Archive of Our Own ^beta

It was Red who figured it out first.

Well, she is a metal lion spaceship with a conscience after all. So figuring out that the guy screaming at her force field was a galra halfling was way too easy.

And of course, Red told Black. Because she had to rub it in her face that Red's paladin was a great galra. (Unlike someone else)

And the way he demanded to be let in was simply adorable in Red's opinion. He was just so cute with his big purple eyes, she wanted to pick him up and fly the fuck out of there immediately

But she wasn't some plain piece of meat so it was a no-brainer that she played hard to get.

He may be a cub, but she wasn't gonna entertain any disrespect from him. He needed to get whipped into shape.

Though, when it came to it, she had to save him. He may be a very disrespectful cub, and a little rough, but she loved those big eyes.

So yeah, of course he was galra. It was written on his face. It was also obvious in the early days of being a paladin.

Where her cub was running solely on adrenaline and instinct. He would fly with such vigor and fire, she loved it.

And when Blue shoved it in her metaphorical face that her paladin cared for her better and gave her more love, Red had to ask Keith for some love too.

And if he didn't come immediately to clean her up. She would bang at their shared consonance until he came into her hanger grumpily mumbling.

But she loved him.

ll.

Pidge and Hunk were always quite observant.

Pidge would always pride herself on being the smart one, the brainiac, and so forth. Patterns were her strong suit so while she wasn't too great with human emotions. She could point out and understand the patterns of human emotions.

That's why Keith confused her, maybe it was simply that she was worried, but she felt that there was something off lately with the Red Paladin.

He had been more aggressive in missions and more easily angered.

Pidge, like always, had a theory.

It seems far-fetched, but she needed evidence.

Hunk was the other half of this equation. He excelled at human emotions, he could read anyone like a book if he knew them. He wanted to be a therapist, before the garrison.

Though that's long behind him now. Now, he was helping Pidge spy on Keith for one of her research analysis papers.

As they snuck into the observation deck in the training room the sounds of metal hitting metal came to their ears. Hunk looked over wearily at Pidge.

“Listen, I still think this is wrong.” Hunk whispered over to Pidge as she was already sitting in a chair and setting everything up.

They glared at Hunk for a moment before sighing and making sure the observation deck was muted to the outside and the windows were tinted like she had set up the night before.

“I told you Hunk, we're just taking notes. You're here to pinpoint any shared behaviors you see between the list I gave you and Keith.” she gently stated, or as gently as she could.

“If you wanted to cop out you could, didn’t you want to know what was up with Keith as well?”

He looked at her for a moment, then sighed and plopped down in his chair next to Pidge.

There was one thing that they both noticed though.

Keith fought.

He fought like it was his last moment, maybe because the training level was on 7. But he always fought like this. Like he needed too, like it was his last.

He was up close in his enemy's face, analyzing the target and taking it at its weak points. That's why Keith preferred to train with his teammates. He could get better practice and critique the others. Point out their weak points and help them fix them.

Keith was on level 8 at this point. Pidge laser-focused on Keith while Hunk glanced between Keith and his list. Circling and crossing stuff out respectively.

That's why when Lance entered the training room. Pidge was the first to notice, before Hunk and before Keith.

“Hey man!! You up for a little spar I-”

Pidge may have tweaked the training bot a little bit. So maybe it's completely her fault that the bot dives for Lance as soon as he steps into the training area.

The bot knocks him off his legs making him fall straight onto his rear. Having to roll over as soon as he notices the next prepared attack.

The bot is then sliced through completely. Fizziling away.

Keith is standing there, looking mad. No scratch that, furious.

“Woah woah woah, calm. down. dude. I messed up your training sesh, my bad” Lance puts his hands up as in mock surrender. But Keith doesn't say anything. Just kneels putting his arms on lances shoulders. Looking him over, moving with his hands from his shoulders to his face, then to his arms. Checking for injuries.

Pidge would call that more like checking him out but that was just her.

Keith stood and then hauled up a flabbergasted lance after making sure he was safe and well.

Keith then grabbed him by the front of his shirt.

“What is wrong with you? You just completely fell on your ass!” He held them there for a minute letting Lance get his barrings.

Lance then as an immediate switch put on his signature smirk.

“Ah, c'mon samurai, I knew you had my back.”

Keith rolls his eyes and tugs him along, walking towards the exit.

“Let's just go tell Allura and Coran something is up with the training room again.” he lets go of his shirt and Lance steps right up next to him.

“Yes please, I do not want to get almost murdered by the castle again!” Lance throws his hands in the air and the door shuts behind them.

Pidge turns over to Hunk to find him starting open mouth glancing between where Lance and Keith once stood and Pidge.

Pidge looks down at the list Hunk had filled out.

A normal human could not slice through 200 pounds of metal. Pidge had realized.

While Hunk on the other hand never wanted to see Keith and Lance flirt ever again.

lll.

Shiro was there when the knife turned into a sword.

He was there when Kolivan told Keith he had galra blood running through him.

He was there when Keith was silently having a breakdown in the cockpit of Red.

He was there when Keith asked Shiro to tell the team about his heritage because Keith was still silently freaking out.

He was there to experience all the reactions. Allura’s horrified panic, Coran's blatant worry, Hunk, and Pidge's smug looks. And Lance, looked normal, just one question blatant on his face.

Lance opened his mouth first. “So, is that all?”

That wasn't the question he expected Lance would ask.

Allura looked furious, and Keith was just frozen in shock, mouth agape.

Lance then padded over to Keith like it didn't matter that Keith is galra. And Shiro was so proud because in his eyes it didn't matter. Keith was still Keith.

“You are all banged up and look more pathetic than a box of kittens in the rain!” Lance grabbed Keith by his paladin collar.

“We need to get you into a healing pod right now.” Lance then dragged Keith out of the control room while Keith complained about how he was fine and how Lance was being over dramatic with a smug Pidge and Hunk on their heels.

Shiro saw the look in both Lance and Keith's eyes when they looked at each other. And he was even more proud, though Shiro thought about it for a moment, Keith being part galra didn't change anything. It made things make a lot more sense.

A memory suddenly popped up to the front of Shiro’s mind.

It was just after Keith had enrolled into the Garrison. Shiro had given Keith a key to his room in case he needed anywhere to go and he didn't feel like going anywhere else.

Shiro was reading one of his favorite books, he couldn't recall which one now, but he did remember how focused he was.

He didn't even hear Keith walk into the apartment.

“You look like a nerd.”

Shiro glanced from his book to see Keith leaning forward on the back of the L-shaped couch.

He sighed and put his bookmark into the page and looked towards Keith.

Shiro could admit, he did kind of look like a nerd. He had on his reading glasses with his fluffiest blanket draped across him. While the lamp next to him was only bright enough so he could read while the rest of the lights in the apartment were off. And a soft melody produced by the tv mounted on the wall for white noise.

But he was comfy goddamn it, and he would not be insulted by a teenager.

“You're just mad you're not in my situation right now.”

Keith rolled his eyes and walked around to lie down on the couch.

“What's it about anyways?”

“Want me to read it to you so you can find out?”

Keith had simply rolled his eyes and closed them. So Shiro had taken that as a yes and opened his book back up.

He continued to read through, this time out loud.

He hadn't known how long it had been but after a while, the music from the tv stopped.

He didn't notice though, there was another soft noise as a replacement so his brain didn't notice the change.

When he yawned for about the third time he decided it was time to head to bed.

He finally put his book down and looked over to Keith, who was fast asleep curled up into a little ball.

It must've been a rough day for him.

That's when he noticed the strange soft rumbling. Shiro softly stood trying to determine what the noise was when he figured out it was coming from Keith.

Though, it wasn't a snore. The sound was more kin to a purr.

It was definitely time for bed Shiro had decided at that moment.

He threw the blanket, he had been using, on top of Keith and shut off the lamp. Leaving Keith to sleep peacefully and head to bed himself.

When he had gotten in the morning to find Keith scouring through his kitchen in the dark eyes glowing yellow.

He had chugged 5 cups of coffee that day instead of his usual 2.

So yeah, Shiro decided that Keith having galra lineage made so much more sense.

lV.

Allura had lots of problems with Keith turning out to be galra.

Mainly, it was the race that had slaughtered her entire planet and betrayed her family.

But on the other hand, Keith was a part of her new family.

It had taken her a while to get over her own prejudices, it's when she realized that Keith couldn't control who he was that she had accepted him.

And she felt terrible afterward for making him feel oh so guilty for her emotions.

So she set out to make it right.

She went through all of the books in the castle’s system about Galran heritage but they were 10,000 years old. So she turned to their galran allies, cross-referencing her notes with what they told her, and compiled a couple of important points that Keith should probably keep in mind.

She had asked Shiro that night if he could bring Keith to the lounge to talk with him about some key points she thought Keith should know. And Shiro smiled at her, said something about having to do this with him before but with human matters.

He had agreed though so when she walked into the lounge she found Keith and Lance, in a sort of fort made with pillows and blankets.

“Oh great! So you already know about the nesting?”

She’d said once Keith and Lance came out of the supposed nest.

Keith had looked dumbfounded. Lance giggled a bit, mostly at Keith's face.

“Yeah Keith, tell her about all the nesting we do all the time.” he put his arm on Keith's shoulder leaning into him.

Keith looked even more confused and that's when Lance burst into laughter.

“What are you two talking about?!” Keith crossed his arms, pouting slightly.

Ah, that's right Allura probably should have thought about this before walking in on Keith's nest. Even if Allura was technically a part of the ‘pack’ she might have not been allowed since this nest might be just a mate's nest. Kolivan did mention that pack tendencies still resonated with galrans in non-galran areas.

Though Keith seemed confused while Lance was just laughing at Keith's blatant ignorance.

“Maybe you don't know, but your mate seems to know, so I guess I'll just leave this with you.”

She had handed over a hologram document with a smile.

Lance had blushed at the mention of him being Keith's mate and stepped back slightly. Keith skimmed through the document and suddenly blushed at something then looked back up to Allura.

“Allura, what-”

“Oh, right! Shiro had mentioned he talked similarly to you about human culture! He said it was something called the ‘birds and the bees’ ..” She had trailed off slightly remembering what Shiro had told her.

Lance had stepped back with his usual confidence and this time put his arms around Keith's neck from behind.

“You just got the galra birds and the bees talk!” he giggled as Keith fired something back.

Though Allura was on her way out, letting the lovers court in peace.

Allura would let Keith know that she was open for him to asking questions when Lance wasn't around.

She was proud of Keith.

Oh, young love, cubs are always something else. Allura thought to herself.

V.

Lance always knew something was up with Keith.

Keith was his obsession for the entire time he was at the garrison.

For one, he was just the ideal person to lance. He was smart and had great looks and great smarts.

He watched him like a hawk, constantly trying to scale up to him.

But when that didn't get his attention, he tried again.

And again.

And again.

Until he was in the arms of Hunk sobbing while shoving his mother's pozole into his mouth.

Ever since then, he decided he would get over his stupid crush, no matter what.

Even if that meant becoming his number-one hater, then so be it.

And when Keith got kicked out of the garrison he was excited. He was able to actually get the spot he always wanted.

Though, it hurt, not being able to see that stupid mullet every day. He missed those eyes dearly.

That's why when he saw that black mullet, those beautiful muscles, and toned legs he knew it had never gone away.

But oh, how did he try, he tried so hard to swallow down his crush. He tried to hate him, he tried to hate him so much.

But he couldn't, he got sucked right back into those violet inky eyes. That small smile that would form at the worst of Lance's jokes. When his posture would go from rigid and angry to relaxed and satisfied when Lance put his hand on his shoulder.

So, of course, something was up with Keith. First, he noticed how easily Keith got angry and anxious.

But he noticed that back in the garrison.

Lance is so glad that a simple touch to the shoulder and smile is enough for Keith to think straight.

Then, in battle, Lance would be ready to fire but before he could even pull the trigger Keith would get rid of his target.

It had started lots of fights because Lance just couldn't get his head around it. Lance wasn't some damsel in distress. He was a paladin of quiznaking voltron!

But the answer he had gotten just made him even more confused.

"I know you can handle yourself, Lance! I just can't stand the thought of- " Keith had caught on to what he was saying and cut himself off quickly. And whispered the last bit instead.

"of, getting hurt.." Keith had looked away and started to say something but Lance had cut him off with his usual bravo.

"It's cool dude I get it! But don't worry, you can be my knight in shining armor all you want even if I don't need it!" Lance wrapped his arm around Keith's shoulders and started to walk.

Was Lance being selfish in letting his crush continue on the Red Paladin without him stopping it?

Yes, absolutely.

But, he was in so deep he didn't have time to be guilty before the next big thing happened. Where he didn't even understand why he would try to hide his feelings.

Keith could purr. And not just a purr of that of any cat. It sounded alien with adorable clicks and hiccups, like he hadn't done it in a while.

And Lance was so infatuated with it that he had started calling him kitten.

But like with all the other pet names he called Keith behind his back, he called him them in Spanish.

"Where's mi gatito!?" Lance yelled when he entered the lounge. A smile was prominent on his face as he spotted Keith curled up under a blanket in the corner of the couch, feet hanging off the arm.

Keith drearily blinked at Lance. Groaning as he sat up slightly. "Whaddya need..?"

Lance's heart could have exploded at that moment because Keith looked oh so soft under the tinted lights.

Messy mullet from sleeping on the couch, a sleep shirt that Lance had got him at one of the space malls hung on his frame. But his eyes, his eyes are what captivates Keith. They glowed slightly yellow, his pupils blown wide.

Lanced hopped over to him and slid right near where Keith's head was.

"Nothin', just came to hang out with you." Lance smiled sweetly at Keith. Where he just blinked back at him and laid back down though this time, head in Lance's lap.

Lance could have died right there. Looking back on it he thinks he did, he thinks that moment is where his self-restraint flew out the window.

"Well, have fun 'cause I'm finishing my nap."

And just like that he was off to sleep purring slightly.

Lance smiled and started to card his hands through Keith's hair. His purrs increase in volume.

Oh, how Lance loved him.

So when they figured out that Keith was half galra. He wasn't surprised, actually, at that moment he didn't care.

All he cared about was the number of bruises littering Keith's face.

They didn't belong there, Keith had looked so sad, so upset. But not with anyone else, no, Lance knew better. But with himself.

But after Keith was safely in a healing pod he marched straight over to Kolivian. He had demanded to know everything about galra culture for Keith.

Kolivan had briefed him quickly, mostly on the stuff most important like diet and exercise for Cubs. Since Keith had no clue about his own Garlan heritage, he was stunted at a young age, not getting the right nutrients and without a pack structure.

So Lance read up on anything he could get, he wanted to make Keith feel more comfortable in the castle.

But how?

+1

"Ok, calm down Lance, you got it, just knock on the door, it's not that hard." Lance was muttering to himself as he paced outside of Keith's door.

He had already set up the present for Keith, now all he needed to do was actually show it to him.

But what if it backfired, what if Keith rejected him like he saw in all of those books? They said if that happened then usually the person you were courting became distant.

God he couldn't have that happen.

Lance sat up against Keith's door and sighed, turning his head to look at the ceiling.

He can't do this, he should probably just leave and dismantle the present.

But that is the exact moment Keith decides to open his door.

The door quickly slides open which causes Lance to fall onto his back.

"Lance?"

Oh god.

Lance opened his eyes to stare back up at Keith who was blinking at Lance with a sour look on his face.

Lance smiled and held up both his hands for Keith to grab.

"Little help?"

Keith huffed and rolled his eyes. Taking his hands and pulling him up quickly with barely any strength. God those nutrients were doing numbers for him.

Keith then let go of one of Lance's hands and used the other to turn him around.

"You okay?" Keith looked at him wearily.

And lance, lance was a weak weak man. He could not stand those beautiful purple voids that were called his eyes.

"Uhm, yeah, sort of. I was just wondering, well, I kind of got this present for you but it's really nothing much, so you don't have to come see it. Actually, scratch that, don't come see it, uh, yeah sorry for bothering you, bye!" Lance had tried to pull away after his fast-paced rant but before he could let go of Keith's hand, Keith's hand pulled him up to his chest.

"Lance, I would love to see my present." Keith looked at him with those eyes, and that stupid soft smile and his eyebrows went up and his smile looked so sweet he wanted to kiss him.

"Uuhhhh, okay, cool cool cool cool!" Lance had stuttered as a blush rose to his cheek.

Lance quickly turned around trying to save his cover as he led Keith just next door to his own room.

He opened the door and quickly shuffled in with the doors closing automatically behind them and Lance let go of Keith's hand and walked over to his bed.

Where he had set up another pillow fort. This time he had taped blankets to the ceiling by his bed to make two false walls. He opened the blankets so Keith could see the inside where there were dim fairy lights and lots of articles of soft clothes with Lance and Keith's scents all over them.

"Well, I thought about what Allura had said and I kinda wanted to give you a proper nest. This kinda took all day, but I don't mind if you don't like it, it's for you after all." Lance looked over to Keith where he was frozen in shock.

Fuck, he knew it, he knew he shouldn't have shown Keith.

Lance sighed and his real smile slowly turned fake.

"It’s alright Keith, you can tell me if you don-"

He was suddenly knocked back into the nest with a bundle of Keith in his arms.

That's when Keith looked up at him with his smirk apparent.

"Are you trying to ask me out, but in galra language?"

Lance's face blew up in flames, as he looked over and tried to hide his dance in the bundle of blankets.

Keith giggled, giggled!!!

"No, don't hide, I love it, Lance. I love you."

Now that shocked him.

Lance whipped his head back to Keith, mouth agape.

Keith simply smiled sweetly at him. Taking this moment to his advantage Keith dove forward and pressed their lips together.

That shocked Lance out of his frozen state and pressed back against Keith. He moved slowly, hand coming up to Keith's face, as he let himself just taste Keith.

He pulled back very slowly, not wanting to break the kiss but he just had to know.

"How long?" Lance asked breathlessly.

"Ever since I learned your name." Keith smiled back.

Lance snuggled into Keith and pressed a kiss to the top of his head. This was the happiest moment of his life.

He was gonna bring Keith home to his mamá, gonna introduce him to all his family. He was gonna teach him Spanish, teach him how to dance.

He wanted to do everything with him.

"Well, I win then because I've loved you since the very moment you came to the garrison Keith Kogane!"

Keith giggled again, god he didn't think he would get over that precious laugh.

"It's not a competition you doofus!"

"Anything with you is a competition, sweetheart, ~"

"No, no nicknames."

"Why not my fluff ball? Mi gatito precioso~"

"Ewww, cut it out! I only accept that last one!"

"Ah well, I tried, and I'm gonna keep on trying, sweet checks!"

"What have I gotten myself into?"

"Heaven, baby, Heaven!"

Keith huffed and snuggled closer to Lance.

Yeah, definitely heaven.