Keith pushes his body to its limit to save Pidge and is too stubborn to tell anyone that he’s more than ‘just a little tired’
trigger and content warnings: very ominous countdown, threat of being caught in an explosion, emotional angst where tough calls have to be made, major character is injured and then overlooked/ignored, discovery of injuries far worse than anticipated, just very angsty in all parts, lots of physical pain and heavy emotions described in later parts.
The mission was supposed to be easy. The operation of breaking into an abandoned galra base to gather intel before destroying was bold but low risk. The team calculated every worst scenario and came up with no reason they shouldn’t, especially when whatever they might recover could help them find Pidge’s dad and brother. They thought they’d accounted for everything. Actually, no, they had accounted for everything. Just everything except for intruder protocols to still be in place and functional, or for there to be a seemingly endless arsenal of sentries to complicate things further. So when Pidge and Keith get held up with time running out, decisions had to be made and Shiro agrees to set the timer for the last explosive... while they’re still inside. He did it because he trusted Keith when he said he’d make sure they got out, he just wasn’t aware that meant he’d do whatever it took and then not realize how truly injured he actually was.
NOW UPDATED (and legible) on ao3 as: too busy saving everybody else to save yourself ;)
Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3
Keith wrapped around the corner of the hallway with so much speed he nearly sent himself sprawling.
“Pidge?!”
The zap of blaster guns made the air around them smell burnt.
“Keith?!”
The strobing red emergency lights washing out all the purple of the galra base.
“Guys, please respond... Does you still copy?”
There wasn’t much more light in the next corridor.
“Yeah...” Keith huffed breathlessly, the sound of his boots against the metal of the floor audible over the coms.
They were the only ones who hadn’t made it back to their lions yet.
“What about you Pidge...?”
“I copy...” she answered stiffly, “could be better, but I copy.”
Her voice was a strained whisper against the commotion around them that came through.
“I told you I’ve got it Shiro...”
“Alright but hurry, there’s only 2 minutes and 17 seconds on the clock.”
Shiro’s tone was firm, his worry subdued for their sakes, but Keith saw straight through his inflection on the way he said ‘hurry’.
The sound of metal feet pounding behind them was what initially motivated him to abandon their joint effort in hobbling and scoop a very reluctant Pidge up into his own arms.
Now though.
Now it was the countdown until the explosives they’d planted detonated.
“Lance and Hunk are towing your lions back to the castle so head straight for Black...”
Keith attempted to grunt out a yes but was too focused on maintaining his zigzag running pattern as he tried to desperately evade the fire from behind them.
Shiro thought he’d accounted for everything, planned every detail with Allura and Pidge meticulously so that their escape would not be something down to the wire like this.
The base should’ve been abandoned, they weren’t even sure that they’d be able to gather any intel of much use, but they only went through with the plan because there wasn’t supposed to be any risk. And one less galra base is always a good thing.
They had split everyone into groups, separating Keith and Lance almost as soon as they left the castle when they couldn’t agree on who’d carry the explosive without dropping it. Keith and Pidge went in together first because they needed time for her to get the system down. Hunk and Lance went in next and took care of wiring up the explosive in the farthest section from the lions. Shiro and Allura were to go in last and see everyone else out, but that is far from what actually went down.
As soon as Pidge touched the tech in the control room Keith had cleared only moments before, alarms went off and an ominous ticking began.
“Crud, no, no, no—“
“What is it?” Keith asked from his position at the door.
“It’s very possible I just set off a threat response protocol of some kind... I don’t know how much time we have before the sentries that might still be viable find—“
But Pidge didn’t get to finish that statement because a group the robotic soldiers had rounded the corner Keith was surveiling, not close enough to lock in on them as a target and begin firing yet.
“Shiro...?! We may have a slight problem!” Keith called into his coms device as he activated his bayard.
The next few moments were a blur as Keith charged, meeting them halfway and hacking at the arms of the robots holding their weapons, not many of them able to ambush him at once with the narrow width of the service hallway but the continued surge of sentry after sentry was enough of a threat to overwhelm him that had Pidge activating her own bayard.
“That’s the last one,” he huffed, arms dropping to his sides heavily as the last sentry crumpled to the floor in a heap of sparking metal.
“Kay, I got into the mainframe and disabled the distress signal but I can’t be certain that was the only fleet that got dispatched.”
“Then you better hurry with whatever else you have to do,” Keith warned with a sympathizing look before returning his gaze to the long hallway before them, picking up one of the discarded blasters in anticipation of another attack, this way he could thin the group before they made it to him.
“Right,” Pidge muttered, already lost in concentration as she typed furiously at the keypad.
It seemed like every minute it took Pidge to disable the defense system of the base and download whatever information she could sent another wave of sentries with it. Keith was getting tired, his movements becoming sloppier and more out of desperation then strategy as he dropped bot after bot.
“Done! Wiring up the explosives now...”
Keith was in the middle of combating the worst of the latest onslaught, a sizable amount of robots left still before he could rest.
“Let me know when the last one’s down and I’ll set the timer...”
It was another minute before he gave the go ahead, leaned foraward on his knees and panting as he caught his breath, his hair stuck to his forehead with sweat from the effort.
“5 minutes on the clock starting... now! Let’s get the fuck out of here!”
“Why only 5?” he huffed as they began their sprint to the loading docks.
“Because I got held up with the alarms and Lance and Hunk set theirs for 10 about uhm... 6 minutes ago.”
“Oh... well then what’s it at now?”
“Should be... 3 minutes and 47 seconds,” she answered after slowing to tap the watch attachment on the her wrist of her armor.
“Shit.”
“Keith? I need an update on your status. Have you guys made it to the loading dock yet?”
“Uhm, we’re en route right now... still experiencing some slight complications, but we’ll get there.”
There was silence for a moment before Shiro spoke again.
“Keith... Allura and I can’t leave without setting the time for the last explosive.”
They were passing a series of adjoining service hallways.
“You can. Just set it for a minute after whatever time left is on your watch, we’ll make it.”
As they raced to the end Keith pulled forward just enough to glance around each and check for sentries.
“Keith I don’t think you understand—“
It was sort of hard to focus on so many things at once when he was so tried already and Shiro’s apprehension wasn’t making it any easier.
“Shiro! I said we’d make it there in time and I mean it. Set the timer.”
No matter how sure he sounded, an extra minute until the last explosion detonated didn’t do much to quell the panic in Keith’s stomach when they still had the danger of getting caught in the blast from the one they’d set themselves to worry about. But he didn’t care if he was sure or not, they had to make it in time so they would and that was that.
“Setting the timer now, you have 2 minutes 53 seconds...”
They had to cover as much ground as possible in the next two minutes to separate themselves from whatever sentries were on their tails or they wouldn’t even have to worry about the timing running out.
“After we clear this hallway it’s a straight shoot to the docks and the lions... get ready for the sprint of your life,” Keith said with a chuckle under his breath that made Pidge almost want to cry. Only when shit was grim did Keith resort his own twisted sort of humor.
“Well, then feet don’t fail me n—“ Pidge attempted to respond but was cut off by the sound of her body hitting the floor, the thud it made spurring Keith out of surging his body forward and twisting around with his bayard already drawn.
He hadn’t checked the last service hallway they passed... so of course the only one he didn’t check was the one filled with a sentries.
“Fuck!” he shouted wildly, his voice wrecked with outrage as he moved with a ferocity that would’ve scared Pidge was she not preoccupied by how much blood coated her hand when she took it away from her stomach.
He fought like Shiro did sometimes when they were practicing.
The older boy didn’t forget himself often, but when he did, the shift was more than apparent. You could always tell when it was him and when it wasn’t, his arcs and jabs viscious and unrelenting, no space for an ounce of mercy or forgiveness. The fight becoming less of a battle and more of an execution.
Keith fought like that then, not letting the sentry that attacked Pidge even a second to parry his condemning blows, the metal soldier clanking to the floor in a heap of disjointed scraps not long after.
The remainder of the fleet was still making its way down the hallway so they had time to keep them out of range for at least a little bit.
“C’mon Pidge, we’ve gotta—go... shit,” he deadpanned as his eyes fell on her slumped form, the red dripping from the cracks in her armor so apparent against the white even with the muted lighting.
When he seemed to sort of freeze at the sight she offered him her hands and he helped her up with a groan, his hands gripping her cautiously as even standing proved to be challenging.
But then the sound of the fleet upon them filled the hallway and the next moment he was moving just like them. Mechanically. Like the only preset in his manual for this type of situation had been initiated and Keith was no longer at the mercy of his own actions.
His system only knew one thing then and it was to move.
And so he did. He moved deftly, not taking much care for the hail of sentry fire he was under as he rounded the last corner and was then sprinting for the hulking doors of the loading dock. He could see the Black lion practically shaking in anticipation as he hurdled towards them.
“Are you guys taking fire?!”
Pidge was pressed to his chest, her shoulders turned so she could eye the scene behind them, telling Keith when to shift a certain way to avoid a plasma blast. She’d only started watching for him after he inhaled sharply and stumbled.
“-idge... -eith... -se report...”
It was considerably harder to respond to Shiro while on autopilot. Hard to keep up his evasive maneuvers and assure his leader that they would most likely not die at the same time. But he pushed past how heavy his tongue seemed in his mouth and spoke anyway. His words rushed together in almost a slur when he answered Shiro.
And then he assured Pidge his leg had just been knicked when she brought a worried hand to his bloodied cheek from his earlier battle as he bit his lip to keep from crying out, resuming his impossible pace when the sound of blasters didn’t let up. Even through her own daze of pain she could tell he was favoring his left side.
The hallway seemed to stretch out infinitely before him then, like he could run forever and still never reach the end of it. His entire body was screaming, the burn blast on his leg searing with every step, but he couldn’t give up. Not when Pidge was hurt. Not when he knew the base was set to explode any second.
He barely even reacted when he felt a familiar heat flare up between his shoulder blades. Keith couldn’t afford to slow down. Not now. It didn’t matter that he was still getting shot at, he couldn’t do anything about that so he couldn’t care.
Instead he focused on what he could do something about, which was getting them through those doors. He was utterly exhausted and fueled by only adrenaline but he kept running, the thought of the moment he could finally rest the only thing willing his body to keep moving.
His muscles burned under the strain, the concentrated blazes in his leg and back pulsing angrily with each stride. And then his vision was blurring from the fear and desperation that had his lungs in an aching gridlock, the abused organs not able to get much in and had no time to get what he did back out before he struggled to take in another strained breath.
But he didn’t stop running, he didn’t even slow down. Despite how desperately is legs wanted to curl underneath him and how dangerously close his rib cage was to collapsing in on itself as he drove his body well past its physical limits, his mind didn’t allow him to entertain the thought for even a second.
It was decided. He wouldn’t stop until he was safe, until Pidge was safe. It didn’t matter how spent his body was. Because logically... it’ll all be fine, the pain would pass and the horrible trek would end, but only if he got them out of there alive. Only if he kept moving.
Logically, it didn’t matter that Keith was seeing dots or that he was fairly certain he’d forgotten how to breathe, because he really won’t be able to if the base explodes while they’re still in it.
So he relied on his ridiculous ability to rationalize everything, even pain, to trick his brain into continuing despite it, into ignoring it entirely. Because logically this was just a moment, a terrible one that seemed like it would never end but might if he just keeps moving.
And so he let the gravity of it drive him forward. Let himself cling to the moment when he could rest. Maybe he’d pass out once he reached Black. And maybe he’d be so exhausted he’d drop Pidge once he did. But he couldn’t even worry about what would happen when his legs finally gave and he wasn’t able to make it another step.
The moment would come, that was for sure, but it wouldn’t be now.
A little further and then he could. Once they were with the team. When it’s safer. When he couldn’t go any farther. When he had absolutely nothing left to give.
Until then all he knew was that he was running, pushing himself further and further on the sole reasoning that he just had to make it to Black. Once he was in Black he could rest, let go, give in to the encroaching darkness.
Keith was so fixed on hacking his own brain to get his body to do the impossible that he hadn’t even registered when he was bounding up Black’s ramp until it started closing behind him, her jaw shutting with a deafening clank before she took off. He lurched forward unceremoniously, his legs weak and wobbling as he fought to maintain his grip on Pidge.
And then hands were pulling at his own and there were voices all around him but none of them were clear enough to make any sense to him. Pidge’s now limp form was being taken from his arms and he made only a slight effort to stop the hands taking her before he realized.
Oh. They’d made it.
“Keith...? I asked if you’re alright? Are you hurt?”
He dragged his glassy gaze up to meet Shiro’s as he studied the gash below his eye and nodded, distantly aware of the pink glow from Allura as she worked on healing Pidge enough that she’d be okay until they could get her to a pod.
“Wait you’re hurt?!”
Keith couldn’t answer right away. He was still catching his breath and didn’t think he could handle the impending interrogation while standing.
“M’fine... just tired,” he urged shortly as he reached for the wall.
He just needed to sit.
Yeah, sitting would help.
Shiro seemed dissatisfied with Keith’s answer and moved to go in for a closer look but didn’t get to question much further because Allura was calling him over.
Good, Keith thought, because they had to focus on Pidge right now.
They’d be so overwhelmed if he passed out too. And how ridiculous would that be? Passing out just because of a tiny cut and some minor burns because he was a little tired. Everyone was probably tired and he could stand to deal until they got back to the castle.
It was just a lot and if he’d managed to keep it together until now he could manage a little longer... steal some medical supplies once Pidge is in a pod and take care of the burns himself... sleep in tomorrow and to hell if he gets chewed out for it.
Because this was hard. It was probably just as stressful for everyone to carry out their assignments after they’d tripped the alarms, but as much as Keith would like to play it down, it really had fucking sucked.
And it still does.
But that didn’t matter because he’ll be fine.
He didn’t need to be healed from Allura like Pidge. He would be okay eventually. When his muscles were less sore and his head was less angry and he didn’t feel so woozy.
With that resolve he began making his way to the cockpit slowly, limping as subtly as possible to join the others and leaning his shoulder against the wall with a thud. His decent to the floor less than graceful because as soon as he bent his legs he was reminded of the burn on his thigh and had to clamp a hand over his mouth to keep from crying out, sliding the rest of the way on shaking arms in an effort to lower himself as gently as he could.
But with his body still reeling from the stretch of the injury on his leg he didn’t realize how close he’d positioned himself to the wall, the white hot fire only intensifying when he leaned against it with all his weight amid his struggle to contain himself, lighting the wound on his back with a flare of pain that traveled up and down his spine and into his lungs, stealing the breath he still hadn’t caught.
He couldn’t tell how long it was before he could see straight, but when he could there was still a pink tinge to the space around him and he could still hear voices in a discussion that made no sense to him.
But he had no energy left to care as he sat in a heap of himself against the wall. The moment had passed to alert someone of his less than okay state. They were on their way back to the castle and Pidge was still being healed. Allura would be tired and Shiro needed to focus to guide the others.
He had done the mental aerobics to get there, had willed his stupid logic to override the resistance of his leaden muscles and bypass the mounting blood rush in his ears that threatened to make him crumble before he crossed the threshold to safety.
So he saw very little profit in making such a fuss then after all that, even as he watched absently as more blood pooled on the ground beneath him.
Keith didn’t think that burns bled that much and deduced that it was probably just the split skin of his cheekbone making a mess. He felt a little sorry for Shiro having to clean it up later. That wouldn’t be too fun.
“-bashes left, Coran has a pod firing up now...”
That was good, Pidge would need that.
He was glad he didn’t have to go in one of those today but sorry that Pidge did, mostly out of guilt since he hadn’t caught sight of the sentry before it got to her. She was hurt because of that, because he missed it. It should’ve been him being healed by Allura because his stomach was slashed open, not Pidge.
His leg pulsed angrily then, the wound not visible to him aside from the splintering cracks off the long divet that had been scored into his armor. The blast had only grazed him there but still left a trail of blood flowing in sheets down his leg.
Oh, so maybe it was my leg bleeding everywhere, he thought dimly.
Running had no doubt made it worse. The muscles there feeling raw and stripped of something, like the blast had melted them away entirely.
He tried to sneak a better look but moving that far pulled at his back and there was no way he could slip his armor off discreetly to see. So instead he pressed two fingers up in the space between the plates of armor, a thick spurt of blood escaping after he did, coating his gloved hand and expanding the small puddle on the floor.
His leg shook incessantly as he tried to staunch the bleeding and he had to brace his other hand around his though and breathe deeply until he could see again.
It was only Shiro shouting angrily at him that broke him out of his stupor as he stared transfixedly at the state of the inside of his thigh.
“For fuck’s sake Keith, wake up!”
“Huh...?”
He didn’t understand.
He wasn’t asleep and he couldn’t fathom why Shiro was so angry, not until he looked in the older boy’s direction, eyes first falling over the two slumped forms a few feet away from him.
“I need you to check on Allura! I know you’re tired but now isn’t the time for a cat nap...” Shiro sounded like he was seething, of which Keith guessed was warranted, even if he hadn’t even been asleep.
So he pulled himself closer to his friends, careful to keep his leg out of the way as he did.
Allura had exhausted herself while healing Pidge who would have appeared almost pleasantly asleep in her lap if it weren’t for the red staining her front. Keith brought a hand up as if to take her pulse but noticed it was covered in blood and wiped it on the floor before pressing it down.
Her pulse was strong and he was glad that wasn’t the issue as he placed one hand on her forehead and the other at the base of her skull to bring it up from where it hung forward, guiding it steadily to lean on his shoulder as he eased his back against the wall to be able to support her.
He knew that it would suck, he just didn’t know he would actually pass out this time. But he also knew that his friends were hurt and it didn’t matter that his back was extremely sensitive, because Shiro needed him to help them and was glad to be able to.
Keith assumed that Shiro must’ve been screaming his throat raw telling him that he needed to wake up once he finally came back to the world. It seemed like only the smallest part of him was concerned as to why he couldn’t keep himself awake and alert enough to answer, more frustrated at the situation than anything.
“Keith! Is Allura alright? And Pidge?”
“Yeah...” he sighed, his chest swirling with fire as he fought the strain on the charred spot between his shoulders that angered every time he spoke.
“Did you hit your head at all?” Shiro asked, the annoyance in his voice softening to a cautionary worry until it fell into frustration again when Keith reponded with a simple ‘no’.
“Okay... look I get that you’re exhausted and rightfully so but I need you to work with me just until we get back to the castle.”
“Right,” he breathed shakily. His entire body was trembling now, the malaise from falling unconscious wrapping around his stomach and filling his brain with static.
Shiro then asked him to describe how both of his friends were doing so he could patch Coran in.
It was hard to talk with how dry his mouth had gotten and he kept having to cough and clear his throat but he managed to relay their statuses relatively clearly.
Allura’s chest rose and fell evenly though she still hung on him like dead weight. Pidge’s condition hadn’t changed much either, her breathing just as even and the blood seemed to have stopped flowing so egregiously.
“I see the castle...” he heard Shiro announce faintly.
The ringing in his ears was getting loud again but he forced himself to concentrate just a little longer.
“Wh-what? Are we there yet?” Allura questioned sluggishly as she began to stir against him. He stifled a hiss when her movements made pain flare up in several places.
“Landing shortly, Princess. Don’t move, you’re exhausted. Just rest both of you...”
Keith wasn’t sure which was worse, the pressure of Allura’s arm against his bad leg or the jolt from their landing, but either way he was seeing stars again.
When he could finally make sense of something other than colorful static input, he blinked back tears that formed at the brim of his tired eyes to see Shiro with Pidge clasped tightly in his arms leaning down to offer Allura help as she struggled to stand.
“Keith, are you alright to make it back to your room on your own?” Shiro questioned quickly, glancing past Allura to him when he remained where he was, not making any attempt to move just yet.
“Yup,” he feigned a confident smile and began shifting to sell the lie.
Shiro had apparently missed the fact that Keith had made his own puddle of blood. But he supposed that it wasn’t his fault, how was he to know it wasn’t Pidge’s?
“Actually, why don’t you stop by the infirmary to get that cut cleaned and looked over...” Shiro ammended, calling over his shoulder as he made his way out of Black.
“...might need stitches,” was the last thing he heard before the ringing was all he could hear other than his own heart beat.
After a minute of waiting to see if his hearing would ever come back to him he gave up, resolving that he’d definitely have to stop at his room first to take his armor off and change out of his under suit if he could manage. There would be no hiding the gaping crack or black spray that singed much of his leg piece from the blast and assumed his back looked the same way.
So he steeled himself once more and was moving despite every muscle in his body telling him to stop.
He didn’t know how he’d managed to stand up and drag himself back to his room without collapsing, figuring he must’ve mentally blacked out for the journey when the pain became too much because as soon as he was sprawling onto the cold tiles of his bathroom floor he was crying.
Everything that could possibly hurt did, limbs buzzing and his head swimming as his body tried to come down from the overwhelming daze, his injuries pulsing with vengeance after he’d freed himself of his armor.
Keith struggled to slide the medkit out from under his sink with how stiff his back had become but snagged a solid enough grip on the handle despite the slick of his blood on his hands and pulled it into reach, rummaging through the contents like a mad man as he fought to find what he was looking for before the blur clouding his eyes made it impossible to identify anything.
He tore a pack of pressure gauze open with his teeth as the other thumbed the cap off of a wound wash, breathing as deeply as his diaphragm allowed before drenching the grizzly site of his burnt thigh. The liquid was cold and felt heavenly against the heat but soon the stinging overpowered the relief and he was sweating profusely, his vision wavering for the umpteenthe time since his escape.
Once his senses returned he convinvinced himself that he just needed a minute of rest after his crude attempt to clean the wound, the sterile liquid clearing away the tacky red to reveal the bubbling skin at the center of the blast mark. The sight of where the material of the undersuit mixed with his flesh had him cringing away. Though he remained convinced that it really wasn’t that bad. That after he rested, he’d change and venture out to finally join the others, but one minute turned into five and then that turned into ten and then Lance and Hunk were done towing the Red and Green lions back into their respective hangars and Keith was still nowhere to be found.
“Hey, Keith! Don’t you want to see Pidge off before she goes in the pod..? What’s the hold up—“ Hunk says after noticing that Keith’s door had been left unlocked and letting himself in but nearly gagging at the scene he stumbled into.
“Oh my god, is this all from Pidge?” Hunk asked in horror, his stomach twisting into painful knots when he eyed the mess of bloodied armor strewn about, thick traces of red smeared nearly everywhere, all over the floor and in small puddles leading up to the bathroom.
“Hey, Keith...? You in there?”
Nothing for a moment until a sharp inhale and then a faint, ‘yeah’.
“Uh, everything okay?
“Couldn’t be better...” he croaked after an eternity, it was small and strained like he was trying to keep himself contained of something. Of what, Hunk was actually scared to discover, but the heavy breathing coming from the other side of the door told him that his concern was justified.
“Uh, are you sure about that?”
“Mhm.”
“Kay, then why are you... ya know holed up in there and not coming to see Pidge?”
“No reason,” he spat quickly.
Hunk thought deeply for a moment, his brow furrowing as he considered what to say next.
“Look, I know we’re not the closest, but if you uh, need someone to talk to about what happened back there or something you know I’m all ears and—“
“I said I’m good!”
“Keith...”
“Can you just—shit!“
Hunk was fairly sure he would not have liked what Keith would have had to say if he got to finish his sentiment, cutting himself off with a sharp hiss before he could.
“Dude, you really sound like you’re not okay...”
Hunk was beginning to feel the sick turning over in his stomach as Keith went longer and longer without responding to him and just when he thought he’d had enough the other boy sucked in another grating breath through his teeth.
“That’s it. Open up. Whatever’s wrong... just let me help,” he pleaded, raising his hand up to the panel beside the frame that glowed red, taping it to test the lock that was blatantly in place and almost jumping back in shock when it blared green the next moment.
The door slid open with a whoosh and Hunk had to hold a hand over his mouth to ensure that the contents in his stomach remained where they ought to be.
“Keith!—oh, oh that’s really not good,” Hunk determined with a gulp before rushing to the corner he’d curled up in.
The sparse med kit that Coran fitted every paladin’s bathroom with lay open with its contents scattered everywhere in various stages of use but all Hunk could really focus on was the amount of blood beneath his friend.
Fresh blood. Keith’s blood, not Pidge’s.
He seemed to pick up on Hunk’s immense fear and tried to assure him that he was okay. Because he pretty much was. He hadn’t managed to get himself this far just to give up on this endeavor now. The team really didn’t have to coddle him about such minor injuries, especially one he could handle on his own.
“It’s just a knick man, nothing a lil tlc can’t fix...”
“No,” Hunk amended, “with that much blood it is not nothing... it’s you need a pod not good,” Hunk determined grimly as he tried to find the source of all the bleeding, pulling Keith’s hand away from his leg.
“What even—sorry!”
The back of Keith’s bloodied hand was now at his mouth to stem the cry he almost let out as Hunk proded the only piece of armor he hadn’t taken off yet around the wound on his leg, looking like he’d just kicked a puppy when he saw how much pain his friend was in.
“S’fine... just burns.”
“Okay,” he said, his voice pensive and concerned, “Coran has some like topical stuff for that, I use it all the time for cooking burns and it really does the trick.”
“Nah, no infirmary... Pidge is there.”
“Yeah, Pidge is there because that’s where injured people go, and you are injured so that is where you need to be!”
“Hunk I’m serious, I don’t need t—“
“What’s taking you guys so—oh god, Keith, you know you’re like totally sitting in a pool of blood?!”
Keith just huffed and rolled his eyes once Lance barged into the already less than spacious bathroom. He really hated having such an audience but wasn’t sure he could protest much more with how tightly his throat was wound.
“We gotta get you to the infirmary, buddy. Come on Lance, grab an arm.”
Keith groaned deeply and tried to shoo their hands away but he was so weak that catching his combative limbs was easy.
“Dude... you’re already pretty badly injured, don’t make it worse by being too proud to let us help you,” Lance leveled after releasing the skin he’d been gnawing at of his bottom lip.
Neither boy liked seeing how uncomfortable their friend was with relinquishing control and allowing himself to be so vulnerable as to let them do this for him, to let someone other than Shiro take care of him or see him this way.
But before he could officially accept their assistance they shared a knowing look and started pulling him up to his feet, the hands that weren’t clasped around his forearms fell to his back, pressing down on the bits of armor that had broken off and had partially melted into the undersuit, digging the jagged edges further into his singed skin.
“What? No, I told you I’m f—oh fuck, guys! Shit, shit, nGH!”
The pain that followed was blinding, his injured leg shaking visciously and the other giving out not long after that as well. And then he was being held up entirely by Lance and Hunk who were leaning him forward to see what had caused such a visceral reaction, both boys cursing when they saw his back.
“Damn dude, you really got lit up back there didn’t ya?”
“Wha...?”
“Oh, jeez Lance, you might have to take him for a second...” Hunk blurted, looking considerably greener than he had before.
“Crap, okay...” Lance ushered as he bent his legs to get under both of Keith’s arms while he took in heaving breaths, his forehead covered in sweat as he tried to work through the torment of his reangered injuries.
“What-what’s wrong with the blast on my back?” he managed between pants.
“Uhm, blasts, dude. Like plural. Like you look like you were human target practice for those sentries... “
“Huh...” his voice was hallow and rasping. “Coulda sworn it was just one back there...”
“No man, definitely several... Hunk you done yet?”
“Oh...” Keith sighed, his head hanging down as he braced himself against Lance’s arms, “...maybe that’s why i feel so strange.”
“Wh-strange?! What do you mean strange? Strange as in something other than excruciating pain?”
To be clear he was feeling a lot of things but ‘strange’ sort of surmised them best. His entire body felt leaden with exhaustion but also strangely detached from itself, like he was outside of it and still on the floor as if he’d never moved.
A part of him worried he’d never even made it out of the galra base and that this was some horrible side affect of dying that made him believe he’d made it. But he was also pretty sure if he was dead he wouldn’t be hurting so badly still which made the discomfort of his fatigue all the more disorienting.
“Mean like sick... like the kind of sick that just feels gross... and wrong... and tired... I’m really fucking tired...”
“I know buddy, but you did good back there. Must not have been easy getting Pidge out with all the hits you were taking,” the other boy commended and the sincerity in his voice helped convince Keith that he probably wasn’t dead, he wasn’t sure he’d have enough memory of such a tone from Lance to fabricate something like that in his head.
“Yeah,” he agreed breathily, his own voice distant and unclear as he fought against the black that encroached on the boarder of his vision.
With another sigh he was swaying sideways, his body apparently not willing to ignore the damage it’d suffered any longer.