*SETTING: Lance is a regular Altean, his grandparents were captured before the planet was destroyed. He's been held captive since he was born whateves (so he is FOR SURE Keith's age). He knows a bit about life outside the Galra and stuff. Voltron was still formed with out him, everyone with their normal lions but Allura is the blue paladin instead.*

The paladins circled the Galra ship ready to attack. Everyone was fending off smaller ships but the mission was looking hopeful. There was word that many prisoners that have been held over thousands of years were being held on the ship and the paladins had every intention of finding out.

"Keith! Get in there and see if there's any sign of prisoners." Shiro instructed.

"On it!" Keith flew down and landed on the Galra ship. He snuck in as the red lion activated its shield protecting itself. He ran through the halls avoiding Galra soldiers and checking rooms cautiously.

He used his hand to open a suspiciously locked door and carefully went inside. A tall tan and lanky boy blinked at him slightly confused which was a look returned by Keith as he also noticed the chocolate haired boy had blue marks under his eyes. Just like Allura and Coran.

"You're not Galra." Keith hesitated standing up straight.

"You're not looking all that purple yourself buddy." Lance folded his arms sassily.

Keith wasn't taking any chances. He tackled the taller boy to the ground locking his arms in a painful hold. "Who are you?" Keith demanded.

"OUCH YOU SON OF A-," the tan boy struggled only to find it hurt more. "LANCE! MY NAME IS LANCE! GET OFF!"

Keith let go and Lance scrambled to his feet. "Come with me." He urged running out of the room. Keith became extremely confused when he didn't follow. "What's wrong with you? Hurry."

"Like, leave?" Lance raised an eyebrow as if Keith had to be joking.

"Well yeah, that's kind of the point. This is a rescue mission."

Lance looked at the boy in front of him as if he were insane. "You can't leave. That's impossible. I tried when I was younger, it just doesn't happen. We're stuck here until we die." Lance explained as if it were obvious.

"Not anymore, now that there's Voltron, Zarcon can be defeated. This ship will be destroyed along with the Galra on it." Keith grabbed his hand urging him to the door.

Lances eyes widened. "A-are you sure. This 'Voltron' can really kill him?"

Keith nodded and Lance reluctantly followed. When they made it outside the room Lance began to breathe heavily and Keith was scared he was having a panic attack. "W-what?! What's wrong?!"

Lance then simply smiled and jumped up. "This is my first time ever leaving that room! Let's get the quiznack out of here." Lance was now practically breaking him down the hallway.

"Lance do you know if there are any other prisoners on this ship?" Keith asked as they turned right down another hall that looked exactly the same.

"No, my family died about three years ago here, this is supposed to be a cargo ship. The only reason I'm here is because they wanted to keep an Alteans and had no idea where to put us." Lance was grinning though. "They'd be overjoyed to know that I might actually escape."

Keith felt bad for the boy but was amazed at the positivity he had. Who knows how long he could've been in there for. After all Allura was in the sleep chamber for thousands of years.

"How long have you been in there?"

"Since I was born. That would be I believe about 18 years." Lance huffed as they neared the spot Keith entered. "Hey what's your name anyway?"

"Keith." He said freezing.

"Well, thank you, Keith." Lance smiled when he said his name.

Keith nodded lightly but was broken from the moment when he heard a crowd of footsteps down the hall.

"Damn. It's over. Thank you Keith for at least getting me out of that room. Sucks we didn't make it very far." Lance smiled leaning against the wall fully accepting his fate.

"It's not over yet." Keith smiled grabbing Lances hand taking him by surprise. "Red!" He yelled and a large red lion burst in grabbing the two boys. Keith quickly ran to his controls and began to get back into the fight. Lance simply sat on the ground of the lion in utter shock.

"Are we off the ship? Wait. Are we in a giant robot lion? Wait. Do you have a mullet?" Lance stood up and walked next to Keith looking out at the darks space before them.

"Seriously, you spent 18 years in a prison and you point out that I have a mullet." Keith looked at him in disbelief.

"Hey, it's important." Lance said chuckling. Suddenly a voice came in through Keith's helmet startling Lance. He fell back and looked in sister shock.

"Keith, were their any prisoners?" Shiro asked.

"Only one, but you won't believe this. I'll tell you guys when we get back to the castle." Keith smiled looking back at the tan boy staring at him as if he were crazy. Lance then stood up quickly and took his helmet off his head inspecting it.

"Is there a tiny man in here?" Lance questioned. "Where did that voice come from?"

Keith laughed, "Lance, you were with the Galra. Don't you know there are communicators and such?"

"No... I only really saw soldiers and stuff when I was given food. They never really used this stuff in front of me." He reluctantly gave Keith his helmet back and sat Indian style on the floor. "I'm probably dreaming anyway so this is cool."

"Dreaming?" Keith was entertained by the naive boy.

"Yup! I mean come on? Zarcon? Someone actually rising against him?" Lance scoffed. "Not to mention, cute boy, mullet, giant robot lion, going outside that room, besides, space doesn't really look like this does it?"

"I'm afraid it does." Keith was blushing about the first part Lance had mentioned.

"No, it's too amazing. So it's a dream." Lance refused to believe.

"Really? What can happen to prove this isn't a dream?" Keith asked.

Lance sighed, "I could pinch myself." He squeezed his eyes shut and did so. He opened his eyes again and looked confused. He pinched himself again, and again, and again.

"Okay stop it. You aren't dreaming." Keith blasted a small ship to pieces and dodged another one causing Lance to go flying to the other side of the lion.

"Hey! You fly like a maniac." Lance grabbed his chair standing up watching as Keith skillfully handled the thousands of controls.

"Probably because I am one. At least I'm not as crazy as you though." Keith laughed glancing at the tall boy who glared back.

"I'm not crazy."

"You are slightly naive though." Keith remarked.

"Hey! I'll have you know I read a lot in that room and learned a ton! Plus, sometimes Lotor would tell me stories!" Lance defended. "Everyone's always described space a plain black void that was super lame and everything looked the same. It's not like that at all though."

"You know Lotor?"

"Yeah, he'd come in a lot to talk to me. I guess he thought I'd like the company or something, I was just waiting for the right moment to pound his face in." Lance pounded his fist into his hand trying to act intimidating.

Keith chuckled, "Would serve him right to get his but kicked by the boy he kept in a room his entire life. So you said you'd try to escape a lot when you were younger?"

"Yeah, I'd climb up the corners of the room to the ceiling and wait for the guard to come in and feed me, then I'd jump on their head. I almost made it out one or two times but never could, I stopped when they brought those electric sticks in with them. I was desperate to get out but no way was I getting shocked." Lance said goofily.

"What are you going to do now that you're out?" Keith smiled.

Lance was about to say something before shutting his mouth again and thinking. "I really don't know."

"You can stay at the castle as long as you want, Allura and Coran will be thrilled to find out there's another Altean."

"Wait, what about Altea? My grandparents said when they were captured there was a war going on between them and Zarcon and that he turned against us."

"Yeah, that's true but, I'm sorry, Altea was destroyed. You, Allura, and Coran could very well be the last Alteans alive."

"Wow, that's horrible." Lance said resting his chin on Keith chair.

"Paladins! We need to destroy the ship!" Allura yelled through the helmet and Lance glared at it.

"There's a woman in there too?"

"No Lance," Keith laughed, "everyone is talking through the helmets to each other, like this." He pressed a small button on the helmet and spoke, "Alright Allura."

"Woah! I wanna try!"

"Wait La-."

It was too late, Lance pressed the small button and yelled into the speaker. "Heelloo! My name is Lance! Lan-ce." He talked like they were two year olds.

"Keith who is that?" Hunk asked concerned.

"My name is Lance! L-A-N-C-E!" He said again as if they didn't get that part.

"Sh! That was the prisoner, as you heard his name is Lance." Keith rolled his eyes looking at him.

They destroyed the ship and Lance was in a daze. He was leaning on the chair watching Keith drive.

"You okay?" Keith asked.

"Yeah, I just can't believe I escaped. And to think, the place I spent my entire life is gone. Wow." He reaches out and stroked Keith's hair.

Keith however didn't testify. Lance was probably really confused and was going through a lot so he allowed it. Besides, he's never admit it but he actually liked it. Keith parked the lion in the hangers and looked at Lance. "Ready to meet the paladins of Voltron?"

"You're one of them right?" Lance asked.

"Yes."

"Alright, then how bad can they be." He stood up and cling to Keith causing him to blush. "But if they have mullets too, I'm out."

Keith laughed. "They don't."

Lance was holding tightly onto Keith's arm as he brought him down the hall to the control room where he knew the others were.

Everyone's expression twisted into utter shock at everything before them. An Altean, Keith letting the boy hold his arm, and their obvious blushes.

"There's another of our kind!" Allura exclaimed running up and throwing her arms around the tan boy.

Lance didn't do anything but allow the affection and continue clinging to the only familiar persons arm.

"Allura, maybe we should a little more time and introduce ourselves." Keith suggested picking up on Lances obvious discomfort.

"Fine, I'm Allura, princess of Altea."

Lances eyes widened. "I'm so sorry I didn't know." He immediately bowed to her and Keith was slightly jealous.

"How do you know of her?" Keith asked.

"My grandparents would always talk about planet Altea and of course the princess. They would tell me if I ever meet her to treat her with respect. Of course I never thought I actually would." Lance then stood back up again and scooted closer to Keith making the raven haired male to feel better.

"I'm Coran!" The ginger rushed up grabbing his hand and shaking it violently.

Everyone introduced themselves and Lance became more comfortable but Lance never left his side.

"Hey Lance! I could show you to your room." Allura offered.

"Not to be rude your highness but could Keith take me?" Lance asked taking the shorter boy by surprise.

"Yes of course. I see you two are very close." She forced a smile. It was obvious she was slightly annoyed that Lance was far more comfortable with Keith rather than his own kind.

Keith escorted Lance down the hall to his room. Lance sat down slowly on the bed. Keith walked in opening a small storage compartment. "Here's some pillows and blankets, there's more in there if you need them too. If you need anything let me know. I could show you the cafeteria when you get hungry or need something to drink."

Keith turned to leave and Lance hesitated. "Uh-I um, actually, I could eat." Lance said coming up with an excuse. He didn't really want to be left alone in the castle.

Keith stared at him a moment and smiled. "Let's get you some food then."

Lance smiled and they walked to the cafeteria together.

"You know, one time these machines glitched out and attacked Hunk and Pidge." Keith told the taller boy as he put some free food goo on a plate and grabbing a spoon. "Need anything to drink?"

"Uh- Sure, Thanks." Lance said and Keith got him a glass of water.

They sat across from one another and talked a bit.

"Wait so what planet do you come from?" Lance asked.

"Earth."

"Ew."

"What? What's wrong with earth?" Keith laughed.

"It's like 71% covered in water and people there don't even know if there is life outside of their planet. And you think I'm naive. Plus they're too worried about like selfies and twerking."

Keith almost choked, "How do you know all that?"

"I told you I read a lot. I convinced Lotor to get the guards to bring me books."

Keith chuckled at the boy and watched him take another bite. "So besides reading, what else would you do to pass the time?"

"Sometimes I'd insult the guards until they'd get really mad which was really funny because they couldn't actually do anything. Or I'd play counting games. Or I'd play little stories out in my head."

"Like what kind of stories?"

"I dunno, sometimes I'd escape or like have super cool powers. A couple romance ones which wasn't my fault. The guards occasionally gave me romance novels."

Keith laughed at the boy. "Romance novels? What kind are we taking about here on a scale of Twilight to Fifty Shades if Grey?"

Lance laughed and pushed Keith's shoulder. "You're so gross." He then looked at him seriously. "They usually were about in the middle."

"Wait you actually know what those two books are. Did you read them?"

"They may or may not have been given to me and I lightly glanced through it." Lance said twiddling his fingers.

They both burst into laughter and continued talking and goofing off. The other paladins watched the two from the castle cameras. Lance yawned and Keith stood up taking his empty tray and glass. "You should get to bed. It's late and you've had a long day."

They walked to Lances room and the door slid open. Keith made the bed as Lance watched quietly contemplating if he should ask Keith.

"There, it's not the comfiest bed in the world but it's not too bad."

Keith walked to the door opening it to leave.

Lance hesitated, "Keith wait."

Keith turned around quickly as if he'd been expecting it. "Yeah?"

"I was um, just gonna say... thanks." It was obvious that wasn't what he wanted to ask but Keith was oblivious.

"Oh. It wasn't-um, you're, you're welcome." Keith mentally face palmed. What was he thinking? What was he even expecting? Lance to throw himself in Keith's arms and yell 'Put your mouth on my mouth!'?

"Well I'm two rooms to the left so just knock if you need me." With that he exited leaving the taller boy alone.

Yo guys, it's summer and I think I'm freezing to death. Too hot outside to cold inside.

Lance tried to sleep, he knew he was tired but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't drift off. He sat up grabbing a pillow and blanket leaving the room.

He squeezed his eyes shut and knocked on the raven haired boys door. He heard someone get up and shuffle to the door. It slid open revealing a very tired Keith.

His hair was up in a messy ponytail with pajama pants that he clearly just put on and a t-shirt. "Lance? What is it?" Keith stepped to the side letting the tan boy in.

"I couldn't sleep and I wanted to know if... if I could stay with you?"

Keith was slightly taken by surprise. "Of course. You can take my bed." He began to set up a bed on the floor but Lance wouldn't allow that.

"I'll be damned if I let you sleep on the floor."

"Well I'll be damned if I let you sleep on the floor." Keith threw back.

They stared at each other both letting their stubbornness get the best of them. "Well, you know, we could just share the bed?" Lance suggested trying to sound casual. It wasn't like he really wanted to cuddle Keith or anything.

Keith face lit up a bright pink. "Uh, Yeah, sure." He wanted to cuddle Lance but that was stupid right?

They both slid under the covers and turned out the lights. After some time Keith heard Lances breathing slow and become constant. He assumed he was asleep and relaxed.

A moment passed before he felt Lance's body pressed against his. Him and Lance were spooning.

'I'm not even the big spoon!' Keith thought panicking.

"Is this okay?" Lance mumbled.

"Yeah." Keith said quietly. "Here." He turned around and awkwardly wrapped his arms around Lances waist resting his head on the taller boy's chest. He felt Lance's hands lay on his back and chin set on top of his head. It was so comfortable, neither of them expected it to be.

"You're warm." Lance said dozing off.

"And you're cold." Keith couldn't manage to open his eyes and was surprised he even spoke. They both fell asleep and woke up like that.