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The vast majority of space is empty. This fact doesn’t stop the sheer amount of stars in the galaxy from looking like it’s full to the brim of hot gas. It truly fascinates Keith how infinite the galaxy looks to be but in reality it’s pretty empty. He and his dad used to stargaze in the desert together, and they would always see so many stars, a lot more than a city could ever see. Not much has changed now that he’s in space. Only that he just has to look out one of the castle ship’s windows to see the stars rather than going on the roof to see them. On earth, he always thought that it was possible, technically, to count how many stars can be seen from earth. It would certainly take a while, sure, but it was possible. Out in space though, it was certainly impossible. Keith never realized just how blind they are on earth until he went up to space to see the stars himself. Keith has always wanted to go to space. Even when he was little, he’s always had a fascination to discover what’s out there. And in a weird way his wish came true. Albeit it was because of a great alien space war that he ended up in the middle of. But Keith’s life was kind of hectic anyways so he was kind of used to it.
Lance, on the other hand, was not used to it. After he lost consciousness when Sendek’s fleet attacked, everything sort of changed for him. It really hit him that he could die out here. He might never see his family again. And it really hurt him. It kept him up at night thinking about how much he actually didn’t want to be here. But there was too much pressure to stay. He knew that if he didn’t stay there was a change the whole galaxy would be in jeopardy, not just his family. One night he eventually gave up on trying to sleep and decided to explore the seemingly endless castle that he was staying in. He carried his blanket and pillow with him in case he did actually fall asleep.
The first few rooms he saw were just extra training rooms similar to the gladiator but with different activities like knife throwing, archery or the Altean version of golf? He couldn’t read the sign of the door labeling what it actually was but it was strange that a sport so none violent as golf could be practiced in the same quarters as knife throwing. Whatever, alteans have some weird fighting techniques.
Eventually he wandered into what seemed like hotel rooms in what he can only assume were the guest quarters. Many of the rooms actually had different languages in them. Definitely for when certain different aliens with different languages would visit. That’s when he stumbled across another Altean pool, only this time the whole back wall was a window where you could see many galaxies and stars. And Lance found where he was sleeping tonight.
He got closer to the window and set up his pillow and blanket parallel to the window so he could look at it as he slept. He took another look out the window and was taken aback by how scarily beautiful it was. “Wow.” He whispered to himself absolutely entranced with the view in front of him.
That’s when he heard a creak of the door. And it scared him so much he screamed. Keith came in and shushed him.
“Keith! What the hell, you scared the crap out of me!” Lance didn’t really yell so much as whispered loudly but Keith got the idea.
“I’m sorry,” Lance gave him an unconvinced look, “seriously I just wasn’t expecting to see you here.” Keith was genuine, although a little annoyed that his favorite stargazing spot had the loudest, most irritating person on the planet. Oh wait I guess he wasn’t on a planet right now. Wait how would he say that phrase now that he wasn’t.
“So, lemme guess,” Lance sounded unimpressed, “you come here to stargaze.” Lance was right, Keith absolutely did come here to stargaze. But that was the obvious thing to say.
“No, actually I come here to feed my antigravity toads.” Keith said in his most monotone voice he can muster, in the hopes that he could insult Lance. What he was not expecting was laughter. Lance laughed at a joke Keith made.
“Did that seriously make you laugh?” Keith started smiling himself, Lance’s laugh seemed to be contagious.
“Oh my gosh,” Lance caught his breath, “it really wasn’t that funny, everything is just funny to me right now.” Lance answered honestly.
Keith didn’t really have anything to add so they fell into this awkward silence. Not awkward in a bad way though just in a new way. Every time they’ve interacted with each other up to this point they were yelling at each other or saying backhanded comments. They’ve never really just sat and said nothing to each other. Weirdly enough it was Keith who broke the silence.
“Me and my dad used to stargaze together all the time,” Keith stated.
Lance looked at him to see if he would continue but he didn’t. Lance didn’t really know what to say to that. Especially since he knew that Keith’s father died when he was really young. He was really scared of offending Keith funnily enough. Deep down he knew that the stuff they argue about doesn’t really matter. But this? This is something no one should joke about ever.
“I’m sorry Keith,” Lance spoke honestly, “I’m sure you’re sick of hearing it but I genuinely could not imagine what I’d do if that happened to me. And it sucks knowing you have to deal with that.”
Keith nodded at him. Possibly because he didn’t trust his voice to speak out of fear his voice would waver.
“Sometimes me and my family would camp on the beach and we would stargaze at night.” Lance reminiscenced, “It was a nice feeling to watch the stars as we listened to the sound of the waves crashing back into the sand.” Lance didn’t realize he was crying until Keith put a hand on his shoulder.
“Are you ok?” Keith asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Lance wiped a tear from his cheek. “I just miss my family a lot.” Lance didn’t wanna say what he said next but he couldn’t stop it from leaving mouth, “and I’m really scared I’m never gonna see them again.” The tear he wiped came right back as his face got even more wet.
Keith stared at Lance. Lance didn’t know what Keith was thinking about but you could almost see the gears turning in his head.
“I’m sorry for getting so emotional.” Lance sniffled, grossly wiping some snot with his sleeve. “I probably just made everything really awkward.” Lance sighed.
“Don’t apologize for crying Lance,” Keith finally said, “you’re allowed to miss your family.” Lance looked at Keith and his intimidating eyes. “And I promise, you’ll get to see them again.” Lance didn’t really believe him but, “it might take us a while to get there, but we will one day I promise.” Keith’s eyes started to look soft to Lance, despite his expression not changing at all. It was a strange feeling, being comforted by your rival of all people.
“Thanks Keith, that actually helps a lot, even if it seems impossible.” Lance speaks honestly.
“Yeah, anytime.” Keith stood up and walked to the door, probably to go back to bed. Lance thought of the same thing but this view was starting to lull him to sleep. Before Keith left Lance spoke to him one last time.
“Hey Keith?” Lance looked over his shoulder at him.
“Yeah?” Keith said as he wiped his head around.
“Goodnight.” Lance said sweetly.
“Goodnight Lance.” Then Keith was out the door.