I need you //klance

Part twenty two

"Are you trying to see if my skin is purple?" Keith looked back to Hunk to see him studying his face intently.
"No."
Keith glared threateningly as Yellow beeped.

Allura's panicked face popped up on the display.
"Hunk, Keith, are you there? Can you hear me?"
"Hunk and Keith here. What's going on, Princess?"
"You must return to the castle! I need you!"
"We're on our way."

Allura disappeared from their screen, presumably to call the others and open a wormhole. Within a minute or two a wormhole opened up and Hunk steered them towards it.
As they came through, they were greeted with the voices of the others over the Comms.
"Whoa! How is that thing operational? It doesn't have a head!"
"I don't know, but I'm sure it has something to do with those crystals."
"We can't worry about that now. We have to protect the castle."

They were back at the Balmera along with the Robeast from before. "How did we beat it last time?"

"We formed Voltron, then I stuck in my Bayard and shot it with my blaster right in its arm lasers. But that didn't stop it so then we had to punch it."

"So we're gonna need Voltron."

"But we only have two lions."

"Well, maybe we can form the legs and kick it? Whoa!" Lance swerved Blue away from attack.

"That new laser is much more powerful. We're definitely gonna need all the lions. Hunk, you distract it so we can fly into the castle. Once we get our lions out, we'll cover you so you can fly Keith in for Red." Shiro was leaning over Lance from where he was flying to make sure they could see him through their screen.

Lance quickly dropped off the other two in the Blue lions hangar and then bounded back out to join Hunk and Keith.
He could hear Keith giving out instructions to Hunk and his yellow friend getting frustrated with him over the Comms when he decided to intervene. He shot at the beast to divert its attention as he talked to the others.
"I'll distract it! Go get the Red Lion!"
"Oh ho ho, good timing, Lance!"
Lance smiled as he powered up Blue's blaster.
He shot at it only for it to fire back at him, he dodged but instead the attack hit the Yellow lion.

He could hear his friends screams from behind him.

His stomach plummeted, he attacked the Robeast again with Pidge's help after quickly calling out to his friends. 

This is just like you. You only hurt everyone around you.

Shiro went to carry yellow back to the castle, only to have to leave them there as he got attacked again. Keith managed to call Red out to him and joined the fight, much more enthusiastic now that he didn't have to watch a much more inexperienced Pilot flying instead of him.

Eventually, they formed Voltron and took the Robeast down.
The lions separated and flew back to their hangars.
Lance's breathing was still a little difficult from where he was sat in his seat with the injury he got before.The attack would be tomorrow so he couldn't afford to be in a healing pod. He'd just have to check the damage and do as much as he could for now. From what he had gathered, he could breath just fine as long as he wasn't bending or putting pressure on his chest or ribs.

Grunting, he left Blue, her calming reassurance quickly being overrun by dread as he was met with Shiro outside his lion.
"Oh um hey Shiro.?"
Lance rubbed to back of his neck awkwardly, only just suppressing a wince from the stretch he was putting on his chest.
"What was that?!"
"Wha-"
"You were supposed to cover hunk and Keith, and yet as soon as you take over they get hit. Not only that. That attack was going to hit you. You should have at least warned them before hand. You need to stop messing around and take this more seriously. That's how you messed up on the last mission. If-"

Lance started to zone out. He knew this would happen and he agreed with everything he said.
How am I even a paladin. I'm so useless.

Later that night, Lance was lying in bed. He'd just finished making sure all the others where asleep.
Pidge was a little harsher today, telling him to leave her alone and Shiro complained at him for babying him but it was fine.
That wasn't what was keeping him awake.
He didn't think he'd have nightmares or anything but he was being kept up win a mix of fear and adrenaline.
He desperately didn't want to mess up tomorrow.
He knew he should probably sleep but he wasn't particularly tired so he pulled himself up and changed into some workout clothes him and Coran had managed to make out of the Altean fabricator they'd fixed.
They were grey jogging bottoms and a skin tight black turtleneck, similar to the under armor.
He pulled on his trainers and grabbed his bayard off the wall.
As he stepped out of his room and made his way down the corridor, he was reminded of how empty his room was. It didn't have any decorations and was just pretty plain and boring. The only way you'd know someone actually slept their would be the products in the bathroom and the clothes in the cupboards.

Next time he went to the space mall, he'd definitely get more stuff, for everyone else too. From what he knew Pidge's room had the most personality and that was just because she couldn't clean to save her life.

As he neared the training room, he became aware of the sound of someone training in there.
Lance sighed, knowing it was Keith.

The door swished open and he lent against it watching as Keith gracefully defeated the training bots.
Lance made sure to keep quiet to ensure Keith didn't get distracted by him.
As he finished the training sequence Keith called out to him, panting heavily and seeming not surprised that he was there, "Why are you up? Thought you needed your beauty sleep?"

Lance smiled at him and pushed off from the wall.
"Bold of you to assume I could even need beauty sleep." Keith rolled his eyes, amused as Lance made his way towards him, "Couldn't sleep. Or didn't feel like it at least. You?"
Keith paused before answering.
"Um same I guess... do you wanna..?"
Lance hummed, nodding as he activated his bayard. He came to a stop a little behind Keith and got into a fighting stance.
Keith nodded and got back into his stance, they started the training sequence and fought until Keith tripped and the two of them lay on the floor panting and groaning.

Keith laughed as Lance tilted his head to watch him.
Keith was rolled onto his side, still laughing.
He wiped his face of the sweat gathering there and beamed at Lance.
"Isn't it weird?" Lance just smiled back uncertainly as the Korean continued, "If tomorrow goes well, I might not see you for ages. Just a few months ago we couldn't even hold a conversation and now we could be about to die together. It's..... weird?"

Lance smiled, "Heh. I guess....It's kind of surreal. I-I hope, when this is over.. we can still see each other. Otherwise I'm gonna miss you. It sounds pretty bad but I almost don't want this to end yet."
Keith propped himself up on his elbows, still watching his crush.
"Mmm, I get what you mean. It's nice, being with you all. I- I don't want it to end yet."
Keith looked away from Lance, who crawled over to him.
"Hey, come here."
Lance opened his arms up in a welcoming gesture. Keith smiled softly and gently accepted the hug. Lance lent into Keith's neck relishing the softness of his hair.

It ws strange. Keith was always switching between being soft and sharp. From his smile and hair to even how he interacted with people he was close to- he would be one of the softest people he'd ever met and Lance loved it. It made so eternally grateful that the boy had allowed him into his life and that he was able to experience moments like this.

They stayed like that for a bit, enjoying the comfort of each other's company, until they eventually decided to go and try to sleep again.

A/n:

Soon I'll be able to write more of my own parts and actually get more creative. It sounds bad but I really can't wait until Shiro 'disappears'.