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“Lance, we know it’s hot, stop complaining.” Pidge said irritably.“I could just really go for some water right now!” Lance complained.Keith looked down at the crunchy dark purple leaves that had fallen from the black and white trees above him. Lance had a point. Water was definitely needed right now, Keith had already gone through his two water bottles, and would could go for another sip, or two, or five, right about now.
“We recommend that you bring at least two water bottles with you for this mission,” Allura said towards Pidge, Lance, and Keith. “Phrysiton is a very dry planet, and dehydrates even Alteans extremely fast so it is entirely vital that you bring enough water with you on this mission.”
“That right!” Coran began, “Phrysiton has an extremely dry atmosphere and is known for causing severe dehydration in anybody that stays longer than three vargas! Why, there's a reason there is such a small amount of wild life on the great Phrysiton! The people who were lost and found were always shrivelled up, just like a nisiar, and their intestines were completely squel-”
“Coran.”
“Right yes, continue Princess!”
A beeping sound rang out and Keith immediately looked at Pidge who appeared delighted.
“Follow me to the water!” Pidge exclaimed.
-
There were too many bugs. Millions of colors zoomed across Keith’s face as they reached the edge of the lake. All the colors of the rainbow dashed along the surface of the water and the surrounding area. There were even some colors Keith didn’t think he could name.
Maybe he’d see those colors better if they weren’t so close to his face, smooshed on his helmet visor.
“So how do all these trees survive without water?” Keith mused aloud.
Pidge’s eyes gleamed, “I was wondering the same thing! Initially I thought that the planet must’ve used to be full of water and the trees just adapted. As I was looking around for the bug we’re supposed to find though, I noticed trails of water, and assumed something must be drinking water, so we should head that way. And as I was looking for the bug I also noticed all the different types of bugs hanging around the trees. Now that we’ve arrived at the lake, I think it’s pretty obvious, the trees and the bugs have a symbiotic relationship, with the bugs bringing the trees the water they need, and the trees giving something in return!”
Keith looked at his visor, full of the bugs, “Yeah,” Keith confirmed, “Some bugs have little suckers on them, and some have little baskets holding water and other stuff. It looks like it's to hold the water like you said.”
“They have mini baskets? Like little built in baskets?” Lance exclaimed, “That’s adorable!”
Keith snorted, thinking that there were multiple adorable things around him, then turned his attention to the water that was in front of him. Keith got out his water bottles and swished the lake water around to clear out some of the bugs and leaves in it before scooping on of the bottles in.
Lance knelt beside him to get some water as well. “So what does the bug we’re looking for look like again?” He asked, glancing around at the array of beetles around him.
“It should be red with white accents, about the size of half a penny, and diamond shaped. It’s got a little sucker on it too,” Pidge said.
“If only it had a mini basket,” Lance sighed.
Keith attached his water bottle to his suit, allowing him to drink from the bottle without removing his helmet. He closed his eyes, enjoying the bliss that was drinking water. When he opened his eyes to begin looking for the bug again he groaned, wondering why so many bugs were on his helmet.
Keith was beginning to wish that he had a little windshield wiper on his helmet visor.
He tried using his hands to wipe off the mess of his helmet, but just ended up smearing it around more. “Do you think I could take off my helmet and wash off the visor? I can barely see.”
Pidge looked over, “Well, there’s a lot of bugs here right now, so you’d probably be bitten by something, how about you walk out far enough where there’s not many bugs and hand it to me or Lance to wash it off?”
Keith shrugged, “Sounds like a plan.” He looked over to Lance, “You wanna come so you can take my helmet to wash it?”
“Yeah lets do it,” Lance said, and they were off.
-
The clearing they’d reached was surrounded by the black and white trees again, but Keith hadn’t spotted any bugs for a while. He took off his helmet and handed it to Lance, admiring the nature now that he was able to properly see it.
Allura and Coran hadn’t said anything about any wildlife other than bugs and trees, but Keith still kept his eyes open. It was pretty unnerving for it to be so quiet outside though, normally you could at least hear a breeze…
Suddenly, Keith stood straight up. Something had landed on his neck. He’d been so busy trying to hear things that he hadn’t even looked around!
Keith heard footsteps approaching and turned as slowly as he could towards the sound, hoping Lance could help him. Once he saw Lance he pointed at his neck, not daring to make a sound in case it bit him.
Lance came around and peered at his neck and frowned, it had no mini basket on it. “What am I supposed to do?” Lance whispered.
“I don’t know! Just get it off me without it biting me!” Keith whispered back. His shoulders rose towards his ears as he felt the bug crawling towards his chin, restraint cracking.
Finally he shuddered, and wiped at his chin as fast and hard as he could. After feeling a pinch on his neck, he realized that was not the best idea.
“No no non nonono,” Lance began rambling, “Your neck is turning purple! What’d you do!”
“Augh don know,” Keith replied, quiznak he could feel his tongue swelling.
Keith forced his helmet back on and urged Lance to catch the bug, which after he performed what looked like some failed break dancing moves, he had the bug in an empty water bottle. It looked like the one they needed.
Keith chuckled fondly at Lance’s flailing, and grabbed his hand before running back to Pidge.
-
“Keith just got bitten by the bug we needed, but I also caught the bug, so we need to head back to the ship right now!” Lance exclaimed, slightly out of breath, “Why are you still holding my hand?!” He said to Keith a second later, shaking his hand off with burning cheeks.
Keith was oblivious to his hand being released because of his dizziness, “I don know, an au’m fime, reawy. Jus a wiw woothy,” Keith tried to say, as the world began to spin more. He leaned onto Lance for support.
Pidge took a careful step towards him, seeing him sway even with the support, and commed back to the castle, "Coran, prepare a medpod, Keith got bit by the bug we caught he doesn't look good at all. We're on our way back now."
"Heh, youw nithe an waum Lanh, evewn thwouh thu awmuw," Keith chuckled, now almost fully laying on Lance. He closed his eyes.
“Keith?!” Lance cried as Keith blacked out in his arms.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The medpod opened with a rush of air, allowing Keith heard exclamations of his name from all the team members. He slumped forward, with Shiro catching him to soften the fall immediately. Keith opened his eyes looking around drowsily at the team, “How long was I out?” “Oh just a varga or two!” Coran responded jovially. “Of course, that bite you had was quite the nasty one. I didn’t realize that a Phrysiton tokeoms beetle would administer a reaction in humans!” He twirled his mustache a bit before continuing, “The healing pod only healed the bite, and as some of the the venom is still in your body, you will most likely have side effects. Of course the species that are affected always have the most interesting side effects, none have been discovered to be life threatening yet, of course, but lots of them have to do with the aspect of the future or past!”Everyone paused for a moment. “Wait so does that mean that Keith has the ability to time travel now? That’s so cool!” Hunk gushed.“Good question number one,” Coran begins, “It actually va-”“Wait wait wait,” Pidge interrupts, “Hunk is the tallest? Like taller than Shiro?”Hunk and Shiro look at each other for a moment. They look pretty close, and decide to measure back to back. Shiro lets go of Keith who wobbles a little bit then stands straight. Keith pauses for a moment before deciding to lean on Lance. Just in case.With Shiro and Hunk standing back to back it’s clear that Hunk really is the taller one, and Lance jives, “I guess your point of view was too close to the ground to notice.”Pidge grumbles before poking him in the ribs. Then deciding to move on she asks, “So what were you saying about Keith time travelling?”Coran brightens, “Ah yes number five!” Pidge glares. “Keith may have gained the ability to time travel, but we can’t know for sure until he does. There are many different side effects that vary from species to species! Some of the side effects that I’ve heard of included things like switching bodies with yourself from the future or past, altering past memories to the species liking, glimpses into the future, hearing future or past thoughts, and one particularly curious time: gaining the vocal cords of your past or future self!”“You mean Keith could start talking and switch his voice to his puberty days?” Lance snickers.Keith turns to glare at him and realizes how close his face is to Lance’s leaning on him like this. It’s almost close enough to give him a little peck on the cheek. Somehow he has a feeling Lance always acts adorably whenever he does this.Keith looks away, faintly aware of his face flaming, but mostly confused. He tries to compose himself, “My voice wouldn’t do tha-at!” Keith jabs back, voice cracking in the middle.He’s now very aware of his face rivaling a volcano’s heat as the team laughs at the irony. He’s also pretty sure that voice crack had nothing to do with puberty.Keith hides his face behind Lance’s shoulder in embarrassment, unaware of the way the shoulder he has his face on is stiffening. He pulls his face away after a moment, when the laughter is dying down, to face the team again. He continues leaning on Lance in spite of the jab and awareness.Once Coran finally collects himself, he continues explaining, “Well, sometimes the victims were voluntarily able to control their time travel abilities, other times it was uncontrollable. Most of the time the abilities went away but it also varied from species to species.”“So basically all we know is that Keith will probably have some sort of superpowers that have to do with time travel, but we don’t know what they are or how long they’ll last?” Hunk sums up.“Exactly!” Coran says cheerfully.Shiro and Allura shift nervously, both of them thinking about the effect this could have on Voltron. If Keith randomly time travelled in the middle of battle while they were fighting, how would they form Voltron?“We should run some test later to see if we can figure out what you can do Keith!” Pidge says excitedly. Keith can already tell there’s no way getting out of this. He begins mourning his training time in advance.“Sure, it’ll probably be good to figure out just in case it’s something that happens on accident.” Keith shrugs.There’s a pause in conversation before Hunk begins, “Well, I’m definitely going to join you in looking at those scans, Pidge, but right now I’m super hungry and I’m sure Keith is too.”Allura nods and replies, “Great idea, lets all restore our energy before attempting to figure this out. I will find a safe place to keep our ship while we figure out any side effects Keith may have gained.”-After eating, Keith plants himself on the metal table while Pidge, Hunk, and Coran get out all the medical equipment. “How long do you think it will take to get the results?” He asks.“Probably a couple hours-ish I think,” Pidge answers, “I’ll get all the tests right now and then we’ll have to let the data process before we can analyze it. We’re going to let you know what we think the side effects are as soon as we get the results.”Keith nods, beginning to feel nervous about this whole predicament. Somehow, he finds himself wishing Lance was here for support.He turns and leaves hoping the anxiousness will fade away with a nice walk.-Keith looked at the dark gray walls as he went on his calming stroll. He realized that maybe it wouldn’t be calming if he thought about what he potentially could gain as a side effect, but some of the options might be pretty cool!Keith looked at the wall and concentrated really hard. Really… really hard.Keith didn’t see any portal opening so he assumed that voluntary time travel or visions were probably out. What other options did that leave?Maybe he could figure out things from the past easier because he already knew what he was looking for. Keith began to think hard about when he went to the garrison. He had a class with Lance back then, maybe he could send thoughts to his younger self to prevent the ‘rivalry’ from ever happening in the first place!Keith took a moment to think about how he probably wouldn’t actually know if the thoughts ever went through since it probably wasn’t two way. He also probably would remember if he got thoughts from the future in the first place anyways. Keith took another moment to think about what would happen if his thoughts from now actually did go through. He was always quite defiant when he was younger, and he is now too, but it’s not just for the sake of being defiant now, it’s actually to help himself and other people out.If he told his younger self to make friends with Lance, is it possible that little Keith would’ve went out of his way to avoid Lance?Keith shuddered at the thought and turned a corner. More dark gray walls.Then he had another thought. He and Lance never really hung out in the first place.Keith could feel some anxiousness creeping back in. Why doesn’t Lance ever hang out with Keith? Does he not like Keith?Keith could feel his palms getting sweaty, Lance did like to antagonize him a lot…Keith wiped his hands on him pants and continued turning corners. Maybe they just didn’t have a lot of common interests.Actually, the more Keith thinks about it, he can’t think of any of Lance’s interests. They never talked calmly enough to learn about each other. The thought makes him queasy.Maybe while he has some free time he can hang out with Lance for a change. With a new mission in mind, Keith sets off to Lance’s room.-“Lance come train with me”Keith pauses, cursing himself. He’d wanted to talk but talking is harder than fighting, so he automatically said the easier thing.“What?” Lance looks up in confusion. He thought he’d have an afternoon to himself with Pidge and Hunk busy.Keith looks down at where Lance is sitting, “I said come train with me,” and goes to take the controls from the video game he was playing then saving it before grabbing Lance’s hand and dragging him out of the room to go train.“Why do you keep grabbing my hand?” Lance asks nervously.Keith looks down, suddenly becoming aware that he had, in fact, grabbed Lance’s hand. He quickly lets go.“I- sorry I didn’t even realize I did.” Keith replies honestly. His hand feels cold.Lance looks at him suspiciously, before accepting the answer as honest and grabbing his training gear to change into.-“Level seven start” Keith commands as soon as they get into the room.Lance blanches, “Woah Keith don’t you think that’s way too high? I can’t pass level four yet and we’re still warming up!” Lance can really feel himself sweating nervously at facing this bot, maybe the warm up won’t really matter if he gets himself knocked out fast enough.Keith quickly blanches realizing his mistake too before yelling quickly, “End traini-!” then skidding across the floor after getting decked by the gladiator whacking him across the ribs. He goes to get up before Lance lands on him too after getting thrown by the simulation as well. “End training session,” Keith groans, watching the gladiator deactivate and disappear through the floor.Lance takes a second to calm his heart. It’s beating faster than it does even during his hype sessions of belting out Gasolina with Hunk! He puts his hand over his chest dramatically. “Quiznak are you trying to kill us Keith?” He squeaks out.“I don’t know why I did that! I typically barely get past level four I don’t know why I did that!” Keith answers, slightly freaking out, his heart beating just like Lance’s. Truthfully it felt like instinct, and it still feels like they should be able to easily beat that level as a warm up together. Keith shakes his head, trying to clear the unfamiliar yet familiar feeling, but it stays. He stands up, deciding to ignore it in general.Keith holds out his hand to Lance, “Sorry, that was freaky, I still don’t know why I did that,” he laughs nervously, “I’ll start on level one so we can warm up easy and ignore that.”Lance looks at the hand and takes it, “How about I call the gladiator levels since someone’s trying to be a space cadet too hard.”Keith’s hand drops a little, but he helps Lance up all the same, “That’s fair.” Keith says.Lance looks at him surprise he didn’t get a rise out of Keith, even if it was a small jab. Lance is a little worried that the bug hurt Keith’s brain, but calls out to the fighting program, “Level one start,” anyways.-Keith walks out of the training session unnerved and a little turned on. He knew Lance was hot. He was aware of it. But Lance was also an asshole, so he always ignored it. So why is it now that Keith is suddenly so aware of how hot Lance looks while he’s training! Keith took a breath to calm down, frustrated at himself, and thankful that Lance hadn’t taken off his shirt.
But what if he did take off his shirt.
He’d never looked directly enough at Lance with his shirt off to see if he had a six pack, but from the glimpses he got, Lance definitely had a set of abs. Imagine if you could be up close and personal with Lance like that, he’d probably be up for it right about now, he always did say you looked so hot after working out like that. You’d get to see just how the light hits the sweat rolling down his golden skin-God, what is going on? Keith stops in the hallway on the way to the shower. It’d probably be best if he didn’t run into Lance while he’s in there right now anyways. Keith sighs as he takes a seat against the wall to calm himself down.Keith relaxes against the wall trying to be aware of his surroundings instead of his mind for a moment. He looks at his hands, and feels like something’s missing. Maybe he left it on his bedside table. Where is-
Where is what?
Keith decides he doesn’t like being along with his own mind in this state and heads to the showers.Lance is gone by the time he arrives anyways.-Keith heads over to the medbay to see if the results are back. He really hopes they are, so he can figure out what’s going on with him.“Keith!” Hunk greets him, “Awesome timing, we just got the results and we’re finding the differences between this scan and your previous scans right now!”“We’ve been looking through the physical scans to see if any of your cells have a different telomere length or appearance than before, since as we age the telomere seems to shorten. They all look the same though, so time travel seems to be out.” Pidge begins, “We’ve just begun looking into the overall state of the individual cells instead of organs and we’ve already checked your body temp, respiratory and cardiac rates, and other more average stuff. Those seem normal as well.”“We still have yet to check your hormones as well as the state of electricity in the body and brain scans yet, but we’ll let you know in a jiffy!” Coran tells Keith while looking at multiple screens.“Okay, well maybe I didn’t get any symptoms, maybe it was just a nasty bite,” Keith replied smoothly. If there was a smoothie that was made up of false hope and doubt, that’s the smoothie that Keith just forced down their throats.Pidge cringed at the false tone, “It probably won’t be bad. Think about it, you could have time travelling powers! This could be super awesome!” Pidge grinned.Keith shrugged, “Not if I can’t control it.”“Way to be a debby downer,” Lance said strolling in the room.“Well it’s true, if we’re on a mission and I’m suddenly different, it could be bad for Voltron."Lance frowned and opened his mouth to reply before being interrupted by Hunk, “I found something guys!” Everyone perked up waiting to hear what he found, “It looks like he’s got some hormonal changes along with increased electricity in the brain!”Lance laughed, “So it really is puberty again!"Keith groaned, “It’s not puberty!”“Keith’s right it’s not puberty, but I’m not sure exactly what it is,” Hunk says.When he got numerous curious faces in return, he continued explaining, “Multiple parts of your brain seem to be using excess electricity compared to what’s normally needed including the hippocampus, parietal cortex, frontal lobe, and cerebellum.” He paused, “There’s also an elevation in some specific hormones, but I’d need another test to get more specific on the hormones, right now though we’re assuming that the hormones are different as a result of the electricity.”“Okay so do we have any idea what is happening to me then?” Keith asks impatiently."Not until we figure out the hormones more specifically, actually, if you just hop in the medpod we could probably redo the settings so they’re more specific.” Coran mentions.Keith immediately starts moving towards the healing pods, “Well let’s do it now then.”-Keith steps out of the healing pod without a case of the jelly legs, but still slightly out of it, “So do we have any results?” He asks.Pidge looks at the screen in front of her, “It looks like multiple hormones have changed but some have increased a dramatic amount, specifically dopamine, norepinephrine, and oxytocin."“So what exactly does that mean,” Keith asks irritably, just wanting to know the answers already.“That sounds a lot like you're in love doesn’t it?” Hunk questions.“Keith? In love? Who’d want to date that mullet haired emo?” Lance butts in, waving him off.Keith feels his heart drop and his throat close. He’s not going to cry. He won’t. He has no reason to. He grits his teeth and closes his fists instead.“Well what else would it be?” Pidge asks, “I mean judging by these scans he’s a lot happier, but we don’t know what that means in terms of the time period and control.”“If I may,” Coran butts in, “Have you ever fallen in love with someone in the past and felt like you are now Keith?”Keith blushes and he immediately wants his face to suck back into his head and create a black hole from folding in on himself. “Um, maybe, but definitely not to this degree,” He manages to get out.Everyone pauses and stares, seemingly surprised at the fact that he actually was feeling emotions so light hearted as those, and to such a degree as well. Lance is staring intently with his mouth open, and begins to feel his heart rate pick up ever so slightly. He doesn’t quite understand why. He doesn’t want to understand either.Coran smiles comfortingly, “Well it seems like you’re gaining emotions from the future then!"Keith is still waiting for that black hole to crush him into that oblivion, and he was really wishing it’d hurry up. He stands with his mouth open, not knowing what to say.“Wait so that means Keith is in a relationship with someone in the future? Aw Keith!” Hunk squeals, “Who are you crushing on right now? If you have a crush now it’s probably reciprocated and you’re dating them in the future!” Hunk smiles giddily, waiting for the gossip.“I’m not crushing on anyone!” Keith yells. He’s given up on that black hole by now, he’s already decided he’s going to go fight the gladiator until he can’t think after this. But even still, future emotions…He tries his best not to think it, but the only person he’s noticed he feels different around is Lance. It would explain why he feels so comfortable and casual around Lance, and how it's so much easier to think of Lance in that kind of way.
Quiznak, does that mean I’m dating Lance in the future?
It feels right, but slightly off. He doesn’t want to think about what that might mean. He does anyways.
Does that mean I’m married to Lance in the future?
It’s a calming thought, that makes him slightly giddy. He immediately catches himself and wants to hide away.“He’s totally lying!” Pidge screeches, “Tell us who it is!”“No fucking way!” Keith screeches back.“Language!” Lance screeches to Keith as Coran looks on confused.Keith laughs aggressively, “Haha well, doesn’t it look like a good time to go eat some quiznaking food?” Keith looks angrily at his bare wrist, “Well it sure does.”Keith snaps his wrist back and storms out of the room, wishing he could slam the automatic sliding doors closed.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Keith quickly found out that trying to train with the gladiator was not a good idea.The memories of training with Lance kept resurfacing from earlier, which would lead to a spiral of his imagination, picturing how well they could fight together if they got along. That or him accidentally putting the gladiator on seven to start.Not his best moment, even if it was future instincts that told him to.If he couldn’t work out his frustration that way, then he’d find another way to figure this out. Keith begins walking towards Shiro’s room.-
Thankfully, Shiro is conveniently in his room instead of elsewhere in the castle. Keith knocks, his stomach twisting up in knots as he tries to ignore thoughts of what he’s going to tell Shiro, and instead decides just to wing it. The door opens and Keith, looking at the floor, begins before he loses his nerve. “So you know how I was bit by that bug right? Well I think I’m married to Lance in the future because the bug makes me feel future emotions.” It sounds a little jumbled because he said it so fast, but he thinks he said it clear enough.Keith looks up nervously to reveal Shiro standing there in the altean pajamas and slippers. Those pajamas must be really comfy if Shiro’s wearing them, and he knows that Lance likes them a lot also, so maybe Keith should get out his own pair. Later. Right now he’s a little frantic about the situation at hand.Shiro opens and closes his mouth for a couple seconds before making a weird expression and saying, “You know, I’m not actually surprised.” He turns around, walking back into his room, beckoning Keith after him.“Wait, what?!” Keith hissed, “Lance and I don’t ever get along, he’s always pissy with me, and we didn’t ever seem to ever stop arguing!” Keith sat down on the bed next to Shiro and leaned against the wall, pretzel legged with his arms crossed as well.“Well,” Shiro begins, looking around the room before deciding on what he wants to say, “I think that you two would actually look really compatible if you both were mute for a day.”Keith stares at Shiro for a long moment, “What does that even mean?” he cries, eyes wide, throwing his hands in the air.“It means that even if you guys weren’t able to talk, the looks you both give to each other when the other isn’t looking makes it seem like you both,” Shiro pauses and looks Keith straight in the eyes, grinning, “Like-like each other,” He finishes cheekily.Keith groans rubbing his palms on his face and sliding down the wall, messing up the bed sheets while doing so. “One, we’re not two years old, Shiro. Two,” Keith drags the hands down his face and looks at him, “There’s no way that’s true. And three,” Keith stops, and looks at his hands. If Lance and him are married in the future, there’s a good chance that Lance might like him right now, and what Shiro just said might be true.“Fuck.” Keith mutters softly.Shiro grins sheepishly at him, “Well it’s not a bad thing that you guys like each other, is it?”“I just,” Keith starts, “I knew that I liked him before I got bit by the bug, but I never thought it’d be reciprocated. And now I have this knowledge that Lance and I not only get married in the future, but we like each other right now and I had no idea.” He sighed shakily, “It’s just a lot to take in.”“Hey, why’re you acting like this is a bad thing?” Shiro says jokingly, but softly, enough to let Keith know he’s serious in asking, “Isn’t it great that your feelings towards Lance are reciprocated?” “It is, I know it is, and it makes the whole thing easier knowing that we both like each other, but right now I like him a lot more than I should,” Keith shudders, “It’s a little terrifying knowing I’ll be this far gone for someone at some point, and right now he doesn’t love-” Keith chokes a little, “-like me as much as I like him.”Shiro doesn’t reply to that, he doesn’t have anybody that he’s already in love with, but suddenly knowing that he may love somebody that much one day doesn’t sound like a bad thing to him. Then again, he isn’t actually experiencing it. Keith sits up and fiddles with his hands before stopping upon a realization, “Do you think Lance actually knows he likes me?”“I hope he does, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t, speaking from how he’s been flirting by fighting instead of with pick up lines.” Shiro paused before continuing, “Does Lance know that you think you two are married in the future? He’d probably realize it if he knew.”Keith looks at him, lips pursed tight, “I.. didn’t say anything to anyone but you. But Pidge, Hunk and Coran did figure out that I’m dating someone in the future. I’d imagine with the team gossips going around, everyone probably knows by now, although Lance was with us when we found out. So Allura and the mice are the only people that have yet to find out right now.”Groaning loudly and obnoxiously, Keith flops back on the bed again, “That would be such an awkward conversation to have with Lance,” he whines, before imitating a conversation with the guy of interest, “‘Hey Lance, just wanted to let you know that we’re married in the future and I can’t tell if you don’t know you have feelings for me yet, but right now I’m fully in love with you and I...’ there’s literally no way I could tell him Shiro.” Keith finishes dejectedly.“That would be the easiest way to sort this out you know,” Shiro says condescendingly. “Or I could just ignore the feelings until the bite goes away and then tell him while I’m feeling how I normally feel,” Keith replies snarkily. If I ever actually get around to confessing, even when I’m feeling normal, that is.Shiro gives Keith a patronizing look. Keith gives him a sassy one back.Shiro sighs, “Fine, do you even know how long the bite will last then?”Keith looks to the side nervously, “Uh, no, hopefully it won’t be long, but I’ll just avoid him if it gets to be too much anyways.”“That’s definitely not a good idea, Keith,” Shiro warns him.“Well there’s no better options right now,” Keith says slightly desperate. He takes a breath, “Okay, I haven’t eaten in a bit, wanna come join me?”Shiro reluctantly agrees, and they head out to the dining hall.-When they arrive at the kitchen, the whole team is there.“Nice of you to join us Keith,” Allura says, “Coran has already caught me up on the situation. I would just like to let everyone know that because of the circumstances only affecting Keith’s emotional state, not his physical state, we will still be going forward with forming the coalition as planned.” Keith looks at Allura with wide eyes and his heart stutters, suddenly feeling heavy in his chest. He looks down quickly feeling his eyes begin to water. Shiro standing by him quickly notices the way he’s tensed up, and murmurs quietly, “Are you okay? Is this too much?”Keith’s takes shaky shallow breaths, “I don’t know what just happened but, Allura…” he pauses to help his breath intake clear up, “I just felt really sad when I saw her.” Keith squeezes his eyes shut and turns away for a moment to rub at them, aware of the numerous amount of eyes on him.Shiro held his breath, aware of what this might mean.Allura looks at them both confusedly, “Are you two alright? I understand that emotional states are important, and we will be lenient with accommodating for you, but we will need to continue with our plans.”Keith turns back to her and says quietly, “I’m alright princess, I’m just not used to this.” There’s no way he could mention anything about this now.Keith goes and grabs a bowl of food goo, and he has to stop himself from sitting next to Lance, almost tripping himself as he walks past the chair.“Okay, well,” Hunk begins, “So I can see that obviously something has happened that is messing with Keith a bit, but I’m dying to know; who’s it that you’ve got the mushy wushy feelings for? Or at least give us a hint? Do you feel future emotions towards everyone in the future or just one person? Is it-”“Hunk,” Shiro scolds, “Give Keith some space.”“I think we all have enough of that out here,” Lance butts in, “Plus I wanna hear the juicy gossip too!” Keith puts his head in his hands and tugs at his hair as he listens to the conversation around him.Pidge joins the conversation eagerly, “Well actually I’ve made quite a couple deductions from speculating how the first tests were different from the second tests and I think that I might have figured out who that special someone is-” “-Is non-existent because I’ve figured out that I’m not dating anyone in the future!” Keith rushes to stop her, face red. He gapes for a moment before continuing more cautiously, “I’m just.. a lot.. happier.. in the future,” Keith finishes lamely, his voice pitched.“Aww Keith!” Lance squeals, “We all must be super close with each other!” You have no idea, Lance Keith thinks. When Keith looks up, he can’t help but notice Pidge grinning like the cat who got the cream. He hoped she wouldn’t try blackmailing him while he was still affected by the bug. Or ever.“Yeah dude! Do you think we all cook together in the future and stuff?” Hunk asks excitedly.“I wouldn’t know,” Keith shrugs, “Maybe we all train together in the future.”“Keith, buddy, we already do that,” Lance laughs, “What kind of stuff do you do in your free time that we could do together?”“Spar,” Keith deadpans.“No no no! We have to help this boring mullet learn how to have some fun!” Lance said, staggard. “Today is going to be a fun day, we all go swim, play some video games, have a movie night, and a cook off!”“We’ve gotta start now if we wanna fit all that into today!” Hunk reminds Lance, “How about we split it into a few days. This is our little family vacation!”“Paladins! We have work to do. I can permit only give you today to slack off, lest we get off schedule!” Allura commands, “You will all have to work around the jobs that I give you to do.”“Allura’s right. We need to stay on top of our schedule with getting more planets to join our coalition. Let’s take this day off, then get right back to it.” Shiro agrees.“Well then it’s decided,” Lance begins, “Family day!” He screeches.“Everybody to the pool!” Hunk yells as he and Lance run out the door.Keith smiles slightly, fondly. “Everybody to the pool,” He mumbles, before pausing for a moment and looking mournfully at Allura, then heading out the door.Pidge looks at Shiro, “I bet he has a crush on Lance.”“It’s not my place to say, and you shouldn’t be meddling” Shiro says sternly.“He totally has a crush on Lance,” Pidge looks at him smugly and heads out the door. Shiro sighs and follows afterwards, saying nothing.-By the time Keith walked into the pool area, Hunk had already switched the gravity in the room so they could swim in the pool. Upon walking in, Keith could see Hunk and Lance started a water fight already. Nobody else was there yet. He moved closer and sat at the edge, putting his feet in the water and getting used to the temperature.“Wanna get in sometime Mullet?” Lance laughed, “You know your hair style’s actually really fitting right now.”Keith grinned, “It’s not a mullet,” before flopping into the water, “But that would be fitting if it was.” He began wading in the water towards them.“Look you are happier, aww!” Hunk cooed, “You didn’t even start bickering immediately with Lance!”Keith grimaces for a split second before going in, “I’d say I’m a bit more mature than him after that time leap I had.”Lance gasps dramatically, “I am the epitomine of maturity!” He pauses a moment, “Epity? Epitome?” He gasps loudly again before smirking, “Epenis.”Hunk starts giggling, and Keith just groans, before splashing Lance with a grin. “Alrighty E-dick, show us your moves,” He taunts.Lance’s eyes light up, and that’s the last thing he sees before a giant wave of water crashes over him, a body following to shove him under the waves. Keith stays for a moment disoriented, thinking about how Lance has always had an affinity towards water and probably has an advantage in it. He decides he doesn’t care, as he grabs Lance’s foot to pull him underneath the waves with him.Keith could hear the muffled shriek Lance gave even from underwater and sped behind Hunk’s legs as a barrier. Lance shot through the water after him, them both making multiple circles around Hunk’s legs before Keith slowed down a bit, letting himself get caught. Keith laughed from under the water as Lance pulled Keith towards himself by the ankle, cradled him in his arms, then jumping above the water and body-slamming him back into the water.“And it’s a score for the Mighty Sir Lance!” Lance shouts and begins ‘oo-ing and aa-ing’ at himself. Hunk joins in with the imaginary cheering crowd.Keith realizes that wasn’t exactly what he expected to get when he got caught, but the hug was kind of nice. He probably shouldn’t be thinking those kinds of things right now if he wants to ignore his feelings though. Keith shakes his head and gets back up to get revenge on Lance to distract himself when he notices Shiro walking in and gets an idea. Although, Lance and Hunk had the same idea as well.“Chicken fight!” The legs yell together. Lance immediately begins climbing on Hunks back as they urge Shiro to hurry up and get in.Shiro leisurely swims through the water looking a little worried, but lets Keith climb on his back anyways. Pidge walks in right in time to see the fight begin to go down.Hunk and Lance are shouting battle cries as they rush, as fast as they can in water, towards Keith and Shiro. Once they are at each other, Lance immediately throws his arms out to try and knock Keith off, but Keith catches his hands half way. They both try throwing around their arms dramatically in an attempt to throw the other off, but it doesn’t seem to be working. Hunk and Shiro are keeping good balance, but begin to try and trip each other to see if they can gain the advantage.At this point, Keith and Lance are just trying to push each other off straight ahead, their foreheads just a couple inches apart. Keith decides he needs a way out, the urge to kiss him is really strong right now. Lance’s face is extremely intense from trying to throw Keith off, he’s shouting as many insults as he can to try and distract him. Keith thinks he heard himself being called a soggy toothpaste dispenser at some point. Whatever that means.Keith looks Lance straight in the eyes and can’t help but notice how the pool water reflects off them so nicely, making them look all the more blue.The next thing he knows, he’s in the water, dragging Shiro under with him.“Jesus Keith! Are you trying to choke me?” Shiro jokes once they both resurface, rubbing at his neck and chest, where Keith’s legs were wrapped around him.Keith grimaces, “Whoops, my bad,” He says cheekily.When Keith tunes in to the rest of the pool he hears the victory screeches of Hunk and Lance as they celebrate beating ‘the burly brothers’. Keith decides he’s not too disappointed if he gets to be included in that title. He realizes he’s looking at Lance a little too fondly when he looks over at Pidge, who grins a bit deviously before waving at him by wiggling her fingers.That can’t be good.“So Keith,” Pidge says loudly, “how’re the emotions going? You know, wouldn’t you be able to tell if you feel closer to some of us compared to others? Maybe we should have a ‘friendship’,” Keith gapes, she winked at him, “contest, to see who’s the closest!” Pidge took a moment to put her hand on her chin, acting as if she was thinking even though it was obvious she had been scheming this in her head. “I know!” She exclaimed, “We can each take turns having some alone time! So the first person to go with you will be-”Keith clapped a hand over her mouth, splashing water on her from where she was sitting on the side of the pool in the process. “How about I explain some stuff that has happened since the bite?” Distract her long enough to get away from her schemes, Keith thought.Pidge looked conflicted for a moment before giving in, “Well? Go on!”“Uh well, overall I have felt different towards everybody, although some people it has been really minorly towards. Like Shiro, I still trust him like I always have.” Keith takes a moment to think of other things that have happened, “Uh there was this thing where I was in the training room with Lance, and I kept setting it to level seven on accident, so I think there may be some sort of future instinct as well in there?” He feels a little unsure of himself now that he’s said it outloud to the team, it really does sound absurd.Keith takes notice of Allura, who had snuck into the room at some point, when she starts speaking, “If you have future instincts that could be extremely useful in our battles against Haggar. Maybe we should try training and forming Voltron together in practice to see if it is different.”Lance groans from the other side of the room, “Break time? One day vacation? Hello??” He gestures around dramatically, “Talk business later, pool play now. Besides, Princess, you look lovely in that swim suit, it’d be a shame for you to not to use it.” He finishes it off with a wink.Keith figured out three things in that moment. One, Lance definitely doesn’t know he likes Keith or has a future relationship with him. Two, Keith is definitely the jealous type. Three, this is gonna be really hard if Lance flirting with Allura made his chest hurt that much.Keith figured out a fourth thing a moment later, when Allura was in the pool, and had submerged herself into the water. He felt icy panic spread throughout his chest once he saw her begin to go underwater and acted on instinct immediately. He shouted her name and dove through the water quicker than he thought he could, and pulled her out of the water. Allura spluttered, “Keith! What are you doing?” She pulled his arms from where they were holding her shoulders.Keith fell out of his trance and heat flooded his cheeks. Even still, he almost cried with relief when he realized she was okay. “I don’t- I don’t know what,” He looked over to Shiro for help, only to pause when he noticed Shiro’s face, calling his name to see if he could get a response.Shiro’s face was a pale white and looked completely terrified. The knowledge of how and someone might die isn’t something anyone should ever know.“I’m sorry Princess, I don’t know what that was but,” Keith trailed off for a moment, “I think I need to take Shiro back to his room and make sure he’s okay. I’ll meet up with you guys later.”Keith swam over to Shiro and laid a hand on his shoulder, “Shiro, I’m going to take you back to your room and we can talk this out okay?”Shiro nodded numbly before taking in a deep breath and beginning to walk out, “Sorry guys, I’ll join you all later too.” They left the rest of the pool in a dejected mood, which dispersed when everyone decided to go their separate ways as well, avoiding the dejected atmosphere.-