Training and injuries don't work well together

Training and injuries don't go well together.

LANCE!"

Keith watched in horror as Lance was thrown across the battlefield. From where the Red Paladin was standing, with his bayard out and helmet visor cracked, he could see that Lance had gone limp on the other side of the barren land they were currently fighting on. Turning back to the creature with new determination and fresh rage running through his blood, he let out a cry as he raced forward, lifting and swinging his sword...
Earlier that day

"Uggghhh" that was the first word he heard when he entered the kitchen, and judging by the whining and the annoying tone, he could only guess who the voice belonged to.
"Do we have to?" The voice whined again. Yip. Definitely Lance.
"Yes, Lance" the next person - Allura - sighed. "We must train. It's -" "Part of duties as Paladins of Voltron and allows us to be better for the safety and protection of the universe." Lance added, in the highest and most terrible British accent you could imagine.
Allura's eye twitched as she glared at the Blue Paladin, but years of diplomatic training came in handy right then and there as she took a breath and straightened her posture.
"Yes Lance. That is correct. The more you train, the better paladins you become. This training will come in handy, it already has, but you must be patient and -" "Keith!"
His head whipped around at the sound of his name. Unbelievable. Poor Allura had stopped speaking and was staring at Lance with quite a shocked face - which he was completely oblivious to - as her eyes followed his gaze to land upon the raven haired boy.
"Hey Mullet. I need you to tell Allura that we should have a day off of training today." he looked at Keith expectantly, as did Allura "'Cuz, y'know. It's been a while since we had a free day and... I think you would agree with me, right?" at the last part of his sentence, he gestured with his eyes towards Allura with a firm expression on his face that clearly said: "I'm waiting." So, with that in mind he looked from Lance to Allura and then back to Lance and gave a slight shrug.
"Training is good for you, Lance." and Lance's smile dropped as he glared at Keith. The Red Paladin ignored the Cuban boy and with that, he walked off.
Keith was hungry. He had already been through a few training sequences that morning and could use a refill on food. Grabbing a bowl of food goo from the kitchen counter, along with a spoon, he plonked down in his usual seat next the Pidge who was already comfortably seated on her chair. When he sat down, Pidge looked up from her screen, said morning and gave him a small smile, in return, he smiled back at her and ruffled her already messed up bed hair, briefly running his fingers through the knots - her hair had grown since they started this journey, it now reached just below her shoulder blades - She leaned into the touch with a hum and after a second or two, he removed his hand and she went back to her screen.
After breakfast and more complaining from Lance – no surprise there - the team were told to go get ready for training - putting their armour on, brushing their teeth, the usual - and meet on the bridge in 15 doboshes.
Once the team had gathered on the bridge, sitting in their respective seats, Allura, in her paladin armour, started speaking.
"I'm afraid training will be cut short today paladins -" Keith could practically feel
Lance's eyes light up as he pumped a fist in the air "Because Lance is the best and he suggested that we take a break today. Did I mention he's the best?" Lance finished for her. Once again Allura's eye twitched, Lance was getting on her nerves. Who could blame her?
"- because" she started again, glaring at the Blue Paladin "We have come across a planet that we have no knowledge of other than a few readings from the Castle's monitors, and we would like to expand said knowledge. Today, instead of training, we will be flying down to this planet to gather intel." Lance dropped his shoulders and his expression fell flat as he stared at the Princess
"Seriously?" he blinked twice at her "So... instead of training our butts off on the training deck in the Castle, we're gonna fly down to a planet that we know nothing about and... walk around for vargas." There was a chorus of voices as every member of Voltron plus Coran gave him the same answer. Yes.
"Well" Allura pulled up a screen "We don't know nothing
about it. According to the Castle's long-range monitors, it is a very hot and dry planet, though more than three quarters of it is covered in trees. The areas that are not, however, are coated in small grains of sand. The air is breathable so you will not need your helmets but I would advise that you bring them along just in case." She tapped a button and the screen dissolved back into the dashboard of the ship "We will be landing in approximately 7 and a half doboshes. Once the Castle touches down, we will split up into teams of two to cover more ground, Lance with Keith, Pidge with Hunk and myself with Shiro. Coran will stay behind and monitor the information the Castle will receive from your helmets. Are there any questions?"
Lance's hand went up and Allura sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose "Yes, Lance" "Uh... why do I have to go with Keith?" Keith was pretty sure that he could ask the exact same thing, but rather, he kept quiet. This was going to be a long day.
***
"We're here!" Keith thought that Coran was way too excited to be sitting down and staring at a screen for vargas. Oh well.
"Thank you for informing us Coran." Sarcasm. Typical Shiro. Keith chuckled to himself as Coran gave a cheery reply, not knowing in the slightest that Shiro was just playing with him. He strode towards the exit of the Castle of Lions with his helmet under his arm, waiting for the ramp to open up. Once everyone was outside, Allura told them to regroup at the end of the quintent.
"Tally hoe paladins! I'll see you when the three suns set!" Coran gave one final wave before the ramp to the Castle closed once again and everyone went their separate ways.
For the first few doboshes of their day-long-hike, Keith and Lance were walking on dull yellowish-grey sand, but then the ground slowly became softer and more uneven as they ventured closer to the strange trees with purple trunks and bright orange leaves. The floor was now littered with a variety of small spikey blue-green plants along with a big purple root sticking out of the ground here and there.
When they had been walking for about 15 doboshes, Lance started talking. He spoke mostly to himself or told Keith some random thing he had thought of in that exact tick, but sometimes would throw in a yes-or-no question for Keith to answer. When they got to 30 doboshes Lance had started... singing. Keith was usually annoyed with Lance for some reason or another - it really wasn't that hard to be - but right now, Lance was really grinding down on his nerves as well as testing his patience.
"Despacito. Something something something something something-edo. Nanananananananana na-edo. Something something nanananana na-sedo. Despacito... hmmmmmmmmmmmmm" he would stick his index finger out into the air every few seconds and at particularly high notes, the Blue Paladin would completely stop walking and lift his arm all the way up with his eyes closed tight. Why him?
A while later Keith had lost track of how many doboshes had gone by or how many songs were sung but Lance still hadn't stopped singing and he was starting to get a headache. Finally, finally Lance's singing trailed off, and just in time too. Any longer and Keith would have lost it. But before he could get his hopes up about it...
"I'm bored." Of course he is.
"Well then, keep yourself busy."
"But we've been walking forever. And I'm hungry and thirsty and tired." He wasn't just talking, he was whining. The Blue Paladin honestly sounded like a little kid.
"We've only been waling for an varga or two, Lance. And you should've eaten back at the Castle -" "I did! I'm just hungry... again. Like... right now."
" I can't help you with that" he deadpanned "But here"
Keith tossed a bottle of water to Lance "When Allura said it was hot, I thought it would be a good idea to bring one of these."
Lance stared down at the bottle that he now held in his hands "Well would you look at that" Lance smirked at him "Under that mullet and thick skull of yours, you do have a brain."
"I'm smarter than you"
Lance sputtered for a long second looking offended before he finally gave up, took a big gulp of water and then downed half the bottle in under a second. Just as the bottle was removed from his lips, there was a loud, high pitched noise that came from their helmets.
Great. The comms were down. Apparently the distance between them and the Castle plus something else about the atmosphere, that Keith couldn't identify, had cut the comms. Oh well. They had been walking for... if he had to guess, Keith would say at least 4 and a half vargas. Maybe more? But definitely not less. Right now, they were still picking their way through the strange jungle-forest place. A few doboshes ago, Lance had thought he'd heard a noise in the bushes and was now being overly paranoid
"What was that?"
"That was me stepping on a plant"
"What about that?"
"Also me"
"Ah! Did you feel that?"
"That was my foot, Lance"
"Oh..."
"Did you-" Before he could finish, Keith whipped around and glared at the Blue Paladin.
"Oh for the love of Voltron, Lance. Calm down. Whatever you think you heard is probably harmless."
Lance stared at him for a long tick before he said "Yeah. You're right Mullet. Besides, I was never scared anyway. It just looked like it because I'm such a good actor. You know, when I was in Grade 4 my school held a play and..."
At that, Keith turned back around with a groan and continued to trudge through the jungle as Lance went on and on about something he wasn't even listening to.
They'd been walking for about... 6 vargas now and Keith thought it was about time they head back if they wanted to get there before dark.
"We should head back." He was facing Lance now "If we want to get back to the Castle before nightfall we need to go now." A few doboshes ago, they had wandered out of the alien jungle-forest and were now standing on the yellowish-grey sand once again.
"Yeah. Good idea. I really don't wanna be here when it's dark." Keith raised an eyebrow "Not that I'm scared or anything! I just, uh... think it would be better to be at the Castle." Lance looked up at him but Keith still had his arms crossed and eyebrow raised "So let's go. No time to waste." And with that, the Blue Paladin had turned his back to Keith and started marching back in the direction they had come.
They were just about to step back into the jungle-forest of purple and bright orange when there was a low growl.
"What was that?!" His head turned towards Keith "Please tell me that was you."
Keith only turned his head towards where the noise had come from as his bayard materialized from his red armour into his gloved hand. The Red Paladin heard Lance gulp as his bayard did the same. Keith took his position, readying his stance for an attack. The growl was heard again. Closer this time. Sword in hand, stance ready, Keith's eyes searched the dark jungle-forest for any sign of movement. Suddenly, a huge green-blue creature jumped out from behind some trees. The creature was triple the size of Keith with five eyes, strange purple horns, a long tail and very dangerous looking claws shining in the light of the three suns.
"Harmless huh?" Oh quiznack.
Shots flew through the air as Lance tried to knock the creature down. Keith, however, was jumping from side to side trying to avoid being ripped to shreds by its giant claws. Slashing his sword at the alien, the Red Paladin landed a blow to its side earning a roar of pain and an attack from the creature, leaving his helmet visor cracked and a small, bleeding cut on his left cheek. It whipped around tail slashing through the air as it did so. Lance was in the way of its incoming tail and before the Blue Paladin could even register what was going on, the giant limb was slammed into his stomach.
"LANCE!"
Keith watched in horror as Lance was thrown across the battlefield. From where the Red Paladin was standing, with his bayard out and visor cracked, he could see that Lance had gone limp on the other side of the barren land they were currently fighting on. Turning back to the creature with new determination and fresh rage running through his blood, he let out a cry as he raced forward, lifting and swinging his sword.
The red weapon landed a hard blow to creature's already injured side, digging in deeper than the last. Another roar of pain emitted from the monster as it lashed out. This time, Keith wasn't fast enough to jump out of the way and sharp claws dug deep into his side earning a pained cry from the Red Paladin. Keith instinctively drew his sword to whatever was causing his body pain and sliced through the creature's arm, hitting the bone. The sharp claws were ripped from his torso, Keith giving another pained shout and falling to one knee.
The monster spun around aiming its tail at the Red Paladin and, despite his injured side, he jumped out of the way. With it distracted in trying to steady itself once again, Keith threw his sword with all his strength and it wedged itself deep in the monster's back. With a mighty roar, the create reached back and ripped the blade out of its flesh, throwing it to the side. Once again it spun around, using its tail to try knock Keith down. The Red Paladin dropped down, narrowly avoiding the massive blue object. The tick he was clear of the tail, he took off towards his now deactivated bayard that lay a few yards away from his current position.
The monster was quick, but Keith was faster. In the same tick that he'd ducked clear of the incoming tail, he had also aimed and thrown his sword at the creature's head, weapon striking its intended target. For a tick, there was no sound, no movement, but then the huge, blue creature fell forward and hit the ground, dead. The Red Paladin stood there for a dobosh, breathing heavily, adrenaline slowly wearing off as he fell to his knees.
Lance. He had to get Lance. Keith pushed himself off the ground and stumbled over towards the fallen creature, pulling his bayard out of its skull. He grimaced as purple blood dripped from the tip of the blade and onto the floor. Letting his sword dissolve back into his armour, he turned around to walk back to Lance. Keith stared at the barren landscape and noticed the bright red patches that dotted the area. Blood. It was blood. Maybe... no. The creature's blood was purple. But that meant... he looked down. Oh. That would explain why his side hurt so much. His entire torso was soaked with dark red blood. There was still fresh red liquid oozing through the large claw-shaped holes in his armour. That wasn't good. Pressing a palm to his side, he got back to the task at hand. Lance was more important. He could worry about himself later.
Once on the other side of the sandy wasteland, he knelt down next to the Blue Paladin, looking him over. Lance seemed ok. Other than a few scratches and bruises, he was fine. That was good. So, Keith turned his attention to waking him up, they had to start moving. Gently turning Lance onto his back, Keith lightly shook his armoured shoulder. No response. He tried tapping the boy's cheek. Still nothing. That's when he saw the medium-sized gash on the side of the boy's head. That... wasn't so good.
Head injury. Keith really didn't know much about it, but he knew enough to know that it wasn't good, and the fact that he couldn't get Lance to wake up didn't make it any better.
It could just be a minor concussion.
But he's not waking up.
Oh stars. What if he never wakes up?
"No" Keith didn't have time for that right now. Right now, all that mattered was getting Lance help. And if he was going to do that, he needed to pull himself together. First things first. He needed to try to stop the blood that now, with the extra movement, ran right down his leg. He was no good to either of them if he was dead.
A few strips of his under suit later, Lance's head wound and Keith's side were bandaged. The bleeding had slowed, if only a little, and still seeped through the tightly wrapped fabric, but it was better than nothing. So, using what strength he had left, Keith got Lance into a sitting position, sat down in front of him, made sure the boy was as comfortable as possible and then stood up with Lance on his back. The Blue Paladin was dead weight on Keith's frame, and the fact that Lance was actually taller than him made it very difficult and uncomfortable. But the Red Paladin couldn't care whether he was comfortable or not. He just needed to get help for Lance. Then he could collapse.
Watch your step.
Don't trip on that root.
Is Lance still ok?
Yes. Ok, good.
Mind the plant.
Watch the branch.
Do. Not. Fall.
Keith had been walking for a while now. He couldn't bring himself to concentrate on anything but not falling over from - what he was trying to convince himself was - exhaustion or dehydration and definitely not the gaping wound on his side or the blood loss. A while ago, he had started to feel something warm and wet flow down the side of his armour but he – tried to tell himself – it was just him sweating under the heat from the suns. So, with all that on his mind he hadn't bothered to even try and keep track of the time. He hoped that it had been at least a few vargas. Maybe two. One and a half even? Either way, there was still a long way to go.
He couldn't stop. No matter how much his body loved the idea, he couldn't stop. Lance was more important right now.
He. Could. Not. Stop.
It had been maybe another varga or so and the warm liquid refused to stop running down his side. His vision started going blurry a while ago. It wasn't that bad. He could still see fine. Besides, it always came back after a tick or two.
Watch your h-head.
Don't... don't trip.
Woah...
Ok... breathe.
Step over that root.
Gotta get Lance... outta... here...
Keith was still walking. It was a miracle that he hadn't collapsed from - what he was still trying to convince himself was - exhaustion - even though it was part of it now. Lance was still out cold on his back and the taller paladin's weight was starting to pull him down. Keith's vision had stopped going blurry and instead, as of late, had been dancing with black spots every now and then. He knew that wasn't a good sign but he just had to walk a little farther. Then Lance would have help and he could rest. Just a little farther.
His vision was completely blacking out now. Every few doboshes he would have to stop, lean against a tree and wait for his vision to return before continuing the trip back to the Castle.
Right now, Keith was walking through a particularly "rooty" area, and with his vision fading away, it was making it increasingly hard not to trip over any of them. The Red Paladin took a step forward to avoid a root just as his vision went black, he tried to put his foot back down and wait so he could see where he was going, but it was too late.
He had tripped over the large purple object and was now falling forward. His first instinct was to throw his hands out to break the fall, but remembering Lance on his back he, instead, held the Blue Paladin's shoulders steady and let his elbows hit the ground, angling himself so that the unconscious boy didn't take the impact in any way.
A cry ripped itself from his dry throat and his vision flashed as his elbows made contact with the ground leaving the armour cracked. Panting heavily on his elbows and knees, he let his sight return to him. Slowly, he lowered his back and gently slid the other paladin off of him. Once he was sure that Lance was on the ground, Keith fell back onto his injured side, not having the energy to do anything but groan.
Back to square one. Getting Lance back onto his back.
Halfway through getting the blue boy up into a sitting position, said paladin gave a low moan and his eyelids fluttered. Keith was currently kneeling in front of him, holding his breath as Lance slowly, groggily opened his eyes.
"K'th?"
"Hey Lance." Keith's voice was a lot scratchier than he would've liked and he didn't know when he had started slurring. He was pretty sure that being light headed wasn't a good sign either.
"Keith?"
"Hmm?"
"What happened?"
The Blue Paladin brought up a hand to rub at his eyes, accidentally knocking his knuckle on the gash on his head "Ow!"
"You hit your... head pretty hard..."
"Oh" He deadpanned "I didn't notice" Well, at least he was back to sarcasm.
"What happened?" Lance repeated
"You don' remember?"
"Uh... we were... going to get... intel? On a planet that Allura wanted to know about..." He narrowed his eyes in concentration "Then we split up... and you and me were walking through a weird forest... thing and then we..." The Blue Paladin's eyes widened and he looked around frantically "And then there was a hugungis blue monster! It tried to kill us! Then... I don't know..."
"Yeah" Why was his voice so scratchy?
"It knocked you out. I killed it afterwards but you've been unconscious for a while now"
"How long?"
"Um... I don't actually know" He was trying so hard to keep his voice steady "I lost track of time a while... back, but if I had to guess, I'd say... 5 vargas... maybe more?"
"5 vargas?!?" Keith only nodded. The lightheaded feeling getting worst by the second.
"You've been dragging me around for 5 vargas?!?"
"... Carried... you."
"But I'm taller than you!"
"Unconscious..."
Lance apparently hadn't noticed the way Keith was spacing out his words or how the dark red liquid was oozing through the tightly wrapped fabric and decorating his torso or the bloody handprints all over his own blue armour. It was just a matter of time.
So, Keith decided that they should start moving before that happened.
The Red Paladin was leaning on a tree waiting for Lance to get up. He was purposefully keeping his injured side hidden so that he wouldn't freak the Blue Paladin out. Even if Lance was awake now, he still needed medical attention and if he was to see a giant gaping hole in Keith's side, well, rather not. They just had to keep going, it had gotten him this far and there was only an varga or so left.
Just. Keep. Going.
It was harder than it sounded. Keith's vision was blacking out more often now and Lance was walking very fast, it was really hard keeping up without tripping over another root. The Red Paladin was currently leaning on the only thing keeping him upright - a tree - as Lance strode forward with ease, not even realising that he was walking further and further away from his injured friend.
"Hey Keith, how far do you think we still have to walk?"
The question echoed through the trees in the large alien forest but no reply was heard.
"Keith?" Still nothing.
At that, the Blue Paladin turned around to look for his teammate but he wasn't there. Looking further down the way they had come; he caught a glimpse of red and white.
By now, Keith had sunk to the floor with more red liquid pooling below him, eyes threatening to close. The hand that was pressed weakly to his side was doing nothing to stop or even slow the flow of blood as it dripped through the fabric that adorned his torso and then through his fingers. He heard his name as a blue and white blur appeared but couldn't find the strength to give any sort of answer other than a soft groan. The blur dropped down in front of him and said something along the lines of 'Keith!' and 'What happened to you?' but it sounded so far away.
The blur continued to babble, words slipping into what sounded like Spanish for a few sentences before going back to jumbled English. Keith was tired. He wanted to sleep. Yeah, sleep sounded good...
"No nononono. Come on Keith! Open your eyes!"
Said paladin's eyes fluttered open. Wait, when had he closed them?
"'ance?"
"Keith! Ok. I need you to keep your eyes open. Can you do that for me?"
"Tir'd"
"I know but you gotta stay awake ok? Just till we get back to the Castle. Then I promise you can sleep all you want ok?"
"'M 'kay" Came the tired response.
"What happened to you?"
"M'nster" Why was he so tired?
The blur – Lance – moved over to his side, gently removing his hand. A groan made its way through Keith's throat as the movement agitated the gaping wound.
"Sorry, sorry."
"'s fine."
The hands on his side were gentle and Keith let himself drift as the now useless fabric was pulled away from the hole in his torso.
"-eith!"
There was something patting his cheek.
"Hmmm..."
When he didn't bother to see what it was about, the patting started up again. Harder this time. He willed his heavy eye-lids to crack open just enough to see what was so important.
"-eith! Wake up! I said no sleeping 'till we get home, remember?"
"'M not 'sleep..." He slurred.
"Well you gotta keep your eyes open, ok? And then I know you're not asleep, yeah?"
All Lance received was a quiet hum in response. Then there was a hand on Keith's for-head, checking his temperature. But just as quickly as it was placed there, it slipped away.
"Dios mio Keith! You're burning up!"
"Inf'ction." Keith supplied helpfully.
"Yeah. No kidding Mullet" Behind the sarcasm, Keith could hear the worry in Lance's voice as he returned to peeling off the blood-soaked fabric of the Red Paladin's filght suit. The tick the last bit of material was pulled away, gloved hands pressed down hard on his bleeding side. Keith couldn't help the scream that clawed its way up his throat and out his mouth as the pressure on the wound increased.
"Sorry! I'm sorry. But I gotta stop the bleeding. How you survived for 5 vargas like this is a mystery." The last sentence was mumbled under his breath and Keith - already being out of it - didn't catch it.
"'s ok..."
"Alright hold on Keith.." he said slowly as he started twisting the fabric. He located it onto Keith's wound and started rapping it round, earning a wince of pain from the boy under him.
"Sorry again!" He mumbled in some form of shock- he needed to get them out of here. He sneakily slid his arms under Keith's legs and under his waist ,being careful of the wound, and got ready to lift.
"Okay you ready Keith? 1.."
"w-wha-" He was so confused.
"2..." Lance straightened his back.
"3!" He quickly lifted Keith up bridal style.
Keith yelped in pain. "'ance you-" he was cut off by coughing- something thick and slimy some out. Blood.
"Keith!" Lance shouted helplessly at the boy in his arms.He looked down at him- he was out cold.
.
.
.
About 2 Vargas later Keith finally woke up. They were almost there. "'ance?"
Lance was relived. "Oh thank god mullet"
He continued to carry Keith in his arms, until they could see light in the distance.
"Keith! I can see it! The exit!" Lance started to walk faster, and eventually started to jog. Keith on the other hand was in crippling pain due to the fast movements of Lance. They finally reached where the light was coming from, to be greeted by shiros worried face. He looked so scared. "Shiro! Shiro we're here!"
Once he had seen the pair he darted to them. "What happened?! Why did you two take so long!" He sounded mad, but Lance knew it was only because he was anxious for them.
"This creepy monster thing attacked us. I was knocked out cold so I can't remember but it hit Keith in the side really bad."
Once shiro saw the wound Keith had, he practically shrieked. "OH MY! Quick let's get him to a healing pod in the ship."
Lance stood still for a moment.
"Now." Shiros voice had never sounded that firm.