Let Loose
Lance almost flew out of his seat from the impact of the crash. Keith however had been thrown across the cockpit, Lance looked around the cockpit and saw Keith splayed across the control panel of the blue lion. Lance quickly got up and hoisted Keith off the controls and gently mauvered him into the pilot's chair, removing his helmet Lance placed it onto Keith's head. “That better give you oxygen. Now please don’t fight me.” Lance said gently, Keith could only grunt as a response. Keith had lost too much blood to remain consistently conscious, and Lance took this as an advantage as it meant he could provide Keith with first aid without having to worry about getting smacked. Lance had to remove Keith’s chest plate and cut the under suit of the armour just to get a proper look of Keith’s wound. When Lance helped Keith into the mouth of the blue lion earlier a shard of a broken fighter jet must've blasted towards them and hit Keith. How did he know? Well because a shard of sharp metal half the size of a dinner plate was sticking out of Keith's side. Luckily it wasn’t edged too far in, Lance cleaned the wound and stitched it as best he could with the limited first aid supplies. “Keith. Keith, come on. Wake up.” Lance lightly tapped Keith's cheek, Keith slowly gained awareness once again. “Come on, stand up. I need to wrap this bandage around you.” Keith was slightly disoriented but stood anyway, Lance quickly got to work bandaging Keith’s abdomen.
Keith swayed a little as Lance pulled the bandage tighter, “Lance?” Keith whispered innocently before his head fell heavily onto Lance’s shoulder. Lance stumbled slightly from the sudden weight leaning against him, Lance finished bandaging Keith’s abdomen. Lance somehow managed to get Keith on his back and carried him to the bedroom in the lion. Lance gently put Keith down onto the bed and moved him so he was lying in what looked like a comfortable position and brought the duvet covers up to his shoulders. Lance sighed loudly and fell heavily next to Keith, “Keith, what am I supposed to do now? I fucked up, like I always do. Shiro’s probably so disappointed in me, and you're stuck with me and so is blue. I wish only I got sucked out here. I mean if that happened you could still pilot the red lion after you healed and I'm sure blue would’ve let Allura pilot her. They would have been able to replace me, like they should've done already. Ugh! This is bullshit!” Lance complained to himself, Lance looked at keith. Asleep and unaware of what Lance had just said, he still looked like shit. His hair was still oily, his mullet looked like a soft yet tangled mess, he had small eye bags, soft lips, small nose, a small scar next to his right eye. No- Lance didn’t think Keith was cute, right? Lance quickly stood and left Keith in silence. “Ok, where to start?” Lance asked himself as he stood at the entrance to the cockpit, “Probably the blood, yeah definitely the blood. Hey blue, do you have a mop somewhere?” Lance giggled at blue’s response, ‘in the cleaning cabinet’. Lance found the mop and started cleaning the cockpit, the sun was setting by the time Lance finished cleaning.
With a sigh, a lance sat in the pilot's chair, he put his helmet back on and opened the intercoms. “Castle of Lions, Members of the Voltron coalition. This is Lance McClain, Pilot of the Blue Lion of Voltron. I am requesting assistance, can anyone hear this transmission?” Lance said professionally, no response Lance tried again. “Castle of Lions, Members of the Voltron coalition. This is Lance McClain, Pilot of the Blue Lion of Voltron. I am requesting assistance, can anyone hear this transmission?” Still nothing, he must be very far away from the castle of Lions. Oh well, he might as well try to sleep. Falling asleep was the hard part, staying asleep was the easy part. Lance woke to what he assumed to be this planet's equivalent to the sun blaring light into his eyes. Lance yawned loudly, “mornin’ blue.’ Lance giggled, he stood and stretched his back until he heard a pop. Lance wandered out of the cockpit and found himself walking towards the bedroom, leaning against the doorframe. Lance saw Keith still fast asleep, Keith mumbled something unintelligible which made Lance giggle. Lance found himself walking towards Keith and placing the back of his hand against Keith's forehead, a fever. Shit. Lance returned to the cockpit and got his lion to show him a map of the planet they had landed on, the map showed a small water hole close by. Lance put his helmet on and grabbed an empty bucket, Lance constantly listened for anything approaching him and kept his Bayard at the ready. Nothing approached lance, the trip to the water hole was successful and quick. Lance made his way back to Keith with the bucket and a small towel thrown over his shoulder. Lance sat on the edge of the bed and dipped his towel in the water before ringing it out and patting down Keith’s arms, neck and face. Dipping the towel in the water and ringing it out once more he laid the towel on Keith’s forehead. Lance had taken care of his many siblings and cousins many times before so this was light work for him but still something felt off, like a tingly feeling in his chest.
Lance fell asleep on the chair in the cockpit again, the sun woke him once more, this was their third day on this unknown planet and they hadn’t made any progress. Lance had tried to contact the other paladins and even the coalition at least 20 times each day so far. They were also quickly running out of rations, even though Keith was still asleep. Lance finally made the decision to go into the town not too far from them, yesterday Lance noticed a trash pile with plane parts and what he thought was clothes. He would need a disguise so that's where he was getting it from, the clothes he found were not fancy by any means but they didn't have to be. Lance sported his paladin under bodysuit with loose fitting pants, a ripped shirt and a thick cloak-like piece of fabric. The town was run down but it felt comforting. The chipped paint of the buildings reminded him of his old family home back in Cuba, the kids playing in front of what looked like a school reminded him of childhood neighbourhood also back in Cuba. In fact the entire town reminded him of his home in Cuba, “Now hiring! No experience needed! Paid daily! Come have a go!” Lance's attention turned to a tall alien with yellow hair, wearing baggy pants and a crop top with gold bands around her arm holding a now hiring sign. “Excuse me. What is this job for?” Lance asked politely. “Bartending. No experience needed at all! You don't even have to recognize the name of the drinks to do this job!” The tall alien was polite. “Do you think I could do it? I’m not from around here, so I don’t really know anything about the area.” the alien smiled widely.
The alien dragged Lance into the bar without much warning, “Rolo! We have a new hire! He’s not from here so he doesn’t know anything but he seems nice." Another alien appeared from what looked like a kitchen. He had light purple skin with patches of darker purple, an open vest with no shirt underneath, baggy pants and what looked like a belt with lots of storage pockets attached. Rolo put his weight onto one of his hips, “Hmm, fresh meat? Have you ever worked with drinks?” Rolo asked, void of any emotion. “Yeah, on my planet. But not anywhere around here.” Rolo shrugged, “Ok, you're hired. Nyma, you and Beezer can teach him the drinks.” Lance smiled, “thank you! When do I start?” Lance asked. Rolo looked at Nyma with a blank expression, “You can start now if you want? The more time you have to practise the drinks the better, we can discuss pay at the end of the day.” Nyma said politely, Lance agreed and followed Nyma behind the bar of the restaurant. The day went by quickly, Lance had always been a fast learner when he could find patterns or it related to one of his natural strengths. He found that the drinks that they practised only used 3 or 4 different alcohols or ingredients, “Ok, your shift is over for today. What is your expected pay?” Nyma asked. “Umm, enough to buy food?” Lance said cluelessly, Rolo smiled for the first time since Land had met him. “How about 9GAC every varga?” Lance shrugged, “Sure.” Lance held a hand out for the pay. Rolo looked at his hand and his smile dropped. “Rolo… we agreed that we would pay the new hire daily.” Rolo rolled his eyes and handed Lance his pay.
Lance made his way back to the blue lion cautiously, dark had fallen quickly since he left the bar. “Keith? Are you awake?” Lance called out as he entered the blue Lion, Lance heard movement and walked towards it. Lance held his Bayard tightly as he entered the cockpit but found Keith asleep in the chair, Lance giggled. It looked like Keith tried to wash his hair in the bucket of water that he had left next to the bed, Keith’s hair was half wet half dry. The towel rested in Keith's lap, Lance picked up the towel and quickly dried Keith's hair, he didn’t need to deal with a sick, injured Keith as well as a new job on an alien planet. Lance carefully picked Keith up and put him on his back and carried him to the bedroom just like the night they crashed on the planet, “Lance?” Keith said barley above a whisper. “Lance? Is that you?” Keith whispered slightly louder this time, Lance giggled at the feeling of Keith’s warm breath against the back of his neck. “Yeah, it’s me. What’s up?” Lance sounded gentle, Keith had never heard Lance like that. They were always fighting, even in Keith’s delicious and exhausted state he found Lance's voice cute and oddly comforting. “It hurts, it hurts a lot.” Keith sounded like he was about to cry, Lance carefully put Keith on the bed and kneeled in front of him. “Can I look at the bandages?” Keith was about to fall asleep again but nodded, Lance gently lifted the ripped under armour bodysuit to inspect the bandages. No blood was visible which was a good sign, “Come on, get some sleep.” Lance said as he put his hand behind Keith’s head and lowered Keith's head to the pillow gently.
The sun woke Lance up to the sun in his eyes again, before leaving for work Lance checked in on Keith. Keith was splayed across the single bed, his head was tilted to the side with a small pout. Lance smiled, the badass dropout Keith Kogane sleeps with a pout on his face. Lance decided it was best to lease as early as possible, the town of the bar he now worked at wasn't particularly far from where they had crashed but it was still a decent walk. Especially considering that no one has investigated the giant mechanical blue lion that fell from the sky, “hey Rolo.” Lance said as he entered the building. Rolo didn’t respond verbally; he just gave Lance a quick nod. Working all day became a normal occurrence for Lance, Keith even managed to come in and help every now and again if his wound wasn’t too painful. Lance worked day in day out for about 2 weeks and still nothing from the castle of Lions or the coalition, and Lance still had to try and finish the patch work on his lion's body. Keith was also still healing from his wounds and he didn't want to risk getting off the planet and running into Galra forces. Somehow Lance and Keith had managed to be teleported to a planet that wasn’t Galra occupied, one of the very few strikes of luck they managed to get. “Lance? How do I make this drink again?” Lance turned to a confused Keith, Lance managed to pick up how to make the various drinks rather quickly while Keith struggled a lot of the time. Or that's what he told Lance, totally not because he felt a pleasant tingling in his chest each time Lance put his hands on Keiths hips when he needed to squeeze behind him in the small bar area.
Keith and Lance generally walked back to the blue lion in silence after the day's work was finished but it wasn’t awkward, they had developed somewhat of a friendship. They still argued often but it was more often than not about trivial things that didn't matter, it was more friendly banter. They made it back to the blue lion and both headed to the bedroom, Lance fell heavily onto the bed and sat with his back against the wall. “What do you think they’re doing?” Keith sat on the floor with his back against the wall. “What?” Keith didn’t look up as he adjusted his gloves. “I mean Voltron, I mean come on they can’t even form Voltron! They’re probably stuck doing rescue missions. It’s all my fault, I wish I could just send you and blue back to them.” Keith looked up now, “any why wouldn't you send yourself back as well?” Keith almost sounded defensive. “Well I mean I caused this mess. And you pilot the red lion and I'm sure Allura could pilot blue then you guys would be able to form Voltron and well I'd be getting the fate I deserve.” Keith stood up quickly and walked over to Lance. Lance looked up at Keith who was suddenly in such close proximity to him, then Keith slapped him in the face. “I- What was that for!” Lance stood up and invaded Keith's personal space. "You're a fucking idiot!” Keith almost yelled despite being only inches away from Lance's face. “And you're not?” Lance raised an eyebrow, despite the fact the two had gotten closer they still had bad fights almost every second or third day.
“No, I'm not the idiot here. Because I know your worth! You're talented! Lance, you really don’t know how talented you are, do you?” Keith took a step back and spoke more gently. “Ok, now I'm confused.” Lance fell back onto the bed, Keith sat close beside him. “Look, I'm sure you know this but I’m not exactly good with people.” Keith looked at the floor as he spoke, Lance scoffed. “That's totally shocking.” Lance was sarcastic, “I’m trying to be serious here. Yeah, I'm not good with people but I know when someone has talent. And yeah you have a shit ton of talent, really you do.” Lance scoffed again, he moved back so his back was against the wall and his knees pressed against his chest. “Yeah I'm amazingly talented in fucking up and hurting people.” tears forced their way into Lance’s eyes but he wouldn't let them fall, not in front of Keith. “Would you just shut up and listen?” Keith turned his head towards Lance but didn’t look at him. “You don’t fuck everything up, trust me everyone fucking loves you. Do you know how many times people have said good things about you when you weren't there?” Keith sighed, “after each fight you look over blue’s framework and your connection with her meanwhile the rest of us are in the lounge of the castle talking about what we could’ve done better or who really stood out and helped the most. I don’t think I can even tell you a time when someone said something bad about you. It’s always positive, in fact I'd make a bet with you to say that most of them are jealous. I mean who wouldn’t, you don’t get frustrated easily, you can adapt quickly and you're always helping!” Lance tried to hide his giggle but didn’t do very well, “Is the badass drop out Keith Kogane complimenting me?”
Keith looked at Lance with a shocked face before bursting into laughter, “This! This is what I mean!” Keith continued to laugh and gave Lance a playful punch. “This is the Lance I know, the Lance that is the paladin of the blue Lion, the Lance that's always in a good mood and the Lance that always bounces back.” Lance laughed quietly, “Thanks, McMullet.” Keith’s face dropped, however he still laughed, “Seriously, I just do all that for you to call me something that should be on a McDonalds menu.” Keith sighed, “And the Lance that’s always making fun of my hair.” Lance laughed with his signature bright, gorgeous smile.