Chapter Text
“The hell you mean we can’t go get Lance?”
On scale from rainbow jumping unicorns to Pidge when woken up earlier than eight o’clock in the morning, how angry was Keith?
Somewhere around a british man stuck in traffic, which translated into Keith was sufficiently pissed off.
He had just watched his almost-not-really boyfriend get shot directly at the surface of whatever fucking planet they’d decided to visit this week at speeds faster than he was comfortable with in HD!
And the cherry on top of his metaphorical milkshake was that Coran had just told him they weren’t able to go get him quite yet.
“Well, um, let me rephrase; we can go get him, it’s just going to take precisely one day and eight hours.”
“And what the hell does that mean?” Keith’s left eye was twitching with how hard he was glaring at Coran, and he was beginning to have the strange urge to shove his hand so far down Coran’s throat that he could reach his goddamn organs and make a ladder so Lance could climb off the godforsaken planet and directly into Keith’s arms.
Coran had the nerve to only scoff and pull at his mustache. I’m going to rip that thing off one day and knit it into a rug, Keith decided.
“The atmosphere is still extremely reactive, and we need to enter at speeds to where it won’t cause friction and ignite again, which is so to say, very slow.”
Keith was going to have to go see a dentist after this with how hard he was grinding his teeth. Or maybe go to an anger management class.
“That is of course, unless he finds a way back himself!”
Both eyes were dangerously twitching now and Coran was beginning to look a little put-upon.
“How, exactly, do you expect him to do that when the Blue Lion is up here!?”
Coran only scoffed. “Lance is a resourceful boy. If there’s a way, I’m sure he’ll find it.”
***
“You seem pretty mad.”
Keith rolled his eyes at Hunk who was sitting across from him in the dining hall. He wasn’t one for beating around the bush, was he?
Keith looked around and observed the others, pointedly ignoring Hunk’s question. It was an obvious attempt at breaking the awkward silence that had settled over the room, but it was weak at best.
Pidge was half-heartedly twirling her fork in her food, Shiro was taking his regular, carefully measured bites, and Hunk was now staring wistfully at his empty plate instead of trying to start conversation. Allura and Coran were nowhere to be found.
Keith’s own food had went completely untouched and was probably cold, which made it even more unappetizing than what it already was.
He slid it in Hunk’s direction, who took it greedily and nodded at Keith in thanks.
“Aren’t you guys worried about him?”
Keith knew it was harsh, the way he phrased the question, especially from the way Hunk choked on a particularly large bite, and the way Pidge startled and her glasses fell halfway down her nose.
Shiro even seem affected, pausing with a cup of water halfway to his lips, before gently setting it down.
Keith also knew he was being selfish- of course they were worried! It’s just he was so stressed, and it had only been three hours since Lance had crashed, and no one was doing anything except avoiding the subject.
Or maybe Keith was just imagining the awkward and tense silence.
He was thinking so far into everything right now he could probably be up to debate the meaning of life, honestly.
“That’s not really a fair question, Keith.”
Oh god, he had just activated Space Dad. He was now aggressively wishing he had just kept his mouth shut.
“I know- it’s just, you guys won’t even talk about it!”
Pidge rolled her eyes and let her fork drop into her food. “We’re not talking about it on purpose, genius. Talking about it makes it true. On top of that, Hunk and I have known him longer. He’s dumb, but he’s smart too. We’re not as concerned. Stop doubting him so much.”
Keith wanted to protest, because that’s not what all this was about, he was just so cripplingly worried because no, Lance could not take care of himself and recent events should be evident of that. He just didn't think, ever.
Pidge scoffed at his lack of response. “Figures.”
She stomped out of the room with Shiro and Hunk trailing after her quickly.
Keith just put his head in his hands and sighed.
***
“No way.” Keith’ mouth was wide open and gaping at what he was seeing, and the others weren’t much better off, equal looks of disbelief on their faces.
Coran, the little fucker, was just smirking.
“So,” Lance began, “space dragons.”
Shiro was the first to recover. “Absolutely not.”
Keith was still having trouble comprehending what was going on. He had been sitting in his bed, in the dark, moping about getting reprimanded by Shiro and Pidge when suddenly Coran was calling a code purple (Keith had no clue what that meant) and everyone was in the main command center within ten seconds flat.
And that’s when they saw him.
Lance was a sight for sore eyes- he had been ascending from the heavens, literally.
But everyone seemed more concerned by the fact that he was on top of a dragon, which was surrounded by multiple other dragons.
He was posing quite majestically on top of the dragon too- his left foot was propped higher on the dragon then the rest of his body, his hands were spread out in a large gesture, he had somehow managed to make a large and billowing makeshift cape while he was down on the planet, and he was wearing a flower crown. An honest to god flower crown. He looked like the prettiest prince ever and Keith kinda wanted to sweep him off of his feet.
They had gotten Lance and all five dragons out of the sky and into the castle, and had honestly probably stared at him for a solid ten minutes before he had decided to break the silence about his space dragons, of all things.
“But Shiro, why? I feel like you kind of owe me, dude.”
“Don’t call me dude,” he said offhandedly, before rehardening his dad glare.
“Do you even know what they eat, Lance?”
Lance made a face before shrugging his shoulders. “Huh. I guess I didn’t really think of that, did I?”
Shiro sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Keith could understand.
“I see you planned it out with your normal attention to detail.” Allura said dryly.
“Oh, like you did that mission?” Everyone winced and Keith should’ve known that Lance wasn’t going to be as forgiving as he had hoped.
Nevertheless, Lance started smiling again and the tension in the room eased slightly.
“I can always ask them, you know.”
Keith snorted in amusement. “What, you can talk to dragons now?”
Lance smirked and hopped off the dragon with a dramatic floosh, his cape flowing behind him. Keith decided it was cute the cutest thing he had seen, ever . (Maybe Keith was the dramatic one).
“Of course I can. Call me the dragon whisperer.”
This time it was Pidge that spoke up. “Okay, mighty dragon whisperer,” she mocked, “show us what you’ve got.”
Lance maturely stuck his tongue out at her, to which she rolled her eyes.
“Get on with it please,” Coran drawled from the corner.
Lance waved his hand. “Fine, fine.”
He stuck two fingers up to his temple and closed his eyes.
Keith thought he looked quite silly, but he was genuinely curious to see if Lance could communicate with the dragons.
After a small moment, Lance opened his eyes and frowned in confusion.
“They don’t eat?” The question was obviously rhetorical, but Keith decided to answer Lance’s question with another question.
“What do you mean they don’t eat?”
Lane just shrugged his shoulders. “I can talk to them through a mind link, but it’s kinda complicated. The don’t actually talk back, just send me pictures or feelings. The just drew a blank when I asked them, which means they don’t need food, I guess. I think they go into a sort of hibernation thing every month to gain back energy.”
Allura seemed slightly skeptical, and Keith couldn’t blame her.
“You’re telling me you managed to form a mind link with five random dragons faster than you could with your own team?” Hunk asked.
Lance raised his eyebrow. “That’s seriously all you got from that?”
Hunk nodded.
Keith rolled his eyes. Honestly.
Shiro pursed his lips. “If you're sure, I guess you can keep them for now. For now, Lance. Don’t get to excited. Have you even named them yet?”
Lance raised his fist in the air in victory, knocking his flower crown sideways.
He adjusted it before grinning even more widely than he had before.
“I haven’t named them, actually. Who wants to help me?”