#i like the idea of lance being dizzy after the pod ToT

[coolnonsenseworld]

THIS IS SUCH A SWEET FRAGMENT!!!!! I THINK IT UNLOCKS THE ART INTO PUBLIC, IT WAS THIS ONE WASNT IT

Healing Pods

based on a piece from @coolnonsenseworld's 52 Weeks of KICK 2021 PDF

“Why are you staring at me like that?” Lance sits on the top step leading to the healing pods. He stares up at Keith, caught by his dark gaze. Ever since he came back to consciousness, Keith hasn‘t spoken a word, just continues to look at him as if afraid Lance will vanish the second he blinks. And considering the state of Lance after that battle, it’s understandable.

“You almost died,” Keith says, crossing his arms. “I think I have that right.”

“You gonna lecture me?”

Leaning in, Keith asks, “Will it work?” Fresh out of the healing pod, Lance is still clothed in that white bodysuit, and Keith starts to trace all the angles it reveals, the cut of his shoulders and swell of his biceps. Memorizing him in case he loses the chance to do so again.

Lance shakes his head, getting lost to that touch. “I think it’ll have the same effect that my lectures about self-sacrificing have on you,” he says in complete honesty. 

Keith’s mouth twists at the answer, but he reluctantly accepts it with a sigh. He moves his hand back up to the side of Lance’s face. His fingers bury in Lance’s hair and his thumb rests under Lance’ chin. Keith tilts Lance’s head up as he leans down, kissing him, open mouthed and careful, tentative. Lance releases a soft gasp. He draws Keith in closer by the waist, knee sliding between Keith’s legs, trapping him between his thighs.

“You almost died,” he whispers again, as if making it a running chant in his head to remind himself of what didn’t happen. He breaks from the kiss with silent tears slide down his cheeks.

Lance reaches up to wipe them away, smearing them across the pad of his thumb. “I survived.”

“You did.” Keith’s voice hitches in his throat. “Thank you.”

Lance pulls Keith towards him until their bodies are flushed and they fall back onto the ground, holding each other, never letting go.

[some-cookie-crumbz]

The Shrink Treatment

The Shrink Treatment Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Pairing: Kidge Summary: Request fill. An experiment goes awry, leaving Keith in a strange situation and Pidge the one in charge of looking after him. Standard Disclaimer: If you read and enjoy this, please give it a like/ reblog so I know if I should write more. AN: Third fill for the requests I received. I deviated a little bit from what the original request wanted but I hope that this is still enjoyable!

Keith eyed the concoction Coran had shoved into his hand with a skeptical raise of an eyebrow.

He had agreed to help Coran out with some testing in regards to antidotes and medications to be implemented by the team. While they’d all been given first aid and small emergency supply kits to keep stashed in spare compartments in their Lions, none of what they had would be particularly effective for serious injuries or ailments. The need for them to have higher grade medication had first been brought up after Shiro’s injury from Haggar, and the point had been driven home even further when Hunk had nearly lost his right hand after shrapnel from an exploding Galra ship caught his wrist. He had been thankfully fine after a trip in the healing pod - though he did admit to suffering from his pinky and ring fingers occasionally going numb or twitchy – but this had seemed to light a fire in Coran. He insisted that if he could develop some kind of oral or spray-type medication that could begin repairing the damage until further treatment could be given, Hunk wouldn’t have any discomfort with the limb, and that now he had to assure no other Paladin suffered such long term side effects.

Thus leading to Keith’s position, sitting on one of the exam tables in the sick bay, holding a strange liquid that was mostly yellow with specks of grey and pink sprinkled throughout. “And this is supposed to do… What, exactly?” He asked, swirling the contents around curiously. He managed to hide a shudder when whatever it was bubbled ominously at him in response.

“Well, it’s designed to heal damage from the inside,” Coran explained happily, heading over from the other side of the room with a clipboard, “or, rather, start to heal it… Hopefully… The goal is that it should begin healing the internal effects to injuries, like mending broken bones and such. It’s mostly just a way to prevent any permanent nerve or muscle damage being caused, so basic medical treatment will still need to be administered to any wounds on the surface level. This little tonic should just assure that in a situation where your foot nearly gets severed from your leg, you’ll be able to heal with minimal to no long term side effects of the injury.”

Keith glanced down at his casted arm and hummed quietly. That certainly explained why Coran had insisted that he was the only one that could help him, as well as why he had pleaded for Keith to avoid the healing pods upon arrival.

“Well, I guess we’ll see how well this works, huh?” He asked before taking a deep breath and chugging the contents of the vial.

Coran watched him curiously for a few minutes, reaching up and twirling one of the ends of his moustache as he did, then tilted his head curiously. “Well? Feel anything?”

Keith shook his head and smacked his lips a bit. “I mean, other than a bitter after taste, not really,” He said with a shrug, shuffling off of the exam table to stand on his own two feet. He regretted it immediately when a wave of dizziness hit him, akin to the first few times after being in the simulator back at the Garrison. He rested his good hand against the table and shook his head again.

“Are you alright?” Coran fretted, coming closer and settling one hand on Keith’s back.

Keith swallowed to try and answer but his mouth felt suddenly dry. He then tried to nod but instead his head just wobbled in an odd circular motion. An odd sensation ran through him as if something was settled in his gut and was creeping from his belly and through his body, seeming to simultaneously chill him down while amplify the temperature of his blood to the point he swore he could feel it as it pumped through his veins. The dizziness became worse, the world becoming an odd blur of color and light, and he crumpled in on himself, one arm curling around his stomach while the other clutched at his head. He vaguely heard Coran calling out to him and rushing toward him before his consciousness slipped under an inky veil.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Pidge had been heading toward the hanger when she heard some kind of commotion starting up at the other end of the hallway. She spotted Hunk, looking concerned and uneasy, standing just inside the medical bay but halting in from of the curtain leading to Coran’s private research area. He’d designated the area as his own space with a sign posted – written in both Altean and English – on the door that read, in big, bold, blocky letters, “NO PIDGES OR HUNKS ALLOWED!!”, after the two had accidently botched up one of his experiments.

She had been expecting him to appreciate their help enough to forgive them for setting his moustache on fire. Some scientist he was.

“Hey, Hunk,” She said conversationally as she reached him, pausing when she heard unholy shrieking and Lance’s yowling coming from the other side of the curtain. She peered inside and blinked in confusion as she watched the shadow of her other teammate trying to placate a small form he was holding above his head that was thrashing about like a lunatic. “Um, what is that all about?” She asked, pointing to the spectacle and looking back at Hunk.

“Well, we saw Coran rushing out of here all frazzled and frantic… And when we offered to help he told us to stay out and that he would handle it himself… But after he left Lance got curious and went to see what he was hiding and… Well, he hasn’t been hanging in very well,” Hunk said nervously.

“Then why don’t you go help him?” She suggested. Lance howled in outrage as whatever he was dealing with got a handful of his hair and started yanking for all it was worth.

Hunk looked scandalized before indicating the sign. “I have respect for boundaries, thank you very much,” He huffed indignantly.

“My diary and I would beg to differ,” She quipped back before grabbing the edge of the curtain and tugging it aside with one fluid motion. Standing before her was Lance, struggling to control what seemed to be…

“Keith?”

The small child suddenly jerked to attention, eyes large as he looked between the two newcomers in a mix of apprehension and a touch of fear. The child was wearing a simply red shirt and some long tan pants but the messy black hair and deep violet eyes were dead giveaways to his identity. His tiny fists were still clenched in Lance’s hair.

“Oh, thank God, please get this wild beast off of me!” Lance whined, giving him a tug to try and dislodge him. This only caused the fear in his eyes to spark brighter and he squawked in protest, pulling at brunette’s locks still clutched in his grasp. Given the situation, she deduced that it had to actually be Keith; it had to be, however, a younger Keith with no memory of who the other Paladins were given how he was behaving with Lance. Well, that or he just really didn’t want Lance picking him up, but that seem like it. Another quick glance at his frightened eyes was all it took for her to piece together the answer; not hard to figure out, when you paid as much attention as she tended to.

Pidge walked over and reached toward him, standing on her tiptoes to be a bit closer to where Lance had him. “Keith, come to me, okay?” She said, doing her best to make her voice sound softer and warmer than normal. She wasn’t sure exactly what was going on with Keith’s mind – though she could reason his mind had digressed to match with his current form – but she figured to try her hand at getting him over to her. She and Keith had spent a good amount of bonding so, regardless of how many memories he had of his time as a Paladin, she would most likely have a better chance at calming him down than Lance since she had a better idea of how to engage with him.

He stared at her for a moment before nearly tossing Lance’s head from his grip and reaching toward her. Lance handed him over eagerly while Keith latched on to her like a koala bear, his arms looping around her neck and legs squeezing around her stomach as best he could. She rested one arm under the bottoms of his thighs to offer more support while the other settled on his back, between his shoulder blades, to begin rubbing to further calm him down. A low groan called her attention back to the set of blazing blue eyes glowering down at the small tot in her arms. “What was that all about?” He snapped, pointing an accusatory finger.

Keith shrunk a bit into her at the gesture, as if to hide, and she opted to keep the truth to herself. Why reveal a childhood fear of heights to Lance when he’d just use it for teasing later?

“He probably doesn’t like your face,” She said with an indifferent shrug.

Lance gasped and slapped a hand to his chest. “Excuse you! What is there to dislike about all of this magnificence?” He protested, gesturing in a wide circle to his head with his other hand.

“Chin is too pointy,” Keith suddenly chimed up, his voice soft but defiant. He was wearing the scowl they’d all grown accustom to seeing on him in their time as a team; though it read more as a pout when paired with his chubby baby cheeks.

The older boy gaped before leaning down right into Keith’s face. “My chin is not too pointy!” He snapped back, the skin of his cheeks darkening with a flush.

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“Yeah huh!”

“Nuh uh!”

“Yeah huh times ten!”

“Nuh uh times 100!”

“Yeah huh times infinity!” Keith all but screamed back, one hand clutching at Pidge’s shoulder while the other had dropped to form a fist at his side. He looked ready to straight up deck Lance in the face, which seemed like an awful idea. Though she doubted that Lance would actually hit Keith while he was a child – regardless of who threw first punch – she also didn’t think that getting up in his face and shouting was a good alternative. She glanced over Keith’s head at Hunk, then looked back at Lance quickly, and raised her eyebrows twice in quick succession.

Thankfully, her partner in tech crime seemed to understand the covert indications; he walked over and settled a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “Come on, dude, no need to get up in his face. He’s like, what, three?” He asked.

“I’m three and a half!” Keith protested loudly, but his words lisped a bit for the ‘three’ came out sounding more like ‘twee’. It was then that Pidge noticed that he was missing his front left tooth.

Hunk held his other hand up defensively. “Okay, sorry, my bad, buddy,” He said gently. Keith let out a small huff, satisfied with the response, and flopped back against Pidge to rest his head against her shoulder. With the other calmed down he turned his attention back to Lance. “So, like, did Coran explain what was happening, exactly?” He asked.

“Tch, I wish!” Lance squawked back, flailing his arms to help illustrate his frustration.

Pidge rolled her eyes at his theatrics and looked down at Keith again, whom was looking back up at her. “Do you remember why you’re here?” She asked gently. He answered by shaking his head. “Do you remember who we are?” She asked, motioning to herself and the boys.

“Not a lot… I know that I like you. You’re good and safe,” He said, shifting to lean toward her ear, “but I dunno about the other one. He’s super mean.” Despite clearly aiming for a whisper, it came out more like a slightly softer conversational tone. She laughed while Lance grumbled under his breath.

“Well, maybe if you were nicer to him, he wouldn’t think you were super mean,” She hummed back, a smug grin on her lips. Keith followed her statement up with a sentiment of his own in the form of a raspberry. Hunk tried to hide his snorts behind a hand but it didn’t work, given how Lance switched his glare from Tiny Keith to the other. She then shifted and indicated Hunk. “What about that one? Is he super mean or is he good too?”

Dark eyes shifted from her to Hunk, who was now smiling and waggling his fingers at them. “He’s weird… but I like him, too, so he’s good,” He said with a nod of finality.

Pidge opened her mouth to speak just as they heard voices approaching from down the hallway. “Coran, what’s going on, exactly? Allura and I have the conference call with the Multarian leaders to discuss their joining the coalition,” Shiro said, his voice a touch tired and annoyed.

The three other Paladins exchanged concerned looks as Coran entered, walking backwards so he could address and guide their leader to the incident in question. “Now, look, I don’t think it will be hard for me to find out where my miscalculation was, so I should be able to get him back to normal relatively quickly. And if Zarkon is feeling generous we won’t be dealing with the Galra until this whole thing has been reversed! We just have to keep everyone else from finding out!” He beamed, turning around just before running right into Hunk.

They all stared at one another for a moment. It was oddly enough Keith who broke the silence to announce, “I’m hungry.”

They marched to the dining hall in silence, with Lance being sent to get Allura along the way, and Hunk got a plate of food goo. They found a few old Altean tech manuals to help boost Keith up high enough to reach the table, as there were no booster seats still in decent repair. Shiro and Coran were settled on either side of Keith, Pidge across from him, Lance and Hunk to Pidge’s right and left respectively, and Allura was positioned between Lance and Shiro. She cleared her throat lightly and indicated the toddler prodding suspiciously at the green glop. “Now, Coran, would you mind enlightening us with how this occurred, exactly?” She asked gently.

“Of course, Princess. Well, I was working on a new oral medicine to help heal broken bones and other such injuries. And, since Keith had just broken his arm, he agreed to be my test subject,” He said, reaching over to ruffle the mop of dark locks beside him.

Keith scowled and tried to wretch his head away, scooting as far away from the chuckling man as he could, then resumed poking at his plate with more vigor. Shiro reached over and gently smoothed his hair back down. “Keith, don’t play with your food,” He said calmly before turning his attention back to Coran. Keith’s nose wrinkled in distaste and he stared at the small spoonful of goo in his hand. “Was this even a plausible side effect?”

The other laughed nervously and twiddled one end of his moustache in thought. “Well, it wasn’t on my short list… See, the goal of the medicine was to sort of return the afflicted area to a recent point in time where the damage had yet to occur to minimize the after effects. It would be a temporary solution – would only repair the damage so that there would be enough time to get them proper treatment – but… Well, I certainly didn’t think this was what would happen. Initially it seemed to just be nausea and dizziness, so I thought that maybe that he was going to get physically ill, but then he start sweating and having trouble breathing… And then when I was preparing to throw him into a healing pod to flush the medicine from his system he started to shrink! And… Well, then he became like this,” He explained, his fiddling shifting from his moustache to his fingers as he spoke.

Keith glanced up at the mention of his name, looking from everyone else on the table, and paused when he and Pidge locked eyes. He still hadn’t taken a single bite of his goo. “That stuffs actually pretty tasty, buddy,” She said gently, hoping to reassure him. He looked back down wearily, then back at her, before finally seeming to give it a try. After his first bite, a little grin turned up on his lips and he started eating eagerly.

Allura’s brow knit in concern and she sighed. “Well, this certainly is an issue. What if the Galra attack like this? Does he even have enough memories to properly pilot Red Lion? And even if he does, would he be able to reach the controls?” She fretted.

“In regards to memories,” Pidge chimed in, “he doesn’t remember specifics; just general opinions. He knows that he feels safe and secure with us on the Castle Ship, but doesn’t seem to know the exact circumstances for why. As for piloting Red… I’m not sure if he remembers the Lions at all. And I doubt that Red Lion would let him in her cockpit while he’s so much smaller and vulnerable.”

“So Voltron’s out of the question for a while. Well, I guess this just gives us more reason to focus on getting Keith back to normal,” Shiro said, glancing down at the small child beside him. He was watching them all curiously, still shoveling goo in his mouth, but still as attentive and alert as he’d ever been. A fond smile quirked up on Shiro’s lips before he turned his attention back to the others. “Okay, what can we do to help you out?” He asked, attention turned to Coran again.

The older man hummed in thought. “Well, Pidge and Hunk could be helpful in looking over my calculations to see where I went wrong. If I can track down where my mixture went wrong, working backwards to find a solution would be a piece of Deglarberry pie!” He said enthusiastically. He then tapped his chin thoughtfully, glancing down at Keith again. “It then just becomes a question of what to do with Keith in the meantime. My work area is far from a place for children.”

“Well, perhaps Lance could-!”

“No,” Keith cut off Allura flatly. He pointed his goo-speckled spoon at the boy in question and shook his head. “I don’t like him.” And then he started licking the last remnants of goo from his spoon.

“Well, good, because I don’t like you either!” Lance shot back.

Keith’s head shot back up and he gawked, eyes starting to actually water, clearly wounded. “Lance,” Shiro said, low and warning. He reached down and gently patted the unruly mop of black hair. “Well, I could keep an eye on him.”

“Shiro,” Allura said, patient but also a bit worried, “we have the conference with the Multarian leaders. And the Multarian people are very strict about the safety and security of young ones; if they see Keith, they’ll assume that he belongs to someone on the ship and it could jeopardize the alliance. We are, after all, constantly under threat from the Galra.”

Grey eyes widened then glanced down, conflicted. Pidge waved one hand and whistled lightly. “Um, yeah, hi. I could look after him. I mean, he seems pretty okay with me and I’m sure he’d get a kick out of seeing the Lions. Little kids dig giant robots,” She suggested. She didn’t miss the sparkle that came to the indigo eyes settled across from her, shining as if she’d just promised him a room full of his favorite snacks and the abolishment of any bed time protocol.

“What? But, Coran requires your help,”

“If it’s just going over calculations and the equations used to mix the chemical components, I can do that from anywhere. Heck, it might even be easier to do from the hanger, since that’s where all my equipment and gear is set up,” She said with a shrug.

“I wanna see the giant robots!” Keith suddenly announced, squirming to stand on the very edge of the seat with his hands on the table. Shiro immediately grabbed him around the middle to keep him from slipping off the tiny edge left from the booster of tech manuals. Big, pleading eyes were squarely fixed on him. “Please? Can I please? I like giant robots a lot!” He all but whined, earning a chuckle from Pidge.

Shiro looked at Keith then back at Pidge. “You’re sure you can keep an eye on him? Little kids can get bored easily and I don’t want him wandering off and getting hurt or anything,”

Pidge flashed him the Garrison salute as she stood from her chair. “I guarantee no harm will befall the wee toddler Keef on the watch of the Green Paladin of Voltron,” She hummed happily.

“Okay. I trust you to keep an eye on him,” He said, releasing a sigh that was an odd mix of anxious and relieved, before plucking Keith off the seat and setting him on the ground. She waited for him at the other end of the table, grinning widely as he darted over to her as quickly as his little legs would let him. He skidded to a stop in front of her and held his arms up expectantly. She raised an eyebrow and cocked her head. “What’s up?” She asked.

“Carry me,” He said, pausing a beat before adding, “please.”

She laughed before leaning down and scooping him up, carrying him as she had before. “Only because you remembered to mind your manners, okay?”

He nodded and looked around the halls eagerly, much more enthused than he had been on the trip to the dining room. “Are they really giant robots?” He asked, breathless in his wonderment.

She grinned. “Well, they aren’t so much giant robots,” She trailed, her grin widening at the betrayed look that fell on his face, “as they are ginormous robots!”

“Ginormous?” He squawked, any trace of distrust erased, while leaning closer so that their noses were touching.

“Oh, yeah, they’re huge. And they combine to form an even bigger robot! And, if you behave yourself, maybe I can convince Shiro to let me take you for a ride in Green later,” She said, dropping her volume to a conspiratorial whisper at the last statement.

His smile was as bright as the sun at her words. He flopped into her shoulder and nuzzled in with a contented sigh. “This is why you’re my most favorite,” He mused.

“Oh? I am?” She asked in slight surprise. Keith admittedly spent time with her pretty regularly but more times than not he could be found training or relaxing with Shiro.

“Yup,” He said, shifting a bit in her arms to wrap his arms tighter around her neck. He rested his chin on her shoulder, completely relaxed, and hummed quietly. “You’re super smart and really funny and you’re always really nice to me. And I like your glasses cause they make your eyes all big and sparkly. You’re just the best.”

She smiled and shifted her grip to better support his weight with the adjustments he’d made. “Well, I’m glad cause you’re my favorite too,” She said happily, grinning wider when he giggled and burrowed into her from glee at the omission. It seemed that in his child-like state, he was more open and transparent with his feelings. While it was far from a confession, it made her happy to know he held such opinions about her.

Maybe her little crush wasn’t as silly as she’d thought.