Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When Lance was 11 strange things started to happen. Whenever someone lost something he instantly knew where it was. Mrs Solomen from next door lost her car keys. Lance found them in a bush. Mr Humphrey lost his computer. Lance found it under a table. Ms Willowbie lost her car. Lance found it in another neighbourhood. Mr Colemen lost his child. Lance found them the next town over. However the town started to talk, wondering if it was actually Lance who had taken their things. But Lance was only 11 so they dismissed the thoughts, writing it off to him being a lucky charm, because of course they always got their things back.
When he turned 12 he started to hear slivers of people's thoughts. He heard the children’s thoughts on the playground. Slivers of them thinking about him. Thinking about how their parents told them to stay away from him. Thinking about how their parents said he was a witch.
When he turned 13 he could make sparks dance on his fingertips. A soft baby blue. He tried to show his teacher once and she screamed calling him a spawn of the devil. He didn’t show anyone after that. Despite that he learnt how to turn the sparks into people and animals that twirled around and around on his fingers.
When he turned 14 he figured out how to turn off the lights without touching the switches. He liked this ability the most as he often found himself comfortable in his bed but had failed to turn off the light switch. It was also very helpful when he wanted to read, as he didn’t have a bedside lamp.
When he turned 15 he accidentally streaked his hair with a blue the same colour as his sparks. He didn’t even know how that happened but he liked it. His mother did not and made him try to wash it out but it didn’t work and has become a permanent part of his hair and refuses to grow out.
When he turned 16 healed a stray dogs limp. It was a dog he often saw at the park in his town. The townspeople had taken quite a liking to him and had collectively named the dog Rover. They all took pity on him and often fed him. Lance especially, he loved the dog and it pained him to see him limp everywhere. So one day he put his hands on the dog’s leg and Rover no longer limped. The town saw it as a miracle.
When he turned 17 he made books fly through the air. This was another thing that just happened. He was studying for his exams and threw his book down in frustration but it never hit the desk. The book hovered just above the surface before shooting into the air along with some of his other textbooks and a few books off of his shelf. His father walked in shortly after the loud bang of the books hitting the ground. Needless to say Lance had to sit through a very long lecture about taking care of your things.
However it was midnight at the end of his 18th birthday, everything changed. His irises burned electric blue, sparks dancing across his pupils. Tendrils of light spilled from his fingers illuminating his bedroom. Energy pulsed through his veins growing almost unbearable until it released with a burst from his palms. When the light died down left on the ground was a black cat staring up at him with bright purple eyes. Lance screamed.

The cat looked almost panicked as it watched him screaming. Then it started to get larger, and less hairy, and stood upright. Before long a boy that looked about his age stood before him. The boy had the same piercing purple eyes as the cat and hair the same colour as the cat’s fur. ‘Wait is that a mullet?’ was the first thought that came to Lance’s mind. Mullet, as Lance had dubbed him, wore all black and a red leather jacket. Lance started screaming louder.

Mullet lunged towards him, clapping a hand over his mouth and effectively stopping the screaming. “Shut up or you’ll get us caught,” he hissed into Lances ear. Mullet stood there a few moments before slowly taking his hand away from Lance’s face, Lance instantly started talking. “Ok, I have many questions.” Mullet just stared at him and Lance took it as a sign to continue. “One, who in the actual fuck are you? Two, what just happened? Three, why are you here? Four, what the fuck was the light? Five, why am I so dizzy, oh my god, did you drug me?”
Mullet stared at him for a few moments before speaking, “One, I am Keith Kogane and technically your familiar. Two, that was the ceremony to summon your familiar and it happens when you turn 18 and are allowed to attend one of the magic academies. Three, I am here because I am your familiar as I said before. A familiar is a half breed, half human half animal therefore allowing us to change form, who forms a bond with a witch on their 18th birthday. This bond allows them to communicate telepathically with the witch and also makes their magic stronger, especially when combined with their witch’s magic. Four, that light was your magic, which is a very nice colour by the way, not evil so that’s good. Five, you are dizzy because you just released a large amount of magic to summon and form a bond with you. So no, I did not drug you.”

“What. The. Fuck.” Lance breathed. “I’m actually a witch?”
“Wait you seriously didn’t know? Didn’t you have signs?”
“Well yeah, I guess. I kinda just thought it was luck or that I hallucinated or something. What happens now?”
“I think we get you enrolled in a magic school. Oh and tell your parents.”
“Oh fuck! I forgot about telling my parents. They literally know none of this.”
“Not even the sparks?”
“Not even the sparks.”
“Well we have somewhere to start then, just beware that the sparks won’t just be sparks anymore. They’ll be stronger so be careful not to burn them.”

Lance hesitantly creeped down the stairs, Keith following close behind. The TV was letting off a soft light in the living room of some late night game show. His parents lay cuddled in each others arms on the smaller couch while his older siblings Veronica, Luis and Marco sat on the bigger couch. A fire burned steadily in the corner bringing a familiar warmth into the room. Keith leaned closer to Lance’s ear startling him slightly, “Come on, you need to tell them.” Lance looked back at him, took a deep breath, and walked into the room.

Chapter Text

Lance hesitantly creeped down the stairs, Keith following close behind. The TV was letting off a soft light in the living room of some late-night game show. His parents lay cuddled in each other’s arms on the smaller couch while his older siblings Veronica, Luis, and Marco sat on the bigger couch. A fire burned steadily in the corner bringing a familiar warmth into the room. Keith leaned closer to Lance’s ear startling him slightly, “Come on, you need to tell them.” Lance looked back at him, took a deep breath, and walked into the room.

But before he could get further than a couple of steps an arm yanked him back into the hallway and he found his twin sister Rachel whispering in his ear. “It happened to you too didn’t it?”
He whipped around to face her, “What happened?”
“The whole burst of light, this owl just appeared in my room and turned into a girl in front of my face!”
“Yeah it happened to me, did you not listen to the girl?”
“Um no? I ran the fuck out.” She stared at him. “Please don’t tell me you actually stayed there.”
“Ha, so about that, meet Keith.” Keith hesitantly stepped out from behind Lance and gave a small wave. “Um hi.”
“What. The. Fuck.” Rachel hissed. “We don’t know if these people are dangerous or not!” Her eyes whipped back and forth between the pair.
“Rach, you need to trust me, they aren’t going to hurt us. You need to go talk to the girl. She will explain what happened.”
“Lance, I swear to god if I end up dead, I will haunt you for the rest of your life.”
Lance started laughing. “I expect nothing less.”

Rachel disappeared back up the stairs and Lance turned back towards the living room. “Ok, here goes nothing.” He stepped into the room and cleared his throat, his parents turning to look at him while his siblings flat out ignored him in favour of the game show. “So, I have something to tell you guys,” No one said anything, but his mother gestured for him to continue. “Well, you know how I can do some weird things, like being able to find all those things and the blue hair?” Veronica snorted, her eyes still on the TV. “We all know you keep dying it Lance, stop pretending.”
“But that’s the thing! I haven’t dyed my hair at all apart from that incident with the pink hair dye. It turns out I’m a witch! Like an actual person that does magic and today I got a familiar, which is some human animal thing that can change forms and we have this link that makes us stronger and we can talk through our minds! And Rachel is too.”
His parents exchanged and his mother spoke up. “You probably just had a weird dream honey, go back to bed.”
“No. It wasn’t a dream! I can prove it; Keith come over here.”
Keith slowly walked into the room. “Can you show them the cat thing you did?”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, otherwise they won’t believe me.”
Keith nodded and closed his eyes. The room gasped as he shrunk right down and got hairier. Ears popped up on his head and soon in the place where Keith was standing was a small black cat. “Surprise, can I change back now?”
“Go for it. Do you guys believe me now?”

Marco hissed out a low “What the fuck,” while everyone else just stared at where Keith was now normal sized. A tense few moments passed before Luis broke the silence, “Well, what the hell do we do now?”
“Uh, well apparently there’s these magic academies?”
“I’m assuming you want to go to one?” his mother asked.
“I don’t really have a choice, do I?”
The room fell into silence again. But it was Keith who broke it this time. “There’s a really good academy here in Chicago called the Altea Academy of Magical Beings. It’s pretty close, but it has dorms so Lance would have to stay there but he could come back here in the holidays and some weekends if he applied for them first.”
“How much does it cost to go?” Lance’s father asked.
“Altea is funded so it’s free, the textbooks and extra ingredients would be the only costs.”
“Your father and I will talk about this but since it’s free there is good chance you two can go. Can you take Keith up to your room? You can get him and that other familiar person some mattresses.”
“Yes mama, thank you so much!”

Lance headed up the stairs, he felt nervous, but he couldn’t ignore his excitement. He and Rachel were going to a magic college. He and Keith headed over to Rachel’s room to see how she was going with her familiar. To Lance’s surprise Rachel was actually calm and talking to a blond girl with pink eyes who was sitting on her bed. When the blond girl saw Keith, her eyes lit up and she bounded over to give him a hug. “Keith! What are you doing here?”
Keith chuckled returning the girl’s hug and stepped back, “Same as you, I guess. We got twins.”
“Bro I didn’t know you could get guys pregnant.” The blond girl drawled. “Go you!”
Keith went red, “That’s not what I meant, and you know it!”
“Sure sure, my fellow gay.”
“You literally just outed us both.”
“Oh FUCK.”

Lance started chuckling, “You’re fine, I’m bisexual and even though Rach here is straight she’s had to deal with me and Vero for her entire life.”
“Not my entire life, I’m older than you, dipshit.”
“Literally by 14 minutes, you twat.”
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the blond girl and Keith exchange relieved looks. “Anyway, I’m Lance.”
“I’m Romelle, nice to meet you.”
“Same to you, how do you and mullet know each other?”
Keith made an indignant noise while Romelle burst out laughing. “I told him it was a mullet!” She managed to get out between gasps.
“It’s not! Y’all are ridiculous!”
“Did he just say y’all?” Lance turned to Romelle.
“He’s Texan. Give us a gay yeehaw!”
“Holy fuck.”

Keith looked over to Lance and Romelle who were laughing so hard it looked like they were struggling to breathe, “I hate you both so much right now.”
“Sucks to be you then, I’m incredible.” Lance wheezed causing Romelle to start giggling again.
Rachel looked at Keith in pity, “Just so you know he doesn’t get better, you just get used to it.”
“Well that’s just fucking rude!” Lance glared at his sister.
Keith ignored him, “Romelle’s the same unfortunately.”
“Bitch!” Romelle yelled at him from the floor.
“Mama said we had to get them mattress to sleep on,” Lance said. “That is, I you guys want to stay.”
Romelle looked at Keith, “Did you not tell him?”
“Tell him what?”
“Oh my god did you seriously forget?”
“Forget what!”
“Dude we have to stay with you to get you prepared for the academies. It’s actually the law. I hope you have enough food for us.” Romelle said to Lance.
“Woah you will love my mama’s garlic knots.”
“Fuck yeah!”

Chapter Text

Two weeks later the four of them stood outside of Altea Academy, Lance and Rachel loaded up with bags and textbooks. Which seemed to be an empty field in the middle of nowhere? “Hey um, Keith? You aren’t actually here to kill us, are you?”
“No, just wait.”
Romelle leaned towards Lance and whispered loud enough for Keith to hear too, “He does have a knife collection though.”
“Romelle!” Keith whined. “I was gonna surprise him.”
“Oh my god.”

Keith started chanting something in Latin that Lance did not understand, he definitely did not pay attention in that class, and the air around them started to shimmer. Soon it became still and in front of them was a humongous silver castle. It shined so brightly in the sun, the walls looking like mirrors. The towers spiralled delicately into points and were wrapped in thin gold poles giving them and ethereal look. Fine carvings littered the entryway which was at least 15 feet tall making Lance feel tiny. Keith walked up to the door, taking hold of a door knocker which appeared to be a circle of five metallic lions, and knocked twice. They waited in suspense for a few moments before the doors swung open slowly.

A gorgeous girl with flowing silver hair greeted them. She had glowing, pink ‘V’ marks underneath her eyes and a thin band of gold wrapped around her forehead. “Welcome to Altea Academy, I am Allura Altea daughter of the head of the academy Alfor Altea.”
Romelle visibly lit up at the sight of her and squealed. Yes, she actually she squealed. “Babyyyyy, I missed you!” Allura grinned when she heard her voice and quickly rushed over to scoop Romelle into a kiss.
“I’m so glad your back, it was getting so boring without you.”
“Of course it was, I’m the life of the party.”
Allura just gave her an exasperated look. “Are you going to introduce the others?”
“Oh shit, yeah! So, you already know Keith.”
“Yes, I know ‘emo bitch’,”
“What the fuck guys.” Keith hissed and Romelle just grinned.
“Those two are twins, Rachel and Lance.”
Allura held out her hand for the two to shake. “Hello Rachel and Lonce. I hope you will like it here.”
Rachel snorted. “I’m sure Lonce and I will love it.” Lance glared at her while the others just laughed. Allura looked very confused, “Did I say something wrong?”
“My name is actually Lance. With an ‘a’.”
“Oh, I am so sorry!”
“Don’t worry about it.” Lance said and Allura looked relieved.
She addressed the group, “Anyway, I’m supposed to show you around. I’ll also introduce you to some of the others. Just follow me.”

She led them through many halls, pointing out different places with pride while Romelle informed them of which of these places to stay away from. (“Here is the Lightmere hall.” “Stoners.” “Greyston stairs.” “More stoners.” “Westerlight room” “Ugh Lotor. Definitely avoid that bitch.”) Soon they got to the dorm building.
“The dorms are mixed gender, but witches and familiars share a room. Every two rooms share a bathroom and each floor has a rather large lounge room. The floors are separated depending on what year you are in.” She walked down the hall towards two rooms. “You guys will be in here. Boys you take room 305 and girls you take room 306. I am across the hall in room 302 if you need me.”
Lance spoke up, “Who has room 420?”
Allura groaned. “Shiro and Matt. They’re in the year above us, but always seem to be on this floor.”
Keith laughed, “You love it.” He looked over and Lance and Rachel. “Shiro’s my brother and Matt is his best friend and familiar. They are usually down here with Adam who I Shiro’s boyfriend and the three of them make Allura’s life hell.”
“What do they do?” Rachel asked.
“The last thing they did was put flour into the air con units and the place was covered in it for weeks.” This caused the twins to burst into laughter and Allura to groan even louder.
“Please don’t bring that up again! I’m so scared for what’s going to happen next.”
Romelle snorted, “They haven’t done anything in weeks and ‘Lura’s been on edge.”
“Shiro and Adam are probably too busy fucking.”
“What the hell Keith! I don’t need those mental images thanks! I’m leaving. Call me if you need me.” With that she strode across the hall and into her room.

Lance shifted his bag on his shoulder and pushed open the door. The dorm room was quite spacious. There were two double beds and a walk-in wardrobe. The left side of the room was blank, while the right side was covered in what looked to be Keith’s stuff. Romelle wasn’t lying about the knife collection unfortunately. Hundreds of knives lined one of the walls.
“What the fuck, Keith?” Keith just glared. The other wall was covered in posters, Lance wasn’t surprised to see the MCR posters, what jumped out at him though was all the cryptid posters, photos, and merchandise? Mothman seemed to be a favourite, a giant poster of him taking up the middle of it all. Lance snorted, “Dude do you actually believe in all that?”
Keith just gave him a deadpan look and said, “You do realise we live in a world where magic is hidden right? They are actually all real, plus some more that managed to hide themselves better.”
Lance paled, “Oh fuuuck.”
“Just unload your stuff. Half the wardrobe is empty for your clothes.”

Lance spent the next hour unpacking while Keith sprawled out on the floor with his phone. All his clothes went next to Keith’s in the wardrobe (which were mainly black with a couple of red shirts, no surprise there), and he arranged his shells and other trinkets, many that he had gathered from visiting his abuela in Cuba. His walls, instead of being covered in knives and cryptids, boasted a large collection of photos of him with friends and family. Many of the photos were in Cuba, especially at Varadero beach, where his family used to live before they moved to Chicago for his father’s work. He strung up fairy lights over his bed and flicked them on, sending the room into a soft glow. He made up his bed with white sheets he found and chucked a few of his blankets on top before dumping pillows all over it, Keith looked over at this with a raised eyebrow before returning to his phone. The last thing Lance had to unpack was his ‘beauty regime’. He pulled out the bag and headed into the shared bathroom to load it all on the shelves. Soon his shelf was completely full so he snuck a few onto Rachel’s knowing she like to use some of the face masks and creams so she likely wouldn’t be too mad at him.

He walked back into the room giving his side a final look before flopping onto his bed, quickly slipping asleep.

Chapter Text

A few hours later Lance was awoken by someone shaking his shoulder. “Lance come on, we need to go down to dinner.” A familiar black mullet entered his vision. “Dude, how the fuck are you still asleep?”
“I’m awake, I’m awake.” Lance sat up rubbing his eyes. “Do we have dinner with everyone?”
“Yeah, you need to meet the others. Hurry up.”

Soon the two were out of their room and racing down the ornate staircase. “Jesus christ, after doing this for a while you must get super fit,” Lance said after the third flight of stairs.
“Yeah, Romelle says she got a six pack from just this.”
“Damn, ok.”

After rounding a few corners, they came to a stop outside another set of massive doors, “This is the communal dining area, every year eats in here and lots of people use this place to study if they can’t find a space in the lounges. Just follow me, I’ll take you to our spot.”
Lance nodded and they headed through the doors. Inside the room was giant, the roof was at least 30 feet in the air and the walls were who knows how far away. The room was full of little sections of couches and beanbags with a counter to the left of them all. The counter had a large selection of different foods on it. There were a few students dumping massive amounts of food onto their plates before joining one of the groups of students in the couches.

Keith led Lance over to the counter and began grabbing different pieces of food. Lance followed his lead grabbing a burger, some chips, and of course garlic knots. The range of foods was extensive, catering to many different people. Once they had finished, Keith led them towards one of the far corners, where Lance could see a group of people including Romelle, Allura, and Rachel. Apart from them there was a large man with a scar across his nose and gray hair with a floof of white hair at the front, he was sitting on smaller man with glasses and brown hair who looked like he was struggling to breathe. Next to them were two people who looked like siblings, both with reddish hair and the shorter one wearing round glasses, they looked like they were fighting and at one point the shorter one yelled something along the lines of “I will delete your kneecaps!” Keith just sighed at that. On the floor in front of the two was a large guy with a yellow bandana keeping his hair out of his face, he seemed very focused on the food in front of him. Holding his hand was a tall girl with a bob that framed her face, she was talking animatedly to Rachel who could not stop laughing. Romelle had her legs draped across Allura’s lap on the couch and was in the process of shoving multiple burgers into her mouth. Allura was staring at her in disappointment as though this was something that had happened before. A man with a large orange moustache seemed to be encouraging Romelle.

Keith cleared his throat when they got to the group and everyone turned to face him. “Guys, this is Lance. He’s my witch and Rachel’s twin.” Keith started gesturing to the people in the group. “The two lovebirds over there are Shiro and Adam. Adam’s the one who currently can’t breathe.” Shiro reluctantly got of Adam’s lap and Adam gave Keith a thankful look. “Pidge and Matt are the two next to them, Matt’s the taller one and don’t even mention anything to do with Pidge’s height or they will break you. They’re the group gremlin.” Matt started laughing only to get slugged in the arm by Pidge. “Those two on the floor are Hunk and Shay, they are the sunshine of the group. They literally are the nicest people you’ll ever meet.” Hunk grinned at Lance and Shay blushed. “The man with the orange moustache is Coran. He’s kind of the group uncle and Allura’s familiar. He’s dating Allura’s dad.”

Pidge looked between Lance and Keith. “Wow Keith, that’s literally the most I’ve heard you speak at once.” Keith glared at them. “Anyway, welcome to the group where there are way too many couples.” Lance started laughing and Pidge continued. “No seriously! It’s insane, there are 7 people in relationships here, it’s fucking annoying.”
Matt stared at them, “You are literally ace/aro. You said you don’t want a relationship.”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t find them annoying. Hunk and Shay are the only ones I can tolerate, but only because they are literally the nicest people here.”
“And Hunk makes you cookies.”
“Of course.”

Keith gestured for Lance to sit down, they took a seat next to Allura and Romelle. Lance leant back and let the conversation envelope him. Soon Hunk turned to him, “What room do you guys have?”
“I think it’s 305.”
“Dude! Pidge and I’s room is 304!”
Lance grinned. “That’s awesome, who do you guys share the bathroom with?”
At this Hunk sighed, “Rolo and Nyma. They are actually the worst, they’re part of Lotor’s group.”
“Why does everyone hate this Lotor so much?”
Hunk looked to Allura and she answered instead. “He’s my ex. He’s super manipulative and was using me to get into the potion’s closets and other places around the castle. He stole so much stuff, but we haven’t actually been able to find any evidence that solidly links him to it because his father is the vice president of the school committee and has been messing with a bunch of the files.”
“He was awful, but we didn’t see the signs until too late. Keith noticed something was up and tried to tell us, but it ended with everyone yelling at him, so he didn’t mention it again. There were many cakes baked for him and favours done after we realised.”
Lance looked over at Keith who had a thoughtful expression on his face. “Honestly, they went over the top with the apologising.”
“We felt so bad.”
“Still, a 7-tier cake is kind of overkill. It was so good though.”
Lance laughed at that. “Dios mio, you guys are crazy.”

They finished up dinner and headed up to the dorms. Pidge yelled after Lance, “Tomorrow you’re showing us what you can do, witch boy!”
“Sure, see you tomorrow.” Lance then whispered to Keith, “Was that supposed to be like bitch boy or something?”
Keith laughed, “Most likely.”

Chapter Text

The next morning after breakfast Keith, Lance, Allura, Romelle, and Hunk followed Pidge up a set of stairs Lance hadn’t seen before. The others were busy with school preparations, but Pidge managed to drag the five of them with them. They came to a stop outside a room. “The rooms along this hall are where we practice our magic, so come on witch boy, show us what you’ve got.”

The six of them walked into the room, it was actually quite big, with bleacher like seats lining two of the walls. Lance walked to the middle of the room, while the others took seats around him. “Uh, so I haven’t had any magic training, lessons, whatever you call it, so I don’t really know what I’m doing.”
Hunk gave him an encouraging smile. “It’s fine, just show us what you can do.”
Lance shot him a thankful look and took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused on bringing his sparks to dance around his fingers. To his surprise though, when he opened his eyes, there weren’t just sparks. Full sized people danced around the living room, more spilling from his fingertips to join the first dancers. When he looked around, everyone had looks of surprise on their faces, even Keith who then whispered to him. “You didn’t say you could do this.”
“I couldn’t, they’re usually just little and dance on my hands, not this.”
Lance lent over to touch one of the light people, only to be pulled into a rapid salsa around the room. Laughter spilled from his mouth as he was spun around and around the room. When he was released, he collapsed to the floor breathless. The characters started to fade as Lance stopped concentrating on them, they continued spinning until they had completely disappeared.

“Ok, what the fuck? Didn’t you say you had no training?” Pidge asked incredulously.
“I haven’t. I literally didn’t know a was a witch until Keithy boy over here turned up in my room a couple of weeks ago.”
Everyone stared at Lance suspiciously. Allura walked over to him and put her hands on either side of Lance’s head. “Uhm, Allura, what are you doing?”
“I’m looking back through your memories.”
Lance squirmed trying to get out of her hold, “Oh my god please don’t!”
“Are you hiding something?”
“Yes? My childhood had some very fucking embarrassing moments and I would rather not have you know.”
Allura was silent for a moment, pressing firmly on the sides of Lance’s head, “The incident with that cow does seem very embarrassing.”
Lance groaned.

Allura was soon finished, confirming the fact Lance had in fact had no previous magical training leaving the room in shock. Hunk looked over at him studiously, “How did you do that then?”
“I honestly don’t know, the people have never been the big before and they never left my hands.”
Pidge gasped, “So you could always make the people?”
“It was just sparks, for a little while but then they turned to people when I practiced.”
“We need to talk to Alfor about his.” Pidge said to Allura
“Wait seriously, is this a bad thing?” Lance asked.
“Hell no, this is amazing! Hardly anyone has this kind of power, and since you’re linked to Keith your powers combined will be insane!”
“They’re right, Keith is very powerful as well.”

The six of them headed up to Alfor’s office in silence before Romelle piped up, “Does that mean Rachel will be like this too?”
“I literally have never seen her powers and I’ve known her my entire life, so I have no clue. Can you call her up here with your mind link thingy?”
“I can try.”
Romelle stilled and a white film glossed over her eyes. A few minutes passed before the Cuban girl joined them at the top of the stairs and Romelle’s eyes turned back to normal. Rachel walked over to them. “Ok that was pretty fucking cool.”
“What happened?” Lance asked.
“So basically, I heard Romelle’s voice telling me to come to you guys and then a map appeared, and I could see where she was and a line showing me the quickest way to her. Why did you need me though?”
“Turns out Lance is pretty fucking powerful so we thought since you guys are twins you might be too.” Romelle replied.
Pidge chimed in, “Before we go up, maybe we should use one of the practice rooms to check.”
“I’m down for that,” Lance grabbed Rachel’s arm and started dragging her back to the hallway. “Come on twinny!”
“If you call me that one more time, you will be in pain for a very long time.”
"Twinny..."

The group ended up back in the room they were before, arranging themselves in a similar fashion. Rachel stood in the middle of the room where Lance was before, “So what do I do?”
“Just kind of focus on your magic and try to release it.” Lance explained.
“Ok…”

Rachel closed her eyes and stood still. They all watched in awe as her hair started to raise above her head in a fan like position, electricity crackling through the air. When she opened her eyes, they were glowing a blinding white. Rachel clapped her hands and white light aggressively burst from her hands heading directly towards them all in a shockwave fashion. The last thing Lance heard before everything went black was Keith’s scream, echoing through every part of him.

Chapter Text

Pain. Pain coursing through his body. Someone else’s pain flitting in through his mind to join his own in this one big pain party. Lance groans and lets his eyes open slightly only to be met by white. He cracked his eyes open further, taking in the white tiles that covered the roof and walls. This was definitely not somewhere he had been before. Lance scours his mind for what happened, before remembering his sister, who was crackling with electricity. He remembered seeing clap and watching as all the energy released towards them in a giant white shockwave. He remembered Keith’s scream and how he not only heard it but felt it too.

Keith. Fuck where was he. Where was anyone. Lance snapped his eyes open fully, looking from side to side without moving his head too much. Out of the corner of his eye he saw brown skin and silver hair, that was definitely Allura. To his other side he could see a small figure with fluffy brown hair, that must be Pidge. He couldn’t see Hunk, Romelle, Rachel, or Keith though.

His anxiety about the other’s safety made him force himself to sit up. He inched his back into an upright position, groaning loudly the entire time. He glanced around the room catching sight of Hunk, Romelle, and Rachel. Keith was still nowhere in sight though, causing Lance to panic. Allura started to move beside him. “Hey Lance,” she croaked. “Are the other’s here? It hurts too much to sit up.”
“Everyone’s here except Keith. Do you know where he’d be? I’m starting to panic.”
Allura turned her head to face him, “Shit. Have you tried reaching out to him?”
“Reaching out?”
“With your mind link.”
“How?”
“Just think about him and imagine projecting messages at him.”
Lance closed his eyes, making Keith’s face clear in his mind. Where are you dude. I can’t see you anywhere.
There was a long pause before he heard Keith. His voice was unnaturally small though. I don’t know.
Can you see anything that might let us know where you are?
I can’t open my eyes. Everything hurts.
Shit. I can kind of feel like a shadow of your pain. Is that normal?
To be honest, I have no clue. I can feel the same with you though.
All the others are here. Even Rachel. Why aren’t you with us?
I don’t know… maybe I got more of the blow? I was sitting right in front of her.
Well shit, that would explain it. I’m gonna see if someone can get us to you or at least tell us what happened.
…
I’ll be back soon okay?
…okay.

Lance let the world come back into focus and looked around. Allura was staring at him intently, definitely waiting for news about Keith. Hunk and Romelle had started to stir, but Pidge and Rachel lay still and unmoving. He looked back to Allura who raised an eyebrow in question. “So?”
“Keith’s alive, but he’s in a separate room. He thinks it might have been because he was in front of Rachel and he might have taken more of the blow? He sounded scared though.”
“Shit. Well I’ll ask Coran to get us to him.” Allura’s eyes glazed over in what Lance was surprised to see was an orange colour, compared to the white Romelle’s had. Lance wondered what colour his turned. A few minutes later and Allura’s eyes turned back to normal, “He’s coming with my father now.”

A few minutes later the two rushed into the room. “Allura, what’s wrong?” Alfor asked.
“Do you know where Keith is?”
“No, why?”
“Father, he isn’t here and we’re worried.”
Alfor scanned the room. “Quiznack, his condition must have worsened since we brought you all in. The nurses must have moved him.”
“What?!” Lance started gesturing franticly, “Well then where would he be?!”
“He should be another wing, you can see him when your all better. Come on Coran, we must be going.” Alfor left but Allura held Coran back.
“Coran, please check on Keith on your way out and tell me how he is.”
“Right away princess.” He said and left the room with purpose in his stride.

Lance sunk back into the hospital bed, wanting nothing more than to go and see Keith. He found himself wondering when he got so attached, seeing as he only met the boy a couple of weeks ago. ‘Must be some bond thing.’ After zoning out for a while, he felt Allura tap his shoulder. “Coran said Keith’s in a stable condition and shouldn’t get any worse. You should probably use your mind link again. Apparently he was quite anxious.”

Hey mullet, I heard Coran came to see you.
Yeah, apparently my condition or something got worse and they had to move me to a place with more equipment to make sure I stabilised.
Skskksksk getting the good treatment up in thereeee.
Lance could feel Keith sigh, Shut up, oh my god.
But seriously mullet, I’m glad you’re okay.
I’m glad you are too.
Lance spent the rest of the day, and far into the night talking to Keith.

Chapter Text

After a week they were finally allowed to get out of their beds to go see Keith. Coran led them down the halls towards an almost unnoticeable room, he pushed open the door silently, letting the Keith was much paler than usual and his eyes had dark bags underneath them. He was currently fast asleep, and his hair obscured his face. When Lance went closer, he was shocked to see a ragged scar travelling up the side of Keith’s face. Lance felt the others come up behind him, all making noises of shock as they caught sight of Keith’s face. Behind him Rachel started crying, “Oh my god. Oh my god, this is all my fault.”
Lance whipped around and grabbed her shoulders, “Hermana. Listen to me. This is not your fault, none of us knew what would happen, we should have waited for the teachers before we used our magic.”
“I didn’t know that was going to happen!” she wailed. “Keith’s going to hate me forever…”
“No, he’s not. We all know you didn’t mean for this to happen. Did you even know you had this magic?”
“I didn’t know I had any magic until Romelle appeared.”
Romelle looked at Rachel with a confused expression. “Wait seriously, did you not have little bursts of it or something you could do that other kids couldn’t?”
“No… the only thing that was slightly different about me is that I was a lot stronger than the other students.”
“You honestly had such an explosive punch. It fucking hurt.”
Coughing beside them brought the conversation to a stop. They all looked over to see
Keith’s eyes flutter open. Gray met purple and promptly burst into tears again.
“Keith! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t know I could even do that. I’m so sorry…”
“It’s fine. I’m fine.” Rachel stared at him in shock, looking ready to dive into another stream of apologies. “Honestly, I’m fine. I know it’s not your fault.”
“But your scar…”
“Ehhh, I kind of like it.”
Lance nudged Keith with his shoulder and waggled his eyebrows, “It makes you look rugged man, all the guys will be after you.”
Pidge burst out laughing and he could see Keith sink into his covers, bright red. “Lance. Why.”
“Fucking rugged, all the guys. Holy fuck, this is gold.” Pidge choked out in between laughter.
“You’re welcome mullet.”
“I will get you back for that.”
“Sure, mullet.”
“Lance, I have a knife collection.”
“And at that moment, Lance knew he fucked up.”
“Pidgeon,” Lance whined. “This is serious, he has a knife collection.”
“Cut cut bitch.”

They stayed there for hours, catching up and theorizing about what happened as Alfor insisted to wait until they were all better before telling them about the shockwave. A bell rang throughout the castle, signalling for the students to go back to their dorms.
Pidge and Hunk stood up waving goodbye before heading up the stairs. The others followed soon after. Soon it was only Lance and Keith in the room. “Hey Lance, can you maybe stay?”
“Are you scared of the dark?”
“Shut up.”
“Oh my god Keith.”
“It’s not the dark! This rooms really creepy.”
“Is it haunted or something?”
“Ghosts aren’t real, of course it isn’t.”
“Wait so you believe in Mothman, but not ghosts.”
“Yes?”
“Ghosts are real, fight me.”
“I will shithead, just wait until I get out of here.”
“Deal.”
“So, can you stay?”
“Yeah sure, where should I sleep.”
“You can sleep up here with me, the bed’s pretty big.”
Lance felt his cheeks heat, but he still climbed in. Keith was right, the bed was quite large and they could easily sleep without touching each other, though Lance still shoved his foot out so his toes tickled Keith’s ankle confirming he was here and safe. With that thought in his mind, Lance drifted off to sleep.

*****

Giggling echoed in Lance’s dreams, slowly pulling him back to reality. He cracked open his eyes wondering why he was so warm and where he was. Hunk cam into his line of sight, trying to stifle laughter. “Hey Hunk.” He croaked out. “Why are you laughing?”
This only caused the laughter to increase. Lance slowly untangled himself from whatever he had his arms wrapped around but arms around his back prevented him from moving too much. Hold up. Arms around his back? And his arms wrapping around something else? Oh fuck.

Hunk’s laughter got louder at the panicked look on Lance’s face as he struggled to get up. Keith’s arms stayed wrapped around him no matter how hard he tried to move. Eventually Lance just slumped back into the embrace, shooting glares at Hunk. “What? He has a fucking iron grip, ok? I might as well just roll with it.”
“Oh my fucking god. I’m sending Pidge pictures.”
“Keith has a knife collection.”
“Ha, don’t care. Embrace death.”
“Huuuuunk. What happened to the sweet cinnamon roll?”
“The ‘sweet cinnamon roll’ has not had his coffee yet. By the way breakfast just started.”
“Can you bring me a doughnut or something?” Lance shot him his best puppy dog eyes. “Pretty please!”
“Fine, but I’m still sending these pictures to Pidge.”
“Don’t come crying to me when you have knives sticking out of your legs.”
Hunk grinned and walked out the door, letting Lance relax. He was soon asleep again.

*****

Hunk came back in to find the two curled back up in each other’s arms. Smiling, he left the doughnuts and coffee on a table in the far corner of the room. He took a few more pictures before leaving them to get some much needed rest.

Chapter Text

Keith woke up before Lance after the second time, blushing madly as he unwrapped himself from Lance. He grabbed a doughnut and a now cold coffee, scoffing them down hungrily. He had spent way too long in here and was ready to leave even though Alfor had told him he had to stay here another two days. Although he wouldn’t admit it, Keith felt very lonely being holed up here, separated from everyone else. He hadn’t slept alone since he got accepted to Altea which was at least 9 years ago. The separation seemed very unusual to him. It definitely wasn’t just because of the scar, that could easily be treated around everyone else. There were large parts of each day that he didn’t remember, parts completely blacked out. It had been happening less each day, but he suspected this was part of the reason he had to stay longer.

Once after he blacked out, he noticed that where there was a small stain on the sheets had completely disappeared. The next day he ripped a small section of the sheets and again that had disappeared once he came to. He experimented with this on different pieces of furniture around the room, noticing that each time the furniture had seemed to be swapped out for a new one. He hadn’t told anyone, but it was definitely getting on his nerves.

A rustling beside him snapped him out of his thoughts. He gave the boy a small smile, “Morning Lance.”
Lance gave him a grin, “Morning iron grip.”
Keith went red, “Fuck off,”
“Nope sorry mullet, you’re stuck with me the entire day!”
Keith frowned, “Are you sure?”
“Course mullet, don’t want you to be lonely.”
“Thanks…”

The blackouts came back into Keith’s mind, “Hey Lance, just warning you I’ve been blacking out randomly since the power surge, wave thing, whatever you want to call it, and I think someone’s been swapping the furniture each time? The weirdest thing is it’s all exactly in the same place and looks the same, I’ve been ripping and scratching things so I can tell if it’s changed.”
“Well that’s fucking weird.”
“Yeah… I really don’t know what’s going on but I don’t like it.”
“I can keep a lookout today.”
Keith smiled at him, “Thanks, Lance.”
Lance looked at him, a slight red tinge to his cheeks, “Anytime, Keith.”

*****

A few hours later in the middle of a game of Uno (yes they have that in this universe) Keith started feeling dizzy, his vison starting to swim with black spots. “Lance! I think it’s happening.”
Lance looked alarmed, “Keith you need to lie down then.” Lance guided Keith toward the bed laying him down. As Keith slipped out of consciousness completely he heard Lance yell, “Keith! What’s happening to you?”

*****

Lance stared at the now unconscious Keith. Fluffy purple fur (wait fur?) started to sprout along his body and his ears morphed into pointy ears that almost looked like a cat’s sticking out from the side of his head. Keith’s body started twitching and Lance pinned his arms down to stop it. Keith stilled and his eyes snapped open, the irises gone, the pupils now slits , and the rest of the eye a bright yellow. Keith shoved Lance off of him, a lot stronger than Lance expected. A growl came from Keith, leaping onto Lance holding his hands up to Lance’s throat. Claws snapped out of Keith’s fingers, poking slightly into Lance’s throat, however not far enough to pierce the skin. “Keith! Keith, it’s just me! Lance! Your witch!” Keith didn’t respond, although his pupil’s dilated slightly. Lance decided to try and reach out to Keith through their mind link.

Keith! Keith you need to stop! It’s just me, calm down please.
…l…lance
The pressure on Lance’s throat let up a bit, allowing Lance to breathe.
Lance… I can’t control my limbs…
Keith. I believe in you, you can do this. Please.

Slowly but surely Keith’s hands edged away from Lance’s throat, Keith sitting back on Lance’s thighs. Keith stared down at Lance, eye’s wide. Lance noticed that his pupils were no longer slits, but rather human looking. “Keith, are you okay?”
“Oh my god. I almost killed you.”
Lance propped himself up onto his elbows, looking up at Keith, “You didn’t, you took control again. You were amazing.”
Tears started to trickle down Keith’s face, “I’m a monster. I’m so sorry.”
Lance sat up at this, pulling Keith into a hug, “You are not a monster, you are Keith. You are amazing ok? This,” Lance said gesturing to Keith’s now furry body. “Does not change anything. Apart from maybe making you a furry.”

Keith laughed into Lance’s shoulder, his tears soaking through Lance’s shirt, “I am not a furry. No thanks.”
“Hmm, buddy. I think your furry body and ears have something else to say about that.”
Keith laughed again, “I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t know this happened.”
Lance tightened his arms around Keith’s waist, “I know buddy. I know.”

*****

Alfor and Coran rushed in followed by a few nurses. “My boys! Are you ok?” Coran exclaimed.
Lance looked into Keith’s eyes, “We’re fine Coran. We’re safe now.” Keith started crying again wrapping his arms tighter around Lance.

*****

After Keith had calmed down, Coran and Alfor took the two boys up to Alfor’s office, Keith wrapped tightly in a coat as he still hadn’t changed back to his human form. Keith and Lance sat down on a couch and Lance wrapped his arms back around Keith.

“What just happened to me?”
“We think the power surge from Rachel’s may have awoken something in you.”
“And what is this something?”
“Keith, we think you’re half galra.”
“Galra…”

Chapter Text

Hey guys so this is on an indefinite hiatus at the moment because I feel like I'm moving through the plot points wayyyy to quickly and I would like to rewrite it with a proper storyline and not just publish chapters as I finish them. I will come back to this sometime for a rewrite but I can't say when that is as I want to improve my writing skills. I will be continuing the text post work and I'll write more one shots. I also have some wips (YouTuber au's cause I'm a sucker for those) and the first chapter should be out relatively soon. I'm so sorry but thank you to all who stuck with this and I hope to see y'all back here when this starts again. Thanks heaps guys.