pick me up ; klance | vld

twenty eight

time check ; 11:35 pm

"Lance!"

Lance almost fell from the relief. From the woods, a familiar face emerged. 

"Oh, Keith, damn, it's you!" he laughed, covering his face with his hands. Dear God, he couldn't believe this.

The Red Paladin got close.

"Of course it's me, who else would it be? It's not like someone else knows you're here." Keith moved, until he was near the river, just beside him. Lance's heart skipped a beat.

"Well, I didn't think you'd follow me," he said, an half smile forming on his lips. The other snickered, shaking slightly his head, like he had said something stupid or obvious.

Lance lowkey was hoping for the last.

"You should have expected it. I can't let you go around. It could be dangerous," and with this, Keith smiled. An actual smile. Not a grin, nor a sarcastic smirk. It was a smile, a true one.

But it wasn't quite right. Something was bugging Lance, making him uncomfortable and suspicious of the boy that was two feet away.

"How did you find me?" he asked, trying to shake off the coldness in his chest, relegating it in a part of his mind.

Keith looked at him. And then, the world turned upside down and darkness surrounded him.

[ — ]

time check ; 02:51

A roar made Keith almost fall. He stopped running, his eyes wandering all around searching for the source of the sound. Another one teared apart the sky; Keith stayed still.

Blue.

He began to run as fast as he could towards the cry of the Lion. Two second later and he was on the ground.

The Red Paladin grunted: he had stumbled on a fucking root, his foot stuck in a dip he didn't see.

He tried to get up but a sting of pain that flared from the ankle made him cry.

"Fuck," he whispered, "fuck, get up Keith, come on." He put his left foot on the ground, shifting all the weight on it; then he slowly moved the injured one.

He squinted his eyes. It hurt. A lot.

Keith tried to keep his mind clear. The bone wasn't broken, at least he thought. It surely was dislocated, though, and that wasn't a good thing at all.

He couldn't stay there. Lance needed him. The Blue Lion was just right there, screaming and asking for help.

He needed to get Lance in time. The other Paladins counted on him.

[ — ]

time check ; 00:27

"Okay, so, what do we do now?" Hunk looked around nervously, "we can't leave him there! We need to rescue him!"

"Yeah," Pidge added. They seemed like she lost her calmness, their eyes shaking, fixing first to Shiro and then Allura, lastly Coran, like asking for support. "We shouldn't have let him go," they murmured.

Coran smiled apologetic. "Paladins, I'm sorry but I can't let you go. This planet is dangerous. If you go, you'll get stuck here."

Keith wasn't really listening. His head was low, his hands clenched tight. He keep rewind Lance's words, his smile that didn't look as beautiful and sincere as usual, his usually soft features, hardened by the stress.

"It's your fault!"

Pidge's voice was like a cold shower. He suddenly raised his head, feeling like something had hit him strongly and left him without oxygen. He heard Shiro reprimand them, but his attention was caught by the younger.

"What do you mean? How could it be?," Keith shouted back, annoyed. Pidge glare at him, their gaze fierce.

"I mean that's it because of you that Lance is now in danger!," they yelled, "If you would have cared a little less about yourself and a little more about him, this wouldn't have happened!

"If you would have stopped him in time, instead of letting him fly away, now we wouldn't be in this situation!"

Keith felt the anger rise, building up inside. Fuck, how it could possibly be his fault, when he hardly understood anything?

First, Lance had been flirting with him, then gave him the cold shoulder. After a while he had started to flirt again and in the end he locked himself in his room.

It was shitty. Of course Lance would have known about his feelings towards the other boy, the Blue Paladin wasn't stupid. But he never, never expected him to play with them, to hurt him so much.

And now, Pidge was saying it was his fault. All of that was unfair.

But, as the seconds passed, the anger passed too. He sat again, leaning his back to the wall.

"You're right"

Everyone held their breath. Keith couldn't stand their stare.

"You're right. It's my fault. So I'm gonna take him back here, where he belongs."

Keith looked straight at Allura, daring her to stop him.

She nodded.

"We can't abandon Lance. I don't like the idea of letting you go, but you're our chance."

The Princess and Coran exchanged a look, and the last one nodded, too.

The man turned to face him.

"Come on, we have a Paladin to rescue!"