A vast expanse of white met Lance's eyes when he looked out the window. He whirled around and faced Allura who was briefing them about the mission they had on this planet.

"It looks freezing out there," he interrupted.

Allura looked at him wearily. "It is an ice planet, Lance. What did you expect?" She addressed the group, "Are we all clear on the plan?"

"We got this, Princess," Shiro assured.

They had received a distress signal from the planet of Ploth, but upon arriving at the coordinates, no lifeforms could be detected by the ship's sensors. Pidge supposed it was the planet's extreme temperatures temporarily interfering with the signals, and Coran figured he could probably fix it. Meanwhile, Allura dispatched the team in pairs—Pidge with Shiro and Keith with Lance—to embark on the planet in their speeders to try and manually locate the population. Hunk stayed back to help Coran get their communications up and running again.

Lance and Keith had gotten about thirty miles east of where Allura had landed the castle, when Keith's speeder sputtered and came to a halt.

"What is it? Do you see anything?" Lance asked into his helmet, braking as well.

Keith's voice was choppy in his earpiece. "No, my speeder just stopped."

"What do you mean just stopped?"

"What do you think I mean, idiot?" Lance bristled at the casual insult. "It won't start." A pause as he tried again. "The cold must be affecting the speeder."

"Mine's still a-okay," Lance chirped, and tried to start it. It coughed and hiccuped, then died. "Um Keith? Buddy? We may have a problem."

But Keith was looking at an even bigger problem. "Lance! We didn't find any lifeforms, but I think one just found us."

Lance strained through the falling snow to see Keith a few feet away. A huge four-legged furry white creature stood bearing down on the red and white speeder. It's teeth were bared and boy did it have a lot of sharp teeth. It's face was a mess of fur and snout. It probably had eyes but Lance couldn't see them. "Keith!" he panicked into his mouthpiece.

"Just stay in your speeder," Keith replied. "It can't get us in here." His words were more confident than his voice.

The animal could smell the meat inside the metal shell, and padded around Keith slowly, before pawing at the roof of the speeder. It shook violently. Lance gulped, watching with wide eyes. He hoped Keith was right and they were safe.

Seemingly losing patience, the creature held the speeder down with one massive paw and used the claws of the other to slice at the metal. It held at first, but then started to shave off as the animal kept at it.

Uh oh. This was not good. Lance watched in horror as Keith activated his bayard and opened his hatch, stepping out to fight the thing. Lance came out of his speeder as well, already aiming his gun. Keith was swinging his sword as expertly as ever but his opponent was simply too big. Keith's bayard connected with its leg just as it dipped its head low, presumably to bite off Keith's head. Keith dodged just as Lance shot, hitting it right in the snout.

Now, it noticed Lance. Rearing back it's head, it roared, a raspy awful sound, and started to lumber it's way over to the blue paladin. Lance took multiple shots around the creature's face and chest. It roared again before crashing to the ground, still groaning, halfway between the two speeders.

"C'mon!" Keith shouted, and Lance ran to meet him. "We have to get out of here before it gets up."

Lance nodded and the two took off, running as fast as they could in the direction they'd come from. A little ways on, they stopped to catch their breaths. Keith tried comming Allura and Coran at the castle. He got only static. He tried Shiro and Pidge. Nothing. He groaned in frustration, resisting the urge to take off his helmet and fling it away.

By now some of the adrenaline had worn off, and the cold was seeping into Lance's bones, even through his armor. Visibility was low through the snowstorm raging around them, but Lance could swear he saw a mass of snow in the distance situated a bit higher than all the other masses of snow. "Keith," he said. "There's something there. Like rock formations or something. There might be a cave or something for shelter."

"I don't see it." Keith squinted, trying to see it, but Lance took off.

"Shut up and trust me," he called over his shoulder.

The two boys arrived at what was indeed a cave. They brushed enough snow away from the entrance to get inside. The cave was not very deep but still roomy. Lance immediately huddled, crouching against the far wall, openly shivering now.

"Hang on," said Keith, gathering some rocks and dropping them in front of Lance. Then he started taking off his armor.

"Wha- what are you d-doing?" Lance stuttered out between chattering teeth.

"I have flint and tinder in my pack," he explained. "It's underneath my armor."

"You b-brought that stuff w-with you?"

"We were coming to a potentially dangerous planet with extreme weather conditions. Of course I did."

Lance silently thanked the Lord for Keith's preparedness, which he would otherwise have made fun of if he wasn't about to freeze his toes off. Lance closed his eyes and by the time he opened them, he felt encircled in warmth. A small fire was blazing before him, but that wasn't the only source of the heat. He blinked a few times to clear the numbness in his mind, and felt a strong pair of arms wrapped around him from behind. A new warmth worked it's way down his face as he became aware of Keith. He shifted, and realized his back was pressed up against Keith's chest. His blush deepened.

Lance's stirring caused Keith to stiffen. "Hey," said Keith.

Lance turned his head to look at Keith, and their faces were so close. Even through their helmets, Keith's eyes were piercing. "Hey back. What..." he trailed off.

"You were shivering and you fell asleep. I was trying to keep you warm."

Lance nodded, not trusting his voice anymore.

Keith kept talking. "I tried the comms but they're still down." Then something seemed to click in his mind and he pulled away awkwardly. Lance instantly missed the warmth. He thought about how best to convey that. He really didn't want to put his foot in his mouth right now. This was Keith after all; he needed to tread softly.

Slowly, he reached out a hand and took Keith's elbow, gently tugging him back. Keith was pliant in his hands, settling back against the wall behind Lance. He turned toward the fire and Keith's arms hesitatingly found their way back around him. Lance sighed. He closed his eyes again, but this time out of contentment.

They stayed like that, silent yet saying so much, until static crackled in their helmets, jerking them as if from a trance.

"Keith? Lance?" Coran's voice came through. "We've fixed the transmitters. Where are you?"

The others came and got them before long. Shiro and Pidge, it turned out, had had better luck and actually found Ploth's inhabitants and gotten them to join the Voltron alliance. Figures.

Keith and Lance slept off the fatigue of being stuck in a cave on an ice planet. They knew they'd have to talk it out eventually. But for now, they were content to warm up in their own beds, in the safety of the castle.