The silence was soothing, there was an unexplainable comfort attached to it. Upon closing his eyes, Lance focused on the sounds surrounding him. One by one they became audible.
The sound of the waves crashing into the rocks, the sweet callings of the friendly creatures outside of the room. The gentle purr of the machine that provided them with cool air in this heat. He read somewhere that years ago these machines used to make a significant amount of noise, but he was glad that was not the case anymore. Because now he would be able to hear things around him that are much more important.
Lance changed his position to get more comfortable. He could hear a rhythmic heartbeat and upon focusing more he could also hear his own almost synced with the first heartbeat. A soft smile crept on Lance’s face.
“Good morning,” he heard a husky voice greet him.
“Shh, I am sleeping,” Lance responded while keeping his eyes closed.
He felt the vibrations of the chuckle all through his body, alerting him more about the tangled situation he was in. If anything, Lance wasn’t about to complain. He loved snuggling and especially with the love of his life.
Lance let his fingers trace random shapes on Keith’s stomach. He loved doing that and he knew that even if Keith was a little ticklish, the boy enjoyed this too. An idea clicked in Lance’s mind and he got up from his cozy position, earning a disapproving groan from Keith.
With a smile Lance sat in a way where he was now on top of Keith, straddling him.
“Lance..” Keith warned, knowing exactly what was about to happen.
With a grin on his face, Lance started to tickle Keith.
“Lance~”
“Lance..”
“Lance!”
“Can you hear me? Lance!”
“His stats are spiking; this is not good.”
Lance was floating peacefully.
He was drowning in serenity and he was loving every single second of it. When was the last time he was this relaxed? He felt a hand on the back of his knee and another against his shoulders.
“Keith, what are you doing?” He asked as he was being hoisted up from the water.
“Well, I guess you could say that I am pulling you out of the blue.”
The air filled with the sound of Lance’s laughter. “Was that your attempt at a pun because that was horrible.”
Keith gently brushed his lips over Lance's and smiled. “You have been out here for too long. We should go inside.”
“Only if you carry me.”
Keith grinned and held Lance closer before fully picking themselves up and out of the water.
“Lance!”
“Acxa, we have to go. We can’t wait around here.”
“No! Keith would kill us. Lance! Wake up!”
White noise. A monotonous frequency. It can be deafening. Some may even consider it a form of silence. One that is unbearable. Once you are stuck in a loop, that’s all there is. Drowning in an abyss with no way of escaping.
When does it all end?
When does it all stop?
When can you breathe again?
When can you be alive again?
Gasping for air, Lance sat up only to immediately regret his choice. Clutching his head, he leaned forward to reduce the headache. His eyes were shut close but the light around him was bright enough to irritate him.
“Finally, you are awake. Take this.”
It took a while for Lance’s eyesight to adjust but once it did, he saw Acxa offering him a flask. Without a question, he took it and drank from it.
Not water.
“Don’t you even think about spitting it out. We are scarce on resources and that potion helps speed up the healing process.”
Lance swallowed the potion and gave the flask back to her. “Thank you,” he mumbled.
His throat was sore, he had a raging headache, and everything hurt.
“Where is Keith?” He croaked. Somehow the potion Acxa had given him did nothing for his dry throat, if anything it made it worse.
“We are working on it. Hope you can walk, grab a weapon and let’s head out.”
“Working on it? What do you mean working on it?”
“It means we are working on it. Stop asking questions.” Acxa passed Lance what looked like a sniper rifle. “Heard a lot about your aim. He at a point wanted to bring you in to train us.”
Lance couldn’t help but trace his fingers over the Galra weapon. It was crafted well, and it looked and felt much different from the Altean tech that he was used to.
“He never asked me,” Lance commented and stood up.
“Won’t be the first time Keith failed to ask you something."
"What do you mean by that?" he asked while his heart started beating faster.
"We don’t have time to chat, we have a threat we cannot see, smell or hear. And they are somewhere on the ship. As far as I know, only three of us are left.”
Acxa must have noticed Lance tense up, “everyone else evacuated." She clarified and continued. "Come on let’s go find Keith.”
“Wait when you said we are working on it, you actually meant we as in you and me?”
“Yes, I don’t see how there was any room for confusion.” Without waiting for Lance to answer she started walking.
Lance refrained from asking all the thousands of questions that were forming in his head. As they cautiously walked, he couldn’t help but worry. Lance knew that Keith was more than capable of handling and protecting himself, but he was technically missing right now. No one had seen him since Acxa and Lance left the control room.
The pain was subsiding but there was a certain ache in Lance's heart that stayed back.
'Must be from the rush of the situation,' he thought.
“Acxa, are the comms down?” Lance asked as the emergency alarm kept on warning them.
“Yes, they are down inside the ship, but they activate once you leave it. We had to make a few round trips to get everyone to the nearest base. We called for back up too.”
They made a turn and Acxa held out her hand to stop Lance from moving forward.
“You should stay here.”
“I won’t be able to get any visuals inside the room from here.”
Acxa didn’t speak for a while before sighing. “Lance, I don’t think you should go in first till I make sure everything is… okay.” She was worried about the condition Keith was probably in and how Lance would react if the worst thing that could happen was the reality.
“I don’t understand why everyone treats me this way. I was one of the paladins. I fought alongside them. I have every bit of worth as the others then why do I get treated this way? Because I chose to settle and have a peaceful life? Or is it that I have ‘useless’ written on my face?”
To say Lance was annoyed would be an understatement. The amount of times someone has played down his skills or strength has passed the point of keeping track.
People seemed to forget that he had the same amount of contribution as the other four in order to form Voltron. He was used to people thinking he was worthless but that didn’t mean it hurt any less.
“I-... He never thought any of that about you.”
“What?” Lance didn’t hear Acxa properly because of how low her voice was over the alarm.
“Keith. He always thought the best about you. You mean more to him than he lets on. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with-“
“As you said before, we don’t have time to waste chatting around. Just go ahead, I’ll follow you.”
Acxa nodded and pressed a button to open the door in front of them.
The control room looked the same way as it did when he last talked to Keith. It was as if none of the battles that happened in the ship affected this room.
Lance turned around to check if anyone was behind them. “Hey Acxa, I think we should-” he looked back and there was nobody in front of him. “Acxa?”
There was nobody else in the room except for him. Lance needed to get out of the room. He was just five steps away from the door, all he had to do was move. But he couldn’t. There was something holding him down. He was frozen in spot. A chill ran down his spine as he felt a growing pressure around his throat. He felt his ability to breathe reduce.
Lance fell on his knees, with his weapon on the ground next to him. Not a single muscle in his body was moving the way he intended it to. Slowly Lance was losing consciousness and his eyelids became heavier making it difficult to blink. He just wanted to sleep. It felt like he was using all his energy to try and keep his eyes open.
Why was he even trying?
Blink.
There was no one left.
Blink.
There was no one that would miss him.
Blink.
Then why was he trying to keep his eyes open?
Blink.
He saw a familiar silhouette in front of him.
“Keith,” he tried to whisper but the room remained silent.
With a small smile on his face, Lance let the darkness consume him.