Work Text:
Everything changes so fast.
They were just joking around on the comms while searching the abandoned Galra base for old tech Pidge could deconstruct.
And then things started exploding.
Keith was next to him, and then he wasn’t.
And Lance doesn’t like this at all.
But he can’t manage to hold onto that thought. No matter how hard he tries, fuck, this is important , he can’t keep it from fading away like an old photograph.
Because the blast stuns him.
He’s not hurt, not like the time with Sendak, but everything is muffled temporarily.
Between the cloying smoke and debris from the blast, Lance can’t see shit.
When he starts to come back to himself, he coughs weakly, “Holy shit.”
He didn’t even realize he’d spoken aloud until Allura exclaims, “Lance!?”
The comm channel is chaos. There are so many people talking it’s almost impossible to decipher any single person’s words.
Pidge swears, Coran shouts for them to beat a hasty retreat, and Shiro demands a status report.
When no one answers the black paladin, who stayed behind on the ship to work with Allura, he repeats himself more urgently. He’s calm, military calm, but Lance knows him well enough now to hear the edge of desperation that roughens Shiro’s voice.
The undertone snaps Lance into action, “Are the Galra here? What the fuck happened?”
Shiro answers, “No, you’re alone for now, but the Galra are probably on their way. There must’ve been some kind of sensor in the base that set of the bombs.” Shiro asks, “Are you hurt? Pidge, Hunk, Keith, report!”
Sudden horror forces Lance’s heart into his throat.
Keith.
He jumps to his feet, blue eyes darting around the room, while Pidge answers Shiro. Her voice is flat as she explains, “I’m not hurt. But my fucking ears are ringing, and I think I’m trapped in this room. I’ll figure it out.”
He barely registers her words.
Lance tries to keep his head clear, but it’s hard to think around his panic.
And it feels like he can’t breathe.
The smoke itself is bad enough, but Lance swears the terror is a hand wrapping itself around his heart and squeezing.
“I’m on my way,” Shiro huffs, clearly sprinting to Black’s hangar. “Hunk, Lance, Keith, report!”
It’s a frustrated demand now.
Lance sucks in a breath that comes out as a pained gasp and forces himself to reply, “I’m here.”
His voice cracks, so he croaks the phrase again, “I’m here. I’m fine.”
“Hunk? Keith?” Shiro pleads.
Lance’s throat constricts, “I can’t... I can’t find Keith.”
“What?” Shiro’s tone is sharp with concern.
Lance’s reply is pitchy, “I... he was here... he was with me. And then he wasn’t. Isn’t. I can’t find him.” There’s no keeping the mounting hysteria out of his voice.
But Shiro is a natural leader; he reshapes his fear into something more productive. His tone is firm and books no argument, “Lance. You have to calm down. Pidge is trapped, and neither Keith nor Hunk have checked in. Their status is unknown. I need you to start looking for them. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Okay. I. Calm. I’m calm,” Lance staggers to the left, and then he steadies himself and calls, “Keith? Keith!”
He stills himself to listen.
He’s honestly afraid to walk here. What if the floor is unstable? What if Keith is buried under some of the remains of the base?
He bellows again into the darkness, “Keith!”
When he gets no response, he starts to babble to himself, “C’mon, baby, where are you? Answer me.”
He cups his hands over his mouth and shouts, “Keith!”
Lance stops moving and holds his breath.
His chest constricts when he hears a muffled groan several feet away from him.
Keith is alive.
He stumbles forward. He’s frantic, but he doesn’t want to scare Keith. He needs to stay calm for both of them. He hopes his voice is steady and reassuring, but he probably falls short, “Keith? Babe? You gotta help me find you. Make some noise, okay? I’m here. I’m so close. I’m right here.”
The rubble lurches overhead, and Lance’s anxiety increases tenfold.
“Please, please, querido, please,” he begs. “Please be okay.”
He takes five more halting steps before he spots Keith.
And his terror renews itself.
Because all he can see is the pallor of the cracked forearm of his paladin armor.
For a split second he’s sure that Keith’s been crushed.
His brain races off in haphazard directions: What if he can’t get him free? What if Keith is so injured that he can’t be saved?
Shiro asks for an update, but Lance ignores him.
What could he say? I think your baby brother might be dying?
Lance climbs over the wreckage to get closer.
And he swears his heart stops beating all together.
Because no. no, no, no, no, it can’t be true, he can’t, this isn’t happening, no.
Keith’s pale face is slick with blood.
He’d... Keith took his helmet off right before... before everything...
Lance breaks down. His thoughts jumble.
Keith’s dead.
Tears well in Lance’s ocean blue eyes and drip down to his chin, “Por favor no estés muerto.” He trembles, “Te necesitamos. Shiro te necesita. ¡Te necesito!” He squeezes his eyes shut for a second because everything is too much , and he cries, “¡Keith! ¡Gran idiota!”
And then Keith’s eyelids flutter.
Lance charges forward and drops to his knees beside his boyfriend’s battered figure and sucks in a sympathetic breath.
Although Keith isn’t trapped beneath anything, he still looks awful.
His armor is broken in a few places, and some pieces almost seem like they’ve melted. The ends of his inky hair are singed, and one arm and ankle are bent at an unnatural angle.
It looks like he’s struggling to breathe, which could be the smoke or his ribs.
But Lance is most worried about his eyes.
Because his pupils are blown wide.
He’s always loved Keith’s eyes. Beautiful, large, amethyst, and so pretty that Lance finds himself caught in their snare often.
But right now Keith’s irises are nearly absent all together.
Lance whispers, “Are you with me? Cariño, que duele? Talk to me.” He strokes Keith’s matted hair from his face and presses a kiss to the only unblemished skin he can find, “Keith?”
It seems to take an exorbitant amount of effort, but Keith manages, “Lan’se? Wh’appened?”
Lance chokes down a sob of relief and scrubs a hand over his own face to wipe away the tears.
Keith blinks like he’s trying to clear his vision. His expression shifts from pain to fear, and then he whimpers.
Lance’s heart cracks into pieces.
He’s never heard Keith, strong, fearless Keith , make such a fragile noise, and he never wants to hear anything like it again.
“Hey, shh, you’re all right. I’m right here,” Lance soothes. He brushes Keith’s hair away from his forehead. He hopes it’s comforting.
"Where... where are we?”
Fuck, okay, Lance thinks. Okay. Concussion. You know he has a concussion. Probably Grade 3 . Fuck.
Keith is always so quick and brave, but now his reactions are lethargic, and he’s confused, and he looks like he’s on the brink of panic.
Fuck, it’s no wonder Keith looks so scared. He’s hurt, he has no idea what’s going on, and this has to be dredging up some pretty instinctive anxiety.
Lance doesn’t know everything about Keith’s past yet, but he know it isn’t a pretty story.
“You’re fine, baby. I’m here,” Lance hopes his words keep Keith grounded in the present, “You’re safe. I’m here.” He wishes he had some kind of cloth to wipe Keith’s face, “Can you tell me the last thing you remember?”
“Mmm,” Keith grimaces in pain and thinks, “Pidge? Transformers... Power Rangers... Gundam?”
Okay. Lance wracks his brain. That conversation happened on their way to this planet. They were arguing about what mecha TV show Voltron was most like.
That had been about... ninety dobashes ago.
Shit. Did he lose more than a varga?
Before Lance can dwell on it, Shiro finally loses his patience.
“Lance!” Shiro orders. “Are you with Keith or not!? Report!”
Right. Shiro. Lance frowns, Shiro, who needs to be told that his baby brother is hurt.
Lance clears his throat, “I’m here. I found Keith... He’s... in bad shape. I don’t know if I should move him.”
Shiro’s silence is deafening.
Somehow it’s louder than the explosions that caused this mess.
It’s Coran who ultimately answers, “He’ll have to be moved. I’m afraid there aren’t any other options.”
Coran instructs Lance on how to evaluate the extent of Keith’s injuries. Spinal injuries would be the biggest obstacle in terms of escape, but thankfully Keith’s is fine.
By the time he finishes his assessment, Keith is only slightly more lucid.
Lance moves to get an arm under him and begins the laborious process of getting them to their feet without causing further harm.
They’re nearly upright when Keith jerks violently away from Lance.
“Keith!?”
“Le’go!”
Lance is at a loss.
Then Keith vomits.
Lance’s grip is the only thing that keeps him from face-planting in his own sick.
“Babe?” Lance yelps, but Keith can’t hear him over the roaring in his ears.
By the time he’s emptied the contents of his stomach and dissolved into dry-heaving, there are tears clinging to his dark lashes, and Lance’s heart breaks all the more when he catches the exhaustion and humiliation bleeding together in his expression.
Shiro urges them to keep moving, but Keith can barely stand with Lance’s support, so maneuvering him onto Lance’s back is far cry from easy.
And the muffled cries and moans as Lance shifts him around don’t make anything easier.
But it’s their only choice.
“I’m sorry, baby. Lo siento. I’m sorry,” Lance whispers to him.
Once he’s secure, Lance proceeds with cautious haste.
In spite of the undertone of stress, the voices of his teammates are a great comfort to him as he sifts through the damage and moves to the exit with Keith draped over his form.
Pidge manages to get herself free and find Hunk, who is unharmed, but dealing with a busted comm link.
Shiro hurries them all onward, and in pairs they all rush to the green lion.
“The Galra fleet is minutes away,” Allura announces. “You’ve got to move faster, or you won’t make it.”
“How far is everyone from Green!?”
“Hunk and I are coming up the last corridor now,” Pidge pants.
Lance needs to hike Keith higher up on his back, but he’s afraid to jostle him too much, and there isn’t time to stop and do it gently.
“Keith and I are... we’ve still got to clear two more rooms and a hallway,” Lance laments when he checks the digital map on his visor.
Lance swears he can hear Shiro grit his teeth, “You guys have to run.”
“I don’t think... we can.”
“You don’t have a choice.”
Lance growls. He’s starting to hate that fucking phrase.
“La’nse,” Keith rasps. “Do it.”
“What?”
“You... gotta listen to Shiro,” Keith gasps. “Do it.”
“It’s gonna...” Lance is about to say hurt, but what’s the point? “Are you sure?”
He feels Keith’s tired nod against his back.
“Okay. Fuck. I’m sorry, baby,” Lance winces in apology.
And then he grips Keith’s thighs and bumps him higher onto his back.
A strangled cry tears itself from Keith’s throat, and Lance feels Keith shudder in agony.
“Mierda, lo siento,” Lance’s insides squirm in misery. He hates everything about this right now.
Keith’s hurt, and he’s making it worse, but he doesn’t have a choice.
So Lance keeps racing onward, and something in him aches every time he hears Keith whimper into his shoulder.
Lance struggles to pull in air. The smoke inhalation combined with exertion is hell on his lungs, but adrenalin pushes him forward.
It feels like the hall stretches on for miles.
When he finally rounds the last corner and sees the green lion waiting right outside, Lance almost sobs gratefully.
But he doesn’t slow.
“Coming in hot!” he warns during the last leg of the sprint.
The Galra will be there any second. He can’t even afford to decelerate as they careen inside of the green lion.
“I gotcha, buddy,” Hunk says and then appears before Lance. He opens his arms wide.
The hatch slams shut just as Lance and Keith clear it, and Pidge immediately takes off.
They stumble at breakneck pace into an unbalanced Hunk, who still manages to catch them before they crash into the wall.
Hunk gets his footing before they can topple to the floor.
Keith’s breath is hot and fast on Lance’s neck.
Lance can still hear the wheeze as he carefully lowers him to the ground.
“Pidge!” he calls. “Keith’s hurt. He needs a pod.”
”I know, I know! But there are Galra everywhere. Shiro’s totally surrounded!” Pidge is clearly pissed, and her voice carries through the lion’s intercom system.
To punctuate her statement, there’s a loud crash that sends them all sprawling.
Keith whines when the motion jars his wounds.
“I’m not going to be able to get out of here on my own,” Shiro affirms her statement.
“How bad is he? Can it wait a few more minutes?” Allura asks.
Lance looks at Hunk, who is trying to clean Keith up and locate the source of the blood. He dabs his face delicately.
He wants to say no, it can’t wait, because his boyfriend is hurt .
But Keith isn’t dying.
Between the broken limbs and ribs, the contusions, the lacerations, and the concussion, he’s got to be both dazed and in excruciating pain, but he’s in no immediate danger.
A punctured lung could put him into critical condition, though. Lance removes the chest plate of Keith’s armor and uses a pair of scissors Hunk hands him to cut the undersuit away. He pushes the flayed pieces aside, and he blanches when he sees the mottled bruises blooming on Keith’s torso.
He lets his hands feather over Keith’s rib cage and finds two obvious breaks.
“He’s got at least... two broken ribs... which could be a problem,” Lance informs Shiro. He can’t help but think of the force of the blast, and how much he must’ve suffered as he lay on Lance’s back while he ran through the base.
Shiro says nothing. Lance swallows.
Keith uses Lance’s silence as an opportunity to contribute, “M’okay. S’fine.”
“Lance? Hunk?” Shiro wants someone more believable than Keith to corroborate his statement.
“I... yeah, he’ll fine fine for a few. We’ll keep him still,” Lance answers.
Though it proves to be easier said than done as Pidge flies evasively or offensively to avoid the Galra and help Shiro.
Lance doesn’t understand why there aren’t seatbelts in the lower decks of the lions.
He and Hunk work to keep Keith from sliding around the hull with some success.
Sometimes Keith’s eyes drift shut. Lance feels like an ass, but Keith can’t fall asleep. If his concussion is as bad as he thinks, he may not wake up again.
And Lance won’t let that happen.
Hunk eventually manages to find the source of all the blood, which is a wide, deep gash above Keith’s eyebrow. If they were on Earth, he’d need stitches, but the pod can mend the skin easily. All they have to do is butterfly the wound first.
Lance cringes when he thinks about the healing process. The pods are amazing, but they’re not perfect, especially when it comes to broken bones.
They can replenish blood, repair damaged organs, heal bruises, and fix lacerations.
But broken bones have to be reset, or they won’t heal correctly.
It hurts like a bitch.
And while the accelerated healing gets them back on their feet faster than Earth’s treatments, the process is draining and requires a recovery period.
Lance thinks about how tired and stiff he was for days after the first time he was in the pod, and how he felt like he’d been sapped of all his strength and energy.
Lance sighs and squeezes his boyfriend’s hand.
Keith’s in for a rough time when they get back to the Castle.
Within an hour, the battle is over, and Keith is placed in suspension.
The others excuse themselves to give the black and blue paladin privacy.
Lance is tired, but he’s afraid to sleep. Anesthesia doesn’t work well with the pods, and now he knows exactly what it sounds like when Keith screams in anguish.
Shiro cradles his head in his hands in rare display of vulnerability.
Lance held Keith’s hands while Allura set his bones, but he felt helpless. He wonders if Shiro felt the same way while he brushed away Keith’s tears.
Probably.
Lance watches the older boy.
Shiro had been Lance’s hero while he was at the Garrison: capable, resourceful, courageous, and likable to boot.
When they’d ended up in space, Shiro became more of a role model. Lance admired him. Shiro’s tenacity and direction was invaluable.
Then he’d realized he was in love with Shiro’s little brother.
And Shiro's approval of their relationship meant so much to Lance.
Sure, Keith was free to date anyone he wanted, but Shiro seemed outright supportive of the couple.
While Lance knows that no one is invulnerable, sometime he feels like Shiro comes close.
Sure, Shiro made the wrong call sometimes, and he got stressed out like everyone else, but it still seemed like he could take control of any situation and somehow come out on top.
It doesn't feel that way this time.
Lance wishes he could find a way to remedy the abject look on Shiro’s face, but he can’t think of anything to say.
He’s prepared to sit in this lull indefinitely, so he startles when Shiro’s voice cuts through the quiet, “I thought he was dead.”
Lance stares, swallows, and says softly, “I did too.”
Shiro never lifts his face, and he continues like he hasn't heard Lance at all, “You stopped answering... and I thought he was dead. I thought he died.” Shiro exhales, “I don’t... I don’t speak Spanish. But I heard muerte. And you were crying."
Shiro’s shoulders shake as he repeats, "I thought he was dead."
Lance doesn't know how to help. He doesn't know what to do.
When he places a tentative hand on Shiro’s human arm, he can feel the fine tremors that wrack his figure.
Shiro deflates, curls into himself, and sobs.
And after everything he’s endured, abduction, torture, battle, it’s his baby brother that brings Takashi Shirogane to tears.