Chapter Text
2 days later
Pidge absent-mindedly rubbed her shoulder. She heard Coran’s voice, even though he wasn’t around, telling her to stop or she really would have to go into the pods. After that disastrous battle, when Lance and Keith had… disappeared, she had stubbornly refused to go into a healing pod because there was work to be done, friends to find. She had given in a bit when the unsurprising pain of a dislocated shoulder flared up after less than ten minutes and stopped her from typing, but now she was absolutely fine.
“Regroup!” Allura called out.
Well, not really. Two of her closest friends could be anywhere in the universe, which was famously rather large.
The five of them gathered on the control deck, ready to share their findings yet again. The plan was this: wormhole the castleship around the universe and use all the different types of scans they had to try to find Lance and Keith. They had made the assumption that Haggar’s thing would have teleported them to a planet, so they were strategically checking galaxies, aided by Coran and Hunk’s improvements to the range of their scanners.
Two days of wormholing every couple of hours or so.
“Nothing yet,” Shiro said, unsurprisingly. Shiro had been put on checking the standard comms channels, in the hope that Lance or Keith’s helmet was working and they could send out a signal or coordinates to their position. It was unlikely to work, but as Pidge had pointed out, they had to try everything, and it would be horrible if they missed the pair because they weren’t checking something as simple as comms.
“Neither, although I located a prisoner ship we can sort out afterwards,” Hunk informed them, talking about it like they all had - afterwards, after we find them. He was scanning Galra communications in case Lance and Keith had been taken by the Galra, and to make sure the castleship didn’t wormhole into a very occupied galaxy; they didn’t need the fight right now. Pidge originally said she could edit the program she used to scan communications for her brother and father to also find her teammates, but Allura told her that the codes the Galra used differed between sectors as a failsafe, annoyingly, so Hunk was decoding as well as interpreting. And Pidge would have to improve her program afterwards. Afterwards.
Coran shook his head, his usual liveliness having dimmed noticeably over the past two days. It was hard to stay positive after so much nothing, but he tried his best - as all of them did - to have hope and distract themselves during breaks. He was checking other alien radio waves, as the translators would take too long to switch between all the languages in each galaxy, but Coran seemingly knew them all; he was the only one who could tell the difference between an advert for a McDonald’s equivalent and a missing person announcement in less than five minutes.
“No,” Pidge couldn’t look any of them in the eye. She had coded a frankly magnificent program from scratch, using the castleship’s incredible biometric scanners - now long-range, thanks to Coran and Hunk - to sweep the galaxies for DNA matches, extracted from blood kept in the med bay in case a transfusion was needed. Nobody wanted a repeat of Lance’s dagger incident, and it had already come to good use. If only positive matches came back.
“And nothing from the Lions,” Allura said, looking tired, as all of them were. She was communicating with the Lions in every galaxy, seeing if they could detect their missing pilots. All of them, including Coran, had felt the telepathic distress from the Red and Blue Lions following the battle - they were just as determined as the rest of them to find Lance and Keith. “Next is the Bahrzenge galaxy - any known Galra there?” She asked Hunk.
“Uhh, nope, luckily. Not mentioned in any communications. Doesn’t have any other names, does it?” He added, remembering the mishap from the day before.
“Not that I know of!” Coran cut in. “I’ll do a round of beverages while you set the coordinates, princess.”
“Thank you, Coran,” Allura said, giving him a grateful smile. He returned the gesture tenfold and walked out towards the kitchen.
Fingers crossed, Pidge thought, refreshing her program and sending a look across the room to Hunk before he turned and did the same.
Almost two days of almost nothing.
Keith had met the chief, Torskon, and thanked them profusely for their generosity and friendliness, which the soppomok had brushed off, explaining they were a peaceful people and had heard of Voltron’s rise, fall, and return. Keith had offered protection from Voltron, even though he wasn’t sure how he would get back to the others, which Torskon had accepted before bringing up the same point - how would Keith and Lance regroup?
Now he knew where they were: on the planet Soppom in the galaxy Bharkente, at least in soppomern, the local language. He hoped it had the same name in Altean as he broadcast this information on the Voltron comms channel, though it was highly unlikely anyone would pick it up. He also discovered he couldn’t keep the broadcast going and use the translator at the same time, so he could only broadcast during the Soppom nights.
Itanokka was taking such good care of Lance that Keith felt he had to do something in return. As he had told them Lance was his aipetan, they didn’t try to make him leave the hut, which he was eternally thankful for, but he wasn’t sure what he could do to show his gratefulness. So he talked with Itanokka, and Khapok when they visited, and learned about soppomoks. Itanokka in particular was thrilled to share their culture, and when Keith told them about humans in return, they became even more excited.
Soppomoks were generally peaceful, docile creatures, who found the very idea of eating meat absurd and replanted the ‘trees’ - called berkod - they cut down. They were a democracy and had a very interesting creation story that Keith didn’t really understand, but seemingly no religion. He learned that the average soppomok lived for sixty Soppom years, that the tone of their skin and eyes changed as they aged, and that by human standards every soppomok was biologically intersex, and socially, gender was an unknown concept. It had been difficult to explain the intricacies of human gender to Itanokka.
When it came to healing Lance, Keith wasn’t sure how Itanokka could do anything without understanding human biology. He quickly found out that soppomoks, unlike humans, didn’t have a drive to discover and understand everything about the universe as scientifically as possible. They believed that the body and mind were intrinsically linked, and they knew the mind was a fickle thing. A lot of the words Itanokka used were untranslatable, but Keith suspected their ideas were similar to the human ideas about souls, or chakras, or more likely a bit of both and more. He remembered the Lions’ connections to their pilots and each other were basically telepathic, and thought that although whatever Itanokka may do would have been frowned upon by a scientific mind like Pidge’s, he could see it working.
Turned out he was more than correct - Itanokka told him that soppomoks were slightly telepathic and empathic, leaning more towards the empathic side. They explained that soppomoks could feel others’ strong emotions from birth, and if trained they could more accurately interpret feelings and thoughts.
“I have been trained my whole life, as I wanted to be a healer since I was small,” they said, crushing herbs using what seemed like a mortar and pestle. “So I can help your Lance by going into his niohnid.”
“His what?” Keith asked, pouring the handful of petals he was holding into the bowl when Itanokka indicated.
“Niohnid? Another word your hell-met doesn’t understand?”
“Sorry, yeah, another one.”
“To be expected. The niohnid is where the mind is, it’s where I go to find your Lance’s yorin, to find out what’s wrong,” Itanokka clarified. Keith strained to remember what a yorin was - the kind-of consciousness that soppomok healers dealt with. Then something clicked.
“Oh, like the astral plane!” He exclaimed. “Yes, I understand.”
“As-taral play-ne? Is that what you call the niohnid?” Itanokka looked at him with interest, as they did for any information Keith offered.
“I think so,” he replied, watching them move the mixture in the mortar into another bowl. “Can I ask what this is for?” He pointed at the bowl, where Itanokka was adding a fine black dust.
“Of course! This is a tei- supplement,” the translator bumped over the word, telling Keith that Itanokka probably didn’t mean ‘supplement’, but that was as close as his helmet could get. “Once it’s finished, I will spread it on your Lance’s forehead and hands and it will stop him being hungry while he is unconscious. He hasn’t eaten in at least a day, after all.”
Keith looked back at Lance, slightly pale but alive. He briefly wondered if this supplement thing would work on a non-soppomok, but brushed away the thought as soon as it came, not wanting to dwell on the endless negative consequences if Itanokka couldn’t help Lance.
“So, then you can go into the astr- I mean, into his niohnid? To help him?”
“Precisely,” Itanokka replied, pouring a little water into the bowl and stirring the ingredients into a dark purple sludge. “I would have done so immediately, but as you are human and not soppomok I had to make sure it wouldn’t cause harm. I do not believe it will, from what you have said.”
He nodded, trying again to quell the swirl of questions and doubts in his head. Itanokka smiled at him calmly. “With any luck, your aipetan will be awake by tonight! All I need is a plant which I have sent my shen- apprentices out to find, and I can sort out his yorin.”
Keith smiled gratefully in return, gaze turning back to Lance out of habit. He helped Itanokka spread the ‘supplement’ and watched in fascination when it began to glow a soft violet. The colour miraculously returned to Lance’s skin, so that he seemed much more alive, and the purple light emanating from his forehead and hands mesmerised Keith; just when he thought Lance couldn’t get any more beautiful, he proved him wrong while unconscious.
He must have gasped out loud because Itanokka chuckled. “A common reaction to someone seeing the gando at work the first time,” they said fondly, watching Keith’s expressions more than their patient. After a few moments in silence, there was a quiet knock on the hut door. Itanokka mumbled something Keith, still enraptured by his boyfriend lit up this way, didn’t catch and returned a few minutes later holding a small, green basket.
“My sh- apprentices have found the plant!” They said excitedly, showing a now attentive Keith the small bunch of iridescent twisting vines in the basket.
“It’s beautiful,” he breathed, watching the rainbow of colours dance across the thin branches and pointed leaves. With good news in sight, he started thinking about how Pidge would react to the soppomok’s culture and habitat, what Hunk would think of the large, pink berries Keith had eaten the previous day, how Shiro would cement this alliance, and what Lance would say when, not if, he woke up and found out how kind the soppomoks had been.
“Your emotions are very loud,” Itanokka commented as they placed leaves and twigs is different specific positions on Lance’s still body. “You miss your family, but have hope again. It is refreshing compared to the worry you have been carrying this past day.”
Keith opened his mouth to apologise, mind thrown by how easily he had accepted “family” rather than “team”, but Itanokka held up six fingers and moved their stool closer to Lance’s bed. “No harm done. Now,” they looked more serious, and Keith assumed that if the translator weren’t speaking for them this would be reflected in their tone. “I won’t separate you from your aipetan, but I need you to be quiet physically and mentally if possible while I go into his niohnid.”
He nodded solemnly and sat in a stool further back from the bed, positioned so he could still see all of Lance. Itanokka closed their eyes and picked the last branch of the iridescent plant from the basket to hold in both hands.
The branches and leaves over Lance shimmered brighter.
He didn’t know how much time had passed. To be fair, he didn’t even know if time passed here.
He had assumed, when he first got here, that this was the astral plane. He just hoped it wasn’t the afterlife, because as much as he was ready to die to protect those he loved, he didn’t really want to.
Lance, for the nth time, looked up at the darkness around him.
It was strange - the darkness was everywhere, but it wasn’t particularly scary or black. It was almost like there was always a source of light, just in the corner of his eye, that moved away when he turned to look at it. Maybe the edge of his vision was the source of light.
The ground too - because apparently gravity existed in the astral plane - was dark, darker than the not-ground. Lance didn’t want to call it the sky because this wasn’t a planet and he preferred his skies light blue with a few clouds, but he didn’t have another name for the expanse above him. The thing that the apparent gravity was keeping him tethered to was basically black, but curiously didn’t reflect or in any way interact with the not-ground.
When Lance had first appeared here, he had tried shouting with his voice, and later his mind, and he’d walked around a lot. Nothing had come of any of these actions so he soon stopped and just lay on the ground thinking and hoping. If this was the afterlife, it sure was boring. He had at least hoped he would see his abuela. Or maybe even Keith’s dad, just so he could tell him how amazing his son was.
His thoughts kept doing that - one second he was remembering the last meal Hunk had made him, or picturing his house in Varadero, or trying very hard not to cry again, and the next he was thinking about Keith. Which often overcame his efforts at not crying and caused him to curl up once more.
At the moment, his working theory was that when he had hit Haggar’s ball of doom with his sword, it had transported him here and locked him in. Either that or it had killed him, which he only liked to think in his most abstract and denial-filled minutes in this place. Problem was, he remembered Keith grabbing him before all the not-painful-pain had stopped and he disappeared, which could mean Keith was also trapped somewhere. And there was nothing Lance could do about that.
Hell, for all he knew, his strike had just set Haggar’s stupid plan off, and all of his team were affected! He would never forgive himself for that if it was true. Not that he could ever find out, at this rate. He didn’t really know where he was, he was just making assumptions, and he knew nothing of the others so nobody could be coming to save him. He really had no idea, maybe he was just doomed to this dumb expanse of void for all of eternity, and- wait, what was that?
In the distance, or perhaps close by, a glow of light he could actually look at faded into existence. It began as no colour at all, then seemed more purple, and gradually Lance could see all the colours of the rainbow mixing and moving in the glow. He stood, aiming to move towards the light but instead being startled as it moved towards him. Half a thought told him to run away, he had no idea what it was - but he harshly reminded himself that he knew nothing anymore so at least this was different to everything else.
When the lights got close enough that they were all he could see, he noticed a definitely alien, six-fingered hand reach out of the glow. A voice- no, a feeling, gently told him to hold it, even though it seemed almost transparent, as if it too was made of light. His instincts warred against each other as he slowly, hesitantly reached out and tried to touch the hand.
He gasped when their fingers touched. Suddenly, he felt lighter than air, feet floating up off the ground. Panicking at the idea of drifting away in this dark expanse, he gripped the hand with his.
The world turned white.
Lance blinked open his eyes, unsure of when he had shut them. The first thing he realised was that he wasn’t in the astral plane anymore. He wasn’t exactly sure where he was, because all he could see was a very familiar shade of purple.
“Hey, samurai,” he tried to say, but all that really came out was, “Heh, s’m’rai.” Why did his throat feel like he hadn’t talked for days?
Keith smiled, brighter than any sun Lance had ever seen, and wiped some tears away from his eyes. Wait, tears? “Hey, sharpshooter,” he replied quietly, as if speaking too loud would make Lance disappear.
When Keith didn’t elaborate, Lance remembered that he knew nothing and began by asking, “So, uh-” he paused to clear his throat a couple times as his vocal cords kicked back into gear. “What happened?”
His boyfriend opened his mouth to respond, but instead Lance heard a very alien language from somewhere near his left hand. His eyebrows shot up as a tall, gangly alien stood up and gathered some cloths covered in purple goop into a basket, all while talking to Keith, who, shockingly, replied in the same language.
No, wait, the translator in his helmet is speaking, Lance thought as his sluggish brain caught onto the fact that Keith’s mouth was in no way moving in time with the harsh, almost clicking sounds his helmet was making. Eventually, Keith nodded and turned back to Lance.
“Looks like you made some friends,” he joked. Keith rolled his eyes, but any fake annoyance was lost in the extremely affectionate face he made as he spoke.
“Shush, you. This is Itanokka, they’ve been looking after you after- after everything,” Lance raised an eyebrow in question. Keith visibly swallowed. “You were out for two days after Haggar. Wait, you remember Haggar, yeah?”
Lance let out a breath. “Yeah, I remember Haggar.”
“Okay, so Itanokka’s gonna make sure you’re all okay, they’re basically a doctor and they, uh, woke you up,” Keith said, rubbing his thumb in a soothing motion over Lance’s shoulder. “And I’ll explain what I know.”
Once Keith had told him all about the past two days, including little bits of what he had learned of the soppomok culture, and Itanokka had finished checking Lance’s condition, which thankfully was back to normal, they were allowed some private time. Itanokka smiled as Lance thanked them over and over, using Keith’s helmet as a translator since his had been damaged, and they replied that they were just glad he was okay. After cautiously asking if hugging was acceptable in their society, Lance expressed his gratitude once more before they took their leave, mentioning something about aipetan that Lance turned to Keith about.
“Oh, yeah, I forgot to say,” Keith said, sitting back on the bed and inviting Lance to sit next to him. “The soppomok have this concept that’s kind of similar to soulmates, I guess? And they asked if we were aipetan so I said yes because they let me stay in here with you, and-”
“You said we were soulmates?” Lance asked, moving closer to Keith and picking up his hand to play with his fingers, making Keith’s pulse beat a little faster. This boy had to be bad for his heart.
“Well, yeah. I mean, should I not have?” He suddenly worried he had overstepped somewhere.
Lance smiled, soft and full of emotion, as he reached up and moved Keith’s helmet off his head and onto the bed next to them. Neither of them noticed an almost silent click from within, too enthralled with each other.
“No, I love that you said that. Just, usually, you date someone for more than six months before saying you’re soulmates. That’s some proposal shit right there, Keith,” Lance added, smirking as Keith turned bright red almost instantly.
“Uh, I, um-” Keith stuttered, thrown by the direction the conversation had taken. Lance laughed, and Keith could only stare, all the negative thoughts from the past couple days replaying once before burning in the joy that Lance brought, as usual.
“Don’t worry, I’m not expecting you to drop on one knee or anything! Not that I would be against it in the future,” he blushed at the admission. “Just think it’s cute that you think we’re soulmates. For the record, I agree.”
For the millionth time, Keith thanked any higher being out there that he had met Lance and that they were together. He didn’t know how to respond to anything Lance had just said, so he simply leaned forwards and met Lance halfway. The kiss was short and sweet, full of emotions they didn’t yet know how to put into words. The feeling of coming home after a long day washed over Keith, and he embraced it like nothing else.
“I love you,” he half-whispered into the air Lance breathed, not as if it were a secret, but more like it was something precious and ethereal.
“I love you too,” Lance replied within the small space between them, as he always had and likely always will.
After a few moments in which Keith got lost in the oceans of Lance’s eyes, or something similarly romantic and sappy, there was a gentle knock on the hut door behind them. Lance gave Keith another small peck before grabbing the helmet beside them, turning on the now-idle translator and calling out to whoever it was to come in.
The second the Castle came out of the wormhole in the Bahrzenge galaxy they knew something was different. The Lions roared in all their heads, causing them to freeze.
They were close.
“Sounds like good news!” Coran called out happily, dishing out the warm hot chocolate-like drink Hunk had created a couple months ago.
Pidge scrambled to restart her program, fingers flying as she tried to adjust the parameters for the size of this galaxy faster than she could breathe. Somewhere to her left, Hunk let out a strangled sob, making her look up for half a second to make sure it wasn’t something bad - no, that was just his reaction to the Lions’ roars.
“I can’t get an exact fix,” Allura said, face scrunched up in concentration. “But Red is indicating this part of the galaxy,” she highlighted it on the holo-map and showed the others. Pidge glanced up for a second to use this information in her program, as Shiro uncharacteristically grumbled something like why’d they have to get lost in the biggest galaxy around.
A few minutes later Pidge got a result. She was so ecstatic she forgot how to speak for a second, before shouting, “Got them!!”
All eyes were on her as she expanded the holo-map on her screen into the middle of the room, the two dots, one blue, one red, bright on the planet in the middle.
“That was incredibly fast,” Hunk commented, staring at the dots as if he was in a trance.
“Well, you know, alien biometric scanning system. What planet is this?” Pidge replied, bouncing out of her seat and quickly switching her gaze between Allura and Coran.
“Soppom,” Coran supplied. “According to the data download we did yesterday in the Kravian system, it is inhabited by one intelligent species, the soppomoks, who are a kind, peaceful species, luckily for us! Not much is known about their culture, unfortunately, as they tend to prefer to keep to themselves than deal with the chaos that is the rest of the universe, rather wisely in my opinion!”
“Let’s go then!” Hunk exclaimed, turning to Allura. “What’s stopping us?”
Allura nodded and began typing in the coordinates to Soppom, but just as the castleship started moving, Shiro called out.
“I’m getting something! It’s faint, probably from the distance, but Keith’s helmet is still working!” He pressed the speaker button and they all fell silent; only the castleship’s engines and the crackle of static from the comms could be heard.
After a few seconds of nothing, a laugh came through, loud and clear. Hunk sat up straight. “That was Lance, I’m sure of it.” Nobody expressed their doubt at Hunk’s certainty as the sound deteriorated back to static.
“Can we talk back?” Allura asked. Pidge rushed over to Shiro’s station to see what she could do. “We can let them know we’re on our way, find a rendezvous point. They may want to have us prepare a pod, we don’t know their status.” Hunk bit his lip in worry. He’d been trying not to think about any potential repercussions of whatever happened to Lance and Keith. Pidge just typed faster.
“— it’s cute — we’re soulmates. For — agree —” Lance’s voice ebbed in and out of the static, calming Hunk’s nerves. He didn’t sound hurt, in fact he sounded - affectionate? What was he talking about, ‘soulmates’? Who was he talking to? Hunk frowned, thinking back to his and Pidge’s conversation with Lance in front of the pods a couple weeks ago, about Keith. Had Lance confessed? That was quick, he thought. It used to take Lance a lot longer to go from the ‘get advice from Hunk’ stage to the confessing stage.
He looked up and saw confused expressions reflected on Shiro and Allura’s faces. Pidge didn’t seem to be paying a lot of attention, eyes glued to her screen, and Coran had a rather concerning knowing glint in his eye. He glanced at Hunk and wiggled his eyebrows, making Hunk even more uneasy.
Suddenly Shiro’s face cleared. “He must not know the helmet is broadcasting,” he said absently.
“Pidge, how are you getting on?” Allura asked, trying to steer the attention of the room away from Lance’s words.
Pidge sighed in exasperation, opening her mouth to reply, when Keith’s voice burst through the static, shocking them all.
“— I love you —”
Hunk froze, brain working on overdrive. If Lance had just spoken, and Keith was speaking now, and they were both close enough to be heard through helmet, and Lance admitted he liked Keith a couple weeks ago, and Keith just said the L word, and they didn’t think anyone could hear them - well, it was all adding up to something he wouldn’t have expected. Looking up, he saw Pidge staring at him, fingers suspended above her keyboard, the same conclusions in her wide eyes.
“— too —” Lance. And that was the last they heard, because following a loud click even the static silenced abruptly.
Coran coughed slightly into the stillness, startling everyone back to reality.
“Uh,” Pidge started, “That click was the connection cutting off. At their end. So we, um, won’t be able to hear them anymore and they definitely won’t be able to hear us.”
“Right,” Allura said, visibly shaking herself back into leader-mode. “Well, we should be there in half a varga, and we can’t be sure of Lance and Keith’s injuries, so Coran, could you go prepare a pod just in case?”
“Of course, princess,” he replied, seemingly unaffected by the half-heard exchange. He smiled and left the room.
“I don’t think we need the Lions, or even armour,” Allura continued. “The atmosphere readings are suitable for both humans and alteans, and as Coran said, soppomoks are peaceful. No galra presence, either. We got incredibly lucky.”
“So did Lance and Keith, apparently,” Pidge quipped. Now that they were on their way to safely pick up the red and blue paladins, and no danger was in sight, she could happily joke about the pair. She turned to Hunk, who snorted, and asked, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“I’m thinking it’s about time!” Allura replied instead, walking towards the paladins. Shiro still appeared to be a bit shellshocked at hearing his younger brother figure speak like that, but joined them nonetheless. “Lance has clearly liked Keith for ages, I can’t believe Keith only just worked it out!”
“I wouldn’t be surprised at that part,” Shiro said slowly, then frowned and carried on, “But I don’t think he has.”
Allura looked at him quizzically as the three humans exchanged glances. “What do you mean?”
Pidge quickly explained how in human romantic relationships, the words ‘I love you’ hold a lot of meaning, and are often not said after months of dating. Allura was shocked, to say the least.
“Months? And none of us knew?” Everyone shook their heads.
“Lance only told me and Pidge that he liked Keith a couple weeks ago, when he was in the pod,” Hunk said. Pidge nodded in agreement.
“He told me a couple days after that,” Allura added.
“Keith never told me,” Shiro said sadly.
“I don’t think he told anyone,” Pidge asserted, putting a hand on Shiro’s arm. “I mean, Hunk and I basically pulled it out of Lance, he didn’t admit it freely.”
“Same here,” Allura frowned, thinking back.
“But - why would they hide it? And for months?” Hunk looked worried and confused, which Pidge could sympathise with. “Do they not trust us?”
Shiro grimaced and began to speak, but Allura exclaimed, “I remember! When Lance told me, he said he was worried about someone coming between them. He asked me if I was okay with the idea of two paladins dating, and of course I said I wanted to see him happy and a bond like that may just strengthen Voltron. He seemed surprised at how I had reacted.”
“Well that makes sense then,” Pidge said, crossing her arms. “Lance thought someone would try and break them up, so they didn’t say anything.”
“Keith would probably agree with that,” Shiro added, thoughtful. “He is also, surprisingly, extremely private, so he would appreciate the lack of comments, positive or not.”
The four of them were silent as they turned all this new information in their minds. A thought struck Hunk. “Wait, do we tell them we know?”
“Yes,” Shiro responded immediately. “It would be worse if one of us accidentally let it slip, or if we unconsciously behave differently around them.” Pidge opened her mouth to argue, but Shiro continued, as if he knew what she was about to say. “Yes, I know they weren’t honest with us, but that’s our fault if what Lance said to Allura is true. If they thought they couldn’t tell us because of how we’d react, it’s on us that we made them feel like that. And it wouldn’t do any good to hide it from them in retaliation.” Pidge pouted, but Shiro could see the wheels of her mind turning, acknowledging his points.
“I agree,” Hunk said. “Apart from the fact that I wouldn’t be able to lie to Lance’s face, I think Shiro’s right - it wouldn’t do any good.” Allura nodded, and they all turned to Pidge, who sighed and agreed that they were right. She loved Lance and Keith as brothers more than she wanted to hold on to her resentment.
“I’ll let Coran know what we’ve talked about,” Shiro began to walk away. “Just so he’s in the loop.”
“Knowing him,” Hunk said, chuckling, “he’ll already have known.”
Lance and Keith were walking around Bokkana, the soppomok town, when it happened.
First, Lance stopped dead in his tracks and stared at Keith, who responded with a raised eyebrow of confusion and concern. Then there was the boom of something large entering the atmosphere. The soppomoks stared at the sky, some in fear, some in awe, as an enormous, familiar shape lowered itself onto the meadows beyond the forest at the edge of Bokkana, far enough from the town that the winds created barely affected it.
The two paladins exchanged excited looks and quickly explained to Torskon, the chief, that it was their team, come to get them, and that Keith’s offer of Voltron protection would be realised. Torskon was, of course, ecstatic at the news and bid them leave and let their team members know they were okay. Lance, who was currently wearing Keith’s translator helmet, thanked them profusely as Torskon waved them off. As the two of them ran, Lance heard them quelling their people’s fears, informing them that it was Voltron.
Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, in order for the castleship to not affect the town by landing, Allura had placed it far off, and after about five minutes of running, Lance stopped, panting.
“You may be fit as fuck, babe, but I’ve essentially been in a coma for two days. I’m just as excited as you to see- woah!” Lance cut off abruptly as Keith picked him up bridal style and kept jogging.
“Not that I’m complaining in any way,” Lance said slyly, curling his arms around Keith’s neck, “but I can still walk, just slower, you know.”
Keith glanced down at him. “Yeah, but this is more fun, no?” He hoisted Lance up a bit. “Plus I have some less than nice memories of holding you like this that I want to rewrite.” Lance held on a little tighter, remembering his encounter with a dagger all those months ago.
“If it helps you, then of course,” Lance replied softly. “But you don’t have to run.” Keith slowed down a little, bending down to kiss the sliver of Lance’s face exposed from the helmet. Glancing up, Lance saw the top half of the castleship come into view.
“Hey,” he began, Keith peering down at him for a second to show he was listening. “You remember what I said about what Allura said about us? A couple weeks ago?” Keith nodded. “Well, uh, what if we told them?” This time, Keith stopped walking and stared at Lance. “I know it’s a bit out of the blue, but I can practically hear you thinking it, because we got stranded on an alien planet and I was unconscious for a couple days and without your quick thinking I’d probably be dead, and I did a bit of a stupid thing with Haggar and we both know I’ll do it again, and Allura and everyone’s been so okay with me liking you, and I was kind of already thinking about it since you were in the pod, and I know you have been since, like, the dagger, so maybe-”
“Breathe, Lance,” Keith interrupted, face soft, hopeful and loving.
“Yeah,” Lance exhaled, swallowing. “What do you think?”
Keith smiled, large and dazzling, and Lance was almost blinded. “I’d love to.”
“Cool. Cool, cool, cool,” he echoed, unable to stop grinning. Keith rolled his eyes. “Could you put me down though, please? As much as I love you, my legs are getting numb.”
As soon as his legs touched the ground, Lance took Keith’s helmet off and kissed his boyfriend for a few seconds, still beaming.
A handful of minutes later saw them tearfully reuniting with the team, although the majority of the crying was from Hunk. Hugs were passed around, and Lance and Keith reiterated a thousand times that they were okay.
“Actually, I think we should stay here for a bit,” Keith suggested, looking to Allura. “The soppomoks were incredibly kind and I may have offered protection from the galra as thanks for saving Lance.”
Allura smiled, agreeing, which caused Coran to get very excited about learning more about soppomoks. He was flabbergasted and a little jealous when Keith told him how much he had already learned.
“Weren’t you busy? Worrying about Lance?” Pidge asked, a mischievous glint in her eye. Keith glanced at the boy in question, currently finishing a conversation with Hunk about the soppomok food he had tried earlier that day.
“Well, yeah, but-” Keith started, turning back to Pidge, but he stopped when he saw her expression - disbelief. “What?”
“How did we miss this?” She exclaimed, earning a stern look from Shiro. What was going on?
“Miss what?”
“Your face, Keith! I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner - and we call you the oblivious one!” She waved her hands wildly in his direction. Keith crossed his arms, confused.
“What are you talking about?” He said, ignoring the ‘oblivious’ comment.
“You and Lance!” Hunk and Lance had now rejoined their conversation, which Keith was suddenly thankful for, as he wasn’t sure what was going on and he didn’t want to be left alone in it.
Hunk facepalmed. “Nice and tactful, Pidge.”
“Wait…” Lance said, looking from teammate to teammate. He stopped on Hunk and raised an eyebrow. Hunk just sighed.
“Earlier today, when we got a lock on you, a comms signal came through on Keith’s helmet,” he explained as Keith studied the expressions on everyone’s faces. Everyone, even Coran, looked a little guilty, but Shiro was also clearly annoyed at Pidge and she was still incredulously processing whatever she had seen in Keith’s face. “We, uh, heard you say something about soulmates?” Lance suddenly turned redder than the helmet he was holding, and Keith matched him as Hunk continued. “And, um, we heard Keith say, well, ‘I love you’, so we all came to the same conclusion. Especially after what you said a couple weeks ago to me and Pidge and Allura, Lance. And we were right, right?” His gaze drifted between the couple.
“Well,” Lance said, turning to Keith. “Makes it easier to tell a secret if everyone’s worked it out already.”
“Oh,” Keith replied, not having thought of it like that. “True.”
“So, yes, you were right,” Lance circled back to the others, reaching out for Keith’s hand and holding it proudly. Keith’s heart sung. “Me and Keith are dating. Like, boyfriends.”
Immediately, Hunk scooped them both up in a giant hug, squeezing them almost too tightly before dropping them again. Allura beamed and sent a knowing look Lance’s way. Shiro clapped a hand on Keith’s shoulder and smiled proudly down at the pair. Coran, of course, admitted that he’d known for some weeks now.
Pidge just squinted. “Hindsight’s twenty-twenty and all, but I can’t believe none of us noticed. I mean, I had my suspicions, but I thought it was just some mutual pining bullshit.” Keith raised an eyebrow at her. Lance just laughed. “Anyway, now that the gig’s up, I wanna know - how long’s this been going for? Because you both sounded pretty damn serious over the comms.”
“I was wondering about that,” Hunk added. “I mean, usually, Lance, you’d ask for advice about your crush and then it would still take you, like, a month to confess. Oh, who confessed first?” Keith’s eyes widened at Hunk’s patented gossip expression, anxiety rising as Allura leaned forward too.
“Alright, guys, they don’t have to say anything they don’t want to,” Shiro cut in, nodding at Keith’s grateful look.
“Well, uh,” Lance glanced at Keith, who silently communicated a ‘yes’, before continuing. “It’s been about six months, and we still argue about who confessed first, but that’s all you’re getting!”
“Six months!” Pidge all but shouted. “How the hell did you keep this secret for six months!”
“With difficulty,” Keith muttered. Lance laughed, agreeing.
“So, are we allowed in now?” He joked. “It’s been an interesting few days and I’m sure you all wanna hear about it.”
“Yes,” Allura said carefully. “Rest up first, eat something, then we can talk. About everything,” she added, sending a look Shiro’s way. Shiro nodded, getting the message.
As they walked in, Pidge pestering Coran to find out how he knew before the rest of them, Keith put the hand not in Lance’s on Shiro’s shoulder to attract his attention. “What did Allura mean?”
Shiro inhaled. “Between catching your comms signal and getting here, we talked a bit about, well, you two.” Keith glanced at Lance apprehensively. “Allura, Hunk, and Pidge told us about what you said to them, Lance. I’m sorry you ever thought anyone would try and break you two apart.” Shiro sounded so sincere it almost hurt Lance, and he smiled, a little sad, mostly grateful, as Keith squeezed the hand between them.
“It’s okay, Shiro,” Lance told him, but promptly got interrupted.
“No, it’s not. You shouldn’t have felt a need to hide this. Neither of you,” he added, turning his gaze on Keith. “But Allura’s right, eat, rest, tell us what happened between Haggar and now, and then we can all talk about this.” He smiled, and Lance was violently reminded of his dad back on Earth. He swallowed a reflexive stubborn comment and nodded. Shiro seemed satisfied, so he playfully ruffled Keith’s hair and jogged to join Hunk and Allura’s conversation.
Keith grunted and tried to detangle the mess on his head. Lance laughed lightly, leaning into his side. Keith pushed back, his boyfriend’s laugh infectious.
“That went well.”
“Very well. Makes me wonder why we didn’t do it sooner.”
“Hey,” Lance pouted, half-serious.
“I know,” Keith kissed his temple. Lance snickered when Pidge shouted “get a room!”. Keith just flipped her off.
“There you go. That’s why,” Lance joked. Keith rolled his eyes, but squeezed Lance’s hand.
He squeezed back.
Yeah, everything would be okay.