Chapter Text
The door to Keith's room opened.
Footsteps pattered out.
It’s dark, but everything can be seen clearly.
Hungry… smell food. Kitchen.
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Hunk yawned as he blearily shuffled into the kitchen.
After Lance had taken Keith to her room the rest had quickly put away the soup that she had been eating away in the fridge hoping that this time Keith was back to normal. Everyone had then settled in for eating once Lance came back from dropping Keith off, though once dinner was finished they were all crossing their fingers hoping that their fellow paladin was back to normal.
“Welp nothing to do but wait and hope that it works. Might as well try to make something resembling pancakes for breakfast,” Hunk said clapping his hands together turning on the lights.
He had to let his eyes adjust from the sudden brightness, though once they were adjusted he saw that someone was already at the table eating, and his eyes widened.
“Keith! You're back to normal!” Hunk exclaimed walking quickly over to the Asian who was eating the remains of the soup from last night, his face in the bowl, licking it clean.
What happened next totally caught Hunk off guard.
Keith looked up from his food startled, his pupils dilating and immediately took off, bounding out the kitchen, on all fours.
Hunk was left in the kitchen, stunned, his brain trying to process it all. He would have passed it off as a dream except for the now empty bowl that Keith had left behind.
“What the Quiznak?”
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Keith patterned down the hallway, once he was sure he was alone he stood up. His tail waved behind him as he sighed and looked around. He walked down the hallway his ears twitching all the way looking for something.
His ears perked up when he sniffed the air and hurried down until he got to a door and pawed at it. Once it opened he quickly moved inside and moved over to the bed where he curled up feeling safe and warm.
It wasn’t long before Keith let loud a long and content purr, snuggling against the warm body in bed, who was in too deep a sleep to realize the unexpected companionship.
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“Keith? Keeeeeeith?" called Hunk, searching the hallways for their teammate.
He had tried the Paladin’s room, but it was empty.
It was at that moment, Hunk bumped into Coran who was just turning a corner.
“OOF!” went the moustached Altean, bouncing off Hunk’s belly, falling over to the floor.
“Whoops, sorry Coran,” apologized Hunk, helping Coran up back to his feet.
“No problem Hunk though I have to ask what Are you looking for so early this morning?” Coran asked curiously.
“Coran we have a problem! I saw Keith!” Hunk said looking worried.
“Why not? How is the lad anyway? Is he back to normal now?”
“Yes! No...kinda!? We have to find him before Shiro wakes up and sees!” Hunk exclaimed grabbing Coran’s shoulders and shaking him.
“Why what happened?” Coran replied. “You said he was back to normal.”
“He was! But but he has...he has some new features that I think we should be concerned with especially since he's back to normal but isn't ACTING normal.” Hunk stated seeing Coran’s confused look Hunk groaned."Coran he's acting like a cat!”
Coran looked horrified. “Quiznak! We have to find him!” Coran exclaimed, about to run off when he stopped. “Wait, what's a cat?!”
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“Keith?! You here?!” hissed Hunk trying to make as little noise as possible as he searched around the hangars.
“Red! Have you seen your Paladin?”
Red gave a equivalent to a shrug, accompanied by a low growl.
“Gotcha, thanks girl!” piped up Hunk, patting the lion’s paw before dashing out.
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Coran in the meantime was peeking into the rooms just in case Keith had run into those.
Allura? Nope.
Shiro? No, thankfully.
Pidge? Nothing.
Negative on his and Hunk’s room as well. That left one more.
Coran quietly opened the doors and peeked inside. Lance was snoring on his bed with his eyes covered and headphones on, aside from the pillow pile next to him, Lance appeared to be alone in his room.
“Quiznak..” cursed Coran, snapping his fingers before leaving.
Just as the door closed, the pillow pile shifted as a small figure poked its head out, lavender eyes glowing in the darkness.
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“Anything!?” Hunk asked panicking.
“Nothing! I didn't see him in any of the rooms!” Coran groaned. “Where else could he be!? Did you check Red?”
“Nothing, we haven't tried the training deck yet,” Hunk said biting his nails nervously ,” we have to hurry Shiro is usually up by now training!”
“Hopefully not, I don't exactly know what our Black Paladin will say when he sees Keith...again…” Coran grimaced as the two remembered how Shiro reacted to Keith’s second change.
“Okay okay so let's try maybe the training deck and maybe Lance’s Lion? I mean they've been getting along better so it's possible….” Hunk said.
“Alright I'll head to the Blue Lion and you check the training deck.” Coran said as Hunk nodded and ran as fast as he could to the training area.
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Shiro was in the training room, practicing his hand to hand combat with an Altean droid when Hunk came dashing in with his PJ’s.
The Yellow Paladin gave a squeak and froze in place when his and Shiro’s eyes met, just as the Leader took down the droid.
“SHIRO! HI!” squeaked Hunk in an unnaturally high voice causing Shiro to look at him strange yet amused way.
“Hi…?”
Hunk glanced about fidgeting. “Whatcha’ doooin?”
Shiro quirked an eyebrow. “Training. What are you doing?”
“Me?” squeaked Hunk again before clearing his voice. “Um… nothing much! Just… walking!”
Shiro looked questioningly. “In your Pjs?”
Hunk looked down at his attire and sweated nervously. “I was… Sleepwalking! Yeah, Sleepwalking!”
“Uh-huh….”
“Yeah and I just woke up! So I’m just gonna go now! Ok? Ok! Bye-bye!” said Hunk hurriedly before rushing out leaving a confused yet suspicious Shiro behind.
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Coran skidded into the Blue Lion’s hanger and looked up at the lion.
“I may not be able to understand you like the Paladin's but any chance Keith had come in and see you?” Coran asked the lion. “We’re trying to find him before Shiro does!”
Blue seemed to purr a bit like she knew something but wasn't telling. Coran groaned. “Maybe we missed something…” He said as he walked out of the hanger trying to think of places where Keith could be hiding.
Blue watched as the Altean advisor left her hanger. Poking at her bond with her paladin, Blue gently prodded him to wake up. She knew her paladin had a nice time with Red’s Paladin so it wasn't hard to figure where the missing Paladin was.
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Back in his room, Lance could sense Blue calling out to him as he slowly sat up in his bed and yawned loudly, removing his headphones and eye cover.
He blinked a bit to clear the blurriness from his as he stretched, popping some joints in the process. Smacking the dryness from his mouth, Lance shifted to move his legs off the bed when his hand rested on some fabric that was not part of the bed.
Curious, he looked down and did a double take to find Keith's shirt and shorts in his bed. “What the-?” he went picking up the shirt when the bra Keith wore the night due to his change yesterday before it fell out of the shirt on to his lap.
Lance blushed red as he gingerly picked up the bra and bundled it in the shirt with the shorts.
“If Keith's Pjs are here… then where's...?”
“Prrr-row~” Lance heard sound out as a small warm body rubbed against the small of his back.
Slowly, Lance turned around to see a small black kitten purring while rubbing its head against Lance’s side before crawling onto his lap and sitting there, it's familiar lavender eyes looking up at the Blue Paladin.
“Oh Quiznak… Keith? Is that you?” asked Lance nervously although he knew what the answer was.
“Woe~” mewed the kitten, sitting up on its hindlegs asking to be carried.
Lance scooped the kitten up in his hands, earning a loud purring. “Don't take this the wrong way Keith,” said Lance as he turned the kitten around to check under its tail briefly before turning Keith back to face him. “Well…. Congrats… you got your man parts back….”
Keith just slow blinked at the Blue Paladin as the kitten reached out a paw and booped Lance on the nose.
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“He turned into a what!?” Pidge exclaimed nearly dropping their tablet staring at Hunk and Coran.
“From what Hunk explained to me, a ‘cat’ as he says, Keith has turned into a smaller baby lion,” Coran said.
“I still find it hard to believe you know what Lions are but don't know what a cat is,” Hunk muttered before shaking his head. “Look we haven't had any luck finding Keith so maybe if you can do some sort of scan of the castle we can find him before Shiro notices.
“It's going to be hard for him to not see Keith around and get suspicious,” Pidge pointed out making the Hunk whine. “Alright, alright I can probably put something together, is Shiro up?”
“He's training but that was awhile ago…” Hunt said nervously. “I knew something bad was going to happen.”
“You always think something bad is gonna happen Hunk,” pointed out Pidge bluntly.
“And I’m usually right!” retorted Hunk making Pidge roll her eyes.
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Lance watched as the black fluffy kitten began attacking one of his slippers rolling about on the floor.
“Oy….Shiro is so not gonna like this….” muttered Lance in disdain as he got up to change outfits.
Once he slipped into his normal attire, Lance crouched down on the floor. “Here Keithy~ Here boy~” he called clicking his tongue.
Keith looked up from attacking the lion slipper and bounded over to Lance who picked him up and slipped him into his jacket pocket.
“Awww~ You’re small enough for my pocket~” cooed the Blue Paladin as Keith poked his head out with a contented expression.
“Woe~” crooned the kitten as Lance made his way out.
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“Okay well I got a lock on Keith and he's moving…” Pidge said her fingers a flying through the tablet.
“That's good!” Coran said.
“He's heading towards us,” Pidge added as her eyes narrowed watching the tiny blip on her screen watching it move. “At least it seems he got hungry again so he's coming back to the kitchen. Which is great so we don't have to look for him.”
“Hey guys what're you doing?” Asked as Shiro came walking in with Allura next to him.” I stopped by Keith’s room but wasn't there any idea where he could possibly be?”
“This is bad!” Hunk hissed angrily looking at the other two. “M-m-maybe he's walking around! You know stretching his legs since he's gotten changed so many times?”
“Maybe he’s looking for his bayard?” suggested Pidge forcing a grin while Coran nervously twirled his moustache.
Allura and Shiro exchanged looks before eyeballing the trio who were sweating subtly.
At that moment, Lance walked past the group on the way to the kitchen.
“Hey guys,” he greeted casually walking past, but nobody took notice as Allura and Shiro were giving Hunk, Pidge and Coran an intense staredown.
Lance shrugged and continued on his way.
“We’ll keep an eye out for Keith,” reassured Coran, trying to maintain his composure.
“Mmhmm…..” responded Allura, quirking an eyebrow.
“Well, let us know…” she said walking away with Shiro.
Just as soon as the Space Parents disappeared, the three all simultaneously released their held breaths.
“Ok, that was too close!” exclaimed Pidge.
“Quick, quick! Check for Keith!” hissed Hunk nudging the younger Paladin as she quickly went back to the tablet.
“He…. went past us?” said Pidge in confusion.
“What? When?!” demanded Coran looking over Pidge’s shoulder.
“Do you think he snuck behind while we were talking?” Hunk asked.”Last I checked he was still human, maybe those features gave him extra senses like how cats are super quiet.”
“I don't know but now that we avoided the space parents let's hurry,” Pidge said as they hurried down the hallway following the signal.
They kept their eyes on the radar trying to find Keith, they followed the signal to the couch area where the only thing they saw was Lance.
“It says he’s here but I don't see him!? I know this thing is working! I built it!” Pidge growled.”Work dammit!”
“Odd most of the stuff you make do work.” Coran said not seeing Pidge glare at him.
“What do you mean most of the stuff I make!?”
“Lance! Have you seen Keith?” Hunk asked.”We’re trying to find him! I...I think he changed again!”
“Uh about that see-” Lance started but Pidge let out a frustrated growl.
“It's working fine!”
“Keith isn't here so it isn't working! Now let's get that thing fixed…” Coran argued with Pidge.
Hunk tried to play mediator but it wasn’t working too well. Lance sighed as he stood up since no one was listening now and headed off.
Once he was out of the room Lance plucked the sleeping kitten out of his pocket and held him up to his eye level.
“Well little buddy, guess you and I are gonna be waiting around till someone actually cares to listen…” said Lance as Keith yawned in his face before wriggling out of his grasp and hopping on to the Paladin’s shoulder, purring as he rubbed under Lance’s chin, slipping into his hood.
“Comfy?”
“Prreow~” replied Keith, snuggling down into the hood.
Lance just smiled and walked off down the hallway.
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“Do you think they seemed a little odd to you Shiro?” asked Allura sitting on Shiro’s back as he did one-arm pushups in the training room with his human arm.
“Urgh….I guess but aren’t those three always up to something?” grunted Shiro pushing himself off the ground.
“A fair point. You don’t suppose they’re hiding something are they?”
“Very Likely.”
“And...we are not going to address it?”
“They are freaking out already, I say we wait it out…”
Allura smiled deviously, glancing at the back of Shiro’s head. “I never pegged you for a psychological warfare sort of man~”
“Thank you, Princess.”
“Still I wonder how long this can go on, obviously this has something to do with Keith but they're not telling us.” Allura said as Shiro grunted.
“Well they can hide as much as they want there's no way they can hold out for long,” Shiro couldn't help but smirk. “So waiting it out is perfect.”
Allura just laughed agreeing wondering how two of the Paladins plus Coran are going to be when they're confronted again.
‘Not very well.’ She thought as she continued to help Shiro train.
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“Okay there is no way this is broken so you two can't say anything!” Pidge said glaring at Hunk and Coran. They had adjusted the program for finding Keith and were walking down another hallway following the trail Keith had gone apparently.
“Now...we should be getting close….” noted Coran as the blip on the screen got closer and closer to their location when suddenly-
“OOF!” went Pidge as she collided with Lance, causing her to drop the tablet while Hunk managed to catch her.
“Whoa! Sorry Pidge!” apologized Lance, when Pidge let out a despaired scream.
“NO-NO-NO!!!” freaked out the teen prodigy flying out of Hunk’s grip and snatched up her tablet.
Unfortunately, the fall had caused the screen to crack causing the device to fizzle out.
“Oh dear…” went Coran while Hunk patted Pidge’s back.
Lance looked down guiltily. “Aw geez Pidge, I’m really sorry.”
Pidge shook her head as she sighed dejectedly. “It’s alright...my fault really..”
“Well, how are we going to find Keith now?” asked Hunk, twiddling his fingers worriedly.
“Actually-” Lance wanted to speak up but was cut off by Coran.
“Well we could fix it in the workshop, maybe upgrade it a little?” suggested Coran.
“Guys wa-”
“GREAT IDEA CORAN! LET’S GO!” exclaimed Pidge excitedly, jumping to her feet.
“But Keith is-!” Lance tried to tell them but the trio sped off once more, making Lance face-palm himself.
“Woe~?” mewed Keith, sticking his head out from the hoodie.
Lance sighed as he looked over at the kitten and scratched his ear, getting another pleased rumble. “I bet you could get their attention easy without even trying..” he commented dryly.
“Prreow….” the kitten mewed in response as he booped Lance’s nose again.
Lance gave a little huff of laughter as he rubbed the kitten’s head. “Thanks Keith.”
That just made the kitten purr even louder as it made Keith rub his head against Lance’s hand even now. The kitten really seemed more excited and happy when he cheered Lance up.
“Ya know I half expected you to be clawing and hissing at me not purring and nuzzling,” Lance said and he swore he could bear Keith huff as he bopped his nose a little harder.”Okay I'm sorry, guess we might as well walk around, though you haven't eaten anything have you kitten?”
“Mao~!”
“Lunch it is then,” agreed the paladin as Keith rode his shoulder. “Boy I hope this castle has space tuna or something….”
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Allura swung her staff about, lashing at Shiro who dodged and deflected her strikes.
The princess planted her staff into the ground and vaulted over the black paladin before delivering a kick to his back, which Shiro only barely managed to block with his robot arm.
“Pretty good reflexes there Princess.”
“I could say the same about you~” replied Allura dodging a punch and flipping backwards. “But I won't~”
Shiro pretended to look injured as hand flew to heart. “Ooh… an internal blow. Well played, your Highness.”
Allura couldn't help but laugh.
“Someone’s been hanging out with Lance a bit too long,” Allura laughed as she held the staff up ready to defend while Shiro laughed right back.”If you're assuming complimenting me is going to distract me then I'm not sorry to say it's failed.”
Shiro replied with a cheeky smirk before running at Allura and raising his arm to punch Allura but the princess held the staff tightly.
She blocked it again but didn't expect Shiro to then grasp the staff pulling himself up flipping over Allura and landing behind her and then kicking her behind the kneecaps.
“Whoa!” went Allura as she buckled to the floor with Shiro grabbing her arms and pinning them behind her as Shiro pressed her to the floor.
“I’d say it worked a little~” teased Shiro, his breath tickling Allura’s ear, making the princess blush and shudder a bit.
Allura smirked back at Shiro as she used her Altean powers to increase her size, using her new body mass buck Shiro off her, sending him into a forward roll towards the wall.
“OooF!” went Shiro landing upside down with his eyes swirling.
Allura chuckled as she stood over the black paladin, slowly shifting back to her normal size. “You’ll have to try better next time~”
At that moment the door to the training room slid open revealing Lance who stared at them with big eyes.
“Um...Am I interrupting something?” asked Lance awkwardly as Allura and Shiro blushed as they righted themselves back up.
“No-no!” “Nothing at all just training!” the two denied at the same time while they avoided eye contact with each other.
“Uh-huh…..I’m just gonna find another shortcut to the kitchen…..” informed Lance slowly backing out, closing the door shut.
“Ahem uh well…” Shiro coughed looking at Allura who was a bit pink in her face matching her marks.
“W-we should continue!! We need to kill some time before we go and try and find the other Paladins and see what they’re really hiding.” Allura quickly answered as she grabbed Shiro’s hand, pulling him upright.
“Sounds like a plan,” Shiro said agreeing rather quickly as they went back to their places in the middle of the training hall before starting once more.
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“Well that was awkward,” Lance said as he entered the kitchen.
He looked around and didn’t see Pidge, Coran and Hunk in so they still must be trying to fix and upgrade Pidge’s tablet. He was a bit relieved since that meant he still had the Red Paladin turned kitten to himself, though he would think the others would try to listen to him rather than talking over him.
He was about to set Keith down onto the table but the kitten mewled digging his claws a bit into Lance’s sleeve not wanting to leave the Cuban boy.
“Man you sure are clingy as a kitten,” Lance said not putting up much a fight against Keith as he resettled him onto his shoulder as he opened the fridge, but now he had a new dilemma...he knew you were suppose to cook the food a certain way if not then well the results had shown the past two days of Keith’s previous transformations. “Great...no space tuna but what the heck do I feed you that doesn’t change you?”
Lance shrugged. “I’m guessing no to space goo?”
Keith hissed and fluffed up, making Lance flinch in pain.
“Eeeyah! OoH! Keith! The claws! Mind the claws! Ok! OK! No goo! Got it!”
It was then , Keith calmed down.
“Woe~”
Suddenly, Keith’s ears perked up as he turned his attention to the table. The four space mice sat there munching on one of Hunk’s fruit tarts when they froze, sensing the hunter’s gaze on them.
The kitten’s eyes became slits as he steadied himself on Lance’s shoulders.
“MAAAAWWRRR!!!!!” meowed Keith pouncing .
The mice gave a huge squeaks of fright as they hightailed it out of there as Keith gave chase close behind.
“Keith NO! Bad Kitty! Come back!!” called Lance, running off after the kitten.
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“Okay so there is no way we can miss Keith this time around,” Podge said their face glued to the screen with Hunk and Coran hovering over her shoulders. The trio had done everything they could do make sure they could find the missing red paladin and weren't going to miss him.
“Look out coming through!”
The three of them presses themselves against the wall as a cursing Lance came running by them.
“What’s his hurry?” Hunk wondered before the tablet started to beep and they saw that Keith had run by them.
“What the!?” Pidge gapes. “We missed Keith! Dammit what is going on!?”
“We just saw Lance maybe he knows?” Coran said as they all chased the other paladin down who had disappeared down the hallway.
“Lance get your butt back here!” Pidge shouted as they tried to catch up.
Meanwhile Lance was trying to stop Keith from pouncing on because one, the mice were cool and two Allura would kill both him and Keith even if he was a kitten if anything happened to the mice.
“Keith get back here right now! Here kitty kitty!” Lance tried as the kitten seemed determined to catch the mice.
Maybe it was a good thing the mice were spacemice as the largest one squeaked something to the others and they took off in another direction making the kitten follow them. Lance groaned as he picked up the pace focusing on getting Keith before he did anything he'd regret once he was big again.
The big mouse as they passed a wall jumped up and hit a hidden panel opening a door in the wall and the mice ran in. Keith followed and Lance had to dive for the entrance as the door closed behind him just as the others had caught up to him.
“The hell!? I swore he came this way.” Pidge glowered looking around as she fiddled with her tablet. “Some reason it shows Keith moving very fast somewhere?”
“Great now we can't find Lance and Keith,” Hunk groaned while Coran and Pidge were trying to make heads or tails of the reading. “Then again it's not like we know every inch of the castleship.”
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“Holy hell!” Lance yelled as when he slid through the door he and Keith along with the mice landed on like a slide going somewhere rapidly.
He had managed to catch Keith as the kitten was surprised by the slide and tried to stop. Thankfully, Lance had caught him and put him in his pocket, while Keith mewled in protest.
“You are in so much trouble you little troublemaker!”
The mice squeaked-laughing as they were ahead and soon Lance saw an opening though he just saw the mice drop down and let out a surprised scream as he fell as well while landing on something hard.
“Owowowo…”
A familiar purr came through his head prompting Lance to look down to see what he had landed on top of.
“Blue?!”
A low rumble from the robot lion came in reply.
Lance rubbed the back of Blue’s ear getting a loving croon. “Thanks girl~”
Blue lowered her head closer to the ground allowing Lance to slip off with Keith, who looked really sulky with his ears lying flat on his head. Keith made a really grouchy mewl as he readjusted himself in the pocket.
“Aw, just behave yourself ya little…. Furry thing you…”
Keith mewled in protest once more making Lance just roll his eyes with a smile.
“There's the Keith I know~!”
Keith just sulked a bit more while Blue made rumble that sounded distinctly like laughing.
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Allura gasped a bit as she received a mental image from the mice.
“What is it Allura?”
Allura closed her eyes and focused on the image. “The mice… they are being chased…..by… a purple eyed black lion?”
“......Huh?” Shiro blinked wondering if Black had shrunk and decided to chase the mice.
He got a low growl in his head and a nice little mental smack like a mother scolding her child to even consider that. The Black Lion clearly took offense.
“Ow, ok stupid thought sorry girl…” Shiro muttered rubbing his head.“But did an animal sneak into the castle last night?”
“Let me see if I can get more information…” Allura frowned reconnecting with her mice she was sent an image getting a better look at the ‘lion’ she saw it was a small creature, but what caught her attention was the blue paladin chasing both the tiny creature and the mice. “Strange...Lance seems to know the animal.”
“I think Lance would know better than to bring strange creatures into the castle, we’re already having issues with food,” Shiro said dryly shaking his head.
“Still we cannot have a strange creature running amok, not to mention my poor mice,” Allura said. “Let's find Lance and have him explain.”
“Alright I'm kinda interested what this small black lion looks like,” Shiro chuckled when he came to a slow sudden realization. “Wait, you said it had purple eyes?”
Allura quirked an eyebrow at Shiro. “Yes?...” she replied when it dawned on her too.
The Princess and Paladin looked at each other when the light bulb finally went off in their heads.
Without another word, both of them quickly dashed out of the training room to look for Lance.
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While everyone was on a frantic search, Lance decided to hang around in Blue’s cockpit, lounging on the floor while Keith lay curled on his chest, riding the rising and falling of the paladin’s breathing.
Lance closed his eyes and relaxed, listening to the harmony of the simultaneous contented purring of Blue and Keith. He had to admit, this was the most relaxed Lance had been in a long time.
It was comfortably warm inside Blue’s head yet the floor was nice and cool as well. It reminded Lance a lot of the beach back home, floating on his surfboard, gently rocked by the waves.
Drifting away into his thoughts, it wasn't long until Lance finally fell asleep.
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Lance was dreaming he was back on the beach of his hometown, riding the waves as he flashed a dazzling smile to numerous bikini babes on the shore chanting his name.
La~ance! La~ance! La~nce!
Lance blew suave kisses to his fans who all dramatically fainted in awe.
Suddenly, a particularly huge ominous wave came, towering over the current wave Lance was riding on as a vision of Zarkon formed on the waves.
In a panic, Lance slipped, causing to wipeout, getting swallowed by the Zarkon tidal wave as he flailed about, suffocating in the water.
The sounds of the fans chanting his name could still be heard only this time it sounded more sinister as Lance sank deeper and deeper into the sea.
La-ance...
La-ance…
La-ance…
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“Lance! Lance!”
Lance squirmed as he slowly opened his eyes at the familiar sounding voice.
“Lance! Wake up!” yelled the voice.
Lance’s vision was slightly blurry, but he could make out the familiar outline and fluffy mullet.
“Ugh… Keith?” responded the blue Paladin groggily when his eyes popped open in realization.
“Keith! You're -!” *BONK!!!*
“GAH!!!!” grunted the two in pain as they clutched their aching heads, having collided due to Lance suddenly sitting up and Keith not moving away in time.
“Ohmigosh! Keith! You're not a cat anymo-oooOooOOH!!! WOAH, You are NAKED!!!” exclaimed Lance excitedly turning to Keith before he glanced down and quickly covered his eyes in embarrassment.
Keith wrinkled his face at Lance as he ducked behind the pilot seat.
“Thank you Captain Obvious! Mind explaining what am I doing with you in Blue without Pants on?!”
Just at that moment, the rest of the Paladins plus Allura and Coran came running in.
“What happened?! We heard a yell….. Ooooh… ” demanded Allura when she trailed off upon seeing Keith sinking further behind the pilot’s chair blushing brightly.
Allura quickly turned around without another word while Hunk quickly covered Pidge’s eyes.
“So uh...hi? You're back to normal?” Hunk coughed as he averted his eyes deciding that Lance was a better target, as Shiro was walking over to Keith as the red paladin was hissing something at him, his face still burning.
Lance kept his eyes off of Keith as he took off his large jacket and handed it to Keith. Keith grumbled something and snatched the jacket slipping it on quickly, zipping it up as well. The jacket hung just above his knees but thankfully was enough to cover everything.
“Soooo buddy is there something you should be telling us?”
Lance glared at him still rubbing his forehead,as he stood in front of Keith. “I don't know.. you wanna tell me how your panicked search for Keith turned out?”
“At least he's here!” Pidge argued. “But that doesn't explain why I couldn't find him earlier!”
“If you lot had let me speak I would've told you Keith had turned into a kitten!” Lance shot back making the trio’s eyes widen.. “He's been riding in my pocket and hoodie the whole time!”
There were three simultaneous groans.
“That's why when we were looking for Keith we ended up running into Lance!” Pidge groaned. “See I told you my tablet wasn't broken!”
“Why didn't you speak up or tell us Lance?” Coran asked.
“Kinda funny Keith ended up sticking by Lance the whole time, though I kinda wanted to see a kitty Keith.” Hunk sighed.
“Again if you three had stopped interrupting me I would've told you,” Lance growled, folding his arms looking sourly at the group.
“Keith what do you remember?” Shiro asked placing his hands on his brother's shoulders."Anything at all?”
Keith wrinkled his face trying to think back."Ummm… we were having lunch… then I felt sick… I went to bed… I shrunk then….” Keith recalled in bits and pieces. “Everything else is a blur.”
Shiro and the group stared in disbelief.
“What?”
“Keith that was like two days ago!” exclaimed Pidge, flailing her arms, Hunk still having his hands over her eyes.
Keith tilted his head. “Did… did something happen?”
“How about we get some pants on you first and then we'll fill you in at dinner…” suggested Shiro placing his hands on Keith's shoulders.
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After getting back into his clothes, Hunk made a celebratory dinner to celebrate Keith's recovery as everybody gathered around the table and recounted the missing two days. Save for Lance who was being unusually quiet.
It was Keith's turn to look at his friends in disbelief.
“All that from one fruit?!” he exclaimed.
“That fruit and a combination of other food,” Hunk counted off,”and the stuff we made, you should've seen it we had to purposely make something explode in the kitchen.”
“Speaking of which, how is Keith back to normal?”
Coran twirled his moustache in thought."Well… I would have to hypothesize that that his body fully metabolised all the substances we gave him. And since he ate the entire bowl of the last concoction, I believe his body was just experiencing a side effect.”
“Seriously though, nothing? Completely blanked out!?” Pidge asked in disbelief, as she sent subtle looks to Lance who had yet to say a word,” I mean you seemed with it when you were a girl and you recognized us!”
“Yeah I'm still iffy about that girl thing...that...that really didn't happen did it?” Keith asked looking at Allura and Shiro,”especially the dress part that's made up right?”
“Uh sorry Keith but I know what I felt when you woke up with me after you had turned into a toddler, trust me and that scream was definitely a pitch you wouldn't be able to reach as a guy,” Shiro coughed.
“Keith all of that happened, we wouldn't lie to you about something that serious,” Allura said though she had a quirk to her lips,”though it was nice to dress you up.”
“You can dress Pidge up,” Keith grumbled his face red while the green paladin rolled her eyes.
“I'm not close to Allura’s height so I'd be drowning in her outfits,” Pidge smirked,”though you did make a cute girl...and kid…”
She waved her tablet around knowing Pidge had made it function with a camera somehow and Keith looked like he wanted to murder it.
“Besides if anything Red and Blue could tell you since you stayed close to the lions with your transformations.” Pidge said looking at Lance who hadn't spoken a word yet.
Keith felt concern and reaches out to Lance gently shaking him from the shoulder,” Lance hey you alright? You've been quiet.”
“Huh oh, just surprised really. So...you can't remember anything? Completely?” Lance asked hoping to see even a little bit of familiarity.
He looked at Keith and he frowned as the red paladin was trying to think but nothing seemed to show on Keith’s face.
“Sorry Lance, I'm not recalling much,” Keith replies, for some reason he couldn't help but feel guilty as he saw a sad look pass through Lance’s face before Lance sighed disappointed and gave Keith a small smile.
“It's alright Keith it's just good to have you back to normal,” Lance said back to the Red Paladin.
Keith tried to smile back, in the back of his head he felt like he was missing something, even though he felt he understood Lance better throughout this whole thing. A memory flashed through his head: Lance smiling so happily and honestly staring at the ocean, looking like he didn't have a care in the world. Arms spread out enjoying the sea breeze and that expression Lance gave him when he smiled at him when he stood next to him...it made his heart beat faster.
“Hey Keith you're not gonna fall asleep at the table again are it?” Lance asked prodding the dark haired paladin joking somewhat.
“I'm fine I'm fine, just a slight headache, don't worry about it.” Keith assured as Lance still looked worried. "Really!”
“Uh huh we’ll just keep an eye on you just in case Keith, you know just to be sure.” Lance said patting his back while Keith rolled his eyes.
“I’m not going to change into a girl again much less anything else Lance,” Keith said dryly pointing his spoon at Lance.
“You never know with what you just experienced.”
“It was one time I'm not about to do any of it again, I can't even remember what we...what I did!”
“Oh come on we totally had multiple bonding moments! I held you in my arms and we hugged!”
Keith couldn't help but smirk as he looked at Lance. “Nope, don't remember, never happened.”
“Oh come on Keith!!”
The rest of the table gave a collective sigh of relief as norm was once again in the norm as they listened to the banter between the Red and Blue Paladin.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Later that night, Lance flew over to the beach from the other day in Blue and sat curled up on her snout staring out into the ocean looking woeful.
There was a rush of jets and a blast of warm wind, causing Lance to look up and see the Red Lion come sailing in and landing right next to Blue.
Red’s mouth opened and out walked Keith onto Blue’s snout.
“Hey, Lance. Mind if I join you?”
Lance replied with a shrug as Keith sat next to him.
There was silence for a bit.
“Are you still upset that I don't remember?”
Lance rested his head on his knees. “Upset? NAAAAAAW….. Just disappointed…”
Keith looked at his boots a little guiltily. “I’m really sorry Lance.”
Lance glanced over at Keith and gave him a good natured shove. “Hey don't worry about. If you don't remember, you don't remember.”
Another brief silence between them.
“The others told me that you took care of me while I was… you know.. Soooo… thanks..” said Keith blushing a little as he punched Lance’s shoulder lightly.
Lance gave a scoff of laughter as he returned the punch.
The two settled back into awkward silence as they both looked out into the ocean.
“So… I wonder when should we meet again for the spa treatment?” muttered Keith offhanded but just loud enough for Lance to hear.
Lance perked his head up just as Keith decided to stand and make his way back to Red.
“Hold up! Keith, do you actually…?”
Keith looked over with his shoulder, giving Lance a vague smile before jumping into his Lion just as Lance began scrambling to his feet.
“Wait! Hold on there!!!”
Red roared as she came to life and took off into the air with her pilot.
“KEEEEEEIIIIIITH?!!!!!!!!!”