There, nestled against my pulse

Chapter 16

Wait," says Keith. "Wait, my rash is a Galra soulmark?"

Kolivan gives him a look like he can't believe Keith is making him repeat himself. "Yes. It is the first place your navtu touches you. Which is, for you, the inner elbow of your left arm."

"I know where it is," Keith says crossly, only because he's replaying the time at the Garrison, to make certain that that was where Lance first touched him, because he doesn't really want another soulmate.

"Don't worry," Lance calls out from his sprawl on the dais, "I put my hand there when I asked how you were. And I thought about that moment for days, so I'm pretty confident that I'm right."

Keith looks at him and smiles, slow and delighted. "Days, huh?"

Lance goes redder than Red.

Feeling inordinately satisfied, Keith turns back to Kolivan, who looks like he's swallowed a bucket of food-goo. "So why did it have to hurt for months, though?"

"I don't know," Kolivan says bluntly. "It's not supposed to do that. In most instances, it is nothing but a mark on your skin that you're born with."

"I didn't have this when I was a kid. It just came in recently."

Kolivan exhales slowly, like he's a second away from throwing Keith across the room. "I am aware. Perhaps it's because of your mixed heritage."

"Because I'm half-Galra," says Keith.

Kolivan looks up at the ceiling. Looks back down. That's his version of rolling his eyes. "Yes. In any case," he says, "it's seemed to have calmed down now."

Keith lifts his arm to eye level, scrutinizing the healed skin. "Okay, but why's it purple?"

Kolivan turns on his heel and walks away. Just silently marches straight through the bridge doors and doesn't look back.

Lance is hooting with laughter. "Did you really have to wind him up like that?"

"Shiro does it all the time," Keith points out. "His favourite part of the week is when Kolivan comes in with his report."

"Your brother's gotta hate how you only seem to pick up his bad habits," Lance remarks.

"He bitches to me about it all the time; it's funny." Keith grins. "But seriously, why is it only my elbow that's turned Galra?"

It's Lance's turn to look at him, disbelieving. "You didn't notice it when you changed clothes?"

"I was—distracted."

Lance blushes, because he totally knows what Keith's talking about; it's entirely his fault that Keith was late to this talk with Kolivan.

"Okay, well, this isn't the place to explain." Lance tangles their fingers together and tugs him towards the doors.

They're seated on Lance's bed five minutes later. Keith's trying not to think about how easy it'd be to press Lance into the mattress and fall asleep with their legs twined together.

"You know how your heart, uh, stopped?" Lance starts. Keith nods. "Right, well. We got pretty desperate, so the Olkari basically dropped you into a vat of quintessence—"

"They what? Isn't that—couldn't that go wrong really quickly?"

Lance shrugs. "Allura did some magic stuff—made sure you wouldn't get an overdose or whatever. But like I said—desperate. You didn't have much longer and we were out of options."

Keith reaches over and squeezes Lance's hand. "Good thing it worked, then."

Lance hums his agreement. "It fixed you up near-instantaneously, but the side effect—" He lifts the hem of Keith's shirt— "was this."

A large scar curves around Keith's left flank, above the jut of his hipbone. It's puckered and purple—the same shade as his rash-slash-Galra-soulmark. It twinges with an old sort of hurt when Keith pokes at it. A couple smaller cuts decorate his torso, in the area where his only protection was the black suit.

"Allura called Kolivan, because all this purple was a dead giveaway," Lance continues. "You should've seen his face when he realized what we were asking about—I think the Galra are intensely private about this sort of thing, because he looked super constipated."

Keith snorts. "I'm pretty sure that's just how he is, as a person."

The corner of Lance's mouth tugs upwards, but his gaze is still fixed on Keith's scar. He traces the line of it with a thumb.

"It was too close, this time," he says, quiet.

"Hey." Keith taps him on the chin. "Stop that. I'm here. We're here."

Lance nods, sighs, and falls back onto the bed. His arm is spread out in an open invitation and Keith accepts it, fitting himself into Lance's side.

"Are you going to make me promise to never do that to you again?" Keith asks.

Lance is quiet, contemplative. His hand slides into Keith's hair again, in slow, even strokes. It's almost enough to send Keith off into sleep.

"No," he says finally. "I won't."

"Because I can't keep it," Keith guesses.

Lance exhales, and presses his lips to Keith's forehead. "Because neither of us can. Nobody on this team can. We'll keep throwing ourselves in the line of fire for each other, until we can't anymore."

Keith's hand drifts up to the middle of Lance's chest, covering the scar that he knows lies underneath. "I'm sorry."

"Me too," says Lance, because he knows it's not any easier for Keith when Lance is the one in a pod. "Just. Keep coming back to me, Red. That's all I need."

Keith smiles. "Only if you do the same."

"If you think anything can rip me away from this, now that I have it, you'd be dead wrong."

"Too soon."

"What—oh, come on," Lance groans. "That's not even funny."

"Oh, so you can make jokes about forgetting a moment, but I can't make jokes about dying?"

"Those are on two completely different levels!" Lance exclaims. "They can't be compared—"

Keith throws a leg over Lance's and silences him with a kiss. It works like a charm and Keith files that away for future reference.

He drops back onto Lance's chest when sleep starts pulling at his eyelids again. Lance huffs, amused, and tugs the blankets up around them.

"We should go see the waterfall tomorrow," Keith mumbles.

"If I'm not scheduled for a mission, sure."

"I'll bully Shiro into letting you stay. I can milk the injuries for a day."

Lance laughs, soft. "He's not going to fall for that."

"Fine, we'll just elope then," Keith slurs, halfway asleep.

A beat, then, "You did not just ask me to marry you. Keith. Babe, what the hell."

"You could've just said no, if you didn't want to."

Lance sighs. "You're delirious. Go to sleep."

"What do you think I'm trying to do? I'm not the one who keeps talking."

"I will kick you out of bed, Red, don't think I won't."

Keith yawns. "You won't."

"I hate you."

"I love you."

"That's so not fair," Lance grumbles.

Keith smiles sleepily, and buries himself further into Lance's warmth.

He's awake just long enough to hear it.

"I love you, too."