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Necessary

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It had started out as a great day, in Keith’s opinion. No missions, no Galrans to fight, no threats to the well-being of the universe, just a day to relax and train. Even Lance’s incessant chattering as they sparred wasn’t enough to dim Keith’s mood. In fact, having Lance around was…kinda nice, and he was actually enjoying their banter as they fought.

“Well, I think we’re special. That’s why the lions chose us, Keith, not anyone else! We have a destiny.” Lance ducked under Keith’s swing and danced away, firing training bolts from his bayard. For such a long, gangly guy, he sure was agile.

“It could have been anyone, we were all just in the right place at the right time. If not us, the lions would’ve found someone else,” Keith retorted, parrying Lance’s shots with the flat of his blade.

“No way. We’re all special and destined to save the universe! Without us, there’s no Voltron!” Lance struck a dramatic pose with his bayard raised. “We’re the ones, the only, the Defenders of the Universe!”

Just to get under Lance’s skin, and partly to cover the way his heart warmed at Lance’s earnest display, Keith snorted derisively. “Honestly Lance, it was all just coincidental. I mean, you’re just a cargo pilot! Blue just probably wanted to go home, is all.” He’d thought it was their normal trash talk, that Lance would fire back with something witty about how Keith’s hair situation invalidated any opinion he may have had, but no retort came.

Lance had lowered his bayard, and was actually standing completely still. Keith didn’t know if he’d ever seen Lance so still before, and with such a blank expression on his face. “Is that what you think, Keith?” he asked, voice low and quiet and completely unlike Lance.

Keith frantically backpedaled. “No! No, I was joking— “

“Just because Blue is the friendliest lion, and I didn’t have to get thrown into space to fly her, and I wasn’t, oh what was it, the ‘best pilot Galaxy Garrison’s seen in years,’ it means I’m replaceable?” Lance’s tone almost seemed eerily reasonable.

“I mean, you’re not the greatest pilot, but that doesn’t matter, we can’t form Voltron without you and-”

“So that’s it. I’m just a leg to you. A leg who can’t even fly good.” Lance’s voice was still measured, but the calm on his face had started to slip. Keith could see the hurt in Lance’s eyes now, and felt his heart drop sickeningly to his stomach.

“No! No, Lance, that’s not what I meant-”

“I know exactly what you meant, Keith. You’re a lot of things, but you’re not a liar.” Deactivating his bayard, Lance pushed past Keith and raced out of the training deck, leaving Keith gaping after him. Fuck. That had been the last thing Keith had wanted; he’d actually been enjoying sparring with Lance, physically and verbally. He’d thought Lance had thicker skin- but then, he’d been so offended when Keith hadn’t recognized him when they saved Shiro, and then he kept bringing up their petty rivalry, like anything that had happened at the Garrison even mattered anymore… Well. That was just Lance’s problem, to get all offended over nothing. Keith had even started to enjoy the other paladin’s company, liked seeing him laugh and the corners of those blue eyes crinkle up- Don’t even go there, Kogane. He cut himself off from that train of thought and cued up the gladiator. Level four began, and there wasn’t time to think about Lance as the robot attacked.

They avoided each other for the rest of the day, which was fairly easy to do in a giant castle ship. Keith brooded in his room, just like old times, before he’d been on a team. When it had just been him. Maybe that’s why he’d fucked up so colossally - he just wasn’t practiced at saying the right thing to people. He hadn’t meant for Lance to take it so personally, but looking back, Keith could see why he had. Lance’s greatest wish was to be a great fighter pilot. It was all he ever talked about, when he wasn’t talking about girls or his family on Earth. And Keith had just torn that to shreds.

Lance wasn’t at dinner, which was strange as he loved to eat, and Hunk was cooking. The big guy looked worried and said, “Lance never misses dinner! Is he okay?”

Shiro, wolfing down Hunk’s latest culinary creation across the table, shook his head. “He contacted me earlier, said he just felt a little under the weather. But he’ll be fine.” The worried look didn’t leave Hunk’s face, and dinner was a subdued affair.

 

Keith was relieved when a new mission came down from Allura the following day. It was something to do, after all, and maybe it’d bring Lance out of his funk and they could get back to joking around and Lance’s face would stop looking so weird and expressionless. As they were rushing to their lions Keith tried to catch up with Lance’s long stride.

“Hey! Lance!” Keith called, reaching for Lance’s shoulder, but stopped short when Lance jerked back and glared at him.

“Just leave it,” Lance snapped.

“But-”

“Don’t, Keith.” And with that, Lance turned away from Keith and began his descent into the blue lion. Keith put on his helmet and followed suit.

The mission seemed simple: protect a small village from the Galra Empire. The village worshipped a strange artifact that Allura and Coran believed could somehow control Quintessence, so of course, the Galra Empire had sent a small fleet to acquire it. And that’s where the Defenders of the Universe came in.

The lions swooped down to the surface of the planet just ahead of the Galra fleet. “Alright team,” Shiro’s voice came over Keith’s communicator, “let’s form Voltron!” They flew in the practiced formation, Keith and Pidge swirling around each other, but the pull that usually came with formation was absent. “Come on, come on!” Keith muttered to himself, but nothing happened. Red stayed firmly in lion form.

“What’s going on? Why aren’t we forming?” Pidge yelled over the comms.

“I don’t know! But we don’t have much time to figure it out!” Hunk yelled back. He had a point: the Galra ships were almost on the village now.

“Uh, okay. Change of plans. Let’s take them on individually. But be careful, and watch each other’s backs! We aren’t as strong apart as we are together!” Shiro ordered, piloting his lion to face the oncoming fleet.

As the two sides collided, Keith let instinct take over. He felt rather than saw Hunk take out a ship with a headbutt, Shiro expertly dodge two ships and send them crashing into one another, and Lance...

Keith couldn’t feel Lance through the tenuous teammate bond. He brought Red around, frantically looking for the blue lion in the chaos. Dodging bolts and ships, he finally spotted Blue, in a flat dive after a Galra ship that had somehow slipped past Pidge. They were headed straight for the village with Lance in hot pursuit.

“Lance! What are you doing?” Keith yelled into the comm.

“Uh, my job?” came the reply. Lance fired on the ship, taking it down before it reached the village. Keith felt a little embarrassed; although Lance wasn’t as good as Keith or Shiro, he was still a capable pilot. Keith was probably worrying for nothing, but Lance had looked so hurt after their confrontation, and then they couldn’t form Voltron...he just didn’t want anything bad to happen. Especially to Lance. Not before Keith could apologize.

“Paladins!” Allura’s voice cut through Keith’s thoughts. “The castle scanners are picking up a cloaked infiltration force on the ground, and they’re nearing the village! We need to hold them off, but cannot tip off the fleet that we’re aware of their presence. I’m heading there now, but I need backup! Coran will pilot the castle.”

Keith opened his mouth—

“I’ll do it, Princess,” Lance volunteered. Keith snapped his mouth shut, glaring at Lance’s lion. He hoped the effect wasn’t lessened by being almost a mile away.

“Good, Lance, your bayard will be ideal for picking the forces off from a distance. Be careful, and I’ll meet you on the ground!”

“Are we really sure that’s a good idea?” Keith asked, and then mentally kicked himself for it. Now Lance would take it personally again. And predictably—

“Really, Keith?! I’m as much a part of this team as you are. And I can do my goddamn job.” Lance sounded incensed, which was an improvement over his dead monotone from earlier, at least to Keith.

“No, I just don’t-” Want to see you get hurt, Keith’s mind supplied. He cut himself off abruptly, lips pressed together in frustration.

“Guys, don’t do this right now. Lance, you have your orders. Be careful. Keith, I need you to focus, there’s a fast son of a bitch doing some damage up here and we can’t catch it without you. Okay, team, let’s go!”

Keith reluctantly turned away to follow Shiro’s orders, but as he re-engaged the Galra fleet, a tiny part of his mind kept worrying about Lance. They didn’t hear any more from the two on the ground, but Keith figured they were busy taking down the ground forces. He himself was fairly occupied with taking down the fast Galra ship, but finally he destroyed it, the purple bastard. With that annoyance gone, the rest of the enemy ships went down easily, and the team landed on the ground near Lance’s abandoned blue lion and the pod Allura had taken from the castle. The four paladins met outside their lions, flush with victory, and looked around for Allura and Lance.

“I can’t hail their communications.” Shiro’s voice held concern, and Pidge immediately took out some little device they’d made. “Something’s blocking the communications in a localized area, nearer to the village. That must be where they are!”

The paladins raced off towards the signal blockage, only to meet a bloodied and exhausted Allura limping to meet them, but no Galra behind her. Hunk and Shiro ran forward to support her, and she slumped as they held her between them.

“I’m so..I’m sorry...”

Shiro brushed white hair stained with blood from Allura’s face. “It’s okay, it’s okay, “ he soothed. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”

Allura took a deep breath and seemed to brace herself. “I do. It’s Lance. They’ve taken him.”

For the second time in 24 hours, Keith’s heart sank.