Keith entered the airlock first, and was speechless for a second, when he saw Lance, collapsed against a pillar, gasping for air.

"... Lance!"

He rushed to his side, eyes flickering down to his left arm where there was a burn straight through the cloth of his t-shirt, hand shaped and cauterised.

"... where's Shiro?"

Lance weakly pointed at the airlock.

Keith was scared for a second, thinking that he had been thrown out into space, but he saw metal fingertips protruding out of the bottom of the door, and a body collapsed just behind the glass.

Lance started gasping harder, clutching at his throat.

Keith turned to Allura, terrified.

"Get to the Oxygen systems, fix them! Please! He can't breathe!"

Allura nodded, rushing across the room and out the opposite door.

Keith turned back to Lance, who was piercing into him with his dark blue eyes.

"... Lance... please... hang on..."

His eyes flickered closed, and Keith's fear of losing those he cared for flared up again.

"Lance! Lance c'mon!"

He watched as Lance's chest sink as he let out his last breath, and felt the rising panic as it didn't rise up again.

"No... no not now... please... Lance..."

Not now. This always happened. He always lost the people he cared about. And he had only just realised with Lance.

Why had it taken so long? Why did he have to have made the realisation when he was dying in his arms.

Oh god. He was really crying now. Tears streaming, chest convulsing.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm down but managing to do the opposite.

"Lance no... please... I can't deal with this again..."

He stroked his cheek, willing for Allura to fix the oxygen, so that he didn't have to... go through this.

But Lance still wasn't breathing. It was so unfair... he was here... able to breath, forced to watch... a loved one die.

... he could breath...

He could breath!

He could breath because of his helmet... but... if he gave his helmet to Lance...

He ripped it off, sliding it over Lance's head and sealing it at his neck, willing him to breath, crying harder from relief when he coughed and spluttered and breathed.

Thank god...

He now understood why Lance had lost consciousness. He needed what felt like hundred of breaths to equal what a healthy one would contain.

He started feeling dizzy and his thoughts were hazy.

Lance's eyes flickered open, and his mouth curled into a sweet smile.

"... we really need to stop bonding like this..." he whispered.

Keith couldn't help but smile at him. He was obviously quite disorientated and not quite with it, the oxygen deprivation must have messed up his thought pattern.

Lance closed his eyes again, relaxed and happy, while Keith felt his own systems failing. His lungs screamed for air that he couldn't give them. His eyesight began fading, but he didn't fight it...

Because he was happy. Lance was safe.

That was all he wanted.

His eyes looked back at Lance's face one last time, before they closed and his consciousness failed.

He fell forward, coming to rest on top of Lance, who had sunk back into a regenerative sleep.

They lay there, together, one living, one dying.

Both oblivious... both in love.