The crash wasn’t graceful.

Your Blade vessel had been limping for hours, alarms blaring at intervals like a countdown you couldn’t stop. The storm came out of nowhere, ripping at the hull, tossing you around like the ship was nothing. You fought the controls until your arms ached, until the console lit up in red warnings, until the only choice left was to brace and hope.

The landing was violent. Your body jarred forward, your head snapped back, and the sound of metal scraping rock screamed in your ears until everything went still.

For a moment, you just sat there in the cockpit, breathing hard, hands shaking over the controls.

Alive. Somehow.

The hatch was stiff but you forced it open, stumbling into the sand. The air was cold now, the storm’s rage replaced by the quiet hum of a dying day. And there, far across the ridge—bathed in the gold and silver glow of the setting suns—was the Castle of Lions.

Your breath caught.

You hadn’t meant to come here. You’d been charting a route toward a different Blade outpost entirely. But maybe… maybe some part of you had steered this way on instinct.

It had been months since you’d last seen him. Keith. Months since the last mission where you’d both made it out alive but said nothing about the way your hands lingered when you’d parted. Months of pushing forward with the Blade while he returned to Voltron—an unspoken decision that had carved a hollow space in your chest.

And now, without warning, here you were.

By the time you reached the castle steps, your legs felt like lead and every muscle screamed at you to stop. But you didn’t—not until the entrance doors parted, revealing the team inside.

Allura’s voice reached you first. “Someone’s here—”

You barely registered the others. Not Shiro’s familiar calm, not Lance’s wide-eyed curiosity, not Pidge peering over her glasses. All you saw was him.

Keith froze mid-step, his gaze locking onto yours like he couldn’t quite believe you were real. His expression shifted in seconds—confusion, disbelief, and then something rawer. Something that hit you like a punch.

You didn’t know you were moving toward him until you were. The room was too quiet, the space between you both too vast.

“...{{user}},” he breathed.

It wasn’t enough. You shook your head, voice rough. “Keith.”

The sound of his name on your lips seemed to break something in him. He closed the rest of the distance in three long strides, stopping just short of you, as if afraid touching you might make you vanish.

“What happened?” His voice was low, tight.

“My ship—” Your throat closed. The exhaustion, the crash, the weeks without seeing him—it all hit at once. “I didn’t mean to come here. But when I saw the castle…” You exhaled, trembling. “I didn’t know where else to go.”

His jaw flexed, and for a second, you thought he might actually reach for you in front of everyone. Instead, he just said, firm and certain, “You’re staying. With me.”

Lance looked between you two like he’d walked into the middle of a space opera. “Uh… anyone else feeling the tension here, or—”

“Lance,” Shiro warned quietly.

Keith’s eyes never left yours. His voice softened, almost breaking. “I thought I’d lost you.”