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[toebeans]

[ The plan is a good one. It's solid. There's no way to account for every single contingency that exists, there's no way for them to make 100% sure that everything will be okay, but he's worked over it in his head a hundred times, and then worked it over with everyone else another dozen times more, at least. There are certain things they can't plan for, but by and large, this is their best shot. It's the closet anyone's ever gotten to defeating the Galra in thousands of years, maybe.

You realize, once we defeat Zarkon, the universe won't need Voltron anymore, he tells them. As long as everything goes according to plan.

Maybe it's unfair of him to say that to them. If the last few years are anything to go by, nothing ever, ever goes according to plan. The best laid plans go to shit and it's up to them to do whatever they can to mitigate it as best as is humanly possible.

One day, Hunk sighs as they're wrapping up dinner, Shiro shooing him away to finish doing cleanup. We just ate and I feel sick.

We'll be fine, Shiro says with all the certainty he can muster, holding his shoulders straight, every inch the leader, the focus that they need him to be. It's only on his way back to his room (and by default, Keith's) that he lets himself breathe. There's nothing more he can do now and he knows himself. He's going to stay awake in his bed, staring at the ceiling until he can't think any longer. If he tries to go to the Gladiators and take his frustration out there, it'll be just as little good; he'll just be sore and exhausted in a way that isn't relaxing at all. They need him at 100% - they all need to be there. The only saving grace is that they don't get started until midday tomorrow, which means he has time for a cat nap if Keith's occupied, or he ends up anxious all night anyway.

A quick scan of the hallway reveals it's empty, and gently, he raps on the door, pressing his fingertips to the sensor to get it to open up. He doesn't go in; Keith's space is clearly defined, it's Keith's space, but he's used to checking if he's actually there or not so he's not knocking on an empty door. ]

Hey. Don't suppose you'd mind company? I need to...not think about the plan for a while, after a week straight of doing nothing but thinking about the plan.

for toebeans ( au )

[synchronized]

[ a small vessel that had exited from an anomalous wormhole had shot out in a straight line like a plasma shot, and crashed into one of the blade outposts, setting off the headquarters' alarms from the concentration of quintessence signatures resulting from the impact.

keith was on patrol with thace when it had happened, on board a stealth fighter monitoring for cloaked altean spycraft. they watched as the smallcraft penetrated the force fields protecting the outpost, and if keith had to guess from the alert sound of surprise coming from thace, something about it was out of the ordinary. fighting the empire in the name of liberation is part of daily life for any blade; what would make a suicide attack on one of their bases particularly different?

he suits up all the same. they make it to the outpost in record time, thace jumping out of the fighter before it's even started the landing, and keith jumps right after him. it's chaos on the ground level -the north wing is on fire, the smallcraft having crashed right into it. shots are being fired, and the west wing - the clinic, keith realizes with cold dread - is being evacuated onto the tarmac. the fighting is moving towards the control center, and it's all keith could do in the meantime to keep up with thace as they detour over the ledges to cut through and intercept the altean attackers.

only there aren't any attackers. in fact, there's only just one - and for an altean he fights like a galra, taking down entire groups of seasoned fighters with literally anything he can get his hands on— his arm! it's galra tech! keith hears the outpost tech engineer shout over the comms, and the cold dread in keith's belly solidifies into a heavy weight. only galra tech can interface with galra designs; it's a rudimentary but effective security to keep their communications out of the empire's hands.

keith throws himself into the fight, despite thace's warning not to. he draws the fire to him, and only him, as he matches the altean spy the best he can, even if he's slowly being edged out into a defensive stance from the blows he's taking. it's enough distraction for thace to get a clean shot in, though - a stun shot, just as a finishing blow was about to descend on keith's cloaked head.

kolivan takes over not even a varga later. the spy is carted away, bounded and gagged and fully restrained; keith thinks it would've been smarter to just end the spy's life then and there, but ulaz insists on the value of information. thace - to keith's irritation - agrees, before shuffling keith to the outpost clinic's salvaged work area to get tended to.

keith doesn't hear much about the spy after that; he's only fighter rank, and even though he has access to thace's sheave he keeps out of it in respect. the spy made two escape attempts, even getting as far as the hangar - keith overhears ulaz and thace argue over the merits of removing the spy's arm entirely when the two senior officers had thought keith had already fallen asleep. he goes out on a few more missions and forgets about the spy until he's called in one day to kolivan's office - his guardians both present with worrying looks on their faces.

the spy, kolivan starts with. keith's imagination starts running away from him - he's done a few immersion missions before, pretending to be an altean half-breed. have they finally gotten information out of the spy? will he be on the mission roster? keith's already starting on a list of things to set up and pack when kolivan stops him right on his tracks with two words: he's human.



that's how keith finds himself crouched in front of the spy with his mask on, in the holding cell, watching the prisoner eat the meal keith had brought him. he's going to get chewed out within an inch of his life when kolivan finds out, keith knows, and vorla won't forgive him for the unnecessary electrocution keith had put him through just to intercept the meal tray, but it's worth it. keith hopes it's worth it, anyway.

he's never met another human before. ]