About five minutes into the silent walk, you came to a realization. Holy shit...is that the Keith?
You squinted at the back of his head, trying to figure out if Lance had told you anything about how he looks.
Lance! You could just ask Lance, though you'd rather get to know Keith, you couldn't work up the courage.
You slowed down so that you were walking just beside Lance. "Is that Keith from the Garrison?"
He glanced down at you, but frowned at the sound of Keith's name. "Yeah, why?"
"Like your rival?" You elbowed him, but winced and grabbed your arm. Fuck that armor.
He laughed at your sad attempt. "Yeah, why?"
"Just curious. Small world."
"We're in space."
"Right."
Lance's eyes landed on the cloth around your shoulder, then fell down to the cut on your arm. "What happened while you were here?"
Your heart stopped as images of your recent days flashed before your eyes. Worried that Lance picked up on your mood change, you gave a light, but sad chuckle. You wouldn't let him bare any your pain. No, it was on you. Only you.
"Mostly just waiting around in some cell."
"Oh,"
"Yeah." He still looked concerned. You shoved him with you good shoulder playfully. This time you were careful about his armor. "Stop looking so sad. The worst thing was the confusion. But thanks to you two, that's all cleared up."
Lance gave a half smile. Before he could talk, Keith interjected. "Well, here are the lions." He glanced over his shoulder to look at the two of you.
And you saw something deep in them that wasn't there before. As if he was coming to some sad realization. You wanted to fix it, make him smile again.
But it was a bad time, as the Galra had figured out your location. You glanced at them and when you turned back around, both of them had pulled weapons out of nowhere.
Lance had a blue gun and Keith had the sword from earlier. "Get to your lion, I'll handle this." Keith yelled at Lance over the sound of his gunshots.
"Can't! You'll need cover fire." Lance hummed.
"I'll get to my lion," you yell over your shoulder as you rush towards the giant white robot.
As much as you wanted revenge, you'd be no use if you didn't have a weapon. You'd just get in the way. And what if they got you again? You would never admit it, but the Galra terrified you.
You approached the lion, but the glowing white ball didn't go away like it did before. You tapped on it, and it rippled like water.
The robots were gone, and Keith was headed towards you, Lance just behind him.
A slight fear jolted through you. If you couldn't get into the lion, they'd toss you back onto Earth. As much as you missed your father, you didn't want to be left behind by your friends.
Would they even think twice about it? Would they forget all about you? After all, they might never even see you again.
You banged a fist into the shield, but it didn't shatter, didn't move. Fuck. You looked up at it, blinking away tears.
You used me! You yelled in your head. You dragged me here, and I was in so much pain. After all that you won't even spare me a glance.
You glanced over, ready to ask Keith if there was anything you could do, but he was gone.
Behind you, another wave of the Galra robots were coming. Way more than the two of them could handle. You wanted desperately to help, but the pain in your shoulder was starting to become debilitating.
Lance was closest to you, and Keith was steadily retreating back to you. "Hang on!" He yelled, before slamming a fist into the control panel in the middle of the room.
All at once, you were being sucked closer to the hole on the floor, but so were the robots. And so was Keith. He was dangling from the pile that held up the panel.
Both you and Lance moved to help him, but Lance let you take over. "I'll cover you!"
You stumbled as you ran from the shear force of the pull. As you got closer, you wrapped your body around the pole, using it to keep yourself in place.
Lots of trust in a small pillar of metal.
"Give me your hand!" You yelled over the screaming of everything around you. And he did.
The sudden weight was a lot more than you expected, and without thinking went to use your left arm.
You yelled in pain as his weight pulled at your injured shoulder and it took everything in you to keep from letting him go.
The most you could do was hang onto him, but with each passing moment pain shot through your body more and more.
You could almost feel the flesh in your shoulder ripping apart.
The only plan you had was to trust that lion. You looked at it over your shoulder. "Help me, please!" You yelled, voice rough and tight.
It's eyes lit up, a strong yellow glow in the dim room. It got to its paws and hope surged through you. A thunderous roar came from it's mouth, but you didn't flinch. It didn't scare you.
It roared again, and this time it was loud enough that you could feel the floor rumble. But the sound was comforting, like thunder. After that, it laid its head on the ground, waiting.
Lance was coming towards you, but another wave of pain hit you, and you accidentally let Keith go. Before you could think, you lunged for him. Just as you were about to reach him, someone grabbed your collar and pulled you back into the floor.
Hardly a second later, before you could even turn around, a large gust of wind came from behind you, and went right out the hatch.
You glanced to your right to see the red lion rush by and grab Keith in it's mouth. A rush of relief flowed into your heart.
"Be careful, [y/n]!" Lance yelled, "Keith has a suit with oxygen, you don't!"
You were caught off guard by the sudden anger. Or what you mistook for anger; he smiled at you. "That was super fucking cool though,"
You smiled back at him, "Thanks. And next time I will be."
