Kid Keith

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Lance focused on the Galra soldiers ahead. He lifted his gun up still unnoticed aiming for one on the right. He took a deep breath moving his finger to the trigger but before he took the shot, Keith moved in slicing his way through the group of enemies. "Hey! I had that!" Lance yelled watching the boy fight.

He saw a soldier aim a gun at Keith and Lance sniped him off watching his back. Keith looked up and gave a small smirk. "Thanks 'buddy'."

Lances eyes narrowed as he gave the boy the stink eye playfully. Keith laughed but when a small purple ball rolled toward him and exploded into a cloud of spoke he erupted into a coughing fit trying to escape the gas. "Keith!" Lance exclaimed jumping down from his post to get to him.

Keith was breathing heavily as he was slowly getting away from the mysterious cloud. Lance covered his mouth and nose pulling Keith away. "Are you Okay?" He asked giving Keith a small look over.

"Yeah I'm fine." He spoke in a deep voice that sent shivers up Lances spine.

Lance shook his head, this was a really bad time to be thinking about that kind of stuff with Keith. "You scared me. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes! I said I'm okay." Keith rolled his eyes coughing a bit more.

"Lance, Keith, what's going on?" Shiro asked.

"Keith got hit with some kind of smoke bomb, we should call off the rest of the mission." Lance informed.

Keith snapped his head toward Lance. "We aren't calling off anything! I'm fine!"

"Keith you could be-" Lance started.

Keith pushed away from him. "It's not your job to watch out for me." He snapped.

Lance felt fury unleash in himself and was seeing red. "Yes it is! Geez Keith! Your such a jerk!" Tears welled in his eyes and he stomped off back to his lion leaving a slightly confused, guilty, shocked, and intimidated Keith. It was fair to say both boys were falling victim to a variety of emotions.

"Everyone head back to the castle, we'll regroup and check Keith's condition." Shiro instructed not knowing the fight a had just occurred.

The paladins' lions all arrived at the castle and the pilots gathered in. All but one. As angry as Lance was, no one else was pointing out the fact he was missing despite only a few seconds passing. Maybe Keith was right, he did worry too much.

Lance headed to the red lion to apologize to Keith but mostly because he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

Upon approaching red he found that she was allowing him to enter. This caused panic to well up inside him and he made a sprint for the cockpit.

He slid in, his eyes darted around the room frantically searching for any sight of the boy. "Keith?" He called quietly.

But he was no where in sight. Or so it seemed.

"Lance?" He heard Keith ask. At least he thought it to be Keith. It was much higher, more child like.

Lance still couldn't find the source of the voice and he gripped his helmet tightly as he took a few steps in. Behind the pilot chair a boy, about 10 years old, peered around it. Lance gasped, a little dumbstruck.

"K-Keith! Y-you're a kid!" Lance stuttered in bewilderment.

"I think I've realized that!" The small Keith snapped.

It was definitely Keith, there was no doubt in Lances mind now. "Shut up, we need to get you back to the others. Pidge, Allura, and Coran are smart, at least one of them has to know what to do."

"No way." Keith squealed.

Lance had to stop himself from laughing, Keith's voice was high pitched and clearly hadn't undergone puberty. "And why not?" Lance folded his arms.

"Because, there is no way I'm letting the others see me like this." Keith said.

"You let me see you." Lance pointed out walking up to the chair.

"Yeah, so? I didn't really have a choice considering you helped yourself into my lion." Keith sassed.

Lances eyebrow twitched with annoyance. "I've had enough of your whole defiant thing you have going. I'm just trying to help you." He snapped stomping on the ground.

"I didn't ask for your help!" Keith retorted back.

Fury bubbled and boiled inside Lance and Keith was throwing in a range of spices as he stirred the pot of anger. Something snapped in the boy, almost like a bomb, and he snatched Keith up hauling him on his shoulder as if he were a sack of potatoes.

"Put me down! What are you doing?! I may be younger but I can still beat your ass!" Keith yelled as he kicked and wiggled, pounding his fists on Lances back.

"Bite me hobbit. And no swearing!" Lance almost in surprise to hear him cuss.

"Lance, I'm not actually a kid!" Keith rolled his eyes.

"No. Swearing." Lance repeated ignoring Keith's protests.

Lance continued to haul the boy down the hall and Keith sat there looking quite board with his head rested on his hand and arm propped up on Lances back. Then a small thought popped into his head and like a snowball rolling down a hill, it developed into a plan. "Ow!" He howled in pain.

Lance was taken by surprise and in a panic not to hurt the boy, set him down. "Are you Okay? What's hurting?" He asked frantic.

But before Lance could realize the devious Keith had tricked him, the boy was halfway down the hall making faces at him.

"Keith?! What the hell!? You almost gave me a heart attack." Lance stomped his foot.

"Yeah, because you're an old man!" Keith spouted laughing.

Lance gasped at the insult. "You take that back!" He pointed a finger threateningly.

"Or what?!" Keith mocked.

"Why you little-" Lance mumbled and he took off after him. "Get back here!" He laughed as he chased Keith through the halls of the empty castle. He loved how playful he was being but he couldn't help but want his Keith back.

Lance scratched the thought, Keith wasn't his, he never would be. He stopped chasing the boy and stood panting slightly as he watched the boy continue down the hallway. Reality hit him hard.

He wanted something that would sadly never happen. Keith stopped noticing the loss of footsteps behind him and turned around curious.

"Run out of breath already old man?" Keith teased.

Lance chuckled. Keith was such a brat, that much had never changed with age. Keith began to walk back to Lance a little curious. The raven haired boy was taken by surprise when Lance suddenly grabbed him pulling him into a hug taking him off his feet.

"Lance I can't breathe! Put me down! It's too much affection!" Keith whined.

"Why?! I can't help it! Kid Keith just looks so cute and cuddly!" Lance yelled walking him down the hall to the others once more, mind you, still hugging him.

Keith struggled but his arms were trapped and it was no use. He could kick Lance in an unforgivable place but he didn't want to actually hurt him. "I'm not cute! Or cuddly!" Keith yelled angrily with a small pink tinge of embarrassment setting on his cheeks.

Lance finally set Keith down but of course it was in front of the others. "What happened to Keith!?" Pidge yelled thinking she was insane for a moment.

"Um, I think that gas had something to do with it. Any ideas on a cure?" Lance raised an eyebrow.

Keith just sat with his arms folded, pouting.

"Heh, Keith's kind of cute, he looks pretty harmless now." Hunk laughed but Keith gave him a glare that shut all of them up.

"No kidding. Not to say he isn't cute all the time." Lance teased, he never did know when to shut up.

Keith stomped. "I'm. Not. Cute."

"You're right. You're absolutely adorable." Lance smiled widely.

It was a single bat of an eye and Keith was ready to attack. Shiro grabbed the child holding him back. Lance had cowered behind Allura.

Keith suddenly didn't feel like ripping his face off anymore. He liked Lance, has had for a while. But it was clear that it would never happen. He saw Lance hiding behind Allura and he understood all too well that Lance wasn't meant to be with some hothead like himself. Lance was meant to be with someone like Allura: gorgeous, smart, strong, and not to mention, female.

"Keith are you okay?" Shiro asked squatting down to be eye to eye with the child.

"Yeah." Keith whimpered. For some reason he just struggled to control his emotions and keep them in order. Normally he could get away with showing little to no emotion but he just couldn't manage to do so in this form. Large tears poured down his cheeks and he sniffles wiping his nose on his jacket.

Lance reminded himself to wash it later. But at the moment he was more concerned with his man child crush who was balling. He quickly rushed to the boy's side. "Keith? What's wrong?" Lance questioned pushing some of the boy's hair back.

The boy didn't respond and instead just kept wiping away his tears in efforts to stop.

"I know what will make you feel better. How about I make some milkshakes courtesy of Kaltenecker?" Lance suggested.

Keith didn't know why but he suddenly felt himself perk up upon hearing those words. He nodded and Lance smiled wiping some of his tears for him.

"Oh! I can help!" Hunk volunteered.

"Maybe Keith just needs some quality time with good old Kaltenecker and me." Lances said kindly.

Hunk frowned but agreed and claimed he'd help Pidge to find the cure. Lance took Keith's hand in his and they walked to where they kept the cow.

Lance whipped them up the delicious milkshakes and Keith sat on the counter kicking his legs back and forth as he sipped on it.

"So what's the matter Keithy?" Lance asked leaning forward resting his head in his hand propped up on the counter.

Keith couldn't help but appreciate the view of the boy. He wanted to kiss Lance right then and there but, it would be fairly awkward considering his current situation. "Nothing." Keith said it very drawn out and long.

Lance had many siblings, nieces, and nephews. He knew Keith was keeping something from him. "Nothing you say? It couldn't possibly be nothing." Lance teased.

"Hey Lance? Can I ask you something?" Keith looked up at him taking another sip of his milkshake.

"Yeah, sure, shoot." Lance set down his drink and leaned forward showing he was listening.

"Do you really like Allura?" He asked.

Lance was taken off guard. "Do I think she's smart and pretty and pleasant to be around? Yes. Do I want to be her boyfriend? No."

Keith looked up at Lance quickly after hearing the last part, he wasn't expecting to hear that. "You're always hitting on her." Keith said as if it were obvious.

"Yeah well, what can I say, I'm a flirt." Lance said nervously rubbing his neck distracting himself with cleaning up the mess from the milkshakes.

"Lance." Keith said probing for more information.

"Okay, maybe I was trying to get the attention of someone else." Lance suggested knowing full well the reason for having hit on Allura so much.

"And who is that?" Keith asked feeling butterflies in his stomach. He had a twinge of hope that Lance would say him, as if that would happen.

"You." Lance breathed.

Keith almost choked on his milkshake. "What?"

"Yeah, Sorry, that was stupid of me. I shouldn't have told you." Lance laughed stressfully.

"No! Are you kidding me?!" Keith said practically bursting at the seams with joy. "If I weren't 3 feet tall I'd probably be making out with you right now."

Lance smiled in shock, "Well in that case let's go check on that cure." He laughed grabbing the boy by the hand and taking off.

Pidge looked up in surprised when the two stormed into the room. "Hey, Hunk and Shiro just left to find you. We got the cure."

"What is it?!" Lance asked eagerly.

"Wow okay, rude. I'm doing fine by the way. It's not like I've been spending the past hour trying to find a solution to this little problem." Pidge pushed up her glasses sassily.

When the boys just gave her an impatient stare back full o excitement she just rolled her eyes and held out a crystal.

"Just crush this with your foot." She said letting the small boy take it.

Keith immediately set it on the ground stomping on it. Lance looked to Pidge, "When will he start turning back."

Pidge was typing at her computer and didn't even look up, she simply pointed to Keith who was back to his normal self.

Lance and Keith shared a moment smiling. They both quickly closed the gap crashing their lips together.

Pidge snapped her fingers, "This is a PDA free zone."

"And what zone is that exactly." Lance glared at her still holding Keith close.

"A perimeter of at lease 10 feel around me." She smirked.

"Fine." Lance rolled his eyes and Keith dragged him to his room so they could continue.

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