What Is New Life (Klance)

Chapter 1

[Keith POV]

"Alright- alright, stay with us. You can do this, Uria. Just focus and push."

I had never seen Coran so focused in my life. Though to be fair, I hadn't known him for an extremely long time. During a mission in which they were evacuating a Galran work camp, one of the prisoners, Uria, a tall alien female with rather human-like features aside from tentacle-like appendages for hair and a green skin tone as well as long antennae and two sets of eyes, turned out to be late in pregnancy. During evacuation, she suddenly started into labour. She was feeble and undernourished, even when I started carrying her back I was afraid she would just die in my arms from the pain. I had no idea what to do, we didn't have any proper doctors, but apparently, Coran literally did know everything. He was going to try and deliver the child. Everyone else was busy or had been ushered from the room. I had only stayed because he needed information on her condition. I could only stand there at the moment and let her hold my hand. More like, break my hand. It was hard to imagine she was even so weak with the damn grip she had, but I took it for her sake, trying to speak comforting words but they just awkwardly rambled out as nervous encouragements as I looked desperately back at Coran every once in a while. She was practically wheezing. She would cough among her screams and grunts of pain, her face was a paler shade of green than before.

"You're almost there. Y-you're almost there- it's okay." I blubbered out in a panic, my heart almost stopping as I suddenly heard a child's cry from down where Coran was leaning, under a rather large blanket of course. "Uria, you- you did it, they're here- y-you did just great-" The crying continued as I turned back to Uria. The smile that was forming on my face quickly fell. "Uria..?" She had gone limp, her eyes closing, breath slowing. "Coran- Coran! We're losing her!" I yelped, Coran backing out and shoving the newborn child into my arms, not harshly, now hurriedly wrapped in a blanket. I fumbled for a good grip on the child as it squirmed around and screamed. I attempted to calm the child as Coran did what he could, awkwardly rocking it and trying my best not to let my arms shake as much as my legs were. Soon, everything in the room was just...quiet. Nothing to hear but the baby's loud cries. It was excruciating. To my own surprise, tears brimmed at my eyes, the baby's cries soon fading to silence as well. Coran took a quiet step back and gently shook his head.

"...It was too late for her. She was too weak to take the strain on her body."

I had no idea what to think. For the first time since Team Voltron had been out in space, fighting for our lives and the lives of others, we had lost one. One that really mattered. A child had just been orphaned, because of what the Galra Empire had done to so many innocent planets. Before I knew it, the tears had spilled over. Coran had pulled out a handkerchief himself. The door slid open, revealing a few of the others, including Lance and Pidge, but I wasn't paying any attention. I looked down at the newborn, not seeming as feeble as it's mother, it was slightly chubby (as all babies were) with a dark purple skin tone. The long elf-like ears it should've shared with it's mother were larger, and covered in a thin layer of purple fur. It had it's mother's strange hair, and two tiny nubs stuck out in the front, likely the beginning of antennae. It blinked up at me, one set of eyes was a lovely colour green, and the other set was glowing yellow. It was a hybrid child. Uria hadn't had time to give any of us her story, but it was obvious by now just what had happened, and it wasn't her fault. Another reason she shouldn't be dead right now. Other voices blurred out as Pidge and Lance, followed soon by Shiro and Hunk went up to Coran and Uria to weep or say a few respectful words. I held the child closer to me, not sure if I was trying to comfort it or myself. I had stopped crying, hopefully no one had noticed, and as I carefully moved an arm out from under the child briefly to wipe the wet streaks from my cheeks, it held up it's little arms, cooing. I couldn't help but smile, bringing it a little closer to my face.

"Welcome to the world." I greeted awkwardly, suddenly yelping as it grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked. Holy shit, this baby was strong.

"Ow ow ow-" I quickly got it's inhuman grip out of my mullet and it cooed again, giggling and pawing at my shirt. I looked up to ask what exactly to do with this child, were we going to give it to another family, or-

"Mama!"

I flinched. My gaze rested back down on the baby as all other eyes rested on me.

"Ma-ma..!" It blubbered again, patting my shirt with it's tiny hands, and my face immediately flushed.

"Um- I-I'm not your-" I was cut off by the sound of Lance's ever-obnoxious laugher from a little way away.

"It's the mullet!" He insisted.

"Lance! Be respectful." Shiro scolded from nearby. I just awkwardly stood there frozen as Lance strolled over.

"Here- let a real man take the kid." He joked further, and I scowled at him.

"You'd better not drop her, then." I warned, passing the child over into his arms, who whined and blubbered some more baby gibberish.

"Hey kiddo." He ignored my remark and held the baby so..naturally, as if he was just used to it. Though, he did have a huge family, he'd probably cared for his siblings more than once. The baby giggled more and patted his cheeks with it's hands, cooing again.

"Pa-pa!" It happily sounded out, and that time I didn't know whether to laugh or scream. Lance just froze. This time it was everyone else's turn to laugh awkwardly.

"Shiro you take it-" Lance simply squeaked and pushed the child into the eldest paladin's arms. The child stared at him for a few silent seconds before it suddenly started screaming and crying, causing Shiro to jump and try his best to calm to child, worried, but the child would slap at his hands and screech even more. He gently gave the child to Coran, but it didn't stop her crying. It was passed to Pidge and then finally Hunk as he just moved it back over to me. Suddenly, the child calmed again, blinking up me with it's four eyes and smiling again.

"Ma-ma! Maaa..." It cooed and gripped at my shirt, and I could only slowly turn a dark shade of red as it slowly nodded off as I held it.

"I- um."

"Mama Keith and Papa Lance, huh? This is gonna be interesting." Pidge was grinning like the damn Cheshire Cat. I glared slightly.

"Well...it won't be calm with anyone else." Shiro murmured awkwardly.

"At least until we can find it a new family.. we'll need you two to care for her. She needs to feel safe, like she had parents. Any other way could lead to stress in later life." Coran explained.

"...She's a..she?" Lance mumbled quietly, looking over.

"From what I know, yes."

"...Well- you do realize I hate Lance's guts right? He hates me too?" I snapped.

"There isn't really much we can do about that." Coran mentioned sternly. "Get past your teenage issues for a couple of weeks and care for a child that doesn't have any other options." My eyes softened, and I looked over at Lance. He glared back at me, and I returned it.

"Look. Let's not let this out on the kid. We'll just get this over with together and never have to talk about it again."

"...Agreed."

"It's settled then." Coran clapped his hands together. "Let's pay our respects to Uria. She deserves that much, and a proper burial. On a much nicer planet." We all nodded quietly, and I looked down at the child one more time.

"...Uria." Lance mumbled. "..That's what she should be named. After her mom." I realized he was looking at me, or more specifically, the child, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jacket. I managed to smile just a little bit at him, they might as well break the tension early.

"...Yeah. I- I like that. Uria it is."