All that Keith could see was black and fire red.

The air was hot, almost burning his skin through the tight suit that was sticking to his body. Narrow and dark, the corridor he was driving through was only lighted by the fiery lava dripping from the walls.

Keith absentmindedly moved his hair from over his eyes and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He was having troubles focusing on the situation and his mind was slowly getting clouded by the heavy fatigue that followed a peak of adrenaline. Escaping the Galra fleet had been tough for both himself and his spaceship, and he wasn't even sure of how he had managed to escape. His eyes were closing more and more often against his will, and suddenly Keith felt the spaceship going down without him being able to react, way too dizzy.

He closed his eyelids tight and took a deep breath. The scene felt familiar.

"Knowledge or death", that was the Blade of Marmora's creed, and Keith was soon to face the fatal downside of his enlisting. Again.

Did he regret leaving Voltron? Actually, he didn't know. He had done for the best, and now that Shiro was back, they all had a Lion to pilot. Moreover, as a half-Galra human, Keith had a mission, and the knife he had inherited from his mother had given him a responsibility, a goal, and a place where he supposedly belonged.

The engine landed in the middle of the burning magma, and the metal protested as it started melting. The sound of the radio emitting a discrete crackling was the last thing that Keith heard before passing out, already acknowledging his incoming death.

"KEITH? KEITH, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? GODDAMMIT, KEITH, I SWEAR THAT I WILL KICK YOUR GALRA ASS IF YOU DON'T ANSWER IMMEDIATELY!"

Lance shut the radio and swore once more, to himself. He put all his weight on the controls and Red flew so fast that the paladin wasn't able to see the stars and planets around him anymore - not that he cared, though.

That was the second time that Keith was doing it, and Lance just couldn't stand his sudden spirit of sacrifice. This time, Lance wasn't going to let him go with the Blade again! That was enough near-death experiences for a lifetime, especially when he wasn't there to help! And Lance couldn't bear that feeling of being so powerless.

The sharpshooter had absolutely no idea of Keith's position, but he could feel that Red knew where her former pilot was, so he let the Lion guide him to his friend.

In less than ten doboshes, Lance was there. In front of him was what was left of a thin triangular black ship, similar to Lotor's in shape. The paladin didn't know where he was, but Red seemed at ease despite the high temperatures and the flowing lava around them. The planet they had come to was a kind of giant planet-sized volcano inside of which plenty of tunnels were meandering underground, many of them ending in huge magma chambers ; some of them filled with liquid lava.

Keith's ship was half immersed in bubbling magma, its black metal already melted in some spots, and smoke was coming out of it as if it were being consumed by some kind of acid.

Without even thinking about what he was doing, Lance was already out of the Lion, using his jetpack to go to the diving Galra ship. He tried to land on it but the engine was so hot that it burned him through his suit.

Four curse words and one scream later, Lance was flying around the sinking ship, calling Keith's name and desperately trying to find something to cut himself a way into the spaceship.

He let out another scream, he would have given anything to have a bayard able to cut something, and not just his stupid, useless gun. He was going to watch Keith die without being able to do anything!

Eventually, Red roared and picked up the destroyed ship and her paladin in her mouth, carefully letting the magma run between her teeth.

Lance stared at the Lion, incredulous, before remembering that she was the spirit of fire, and that therefore she was, unlike Blue, able to deal with hot temperature… and, of course, lava.

"Thanks, Red! I'll take it from here!" the paladin declared cheerfully, a ray of hope shining within him.

He waited a few ticks until the walls of the ship were cold enough and gave a strong kick to what used to be the door, which fell down with a dead sound thanks to the thermal shock.

Lance's heart missed a beat when he found Keith, unconscious on his seat, his eyes closed and his head resting against the instrument board. He carefully pulled his friend out of the ship and laid him down on the ground, loosening Keith's clothes and putting his hood down, silenting praying all the entities he could think of.

"Hey buddy, don't leave me now, I still have to kick your ass, remember?" Lance joked joylessly, checking the other's pulse on his neck with his shaking, unassured hand.

All jokes aside, Keith's skin was burning hot, and Lance couldn't tell if it was red or pale because of the particular lighting inside Red.

Lance's own pulse fastened when he felt a weak bump under his fingers, repeatedly. Hopefully he hadn't shown up too late and Keith was going to make it out of there alive.

"It's okay, it's gonna be alright, I'm right there! Dammit, why don't the Lions have their own healing pods?!" Lance started panicking, looking around him for anything that could help Keith. "Hold on, Keith, the others are gonna kill me if you die now!"

He took a deep breath to calm down and nodded to himself, replaying in his head the first aid lessons he had attended years ago and walking across the room, seeking for tools that could prove to be useful.

Keith's heart was beating, that was a good thing. And Keith was breathing, another good thing.

The paladin was still looking for a blanket or water -he didn't know- when he heard a hoarse coughing behind him. It took him less than half a tick to drop onto the floor just next to his friend. He took Keith's hand between his.

"Keith, can you hear me?"

The latter shivered slightly and he managed to turn his head to the source of the voice. Keith knew that the voice was familiar but he couldn't figure out whomst it was, and something was bugging him about this person. How could they -he, it was a he- be there? The last thing he could remember was passing out inside a volcano, though.

"Lance?"

So the voice was Lance's. Keith's head was aching so much, and his lungs felt like they were on fire. His body was responding only by instinct, but at least he was alive, and it seemed that Lance had somehow managed to rescue him. Keith heard the paladin letting out a huge sigh of relief, and he felt the other's hand sliding down his back to help him stand straighter.

Lance was talking, and based on his frown, Keith knew that he was scolding him like a kid. He didn't know what Lance was saying, he couldn't focus on the words, so he just stared at him in silence. Eventually, Lance's eyebrows raised up on his forehead, and Keith read the concern on his face.

"Are you okay?" the sharpshooter asked again, strengthening his grip on the other's shoulder. He noted that Keith was also a bit more muscular, but definitely thinner than when he had left the team.

Keith blinked a few times, looking into Lance's eyes as if he were going to find all the answers in them, a lost, interrogative light shining into his purple irises. He pulled on Lance's suit, the part that wasn't covered by the armour, and suddenly, in a blink, he kissed him. He didn't know how it happened, nor why he did it, but in hindsight Keith would just tell that his brain wasn't oxygenated correctly.

Lance pulled back almost -almost- immediately, frowning like he had just been asked the hardest question ever. Was he upset? Not really, but it was definitely disturbing. He looked at Keith with a hard look on his face, looking for an answer to his odd behaviour -Lance had already forgotten about the situation they were in-, but all he saw was horror into Keith's eyes when he realised what he had just done.

Lance stopped breathing for a short time, still staring at Keith and witnessing the range of emotions that was passing on the injured boy's face. Lance hesitated, a thousand thoughts flying in his head, and then he kissed him back, without any real explanation or reason. He just did it, because he wanted to… which was also very disturbing -but not so much, actually.

"Let's get you back to the Castle", Lance finally declared after the kiss, looking away. "And don't ever think about going back with the Blade, there's no way I'll let you do that." he insisted in a serious tone.

Keith was staring at him, the same interrogative light in his eyes -except that this time he was lucid- but Lance didn't respond.

"You're lucky that you had me to save your ass. But anyway, it's good to have you back." the blue paladin grinned.

He held his hand in front of Keith, pointing at the pilot seat with a nod. Of course he knew that Keith wouldn't be able to pilot Red, but Lance knew that he could rely on the Lion to bring the two of them back to their headquarters. Or in other words… to bring them home.

[Bonus Epilogue]

"You KISSED me!" Keith yelled for what seemed like the tenth time.

Fortunately, Lance and him were alone in the room and far enough from the others for them not to hear. After a few vargas in the healing pod and begging puppy eyes from all of his teammates -including Matt-, Keith had accepted to stay with Voltron and to reconsider his belonging to the Blade of Marmora. Neither Keith nor Lance knew how they ended up being all alone in the room or how they came to talking about what had happened, but there they were, and the tension was palpable.

"YOU kissed me!" Lance yelled back, pointing an accusing finger at Keith's chest, gritting his teeth.

"I was in shock! I didn't know what I was doing!" the red paladin defended himself, blaming anger for his suddenly red cheeks. "I didn't ask you to kiss me back!"

"Hah, don't act like you didn't want it!" Lance replied back immediately with a proud smirk that faded quickly. His eyes went round and he stared at Keith, realising what he had just said. Even the other boy had a moment of hesitation.

"I…" Keith began with a troubled frown. He took a few ticks to think about his answer and then he swallowed heavily, looking straight into the other's eyes. "I think I should go and find Coran, he looked like he wanted to talk to me earlier."

Then, he turned tail, his eyes focused on the wall in front of him, leaving the blue paladin on his own.

Lance's eyes remained fixed on the spot Keith had just left and he kept replaying the conversation in his head again and again, trying to find another possible meaning than the obvious one he had in mind. Finally, he raised his gaze to the door in front of him and shrugged with a crooked smile.

In silence, the blue paladin walked out of the room peacefully, his hands into his pockets, unaware of the deep blush painting his cheeks.