shining like the stars

68

Keith coughed violently, and he flailed himself into a sitting position in an attempt to clear his airway. He pushed away from the arm around him and wheezed, inhaling recirculated air and gasping a few times, before it seemed like the fit had passed. Keith breathed raggedly for a few moments, before he started at the touch on his shoulder, at the hand that was placed on his back and and pressed firmly.

"You all right?" Shiro's voice asked, neutrally.

"That atmosphere is no joke," Keith said, voice raw and still breathing hard. He sat back, placing a hand on his throat, and looked up to see Lance seated opposite them on the floor, arms crossed and a thoughtful expression on his features. Keith's body was too worn out to react to Lance's presence in any way other than an exhausted wince. "Lance..."

"So," Lance said without moving, his head tilted just a little, considering. "When were you going to tell the rest of us about the purple and fuzzy thing?"

Keith wanted to lean back against Shiro, to gather strength from his presence, but he wasn't certain he was allowed that. However, Shiro hadn't removed his hand from Keith's back and there it stayed, warm and solid. "Lance," Keith said again, and lowered his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Dude, I stuck my dick in you. Is it contagious?" Lance made a face. "You didn't give me like, furry herpes or something, right?"

Keith's head snapped up and he stared at Lance, utterly confused while Shiro sighed. "Lance," he said.

"It's a valid question!" Lance leaned forward, putting his weight on one hand as he peered at Keith. "Maybe he has fleas. Now I feel itchy."

"What the fuck Lance," Keith said. "I don't have fleas! And I'm not contagious, you can't catch being half..." his voice hitched a moment on the word. "...Galra." He took a deep breath and somehow didn't break eye contact with Lance, who was still giving him a measuring look. "If it makes it better to hate me," Keith started to say, when Lance slapped both of his hands on the floor.

"Are you fucking serious?" Lance's voice actually broke. "Hate you?" He lunged forward and grabbed Keith by the front of his tunic, and Keith flailed a little, nearly shoving Lance in the face as Lance jabbed his finger into bruised flesh. "What is that?"

"Ow, Lance, what the fuck are you-" Keith did put his hand on Lance's face, trying to push him away, as Lance pressed his finger against the wound again. "Ow! Stop that!"

"What is it?" Lance said, and there was an undercurrent of anger in his voice that Keith had never heard before.

"Where you bit me," Keith said, and Lance released the front of his tunic, sitting back on his knees. Keith's hand had snapped to his neck, covering the healing wound with his palm. "What the hell was that-"

"I don't hate you," Lance said. "I'm in love with you, you freak." He put both of his hands on his knees and glared, still too close to Keith and Shiro. "I am pissed, though." That said, he looked over Keith's shoulder, at Shiro, seated behind him. "And I can't speak for Shiro." That said, Lance pushed himself upright, and Keith realized with a start that they were in the cockpit of Blue, behind the pilot's chair.

Keith crossed his arms over his chest and shivered, and after a moment glanced back at Shiro. Shiro wasn't looking at him, he was watching Lance, who climbed over and into the pilot's chair. "Your Altean buddy is standing on top of his starfighter and sending us death glares," Lance said.

"I don't care," Shiro said. "You said there's more of them? And they're definitely Altean?"

"They sure as hell look like it," Lance said.

"And you left them with Princess Allura," Shiro did not sound impressed by this.

"Hey, Hunk and Pidge can handle things." He leaned forward and pressed buttons on the console, one after another. The communicator light was flashing, so he pressed that one too, and a video communication popped up on the left side viewscreen."Oh, hey, Coran," Lance said. "We've had a hell of a few days-"

"You must return to the ship immediately," Coran said, bypassing all pleasantries. "Two large Galra ships entered the system six hours ago."

Shiro pushed Keith mostly out of his lap and stood, using the back of Lance's seat to get leverage. "Have they found the castle?"

"The low power mode is enough to keep us hidden for a while," Coran said. "Unless they have scout craft do a flyby of this particular moon. But it's a frigate, and a prison ship."

"Do you think someone tipped them off?" Shiro asked.

Coran shook his head. "Lance has been flying the Blue Lion all around a moon that has a bounty on Voltron paladins, I doubt that has anything to do with it."

"Hey!" Lance said, offended.

"We'll get the others and get back to the ship right away," Shiro said. "Keep all communications to a minimum, we don't want them tracing the signal back to the Castle of Lions."

"I've been doing this since before your species was born," Coran said with a bit of a huff. "But yes. Hurry." The communications window shut, and Lance sniffed.

"Before your species was even born," he imitated in a falsetto. "What climbed up Coran's ass?"

"Well, we did leave him alone on the castle ship to go play in hot springs he was clearly looking forward to," Keith said, and Lance shrugged. Shiro patted the back of Lance's seat.

"Can you open a comm to the Altean?" he asked, even as they watched the diminutive dark-haired alien touch his ear, and then jump down into the open cockpit of his ship. "Or maybe he got a communication."

"Maybe he's working with the Galra," Keith said bitterly, hauling to his feet as well, finally. He was only a little off-balance. "He is flying a Galra ship."

"They're not working with the Galra," Lance said with confidence. "Unlike us." He shot Keith a sidelong look a slight smirk, and Keith scowled, looking hurt.

#

True to form, the Altean followed the Blue Lion across the sky toward the abandoned tree-top temple. There were two other ships waiting for them there, and as Lance set down the Blue Lion the Altean landed his craft in perfect formation with the other two.

Lance watched Keith move warily. He didn't move any different, but watching Shiro carry a clear Galra — even if that Galra had Keith's hair and face — onto the Blue Lion had been unnerving at best. Watching the purple fade from his complexion and his ears change and all the alien-ness just melt away while he was semi-conscious ... that had been fucking weird. But here he was looking like regular old Keith again, and Lance still wasn't sure what to think about it.

But, he hadn't been lying. He'd decided a while ago that he was in love with Keith, so this was just a hiccup in the grand scheme of things. Or ... something bigger than a hiccup, but smaller than total cardiac arrest. A seizure? Lance tapped his chin, but was interrupted when Keith grabbed his arm and yanked him the rest of the way down the ramp, toward the temple. They both hurried after Shiro, who walked quickly and with a purpose.

The Altean was still climbing down from his craft as they passed, and he gave Keith an absolutely murderous look. "I can take him," Lance said confidently, and Keith shot him a perplexed look.

"Princess," Shiro called as he entered the temple. They would have to gather everyone quick to get out of there so they could get back to the Castle and make whatever preparations were needed. However he said nothing else, and Lance and Keith both almost ran into his back as they entered the temple's front corridor.

"Shiro," Lance complained, but then realized the others had been heading out of the temple and had stopped suddenly when Shiro entered the corridor. "What the heck, man?"

Then Shiro was moving quickly forward, one arm outstretched. "Matt?" he said in disbelief, at the same time that the sandy-haired person who looked just like Pidge moved forward as well. Lance's mouth opened a little, and he looked to Keith, baffled, as Shiro grabbed a stunned Matt and pulled him into a hug.