Work Text
“The people of this planet have magical abilities like we have never seen before.” Keith was panting, warm breath fogging up the inside of his helmet faster than the thing could get rid of the hot air. His eyes shot around, seeking the enemy ships to take down. An insisted throbbing in his right shoulder let him know that the injury from slamming into Red’s control only five minutes prior, hadn’t faded away. He saw a flash of green zooming past and didn’t have to wait long to see three purple Galra ships following her. Only, these weren’t just regular ships—the ones that fit two people max—these were big. With big shields and big canons.Canons that could probably blow Green away like she was merely a paper airplane instead of a capable warship. “At touch alone, they can... reveal, things about oneself. Things you didn’t know, or don’t want to.” Keith’s mind was racing. He couldn’t let those ships reach his friends—reach the planet they were supposed to set up an alliance with. He knew, with his exhaustion and throbbing shoulder, he wasn’t in perfect shape. He knew, how fast Red may have been, they wouldn’t survive more than two blows from canons like those. But he knew he couldn’t let all those people get hurt, because he didn’t do anything.The red paladin blinked the sweat out of his eyes, took one last deep breath to steady himself and tightened his grip on Red’s controls. Then he swung them around, and with a powerful rumble that seemed to vibrate through every bone of his body, Red turned around and started the chase. “You have to be wary. For all your secrets may be laid out in the open at a simple touch of hands.” With a cry, Keith got slammed back into his chair. His already injured shoulder aching and seemingly burning from the inside. He ignored the worried purr Red let out, brushing off his own discomfort at the sight of three more purple ships seemingly appearing out of nowhere. With a small smile, he noticed the green lion was already too far away to possibly fall victim to the big ships. She’d already joined the others to defend the small planet they were supposed to land on before the Galra had showed up. “They will set up tests. Try to goad you into accidentally touching them, do everything to gain that power over you.” The three ships came closer fast. Keith’s shoulder was screaming at him to turn around and flee, or maybe call for help. Instead, he readied Red’s canon, clenched his jaw in preparation for the pain that was about to come, and prayed to whatever mighty deity that was up there to keep his team and the planet safe. “They’re manipulative.” The Galran ships came closer, distant enough still to have their aim be off, and some wayward beams ricocheting off Red’s thick armor. They both knew, he and Red, that the Galra would get through that armor once they’d power up the big canons. It was only a matter of time.But, as Keith’s ears echoed with the screaming and shouting for help of his teammates, he couldn’t help but feel like this was worth it. “They’re shameless.” The distant cries of his teammates sounded through his helmet. Pidge going someone seen Keith? Hunk asking for backup, Lance calling an immediate affirmation. Shiro screaming in agony as yet another Galra ship slipped from his reach. “They don’t know honor.” And Keith sighed and opened his eyes again. The ships had drawn closer still. Three angry purple and black things standing out in the vastness of space behind them. They were rather beautiful ships. Streamlined, shiny, sleek, graceful as they twirled their way closer.Without a second thought, he opened fire.
“They’ll do anything to get what they want.”
His shoulder ached. His eyes burned. The voices of his team ricocheted like broken satellites through his head. He breathed, ragged and steadily in and out as he fired at the near indestructible ships of the enemy. He almost didn’t notice the first ship exploding.
“But the queen?”
The ships came close—too close. Keith pressed the last available buttons and focussed all of Red’s power on their lasers. Only one ship remained. It got closer.Red’s guns wouldn’t react.And closer.
Shoot, dammit.
And closer.And— “She’s the worst of them all.” ⋆
“-on’t touch him!”
Help.
“Leave him alo-”
Help. Please.
“-be alright.”
Lance?
“-romise you.”
Lance. Yes. ⋆ When he woke up, he was being thrown out of a healing pod. Limbs still aching and mind foggy as the princess explained how the planet they were supposed to have a meeting with, pretended to be a Galra fleet to test their devotion to saving its people. In the fight, Keith had gone down protecting the planet from the fake-Galra, but was pulled out of a damaged Red by one of the aliens before Lance had gotten him back to the castle.“They got you out of Red, only barely alive,” Allura said, looking down at her feet. “The alliance got called off.”Next to her, Lance scoffed. “Of course it was. We’re not working together with those manipulative freaks.” He turned to Keith, and the latter was unprepared for the genuine concern that darkened the Cuban boy’s teal irises. “They touched you. Do you… feel any different?”Keith frowned. “Why would I-” At touch alone, they can... reveal, things about oneself. Right. He looked down at his body. Tapped his feet on the ground, wrapped his fingers around the chair’s armrests and briefly touched his hair. “I don’t think so?”All the paladins breathed a sigh of relief and quickly ushered him out of the infirmary to his room. They tucked him in, wished him goodnight and left him alone to sleep.It only took him about three seconds to fall in a deep sleep. ⋆ “Keith?” Lance said. Orange and pink reflected in his teal eyes. “Keith?”Lance sat next to him. Blurry at the edges, but as beautiful as Keith remembered.“Is that a sunset or a sunrise?”Keith looked. A wide ocean—teal from their feet till the horizon. And the sun, slowly sinking lower and lower until the teal swallowed it. Her death painting the sky orange and pink. “I don’t know,” he said.“I thought you knew,” said Lance. “I thought you knew.” And he sounded so sad. —So sad.“I’m sorry, Lance,” said Keith.“I thought you knew. Sun’s death is inevitable,” said Lance. “Every night. She dies for us.” He turned his head. Eyes—yellow, like a Galra’s. Not teal, like the ocean. Teal was such a beautiful color. Keith missed it. “Isn’t that sad, Keith?” Those yellow eyes stared at him. Seemed to want to tell him something.“I’m sorry, Lance,” he said again. Tears at the brim of his eyes as Lance’s yellow irises illuminated in the dark.“It’s so sad.” Lance sighed. “I thought you knew.”Then he turned his head back to look out over the ocean. And the sun died. ⋆ Some say dreams are merely images one’s mind conjures during sleep. Nothing but entertainment, or more frightening in nightmares. Others say, and this is the most realistic theory, that our brain picks things that evoke certain emotions from us during our waking hours, and translate those things into moving images and twisted stories. And, there are those who believe that our dreams can sometimes predict the future.Bullshit. If you asked Keith.The week after Keith’s near-death experience with the Kievits people, everyone was a bit wary. Hunk handed him plates at dinner that were just a bit more filled than that of the others. He noticed when Pidge took just a little more time to check on his suit than the others’. Shiro let him take breaks that were noticeably longer, and Allura dismissed him a bit easier when talking about strategics. Coran submitted him to less of his very well meant, but awful sounding songs.But worst of all (or maybe best) were the looks he got from Lance. Where a week ago they’d been bickering and arguing over every little disagreement, now, Keith caught the Blue paladin looking at him with a slight crease in his brow and a frown on his lips. Those eyes—ocean teal again, not Galra yellow—steadily regarding him from across the table, following him down the hall. As if—At first, nothing happened. Battles were fought, lost and won. People were freed by their hands, captured by the Galras’. Life in space went on.Then, about a week after he’d emerged from the healing pod, things started to change. Subtle, at first. Small things, like the small pointing of his canine, that made it just a bit easier to tear the skin of his lower lip when biting it in worry. Small things like how it became easier to navigate in the dark, his eyes seemingly needing less light than they used to. Things like, him being able to smell what Hunk was cooking from another room halfway down the hallway. Or, how he could easily make out the soft footfalls and capping and uncapping of bottles when all the paladins got ready for bed at night, even with the metal walls that separated their bedrooms.But, it became alarming when he spotted the first purple spot on the white skin of his ankle. It started off small—a freckle or mole, maybe. Nothing to be worried about. But it grew, slowly but steadily. More and more spots appeared. In his neck, luckily covered my his hair. On the inside of his wrist underneath his glove. On his shoulder, knee, stomach and back. Soon, his skin was as much white as it was purple and it became harder and harder to cover up.Keith found himself isolating even more nowadays. Choosing to stay in his room after dinner and not participate in any of the complicated Altean board games Coran dug up every now and then. When battles were done and won, he retreated back to his room instead of celebrating with the others. More and more of his free time was spent on his own, until he changed his training schedule to nighttime, opting to sleep during most of the day, instead. It wasn’t healthy, it was no smart thing to do, and he was sure he could keep it up for a week at most before either Shiro or Lance would come to talk to him. ( Everytime he turned around to go, shook his head in a silent declination or slipped silently out of the room, he could feel those teal eyes burning in his back. )It never came to that breaking point. For one day Keith woke up, got out of and bed and dragged himself over to the small bathroom attached to his bedroom. One look in the mirror and his eyes widened and jaw dropped.His canine—that had always been sharper than most—resembled those of a vampire more than a human’s. He had to carefully curl his lip around it, to avoid it cutting through the delicate flesh.But his newly sprouted fangs were hardly the most noticeable new feature in his face. Because, his ears—that, admittedly, had been itching all week—had changed it the most terrifying way. Gone were the relatively small human ears, in their place stood two proud, furry and purple ears that resemble maybe a cat’s or—Anyways.Until now, he had been able to keep all changes—from the yellowish tint to his eyes, to the purple spots on his skin—fairly hidden. He had little doubt that the others knew exactly what was going on, which was a good thing. But now, with his whole face turned a soft shade of lavender, the big ears on either side of his head, and the stupid fangs that just refused to stay inside of his mouth, making the tips poke out between his lips, it was impossible to attempt to keep this to himself.As much as he had been delaying and avoiding it, he had to face facts. And that fact was that he was, undeniably, part Galra. Part alien. And not just any alien, but the ones that were actively trying to dominate the whole universe .He wasn’t just part alien, he was part monster .A monster with fangs, freakish purple skin, huge huge ears. And eyes—yellow, like a Galra’s.
Isn’t that sad, Keith?
⋆ Before all of this had started, Keith had hoped—silently, secretly—that he and Lance could become friends. (He wouldn’t have minded to tag those extra three letters in front of ‘friends’, but, it would suffice.) He’d dreamed about maybe one day being able to grab Lance’s hand in his, twine his long, elegant fingers around Keith’s shorter ones, and gently squeezing. He dreamed about soft conversation in the dark, with only the light of thousands of stars around them. About cuddling on the couch, wrapping himself up in the other boy’s favorite jacket and pressing soft kisses to a tan forehead.But now, he wasn’t even sure they could be friends—not when he looked like this . Not when Lance would probably chuckle nervously at the sight of him and gently tell him to stay away from him because—who, in their right mind, would want to spend time with someone who looked exactly like the very enemies they fought, that had cost so much people all over the universe their life, freedom and happiness?Keith thought—from all the dreams that could’ve become reality, why that one ? Why the one where one of them turned Galra? ⋆ “Start training level nineteen.”The walls lit up an affirmative green, the only warning before a droid dropped down from the ceiling. It took a few seconds to power up before it activated its sword and charged forward.Keith braced himself, feet spread, stance ready to receive a blow. The robot’s first attack was dodged with a swift sidestep to the right at the last moment. The next swing of the thin Altean sword was blocked with a small grunt from Keith. They kept that stance for a moment, strength perfectly paralleled, before Keith let go with a twitch of his ears.He swirled around and took advantage of the few seconds the droid needed to follow him, to stick his bayard right through its chest. The light in its eyes disappeared and Keith watched as it got sucked back into the training room’s floor.He was panting. Mouth opened to take in as much oxygen as he could, tongue swirling around his fangs. His ears twitched agitatedly—a clear sign of his distress and anxiety.And when feeling distressed of anxious, Keith really knew only one way to get rid of the tension in his body; train until you physically couldn’t anymore.He only gave himself a few seconds of rest to drink a sips of water before he demanded the training room to start training level twenty.The castle’s hallways beyond the training room were deserted. All its occupants safely tucked into their beds as their artificial night had started hours ago. This was the first time in almost two days that Keith had left his room—driven solely by the desire to move .He dodged and rolled, blocked the droid’s attacks and swung his sword back and forth. His brows were furrowed in concentration, ears pulled back almost flat against his head and his yellow eyes flicked left and right to keep track of every single movement the robot made. He was so focused on this droid, on the way his legs carried him, his arms carried his bayard and the general feeling of adrenaline that came with fighting, that he didn’t notice the soft voice outside of the big doors that separated the training room from the rest of the castle—closed with the purpose of providing Keith with some much-needed privacy.It was only when the person outside the training room started fiddling with the complicated lock, that the sound of it got through to Keith. His ears turned towards the noise, and that was all the distraction the robot needed to slam Keith to the floor. He landed with a grunt and all the air left his body.It was all thanks to his enhanced alien reaction time that he rolled onto his side in time to avoid being impaled by the droid’s long Altean sword.“E-end training sequence,” he wheezed as he scrambled to his feet.But with the droid gone, not all of Keith’s worries vanished.“Keith? Are you in there?” The words were followed by a heavy pounding on the thick metal doors.Keith sighed. Closed his eyes. It would only be a few minutes—seconds, perhaps—before Lance would’ve figured out how to open the door. And then—Well, there really wasn’t anything Keith could use to hide his ears with. Not to mention the fact that he wore merely a t-shirt and leggings that only reached halfway down his calf—which didn’t do a very good job at hiding the inhuman tone of his skin. Keith closed his eyes tightly, willing Lance to go away.“Keith?”He was taken back to two weeks ago. When he’d almost died in some sick attempt of the Kievits to test their devotion to their planet. When the person to help him, to get him to safety and out of the claws of one of the freaky aliens, had been none other than the very paladin currently standing outside of his room. Lance had been the one to save him. Cradle him in his arms and stroke his hair as he promised that everything would be okay.And Keith thought—how bad could it be? How bad could it possibly be to show Lance his new physique? Worst case scenario: Lance would never look him in the eyes again, avoid him, ignore him. Basically vanish from his life. But hadn’t that happened before? First his mom, then his dad, more foster families and fake friends than he could count, then Shiro. He’d gone through it before and survived.He’d be able to handle the rejection. Disgust. Hate.He’d be fine.Right?With a loud hiss, the lock was opened and Keith could hear the soft grunts coming from the Blue paladin as he pushed open the heavy door far enough to enter the room.“Hey, man,” Lance said. “Is everything okay? You missed dinner. And breakfast. And lunch. And dinner again.” A sigh. “I just- are you okay?”Keith didn’t turn around. Instead, he pulled his knees closer to his chest and rested his forehead on top of them. Ears pulled back with fear.Soft footfalls approached—the other boy was wearing his lion slippers—and Keith knew it wouldn’t be long until Lance’d see .He’d told himself, like a mantra I’ll be fine I’ll be fine I’ll be fine I’ll be fine . But nothing could’ve prepared him for the way Lance flinched when Keith lifted his head to look at him. His ocean eyes blown wide in—fear.It was fear that made those teal eyes sharpen. And it was fear that made the other boy retract his hand that had been about to find a place on Keith’s shoulders. Fear made the Blue paladin take one, however small, step back.It was like—you can’t look away from a trainwreck.“Keith?” Lance said, voice small and shaking. And Keith just—kept staring, eyes slowly filling with tears. “What- I mean… What happened?” He slowly, carefully, sank down to his knees in front of the Red paladin.Keith looked away just in time to miss the shift from fear to concern in those teal eyes. He took a deep breath. Those damn fangs poking his lower lip again.Keith thought—in all his life, he’d never felt his vulnerable . This broken. If your heart is your armor, Keith’s has been ripped out of his chest and layed out on the clean white floors on the castle’s training room. Pulsing and beating in a last, pathetic attempt to stay alive. At the feet of the one person he might not be able to live without.Maybe—Maybe it would’ve been better if he’d died that day two weeks ago. Go out like a soldier, in the middle of battle, in a last attempt to free a planet of the Galra’s hold. Maybe it would’ve been better if he’d died there, in the arms of the boy he might love . Better, perhaps, than having his apparent Galra genes be revealed by the touch of those traitorous aliens, and having to live with not only the knowledge of being part of that destructive race, but looking it, too.“Oh, Keith .”Soft fingers tangled into his hair, gently pulling his head up. Keith kept his eyes closed, refusing to look at the look of rejection that Lance’s face probably portrayed. A thumb stroked at his cheek, softly wiping his tears away. The fingers slid down to his neck, thumbs circling the skin on the edge of his jaw almost lovingly.“Keith, look at me, please,” Lance whispered.Slowly, cautiously, Keith opened his eyes.Teal eyes stared back.Elegant, tan hands traveled upward again. Softly stroking the soft fur on Keith’s ears.“You’re beautiful, Keith.” Teal eyes spoke the truth.And Keith—Keith cried. ⋆ He dreamed—A field full of sunflowers. Their yellow heads turned towards the yellow sun—her rays softly caressing their cheeks.And Lance—teal eyes and tan skin and freckles. “Keith,” he said. “Keith. The winter is over.” Teal eyes and sunshine. “August is coming, Keith.”Keith nodded. “Yes,” he said. “August is coming.”A soft breeze carried the smell of summer. The sun continued to shine—she wasn’t dying yet.Lance sighed. His breath against Keith’s skin, black hair around his elegant fingers. “Yes,” said Lance. “The winter’s over now.”The winter was over. August was coming. The sun shone on teal eyes. And they were fine. Both of them. ⋆ Waking up was—Warmth all around him. A breathing chest against his back. His heart was saved. Carefully put back to fill the gaping hole in his chest, all by the long and elegant fingers of the boy sleeping next to him.“Lance,” Keith whispered. The sleeping Blue paladin’s soft breath hit his shoulders in a slow pattern. “I love you.” ⋆ “Oh my god, you’re adorable.”“No I’m not! I can bite you, I have fangs!”“Yes, and they’re adorable .”“They’re not!”Lance reached out and poked the tips of his fangs that just refused to stay underneath his lip. Keith was left breathless underneath his touch, unable to do anything but stare into those ocean eyes. The Blue paladin’s hands quickly traveled from Keith’s lips to his jaw, cupping it gently.He leaned closer. Eyes slipping shut as their lips met softly. Like the wind caressing a flower’s petal.When Lance pulled back, he was smiling. Like the sun.All Keith could do was smile back. Despite his fangs showing. Despite the yellow of his eyes. And despite the lavender color of his skin. He smiled back at the boy he was so in love with. His teal ocean. His yellow sun.With a last soft caress of Keith’s ear, Lance took a step back, immediately intertwining their hands. “Ready to show the others?”Whether the boy was talking about the undeniably Galra features Keith sprouted seemingly overnight, or their intertwined hands and smitten smiles, Keith did not know.But, he figured, either would be fine to show as long as he had this boy by his side.So, he smiled, squeezed his boyfriend’s hand and nodded.