VOLTRON ONE-SHOTS

Keith - Like A Leader pt. 2

Word Count: 6,946

When Keith came to, it was almost immediate to him that he could've woken up in a better physical condition. Everything ached; it felt-quite frankly- like someone had set his skin on fire, charring every inch of him black. His head hurt, his side hurt, heck, even the sweat slowly sliding down the back of his neck hurt, and he was most definitely conscious enough now to know he was sitting on what felt to be rocks that were digging into his backside, the heavy weight of his armor pushing on his chest clearly gone.

The smallest sound of a groan escaped his lips as he tried sitting up. The moment he moved he realized that was a mistake, his side flared from the shift sending him gasping for breath as more pain erupted from the wound, sending his head spinning even more than it already was.

"Hey, hey, easy; Keith, man, are you awake? Can- can you open your eyes for me?" That... was Hunk, he was pretty sure of the teen's voice that time, sounding a lot closer to him, and Keith, very hesitantly, cracked one eye open, coming face to face with the large teen who currently had a look of deep concern rooted on his face.

A cough bubbled up his throat then, and Keith quickly swallowed it down in favor to getting into an actual sitting position, fingers scraping against the ground as he got some sort of hold before pushing himself more upright and- holy hell, why did everything hurt.

"Careful," there were hands on him then, helping him ease up into a sitting position, but even that small help couldn't prevent his side from flashing to life again, and Keith choked on a gasp, looking to his right to see Lance, hands receding from where he had helped prop him up.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Mullet," the Cuban's voice was tight, his smile forced, and Keith wondered just what the heck happened after he blacked out. "You feeling alright?"

"I'm fine," he forced the words out before he could stop them, choosing then to actually take a look at his surroundings, anywhere but Lance and Hunk's too-concerned-to-make-him-feel-comfortable faces.

It appeared like they were in a cave of some kind. It wasn't big, just barely enough to hold five people without it feeling too cramped. Light filtered in through vines covering the entrance, the added foliage hopefully covering their current hiding place from unwanted eyes.

"What-"he winced as his throbbing shoulder joined the party, making his stomach churn, "-what's our status?"

Keith didn't miss Hunk's concerned frown at his jump into leader mode before Allura spoke up from behind Lance, "We've found shelter for now, but Dral's soldiers will be on us soon if we don't start making progress back to our lions." Her voice sounded flat, and Keith had the fleeting thought that the princess blamed herself for getting them into this situation in the first place.

He didn't voice his thought though; he had no idea how to handle that kind of situation anyway.

"Do we know which direction our lions are?" He asked as he brought a hand up to feel his pulsing side, startling when he didn't fell skin under his fingertips; instead it felt like- bandages, adding that to the slight tightness of more wrapped around his shoulder and leg, Keith realized Hunk must've used some of the medical supplies stuffed in his armor to help patch him up.

He looked up in time to catch Pidge shaking her head, "No, when we ran, we kinda- lost our sense of direction of where our lions are."

Keith frowned, the action pulling slightly at the shallow cut on his cheek, and his throat stung faintly. This wasn't good, this was pretty far from good actually. "Can any of you sense your lions?" He already knew the answer to that, reaching out with his own mind to find the familiar sensation of Black gone from his slightly jumbled mess of thoughts.