Title: A Family By Any Other Name
Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Characters: Keith, Lance, baby alien girl
Rating: PG-13
Length: 4503
Content notes: descriptions of death
Author notes: pre-slash, AU
Summary: Planet Cel has been devastated by a virus, by the time the Castle of Lions gets there, everyone is dead. The paladins search for survivors that they might have missed. In their search for survivors, Lance and Keith happen upon a little alien child and decide to keep her.

 

Planet Cel was a docking station for spaceships from several different universes. Aliens came there to trade goods and engage in cultural exchanges. They even went to Planet Cel to vacation. With a variety of landscapes, from forests, to waterways, to the main city, there was plenty for visitors to enjoy.

Once upon a time, Keith might have enjoyed visiting the planet, especially with Lance by his side to keep him company, but right now the planet was a veritable wasteland. The planet's inhabitants, dead. Their storehouses stripped of wares and goods in the panic inspired by the disease which had spread through the population like wildfire thanks to a sick visitor.

The Castle of Lions had received a distress signal from the planet several quintants ago, and had responded immediately, but by the time they'd arrived, it was already too late. Everyone was dead.

A visiting alien had brought the sickness to the planet, but had recovered shortly after and had left, along with those who'd been unaffected, during mass evacuations early on. The illness he'd brought to Planet Cel had been lethal to the natives, but not to his own alien race, or that of others. Even if they had made it Planet Cel earlier, Allura had lamented that there was little that could have been done for them.

Lance and Keith had been sent out to explore the forest half of the planet to see if there were any survivors, though the ship had not picked up any signs of alien life. Shiro, Pidge and Hunk were searching the city, and so far had found no one alive.

Lance and Keith had been walking for vargas without finding a single sign of alien life, aside from the planet’s animals, when they happened upon a stone cottage. It was sitting in the middle of a copse of trees, and had a small vegetable garden to the right of it, a fenced in front yard, and a rugged walkway lined with pretty yellow, pink, and orange flowers. The fence was locked, and Keith could smell the scent of decay from where he stood outside of the fence.

He knew that dealing with, and facing death, was a part of the job, but seeing an entire planet wiped out by a single virus, not at all unlike the common cold, was taking a toll on him. He and Lance hadn't come across as many dead aliens in the forest as they had before they left the city, but the ones that they had seen would be in Keith's nightmares for a long time to come.

The virus had left the aliens desiccated, their skin leathery and ashy in color, their eyes bulging from their sockets, and their tongues protruding past lips that had turned blue. Those who'd died together, arms wrapped around each other, would be locked in an eternal embrace. In a way, it was romantic, in a morbid sense of the word. Those who'd died alone, body curled in on itself, were difficult to walk past. It seemed to Keith as though their loneliness was calling out to him. He didn’t want to die alone.

Their mission, though, was not to bury the dead. That would be taken care of later. Their mission was to search the entire planet for any survivors, though the odds were slim. If none were found, the bodies would be gathered together and burned to help rid the planet of the contagion that the paladins were thankfully immune to.

Keith kicked a pebble, frustrated that their search had turned up nothing but death when a faint gurgling sound caught his attention. He shared a look of confusion with Lance, and listened carefully for the sound to repeat itself.

"Was that..."

Keith held up a hand to silence Lance who snapped his mouth shut and crossed his arms over his chest, hurt at being chastised. He'd apologize to Lance later. Right now he needed to figure out where the sound was coming from and what was making it. They'd come across a wide range of small forest creatures on their trek through the woods, but this sound seemed different somehow.

"Ahn ga ga brru oo-ee." The sound startled Keith. It almost sounded like words, though they were gibberish, and he couldn't understand them at all.

Lance's face lit up, and before Keith could stop him, he'd hopped the fence and was crouching next to a tiny little alien toddler. Keith approached more cautiously, warily observing the tiny tot. It had big blue eyes, a head of curly green hair, chubby cheeks, and a small round belly that reminded Keith of one of the cherub angel figurines he'd seen once when he'd been a kid. Upon closer inspection, he could see that the alien toddler was a little girl.

Her red lips were pursed in a playful pout that made Keith smile in spite of the fact that the tiny orphan was sitting in the cottage's muddy front yard, grasping a worn photograph of what must've been her parents and older brother. She wore nothing but a silver locket around her neck, and a soiled cloth diaper, but that didn't stop Lance from plucking her up off the ground and placing her firmly on his lap.

Aside from coloring and a lack of fur, Keith thought that she looked like one of the roundish furry pig-like animals that Lance had almost tripped over. She was so small, and chunky, the sensors had probably registered her as one of the forest animals on the planet.

"Look, a survivor," Lance said in a silly voice, and he tickled the little girl's chubby belly, making her laugh. The sound was unlike anything Keith had ever heard before. The tinkling sound tickled his ears and drew a smile from him.

"Her family's dead," Keith stated, unsure what he was supposed to say, knowing that Lance already knew, that it didn't need to be said. The stench of death was cloying this close to the open cottage. No one needed to say anything.

"We'll be her family," Lance said, hoisting the little girl in his arms and jostling her a little to make her laugh. It was a happy, bubbly sound that seemed out of place on a planet filled with death.

"We can't just be her family," Keith protested.

They had a mission to fulfill: find survivors, bring them back to the city, offer them help. Nowhere in the mission guidelines did it say that they were to adopt any adorable cherub-like toddlers they happened across, not matter how cute they were, or how they made Lance smile so big that it reached his eyes.

"Yes, we can," Lance said, making funny faces at the little girl which made her clap her tiny hands and gurgle.

She was bouncing in Lance's lap, and Keith's heart felt a little funny, like it had suddenly done a somersault within his chest. He rubbed at the spot and tilted his head to study the pair from a different angle.

"Lance, we should take her to Coran and Allura," Keith said, though he knelt down beside the two to get a better look at the tiny child. “See if they can find a family for her. She might be sick.”

He left it unspoken that she might die. He didn’t want to see the smile slip from Lance’s lips.

Her cheeks were dimpled, her skin a shimmery, almost opalescent shade of light green. Her skin seemed to sparkle and change in color when the sun hit it just right, like a prism.

"Of course we'll take our little alien angel to Auntie Allura and Uncle Coran, just as soon as we give her a name," Lance said in a ridiculously childish voice that made the little girl bounce in his lap and pat him on the cheek and babble in what may or may not have been actual words. Keith didn't understand any of it.

Lance chuckled, and turned, giving Keith a look that knocked the breath right out of him. Lance's eyes were filled with happiness and love, and Keith found himself nodding in spite of the mission guidelines, if only to keep Lance's eyes from taking on the look of sadness and loneliness that seemed to dwell within them more and more of late.

"How about...Alienna?" Keith said, frowning as he looked at the alien baby and how she'd wrapped her fingers around Lance's hair as he stood her up in his lap.

Lance gave Keith a look that was a cross between horror and pity, and clutched the little alien toddler to his chest, hugging her close and whispering something in her ear that made her giggle. Her giggles were light and melodic, and Keith found his own lips twitching in response, especially when Lance let out a loud laugh himself, throwing his head back and holding the little girl above his head, swooping her around as though she was an airplane, or maybe a flying lion.

Keith found himself grinning at the two -- the toddler screeching with laughter as she 'flew' through the air, and Lance, making absurd sounds that were probably meant to imitate those made by their lions, but sounded more like a dying engine crossed with a purring cat -- and wishing that he could join them, that they could be a family. A real family. Not like the ones he'd seen on TV, or read about in books.

"Alienna's a perfectly good name," Keith said, defending himself.

He sat down next to where Lance was now laying, the little girl sitting on his flat stomach, one chubby hand in her fist, the other clinging to Lance's shirt. He’d removed his outer armor, probably to seem less threatening to the little girl.

Snorting, Lance shook his head, and turned his head to the side to look at Keith. He had a fond look on his face, one that made heat rise to Keith's cheeks. Keith quickly looked away before he could be overwhelmed with the sudden, inexplicable urge he had to kiss Lance.

"You can't just pluck a name out of thin air like that," Lance said. "It has to have meaning, you know? Something that captures the essence of who a person is, and something of what you want for their future. Alienna’s too...immediate, and obvious. She needs something special, something to represent her people. Something hopeful. You know?"

Frowning, Keith plucked a flower, and twirled it between his fingers. He'd never really given much thought to names before. He wondered what his own name meant, what Lance's name meant. If his name, and Lance's name, had been picked carefully, or simply thrust upon them on the day of their birth, or after. What did his name say about him? What kind of future did it speak of? Was it hopeful?

"Well," Keith said thoughtfully, studying the purple flower as he spun it. It made him think of girls and skirts that flared, of Lance when he danced.

"I just thought we should call her Alienna, you know, because she's an alien, and..." he trailed off, shrugging, cheeks heating up as he realized how stupid he sounded.

Lance was right, the little girl needed something with more meaning, something that alluded to how special she was, and that she was a survivor. Something beautiful.

"Hmmm." Lance raised the little girl in his arms, and Keith looked up from the flower to watch the two. She had her pudgy arms and legs outstretched, her mouth open in a huge smile, and her big blue eyes were lit up.

The picture she'd held so tightly earlier had fluttered to the ground beside Lance, and Keith picked it up. Carefully pocketing the picture, he watched Lance play with the little girl, and felt something like desire building within him. He wanted this -- Lance, the little girl, and him, together, forever.

"We should see if we can find a diaper for her before we leave," Lance said.

He wasn't looking at Keith, but was smiling up at the little girl held over his face. Her hands were reaching for, and grabbing at Lance's hair, pulling. Though he grimaced at the pull, Lance's smile didn't falter long, and he started blowing raspberries at her, making her burst into throaty giggles.

"Uh, what does a diaper look like?" Keith asked, feeling extremely stupid for having to ask. "You know, when a baby's not wearing it."

Sitting up, and swinging the little girl up and then into his arms, Lance stood, and then reached down for Keith's hand. Keith stared at Lance's hand far longer than he probably should have, blinking and expecting it to be pulled away before he could take it. Lance held it there, though, and Keith let Lance pull him to his feet.

"Come on," Lance said, pulling Keith toward the cottage.

The stench of death hung heavy in the air, and Keith nearly choked on it, the little girl whimpered and buried her face against Lance's chest, and had a fistful of his hair. Keith wished he could do the same, instead, he squeezed Lance's hand, and Lance, a determined look in his eyes, squeezed back.

"There's got to be diapers, clothes, baby food, and toys inside," Lance said.

When they entered the cabin, Lance bit his bottom lip, and blinked back tears. The mother and father were sitting together, in the center of the room, their arms wrapped around their son. All three were dead, and Keith wondered how the little girl had survived. Had she just crawled away from the death pile?

The thought of it made Keith sick, and he wanted to put a fist through the wall, or punch the alien who'd brought the virus to this planet. He was practically vibrating with anger, with the sense of powerlessness that he felt. There wasn't anything he could do for the little girl's parents and brother, though, and Keith suddenly understood why Lance wanted to keep her and give her a family. He wanted that, too.

"We should be her family," he said, before he could chicken out, before this feeling could leave him.

"Yes, we should," Lance agreed. "Here, take her." Lance handed the little girl over, blocking her from seeing her dead family, before Keith could so much as open his mouth to protest.

The little girl squirmed in his arms, and her brow furrowed as he held her out from his body, uncertain. He'd never held a child, of any age, before. It felt strange. She felt so fragile, and he was afraid that he’d break her.

“Don’t worry,” Lance said as he searched around the small cottage for supplies. “You’re not going to break her.”

Keith scowled, and muttered, “I’m not worried.” The little girl let out a bark of laughter, and reached out for Keith with grabby hands.

Blinking at the alien child, Keith wasn’t sure how to hold her closer, and wondered how Lance had been so comfortable holding her, even with a dirty, leaking diaper. She frowned, and her big eyes grew even bigger, her bottom lip started to tremble and she sniffed. Panicking, Keith quickly pulled her to his chest, and held her close, like he’d seen Lance do earlier, one arm beneath her diaper clad butt, and the other across her back. She was a warm, cuddly weight in his arms. It felt kind of...nice.

She sighed and rested her head against his shoulder. Her eyelids started to droop. She tucked a thumb into her mouth, and grasped a lock of Keith’s hair, rubbing it between her fingers. Without thinking, Keith started rocking back and forth, and soon the little girl’s eyelids closed, and her hold on his hair loosened, though the thumb stayed in her mouth, and every few ticks she’d suck on it.

Yawning, Keith blinked a few times, and moved into what appeared to be the kitchen. He started pacing as he watched Lance search through the cupboards and toss various items into a bag that he’d found somewhere.

“You find those diapers?” Keith asked in a quiet voice.

Turning, Lance’s face lit up with a smile when he saw him. “Aw, she’s sleeping. You’re so good with her,” he said.

Shaking his head in denial, heat creeping up his neck, Keith nodded in the direction of the bag. “Are the diapers in there?”

Chuckling, Lance nodded. “I also found something that might be formula, and baby food, a few bottles and some toys, what I think is a binkie and a stuffed animal, and what could possibly be her blankie.”

“What’s a binkie?” Keith asked, nose scrunched in confusion.

“A binkie is this thing,” Lance said, holding up a strange looking device that resembled a baby’s thumb with a plastic-like back to it. It had a nylon-like rope that made a loop.

“Parents sometimes use these to help their babies learn to stop sucking their thumbs, or to help them fall asleep,” Lance explained.

“This,” he held up a soft, worn purple blanket that was covered in images of one of the forest creatures they’d seen, “is a blankie. She will probably need it to fall asleep at night.”

Keith didn’t understand how a threadbare purple blanket that looked like it had seen better days would help anyone fall asleep, but he nodded his understanding, and absentmindedly patted the little girl on the back when she sniffled and snuggled a little closer. Lance gave him a tender look that made Keith’s skin prickle, and his heart race.

“And this,” Lance said, pulling out what looked like a fuzzy purple eyeball with feet. “Is her stuffy. She’ll need this to cuddle in her sleep.”

Keith wondered if the little girl needed all three items now, and how he’d hold them, and the little girl in his arms while she slept. Little puffs of warm air skimmed across his neck in regular intervals. It was, in a way, calming.

“What else does she need?” Keith asked, stroking the girl’s green curls and rocking her as he paced.

“I’ll be done in a few dobashes,” Lance said, turning back to his task with a brief glance at the little girl, lips quirking in a soft smile.

“Good, the sooner we get out of here, the better,” Keith said, thinking of the girl’s dead family lying a few feet away from where he was standing.

“I want to stock up on everything we’ll need, just in case we can’t find enough supplies left in the city,” Lance said.

True to his word, Lance was soon standing, hoisting the bag over his shoulder and leading the way out of the cottage. “I’d really like to change her diaper now, but I don’t want to wake her. She looks so comfortable.” There was a note of wistfulness in his voice that made Keith’s stomach flutter.

Lance quickly put his outer armor back on, and when Keith made to move the little girl back into Lance’s arms, he shook his head, and shouldered the bag instead. “She’s comfortable, if you try to move her now, she’ll just cry. Trust me, it’s not a good idea.”

Grunting, Keith followed after Lance, hoping that the little girl wouldn’t wake. He didn’t know what he’d do if she started crying. The thought of it terrified him.

“Sh,” Keith whispered and rubbed the little girl’s back when she started to fuss. He bounced her a little in his arms, unaware that Lance had turned to watch him, a lopsided grin on his face.

“You’re a pro,” Lance whispered, wrapping his free arm around Keith’s shoulders and walking beside him. He rested his head on Keith’s shoulder, and sighed. “She’s never going to want to sleep in a crib now.”

“Crib?” Keith asked, unconsciously hugging her a little tighter.

Lance lifted his head and squeezed Keith’s shoulders before removing his arm. He laughed quietly, and shook his head. “She’s going to be horribly spoiled by her Papa Keith. I’ll have to be the one who lays down the law. Not exactly my forte, but I’ll have Shiro and Allura to back me up so she won’t be running around the castle like a little hellion, everyone wrapped around her little finger. Hunk and Coran will be the fun uncles, and Pidge, Pidge will be the one who teaches her how to buck the system, how to be an individual. She’ll teach our little princess all about science and rebellion.”

“Papa Keith?” Keith rolled the words around on his tongue, and his eyes widened as he thought through everything that Lance had said. “Uncle Hunk and Uncle Coran?”

Nodding, Lance gestured with his free hand as he spoke, “Obviously, you’ll be Papa Keith, and naturally, I’ll be Papá Lance. Finders keepers and all that.”

“That’s ridiculous, we can’t just --”

“She’s already formed a bond with you,” Lance said, cutting Keith’s protest off with a slash of his hand and a shrug of his shoulder.

“And you,” Keith said, uncomfortable with the way that Lance was looking at him, as though Keith was something special.

“Exactly, she needs us,” Lance said, beaming once again. “And she’ll need everyone else, too. She lost her family, her planet, her entire way of life. The least we can do is provide her with a loving, supportive environment to grow up in.”

It hit Keith like a sucker punch to the stomach that Lance wasn’t just thinking about the little girl who’d lost her family, he was thinking about himself as well. The longing was clear in his voice; there’d been a bitter edge to it by the end of his spiel. A little overwhelmed by some feeling that Keith didn’t fully understand, he drew closer to Lance and nudged him with his elbow.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be her family,” Keith said, lifting a corner of his mouth in a smile. The little girl shifted in her sleep and sucked on her thumb, she moved her hand up to Keith’s neck, and then settled, content, hand on his pulse point.

“Thank you,” Lance said, voice thick. He offered Keith a smile, and rested his head on Keith’s shoulder for a little while as they walked toward the city.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Keith said. “You’ll be a good papá.”

“So will you,” Lance said, voice warm and low. “You’re already good with her.”

“So are you, the way you got her to trust you right away when we found her, and played with her was amazing,” Keith said, warmth filling his chest as he recalled the scene.

Lance blushed and ducked his head. “Well, it’s something I’m used to. I miss having kids around, you know? Or, maybe you don’t know. Sure, kids can be a pain in the butt sometimes, but they can be loads of fun, too.”

“She’s kind of cute,” Keith said, looking down at her cherub-like face, long, dark green eyelashes gracing her plump cheeks.

“She has her mother’s skin tone and hair color,” Lance said. “And her father’s eyes.”

Keith hadn’t realized that Lance had looked that closely at the picture that he’d tucked into his pocket back at the cottage. He’d noticed those details as well. The boy in the photograph looked more like his father, with skin a pale yellow in color, though he had his mother’s eye and hair color, green. He looked to be in his early teens. Way too young to die. Keith hoped that the little girl sleeping in his arms was not sick, that, if she was, Allura and Coran would be able to heal her in one of the cryo replenishers.

“She’ll have Pidge’s rebellious streak, and love of science,” Lance mused wistfully. “Hunk’s big heart and easygoing nature. Shiro’s level-headedness and sense of responsibility. Allura’s diplomatic skills, and sharp wit. Coran’s sense of humor, and enthusiasm. She’ll have your love of adventure, and sense of duty.”

“She’ll have your reckless nature, and love of family,” Keith added, throat thick with emotion.

“She’s going to run us ragged,” Lance said in a soft, sappy voice.

“She’ll be loved and treasured by the best team in the galaxy,” Keith said.

“The best second family anyone could ask for,” Lance corrected.

“I suppose we should give her a name before we enter the city,” Keith said, nodding toward the not so distant buildings that loomed before them.

He adjusted his hold on the little girl because his arm had started to go numb. She made an unhappy little sound, and Keith held his breath until she wriggled back into a comfortable position, and sighed in contentment. Her hand was still resting on his pulse point, fingers twitching slightly before settling. Keith let out the breath that he’d been holding, and, without thinking, pressed a kiss on the top of her head. Her hair was silken soft and smelled of flowers and dirt.

“Aw, I wish I had a camera, we need to capture moments like this for her memory book,” Lance said, voice filled with excitement.

“What should we name her?” Keith said, stopping their forward trek into the city with the lone survivor cradled to his chest.

“I was thinking,” Lance said, hesitant. He worried his bottom lip in his teeth and cast a sidelong glance at Keith, as though worried about how he’d respond to whatever name he had in mind.

“We could call her Celine, after her home planet,” Lance said, words spilling almost too quickly for Keith to follow. Lance’s cheeks were a dusty shade of pink, and he was staring at the ground. Keith wanted to place a finger beneath Lance’s chin and lift it so that he could look him in the eye, but his hands were full.

“What does Celine mean?” Keith asked.

“It means heavenly, or of the heavens,” Lance said. “I figured that it was kind of a miracle that she survived what killed everyone else on her planet. She’s kind of special, a gift from heaven. We can call her something else if you’d like.”

“No, I like it,” Keith said, nudging Lance with his elbow and smiling when Lance raised his head to look at him. “It matches her. She reminds me of this cherub figurine I saw once when I was a kid, all round and plump.”

Lance grinned at him, and threw an arm around Keith’s shoulder, and kissed him on the cheek. Keith blinked in response, his cheek tingling, an electric spark sizzling through his bloodstream, and straight to his heart, causing it to beat a little faster.

Together, they walked toward the city, little Celine held within the safety of Keith’s arms, Lance beside him, chatting happily about how they were going to be a family. Keith’s cheek burned with the memory of Lance’s kiss, and he wondered if Lance’s lips had been imprinted on it. Part of him hoped they had.