Lance had never slept so well in his life. Not sure if it was just the exhaustion of so many battles that knocked him out for so long or the sleeping beauty to his right, he turns to Keith with wide eyes.

Wondering how he had fallen asleep in his bed with Keith there, having not recalled even making it to his room, he poked the red paladin's cheek.

"Keith~," he says, "Keithy~ Oh my slumbering prince, wakey wakey," after a few more pokes, Keith catches his finger.

"Since when am I a Prince?" he asks, his eyes still closed.

"Since I found you taking a snooze in my bed," Lance motions to it. "What are you doing in here anyway?"

"You fell asleep, so I tucked you in. You wouldn't let me go, so I stayed," Keith peeks open an eye to smirk at him.

Lance curls his lip in an attempt to hide his embarrassment, "Oh," he averts his gaze, "We didn't uh… we didn't do anything, did we? Cause if we did, I don't remember,"

Keith is rolling them over, plopping himself on top of Lance and looming over him, "No," he answers, "Unless you want us to do something,"

Lance's face flushes to the same color of Keith's lion. Quiznack, yes. Yes Lance would love to. But he couldn't just go telling that to Keith without being extremely embarrassed, now could he?

"N-No," he stammers, "I was just making sure, you perv," shoving him off, Lance scrambled from his bed to get dressed,

Keith chuckles and collects his own gear. Making certain he had everything that was his, he took Lance's chin into his hands and gave his boyfriend a good morning kiss, "I should go get dressed. See you at breakfast?"

"I'll be there,"

Moving to the door, Keith pauses when he opens it, "Lance?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you uh- remember the conversation we had last night?"

Lance nods, "Of course I do,"

Keith's face turns red for some unknown reason, "H-How much of it?"

"Uh…" Lance is puzzled, "We talked about secrets and you admitting you had one. Then I told you it was okay, and you were saying something about breakfast or something?" he cringes, not sure, "That is about it,"

"Oh," Keith looks away, nodding, "Yeah, that was all. Um… see you later," he waves awkwardly and books it out of the room before Lance can stop him.

"What was that about?" Lance questions, shrugging off his paladin undergear. Changing into his regular clothes and cleaning his face, he sauntered down to breakfast, joining Keith at the table.

Greeting the team when they arrived, they ate in an awkward silence, most of their minds still on the recent Zarkon attacks. They had gotten away, and the relief of that had let them sleep last night- but there was still the question of how Zarkon had originally found them.

On Aires, with Ulaz, and now all the times after, Zarkon had managed to find them wherever they went.

"Alright team," Shiro strolled before them when they got to the bridge of the ship, standing tall, "We got a good nights sleep last night, and now we are ready to plan our next step of action. I know Zarkon is still on our minds."

"We still have to figure out how Zarkon was tracking us," Pidge agreed.

"We already known how," Allura sighs, "It was me,"

"Princess, no," Shiro disagrees, "There are so many other ways for him to track us,"

"Like what? We already ruled out any normal means of tracking. There is no point in debating this any further," she huffs, "Zarkon is clearly tracking us through me," The team is quick to disagree, insisting that it wouldn't make sense, "Why is that so hard to believe? Zarkon's forces showed up on Aires only after I awoke,"

"You have a point but… he also only showed up after we showed up, so it could be us for all we know," Lance tells her.

Allura gives him a long look, "How would Zarkon be able to track humans?"

"How would Zarkon be able to track Alteans?" Lance counters

"I don't know- but he is!" she yells.

"And I say he isn't!"

"Lance, Princess- stop it," Keith steps forward, "It's not you, Princess… it's me,"

"You?" Lance turns so suddenly that he almost slips. Keith nods, and that's about it. No explanation, just a wild and unbelievable statement.

Hunk motions for Keith to carry on, "Because ofvigurously~~?" he trails off.

Keith blinks, eyes wide when he realized they wanted some solid facts for his accusation, "I just think- maybe he imprinted on me during our fight or something?"

Knowing he was just reaching for something here, but still not understanding why Keith would even think for a second that Zarkon was tracking him, Lance raises his eyebrow, "Imprinted?"

"Y-Yeah," he nods.

"Keith I don't- I don't think that is how imprinting works," Lance shakes his head.

"How would you know?"

"Because you didn't even touch Zarkon! You were in your lion the whole time,"

"That doesn't mean he didn't do it!" Keith argues.

"Then wouldn't he have imprinted on Red, not you?" Hunk asks.

"He didn't imprint on Red," Keith tells him

"Then obviously he didn't imprint on you either!" Lance yells.

"Okay! Shut up!" Pidge yells, "The fact of the matter is, we don't know how Zarkon is tracking us. For all we know, it could be through the black lion."

Lance points to her, believing that over any other means, "I agree with Pidge on that one."

"Right," she nods vigorously, "Everytime Zarkon gets close, Shiro has to fight for control."

"That is only when Zarkon is nearby. No Paladin has ever been able to connect with a lion over a vast distance," Coran announces.

"So what are we going to do?" Hunk asks.

Shiro steps forward to quiet everyone down, "It doesn't matter how he is tracking us. We are going to take the fight to the Galra soon enough. They've been chasing us from Galaxy to galaxy. The last thing they expect is for us to go after them."

"The hunter becomes the hunted, huh?" Lance grins, "Awesome! That's the tag line of at least 6 of my favorite movies,"

"Frozen ground, The Backwoods, The Hunter becomes the hunted, Big Bad Wolves, Predator and Eliminated," Keith says.

Lance's jaw drops, and he looks at Keith with a star struck expression, like he had just fallen for Keith with just those movies titles, "You remember those?" he gasps.

"That is impressive," Hunk claps in awe, "I couldn't even remember all of those."

"They were your favorite to watch back at the Garrison," Keith shrugs, smiling when Lance wraps his arms around his shoulders and kisses his cheek lovingly.

"Best boyfriend ever," he concludes.

Shiro rolls his eyes at the two, smiling, "The movies aside, that is what we will be doing."

"Oh, then perfect," Pidge moves to her computer, "Because I've been working on this schematic using data of where we've had previous galra encounters. Using the data-"

Lance sighs, not sure he understood anything she was saying after a while. Making sense of a few things, Hunk asks, "So a Galra finder?"

"No more like a highly advanced system of-" seeing that they were blinking at her with large doe eyes, she sighs, "Yes, a Galra finder,"

"So, where are the Galra?" Lance inquired, curious to see if the Galra finder actually worked.

Pulling up a galactic map, Pidge highlighted a particular area, "The nearest ones are right here; a planet called Taujeer,"

"Then that is where we're headed. Let's rest today, get some sleep and tomorrow we'll head towards that Galra fleet and take it out," Shiro concludes. Agreeing with him, the team shuffled out.

Shiro paused when he noticed Keith was still there.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah," Keith nods meekly, "Why?"

"You seem a little anxious lately," Shiro notes

Keith avoids his gaze, focusing on his feet, "I'm fine, just tired," he lies to him. "Like you said I should get some sleep." turning to leave, he paused when Shiro called to him.

"Keith? Maybe you should- I dunno, go spend some time with Lance?" he suggests, trying to brighten his spirits,

"Lance?" he asks over his shoulder

Shiro smiles, "You are always in a better mode when you are with him. Maybe a little alone time will help you both feel a little better?" he suggests

Surprised he would offer that, Keith finds himself nodding, "You think?"

"So long as it stays Pg-13," Shiro suddenly adds, a stern look on his face.

Keith should have expected this but laughs anyway, "Sure thing, Space Dad,"

"Don't call me that," Shiro chuckles, waving goodbye to Keith

When he was gone, Keith took what Shiro said to heart and found himself wandering outside of Lance's door a few hours later.

Giving it a quiet knock, it quickly flew open. Lance stood on the other side, already dressed in his pajamas and his hair wet from a recent shower, "Keith?" he smiles.

"Is this a bad time?"

"No, not at all," he tugs him in, "Wanna help dry my hair?"

"Can't you do it yourself?" Keith chuckles, following him into the bathroom.

"I could, but I like it when you do it,"

Unable to stay no when Lance puts it like that, Keith turned on the hair dryer and started to dry Lance's hair. It was a little strange to hold with the odd Altean design, but it worked very similar to the ones on Earth. Plus- Keith always enjoyed the chance to run his fingers through Lance's soft brown hair.

He smelled like shampoo.

Seated in front of Keith, Lance was opening his jar of strange facial cream. "You should try some of this with me sometime," Lance tells him, "It is great for your pores,"

"You care more about pores than I do," Keith makes a face at the stuff.

Lance sticks his tongue at him over his shoulder, "You're lost," Stretching his arm to place the lid of the jar on the counter, Keith caught sight of something below his sleeve. Reaching down, he took hold of Lance's wrist, noticing the large bruises that covered his skin.

"Hey," he frowns, puzzled at the sight, "What is this?"

He puts the dryer down and pulls up Lance's sleeve to examine the injury. It leads from his wrist up to his elbow, a nasty color of purple and yellow.

Lance blinks at it, then says, "Oh, that is from when Zarkon attacked us," he tells him. "I was so tired then that I wasn't paying much attention and almost slipped from my chair. Slamming my arm into the side of Blue or something… it's fine," Noticing that Keith couldn't tear his eyes from the sight, looking like a bear ready to maul something, he quickly says, "It's just a bruise, Keith,"

Keith knows it is but… but he also knows that it was caused because of Zarkon. It was caused because they weren't able to get away from him when they could. All of them, not just Lance, could have been killed when the Telladove was broken and Zarkon kept finding them.

Because of him…

He knows the team insisted there was no way Zarkon was tracking him, but what guarantee did they have? What guarantee did he have that Lance would be safe until the Galra were gone?

"Keith?" Lance inquires softly at his sudden silence.

Lifting his wrist, Keith kissed the bruise. He wanted to protect Lance. Even if that meant from himself.

"Hey…" there is a blossoming color to Lance's cheek as Keith tilts his chin back and kisses him. Quickly caught up in it, Lance lowers the face cream jar and turns to wrap his arms around Keith's shoulders.

"Surprise attack," Keith mumbles as they separate.

Lance leaned forward and kissed Keith back, his mouth lingering, teeth grazing against the red paladin's lower lip, making him shiver. "Surprise attack back."

"Sneaky," Keith says, his voice breathier than he intended. Sharing a few more kisses with Lance, managing to end with Lance seated up against the counter and straddling Keith's hips, the two pull apart to breathe.

Gasping, Lance runs a hand through his hair to get it out of his eyes, "W-What is all this about?"

"What do you mean?" Keith presses his nose to Lance's neck, inhaling his scent.

"You are just- I dunno. Is everything okay?" Lance says quietly, quivering against Keith's hands.

Keith pressed small kisses along Lance's neck instead of answering. "Keith… Keith?" Lance pushes him away, forcing their gazes to meet, "Talk to me. What's wrong?"

Not expecting to have to look Lance in the eye so soon, Keith almost falls apart. Barely holding on, he sighs, "I just- I really, really care about you, Lance,"

The blue paladin smiles, shyly blinking at Keith under full eye lashes, "I care about you too, Keith. A lot…"

"No Lance I- It's more than just that. You scare me. I'm so afraid something bad might happen to you." honestly, they were lucky that Lance had come out of that fight with Zarkon with just a bruise.

"Keith," Lance cups his face, "It's okay. I'm okay. We'll be all right so long as we stand together,"

Keith reaches up to hold Lance's wrists, sighing. "Y-Yeah…"

"So don't look so down," Lance chuckles, "Whatever happens, I know we'll be able to pull through," Kissing Keith's forehead, Lance grins at him.

Touched at that beautiful smile, Keith presses into him, embracing the wonderful blue paladin, "Right," Allowing Lance to finish getting ready to bed, he kisses him one final time and returns to his room.

He ended up having a nightmare.

He dreamed that Red no longer accepted him as it's paladin and even attacked. Then dreamed of being a soldier in Zarkon's empire, the armor fitting so perfectly, like it was made for him. He tried to run from it, but with each turn, he could see the team. They were turning from him, disgusted by his appearance, calling him a traitor.

Then, he saw Lance. He was backing up, shaking his head. He pleaded for Keith to stay away, terrified at just the sight of him

"Lance no… I-I'm not-"

"Don't touch me, Galra!" Lance cried out, "I trusted you! And you… you betrayed me again," tears pooled in his eyes.

"That isn't it, Lance! I'm not them! I'm not- I don't work for Zarkon! I'm not-"

" Oh, but you are, young paladin," he could hear Zarkon say, " A Galran soldier. My own personal puppet." he laughter echoed in his head.

The nightmares woke Keith up with a jolt, screaming in terror at the thought. Gasping for air, taking a few minutes to realize all of that had been a dream, Keith reached under his pillow to lift the blade his parents had given him.

It glistened back at him mockingly.

Zarkon had to be tracking them through him. And even if he wasn't, Keith had to be sure. For the sake of his friends, his family, and for Lance, he had to check. He couldn't bare the thought of Lance getting hurt because of him. He already made that mistake.

It was wrong just to leave, but what other way could he find out the truth?

With that thought, he jumped to his feet and got dressed into his Paladin gear. Grabbing a bag to fill his belongings with, unsure of how long he would be gone, he quietly tiptoes down to the escape pods.

Creeping around them, he gasped when he heard the door open. Ducking behind one of the pods, he peeked out to find none other than Allura sneaking her way around the room.

She was opening a pod and looked she was about to fly off in it.

Keith stepped out to confront her, not sure what she was doing, "Princess what are you doing here?"
She squeaked, falling back into his arms. Blinking rapidly, she flipped out of them and straightened, clearing her throat, "Keith," she greets, attempting to act cool, "I might just ask you the same thing," she narrows her eyes, quick to pass the suspicious glare.

Quirking his eyebrow, Keith clears his throat, "Nothing. Just walking, late at night… near the pods," he curses his inability to not make things awkward.

"In full paladin armor with a bag of your belongings?" she inquires

Realizing he had been caught, he sighs, "I have to know if Zarkon is tracking me. This is the only way. Don't try and stop me,"

"I'm not going to stop you," she says calmly, narrowing her eyes, "I'm going to join you,"

Not expecting that, he blinks, "Oh uh…" Not sure what else he could say, he nodded, "Sure," together they enter the pod and shot out of the castle. Making sure to make gain quite a distance, Keith shifts in his seat.

"Okay… We're doing good… The team is going to be pissed when they figure out where we've gone,"

"Indeed," Allura agrees with a sigh. "But as you said, this is the only way. We will apologize and make it up to them when we return,"

Keith lowers his gaze, "If they accept it…"

"Are you worried about Lance?" she inquires softly.

He nods, "I've already hurt him once, and if I could avoid this, I would. But… If Lance got hurt because Zarkon was tracking me, I couldn't ever forgive myself. I would rather Lance get mad at me then injured any day."

"I understand how you feel," Allura agrees. "Lance is a kind person; I'm sure if you explain, he will forgive you,"

"You think so?"

"Definitely," she nods. "I'm honestly worried about what Shiro will think as well."

"Shiro?" Keith tilts his head, "Oh… Yeah, I guess he would be angry too." he pauses, recalling what Lance had mentioned to him before, "Do you uh… Do you like him?"

"Like him?" Allura's eyes go wide, "W-What do you mean?

"Just do you-" Keith clears his throat, "Like like him?" he inquires awkwardly

Allura's eyes couldn't be wider, and she starts laughing nervously, "D-Did Lance tell you something strange?"

"A little," he admits, "B-But not that it's weird! Just that you two might have- I dunno, feelings for eachother…?" he trails off, glancing at her from the corner of his eyes. Now that he was alone with the Princess, Keith painfully realized he had no idea how to talk to her without things feeling weird.

'Why I never- I don't- he and I don't- we are just- paladins and team mates and- Don't let Lance fill your head with strange things!" she commanded him, giving him a little bonk on the head.

"Oh, okay… Sorry," he looked back at the empty void of space before him and stayed that way. It was…

Awkward.

Very awkward.

What exactly were normal topics to discuss with a Princess anyway?

When Lance woke up, he felt like something was wrong. He assumed perhaps he has some sort of 6th sense and the alarm was about to go of to warn of an attack, but it never did. Getting dressed, he shuffled to meet with that others, unable to get rid of the worrying feeling in his stomach.

"You okay?" Hunk asked.

"Yeah," he nods.

Coran turned when the paladins entered the bridge, "Morning team," he says, "Feeling well rested?"
"We are," Shiro smiles, "What is our status?"

"We should be moving into Taujeer's orbit soon,"

Shiro nods, "Raise the particle barrier and scan for Galra," he turned to look around the room, "Where are Keith and the Princess?" he inquired.

Speaking of the two, Lance really wanted to see Keith right about now. Something about him being in the same room always made Lance feel a little bit at ease. "Maybe he over slept," he says, noticing that Keith, in fact, wasn't there. Which was strange, because even as he took this guess; he knew that Keith never over slept.

Coran messes with his screen for a second to locate their two missing teammates, but suddenly gasps, "It appears that one of the pods launched in the middle of the night,"

"What?" Lance sits up, fully awake with that information, "What do you mean?"

"Are you saying Allura and Keith-?"

"They must have." Coran confirms, "They are nowhere else in the castle. They must have taken the pod!"

"They just up and left?" Hunk couldn't believe his ears and suddenly looked at Lance. Desperate to avoid his stare, thinking the same thing he was, he wanted to seem calm.

He definitely wasn't feeling Deja Vu or anything. Nope. Not at all. He was perfectly calm. After all, Allura was with Keith. Allura was the difference this time around. Allura wouldn't just leave. Keith didn't just leave him after getting close to him like he did a year ago.

That wasn't-

"S-Shiro?" his voice wavers.

His face is expressionless, hiding whatever feeling he held to the matter, "Contact the pod," he instructed Coran.

"Yes!" Lance hopes to sound chipper, "Contact that pod!"

Typing into the control, Coran calls into the communications, "Princess? Keith? Where are you?"

There is a short line of static, and then Allura replies, " Exactly where we should be. Far away from the castle."

" What?" Shiro questions, "W-Why?"

" We must know if we are the ones Zarkon is tracking,"

" They are isolating the variables. Well, isolating two variables," Pidge realizes.

Lance looks at her, not understanding what she was talking about, "English?" he pleads, his mind reeling.

"If you want to test a hypothesis-"

"English," he stresses.

She throws her head back and groans, "Forget it!"

" Pidge is right. If Zarkon finds you despite our absense, we will know with utmost certaintly that it is not because of us that he is tracking you ,"

"Splitting up the group leaves us far more vulnerable." Shiro disagrees, "Come back to the castle immedietly,"

There is a long pause before Allura nods. Despite knowing Shiro was right, she couldn't do it, " I'm sorry, Shiro. I cannot do that,"

"If Zarkon finds us I can fly us to safety. We are in open space with plenty of roam to meanuver, plus, we'd be able to outrun him," Keith adds, "There is also that booster rocket Pidge added,"

Coran went pale, "That thing is still on there?"

"But was leaving really the right way to go about this? What if something had happened before we contacted you or something? We would have had no clue," Hunk points out.

Pidge nods, "Hunk has a good point."

Lance grips the edge of his chair, quietly agreeing, "You could have been hurt,"

There is a long pause before he can hear Keith speak up, " Lance…."

Lance wasn't sure what to feel. He knew Keith was feeling unsure and worried, and he assumed that the reason was due to Keith's uncertain ties to the Galra.

But, he could have told Lance. He even came to see him last night before bed, only to just leave a few hours later. And with Allura? He trusted Allura with this but not him? Exactly how much had he told her anyway?

Has he told her about the blade, but he still refuses to bring Lance into this secret- though he already knew, Keith just didn't realize this. It was- It was downright upsetting to think that!

" Lance, I'm sorry," Keith babbles, " I just- I'll be back soon, I think,"

"You think?" he demands.

" I- yes- no-! I dunno. I don't know what we are going to do if it turns out Zarkon is tracking us,"

"If they are, then you wouldn't be able to come back to the ship without Zarkon following them," Pidge says softly.

"What?" Lance gasps, sounding horrified, "Then what are they supposed to do?"

"Everyone calm down," Shiro says, "We will think through this. We have no proof that Allura or Keith are the reasons Zarkon is tracking us, so until we know for sure, we can't lose our heads,"

" Are you saying you agree to use being out here, then ?" Allura inquired.

"No, not at all," he says quickly, a bite to his tone. It sounded almost… like hurt. Lance realized through the waver in Shiro's eyes that Allura had hurt him doing this. She had took his trust for granted and engarnger not just herself, but someone Shiro considered to be a brother as well.

He knew Shiro was still a little catious of Allura after he learned she had been keeping the informaton of Zarkon being the previous black paladin from him, so this event probably wasn't helping much.

"We need both of you back here now-" Shiro isn't up to debate this, but gets cut of when the Castle shakes violently. Gripping his chair, Lance looks up to spot strange amounts debirs floating overhead,

"What the-?"

"It's some sort of debris field," Hunk gasps

"Coran, what is going on? I thought we were heading towards Taujeer?" Shiro demands

Coran looks over his conrols and gasps, "I think this is Tajueer!" they look up just as the planet came into view. The debris was coming from the planet itself, like pieces of it's own skin was being peeling of bits at a time and tossed out into space.

" Coran, what is going on-?" Allura's question was cut off suddenly.

"Some kind of radiation from the planet is interferring with communications," Coran says to Shiro

"Move the castle away from the planet to reastablish the link. Everyone else, get to your lions," Shiro commands. Leaping to their feet, their rush to head out .

When they went to place on their paladin armor, Lance's thoughts were lost to the stars.

In some means, Lance figured he was mad. It was kind of hard to tell what exactly he was feeling while simultaniously trying to focus on the people of Taujeer. He was used to Keith trying to do everything solo.

That was just how he always was, even back at Garrison.

Years of growing up alone instilled that independance in him- making it very difficult for him to put trust in others or rely on them.

Not that he didn't trust the team, he was just used to having to do everything by himself.

So Lance wasn't fully mad that he would just leave to make sure Zarkon wasn't tracking him- Perhpas it was just Allura.

The fact that he let her tag along instead of asking Lance to. Or trusting her with it instead of him. Perhaps he was just being shallow though?

Keith was just- he was weird. Lance still didn't understand why he would think that Zarkon was somehow tracking them through him.

Maybe…

Maybe it was because of that blade? Keith obviously had some sort of connection with the Galra, so did Keith just assume Zarkon could hunt him down through it? It was hard to tell what Keith was thinking without asking and getting an answer from him.

But if all these were true, Lance couldn't fault him for taking action to make sure.

He could have at least told Lance though. Lance might not have agreed, but if Keith was serious enough about it, he would have let him go. He didn't have to sneak off in the middle of the night.

And Allura too!

But, at least they were together and could keep each other safe.

"Hey…" Hunk's hand was gently placed upon his shoulder, "You okay?"

"I'm fine… why?" he faked a smile

"Dude, come on." Hunk says with a puppy dog like pout, "I know you better than that,"

Sighing, Lance nods, "I know. I'm sorry. I don't know how to feel right now… I don't know if I should feel hurt, angry- maybe both? I understand why he did it. And honestly, I probably would have done the same. I just wish he told me."

"You going to be okay?"

"We have to focus on Taujeer," Lance tosses on his helmet and runs to meet up with his lion. Shooting out of the castle, the rest of them head down to Tajueers, surprised to see it's people huddled within some sort of Arc above the crumbling surface.

They had little time, the planet was breaking apart, and the Tajueers only had one working engine.

Lance hoped they hadn't bit off more than they could chew

Keith said nothing as he looked over the screen, taping the scanner once against to check surroundings. For the hundreth time today he saw only empty space.

Glancing to Allura, who was staring out of the pod in boredom, he clears his throat, "We've been here for hours," he announces, "No sign of Zarkon,"

"Well, I'm glad I don't have to wait alone," Allura gives him a small smile. Keith nods, and the awkward silence between the two returns.

Now that he thought about it, had he ever really even talked to Allura before? Besides on missions or high tense situations, had he ever really even just said Hi to her? He honestly couldn't recall, so probably not.

"So uh… How are Lance and you doing?" Allura inquired.

"Great," he smiles then pauses, "At least- hopefully we still are after this,"

"Right," she nods, recalling how they had already had issues before this. "He um- he really cares for you, so I am sure he will understand through time,"

"Yeah," Keith nods, not feeling too confident in that. "Shiro too, you know. He knows what it is like to make those tough decisions to make sure your friends are safe. The uh- the entire team is like that,"

Relieved to hear that, Allura nods, "That is good to hear. I- you have to understand, I could never live with myself if I knew that Zarkon was finding us because of me. I must know." she looks at her knees with a heavy sigh, "We face such a dire threat from the Galra,"

The way she said that made Keith feel uncomfortable. The Galra- as in every Galra in existence. "Well sure they're bad- no doubt about that but um-" he clears his throat, "At the same time, couldn't a few of them be fighting for good?" he asks, hoping he didn't look to hopeful for her to believe him on this. He didnt' know what he was anymore, but if it turned out he was some how related to Galra…

Allura just hated them so much and if she knew what he might be, would she think differently of him? Would the entire team do the same?

"Just look at Ulaz," he says, hoping to make her understand, "He sacrificed himself to save us,"

"For all we know his sacrifice could have been a ploy. One life means nothing to Zarkon," she scoffs, refusing to even budge an inch on the topic

Keith narrows his eyes, "It means something to me," he says, raising his voice a little too much, "It means some of them are actually willing to help, and we could use all the help we could get,"

"Any help from the Galra is mearly a praylude to a trap," she concludes, looking away, "I know all too well how quickly they turn,"

"It just seems crazy to lump everyone together," he mutters

"Listen," she glares at him, making his blood run cold, "If there are any good Galra out there, they've had 10,000 years to stop Zarkon. I would never count on them for help,"

With a lump in his throat, Keith couldn't bare to say anything after that. It… hurt, to hear her say that. In some ways, he expected it, but hearing it said outloud didn't make it any better.

With nothing left to say, they floated aimlessly in space for an hour or two longer before they got a desperate call from Coran.

"Keith, Allura, are you there?!"

"We're here Coran, what is it?" Allura sat up in her chair.

"Well, Zarkon definitely isn't tracking you two," he huffs.

Keith was shocked, "He's not?"

"How do you know?" Allura asks.

"Well, while you two are out there, a Galra fleet just appeared here! We need you now!"

Startled, the two share a look of panic before Keith is slamming his hand into the booster, turning the ship around to head back to the ship.

"We'll be there in two dovashes," Allura says

Keith eyes the booster rocket Pidge had added, lifting his hand to it. Knowing the others were in danger, especially Lance, he was desperate to get there as fast as he could, "Even faster than that," he says, highlighting the booster.

"What is that?" Allura frowns

"A booster fuel Pidge added to this pod," he clicked it. To his horrible error, the back engine exploded behind him the second he clicked the button. With only a second to react and realize his mistake, the ejection seats were activated and they were shot out into space.

Feeling himself catapulted in one direction twirling in circles to fast to stop himself, he eventually even out enough to activate his jetpack and make his way towards Allura. "Allura! Grab my hand!" snagging her palm in passing, the two spun to a stop, gasping for air. "Are you okay?"

"F-Fine," she nods. Looking up to the broken remains of their vessle, she asks, "Is your radio still working?"

He tests it, calling for Coran, but nothing seemed to be working. "I can still track the ship," he clicks his teeth. He curses himself for being imaptient, like he always was. With no other option since they couldn't seem to get into contact with anyone, they shot their way back to the ship using his jetpack. It was slow, much slower than if they had just taken the normal settings on the pod.

It would take them three times as long now to get there at this right.

"I-" he groans in frustration, "This is my fault,"

"Keith no- you didn't know what would happen," Allura says to him. "We just have to focus on getting back as fast as we can now,"

"We'll never get there in time at this rate!"

Feeling the panic hit her, Allura inhales shakily. "I-" She grips his arm desperately, "Shiro was right," she whispered. She had proven that she was no at fault for Zarkon locating them, but in doing so, she had left her friends exposed. Now, she might just never see them again, "We never should have left them,"

Thinking to Lance, Keith closes his eyes. If something happened to him…

He thought back to the last thing he had said to Lance. Something about being unsure of what would happen if Zarkon found him- because Keith was so positive that Zarkon was tracking them through him.

He thought he was keeping Lance safe through this, but he may have just doomed him. He would lose all the people important to him because he couldn't just trust them and decided to do things alone.

He would never even get the chance to tell Lance how he felt about him. The last thing Lance would have to hold onto from their relationship was Keith leaving him behind… again.

"Keith!"

In his moment of despair, his eyes snapped open at Allura's call. Tensing, thinking they were in danger, he was surprised to look ahead and see a warm and familiar glowing light.

"The Red lion!" Allura cheers, "Keith, the Red lion found you!"

Not even understanding how Red managed that, Keith didn't care- he called to her, joy pumping through his veins. Quickly scrambling in, they turned and shot in the direction of Tajueer, "Good girl," Keith squeezes the controls, relieved to see her. "Let's go get out friends,"

Getting there are fast as Red's boosters could take them, they arrived just in time to cut off the large canon the Galra had aimed at the team, who was currently keeping the fallen Tajueer arc from falling into a sea of acid.

"Good to have you back, Keith!" Shiro calls.

Keith looks down to see the Lions gathered and accounted for. Everyone was okay… Thank goodness.

The next voice made him tense.

Always able to recognized Lance's voice in a hearbeat, Keith hear him ask, "Is the Princess with you?"
"Yes," he says robotically, gulping the fear of what Lance might say next.

"Good,"

And that seemed to be all Keith would get out of Lance in a conversation at this point. No questions on if he was okay or not, or what took them so long, just- okay.

Nervously shifting his weight in his seat, Allura patted Keith's back, hoping to be encouraging.

"Hey Keith, we could use a little extra man power to get this thing up," Hunk calls to him.

"On my way, buddy," Keith shoots down, slamming into the side of the arc to help give that last little push it need to get it upright.

"Alright, no time to waste. Let's show these guys who they are messing with," Shiro smirks, "Form Voltron!"

Quickly changing into the mighty hero, they turned their attention to the Galra ship, which had aimed downward and was making a straight B-line for the ship.

"They are planning to ram the arc!" Pidge warned, horrified at the thought.

"Not if we can help it. Form sword!" Shiro commanded.

Pressing his bayard into the controls, Keith eyed the ship warilly.

"Are you sure we'll be able to cut through that entire cruiser?" Hunk demanded, nervous.

"We'll have to," Shiro concludes. Monving to attempt this impossible task, Keith could feel his controls vibrate. Sensing a voice within his head, he says, "Guys? I think my lion is trying to tell me something,"

"Me too," Lance chips in.

"Same here," Pidge and Hunk agree.

"Well whatever it is, do it," Shiro tells them.

Following how Keith placed his bayard into the controls, they were shocked when the sword morphed, growing large and longer, just enough to cut the entire battle cruiser in half. The team shared similar smirks as they charged forward, lifting the sword.

With one clean swipe, the ship was falling into two chunk before imploding on themselves.

"Did you guys see that?!" Lance cackled, thrilled at their new ability.

"That was awesome!" Hunk pumps his fist

"It's not over yet," Shiro informs them, "We still have to get the Tajueers out of here,"

"How are we going to do that when they only have one working engine?" Pidge asked. Thinking it over, Shiro had them pilot Voltorn around the sides of the Arc, lifting their hands underneath it.

One they managed to get it to start lifting, they slipped under the haul and put all power to their bottom thrusters, lifting the arc from the planet's surface and towards the planet the Tajueerians had previously planned to evacuate to.

Placing them down, getting the thanks and cheering from them, Allura left them a device to contact them should they ever need aid again.

With that said and done, they said their goodbyes and were on their way.

Running out of their lions, the team gave small cheers. "Man," Lance laughs as they entered the bridge, grinning at Coran and Allura, "That was a close one."

"Indeed. But what a show you paladins put on!" Coran claps. "I've never seen the sword grow that large before. You cut that galran ship in two!"

Slowly, the other paladins begin to filter in from their lions, smiling and congraluating each other. The mood was cheerful… till Hunk punched Keith in the face.

Having only just entered the room, he stumbled back in shock, his cheek swelling.

The teams gasps at the sight, rushing to step between the two. "Hunk!" Shiro scolds, "What's gotten into you?"

Hunk was fuming, his normally cheerful face red with rage, "I gave him a warning!" he tells Shiro, almost whining to him.

Shiro blinks rapidly, "What?"

"I told him not to hurt Lance! To treat him right- and then he went and did this!"

"H-Hunk…" Lance lowers his arms, shocked.

"It's okay, Shiro," Keith catches his arm. "I deserved it," stumbling to his feet, Keith rubs at his sore jaw, "Hunk is completely right. I left without a word and I'm… I'm so sorry," he bows his head, "I'm sorry to you Lance, and the team. I knew you would try to stop me… Or at least get worried about me. I was just so desperate to make sure it wasn't me that he was tracking,"

Allura quickly comes forward to stand besides Keith, "I owe just as much as an apology and your rage," she tells them. "I tagged along with him. Shiro was right; we are stronger together, and because of my choice we put the risk of you and all the Taujeerians in danger. I am so terribly sorry," she looks at Hunk, "You may punch me too, if you like."

"Oh uh…" he shakes his head, "N-No, I'm good."

"We thought we were doing the right thing," Keith tells them.

Everyone's eyes turn to Lance and Shiro, who were the most upset about this whole endeavure. Waiting anxiously for their response, the entire team took a step back when Lance snickered.

Tilting his head back, he began to laugh.

Allura gawked at him, "W-Why in the world are you laughing?"

"I just-" he puts a hand to his stomach, slapping his knee, "H-How awkward was it?"

"What?" they blink at him.

Cackling he says, "I-I only just realized after you two left but…. Hahah, you two have never talked! Through all the time we've spent together, I have never seen either of you two once share a conversation together! So tell me, just how awkward was it?"

Slowly tunring to look at each other, Keith and Allura pale at the hours of complete silence they had shared, "...Painfully awkward,"

Lance falls back, rolling on the floor as he laughed.

His laughter seemed to be contacious and the other paladins began to join in. Despite being mocked, Allura was grateful that everyone was alive and smiling at the end of the day. Finding herself laughing as well, she nodded her head to each paladin as they went to get undressed.

Lance grabbed her arm in passing, whispering, "You two should really talk," he shifted his eyes to Shiro. Frowning at him, but knowing he was right, she nodded.

Waiting for the others to leave, and asking for a moment alone with Shiro from Coran, she approached him, watching as he pulled out the galactic map to go over where they would travel to the next day. Clearing her throat to catch his attention she says, "I- owe you my deepest apology, Shiro,"

He doesn't say anything for a long time, nor does he turn around to look at her. Thinking for a moment perhaps he hadn't heard her, she continues, "W-What I did was wrong, and I see that now. I was just- Zarkon has taken everthing from me. I couldn't bare to lose the rest of you because of my doing,"

His fingers stop typing and he turns to her, "I know, Allura," his eyes are gentle when he says, "I understand why you did it, and in fact, I might have done the same thing. The problem was that you didn't inform anyone before you left. By the time we contact you, what if Zarkon had found you? Or some other threat, and Keith and you were in danger? We might have never known until it was too late,"

Allura bows her head, nodding.

"I-" Shiro cuts off, " We care about you, Allura. As a team, we support and protect each other, but we can't do that if we go running off without a word. I'm still mad about what happened but I'm just glad you are okay. Just, promise me next time you'll come to us and we'll try to work something out."

"I will," she assures him. Reaching out, she puts her hand on his arm, squeezing it gratefully, "Thank you,"

He clears his throat, "Of course,"

Sharing eye contact for a moment too long, the two pull away with nervous laughs. Allura starts side stepping backwards, stammering, "I'll uh- I am exhausted I'll just-" she bumbs into one of the paladin chair, "Oop! That is a chair- I hit that- just going to walk away now. Nighty night!"

Lifting his hand to try and hide his snort, Shiro waves to her. Looking at the door long after she walked out of it, he slowly turned back, feeling lighter than he had a few minutes before.

Lance wasn't surprised when he heard a knock on his door and hour after getting undressed from his paladin armor. Moving towards the door, he opens it to find exactly who he expected to be standing there.

"Um…" Keith stands awkwardly in the hall, looking smaller than usual.

Taking in the sight of him, Lance casually leaned against the doorframe and folded his arms, "Yes?" he inquired, "I was just about to start my facial care, so make it quick,"

Keith nods, looking nervous, "I just- we didn't get to talk about before,"

"What is there to say?" Lance shrugs, "You left… tale as old as time," he watches Keith visibly flinch, his eyes wide with emotion.

"I don't want it to be that way," he whispered hoarsely. "Lance I- I messed up again. I hurt you,"

Lance hates to see him look so upset- so hateful to himself. Sighing, he says, "I'm not mad, keith,"

Startled, Keith almost falls over, "You aren't?"

"No- just… I dunno." feeling awkward having this conversation at the door, he motions for Keith to come inside. Shuffling in, they both moved to sit along Lance's bed.

As he turned to Keith to continue the conversation, he doesn't expect the red paladin to hold a flower out to him. It was a strange looking thing, most likely coming from that strange indoor garden Coran had been growing in the lower floors.

Taking the flower into his head, realizing Keith was trying his best to apologize, he falls back against his back, sniffing it. "You came back," he concludes, "You didn't do that last time. So- I'm not mad,"

"Really?" Keith inquired nervously.

Lance sat up, taking his time to look Keith in the eyes, eyeing him carefully, before wrapping his arms around his shoulder. Keith melted into the embrace, his shoulders shaking.

Was he scared?

Lance wasn't sure what hurt more- realizing Keith was petrified that he wouldn't be forgiven, or that Keith looked like he didn't even believe himself that he deserved to be forgiven. "I am a little," he admits, "But, not because you did it- but because you didn't tell me,"

Keith lowers his gaze, "I wasn't sure if you would let me go…"

"I know," Lance sighs, "But- I think you learned your lesson, and you got a punishment for it," Lance trails his finger across Keith's jaw, where Hunk had punched him

He laughs dryly, "Yeah… he sure does know how to punch,"

"He's a teddy bear, but still a bear," Lance agrees.

There is a small pause, "...I left you again,"

"You came back. You were only gone for a few hours," Lance says, "I told you why I was mad. Not because you left, but you didn't tell me beforehand,"

Nodding sheepishly, Keith slowly, hesitantly lifts his arms to wrap arond Lance. Bringing the Blue paladin close, the two hug, breathing in the scent of the other.

"You shouldn't forgive me," Keith concludes.

"You don't get to decide how I feel, and I've decided to forgive you. And Allura,"

Keith pulled back to stare at him, mesmerized, "I…" he takes Lance's hands. "So, even though I made a mistake today… you still care about me?"

Lance tilts his head, "I still cared about you even after you left the Garrison," Lance tells him

Startled, Keith's eyes go wide, looking more vulnerable than Lance had ever seen them, "B-But what if I… what if I told you something that might change that?"

Lance is careful about his next word, realizing that Keith was possibly working up the courage to tell him about the blade. Keeping his expression calm, he smiles, "Nothing you could tell me would change how I feel about you, Keith."

"W-What if I hurt you again?"

"Do you plan to hurt me?"

"No! Never," Keith tightens his grip, "But I might not… I might not have a choice. I- I learned something recently. I don't know what it means for me but it involves… bad people,"

Lance held his breath, inching a little closer to Keith. "You can trust me with anything Keith," he whispers, "I know who you really are,"

"Do you?" Keith choked out, "Because I don't…"

"I do," Lance takes his face into his hands, "I do know, Keith." Unable to look at him for a long time, he slowly lifts his gaze, looking in Lance's eyes for any sign of uncertainty. When he found none, Keith took a breath.

"Do you remember that blade Ulaz had?"
Lance nods.

"Well, I also… I mean I…" not able to find the words, Keith reaches towards the back of his belt. Taking the blade from his holster, he lifts it for Lance to see. Placing it in his hands, Keith slowly takes off the wrappings, revealing the blade of mamora symbol along the hilt. "This…" he points to it.

"The Blade of mamora," Lance confirms.

"Y-Yes…. My parents gave that to me."

"Your parents gave you a blade with the insignia of a secret Galra rebellion," Lance concludes.

Keith nods nervously, looking like he was struggling to breath, "I never got to ask them what it was, and I honestly don't remember my Mom. My dad was human but I don't even recall my Mom's face so I don't- she might be-" he trails off, looking so unsure of himself. "Do you remember back on the Balmera how the two of us were sent to close the duct so none of the Galra fighters could get out?"

"Yes,"

"You tried everything, but when I touched my hand to the panel… it worked. Only Galra should be able to work a Galran control panel. So I… I feel like I might just be…" he looks into Lance's eyes, searching for something. Shock, fear, confusion- anything that might make him reconsider this. Seeing nothing but patience and acceptance in Lance's gaze he whispers, "Galra."

"Do you think you're Galra?" Lance inquired so softly that Keith shivered.

"I don't know," he shakes his head, "T-That's… this is all. Everything that has been on my mind is because of this. That's my secret," Keith lowered his gaze and left the topic in the air, waiting and dreading for Lance's response

Seeing how tremors seemed to shake his boyfriends body, pumping his blood with fear for what Keith seemed to think was inevitable, Lance smiles.

"Keith," he lifts the red paladins' chin a little, "Can I tell you a secret of my own?"

Blinking rappidly, Keith nods, "O-Of course…"

Lance says, "Keith, you've already shown me this blade,"

The look of complete confusion is rather priceless if Lance had to be honest, and it was a nice look on Keith. "W-What?" he stammered, "No I haven't,"

"Yes you have. Back at Garrison. You took me out stargazing and showed me this, telling me it was the last thing you have ever gotten from you parents. You even showed me the symbol on it," Lance ran his fingers over it, smiling.

Blinking once, then twice, Lance could see the gears slowly turning in Keith's head. Recalling the memory, Keith's face flushed brightly with humiliation and he buried his head into Lance's shoulders, "Are you telling me you already knew this whole time?"

"Basically," Lance chuckles, patting his back.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Keith pulls back, eyes wild,

"I didn't want to tell you until you were ready to tell me," Lance pouted. Falling back against him, Keith sighs, the heavy burden lifting from his shoulders and leaving him exhausted.

"Do you have any idea how much I've worried about this? About what you might think?"

Lance runs a hand through his raven hair, "I'm sorry. I just didn't know how to bring it up,"

"No. No it's fine," Keith presses his lips to Lance's throat, "I should have told you sooner."

Patting his back, Lance muses, "You aren't alone in this, Keith. I don't know what the blade means, or what you might or might not be- but I do know one thing,"
Keith doesn't look at him, his face buried deep into Lance's shoulder, "What's that?"

"You are the red paladin of voltron, my boyfriend, and no strange blood ties is ever going to change that,"

Like Keith had been waiting for someone to say that all his life, his body shook violently, a quiet sound of hurt slipping from his lips. Desperately reaching up to cling to Lance, he made a strange noise. Lance wasn't sure if he was crying, and he wasn't going to ask.

Instead he patted Keith's head and rolled them back onto the bed, cradling Keith close to his chest. After a while, when Keith stopped shaking, Lance peeked down at him to ask if he was alright. Tears stained his cheeks, and his eyes were closed- long eye lashes layed out over red cheeks in a peaceful slumber.

"Fell asleep, huh?" Lance mused, leaning down to plant a kiss on his forehead, "Good night, Keith,"

Season three comes out tomorrow and I am so excited!

Madstar529: Aww, thank you so much!

I love athrun: Thank you for reviewing!

Azun26: Haha, Oh my gosh, thank you so much for the review. Yes, poor Keith. he can never catch a break XD

Fan4lif: Ooh, that is definitely going to be a fun chapter to right for sure :3 Can't wait for the blade of marmora trials

Ewink18: Oh my gosh thank you! That means so much to me and you are so sweet! ;-;

Nekoyasha12: Ooh yeah, the Allura stuff is definitely going to stay the same, for sure. She was a bitch! She was a total jerk to Keith ;-; And Lance will definitely speak his mind on the subject. And that is such a good idea! I would love to make a filler chapter of all of that :D It would be so sweet! And yes, the Shallura shall continue :3

Pinkdoughtnuts: The Universe says no to confessions for the Keith! bwahahaha

Tengenlucy: Oh my gosh, thank you so much. You are so sweet. ;-; I would love it if you did that! It would be so amazing! Thank you for reviewing.

Sunny lighter: He might just get to that point XD Yeah