Lance breathed in a ragged breath.
In, out.
The soot fogged up his helmet, choking him up, but he still pushed onward. Step after step after step. In, out. His breathing was labored. His armor was dirtied. His limbs ached.
“Keith?” Pidge’s voice rang out over the comms.
Keith had come after Lance when the Galra had made the threat, when Lance dove down into that waste of a planet. At first, he’d been held back by Shiro. Keith was somewhere on this planet now, but Lance couldn’t focus on him. He had other priorities. Keith would be fine.
In, out.
Lance focused on his breathing instead, tuned out the outside sounds of the paladins calling for Keith and him. With each struggling step, his bayard illuminating the way, he dragged himself over to the cave home.
It’s curtains were drawn, and no light came from within. The only sign of life were the heat signatures his helmet picked up.
Fuck, the air was rough.
“Lance, your helmet is broken,“ Allura started.
Lance shut off the comms. Anything distracting him was preventing him from reaching /them./ He pushed his way through the curtain entrance.
There she was.
Huddling under a table in the corner was a small girl, a blue-scaled dragonling humanoid with bright red eyes. She was trembling. Lance got down on his hands and knees, crawling over to her.
In, out. His throat hurt.
“Hey,” he said softly, a rasp tickling his words. “I’m a Paladin of Voltron. I’m here to save you from the fires.”
The alien girl croaked out a whimper. She clearly didn’t recognize him, but her planet was a member of the coalition… fuck. Lance knew what he had to do.
He removed his helmet.
“See?” Her eyes lit up with recognition.
“Loverboy!” she exclaimed. Lance winced at his stage name, laughing outwardly to reassure her.
“That’s right, and I’m here to save you,” he agreed, reaching his arms out to her. Without the meager protection of his helmet, he was really starting to feel woozy. Still, that didn’t matter.
With shaking hands, he picked her up and began to walk outside the cave home and back to Blue.
This time, though, the trek was worse. He couldn’t see as well without his helmet, couldn’t recognize heat signatures or the fastest path back. Instead, he relied on lighting up his footsteps and retracing his steps.
That didn’t last long.
After 20 steps, Lance began to feel dizzy. He lurched, which caused the girl to make a series of clicks.
In, out. He patted her back and continued on.
After 50 steps, Lance started to lose the edges of his vision to blackness. He could feel the mucus in his throat fighting his inhalations. He fought back harder. He would have to reach a level of survival that went beyond what he could handle. To save her.
In, out.
Finally.
120 steps.
Lance fell to his knees.
The girl screamed.
Lance was only a football field from Blue. He had failed.
The girl scrabbled her claws at his armor, wailing, her cries embellished by the distant sound of crackling fire. Lance closed his eyes, listening to her pain, letting it soak in. He’d failed her, and this was his punishment, to lie prone and to hear her suffer. He had failed.
In, out.
He felt a tug to some hidden darkness inside of him.
“Lance!”
Oh, that wasn’t supposed to happen.
Lance felt more than heard the pounding footsteps of Keith Kogane as he ran to his side, kneeling by Lance’s head and cradling it in his hands.
“Stay awake, Lance, I have an O2 mask and we can get the girl to safety—“
“Loverboy!” The girl insisted.
Keith’s head snapped up. Lance chuckled weakly, coughing at the end.
“What?” Keith asked.
“She knows… shows,” he muttered in response. Keith huffed a breath, fogging up his helmet.
“Oh.”
Lance coughed again, and Keith panicked, pulling a mask from his belt. “Stay awake.”
“Loverboy,” the girl insisted again, tugging on Keith’s shoulder.
Lance blinked slowly. The world was slow. Why was the ash now falling on his face in slow motion? Why was Keith putting the mask on so slowly?
In, out.
Lance blinked. The darkness came back. He closed his eyes.
“No, Lance, no.”
Lance wasn’t listening. It was more peaceful, here, to focus inwardly rather than on the voices out there. It was quiet and dark and cool. The fires couldn’t touch him here.
“Loverboy? Stay with me, please. Please.” The rawness in his voice made Lance’s eyes snap open.
“Keith? I’m really trying…”
Words were too difficult, though.
So Lance let his heavy eyelids fall, let the blackness rush in. He felt the mask press into his chin and nose.
“I know, Lance.”
Silence again.
In,
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Sirius hadn’t thought it would be a problem. He didn’t think it was something he even had to be worried about.
Really, he should have expected it.
James had a specific type after all - in other words anyone who would insult him.
And listen Sirius knew. In an abstract sort of way.
Regulus was known for his sharp tongue. But he never really made the connection. After all, Sirius was there when Regulus was still young, still unaware of everything and was the sweetest boy with the biggest heart.
And well, Sirius knew no matter what he said Regulus was still that boy inside.
So it might have slipped his mind that Regulus was, well -
“If you’re planning on killing me with that hairdo, consider it a valiant attempt.”
Sirius is about to save James’s honour when -
“If it gets you looking at me I’d say it’s doing a great job.” James said, already breathless, eyes wide as he stared at Regulus.
Regulus simply raises an eyebrow, quirking his lips.
Sirius feels a mounting sense of horror as he glances at both of them - who were fully ignoring him at the moment.
Fuck.
He had gone through all the possible outcome of their first meet up - from a duel to cold indifference.
Clearly, he’d forgotten another option.
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Regulus: *leaning forward in his seat while reading, muttering* No no no no no no…
James: Is there something wrong?
Regulus: The main character has her found family and everything’s happy
James: Oh that’s good
Regulus: There’s a hundred pages left
James: Oh that’s bad..?
Regulus: It’s going to be a cliffhanger I just know it
James: …Maybe there’s a sequel?
Regulus: Yes there is
James: *very relieved* Well you can continue it in the sequel then
Regulus: *staring at him dead in the eye* It’s coming out in three years
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