Chapter Text
Keith took the lead quickly, keeping low and hurrying through the dead looking forest in search of cover. Visibility was low as the fog allowed him to see maybe 25 yards on all sides.
Keith coughed lightly. His throat burning slightly from hacking up inhaled water.
Lance had saved his life. He had completely ignored his own safety and risked drowning in order to save Keith and Keith wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
He should thank Lance.
Yeah. That was a good idea.
Remember, he was TRYING.
He would do it real casual like, almost an afterthought. That should keep Lance from making fun of him.
Like, “Oh yeah, Thanks.”
Keith looked back to do just that and promptly ate shit from tripping on a tree root.
He really fucking sucked at this communication thing.
Suddenly, Lance was on top of him, breathing harshly.
“Lance. Get off-”
“Shhhh,” Lance hissed back. He rolled over pulling Keith with him into some black leaved brush and pointed up.
That’s when he heard it. The low rumble and whistle of an aircraft hovering. They could hear it but they couldn’t see it. Fog worked both ways.
One thing was for sure.
They were being hunted.
Fucking.
Great.
Keith activated his Bayard and lay as still as he could.
Lance was obviously trying to control his breathing and quiet down but he couldn’t seem to catch his breath. He was gasping and clutching at his side.
While Mission: Rescue the Mullet had been successful. Operation: Pretend to Be Fine was failing.
Miserably.
The rational part of his brain that he had ignored back on the ship was chiming in with a helpful, “Hindsight’s a reallllll bitch, huh?”
His head was pounding. His side was pure fire, spiking with every intake of air.
Keith was lying on his stomach, ready to spring from the brush. Lance rolled on to his back, that didn’t help his pain level very much. The whistle of air from the searching craft coming closer, Lance activated his Bayard and looked up through the scope.
“Do you see them?” asked Keith catching on to Lance’s plan.
The ship was small, one to two pilots max. Duel thrusters. One main laser canon mounted on below the front of the ship. He scanned nearby. No other ships were within sight but this was one was right on top of them.
They needed more of head start to out run these things, a chance to regroup. These ships had been on their tail since the two of them had crawled out of the water and bolted into the woods. Well, actually more like since they entered the damn atmosphere.
“Well?” repeated Keith. Lance couldn’t believe it. Words. He was struggling with words.
A first time for everything.
“I..” he wheezed. “..Plan.” His chest heaved with the effort of each word. He saw the alarm on Keith’s face as he spoke. The ship stopped directly over them.
Shit.
There goes the hiding option.
“Trust…” Lance took aim.
“Lance, I-” and fired.
The blue beam struck the left thruster.
The aircraft spun in a circular fashion, unable to maintain control. It didn’t explode like Lance had hoped but it would have to do.
Ding. Ding. Ding. Lance wins the Silver Medal.
“Go…” he huffed in Keith’s ear and he rolled to his feet. Keith was hot on his heels, the two young pilots fled in the opposite direction of the ship. Keith pulled ahead and cleared a path by hacking down anything in their way.
“Pull it together. Pull it together. You are fine.” Lance was a firm believer in if you tell yourself something enough; you eventually buy into the mentality.
He was fine. He was fine. And right now he needed to run.
Shiro was zoning out. Allura had moved on to recount another story but he had no idea how they had gotten to the history of the Altean equivalent of Tax Law.
“Princess?” Coran called over the intercom. “Yes!” she answered.
Shiro stood and slowly inched his way towards the door. He was a very patient man, however; even he could only take so much.
“We may have a tiniest weensy little problem.”
Shiro sighed. “Did those two start fighting already?” he asked. Allura slumped at the thought. Those boys had barely left, couldn’t they make it 1000 ticks without arguing.
“It is about Lance and Keith, I lost contact with them once they entered the atmosphere. Would you please come to the control room?” Coran requested.
Allura pulled up the readings the Castle was getting from the surface.
“Well, as we knew prior, the atmosphere is suitable for human consumption. That was the last bit of information relayed to the Castle from the ship.”
Coran pulled up another screen. “We can see here that the ship has landed on the surface but we can’t tell more than that. It seems this planet has a similar electromagnetic field to the asteroid belt we experienced before.”
“Well, no communication? I’m sure they are alright and will figure out a way to get into contact once they reach the village!” Allura was nervous. Something wasn’t right. How was the distress signal able to broadcast but their communications were down.
“Shiro, perhaps, we should cut their little bonding exercise short and devise a plan to get you down there as soon as possible. You know, simply to err on the side of caution.”
Shiro gave her a worried smile. “Agreed.”
“Here.” Keith reached behind him to pull Lance to the left. They had run right into the side of a craggy hill. Keith had found a small cave entrance.
It was pitch black and cramped. Keith couldn’t fully stand without his head hitting the roof of the small cave.
“It’s a low…” Keith tried to warn Lance but Lance was already on his knees crawling further in. They couldn’t go in very far before they hit the wall.
Lance leaned against the wall and was taking slow breaths in and out. He lowered his head between his knees.
Keith could understand. His body was beginning to ache and remind him, oh hey, by the way, remember the crashing into water and almost drowning thing.
They both needed a minute or thirty…
Oh. Yeah.
The thanking Lance thing.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
Keith could see Lance’s head jerk upwards but it was too dark to see his face.
“Wha…” asked Lance.
“Save me. You didn’t have to save me.” Keith watch Lance’s shoulders tense.
“Oh yeah, well then…how the hell…were you going to get out of that… one?” Lance questioned, a hint of anger in his voice.
“No, I-” This was not what Keith was trying to say.
“I know the Great Keith doesn’t need anybody, especially… to rescue him.”
That stung and the retort was out of Keith’s mouth before he could stop it.
“Yeah, unlike you.”
Lance bristled, his throbbing head a driving reminder of being burden to his team.
Lance grabbed Keith collar and pulled him forward. Keith pulled back a fist, ready to fight.
Suddenly, the whirling of a ship cut through the air.
The two broke free of each other and pressed themselves up against the sides of the cave as much they could.
Voices.
They could hear voices.
Scouts were searching the woods from them and it was only a matter of time until they were found.