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Day 1-
A neutral light surrounded Keith. It wasn’t warm or cold; it didn’t have a specific vibe or feeling. It was a blank slate. Its feeling was ready to be determined by whatever was about to happen.
“We’ll name him Yorak.”
In the distance, emerging from the light, Keith was met with vague familiarity.
There was the cabin, though it looked brighter and well kept. Keith hadn’t been the best housekeeper, though could you blame him when that house had taken the last family Keith had had away from him?
There were no traces of that fire, though. The house looked exactly as houses were supposed to be: a space to be filled with memories. The problem with that same house now was that there were too many memories.
In front of the house stood Keith’s mother and father. They both held held a look similar to the shack in the white light. They looked like they had the future all to themselves. Growing up, Keith saw a bit of that optimism missing in his father, no matter how much he tried to cover up that stale feeling of possibility for Keith’s sake. His mother had that look now, too. Her eyes looked like she’d seen that future she could only possibly imagine years ago, and now she’d like to go back to the ignorance she once held.
They were holding a baby. They were holding Keith.
“How about ‘Keith?’”
“‘Keith…’ I like that.”
Before Keith could savor whatever vision or flashback this was, he was thrown into another.
He was surrounded by darkness. He wanted to go back to the light.
“Hello, Keith.”
Keith knew that voice. He missed that voice, but when he turned around he saw that it was not coming from the person he thought it had been.
Well, it was him, but it wasn’t him. There was something off.
The deep, gentle eyes Shiro had- the eyes that had made Keith trust the man that was now his brother- were now subtly purple. Not like the way Keith’s eyes were purple, more… artificial.
Shiro was talking, and Keith was replying, but he couldn't make out most of the conversation. It was overlapping, like static building and building until you have no choice but to cover your ears to get it to stop.
“We have to get back to the castle!”
“-’re not going anywhere.”
“Shiro-”
Keith was pulled out of the vision as suddenly as he’d been pulled into it.
Day 1, continued-
Krolia was in a small Galra ship, communicating with a general.
She didn’t have that look in her eye yet- the one so identifiably with a troubled, open ended past. Keith knew that this vision took place before Krolia had Keith.
The general was instructing Krolia to call in the lions position to Zarkon. The planet they glided above was a mix of deep greens and blues, with greys and whites making small cameos. The planet they were looking down upon was earth, and the lion they were referencing was the blue lion.
Krolia hesitated, and the general insisted again. Krolia got a new look in her eye: determination. She broke position and engaged in a fight with the other Galra.
The general thought she was trying to take all the glory for herself. Keith knew that that wasn’t the case at all.
The fight Keith was witnessing felt like he was actually in it. He was viewing it from Krolias perspective and he could feel every ounce of that determination he saw in her eye. As her hands flew across the console, Keith could practically feel the buttons being pressed with his own fingers.
He also felt how quickly the fight seemed to end. Soon, Krolia was falling through the air, Earths floor getting closer and closer as she braced for impact.
Then, with the strike of an axe, a man was looking down at Krolia, a ray of sunlight following his gaze onto her face.
Keith’s dad.
Day 1, continued-
Keith saw the blue lion, a protective force surrounding it.
His parents were standing in front of it, looking up at it with mesmerizing in their face. Keith felt how they felt, but he didn’t need to. He knew exactly how both small and large they felt standing in front of that otherworldly craft. He had been in the same position as they were in.
They were discussing Krolias position on Earth.
She stayed there for the blue lion, but also for Keith’s dad.
Keith had done the opposite; he had left earth for the blue lion, and after much self reflecting in their time in space, he was suspecting that he, too, did that for a specific person.
Day 1, continued-
Krolia was holding baby Keith, and Keith’s dad was looking at the child like it was his whole world.
The moment was disrupted by fighting.
They fought, and Keith’s dad was hurt, and so was Krolias spirit.
“I must go.”
“I thought you’d seen enough war.”
Krolia had to go, but not before handing her knife over. Keith’s knife. It was so strange carrying that weapon around for so many years and finally getting all the puzzle pieces in place as to what the knife was and why he had it.
Krolia kissed Keith on the cheek, and with a bright light in the sky, she was gone.
Day 4-
Keith standing at his father’s grave.
His hands were clenched with an emotion he shouldn’t have experienced at such a young age.
He was a boy who wanted his father, but he was also a boy who wanted to be strong for his father. He tried to fight back the tears.
He couldn’t.
Day 41-
The doors of the desert tent opened to reveal Keith, his fists raised, a mask covering his face, and a mission seen in his eyes.
It only took him a few seconds to incapacitate every guard in the place, and then he walked over to the table Shiro was laid down on.
If Keith was being honest, it was hard to recognize him. He had a large metal arm, a long scar across his nose, and a tuft of white hair where it used to be black.
After processing what was in front of him, he began cutting the restraints off of his brother.
“Nope. No, no, no, no. No you don’t. I’m saving Shiro.”
Keith looked up to see a boy walking towards him. He had on an army jacket and blue and white baseball shirt. His deep blue eyes complimented his dark complection.
It was Lance, from the Garrison.
“Do I know you?” Keith asked. To this day, he still doesn’t know why he’d lied.
“Who am I? Uh, the name’s Lance… We were in the same class at the Garrison?”
“Really? Are you an engineer?”
“No! I’m a pilot! We were like, rivals. You know, Lance and Keith, neck and neck!”
“Oh, wait. I remember you. You’re a cargo pilot.”
“Well, not anymore. I’m fighter class now thanks to you washing out.”
“Well, congratulations.”
What followed was an exciting scene of fighting, running, and escaping to the same place the previous visions about Krolias life occured in- the shack in the desert.
Then, the vision ended.
In real time, Krolia had been adding twigs to the fire in their makeshift camp. Keith had just gotten back from hunting with his wolf.
“Who were they?” Krolia asked about the vision.
“The guy on the table was Shiro,” Keith began explaining, unsure how he could sum up his and Shiro’s relationship with words alone. “He took care of me after Dad… you know. He’s basically my brother. He disappeared for a year after going on a space mission. That vision was when I found him again.”
Krolia put the last twig in the fire and clapped her hands together, getting dirt off of them. “He looked after you?”
“Yeah. He was kinda all I had.”
Keith saw a brief look of guilt on Krolias face. A small part of him- the part of him that felt so alone during his early years on Earth- liked the look of guilt. He wanted her to feel the guilt. Even so, he felt bad. He finally understood the story behind her disappearance, and in the end she had done everything for him.
“I like him already,” She said with a smile. “Where is he now?”
Keith was about to explain until he made a realization. “Wait… how much do you know about my time in space?”
“Are you asking if I kept tabs on you?”
“I guess.”
“I did. When I got word from the other blades that there was a part human Galra who went through the trials, I investigated. I learned your name is Keith, and I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence.”
Krolia sat down by the fire. Keith followed her, his wolf laying his head on Keith’s lap.
“When I learned you were a paladin of voltron,” she continued on, “What else can I say except that I felt like a proud mama?”
Keith didn’t know how to reply to that, so he basically ignored it.
“Well, uh, Shiro’s the black paladin now. The other guys in that vision are the other paladins.”
“Tell me about them,” Krolia instructed.
Keith sighed. “I’m sure we’ll get more visions about them. I’ll explain then.”
Day 88-
Keith and the rest of the team were in the castle of lions on their first day in space. It was a short vision.
“Sendak could destroy the planet and come after us anyway,” Keith said, his arms crossed to the rest of the team. “Staying is our only option.”
Lance took a hand out of his pocket and stuck it in Keith’s face. “Here’s an option: Shut your quizznak!”
“I don’t think you’re using that word correctly,” Keith snapped back.
“What do you know, Mullet?”
The vision changed. Keith didn’t recognize it. He thought it was one of Krolias until he realized that it was from his future.
“Why’d you name your wolf ‘Yorak?’” Hunk asked.
The team was sitting in a grass plain. The sky was purple and there were two suns, so he knew it wasn’t earth. They were sitting against their lions and eating, and Keith wondered where the Castle of Lions was.
“That’s what my mom almost named me,” Keith said, taking another spoonful of his soup into his mouth.
There was a choking sound nearby, and Keith looked over to see Lance laughing through the soup caught in his throat.
“You… you were al- almost named Yorak?” He said between hacks.
“Man, shut up,” Keith replied.
“Sorry, sorry, but I can’t not imagine you as Yorak.” The rest of the team was starting to smile alongside Lance.
“The mighty paladins of Voltron!” Lance spoke in a fake announcer voice. “Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Allura, and Yorak!”
“You’re finding this way too funny,” Pidge told Lance, who started to choke again.
“Okay… Okay, i’m sorry,” Lance said, taking deep breaths. “I’ll stop.”
The gang continued to eat, but not only one minute later and Lance was cracking up again, tears filling his eyes.
Keith was laughing with him too, now. Future Keith, he was… Looking at Lance weirdly. Like he was trying to memorize every part of his face.
Before Keith could dwell on that, the vision stopped.
Krolia was smiling at the vision. Keith was feeling conflicted. It wasn’t exactly settling getting visions of your future.
“So, we get out of this place, then,” Keith said. “I reunite with them.”
That, he felt happy about. He was nervous about what happened between now and then, though. From the looks of the scar future Keith had, it wasn’t going to be easy.
“I wonder if i’ll meet them,” Krolia said.
“They’d like you,” Keith guessed. “Shiro will either yell at you or love you, though.”
“I understand that,” She accepted.
The two sat silently for a while, then Krolia spoke up.
“Tell me about Lance. It seems like your relationship changes a lot.”
“Uh, I guess,” Keith said. “He was the blue paladin, but now he’s the red paladin. We used to have a ‘rivalry’ but you saw that in the visions.”
“What about that last vision? You two seemed close.”
“Well, i’m close with the whole team. I guess Lance and I get on pretty good terms. He helped me out when I was the black paladin for a little bit. We still fight and stuff, though.”
Krolia didn’t say anything.
Day 127-
“Are you going to talk to Lance?” Hunk asked Keith.
It was another future vision. The two looked pretty similar to how they did in the other future vision, so they must’ve not been that far apart.
Keith had been in the black lion, and Hunk entered it to speak those words.
Keith saw futures Keith go bright red. “Ho- How do you know about that?”
“Lance told me.”
“Oh. Great,” Keith exclaimed, his hands balled into fists. “So he’s just telling everyone, huh?”
“Calm down,” Hunk said, his hands held up. “He just told me.”
“Well, save it. I’m not gonna talk about my feelings or whatever.”
“It’s causing tension in the team, though. You need to talk to him about it, because you know how thick Lance can be. He’s not going to come to you first.”
“We have nothing to talk about.”
Keith turned around, and he heard hesitant steps. Then, he heard the door of the black lion open and close, Hunk exiting it.
Keith took a deep breath, his shoulders falling. His face fell from a look of anger to one of vulnerability. After a few seconds of that, he kicked the chair in the lion and the vision ended.
“What was that about?” Krolia asked Keith, a look of concern and interest on her face.
“How should I know?” Keith snapped. “I’m getting tired of this whole ‘visions of the future’ thing.”
The vision made him uneasy. More than he cared to admit. The look on his face had been so hurt, so vulnerable. Keith tried to distance himself from others to avoid that same hurt he saw in the vision. The thought of that fear being a reality was frightening to Keith, more so when it was Lance who was hurting Keith.
“I don’t know… knowing us, it was probably just something stupid,” Keith lied.
Krolia looked at Keith, clearly seeing through his lie. She also seemed intrigued, like she’d just gotten a clue in a mystery she’d been working on for a while.
“What?” Keith asked.
“Nothing,” Krolia responded. She looked away.
Day 267-
As more time went on, the visions came less and less. Neither Keith nor Krolia knew why this was, but Keith was pretty thankful.
He liked getting visions of his mom's early years and the happy years he’d spent with his father and Shiro, but Keith also felt so open. At any time, Krolia could get a vision about something private in Keith’s life, something he didn’t want to share with anyone.
The visions didn’t limit themselves to crucial parts in the pairs lives, though. There had been one vision that was just Keith eating cereal for like ten minutes. One had been of Krolia flying her ship through planetless space for an hour. That had been a boring one.
As Keith had predicted on one of their first days on the space whale, they got lots of visions of voltron and Keith’s team mates, so Krolia inevitably learned a lot about them.
There was a vision of when Keith was introduced to Pidge’s brother and Krolia exclaimed, “I knew she’d find him,” as if she was following the plot of her favorite TV show.
They got a few glimpses into Keith and Hunks journey into the weblum, as well as when Keith first unlocked his Marmoran blade. He and his mother had a pretty in depth talk about their Galra heritage, and Keith found himself opening up about how he felt first finding out he was Galra.
Keith’s relationship with his mother had been a bit strained at first, even a little distrusting, but he found himself getting closer to her day by day. He wanted to tell her about his problems, and he wasn’t not a fan of her coddling him like the mother that she was.
It was nice to have that relationship, but it still didn’t rid Keith of the uneasiness he felt about having her as a witness to his visions.
Just as those thoughts swarmed Keith’s mind, another vision hit.
Keith knew instantly when and where this vision was. He knew because he had replayed the scene about a thousand times in his mind. Now, he was actually getting a replay of it.
“Lance, are you okay?” Keith asked.
Lance was slumped against the wall of the castles crystal room. His eyelids were fluttering open, his state of weakness shown in them.
Keith offered down his hand to the boy despite where their relationship had been at that point. Lance took it, though, and he took it strongly, as if it was his lifeforce. Keith got down on his knees to be at Lance’s level, their hands still clasped unyieldingly together.
Lance leaned forward, maybe in an attempt to get up, and Keith ghosted his arm over his back in case he needed the support.
Suddenly stopping, Lance looked directly into Keith’s eyes. “We did it,” he said, “we are a good team.”
Keith smiled, and so did Lance. That moment only lasted for a second, though, as Lance then proceed to collapse against Keith.
Keith looked down at him. It almost looked like he was taking a peaceful nap, and Keith couldn’t look away. In reality, he definitely had some internal bleeding. That wasn’t very peaceful.
“Uh, can I get some help here?” Keith asked, remembering that fact.
Pidge smirked, her arms crossed. “You two look like you’re finally getting along, huh?”
Keith was thrown out of the vision as quickly as he had been thrown into it.
Krolia had been putting some food over the fire as Keith was playing with his wolf. He looked over at Krolia and found that she had a small smirk on her face.
“What was that about?” She asked Keith.
“Uh, nothing?” Keith said. “Remember that ambush on the castle I told you about? That was after the battle.”
“No, not when that was. What that was.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You’re telling me that that little moment was nothing?” Krolia asked, an eyebrow raised.
“I mean… I guess?”
“Okay,” Krolia said, “but if you ask me i- ahh!”
Just then, Keith’s wolf teleported next to Krolia, stealing the recently cooked food out of her hand and eating it in one bite.
“Are you kidding me?” Krolia growled.
Keith only smirked. “That’s what you get for trying to analyze my vision.”
Day 499
The visions began to start singling Lance out.
At first it seemed like a coincidence how there were so many of the visions focusing on Lance, both past and present, but as the visions in general got less frequent, it was hard to ignore the fact that when they did happen, they seemed to only be about the red paladin.
Keith tried to come up with a list of reasons in his mind. Maybe he and Lance just hung out together more than they did with the other group in the future, and the raised number of Lance visions was accounting for that. Maybe it was because his and Lance’s relationship changed the most.
Even with all the scepticisms, Keith eventually had to admit to himself that he just didn’t know why Lance was such a prominent focus of the visions.
Keith did have one last theory: maybe it was because Lance was such a prominent person in his life.
Until the visions had started, Keith didn’t realize how centric his homesickness seemed to be on Lance. Keith missed the whole team, especially Shiro, but he found himself yearning for the comic relief Lance supplied him with; his non bullshit advice; his willingness to support Keith in the end.
Keith couldn’t explain it, but Lance took up a lot of his mind. Maybe that’s why he took up so many of his visions.
The most recent vision had been a short one.
The team, plus a mysteriously one armed, white haired Shiro, was stopped on a desert looking planet. They seemed to be doing maintenance on the lions. The castle was still yet to be seen, and it was making Keith nervous.
Future Keith was standing with his back against his lion, his arms crossed as Hunk and Pidge did their thing.
He glanced over to the red lion, where Lance was sitting and playing with the space mice. He was sat with his legs crossed and the mice running around in his hand. He was smiling down at them. He looked happy.
Then, Lance looked up to meet Keith’s gaze. When their eyes met, the happiness in Lance seemed to be sucked away. His smile was fading, but was still there, though there was no life in it. It was… disheartening to say the least.
Lance sighed, and his smile fell down completely. Keith had never been the best at picking up emotions, but the one Lance displayed then and there was easily identified: yearning. For Keith.
The vision stopped.
Keith knew that that had happened soon after what Keith referred to as the mystery vision. That was the one where Hunk came to talk to Keith about his and Lance’s fight. Throughout the many days Keith had been on the space whale, that vision was never elaborated on. It was never explained. The visions seemed to taunt Keith, only showing him before and after that vision, but never explaining what it was about.
Keith made eye contact with Krolia. They didn’t say anything.
Day 564
“I can’t replace Shiro! You guys were right, i’m the loner. I’m not the leader Shiro thought I was.”
Keith was angry in the vision. He was angry at the universe and all it had put him and Shiro through. Deep down, he knew how unreasonable he was being, but he didn’t care. He was done, and he just wanted Shiro back and the responsibility of the black lions claim off his shoulders.
As all of those feelings raced through his mind, a new weight was on his shoulder: Lances hand. Keith gasped at the sudden comfort, especially at the uncharacteristic source of it.
“Keith, no one can replace Shiro,” Lance spoke, his voice confident but holding specs of hurt, “but the Black Lion wouldn’t choose anybody it didn’t feel was worthy to lead Voltron.”
Lance looked deep into Keith’s eyes, anchoring his thoughts there and away from that deep anger he was feeling. In that moment, Lance was his lifeline.
“I respect it’s choice. You should, too.”
The vision suddenly changed, and Keith was transported somewhere he didn’t recognize. It was a planet with black, ghostly looking trees all about. The floor was a deep red, some places covered in lava.
“Fuck!” Future Keith exclaimed loudly. He was walking furiously, his helmet off. “This is all my fucking fault!”
Keith threw his helmet to the planet floor with a loud bang. He finally stopped walked, but he was still steaming with anger.
“Keith, calm down,” Lance said. His eyes were sad, and his voice sounded tired.
It was just Keith and Lance there, no one else.
“Calm down? An entire village was just wiped out and i’m supposed to calm down?”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Lance said, slightly wincing at the loud yelling.
“Yes, it was! If- if i’d gotten there in time instead of focusing on taking down the Galra ship, I could’ve protected them!”
“Okay, stop!” Lance yelled.
Keith did just that.
“It wasn’t your fault! Who knows what would’ve happened if you’d made one different decision. Probably the same thing, Keith! It was just us two and we wouldn’t have been able to protect them even if we had been there.”
Keith looked at him for a long time. It was as if he was turning over every stone in his mind; trying to find the best response that he could.
Instead of that articulate, well thought out response he could’ve planed, Keith just looked at Lance with furrowed eyebrows. “I’m just… tired of this. I just want to get home.”
Lance took his own helmet off, putting it down gently on the ground. His eyes were still sad, matching the new sadness of Keith’s eyes. Lance walked up to Keith and put his hands on each of his biceps, pressing slightly into them to comfort Keith.
“I know, Keith. We all do.”
“We’re not going to, though. Are we?” Keith borderline mumbled.
“Don’t talk like that. Of course w-”
The vision stopped there.
“Seriously?” Keith exclaimed at being thrown away from the vision so suddenly. “I hate when that happens!”
Keith and Krolia had just made it back to their camp after hunting. Krolia laid their findings on the ground as Keith grunted with frustration.
What had happened on that mission? Was that what the mystery vision was about? Lance and Keith seemed close in the vision, so was it before their fight? Was it after? Was it what caused the fight?
Keith was seriously done with all the vague visions.
Krolia was looking at Keith again. She did that after every vision with Lance.
Tired of that, Keith spoke up. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I… maybe we should have a talk,” Krolia said, sitting down next to Keith.
Keith looked at his mother skeptically. “A talk… this isn’t the sex talk, is it?”
“The what? Do human mothers really do that?” She asked. “Should I be giving you a sex talk?”
“Definitely not,” Keith said quickly.
“Oh, Okay. I want to talk about you and Lance.”
Keith was really uncomfortable now. Usually when anyone tried to have a deep talk with him, he’d just find an excuse to run away. There was no running, though. They were the only two souls on a big, flying whale.
“What about me and Lance?” Keith asked, his eyes squinted.
“You’re relationship,” She said bluntly.
Keith scooted away a bit. “You’re really weirding me out now. What about our relationship? I mean, we’re friends. Teammates.”
Krolia gave him a small, almost sympathetic smile. “Have you ever thought that… maybe you’re more than just friends?”
Gears started turning in Keith’s head, trying to figure out what she was saying. “What? You don’t- you don’t seriously think that we’re like, into eachother, do you?”
Her eyes- the way she looked at Keith- showed him that that was exactly what she was implying.
The blood in Keith’s veins went cold. “We’re just friends! I’d never… romantically like Lance, and he sure as hell would never like me.”
“Why do you say that?” She asked. “Maybe you just think that because you don’t want to admit to yourself that you want something to happen between you two.”
“Why do you even think that there’s one tiny bit of romance between us?” Keith asked. “Because there isn’t!”
“Over the past year and a half i’ve seen Lance from your perspective. All the visions of you two are from your perspective, and I see the way you see him! You’d never admit it, but you admire him, and you like it when you two are close. You’re glad your rivalry is over, and you want to get closer to him. Just not in a friend way.”
Keith scoffed loudly. That woke his wolf up from the nap she was taking. She looked over at the bickering pair and decided she wasn’t interested in what they were doing. She put her head back down and went to sleep again.
“I know you can’t see it, but Lance thinks the same thing!” Krolia continued. “I guarantee he likes you back. The way he comforts you… the way you let him comfort you. You’re so good for eachoth-”
“Can you just stop trying to figure me out!” Keith snapped, nervously laughing. He was standing now, as if the closer he was to Krolia, the closer he’d be to the point she was making. “You’re my mom, and you’ve seen a few little visions, but you don’t know everything about my friends and my relationships. You don’t know everything about me. You made sure of that when you left me!”
That hit Krolia hard. Keith regretted it the second he said it, but it was too late.
She backed up a few steps as Keith did, her face full of guilt and anger.
“You- you know why I left,” she said. “That doesn’t have anything to do with this.”
Keith didn't say anything. He was still feeling angry at Krolia, even if he did regret the comment.
“Look,” She said, taking a deep breath, “I’m just telling you what i’ve seen over the past year and a half. I know that I don’t know everything about you, but I know what i’ve seen. Do what you want with what I told you. Ignore it if you want, but I don’t regret telling you. It’s for your own good.”
“Whatever,” Keith scoffed a few seconds later. “I’m out of here.”
He picked up his blade and started to walk back to the woods.
“Where are you going?” Krolia asked.
“Hunting again,” he answered back. “I’m kinda in the mood to kill something.”
Day 631-
Things were a bit awkward between the mother and son pair after that.
Neither of them made formal apologies, so they both silently elected to never talk about that conversation again. Whenever there was a vision with Lance in it, the two made awkward eye contact for a few seconds and then pretended it never happened.
That certainly didn’t stop Keith from thinking about the conversation, though. He tried to ignore Krolias words, but once someone points out something as complicated as romance, it’s like a seed. It can’t do anything but grow and take up more space in Keith’s mind.
Keith found himself thinking over basically every conversation he and Lance had ever had, trying to see any romantic intent. Thanks to the visions, he could actually re experience some of those conversations.
Keith was in hell. It was hell.
How should he know how romance or crushes or whatever work? His whole life he’d been a bit more preoccupied with things like his parents leaving and/or dying, not romance.
Keith just wanted someone to tell him how he was feeling, because he sure as hell couldn’t figure it out himself.
The vision that day was of the past.
It was shortly after Shiro had disappeared, and the team was in the lounge.
“Keith would be the worst leader of Voltron!” Lance commented as Keith sulked against the wall.
“Yeah,” Pidge agreed, “We all have our thing. Keith’s the loner, i’m the brain, Hunk’s the nice one, Allura’s the decision maker, Coran’s the old wise guy, and Lance is the goofball.”
“Mhm, exactly. Totally right- wait a minute,” Lance replied, “I’m not the goofball! I’m like the cool ninja sharpshooter.”
Keith looked at Lance, who was sitting with his arms crossed and one knee propped up against the couch. “Are you joking?” He laughed.
Lance snapped at Keith, standing up and pointing at him from across the room. “I’m being completely serious when I say that I don’t want you to lead me anywhere!”
The scene changed to a few days later. The team, per Keith's orders, were stuck chasing Lotor through dangerous terrain.
Lotor was getting away, but Keith’s team was falling apart. With adrenaline racing through his veins and a clear, unwavering mission of destroying Lotor, Keith advanced forward.
That is, until Lance followed.
“Keith, we have to go back for Allura!” Lance said, his voice stern, which helped hide the panic that was also in his voice.
Keith tried to tune him out, growling with anger and keeping his sights set on Lotor.
“Keith, you’re splitting up the team!” Lance said, most definitely meaning it in more ways than the literal sense. “Keith, don’t do this!”
Making the decision in a split second, Keith yelled with anger and turned the lion away, his enemy slipping out of his reach.
The scene changed to only a few minutes later. It was right after the team had fallen apart while chasing Lotor.
After what seemed like an eternity of searching for his teammates, Keith finally found a distinct pair of pale yellow eyes glowing in the distance. He advanced cautiously and was relieved to hear Lance’s voice on the comms.
“What happened back there?” Lance asked, his voice frantic. “Where’s the rest of the team?”
Though Keith was relieved to have found one of his friends, it dawned on him that the reason they were all separated- maybe some of them hurt- was because of Keith. That broke him in the moment.
“This is all my fault,” Keith answered, his voice full of every emotion he’d repressed over the past days. “I followed him right into this trap. Everyone warned me but… I didn’t listen. I put the entire team in jeopardy.”
“Yeah, you kinda did,” Lance said, a bit of gloating in his voice. Then, his voice hardened as he remembered the situation. “But now we gotta fix it.”
“You’re right,” Keith said, his voice adapting that same, new firmness. “Let’s go.”
That, conveniently, was where the vision ended, and Keith was thrown back to the present.
Both Krolia and Keith had just lied down and were beginning to drift off to sleep when those visions hit.
Keith sat up, and Krolia put her arms under her head. They shared that awkward eye contact again, but they were both silent.
Keith did what he always did and tried to dissect every little bit of those visions. The first one was a pretty accurate representation of the negative side of his and Lance’s relationship; their early rivalry. Keith couldn’t find any romance there. Of course, that did lead to Lance comforting Keith and encouraging him to pilot black.
The second and third vision made Keith think of something Krolia had said. She’d called Lance Keith’s security. As much as Keith wanted to admit it, she was right. As much as he pissed him off, Lance kept Keith anchored. He pointed out things the other teammates didn’t have the guts to say, but he was also caring. He cared about Keith.
Throwing in the towel alongside his dignity, Keith opened his mouth and spoke the words he’d only thought for the past 70 days.
“How… how can I tell if there’s something, you know, romantic about me and Lance?”
Krolias head snapped over to look at Keith, no doubt shocked about the sudden lift on the silent don’t-talk-about-this topic.
“What do you mean?” She asked, sitting up as well. The space wolf moved to put her head on Krolias lap.
“I’m not saying that you’re right, but i’ve just been thinking, and… if there is something between me and Lance, how do I notice?”
Krolia sighed. “I think you’re going about this from the wrong angle.”
“Okay, so how do I go about this, oh wise one?” Keith asked, huffing angrily.
“Don’t try and force romance from how you and Lance act together. First, make up your mind on how you feel about him,” She said. “How you really feel about him.”
“But that’s the thing!” Keith said. “I don’t know! It’s not like i’ve had many crushes.”
“Just… talk about him,” Krolia said. “Tell me about him, and don’t give me the fake nonsense. There’s no teammates here to rat on you, just tell me everything.”
Keith took a deep breath, and he just thought about Lance. How he felt around him. How he looked. “He… can be a jerk. He can be a huge, giant jerk, but… he really cares about people. He always listens to your problems, no matter what he’s going through. Lance is the kind of person who buries his shit deep, and even when it’s killing him, he puts all his energy into helping others with whatever their problem is.”
It felt freeing, being able to say all that. He continued. “He’s a real good fighter. He boasts about it and we make jokes, but he definitely isn’t a clutz. Well, maybe he was at first, but he trains almost as much as me, and he works hard at being good. Sometimes when he’s fighting, I kinda just wanna stop and watch him. He gets this really serious look on his face.”
“That’s another thing,” Keith said, starting to smile. “He has a weird face. Not like, in an ugly way or anything, because that’s not true in the slightest. It’s just- he looks so goofy and childish, but when he’s fighting, he completely transforms. He looks like someone you would not want to piss off.”
“He’s really warm, by the way. He put his arm around me one time, as a joke, and that guy is like a personal heater. It’s… nice. He also smells so good. Like cinnamon a-”
Keith stopped talking abruptly. He looked at Krolia, who had her arms crossed and a very smug look on her face.
“Fuck,” Keith said. “I have a crush on Lance.”
Krolia just raised her eyebrows, as if silently saying “well, duh.”
The two were quiet for a while, Keith borderline having a nervous breakdown, and Krolia… watching Keith borderline have a nervous breakdown.
“What do I do?” Keith asked quietly, as if he didn’t want the surrounding trees to hear. “Lance… he wouldn’t like me back. He never would. And even if he did, who says we could even have a- a relationship. We’re in the middle of a war! And I don’t know how to do relationsh-”
“Keith,” Krolia said, calming him down.
“...yeah?”
“You like him.”
“... yeah.”
“Would you want to have a relationship with him?”
“That’s not the issue! The issue is t-”
“Keith. Ignore everything else. Just picture yourself together. Being there for eachother, holding each other. Having each other. Would you want to have a relationship with him?”
Keith sighed. He thought about Lance’s warm hands in Keith’s cold ones. He thought about openly looking at him like the entire universe was in his eyes.
The quiet on the whale was almost haunting. He felt like his voice was a loud bellow, despite being nothing louder than a whisper. “Yes.”
“Alright, then,” Krolia said, her voice loud against the silence as well.
“But… there’s just so many factors. And who says Lance even likes me back?” Keith scoffed, so much emotion suddenly in his voice. “Who says he even likes-” Boys, Keith thought. “ -you know.”
“I’m pretty confident that he likes you, too,” Krolia said, a warm smile on her face. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you in the visions.”
Keith didn’t believe her. She was just saying that to be nice. Great, another thing to sulk about.
“Besides,” Krolia said a few seconds later, a small smirk on her face. “Us Koganes usually get what we want.”
Keith lightly laughed at that, though his heart was still heavy. The two were quiet for a few minutes.
“Well this has been a… conversation,” Keith said, deciding that he couldn’t choose a single word to describe all that they talked about. “I think we should get some sleep.”
“I agree.”
“At least we’re starting to agree on things.”
Krolia laughed. So did Keith.
Day 702-
“We’re getting close,” Keith pointed out.
Their target had seemed so far away all those days ago. At the beginning, it seemed like getting there was a dream; it felt like a goal that would never be met.
Now, with the target a matter of days away, Keith was both excited about and dreading the days ahead.
Being stuck on the space whale was frustrating, especially with the visions. It was also weirdly comfortable. The only thing they had to worry about on the whale was not starving and getting to their target. It was a simple mission, but at least it was predictable. Everything was laid out and neat.
The days to come, those would be a mixed bag of war and fighting and confusion. Also, family and happiness, if the visions were correct about Keith reuniting with his friends. Add in Keith’s newly discovered crush on Lance, and you had a big old bag of unpredictability.
“Are you nervous?” Krolia asked Keith.
Keith sighed slightly. “A bit.”
“Me too,” Krolia said.
Whatever reply Keith was thinking up was interrupted by a vision.
The team was on a bland rock planet. Keith didn’t recognize it, so he guessed it was from the future. There was still no castle of lions, but the team put up a few tents.
Everyone was asleep but Keith. He was outside, laying his back against a large boulder. He’d taken off his armor and was twirling his knife between his fingers. His hair was about as long as present day Keith’s hair was, so the vision must not be that far away.
Keith did have that same large cut on his cheek that he saw in other visions. It looked pretty fresh, which showed that that injury wasn’t too far away in Keith’s future. That made him even more nervous for the days to come.
“Hey,” a voice said. Keith looked up to see Lance standing over him.
“Hey.”
“Couldn’t sleep?” Lance asked.
“Nah,” Keith answered. “With everything that happened today… I guess i’m still pretty hopped up. You?”
“Same.”
“... Wanna join me?” Keith asked, a bit of hesitation to his voice.
“Oh, uh, yeah. Sure.”
Lance sat next to Keith. He was out of his armor as well and he looked just as exhausted as Keith felt.
“Shiro’s gonna be okay, you know,” Lance said a few seconds later. He said it confidently, as if it was a fact. “He’s been through a lot. He’ll pull through.”
“I sure hope so,” Keith said, laughing nervously.
The two didn’t talk much. There were some animals in the woods that made chirping noises. They didn’t seem to be aggressive or harmful, but the noise was kind of pleasant against the silence. The two looked up at the stars.
“Sorry for snapping at you earlier,” Keith said.
“Did… you just apologize?” Lance said, turning to look at him.
“Uh… yeah?”
Lance snickered. “Who are you and where’s the Keith I know? 2 years in space with your mom and suddenly you’re nice.”
Keith laughed. “What, I wasn’t nice before?”
“Are you kidding me?” Lance asked. “You’re many things, Keith, but nice is not one of them.”
“Oh so I guess i’m just a horrible person,” Keith said sarcastically.
“Hey, I didn’t say that,” Lance corrected. “You’re a good person, you just… weren’t the most kind person. But that’s changed.”
“A lot has changed,” Keith pointed out.
“Yeah… kinda scary.”
“Yeah.”
The two didn’t talk for a bit longer, but the silence was comfortable.
“Keith?” Lance asked a few minutes later, a dagger puncturing the silence.
“Hm?”
“It’s really good to have you back, man.”
Keith sighed and looked at Lance. The two were sitting close, Keith noticed. “It’s really good to be back.”
The vision changed.
“Good mission, guys,” Keith told the team. They were on a planet Keith had never seen before, and everyone looked tired. It must have been a pretty heavy mission.
Keith looked pretty similar to how he did in the previous vision, so it probably wasn’t too far in the future.
At Keith’s comment, everyone said goodnight and went to their individual lions to sleep.
Everyone but Lance left.
“Can… can we talk?” Lance asked, his voice full of hesitation and maybe a bit of fear.
“I guess,” Keith said.
The vision must’ve been about that mystery fight. Present day Keith, the onlooker that he was to the visions, clenched his fists in anticipation.
“I’m sorry,” Lance said.
“For what?” Keith asked. He didn’t even look at Lance; he was staring straight ahead, as if that would make the situation go away. The way Keith spoke those words definitely showed that he knew exactly what Lance was apologizing for.
“You know what,” Lance monotoned.
“There’s nothing to apologize for. You made things… pretty clear. I just have to deal with them.” The way Keith spoke those words scared present day Keith, just like that one look he made in the black lion all those visions ago. His words showed a deep vulnerability. A weak spot.
Lance groaned out loud, like he had all these words to say but no idea how to say them. “But I didn’t make things clear! I was just taken by surprise, Keith.”
Keith finally looked at Lance, raising his hands out, as if he was surrendering. “Look, you don’t need to explain yourself. It’s my fault for saying anything. Can we just pretend it never happened?”
“No,” Lance said.
“Do you want to fucking torture me or s-”
“No,” He repeated, “because I don’t want to pretend it never happened. Because i-” Lance laughed nervously. “I just… Back there, emotions were high, and you were angry, and then you told me… you know, and I just freaked! I didn’t know how to handle it because… Keith, I-”
That’s where the vision ended. Keith gasped and opened his eyes to find himself on the space whale.
Keith wasn’t angry at the vision cutting away just as he was getting answers to the questions he’s kept for so many days. He wasn’t angry, he was tired. Tired of having to dig into his own mind and his own emotions and confront all of this shit.
Keith built walls up around himself for a reason, but all of those were being forcibly taken by the space whale, and the visions, and the never ending days. And, most of all, Lance.
“I want to get off of this stupid whale,” Keith told Krolia.
Krolia held a bit of sadness in her eyes, borderlining pity. “I know. Only a few more days.”
Keith sighed with frustration. It was clear that Krolia wanted to say something, but she waited for Keith to start off the conversation.
“At this point, I have no idea what’s happening in the future,” He said.
“Isn’t that how it’s supposed to be?”
“Yeah, but it’s just… confusing, having all of these vague visions of the future and having no idea where they fit.” Keith weirdly wanted to cry.
“I have a feeling you’re talking about your future with a specific person,” Krolia said gently.
Keith just sighed. That was enough of an answer.
“I know this isn’t the best answer,” Krolia said, “But I think you just have to let it all happen. Trying to figure out or recreate these visions won’t lead anywhere good, nor will trying to change them.”
“I still just… don’t know what to do about Lance.”
“If you want my opinion on what happens, I think that you confess to him in that vision where you’re yelling about a mission gone wrong. I think he does something that upsets you, but then you work it out.”
“But what does work it out mean? If Lance reacts badly to me confessing… shouldn’t I just not confess?”
“I think all the stuff in the visions are destined to happen,” Krolia said. “I don’t think they can change. Even if you put all of this stuff off, it’s still going to happen. Better to get it over with.”
Keith didn’t say anything, and neither did Krolia. They were silent for a long time, basking in their last days on the space whale.
A question came to Keith, and as he asked it, he felt that vulnerability he saw and heard in the visions. That was the first time that he realized that the visions were his reality. They were going to happen, and Keith was going to experience them and their emotions.
“There were no visions of me and Lance… together. Like, together together. Doesn’t that mean that we don’t get together?” He asked, his heart aching.
Krolia didn’t answer for a few seconds. “Maybe the visions don’t want to spoil it for you,” she said. “They’re saving all the good stuff for you to discover.”
Keith didn’t answer. He took a deep breath and thought about how they’d be off the whale in a matter of days.
He took a deep breath and readied himself for the future.
95 days later-
Keith dismissed the team. They all obviously needed sleep and time to heal. With the galra empire falling into chaos after Lotors death, the missions were more frequent. With no one to answer to, the Galra just did what they wanted to.
That included wiping out villages just for the hell of it. Keith and Lance had been a witness to that. That mission had been a hard one, not only for that reason.
Keith had instantly recognized the planet as the one in the vision, so he knew what was to come. He tried to take a different course of action, doing things differently as he did in the vision in an effort to save the people.
Krolia was right, though. Keith tried to do things differently, but it still ended up the same way. The village still died. The events of the visions would transpire no matter what. It was like destiny. A shitty destiny.
Keith and Lance were in the woods, and Keith was yelling, and Lance was comforting him. Keith knew all of that was going to happen. Then, Lance grabbed his shoulders and that’s as far as Keith had forseen.
How that ended was Keith realizing that he needed Lance. Lance, as Krolia had said, stabilized and anchored him. He reminded him of the important things. He needed Lance, and with that realization and the emotion in the air, Keith confessed.
“I… I like you, Lance. In more ways than just a friend,” Keith had said, sweat on his face and anger still leaving his body.
Lance had been silent for a few seconds. “What, like… romantically?”
Keith didn’t answer, but his expression was enough of an answer.
The two were silent for a long time, until Lance replied with a simple, “I… okay. We should get back to the team.” And so they left, not exchanging another word for the entire trip back to the teams rendezvous point.
The visions made much more sense after that heartbreak. Hunk talked to Keith in the black lion about the awkwardness between Lance and Keith after that, and Keith living that expression of vulnerability he had so dreaded.
What Keith didn’t get visions of was his talk with Shiro about everything, not only Lance but also the pressure of trying to get back to Earth and the newfound pressures of being the permanent black paladin. He also didn’t get visions of the awkward and heart wrenching encounters Lance and Keith were forced to make on missions after that.
That lead to Keith standing there as his team left to get rest. Lance hung back, and Keith instantly recognized the vision that he was about to live.
He knew the scene inside and out, so he was prepared, but what he wasn't prepared for was the raw emotion of the exchange between the two boys. Every word Keith spoke came out like sandpaper against his throat. Every word Lance spoke was like a knife to his heart.
That is, until the part Keith had already seen was over.
“No,” Lance said, “because I don’t want to pretend it never happened. Because I- I just… Back there, emotions were high, and you were angry, and then you told me… you know, and I just freaked! I didn’t know how to handle it because…” His hesitation was so silent between the two. The breaks he took were a loud silence. A silence that’s thrown in your face. That’s what made his next words against that silence that much more impactful. “I like you, too.”
“What?” Keith asked, his voice breathy and caught off guard. He looked at Lance's face, and it was nervous. It was emotional. The emotion he saw in his expression was the emotion Keith had felt when he confessed.
“I have for a while,” he said with another nervous laugh. “I just convinced myself that it would never happen. I mean, we practically hated each other, so I leaned into that. I distanced myself from the fact that i- I like you by trying to convince myself that I hated you.”
Lance was silent for a bit. Keith knew he hadn’t finished talking, though, so he just let the silence happen.
“That kinda fell apart when you left,” Lance said. He wasn’t looking Keith in the eye. “I realized how much I missed you, and that I don’t hate you. Not at all. I think I knew that a long time ago, though. So… I know that I reacted like a jerk. I’d do anything to take it back. I think that I thought that you were just kidding. I couldn’t comprehend the fact that… you liked me back.”
The two were silent for a long time. It was dark outside, the planets sun not being out. Keith could still make out Lance’s complection, though. He couldn’t see much else around him, just Lance. He just saw Lance.
“Can you comprehend it now?” Keith asked, daggers again puncturing silence.
The two made eye contact. They hadn’t done that in a long time, and it was like a gate opening up to let all the emotions between the two be exposed to the world. To be exposed to each other.
“I’m starting to,” Lance whispered.
Keith realized then how close the two now were. He didn’t know when that happend. It felt like some force wanted them to be closer. They were like magnets, and they themselves were the only things keeping them separated.
That changed when their lips pressed together. It was light at first; they were hesitant, neither party wanting to mess up the kiss.
They pulled apart to look at eachother, a slight look of shock on their faces. Then, Lance’s mouth slowly pulled into this big, goofy grin, and Keith’s heart did cartwheels.
Lance put his hand on the back of Keith’s head and pulled him in. They kissed again, and this time there was no hesitation. They kissed for an eternity, and it was perfect.
Keith realized then that Krolia had been right. The kiss was something only to be experienced in the now. Witnessing it in a vision would’ve taken something away from the moment between the two.
Things had finally fallen into place, and for the first time since the space whale, Keith felt like he truly had an idea of what the future held for him.
What the future held for him was Lance.
Keith knew that things would be okay in the end. He couldn’t explain it… he just knew.
Things would be okay.