Chapter Text
It was a few weeks after Shiro had gone missing that Lance went to sleep without his earplugs and woke in the middle of night to the sound of sobbing.
Coming from a big family, with several younger siblings and cousins, the sound was no stranger to the Cuban boy; it had him sitting up in his bed almost immediately, ready to run to whoever it was that needed his brotherly support. But he had to double take as he noticed his surroundings, remembering that he was in fact not on earth, but on an Altean space ship, which he had been for about a year. Space-time was different that earth time, but if he had been home he would short of have celebrated his 18th birthday.
As he strengthened his hearing, he could confirm to whom the muffled crying belonged. It was Keith crying in the room next to his, letting out silent whelps, as if trying his best to not let it sound, but failing. Lance put his hand on his face, suddenly feeling awkward. It was weird, hearing the shorter boy making those heart-wrenching sounds, as if Lance was intruding on a moment of weakness he had no right to partake in.
Keith had played his role after Shiro’s disappearance, kept strong as the leader Shiro apparently had wanted him to be, even as the rest of the team had gone completely devastated. Somehow, in all of Keith’s determination to not let the team completely fall apart, Lance had forgotten who Shiro actually was to Keith. To all of them, Keith must have been the one who took the leader’s disappearance the hardest; Lance could understand the pain of missing his family. Only that Keith didn’t know if his family was safe or not, could not know where he was, lost or maybe even dead somewhere in space.
The thought of Shiro being hurt and the pity for the other boy became too much, and Lance grabbed for his earplugs on the bedside table next to him. There they were, and Lance could finally block out the sound of the Korean boy's cries in the room next to his.
-
The next morning at breakfast he kept an eye on the raven-haired boy, but he wore no traces of staying up the night before. Lance, on the other hand, hadn't gotten much rest after being awoken, even after finding his earplugs. Not even his toning face cream had worked to cover up the dark circles under his eyes. He’d be lying if he said that the lack of sleep and the fact that Keith seemed no more tired than usual wasn’t causing him to glare daggers at the dark-haired boy.
Keith noticed his glares, and scowled at him from where he was sitting across the table.
“What. You got anything to say?”
This stopped the small talk around the table, and the rest of the paladins and Alteans looked at them both. Normally, Lance would love to bicker back at the shorter boy, but today he had no strive to do so. Instead he shook his head and muttered a quiet whatever as he dove into his food go again. Keith made a deeper grimace, but let it go.
“Well, when everyone’s feeling finished, let’s meet up in the training room”.
He got up from his seat, clearly demonstrating that it better be soon. He looked over at Allura, who nodded from her seat at the end of the table.
“Me and Keith has talked over some new combinations we should try to strengthen the group-dynamic now that, well, the team is different.”
Keith wore a somewhat pained expression, but he quickly made it neutral and nodded.
“Well, then”.
He nodded once more, before he walked out of the dining hall, leaving the rest of the team sitting in an even tenser silence than earlier.
-
He hadn’t really had his finest moment during the group exercise. He had been off, unable to prick his usual amount of targets or support his team members as well as he should had. Clearly, the new training combination had totally flopped, mostly thanks to Lance who couldn’t help but be distracted by the memory of Keith’s crying whenever he saw the other boy. At one point he had even bumped into Pidge, causing the younger to fall to the ground (which they had very much not enjoyed, still glaring daggers even hours later). At last Allura had called the program off, since their dynamic just wasn’t working at all that day. She made it sound as though they all had part in that, but they all knew that it had been Lance who was off. And to no one’s surprise Allura had brought him to the side and totally chewed him off after they had been dismissed. But where Allura had seemed matter-of-factly in her scolding, Keith was a 100% angry with him for not focusing enough during training.
The three Garrison-kids were sitting in the parlour, Lance dozing off on the sofa and Pidge and Hunk at the floor, working on some detective system to find Shiro. That was when Keith made an appearance, obviously coming straight from the training room.
Hunk paused in the air with his space-calculator as Keith stormed in, causing Pidge to avert their focus as well. Lance was lost in his thoughts, and didn't notice the very angry Keith until he was right before him. Pearls of sweat flung from his ponytail as he made a prompt stop in front of the Cuban boy.
Before Lance could utter a word, Keith had grabbed him by his collar and brought him up to his feet. Keith spoke in a scarily monotone voice as he scowled at him,
“No. You’re coming with me”.
Lance threw a desperate glance at Hunk, his big best friend, but the latter only shrugged in an apologetic way, as the Cuban boy was dragged away by a very angry Keith.
As they reached the hallway between the parlour and their bedrooms, well out of ear shot for his two friends to hear if he was bloodily murdered by the shorter Asian right here and now, Keith stopped. Lance didn’t have much time to catch his breath, before the shorter boy pressed him again the wall, once again with a hard grip on his collar. The boy may be shorter, but he sure as hell wasn’t weak. He smelled of sweat and something that reminded Lance of sea salt. It had been a while since he had been so up close to Keith, but Lance could tell his pale skin still looked flawless. How could that be?
But Lance was stopped in his half scared/half impressed thoughts, as Keith started growling at him in a low, but aggressive way.
“What the hell was that out there?”
First then Lance realised what situation he was in, and at once got annoyed. He tried to grab at Keith’s hands, to get him off, but Keith held his collar in an iron grip.
He made a sour face at the shorter boy.
“Hey, let go off me!”
Keith’s scowl only deepened.
“No, not until you explain what the hell made you fuck up training in such a way. We need a 100% focus if we’ll make this team work, everyone is doing their best to keep up with Shiro missing, we can’t have you slacking off and ruining our hard work”.
Now Lance got angry for real. He felt his face growing red with annoyance, and spluttered out.
“Excuse me… well, it was your fault anyway!”
Keith narrowed his eyes, pushing Lance harder into the wall.
“Oh, it was my fault you had your panties in a twist and couldn’t concentrate?”
Lance almost shrieked.
“Yeah, damn right it was, I got no sleep because I couldn’t stop thinking about you, and therefore I couldn’t concentrate at all during training!”
A pause.
Keith just stared up at him, seemingly taken aback. It was a change from the fire in his eyes just seconds earlier, now the heat seemed to have moved from his gaze to his cheeks.
“You… couldn’t focus because you… thought of me?”
Lance growled.
“Damn right!”
Keith furrowed his brows at this, but he still kept his hands on Lance’s collar. Lance cleared his throat.
“Well, if you’re done chewing me out, then I actually have things to do!”
Keith let go off his collar, looking at his own hands as though he had forgotten he had them by Lance’s throat in the first place. Lance took a deep breath, theatrically straightening his shirt after the shorter boy’s grip. With a scowl Lance then turned and walked towards his room.
He felt angry for even caring in the first place, and decided he was going to take a nap. He left Keith standing awkwardly behind him, looking all red and confused.
-
Lance woke up a couple hours later to a knock on his door. He also realised he had missed dinner as soon as he opened his eyes, but outside the door was Hunk, his best bud’, apple of his life, with a basket full off something that looked like bread; though suspiciously green, somewhat spikey. But Hunk smiled at him, and Lance smiled back, deeply moved, and gestured for the Samoan boy to come inside.
As Hunk went to sit on the bed, Lance went into the washroom to wash the sleep off his face. He inspected his face in the mirror, after his long nap the dark circles looked better. He reached into the cupboard for his facemask, as he listened to Hunk chatting in his bedroom.
“Noticed you didn’t show up for dinner, so I thought I’d check up on you. Also, I just baked some bread I thought you could try out – new recipe”.
Lance made a humming sound, as he finished applying his mask and walked out to Hunk to sit on his bed. Hunk lifted the basket off the bedside table, putting it between them on the bed. The bread looked weird, but smelled like they did back on Earth. Lance took one with a thankful smile, as Hunk just looked suspiciously on his mask.
“Wow, that… that cream is yellow”.
Lance smirked at the bigger boy, feeling the mask cracking when he changed expression. He took a bite off the bread before replying.
“Yeah, I came across it on the last planet we visited. It smells like sunflowers and it’s bright yellow, made me think off you”.
Hunk lifted an eyebrow.
“So, you… bought it for yourself?”
Lance’s grin grew even wider.
“Yeah, I’m thoughtful like that”
He finished the bread, and grabbed for another.
“’Tis really good, you know, tastes like home”.
Hunk smiled at this, before turning a bit more serious.
“Yeah, actually, it was something I was meaning to talk to you about…”
Lance hummed in a response.
“Actually, it’s about Keith…”
The mention of the Asian boy made Lance choke on the piece of bread. Hunk worriedly turned to him, quickly started banging on his back. When Lance had calmed down and could breathe again, the bigger boy took the basket and Lance’s piece of bread and put them on the table. Lance could feel his back ache a bit, from the helpful but awfully strong boy’s pounding on his back. He got up from the bed, to wash away his mask, but also get a moment to catch his breath. He felt his insides burn weirdly from just the thought of the other boy…
As he was in front of the mirror again, Lance peeled away the yellow mask and washed the excess of his face. He once again studied his face, and had to smile at how healthy it looked. The dark circles were now almost non-existent.
When he got back to the bed, caressing his skin, Hunk playfully teased him because of his so-called obsession with skin care. Lance just scoffed.
“Well, this beauty doesn’t come for free, you know”.
Hunk laughed and smiled fondly at him, before continuing where he had left off before.
“Okay, as I was saying, about Keith… err, what happened after he had run off with you earlier?”
Lance furrowed his brows, feeling that annoyance again.
“Well, that mullet-head is a mess. He was totally chewing me off, as if I am the only one who’s not trying my best, or concerned about Shiro, which is, like, totally not true!”
Hunk tapped his back, gently. Lance made a pout.
“There, there. I suppose I was a bit worried, since you didn’t come down for dinner and Keith… well, he was a bit weird”
Lance raised his eyebrow.
“Weird, how? Sir edgelord is always weird”.
Hunk sighed at this.
“Yeah, I know you think so”.
He got up from the bed, pausing at the sight of his shorter friend on the bed. With another fond smile, he patted the Cuban boy’s head.
“So you’re ok? Well then, I’m going to get back to my room. We’re going to another planet tomorrow, nothing dramatic, just going to check it out, so you better get some sleep”.
Lance smiled, as always quite quick changing in his moods. As his friend walked to the door, he yawned, suddenly feeling sleepy again even though he had slept just earlier. He nodded.
“Yeah, thanks for informing me and for the, err, bread. See you tomorrow, bud”.
Hunk left, and Lance was left with his thoughts again. Keith was acting weirdly during dinner, huh? Lance smirked to himself, somewhat pleased with the information. He supposed he really did tell him off… With another yawn, Lance got up to the washroom again, to brush his teeth.
-
Lance didn’t forget his earplugs this time, and slept good.