the ringing in his ears the day he lost the hearing in his right ear in the first place. Zandak’s first attack on the castle of lions feels like a lifetime ago now, and yet he can still see the massive blast scar it left him with if he cranes his neck when he looks in the mirror. 

There isn’t much work to do around the farm at this point in winter, so he gets a day off work today. He can go outside with a cup of tea and relax in the stillness of the morning before coming back inside for a shower, maybe he’ll go back to sleep before he has to leave for the Garrison. 

Their dinner celebrating Allura was just a month ago and now it was Hunk’s birthday. It was the shortest period of time in between Lance’s off planet excursions at any time of the year since their Christmas celebration remained on Earth. The food was always good, and the company was better, but Lance was dreading it. He was dreading it because he could already tell that today was going to be one of those days. He’s had these days since he first joined Voltron, maybe even before, when the voice in his head telling him that he’s not good enough just gets too loud. 

Today, the unfortunate first thought his rapid-fire ADHD brain has is to drown out that voice with thoughts of Keith. The stunning image of the man that has worked his way up to being Lance’s favorite person over the last few months is quickly and predictably derailed. ‘I just don’t want to be stuck here for eternity with Lance.'  the voice says, and, ‘Are we really even friends? Is there anything holding us together besides some messed up series of coincidences?’ It’s Keith’s voice, always Keith. When Keith had questioned their team's bond, they had all been slowly succumbing to madness in the void of open space, but now that Lance’s psyche is startlingly sober, the question makes him dizzy. He was always the goofball, the seventh wheel, and as soon as their ‘messed up series of coincidences’ ended he drifted off. His friends must resent him for staying home, holing up in his room and leaving the rest of the universe behind. Or maybe they still pity him for losing Allura when the horrible truth is that he never even loved her the way they all think he did. No matter how much he misses his best friend, it will never be enough to condone the way he is today. But then a worse thought crosses his mind, maybe they don’t even care. What column does Keith fall under, he wonders. Or has he forged his own path like he so often does? Lance can only hope.

He spends the majority of his day curled up in bed before it’s time to get ready to leave. He washes his face and applies his moisturizer and under eye cream. Then gets out his nicest button up and dress shoes for the fancy dining and fancier guests that Hunk now invites to his parties from his time as a five-star chef and diplomat. 

He arrives at the docking bay nearest his house and is picked up by Keith, Krolia, Kolivan, and Lotor’s former generals as a pitstop from their latest mission on their way to the Garrison where they retrieve Pidge, Matt, Shiro, Adam, and Veronica. Needless to say, their small ship is packed. Lance manages to lodge himself between the pilot's chair, housing Keith, and the wall. Their stoic pilot seems to be having about as much fun in the incredibly loud hull as he is, and Lance struggles to think up a joke to lighten the other man’s mood. 

Keith’s hair is pulled back into an unbearably stylish ponytail, so hair jokes are decidedly off the table. Cat jokes are always good but tend to have the opposite effect of lightening his mood… As Lance is staring intensely at Keith’s furrowed brow trying to materialize a joke corny enough to make Keith laugh because of the sheer stupidity of it, Keith glances over at him. Lance’s impulses take over under the weight of the brief attention and he asks, “You come here often?” 

Keith blinks at him for a moment, processing. Then his brain seems to catch up with him and he breaks out into a grin, snickering and turning back to the controls. Lance feels like the world is spinning, his face is on fire and the ground was just pulled out from under him. Lance just flirted with KEITH, and rather than the world imploding Keith just… laughed? It was a gorgeous laugh too. Keith has a face practically made for frowning, he looks very handsome with his lips downturned and his eyes squinting in an accusatory glare. But when he smiles?  Well, when he smiles the sun shines upon the desolate voids of space as far as Lance is concerned. 

After panicking for the remainder of the journey to the Dalterion belt, Lance stumbles out of the spacecraft behind Acxa when they arrive. He nearly runs into her as the Galran is looking enraptured with whatever his sister is saying to her. “You alright?” Keith asks from behind him, being the last to exit the ship.

“Yup, all good,” Lance assures, giving an overenthusiastic thumbs up. It seems to have Keith convinced because he just smiles softly and takes his place beside Lance as they walk into the building housing the party. 

“Paladins!” Coran calls when they walk in the door, skipping over to meet them with Shay following not far behind. 

“Hunk will be so happy to know you have arrived,” Shay says.

“We’re not paladins anymore,” Pidge laughs.

“Hi Coran, hi Shay,” Lance says.

“Hello Lance,” Shay says back as Coran is absorbed into a conversation with Shiro. The Balmerian leads them through the densely packed room to a bar counter where Hunk is chattering with a regal looking alien. 

“Hunk,” Pidge calls, unashamed to be interrupting. Matt looks like he’s about to lightly scold them before Hunk spots their group and his eyes light up. The birthday boy dismisses himself from the other guest and runs over. 

“You guys!” he says, pulling multiple people into a hug at a time. Lance is glad to say he got his own hug while Keith got pulled in with Shiro. 

“Happy Birthday,” they all say, one after another. 

“Thank you! I’m so happy to see all of you,” he says, then he looks at Lance, “I feel like it’s been forever.” 

They all dissolve into chatter while Lance stays unusually quiet. Luckily no one seems to notice. Even after Allura died, no one would ever use the word ‘quiet’ to describe Lance Mcclain even as he let his communications die off and began to gravitate to corners at parties like… well like Keith. He’s been careful not to just ghost Hunk though, if for nothing else just to avoid an intervention. Hunk remains the person he speaks to most, besides Keith as of recently, but not as much as he used to. After the war Lance bothered him constantly, calling him after all his worst nightmares and inviting him over to his house to watch cartoons. But after Hunk started getting busier with his new business, Lance slowly started tapering off his communications. To this Hunk responded in turn with, ‘I’m so glad you’re getting better’ as to this day Lance just hasn’t had the heart to tell him otherwise. He never told the team when something was bothering him before, why start now? It’s only every once and a while, when Keith looks at him just so and makes him feel carved open, that Lance wants to spill his guts. But he doesn’t, and he won’t, especially not when Keith could leave him again just when Lance is starting to feel settled like last time. 

It’s only after Matt taps his shoulder that Lance realizes he’s been spacing out. “You alright dude?” he asks.

“It’s just loud in here,” Lance responds, raising his voice a bit to prove his point. Matt looks at him weirdly, but Lance tries to tune back into Hunk’s conversation in order to shake it off.

They end up at a table near the edge of the room, each of their plates stuffed with the catered food, and Lance does his best to chatter so he has an excuse for not eating. He makes small talk with Hunk and Pidge for a while before they cut him out of their conversation to talk about food chemistry, and Lance notices how quiet Keith is beside him. “How was your mission?” Lance asks, and it takes Keith a moment to realize Lance is talking to him. 

“What?” he asks. Lance laughs, already feeling better than he has all night.

“How was your mission?” he enunciates, resting his elbow on the table and leaning on his palm.

“Fine,” Keith says, “Boring honestly.”

“Do you find anything you do interesting?” Lance asks.

“I find the results of what I do interesting,” Keith responds, “And sometimes there are moments that make me remember why I love what I do.”

“Tell me about one of them,” Lance insists. 

“Ok, ummm… I was on a moon in the Tiamat system and there are these beautiful markets,” Keith says, and Lance has to physically will himself not to look too interested, “I came across a stall with shimmering crystals attached to one local superstition or another, then I look behind me and I see a group of children running by with little doll versions of you and Hunk in their hands.”

“Of me and Hunk?” Lance asks, smiling ear to ear at both how cute the story is and how cute Keith is to be telling it.

“Yes, and what makes it even better is that one of the little ones was a kid I had saved a few months back from another planet in that system.”

“And did you buy one of the crystals?” Lance asks.

“What, no. I didn’t have the right currency on me, but I wanted to. When I told the stall vendor what had just happened, they told me it was because their crystals brought good fortune or something, though I think the main attribute was romantic love so they may have been making that up anyhow.”

“Well, that’s sweet,” Lance says, “Why don’t you ever tell me these stories instead of things I could read on the intergalactic news?” Keith pauses for a moment and seems to think about that. 

“I just never think about it. These things always seem so small, even if they leave a lasting impression emotionally, I often forget the specific moment that caused it,” Keith says, Lance hums and picks up something stabbed with a toothpick that he had loaded onto his plate at the bar. As expected, the food is amazing.

“What about you, anything eventful happen while I was away?”

“You mean besides Nadia breaking my phone screen? No.”

“I’m sure she didn’t mean to,” Keith defends.

“You don’t know that!” Lance counters, “You have far too much faith in her.” Lance starts to tell the story, complete with wild hand gestures and a voice for each character. 

“Lance,” Pidge says, interrupting his story. Lance turns to face them and hums his acknowledgement. “I can’t hear myself think over your screeching,” they say, and Lance’s face drops. Shiro must notice because in a kind fatherly tone he adds,

“Just take it down a notch, okay?” 

Lance nods and quickly sums up the remainder of his story for Keith who is now frowning at Shiro. He sits there a while longer and shoves finger food in his mouth periodically when Hunk’s gaze crosses him. When he thinks no one will notice him leaving, he gets up with the excuse of grabbing more food. On his way out of the main hall he sees some of them eyeing him curiously, so he walks up to the woman Hunk had been speaking with when they arrived and dawns a flirtatious smirk. His friends roll their eyes and turn away. 

He drops the smirk in favor of a polite greeting when he nears her and asks how she knows Hunk, making brief conversation before dismissing himself and making a b-line for the balcony. The cool night air greets him and he sets down his food and drink, maneuvering out of view of the glass doors. Once the sounds of the party are muted, the pounding in Lance’s chest relents. But his thoughts still swirl. Did Keith think his stories were annoying? Would he tell Lance if he did? And did no one really notice that had been the first time he had really been speaking all night? He scolds himself for being selfish, reminding his subconscious that he isn’t the center of the universe. Never the center of anyone's universe, never the priority, his mind supplies. 

He lets out a shaky exhale and looks up at the sky, searching for all the constellations and planets and galaxies that he can name from here. He finds that there are many in this familiar system still ingrained in his mind from his nights on the castle’s observation deck. It feels oddly homey being so far away from home. He’s pulled back into reality when he hears the door creak open behind him. He doesn’t look to see who it is and instead continues looking up at the sky until he feels a presence join him at his side. When he finally glances over, he finds Keith, looking up at the same stars.

“Hi,” Lance says. Keith looks away from the sky to give Lance his full attention. 

“Hi,” Keith says. 

“Still not a fan of social gatherings, ey?” 

“Too loud,” Keith tells him. They’re quiet for a while before Keith speaks again and Lance feels safe if only just for a moment. “You know if something’s wrong you can talk to me.” 

Lance chuckles a bit at that, and he knows it’s cruel of him but he can’t help it. Keith looks confused and a bit hurt. “Nothing’s wrong,” Lance insists.

“Lance, I’m not stupid,” Keith says. Oh, so maybe someone has noticed. 

“Just me then,” Lance jokes.

“What does that mean, Lance?” 

Lance sighs, “Fine, nothing’s more wrong than usual.”

“Alright,” Keith says, with a tone that means he expects more. 

“I’m just a little messed up, Keith. I mean, aren’t we all, after the war.” 

“We are,” Keith agrees. He looks back out at the stars and Lance follows his gaze. “I know you miss her,” he says. 

“We all miss her,” Lance says harshly, “I’m not special.”

“Aren’t you?” Keith asks, not rhetorically.

“No,” Lance says, his throat starting to ache as the tears build in his eyes, “You don’t understand.”

“Will you let me?” Keith asks. 

Lance lets so much of his pain show on his face when he turns to let Keith look at him. “It’s awful, Keith,” he admits. Keith looks pained too, and Lance can already feel the guilt weighing them both down from three simple words. “I won’t burden you with it.”

“Please,” Keith begs. Lance looks behind them, back at the party, imagining how horrible it would be if someone like Coran heard. “Come on,” Keith says, holding out his hand, “we’ll go into the garden.” And he shouldn’t, Lance shouldn’t take his hand, but he does, and he lets Keith lead him again. 

They settle again on a dirt path among bushes of purple flowers, and Keith lets the silence remain for as long as it takes for Lance to break it. “I just feel so hopeless and alone some days,” Lance says finally, “and I have no excuse because… Allura and I were never in love.”

“Lance–” Keith starts, like the confession is ridiculous.

“And I’m not saying that because I’m insecure,” he assures, cutting off the denial. He turns his head to look Keith in the eyes, “I wasn’t in love with Allura,” he admits. 

Keith is quiet and confused, his head tilted as he waits for Lance to say more. “Allura didn’t love me like that either; she told me so herself. We got together because we both felt lonely, we both wanted something–someone– to call our own. But we weren’t in love.” Then the tears finally overflow. “And everyone thinks,” he sobs, “that that’s why I’ve been acting so pathetic–” Keith tries to intervene when Lance hiccups, but he powers on, “but it’s just me,” Lance yells, “I’m just pathetic!”

“Lance, you’re not–”

“Do you pity me because you thought her death was allowed to break me, is that why you keep me around?” he asks even though he dreads the answer.

“No,” Keith insists.

“You expect me to believe that? Apparently you only started hanging around when you realized something was wrong with me.”

“That’s not true!”

“What’s the difference then, between now and when you left before? How am I supposed to trust that you won’t do it again?” 

Keith looks stunned, but he recovers quickly. “I promise,” he says.

“You promise?!” Lance barks a laugh.

Keith nods, “I promise,” he says again. 

Hot tears run down Lance’s cheeks and his face warps into an ugly grimace. “No one wants me,” Lance cries.

“That’s bullshit,” Keith growls, making Lance’s cries stutter. 

“What?”

“I want you,” Keith says, and oh how Lance wishes that meant all the things he wants it to. His breathing begins to even out, his hysterics coming to an end. 

“I’m broken, Keith,” Lance protests.

“You’re not.”

“And I’m not good at anything.”

“You’re good at everything.”

“You’re thinking of yourself,” Lance rebuttals, Keith shakes his head. Lance leans back against a bush, feeling defeated but also a lot lighter. 

“I’ve never told you how grateful I was to have you as my right hand,” Keith says, “you always supported me and excelled as a leader when I was away.” Lance stays quiet and listens as much as he wants to disagree, allowing Keith to say his piece. “You’re bold, adventurous, and intuitive, and I’ve never met anyone who loves like you do, Lance. You were always the glue of our team and the one keeping us going when everything felt like it was becoming too much. I realize now that no one has done that for you, and that it should have been me doing that for you.”

“You did do that for me, Keith,” Lance says quietly, “when you were there.”

“I left because of you,” Keith says, and Lance’s blood freezes.

“What?” he breathes.

“We were a lion short, and I thought you were more important to the team, so I left before you had the chance to and tried to do some good somewhere else.” When Lance looks at Keith to see his honest expression, tears run down his face once more. 

“We’re idiots, aren’t we?” Lance asks, his voice breaking.

“Yeah,” Keith agrees, “But I think we should stick together.” 

Lance nods, “Ya, I think we should.”

It’s not until a while later that they decide to go back into the party, rejoining the bustle of the gathering regardless of how much they would prefer to stay outside in the crisp night air. They mingle around the party, never straying far from one another, and when the night ends Lance is the last person Keith drops off at home. Lance insists that it’s far too late for Keith to be flying and sneaks him inside, bringing him blankets and pillows to sleep on the couch in the living room. 

When morning comes Keith is still there, and he joins the family for breakfast. 

***

A week later, on the 20th of January, Keith watches in awe as Lance names one star after another above them in the sky. It’s a dark, clear night on the Mcclain family farm and they’re sat beneath the edge of the canopy of the largest tree on their plot of land. Lance’s Altean marking glow in the dark, illuminating his freckles and reflecting off his now grown out brunette curls. Keith could listen to Lance’s voice for hours, sat so close together they were nearly touching. Lance tells him that he has a telescope in a box somewhere from back in his childhood as an amateur astronomer, one that he got just after deciding he wanted to go to space during a late-night stargazing on Verando beach.

Keith is of course not looking up at the sky now, all of his attention is directed to Lance and he’s thanking his Galran eyes for being attuned so well to the dark. At the same time, his mind is still struggling to grapple with the knowledge that Lance doesn’t know how important he is to him. He feels like he’s always been so obvious, that every word out of his mouth display’s his affections plainly. Lance has always been insecure, but it seems that Keith didn’t know the half of it. The news about his relationship with Allura was surprising of course, but that wasn’t the most shocking thing Lance shared with him at Hunk’s party. Lance told him that he didn’t think the team wanted him around, and at dinner he saw the lengths of just how much Lance and the others have drifted apart. 

A part of Keith had always thought that as soon as the war was over he would drift apart from the team. That as soon as they weren’t forced together anymore Keith would return to being a loner, occasionally visited by Shiro and maybe Krolia. Lance however, was the last person that he ever pictured ending up alone. Always so bright and alive and social, the boy that got half the universe to fall in love with him, Keith included. How could he not know?

“Do you ever miss space?” Keith asks when Lance pauses in naming distant space objects. Lance looks over to find his eyes. 

“Sometimes,” Lance admits, “I always wanted to go to space, even before I became a paladin of Voltron. Sometimes I miss traveling to all those different planets, and I miss helping people in need.” 

Keith hums, considering this. “Lance,” he starts, “you know that if you ever wanted to come back, we would be happy to have you.” Lance stares at him wide eyed, then laughs nervously. “You don’t have to.”

“No, I just… I figured you wouldn’t want me to. I mean, I made my choice, didn’t I?”

“You're allowed to change your mind,” Keith says. Lance maintains eye contact like he’s watching Keith for any signs of dishonesty. 

“You really think so?”

“I do. You wouldn’t have to be doing anything dangerous; you could join the Blade’s relief missions. We could use a diplomat; we do what we can to avoid it but some populations are traumatized and don’t want the help of Galra operatives, or sometimes our cold straightforwardness can cause problems. But half the universe already loves you, and with your social skills I know you could benefit my team.”

“A diplomat?” Lance asks.

Keith nods, “You’re more than just a good fighter, you’re intuitive and a strategist and you’re charismatic and well liked and familiar with the territory,” he lists, “Just think about it, the offer is always on the table.”

“Okay,” Lance agrees, sounding a bit shaken. 

They’re quiet for a while, in the comfortable kind of silence that Keith cherishes, and Lance leans against Keith’s side. “Do you want to come inside and watch a movie with me?” Lance asks. 

“Sure,” Keith says. They gather their things and walk inside, turning on a romcom at low volume so as not to wake the others in the house. 

In the morning Keith wakes up to the smell of breakfast and coffee, 500 Days of Summer no longer playing on the TV, a blanket thrown over him, and Lance leaning on his shoulder where they’d fallen asleep against one another on the couch. Keith blushes and goes rigid so he doesn’t accidentally jostle Lance awake. 

Lance used to hate mornings when they first were recruited to Voltron, and he probably still does even if his body has adjusted to waking in the early hours of the day to help out around the farm. Keith doesn’t want to wake him after keeping him up so late the night before. Then Lance’s brother Marco walks downstairs and snickers when he sees them, making Keith’s blush deepen and he considers that not waking Lance might be greater evil. 

He nudges the other boy lightly, earning an adorable grumble from Lance, then jostles him a bit more. Lance rouses from sleep and looks around, his droopy eyes eventually settling on Keith. “We fell asleep on the couch,” Keith informs him, and the sleep clears from Lance’s eyes to be replaced by horrified embarrassment. 

“Dios,” Lance mutters, sitting up straight and away from Keith, “Sorry.”

“No need to apologize, it wasn’t just you,” Keith explains a bit stiffly. 

“Mamá says it’s time for breakfast,” Rachel informs them, walking up behind the couch.

“Thank you,” Keith says as Lance shoos her off. 

At breakfast, Keith eats the portion Lance’s mother prepared for him while the table’s conversation shifts between English and Spanish around him. Keith catches what he can, reminding himself that he needs to dedicate more time to learning the language. “So Keith, tell us about how your work has been,” Mrs. Mcclain asks.

“It’s been fine, we’ve recently made good progress in our relief efforts in the kix-lis and fae systems,” Keith says, and the Mcclains hum their oohs and ahhs. Lance rolls his eyes at them. 

“Do you have a favorite planet?” Lance’s nephew Sylivo asks. Keith thinks about it.

“Well, Earth is where my family is so–” Keith decides.

“That’s boring,” Marco says, “tell us about somewhere cool.” His mother frowns at her son disapprovingly. 

While Keith is trying to think of what constitutes as ‘cool’, Lance speaks up. “I’ll tell you somewhere cool,” he says.

“We want to hear it from Keith,” Rachel says, and Lance scowls at her. 

“One time, Hunk and I crash landed on a frozen planet, and in the depths of the planet’s ocean we met mermaids,” Lance shares anyway.

“There’s no such thing as mermaids,” Sylvio says, and his sister kicks him under the table.

“Really?” Nadia asks.

“Yup, we saved them from a mind controlling serpent and I made friends with a beautiful mermaid named Plaxum,” Lance tells her. 

“Lance, don’t feed them lies,” his mother scolds.

“It’s true,” Keith says, “though I think they were just called Mer and I’m not sure if Plaxum liked you all that much.” 

“She did too!” Lance protests, “we kept in contact for a while after I left, I even visited her once after the war was over before the lions left.”

“If you say so,” Keith says.

“You really met mermaids?” Nadia asks.

“I sure did,” Lance says, “You see what happened was–” and Lance begins vividly telling the story while leaving out some of the scarier parts even though Nadia and Sylvio are 13 now. Keith can practically picture the jellyfish on his head. 

These past few months Keith has learned to always treasure his time at Mcclain family home; everyone is so close and the house itself is always warm, every inch of it seeming full of memories. When it’s time for Keith to leave and head home everyone says their goodbyes and when Lance gets caught in a round of bickering with his sister, Lance’s mother pulls Keith aside. “I just wanted to thank you for being Lance’s friend again,” she says, “He had been starting to grow distant before you started coming around.”

“Of course,” Keith says, ignoring the pang he feels from the word ‘friend’ being used in place of ‘partner’ or ‘family’. At the same time Keith wonders what it means that even Lance’s family had started to notice a change in him before. 

“Take care of my boy, Keith,” she says.

“You have my word,” Keith promises.

Lance walks him out to his motorcycle on the paths that cut through the fields of juniberies. “I brought some of your flowers to those systems I was talking about,” Keith says.

“Did you now?” Lance asks, an easy smile on his lips.

“You should have seen it, the fae system has these big elephant type things with blue fur and three-pointed ears, and the locals made giant juniberry flower crowns for them. The Kix-lis are fox-like people and their planet has a harsher climate, but we showed them how to make juniberry cider and it was a big hit so we gave them more to propagate in the cave systems.” 

“Seems like you’re quite the diplomatic peacekeeper already,” Lance says, “You don’t even need me.”

“I’ll always need you,” Keith says earnestly, and Lance huffs a laugh. “Does that mean you won’t join the blade?”

Lance stops when they’re still a few paces away from Keith’s bike, still at the edge of the juniberry field. He stoops down to pick a few of the flowers. “I was thinking about what you said during breakfast this morning,” he admits, “and as much as I love being home, being on Earth all the time is starting to feel just as unnatural as never being on Earth. I think maybe I’m homesick for the stars,” he laughs and it’s beautiful. “I’ve always been fascinated by all the different alien cultures out there and I loved meeting new people. Plus, someone’s got to be there to watch your back.”

“So that’s a yes?” Keith asks, smiling ear to ear.

“I think I want to try coming back,” Lance says, Keith nods and Lance mirrors his smile. When Lance walks him the rest of the way to his bike, Keith doesn’t want to leave. But Lance insists that he go home and get some rest in a proper bed, and that he’ll see him soon. Before he leaves Lance secures a juniberry into his hair tie. 

“You have to let Nadia and I braid your hair next time you come over,” he says, “she’s been asking.” 

“Will do,” Keith says, then Lance steps back as Keith revs his bike. After Lance waves him off, Keith smiles the whole way back to his ship’s hangar. 

When he finally gets back to his apartment, he twists his key in the lock to be welcomed by a baron room. His apartment is always cold since he usually leaves most of the amenities off. The space is barely used with him almost always being off-planet so it does the trick, though it does feel a bit strange after coming home from the Mcclain’s house. He flops down onto his mattress and lies there staring at the ceiling for another moment before grabbing his phone to let Krolia know that she can drop Kosmo off now that he’s back. Lance is actually coming back. A smile reforms on his face and he feels something like hope in his chest. 

***

“Aha!” Lance yells, his broadsword to Keith’s throat. Keith is only stunned for a moment before smiling at him. 

“You’ve still got it,” he says.

“Damn right I do,” Lance snarks back, dropping his weapon. 

“That’s one to thirteen today,” Keith says.

“Don’t spoil my fun,” Lance pouts.

“You know you really don’t need to train this hard for a relief mission, we’re just going to be handing out food and blankets.”

“I want to be prepared for anything, I don’t want to fall behind.”

“I won’t let you fall behind,” Keith says.

“That is what I’m talking about, I don’t want you to have to pull my weight. I’m not going if I think I’m going to end up a burden to you,” Lance insists. 

“That’s one of your favorite words, isn’t it? ‘Burden’. You have never been a burden to me, Lance.” The sentiment seems to catch Lance off guard because his eyebrows go up and he looks like he’s in pain for a moment. Then his features soften. 

“Good to know,” he says. Then he takes his stance for another round and Keith follows suit. 

When Lance loses he whines about it for about 10 minutes straight, but Keith, as gone as he is for his companion, can only find it endearing. “I can’t believe it’s only a week until we go on our first mission together in years,” Lance says after he’s caught his breath, though he’s still dramatically splayed out on the ground.

“We can put it off if you want,” Keith offers.

“Don’t say that, if I don’t go now I’ll never work myself up to it again.”

“Ok, then we can’t put it off,” Keith amends, Lance gives him a small smile. 

Then, Lance sits just up as Keith is sitting down next to him and reaches out. Keith stays stock still as Lance brushes the hair out of his face. “Calm down,” Lance laughs, “You don’t need to be so tense, I just want to fix your hair; the braid Nadia and Rachel gave you is awful. You won’t be able to go back inside after I’m done though, they’ll be terribly offended.”

“Just leave it then,” Keith tries to say, but the hair tie is already out and Lance is pulling the messy braid apart.

“I think they got distracted while they were braiding or something, it shouldn’t already be falling out after just a few rounds of sparring,” Lance says, moving to sit comfortably behind Keith.

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Of course, because you don’t take care of your hair at all.” Lance continues to berate his hair care routine as he runs his fingers along Keith’s scalp and divides his hair into sections. It’s more sections than he’s ever been subjected to with Nadia and Keith realizes that Lance is doing smaller braids at the front of his hair and one larger one in the back to incorporate the shorter pieces of his unevenly cut locks. 

“You take care of your hair?” Keith asks.

“Of course I do,” Lance says, his tone offended, “just like I take care of my skin, and you may have gotten good skin genetics but your hair is a mess, you need different shampoo.”

“I like the way you’ve let your hair get longer on top, you look good with curls,” Keith tells him. 

Lance’s hands stop moving in his hair and for a moment Keith worries he may have overstepped. When Lance continues braiding the smaller pieces in front, he stays quiet, then he pulls a few clips out of his pockets to secure them as though he’d planned this. “Thank you,” he says finally.

“Sure,” Keith responds softly, finding himself a bit out of breath from so much extended contact with Lance. He moves on to the larger braid and scootches forward so his knees are on either side of Keith’s hips and Keith thinks he nearly combusts. When he’s finished, he instructs Keith to stay put and Lance goes to retrieve some juniberries from the fields. 

Keith leaves with an intricate braid decorated with juniberry flowers and thoughts of Lance’s calloused but gentle hands in his hair. He tries telling himself that the way Lance has been acting with him means nothing, that there’s still no way his feelings could possibly be requited, but there’s still a treacherous part of the back of his mind that dares to hope. 

***

When the day comes, Lance’s family all hugs him goodbye when Keith comes to pick him up for the Garrison. “We’ll come with you,” his mother says.

“To space?” Marco asks, Rachel smacks him on the arm to shut him up.

“No, you stay here, I’ll be home soon I promise,” Lance insists, and she wraps him in another hug.

“We’ll miss you tío ,” Sylvio says, and Nadia nods. 

When they leave Lance is teary eyed, and Keith thinks of telling him that there's plenty of room on his ship for the Mcclains. But, at the same time, he thinks he understands that it would just make Lance more nervous. Keith knows that he doesn’t want to make such a big deal out of this, that he insists this is not some big step forward because he was perfectly fine staying on Earth and will continue splitting his time between the farm and working with Keith. Plus, it’s not like he hasn’t been off-world since the war's end and he still associates with plenty of people who work in space. However, Keith also understands the others’ excitement at Lance stepping back into the realm of ‘space stuff’, and that he’s taking that step with Keith of all people. Perhaps it is a sort of step forward in the sense that Lance only now feels comfortable enough to take part in this on top of his home life, and in that case Keith is glad that all of both his families are supporting him.

Keith’s thoughts cut off when he climbs on his bike and Lance climbs on just behind him. “Ready?” he asks.

“Ready,” Lance says, sounding nervous already as he tentatively places his hands around Keith’s waist. Doing his best to keep his head out of the clouds, Keith presses the gas. 

They arrive at the Garrison only a few hours later and head for the side doors. The first thing Lance needs to do today is get his new suit from Matt and Pidge. When Keith sees it, his eyebrows shoot up. 

“I thought you were just adding a rifle holster to a standard blade uniform,” Keith says.

“And I did,” Pidge assures him, “this is just option two.” Before them is a sleek-armored suit in classic Altean colors: white and baby blue that is a bit lighter than his old paladin color. The Voltron logo on the chest has been removed but there are smaller ones on the shoulders and the suit mostly maintains the look of their old paladin uniforms despite the modifications. “Watch this,” Pidge says with a mischievous grin, and with the push of a button the full-face helmet retreats into a small piece on the back of the turtleneck suit. “Microtech!” Pidge beams. 

“This is great and all,” Lance says, to which Pidge nods fervently, “but I’m going to be a Blade.”

“Ya ya, a blade minus the actual blade and the Galra DNA, what’s one more thing. Especially if that thing is a super high tech near indestructible suit, I mean come on it’s got the peacekeeper look,” Pidge argues.

“It just looks like our old uniforms,” Lance says.

“Exactly,” Pidge whispers-yells. At their still doubtful looks Pidge pulls up the blueprints for the suit. “Look,” they say, “there’s only so much tech I can jam into one of your skintight blade uniforms, this baby well, she’s loaded. The jet pack is more efficient than the ones on our Voltron uniforms, twice as effective as the ones from the blade, it's got heaters, the most up to date sensors and scanners for both your surroundings and for internal injuries, the fastest translator on the market, flashlights, lasers–”

“And finger guns,” Matt adds, popping out from behind a corner somewhere deeper within the lab.

“And a low power laser gun that you can fire from the tip of your finger, though that’s really just for laughs and I wouldn’t recommend using it in combat,” Pidge explains.

“He won’t be in combat,” Keith says. 

“Well just in case he is, or if someone needs rescuing, or if you just want a high storage wrist projector for watching movies on your flight, this suit has got you covered. So, you could just let me keep you safe or you could wear your crappy low grade blade uniform with a custom holster,” Pidge says.

Lance sighs, “Thank you, Pidge. I’ll go try it on.”

“Great!” Pidge chimes. Keith can’t help but smile at their resident tech gremlin with sibling-like fondness as he watches them corral Lance into a back room to change. 

Lance emerges looking absolutely mouthwatering, in Keith’s opinion. The Holt siblings got his measurements just right and the suit frames his broad shoulders and sculpted stomach like their old suits could never do for the skinnier Lance of their younger years. Keith can’t help but wonder what he would look like in a dark tight-fitting blade uniform. “What are you looking at me like that for?” Lance asks, and Keith realizes he’d been staring. Probably frowning while blushing deeply.

“Nothing, it’s just- you look- you look good?” he didn’t mean for it to come out as a question, but Lance still looks flustered. Pidge gives Keith an unimpressed look, having known about his unrequited feelings since he’d figured them out in their first year with Voltron. He tries to school himself into something close to composure just before Lance says in a small voice,

“T-thank you, Keith.” and Keith's insides turn to jelly. 

After Keith changes into his own suit, they go to sit at one of the round tables in the small Garrison cafe. Lance and Keith chat over coffee with Kosmo at their feet, Hunk seated to their right, and Veronica and Acxa to their left after Pidge has gone to finish preparations for their launch. Lance finishes telling a story about some beneficiary he roasted during their time with Voltron, one involving a great deal of cat puns, and Keith snickers because he’s gotten in the bad habit of letting his guard down around Lance as of late. When the story is finished he looks up, and Keith can’t tell if Hunk is looking at him strangely or if it’s just because his eyes are puffy from crying. Hunk had called Lance just to sob unintelligibly when Lance had texted him about considering joining the Blades, and then proceeded to relay the information to the rest of their team. That being said, Keith made the mistake of thinking that Hunk had gotten the majority of his crying out days ago, only to be greeted by his weeping when he met them outside the cafe. 

“Hey idiots,” Pidge says, walking up to their table and disrupting Keith’s train of thought, “ships ready to launch.” 

Lance takes a deep breath. “Shall we then,” he asks. 

 In the hangar Shiro and Coran are waiting for them along with the rest of Keith’s team. “Lance, my boy,” Coran says, “How exciting is this, you’ll have to stop by Altea more often if you are going to be off-world frequently.”

“Will do, Coran,” Lance promises.

“You know we support you whatever you choose to do next,” Shiro says.

“I know,” Lance assures him. From across the hall Zethrid catches Lance’s eye and she grunts her acknowledgement while Ezor waves. Beside them are Rentok, Vrek, and Agrona who with Acxa make up the rest of Keith’s team of seven (now eight). 

“I’ll introduce you,” Keith says, walking in between Lance and Shiro. Lance smiles nervously and nods. 

When they near, the rest of the crew stand at attention and Axca comes to join them. “Everyone, as I’m sure you know, this is Lance: former paladin of the blue and red lions, expert marksman, diplomat, and our newest relief agent,” Keith introduces, to which the team nods in stoic greeting. “Lance, you know my right hand Axca, and Zethrid and Ezor,” 

“Nice to see you again,” Lance says ingenuously.

“And that’s Rentock, Vrek, and Agrona,” he points to each member as he speaks and Lance nods along.

“Nice to meet you,” Lance says politely, which unsurprisingly none of them return. Keith knows that the mannerisms of the blade will be something Lance has to get used to, and he intends to try to be as warm as possible (which granted, he has been told is not all that warm) to ease Lance’s transition. 

“You will receive your briefing on the vessel,” Keith tells the group, “You may begin boarding.” Lance nods like he’s trying to hype himself up and Keith tries to remember the last time he saw Lance so nervous. “You can take your time saying goodbyes,” Keith says quietly, and Lance looks up, nodding quickly before turning to the rest of their old team. He and Kosmo watch from the ship’s ramp as Coran enthusiastically encourages Lance, Shiro pats him on the back, Pidge teases him lovingly, and Hunk wraps him in a final hug. Then Veronica steals him away from Hunk and pushes him towards the spacecraft. 

“You take good care of my brother, Kogane,” she teases.

“Will do,” Keith says.

“I can take care of myself,” Lance pouts, clearly embarrassed, and he boards the ship.