Word Count: 1,370
Lance was pacing.
And not the good(ish) kind of pacing where he was walking from one end of his room to the other because he was so bored he didn't know what to do with himself kind of pacing, no-
It was a bad kind of pacing.
A shocked kind of pacing even.
And it was scaring him to no end that he was just now realizing how pacey he could get with Keith in a cryo pod for a reason that shouldn't even be a reason.
He shouldn't have done that.
Shouldn't have risked his life like that.
Shouldn't have almost died.
And if Lance was being completely honest with himself, he was beating himself up over the fact that he should've seen the signs, should've realized pulling away from them was a bad idea, should've noticed that little group hug in the middle of the castle bridge the day he left for the Blades didn't mean shit.
Dios, he should've seen this coming.
But he didn't.
And instead, Lance was left to his lonesome, pacing from one end of the infirmary to the other, playing with his fingers, eyes wide as he fought to think of a way this could've turned out differently.
The rest of the paladins were too busy with Lotor, the guy metaphorically showing up on the castle's doorstep, with a limp and bloody Keith in his hands merely minutes after Naxela malfunctioned, Keith not answering his comms and the Galra prince nowhere to be found-
Well, surprise, surprise, they found them both in less time than it took it too to run down to the ship bay, weapons drawn, gazes stone-hard, demanding why Lotor was even there in the first place.
Of course, that was before everyone noticed the limp, bloody form the Galra prince had been holding.
It'd been a mass of running after that. A mass of running, and yelling and blood, so, so much blood, Lance didn't even know someone could survive for that long when the majority of their blood was coating everyone else's hands.
It was macabre, to say the least.
Fucking heart-stopping to say the most.
In those minutes before they scrambled to get him to a pod, bloody shards of shrapnel and the remaining pieces of his Blade uniform were forced away from charred flesh, Lance was questioning why they were even here, why Keith was bleeding out under them, unconscious, skin marred with burn marks, some sections of his body purple and ice cold from where his suit had come apart in space, face covered in red streaks much like the rest of his body. Nothing but a bruised and bloody, broken-boned mess.
During the mad scramble to save the teen, Lotor had explained (in an annoyingly calm tone mind you) that he'd stumbled across "the body" when he arrived, he was flying through the wreckage looking for any survivors that had been in the blast when he saw the ship crash into it, promptly shutting down the barrier and diffusing Naxela. But from the description that it had been a Galra cruiser that took down the shield, and that Keith was refusing to answer his comms merely seconds leading up to that, it wasn't hard to put two and two together.
Keith had done it.
Keith had ran his ship into the barrier of that battle cruiser, without a single word to his team, defusing the planet-sized bomb, and ending that fight for the universe, destroying his ship and himself in a bright spatter of blood and fire in the process.
And Lance (much to his own horror) could understand why the teen had taken the split-second decision with absolutely no thought over his own life-
Keith had saved them all-
Saved the planets and the people what would've been wiped out in an instant if he hadn't done it, and he- he saved them, but-
He'd nearly died.
Though, if Lance wanted to get technical with things, Keith, he- he actually did die.
Twice.
After the second time his heart had stopped beating, Shiro was stuck over the teen, doing chest compressions while Allura and Coran finished with the last of the pod suit, blood already seeping through the fabric in some parts as the Black Paladin took one final exhale to the boy's mouth before they shoved him in a pod and prayed for a miracle, prayed with all their might the pod would accept him, because Lance wasn't sure what they'd do with themselves if Keith died.
They hadn't gotten the answer they wanted right away.
The pod's surface had flashed a bright red after a few seconds of Keith's prone body suspended inside, the machine's attempt at finding a heartbeat coming up empty as it emitted a long, drawn-out whine, saying their friend was dead.
Shiro froze.
Allura's hand flew over her mouth.
Pidge's eyes widened.
Hunk's eyes grew shiny.
Coran's jaw fell slack, mustache drooping.
And Lotor, still standing off to the side, only stared on with a blank expression pressed on his stupid purple face.
As for Lance, he- he felt numb.
No.
No.
They did not just go through all of the hell of cleaning Keith up, removing the shrapnel, stemming the worst of the bleeding, trying to keep Keith fucking alive only for that dumb pod to say Keith was gone.
That he was dead.
Lance lost it.
He'd been standing behind everyone when it'd happened, arms crossed, expression slack as the noise echoed through the room, and the next thing he knew he was standing in front of it, and punching the damn thing because Keith wasn't dead.
He couldn't be.
No one moved to stop him as he punched, kicked, yelled even, yelled every profanity he could think of and no one moved a finger against it. Everyone around him was losing it in their own way: crying, mumbling near-silent 'no's under their breath, eyes wide, expressions disbelieving that they'd just lost a friend, heck- family to this- this dumb war-
Lance hit the thing harder.
Dios, they couldn't lose him to this, Keith was supposed to live-
And then, the pod's surface pulsed blue, beeping to the irregular but weak rhythm of a heartbeat-
He'd fallen to his knees then, body hitting the floor with a dull thud, staring at Keith's slack and still bloody face as his chest weakly rose and fell.
Lance had nearly burst out crying in relief.
He was alive.
He- he was alive.
After that, the rest of the paladins had moved to deal with Lotor, leading the Galra prince out of the room (most likely to one of the castle's cells) to interrogate him.
Lance stayed put.
He was not going to leave Keith.
Not after everything that'd happened.
Not after that stupid teen though it was a better idea to kill himself than come up with a better solution that didn't involve him giving up his own life.
Lance got that time was running out to diffuse that bomb, but he sure as hell wouldn't think first-thing to ram his ship into the shield was immediatly the best idea to fix everything.
It was complete and utter bullshit.
Lance wasn't leaving Keith.
Not in a million years
...
A week passed and the former paladin was still unconscious in the pod, most of his injuries healed, the teen stabilized enough to pop out any minute now.
Lance was nearly jumping out of his skin by this point.
He'd kept to his promise, unless he had to scurry off to relieve himself, Lance didn't leave Keith's side.
Not once.
Even after a tense argument the first night Coran finally told him to go to bed (this was probably three days into waiting and Lance did feel exhausted for not sleeping a wink), a cot was set up in the infirmary for him, Shiro occasionally coming to help keep him company while they both waited.
Shiro understood.
Shiro felt the same way to let the teen walk out of here thinking the first option to any situation was to kill himself.
Shiro understood.
They were gonna have a little talk with him once he finally came out.
They were gonna talk with him as a team.
Lance knew they all didn't want it any other way than to just be there with him.
He was grateful for that.
Lance shot to his feet from his new perch on the infirmary steps as a whoosh of sound flew through the room, the sound of a breath escaping cold lips as the pale body stood suspended for a moment or two.
The pod.
He was quick to grab the teen as he fell out, the cool air making Lance shiver as cooler skin made contact, and Lance carefully wrapped his arms around Keith, gently lowering them both to the floor as the teen stirred, a noise of confusion coming out of his mouth as violet eyes cracked open, confused over the view of his surroundings.
The rest of his team was waiting around him, nearly as excited as he was that the teen was conscious, gathering the teen up in a group hug, yet Lance seemed to be the only person prepared to the sudden wave of sound around him-
"Keith!"
"Keith, oh my God."
Keith, you better not do anything like that again, you understand me?"
"Keith! Man, you're back!"
"What-" the teen croaked, breaking off in a weak cough as a cold chill ran its way down his spine, his skin cold under the thin fabric of the pod suit, and Lance felt Shiro's arms around the teen tighten.
Lance held on tighter still.
"Didn't- didn't I die?"
He froze as the question left the teen's lips, the chattering around him grew to a close and silence meet Keith's question.
Lance finally let go of him enough to meet him in the eyes, "No, no, Keith, you didn't."
"But-" he broke off again, shivering, "but I thought I died, I was supposed to, right?"
No.
Oh, no.
No, he was not going to come out saying something like that.
No way.
"Keith."
Both of them shifted to look at Shiro, the man's face now completely somber from the joy that had filled it only moments ago- "You didn't die, Lotor, brought you back to us when he found you, bud. We saved you."
"But-"
"No, shut up, Mullet," Lance finally butted in, not caring much for the wide-eyed confusion and surprise that crossed the teen's pale face as he met Keith's eyes, violet orbs shifting from Shiro's to his, "You didn't die, and as long as we're around, you're never gonna try something as stupid as that ever again, do you understand?"
His question was met with silence, and he watched the teen give an uncomfortable swallow, looking down to avoid meeting his gaze.
Lance blinked and continued.
"Look, I get that you want to help, and believe me, I know what it's like to feel useless from time to time, but that doesn't give you a single damn reason for you to turn your back on us like you did. Because going off like that? Without a single peep after? That might just be the stupidest thing you've ever done."
Lance took a breath, his lungs shuttering as he fought to keep his emotions in check, because this needed to be said- "You're not alone, Keith, and you never will be as long as we've got your back like we're supposed to, we're a team and a team's supposed to help each other, not let a member walk away and join a band full of trigger-happy Galra who genuinely think it's better to die than find another way to live for the cause."
Now that spurred a reaction out of the teen. Keith looked to the floor, shame painting over his features, dark hair falling over his face as he croaked, "I- I know, I'm sorry, okay? I- I'm sorry, I know I'm weak-" He watched him suck in a breath, arms crossed over himself, still cold from cryo.
"You're not weak, Keith-"
"I am, I almost died-"
"But you're here." He put a hand on the teen's shoulder, "Yes, I'm- we are more than upset at you for what you did, but-" he bit his lip, finding the words harder to come by as Keith looked up at him, "You're still here, you're not dead and that's all that matters right now, okay?"
Keith opened his mouth, gaining more warmth and color back to his skin as the seconds passed before he croaked out a subtle "Okay," looking down to the floor.
And Lance nodded to that, satisfied with the answer for now. At least they were heading in the right direction, Lance knew there was going to be a lot of baggage to unload with this, but- they were getting there, and he'd be willing to take something over nothing in this particular situation.
Of course, was he done with the speech of making sure Keith understood he was wanted?
Hell no.
But he was getting there.
Bit by tiny, significant bit.
"Look, guys," Lance turned to his best friend, who currently looked to be fighting back tears, "I don't know about you guys but I'm just happy that we're all still in one piece, am I the only one who feels like that?"
Lance chuckled, not missing the way Shiro's lips upturned, and Keith's softening expression at the large teen's words. "Yeah, me too."
Small chuckles rang through the group.
"Shouldn't somebody go check on Lotor?" Pidge voiced after a moment or two of silence, Keith trying to get himself together after Lance's mini-speech, and the Cuban didn't miss the occasional sniffles of breath from the teen, though he didn't point them out.
"Yeah, but- let's just stay like this for a little longer," Shiro said, moving to wrap his arms tighter around Lance and Keith as they sat on the floor together.
Together was the key word in this, not separate, or divided, together.
They were together in this.
No one was alone.
And Lance was going to see that it stayed that way.