Time stopped. Lance waited to feel the pain set in, waited to be thrown across the field, waited to hear the others shouting his name. But nothing happened. Blue eyes opened and scanned the room for any explanation as to why he wasn't dead. Everything seemed to be the same, except… Keith?

"Keith!" Lance ran to the red paladin, who was lying on the ground almost motionless. "Keith?"

He was holding his stomach, although Lance could see blood seeping through his suit despite his attempt to cover it with his arms. Lance just didn't understand how this happened. Keith was, in his opinion, the last person that would save him. He would gladly take a bullet for any one of the Paladins, Allura, and Coran, but he didn't think Keith was the same way.

"Lance…?"

Keith's broken voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He looked around and saw only a few more Galra soldiers by Hunk and Pidge. "Shiro! Help!"

Shiro didn't hear him.

Lance looked back down at Keith, pulling the boy onto his lap. "Hey, look at me, keep your eyes open okay? Y-you're gonna be okay, I promise."

Dark eyes slowly met Lance's blue ones. "Lance…"

"I'm gonna take you back to the castle okay?" Lance picked him up before getting any reply. If Keith said no, he would do it anyway. No one was going to die today, not on his watch.

Keith coughed quietly and rested his head on Lance's shoulder. "Lance I need to tell you something-"

"Nope! No no no no, you don't need to, because you can tell me later, because you're going to be fine."

"Lance-"

"Nope, stop talking, just stay awake and shut up Keith."

Keith coughed again.

Lance gulped. Maybe Keith wasn't going to be fine. "We're almost to Blue, she'll take us to the castle." He said reassuringly, half to Keith and half to himself. There had been a lot of close calls over the last year, but nothing this bad. He didn't want to think about the possibility of any of them dying, because it was just too hard. And this time it was his fault. {I should've been more careful. If I had been paying more attention, there wouldn't have been an attack for Keith to block in the first place. We're never going to be able to find another red paladin. Not as good as Keith at the very least.}

He wasn't sure how long it took to get to his lion, but it felt like hours. He carefully laid Keith down on his back so gravity could do its best to keep blood from spilling out any faster than it already was.

"Okay Blue, can you take us home?" Lance asked as he wiped some blood away from Keith's mouth. He heard his lion confirm before they took off.

"Lance…"

"I'm right here, keep your eyes open okay Keith?"

Slowly, Keith's dark eyes fluttered as open as they could and looked up. "Promise me something…"

Lance nodded without hesitation.

"Promise you'll live to see the rain for me?"

"…I promise." He muttered, vision blurring. He watched Keith's eyes close before breaking down in tears.

•••

"Lance, we have to put him in the healing pod!" Allura insisted urgently.

"You gotta let go man!" Hunk grabbed his shoulders. "He won't get any better if you don't let him go in the healing pod."

"I'm afraid we can't hold off any longer." Coran announced as he checked over Keith's injuries. He tried to, anyway, but not as well as he would've liked with Lance draped over the red paladin.

Shiro grabbed Lance and pried him off Keith. "Guys, hurry up and get Keith in there."

Lance screamed, squirming and kicking and doing anything he could to get out of Shiro's arms. His mind was a blur. The only thing he knew was that he didn't want to let go of Keith, who was being locked away from him. Suddenly, the arms around him were gone, and he was on his knees.

"He's going to be alright Lance, it'll just take some time." Allura said gently.

"Yeah, you did everything you could." Hunk added. "If you hadn't been there we would be in a lot of trouble right now. Just look at the bright side: he'll be good as new in a few days."

He nodded silently.

"Well, I'm gonna go to the lab…" Pidge said. Clearly, Lance didn't want any company right now.

"I'll come with you." Shiro said, patting Lance on the back before following Pidge out of the room.

"Coran, will you help me check on the ship's shields? I'm afraid they may have been damaged during the battle."

"Of course princess."

Hunk frowned and sat down next to Lance.

Lance sniffled. "You really think he's gonna be okay?"

"Oh definitely. Remember like, forever ago, when you were in the healing pod for the first time? I was worried you wouldn't be okay, but these healing pods are seriously amazing. They can probably fix anything. If Coran says he'll be okay, then he'll be okay."

"…"

"I'm gonna head to the kitchen, do you want anything?"

Lance shook his head.

"Alright, holler if you change your mind dude."