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Chapter 8: Monsters Lurk In The Deep

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

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It’s been a couple of hours of walking through dense forest, and although Keith is sweating, and the terrain is narrow and ruff, he can’t help but have a nice time with Lance. Keith isn’t much of a talker (as surprising as that is), he prefers to be alone or in silence, something he’s learned he gets from his mother. Yet with Lance, conversation isn’t only easy, but Keith finds himself actively prolonging or starting it, just to hear Lance's voice. Which is strange even for him, never had the two of them been this close. Even before Keith left for the blades, Lance and him had never gone for long just peacefully enjoying each other's company. I guess he can thank maturity for that, but it’s still a strange and new feeling for Keith.

 

 

        “Okay, Keith I know you were like, born on a log and raised in a barn, but,” Lance says after a few minutes of comfortable silence between the two. Turning to look at him, Keith finds that Lance had trailed a bit behind. He’s standing with his hands on his hips and his body leaned forward a bit. “Can we stop for a break or something? Cause I might just go into cardiac arrest,” Lance heaves as he slowly makes his way over to where Keith is standing. 



Keith can’t help but laugh, “yeah let’s stop for a bit, I’m tired too.” And almost as if he was waiting for Keith to okay, Lance drops his bag and collapses at the foot of a giant tree. Legs spread wide, he rests his head against it. Keith rolls his eyes with a smile and walks over, he puts his bag with Lances but not before grabbing some water bottles. Sitting down next to him, Keith hands him one. Silently grabbing it was a little head tilt in thanks, Lance releases the cap and guzzles the liquid down. After the first gulp, Keith looks away. 



Appearing, Kosmo returns from scoping the nearby area, he notices Lance jump in surprise. Keith has her check the surrounding area every hour or so, just to be sure. Walking over to him she noses at his hand. He flips it around to reveal his palm and as expected she licks it. Smiling, he scratches her head. 



        “Good girl, we’ll leave in a bit, rest.” And just like that, the giant wolf lays down next to him, curling into his side with her head on his lap. 



        “What kind of morse code bullshit was that?” Lance asks from beside him. Turning, Keith finds wild bewilderment written all over Lance's goofy face and he can’t help but huff a laugh. 



        “Kosmo found water nearby, that’s how she tells me,” Keith answers simply, rubbing at her fur instinctively. Lance’s expression doesn’t change, if anything he just looks more confused. 



        “How on earth did you teach her to do that?” Lance asks, even sits up despite his exhaustion to look at him more clearly. Smiling Keith looks down at her. 



        “We’ve been in a lot of situations where we only had each other to rely on,” Keith says, hands smoothing down the fur on her head, soothing Keith more than anything else. “We had to find a way to communicate or we would have never survived.” Keith says with a small smile, he trusted this wolf more than anyone, he knew no matter what happens she has his back, and that’s been enough. 



It’s silent after that, neither really knowing what to say in response. Then Keith sees Lance's hand from the corner of his eye rubbing Kosmo’s back. Pausing his movements he looks up at him. Lance is sitting there, cross-legged, bending over and rubbing at the side of her face. Opening her eyes but not moving, Kosmo looks at him. Lance looks her in the eyes as he holds her face, still laying on his lap. He rubs the fur away from her eyes slowly, smiling at her with so much sincerity it catches Keith by surprise. 



        “Thank you for taking care of him for us.” He whispers to her, voice low but clear. Keith feels his breath hitch, he must know he can hear him right. So then why break his heart right in front of him. Leaning forward he plants a kiss on her temple, the exact place Keith always does, as if he knew. And when he draws back, she licks his chin. Smiling at him in her own way. Keith’s heart squeezes at the sight, not really expecting Lance to get along with her the way that they are. 



Kosmo usually keeps to herself, she used to actually hate other people. After a while, she’s learned to tolerate others, but not willingly. The only other person she’s ever really been warm towards was Krolia, and that’s because she was there when he found her. Yet somehow, she licks at Lance's scrunched-up face as he squirms away. With Lance it's different. I guess he can relate to that. 



~



After around 20 minutes of resting, they decide it’s time to start moving again. Standing up despite their sore feet and putting back on their heavy bags, they follow Kosmo to the water she found. Another 20 or so minutes pass and the sound of crashing water gets louder and louder until,



        “Woah,” Lance says, pointing towards the blue lake they were approaching. Running ahead with a giant wolf on his heels, Keith smiles and follows at a slower pace. “Keith it’s a whole lake.” He hears Lance shout from up ahead, he turns around and jumps as he points towards said lake. His excitement riling up Kosmo as she jumps with him. It’s too cute and Keith has to rub at his chest to smooth its squeezing before it crushes his heart. 



They reach the clearing and Lance drops his bag without care, jumping over the rocks that litter the shore towards the water, and Kosmo jumps around him just excited by the excitement. A large lake spreads out before them, far larger than Keith was expecting, but nonetheless, his eyes enjoy the sight of large trees surrounding the beautiful crystal clear expanse of water.



Turning around Lance shouts back towards Keith who’s taking off his bag as well. “Keith, you mind if I go in real quick?” Lance shouts from a few feet in front of him. Smiling, Keith sits down on the rocky shore, quite uncomfortably mind you.



        “I don’t see why not?” He shouts back, and he can see the excitement on his face despite the small distance. Running over to Keith, Lance takes off his flannel and pulls his shirt off from the collar. Keith nearly chokes. Throwing the clothes in a pile next to Keith, he kicks off his shoes and balances on one foot, taking off his socks.



        “You wanna join me?” Lance asks, throwing one sock on the pile and going to pull the next off. The site of a half-naked Lance kneeling over with such carefree excitement really shakes Keith to his core and despite himself, he feels a blush warm his cheeks, so he looks away. 



        “Nah, it’s okay you go ahead,” Keith says looking out to where Kosmo is splashing at the shore. Lance stands up straight, causing him to look back over in time to see him shrug.



        “Suit yourself mullet head,” and then without another word he runs off into the water, Slashing as he enters the lake. Keith watches as he dunks his head in and floats on his back, really not absorbing much of anything.



He called him mullet head, after all these years, Lance brought back the old nickname he called them. It’s been so long since he’s heard Lance call him that stupid name. It makes him smile. Hand coming up to the tips of the hair at the end of his ponytail. Is it even really a mullet anymore, his hair has grown so much since when the name was used. Still, it warms him up inside as he blankly watches the two ply in the water, carefree and happy.



~

 

Keith had pulled out a book at some point, a recommendation from Pidge probably 3 years ago that he finally managed to find. He was just peacefully reading, listening to the sound of the water crashing onto the shore. Lance and Kosmo have grown quite as Lance seems to be in his own world amidst the water. Suddenly Kosmo barks loudly and sharply twice. Keith feels the hair on his back rise on instinct. Looking up immediately he finds her, she’s standing out of the water but barks towards it. Specifically towards Lance. Jumping up, completely forgetting about the book in his lap he pulls his blade from its holster.



        “Lance!” He shouts towards him, running to where Kosmo was. Looking up from floating on his back, Lance waves at Keith from where he is deep in the Lake.



        “Lance get out of the water!” Keith shouts at him from the shore, now activating his blade, transforming it into a sword. Obviously confused Lance thankfully starts to swim back to shore. Kosmo barks twice again in Lance's direction, then again, and again, pacing the shore before barking again. Keith really is getting anxious watching him swim back, he looks around where Lance is, trying to find a threat when.

 

Holly shit!



A giant dark figure under the water seems to be approaching Lance as he swims towards the shore. Turning to Kosmo he crouches down, “Get him out of there.” And without a second's hesitation, she teleports into the water but Lance is too far for her to reach and she appears a few feet short. Keith's stomach drops as she starts swimming towards him. 



        “Shit shit shit,” Keith shouts as he swings his sword, feeling helpless as he’s forced to just watch and wait and see. Finally reaching one another they disappear and appear a couple of feet from Keith. Seeing them struggle he runs into the water too help.



        “What’s with the-” Lance starts as he heaves from the swim but is cut off by a giant creature erupting from beneath the surface of the water. Turning around at the sound, they see a giant, almost octopus thing emerge from the water where Lance just was. Turning around they scream as they run from the water, splashing and honestly freaking out as they run onto shore and towards their bags. Turning around once they reach them, Keith holds his sword out, expecting a fight. Only to see nothing when he looks back. Frowning, confused, he lowers his sword a fraction as he eases from his fighting stance.



        “What the hell?” He asks aloud, where the hell did it go? Turning when he speaks, Keith frowns over at Lance who's crouching by their bags.



        “Where in the quiznack did it go?” Lance almost whispers towards the lake. And maybe it was his tone of voice, the life or death situation or the fact that Keith hadn’t heard the word quiznack in forever, but he really couldn’t help it when giggles start erupting unwanted from his belly. It starts small, but soon Keith is squeezing his eyes shut as his stomach aches from the pain of it.



        “How on earth could you be laughing at a time like this?” Lance shouts from beside him, but Keith really can’t help it. He unsheaths his sword, flopping down on the rocks next to Lance rather painfully. Still giggling like a mad man he sighs a bit to relieve himself of them.



        “Sorry, it’s not funny it’s just.” Keith breaths, shaking his head with a smile. But for some reason, giggles keep bubbling up. 



        “The fact that we were attacked by a giant purple octopus,” Keith says through another low effort laugh, holding his hands in gesture to the lake. Keith looks down at the rocks in front of him silently at first before chuckles rise up again. 



        “And what was with that thing on its head?” Keith asks, unable to hide the amusement in his voice. 



        “It looked kinda like a trunk,” Lance giggles a bit as he speaks, relaxing from his previous scared position. “But if it had spikes?” Lance asks more like a question than a statement, laughing at the end of the word. 



        “Alien creatures are so fucking strange,” Keith Laughs shaking his head. “ I once visited a Planet on the far end of the galaxy with G.A.H.R.O, and there were these,” Keith can’t help but laugh thinking about it. “These large aliens,” Keith covers his mouth, shaking his head when he looks over at Lance’s confused but amused face. 



        “What?” Lance chuckles as he asks.



        “They were furies.” Keith gets out finally, and the view of Lance’s eyebrows shooting up to his hairline sends him leaning back onto the rocks cackling.



        “What do you mean?” Lance giggles with so much confusion laced in his tone. Keith sits back up, leaning forward.

 

        “Lance, they looked like people in giant fursuits,” Keith really was losing it. “But they were real,” Keith cackles the end of the word, clutching his stomach, he squeezes his eyes shut. And behind his hysteria, he hears Lance laughing too.



        “They had these giant anime eyes,” Keith giggles. Sitting up, he pulls open his eyes to try and replicate the idea, causing Lance to burst into a fit of Laughter.  And Keith laughs along too, shaking his head once he can breathe clearly again. 



        “They were so scary to look at,” he says softly, causing Lance to snort and cover his mouth. 



        “Scarier than a 50ft purple Lance eating Octopus?” Lance asks after a second, leaning back into his hands, next to Keith. 



Keith laughs at his phasing, “objectively?” He asks, thinking about the experience. 



        “Yes,” Keith says and Lance snickers in response.

 

~



Laughing on the shore of a monster-infested lake was a strange way to continue their hike, but Keith couldn’t find it in him to mind. Putting back on his clothes, Lance and Keith pack up and set out again into the forest once more. Turning their back on the lake and what lies in its watery depths. 



They trek for hours after that, chatting and observing their surroundings like they were on some nature documentary. At one point, Lance even started narrating Keith’s actions like he was a shitty off-brand David Attenborough. It was fun, Keith hadn’t felt this at ease and happy in so long that it was easy to ignore the squeeze in his chest every time Lance's arm would brush his, or when he’d turn and smile at him. 



Now though, as the sun starts to set from somewhere above the trees, and the breeze starts to grow colder and colder, they decide now is as good a time as any to start setting up camp. They found a clearing, and with their tech, setting up camp was almost hilariously fast. Within no time they were sitting by a fire with some hot dogs Lance had brought. 



It was just about dusk and Lance had been roasting the food for them to eat. Keith is just sitting, silently watching. The heat from the fire is warm on his face and puts a glow over Lance that he just can’t help but stare at. Kosmo, having already scanned the surrounding area, is laying by the fire with her eyes closed like any other dog would. It’s perfect and peaceful and everything Keith could ask for. 



        “Okay there done,” Lance says, pulling the sticks from the fire. He sits down on the log they managed to find, right up close next to Keith and hands him his stick. “Careful it’s hot.” Lance says and Keith just nods, not trusting his voice at the moment. Keith has to strain his eyes to look to the side at Lance as he blows at his food. He looks anyway.



        “You know I packed food too, you didn’t have to-” Keith is cut off by Lance’s finger coming up to his lips, efficiently shutting him with a shushing sound.



        “You can’t camp out without hot dogs and s'mores.” Lance huffs, removing his hand and going back to blowing at his steaming food, not taking notice of Keith’s malfunctioning brain. “I knew you wouldn’t have packed any, but it’s okay.” Lance turns, “I don’t mind picking up the slack.” He says with a wink, almost like he's is trying to hurt him. Then without a second thought, he chomps into his hotdog with no remorse. It’s not symbolic at all. Desperate for something to say, Keith looks at their surroundings. The sun just about set, leaving the forest close to a pitch black. Looking up he notices the lack of moon in the sky.



        “Hey this planet has no moon,” Keith says, pointing upwards. Head falling back as he looks too.



        “Huh, you’re right,” he frowns in confusion. “That’s probably why it’s so dark.” Suddenly, almost as if on cue, Keith notices a light, growing in intensity from, well, everywhere. The grass, the trees, the leaves, hell even the log they were sitting on had a glow to it. Jumping up in surprise Keith looks around them. The whole forest slowly starts to come alive. The trees admit a sort of purplish-blue from deep within its surface, with matching vibrant green leaves that hang down all around them. Dull blood-red flowers that have littered the floor of the forest unnoticed, now almost burn like fire, scattered as far as the eye can see. Laughing a bit at the absurdity and wonder of it all, Keith looks around at the sight before him. He turns and looks down at Lance from where he stood, wondering if he too was in as much shock as Keith was. The wide, wondrous smile on his face fades though when it’s met with Lance’s look of almost dread and horror. Frowning instantly, Keith takes a step.



        “Lance?”



        “Did Pidge tell you the name of this planet?” Lance asks, eyes wide and searching in his for answers to questions he hasn’t asked yet.



Blinking confused Keith nods. “Uh, yeah they said it was called, um, te-.”



        “Telforeah?” He finishes, saying the word like a question, but Keith feels like he already knows the answer.



        “Um, yeah,” Keith nods skeptically. Now he knows Lance has been here, the question is why does he look like he wishes he hadn’t.



        “I knew it,” he says quietly to himself, looking down at the ground with its glowing grass. Sitting now next to him, Keith tries to give Lance his space, since the other boy seems a bit distraught. Despite being a bit wary, Keith still jumps when Lance looks up, leaning forward.



        “Do you remember this place, at all?” Lance asks, eyes big and hopeful and prying for answers. But before Keith can even shoot him down himself, Lance is leaning back, the hands that were bracing his weight now pillowing in his lap. “No, you wouldn’t, would you.” He says looking down at his lap, his fingers playing with the fabric of his sleeves. 



Keith frowns at his profile, Pidge had said just about the same thing to him yesterday. Was there something he was forgetting? He doesn’t even know when he would have had time to come to a planet like this, never mind with the rest of Voltron as it seems. They were fighting a war, when would they have time to come to an uninhabited planet, no matter how wondrous. He really doesn’t think he’d forget a place like this, yet-



Suddenly standing up, Lance starts to walk over to his tent. Turning his head towards Keith, “I’m gonna get ready for bed,” he says. Arms wrapped around themselves, like he’s trying to hold himself together, just like he was at Allura’s dinner. And just like then, Keith just watches him leave. Entering his tent he closes the door. 



Keith sits for a while on that log. Foot bouncing, he’s already cracked all the joints on his fingers and Lance hasn’t come out yet. Jumping to his feet, Keith decides he needs to go on a walk. So much is going on in his head, he just needs to clear his mind. So just like that he starts marching through the forest, all the lights making it impossibly easy to navigate as he storms past brightly coloured trees and shrubbery. 



He doesn’t understand why everyone seems to know something he doesn’t, in fact, he fucking hates it. What’s worse is apparently he should know this goddamn planet. Why was Lance so upset? What the fuck happened here that would put that look on his face? Like his heart was broken or something. How could he forget something that hurt Lance so much? Keith can’t stop thinking, his mind working a 100 thoughts a minute, trying to wrap his mind around what is happening.



But the thing that he doesn’t understand is, he’s sure he’s never been here before. He’s positive he’s never seen this planet or its sights. So then why does he feel a sense of peace, almost like happiness and contentment? A feeling that he's worked so hard to build in his own damn home, and yet as soon as he set his eyes on this strange broken rock halfway across the damn galaxy, he couldn’t help but know it was safe. He felt safe and happy, and...loved? What the fuck was happening?



~

 

Keith stomps around the bright forest for a while but eventually, the blind rage at his own confusion turns into a quiet simmer beneath his skin. Stopping, he tilts his head up towards the leaves of the tall trees surrounding him. The wind blowing from above the treetops brush the leaves against each other causing an uproar of bright green light to shine down on him. The sound it makes and the feeling of residual breeze against his face work in tandem to blow out the fire inside himself. 



Closing his eyes, he breathes in the fresh air of the night. Opening them again, Keith is delighted to find a small bright yellow light floating in the air above him. Squinting in delight at the small glowing lustre in the distance, he finds that dozens are floating in his vicinity just overhead, slowly floating towards him like snow. He can’t help but let a small laugh of astonishment escape into the silent void of the night as he stares, mouth agape at the fantastical beauty of this paradise. 




        “Keith!”



He hears his name pierce through the silence. Whipping around in its direction, he frowns. His head sort of spinning from the quick change of direction. He squints in the distance, trying to hear for it again, wondering if his head was playing tricks on him or not. Just when he’s sure he imagined the call…



        “KEITH?” The distressed voice, he realizes to be Lance's, sends panic into his heart. Taking off in the direction of the sound, Keith whips and weaves through the trees and plants until the clearing with their campsite comes into view. Pulling out his blade from its holster just as he breaks from the forest, he’s welcomed to the view of a teary-eyed Lance in the center of the clearing, looking at Keith with so much fear in his eyes. Arms tightly wound around himself, and cheeks moist with fallen tears, he stands under the light of the firefly like bugs, somehow still managing to look beautiful. 



Looking around with his activated blade at the ready, Keith is confused by the lack of a threat. Kosmo, strangely, stays by Lance's side, tail hanging low as she looks up at him. Lowering his weapon, Keith takes a step, wanting to ask what's wrong.



        “WHERE DID YOU GO!” Lance yells at Keith from their small distance. Taken aback by his response, Keith takes a step back.



        “I-I just went on a walk,” Keith says, frowning at Lance and the way his fists seem to squeeze from their place around him. He deactivates his blade, returning it to its place. Walking towards Lance with palms out, almost like approaching a traumatized animal. “I didn’t mean to scare you,” He tries to soothe.



        “Why wouldn’t you at least tell me you were leaving? Even Kosmo didn’t know where you were.” Lance huffs, tears now dry, but his cheeks and nose are still red from the exertion.



Cringing at his words, Keith hadn’t realized he just left without a word like that. He just needed to blow off steam, but the picture of Lance coming out of the tent to find no one there makes the excuse seem pointless.  



        “Sorry, I hadn’t thought-”



Huffing, Lance throws his arms down at his sides. He walks up to Keith, whipping the remainder of his tears with his hands. “It’s fine, you just scared me,” Lance says, glaring at Keith, and even going as far as punching his arm in retaliation. Causing Keith to clutch the injured area, but he can’t help but laugh at the exchange. A thought comes to his mind then as he looks at Lance from the small distance between them. So before he can stop himself or think it through, he reaches his arms out and pulls Lance towards himself.



        “Well I’m sorry again,” Keith says into the fluffy brown hair at the side of Lance’s face. He pauses, trying to tell if he’s making the boy uncomfortable. 



Just as he was about to awkwardly pull away, he feels nimble fingers on his back as they cross and hook over his shoulders. They hold Keith closer than he dared to press, so he closes his eyes and buries his head in the side of Lance's neck, lifting his own arms to wrap more tightly around Lance's body. 



And they stand there like that, Keith couldn’t tell you for how long but it didn’t feel like long enough. Moving his head against his shoulder, Lance squeezes Keith that much closer.

 

        “Please, I can’t lose anyone else.”



Any amount of time in his arms wouldn’t be enough to ease the pain that brought him.

Notes:

Another Friday, another chapter. This one was fun to write, were really getting into it now and I hope you are excited, I can't tell though so please leave a comment if you're actually reading. I'm really tryna drive the 'Keith is a whipped mess and Lance is a broken person,' hard! XD I'm really excited for where this is going so I hope you enjoy it. Like always stay safe and happy and healthy.

Thanks for reading
xoxo

Notes:

I want it too be known that this was Keith’s sexual awakening and then the poor boy proceeded to forget it and if that doesn’t scream Keith Kogane then idk what does folks.