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If there was one thing Keith was used to, it was being alone. Whether it be in a desert shack or a Galaxy Garrison, solitude was his default state of being.
He had trouble being on a massive ship with six other people, so having most of those people rooting around in his brain was damn near his worst nightmare.
This terrible idea was courtesy of the Princess, who thought for some reason that this would make the team work better together. She’d given each of them a hat machine thing which, apparently, gave them a mental link to one another. If that wasn’t bad enough, their thoughts were broadcast over their heads for all to see.
The only reason Keith agreed to this was sitting next to him, a holographic image of the garrison in front of his closed eyes. They didn’t deserve his thoughts, Keith thought bitterly, not after how they treated him when he came back.
On his other side, Hunk’s mind was seemingly cooking up theories about how these devices worked exactly. The complicated schematics fizzled out slightly as Pidge put on the hat, a fuzzy image coming in and out of focus in front of him.
Lance, of course, hadn’t put the machine on yet and was arguing with the princess.
“I’m just not sure the others will survive coming into contact with a mind as amazing as mine.” He was saying, a sleazy smirk on his face.
“I assure you there will be no such issues.” The Princess replied coolly. “If you could please put it on and focus on your Lion.”
“But, I mean, is this really necessary? I think with a little more time we could totally-“
“Lance would you just put on the damn machine.” Keith cut in, teeth gritted. Lance immediately turned to him with narrowed eyes.
“Throwing glass in houses much, mullet? I don’t see you wearing that thing.” Keith felt his eye twitch.
“That’s not how- god you’re so annoying.”
“You’re not so fun yourself y’know! I bet when you put that thing on the only thoughts we’ll see will be about your training regimen.”
Keith scowled and went to retort, when he felt a metal hand on his knee. He took a deep breath and turned away from the blue paladin, putting the stupid hat on and watching his shack pop up in front of him.
A moment later he heard a massive sigh, and turned to see Lance finally putting on the machine. A group of people appeared in front of him, there had to be at least a dozen of them. They each had Lance’s dark hair and tan skin, and there was a woman in the middle who’s smile looked exactly like Lance’s-
Keith closed his eyes, feeling suddenly like he was intruding on something private. He could feel the image floating just outside of his mind, though, as his connection to the others slowly filtered in.
Shiro was the first to focus on his Lion, Keith could almost see it float to the center of their circle in his mind’s eye. Hunk followed suit, the yellow lion joining the black one in the center. Pidge seemed to be struggling to focus, the image from before still cutting through the Lion he was trying to form. Keith turned his attention to red, and when he felt her presence in his mind he brought her forward to meet the rest.
Several seconds passed like that, with Green still glitching in and out and Blue nowhere to be found. Annoyed, Keith opened his eyes for a moment. In front of him, Lance also had his eyes open, though they were glazed over and locked onto the image of his family in front of him.
As if feeling his gaze, Lance’s eyes snapped to him and then closed, Blue quickly taking her place in front of him. After a moment, Keith closed his eyes as well.
The Lions moved towards each other, with Green still glitching in and out.
“Focus, Green Paladin.” Allura called.
“I’m trying.” He grunted. “Hunk is in my brain.”
“Hunk.” Shiro warned.
“Sorry Shiro. Sorry Pidge.”
The Lions continued towards each other, nearly touching, when Green suddenly turned into a picture of Pidge with some girl.
“Hunk!” The boy yelled, prying off his hat and throwing it on the ground.
“Sorry! I’m sorry, Pidge, I was just so curious. I won’t do it again!”
Pidge sighed.
“Listen. I’m tired. We’ve been training all day trying to form Voltron and we’re not getting closer.”
“Pidge is right.” Shiro spoke up. “Let’s all take a break for a few hours, we can continue when everyone is cooled off.”
“A break?” Allura asked disbelievingly. “Paladins of Voltron do not take breaks.”
Keith checked out as Shiro stood to hopefully deal with the Princess. Pidge was already out of the room when Shiro finished talking and Hunk hopped on the opportunity for a break, leaving the room as well.
Lance was, surprisingly, still there. He had the machine on still and was once again staring at his family. When he saw Keith looking he pulled a face.
“What are you staring at, Mullet? Don’t you have a My Chemical Romance song to listen to or something?”
“I don’t know what that is.” Keith said flatly.
“Of course you don’t.” Lance rolled his eyes.
Keith bristled and stood, he could at least use this time to familiarize himself with the training room.
———
By the time Keith decided he’d seen enough of the training room for the day, it was a few hours into the night cycle. Maybe, he reflected, he’d gone a little overboard.
He finally exited into the hallway and began making his way to his room. He was trying to recall which way to go when he heard a sound echo down the dark hallways.
Keith’s hand instinctively went towards his mother’s knife, hidden on his person. He flattened himself to the wall and began to advance in the direction of the noise, breathing shallowly so as to not let whoever it was know that he was approaching.
After a few minutes of slowly creeping through the corridors, Keith found himself outside of the common room where, just hours earlier, the disastrous mind meld had taken place.
Heart pounding, Keith stretched his neck out to the edge of the doorway, more and more of the dimly lit room being revealed to him until he could see-
Lance, sitting on the floor with the mind meld machine on his head, staring, unmoving, at the image before him.
“Jesus.” Keith said, the word echoing in the silence and making Lance jump and rip the machine from his head. “What the hell are you doing here this late?” Keith complained, crossing his arms as his heart rate slowly returned to normal.
Lance’s face flickered from shock to some other emotion, and finally landed on annoyance.
“What are you doing here, Mullet?” Lance’s voice wavered slightly before settling back into his usual annoying whine, albeit with an edge that wasn’t usually there. “I don’t know what’s freakier, you suddenly appearing or that hairstyle.”
Keith hesitated slightly, taking in Lance’s lightly shaking hands and his curled in posture, so different from anything he’d seen on the boy so far.
“Seriously, shouldn’t you be getting your beauty sleep or something?” It dawned on Keith when Lance’d expression shifted to anger that he may have come off harsher than intended.
“Whatever, Keith.” The boy spit, before shouldering past him into the hallway. Just before he disappeared around the corner, Keith thought he saw a wet glimmer beneath Lance’s eye.
A sinking feeling came over Keith. He looked back to the common room where the machine was sat on the floor, Allura having hoped that the team would have another go at it eventually.
Keith found his room soon after, but it took a while for him to fall asleep.
———
The next morning was like nothing happened. At breakfast, Lance looked like he did any other day. Keith kept stealing glances towards him, but the boy didn’t even look his way.
After breakfast the team converged in the common room, where the Alteans were waiting for them. The mind meld machine was nowhere to be seen.
“Paladins, we will continue your training to form Voltron.” Allura announced.
“Are we doing the brain thing again?” Lance asked casually. Allura winced.
“Ah, we’ve decided that that exercise may not be helpful in your current situation. We’ve put the machine back in storage for now while we try different methods.”
Keith’s gaze flickered to Lance’s face just in time to catch a flash of painful resignation before it was gone. Lance’s eyes flickered to him for a moment and he quickly looked away.
The feeling in the pit of Keith’s stomach returned. Keith didn’t know exactly what he’d cut short, but he could guess. As Allura finished her explanation and the team began walking towards the hangars, Keith had an idea. He pulled the Princess aside for a moment.
———
“They put it on the sixth floor, third door to the right.” Keith said quietly, keeping his eyes fixed forward.
They were in the training room watching Pidge and Shiro spar. They were supposed to be paying attention to their teammates’ fighting styles so they could cover each other better in battle. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lance turn to stare at him. After a few moments he looked back to Pidge and Shiro.
“Okay.” He said, and touched his shoulder to Keith’s. The spot of warmth’s kept Keith from focusing for the rest of the match.
———
Keith could not fall asleep. He’d been laying awake for almost an hour, but his mind wouldn’t stop whirring. He couldn’t stop thinking about if Lance had gone to find the machine or not, then cursing his brain for going back to that topic.
He slid out of bed. It was just for the sake of his sleep that he was checking, he reasoned, He didn’t need to care about Lance to want to be rested.
Keith made his way to the elevator and eventually found the room that Allura had described. It was storage for some of the larger and more fragile things in the castle. Keith stopped before the entrance and listened. There was a quiet noise that could have been breathing, or maybe just the vents of the ship.
He crept further forward and a large mirror came into sight. Through it he could see the blue paladin, hooked up to the machine once again. Keith held his breath, waiting for Lance to notice him and freak out, but the boy seemed entirely focused on the people in the image before him.
He was sitting on the floor, facing the machine with his side to the mirror. He was unusually still, only rocking slowly back and forth.
Mission accomplished. Now all he had to do was leave unnoticed. In just a moment he would go back the way he came and go to sleep.
But Lance was so laser focused on his family, it was a look he hadn’t seen on the boy before the mind meld, and Keith couldn’t seem to pull his gaze away.
Usually the Blue Paladin would be smirking, winking or insulting him. In each case his face was set in what Keith had thought was a permanent smug expression. But looking at him now, Lance seemed almost calm. His eyes were slightly narrowed in pain, or joy. Keith couldn’t tell. His arms were still for once, not waving along to whatever he said.
Keith found himself contemplating this new side to the boy he’d thought was just an annoying, shallow dick. He watched silently for a few minutes.
After a while Lance sighed.
“You know,” he said quietly, though it still boomed in the silence, “if you can see me through the mirror, I can see you back.”
Keith froze. Lance’s head turned to meet his gaze through the glass.
“I-I’m sorry.” Keith rushed out. “I’ll just- go now.”
“Wait!” Lance said, and his hands started fidgeting again. “Thank you. For telling me where she put this thing.”
“Oh, yeah.” Keith rubbed the back of his neck. “No problem, man.”
“Seriously.” Lance reiterated. “It means more than you know.”
Keith hesitated, before deciding fuck it, he may as well ask the question that had been plaguing him.
“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” he began, “but, why are you staring at your family in silence?” He finished a bit awkwardly.
Lance smiled sheepishly. “It’s kinda weird isn’t it?” He sighed, taking off his the headpiece and leaving the room to face Keith. “I just have, like, a lot of family. I worry sometimes that,” Lance stopped and swallowed, “that eventually I won’t be able to remember all of them. Their faces. I thought if I did this I’d have a better chance. When you think about it, though, that’s kind of a terrible plan.” Lance sighed.
“Why?” Keith asked.
“Well, the picture is based on my memory of them.” He wraps his arms around himself. “If I start forgetting them it could just warp until it stops looking like them at all. I wouldn’t even know. Theoretically, I could have already been staring at a completely wrong version of them.”
Lance’s eyes look haunted as he explains himself. Keith feels the inexplicable need to comfort his rival.
“I mean, it probably won’t happen that fast. The picture you’ve been looking at so far is probably accurate.”
“I guess, but it definitely won’t be in the long run.” He sounds defeated. Exhausted and quiet and the exact opposite of everything Keith has come to associate with Lance. Despite this, there’s still a wry smile on his face.
Keith decides to say something he may very well regret.
“I could draw them for you.”
Lance’s eyes snap back to his.
“What?”
Keith shifts uncomfortably.
“I draw sometimes. I could draw them for you so the image doesn’t change.”
“You draw? I didn’t know that.” Lance says, and his hands come back up to narrate.
“I don’t exactly advertise it.” Keith admits. “But I have my sketchbook in my room and a few pencils.”
“You have to show me!” Lance exclaims.
“It’s not like, amazing. Don’t expect it to look like a photo.” He warns. It doesn’t seem to dampen Lance’s excitement.
Together, they make their way to Keith’s room. Lance talks all the while about one of his brothers who liked to draw. Keith listened as Lance spun a story about said brother getting in trouble for drawing his teacher as a demon, and leaving the picture in class.
By the time they got to Keith’s room Lance was practically vibrating. Keith pulled the sketchbook out from one of his drawers and had to dodge the boy’s attempts to snatch the book right out of his hands. He rifled through the pages, finding a few drawings that he liked and was willing to show Lance. One of a mother and her daughter that he had seen visiting the Garrison, one of a fox he’d seen in the desert and one of Shiro in the middle of training back on earth.
“Woah. Keith these are like, amazing.” Keith flushed slightly at the praise, and Lance did too when he seemingly realized what he said. “I mean, I could totally do better if I practiced as much as you did, of course.”
“Of course.” Keith smirked.
“But I suppose it would be considered impressive by the general public.”
“Good enough for a family photo?”
Lance’s eyes softened. “Yeah, I’d say so.” He closed the book and handed it back to Keith. They went back up to the room in silence, but it was the most comfortable silence there had been between them by far. Lance only started talking when Keith started to sketch.
As Keith drew the people before him, Lance introduced them to him one by one. He had countless stories about each family member, enough that by the time Keith felt he was finished capturing their likeness, he also felt that he knew them somewhat.
One by one he got to know each sibling, each aunt, each uncle. Hours flew by with the scratch of his pencil and the melody of Lance’s voice. By the time Keith got to Lance’s parents it was early morning. He gave them special attention, giving Lance time to talk him through memories of them from when he was a kid, all the way to when he went to the garrison.
Finally, by the time the team would be waking up, he was done. He hesitated before showing Lance, making sure the drawing was as accurate as it was gonna get before finally handing him the sketchbook.
Lance’s eyes shone with unshed tears as he gazed at the page, taking in the faces of his family members. Keith fidgeted, anxiously awaiting his assessment.
Lance looked up at him, and in a choked voice said, “Thank you.”
Keith smiled softly at him. “No problem.” He ripped out the page and handed it to Lance. “We should probably go back down, I think breakfast is soon.”
“Right.” Lance cleared his throat. “I’ll just stop at my room first.”
“Right.” Keith replied.
They both rode down the elevator together, splitting up at the ground floor. Keith made his way to the kitchen.
He paused before entering, thinking about the night he’d had. To his surprise, he found he was smiling.
It seemed that maybe being teammates with Lance wouldn’t be so insufferable after all.