A group of students laughed as Keith walked down the hall, he grumbled under his breath and glared at anyone who made eye contact with him.

Behind him skipped an excited and happy Lance he followed behind Keith like a lost puppy, a happy lost puppy, Keith tried his best to ignore it but with all the people laughing at him he was already getting annoyed.

He stopped in his tracks and swiftly turned around to face Lance who also immediately stopped in his tracks. "Lance.." He started, but he immediately stopped himself remembering when he saw Lance in tears, and since Lance seemed like an emotional person Keith did not want Lance to start crying in the middle of the hall. It would just ruin his image.

And so he huffed and turned back around continuing his walk to his class with Lance following close behind. Although in all honesty it didn't really bother him that much, he was glad to have some company even if he was ignoring Lance. Besides, it seemed cute in a way.

Keith flushed red and shook off the thought he quickened his pace to get away from Lance as fast as possible which surprisingly worked, and sure enough Lance fell behind. Keith sighed in relief as soon as he arrived to his class and practically ran to his seat, his sanctuary. He slumped back and groaned. "Stupid gay thoughts." He muttered angrily to himself his cheeks were still burning red.

He waited for Lance to arrive knowing that he wasn't that far away only a couple of feet probably, but as many students trudged in the class with dead looks on their faces wanting nothing more but to go home he began to worry. He tapped his foot and bit his bottom lip as he glared at his watch. "What the hell..." He mumbled, Lance was not that far away from him.

The bell was about to ring and Keith was debating on whether or not he should fetch Lance, wherever he was, but with all his thinking and worrying he had lost track of time and the bell rung causing him to jump. Lotor and Zethrid entered the class both holding smirks on their faces, and at that moment Keith was positive his heart stopped. He quickly rose from his seat. "Mr.Koga-" he quickly cut off the teacher and headed to the door. "I have to piss." He muttered quickly taking the restroom pass from the teacher's desk and was out in a flash.

He stormed throughout the halls and looked around for any signs of Lance he grinded his teeth to calm himself, his lip was already swollen from earlier. When he reached the end of the hall he was utterly concerned and angered when he heard a harsh bang, it was like someone was being slammed against the lockers. He ran toward the source of the noise just around the corner and his heart was set ablaze when he saw a hooded student pressing Lance against the lockers.

Narti was the student's name, Keith instantly recognized them from the dark hoodie they wore, Lance held a panicked look on his face and turned away from his bully bracing himself for the blow that would come to him the bandage on his cheek was peeling off, but nothing came. Keith shoved Narti off of Lance and glared at her. "Don't fucking touch him again." He spat and took hold of Lance's arm dragging him away from the silent bully.

He was a little upset at Lance for not defending himself. "You idiot." He muttered angrily and pushed Lance forward shoving the restroom pass into his hands. "Go, now. I'm taking a walk." He huffed and turned away he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket and took a breath to calm himself, he was honestly so close to punching Narti.

Lance grasped onto Keith's arm and stopped him in his tracks. "Let go Lance." Keith demanded in a quiet tone, Lance shook his head in response to Keith's demand. "I can't believe this." Keith shook Lance's hand off of him. "I said I wouldn't be your babysitter, that people would target you because of me." He said remembering when he had warned Lance about the dangers he would be in.

Lance looked down his heart was heavy with guilt, once again Keith had to save him from harms way, he bit down on his lip and suddenly had a burst of determination and grasped onto Keith's arm once again. "Stop Lan-" Keith was yanked back by Lance's surprising strength and tripped over his feet stumbling as he walked, well more like partially walked since Lance was dragging him.

Now Lance was a person that rarely got upset, which meant he rarely got angry. Though he wasn't angry at Keith nor Narti and the others, no not at all. He was angry with himself. He was angry for not being strong enough, for not being someone Keith could rely on. He clenched his teeth afraid that he would start crying, his throat tightened and his eyes stung.

He was useless, and now Keith knew it.

Keith stopped struggling as soon as he took a look at Lance's face, and seeing how torn and upset he looked really took a toll on his heart. He followed Lance with his lips shut tight. "Lance," he started, the brunette shook his head refusing to listen to what Keith had to say. "Can you please just listen to me?" he pleaded.

Lance kept a firm attitude and as soon as they returned to their classroom he gave the pass back to Keith and tugged him forward pushing him at the closed door letting go of his arm in the process. Keith muttered a curse and entered the class with Lance following behind him. "Glad you can join us again Mr.Kogane and McClain." The teacher shook his head in disappointment.

Keith scoffed and returned to his seat and Lance trudged to his own with his head hung low. "You had a nice chat with our friend?" Lotor whispered to the silent boy, Lance ignored him and slumped onto his seat. He searched through his backpack taking out his materials for the class and put his attention to the lecture the teacher was giving.

It was annoying that Lotor had to sit right behind him and he did nothing but throw insults and threats at him, Lance tugged at his hair and rested his head on the desk covering his ears to block out Lotor's voice, 'ugh,' he shuddered, 'he has an accent.'

The class went on, Keith was actually listening to lecture because he honestly couldn't afford to fail his classes, and Lance was trying his best to listen to the lecture, but with the annoying teen sitting behind him it was difficult to do so. He was so close to throwing his pencil at said teen but he really liked his pencil it had a cute kitty print on it and it was blue!

"Are you going to use Kogane as a shield now? Are you really that pathetic?" Lance flinched and looked over his shoulder and glared at Lotor. "Oh looks like I finally got you," Lotor grinned. "What? You don't like when I talk about your boyfriend?" he chuckled Lance felt a warm blush on his cheeks. 'He's not my boyfriend you asshole.' He wanted to say, but with nothing to talk with he was left with his knowledge of sign language.

So he rose his hand and flipped Lotor off, surely Lotor would get the message. 'Fuck off.' Lance frowned and dropped his hand, a snicker was heard. Lance looked to the seat beside him and there sat a short haired boy with glasses his attire literally screamed computer nerd. He looked like someone who was way into sci-fi and fantasy and would spend literal hours playing dungeons and dragons.

Though Lance was grateful that he had laughed, at least he knew someone was at least watching Lotor get flipped off. He grinned at the boy and laid his eyes on the blank paper on his desk he mentally cursed at himself and began to scribble the answers on the blank spaces his letters were scrawled and messy. "Hmph." Lotor crossed his arms with a long frown on his face.

Lance sighed in content glad that Lotor had finally shut up and that he was now able to listen to the lecture the period went on for about half an hour until the bell rang Lance's second class was art he had thought about theatre arts but him being mute and all he wouldn't be that useful, choir was definitely out, band and orchestra seemed cool if only he were good at playing instruments that is. And football...

Yeah, him? A scrawny boy like him would break in two halves in mere seconds. He stood from his seat as soon as Keith got up and slung his backpack over his shoulder he couldn't help but feel guilty and embarrassed his chest felt heavy. He looked around wearily waiting for Keith to leave the room so that they both wouldn't have to see each other.

A hand suddenly patted Lance's back, he jumped and gasped quickly turning around with his arms up covering his face. "Woah there," the person in front of him chuckled. Lance lowered his arms and looked around, he was looking up since Lotor and the others were so tall, but there wasn't anyone. He lowered his gaze and was met with the boy from earlier he exhaled shakily and gave the boy a smile.

Pidge returned the smile. "Hey you okay? I saw you totally flip off Lotor it was hilarious, and you kept your cool the whole while!" she laughed. "You're way different than Keith." She extended her hand out to Lance. "I'm Pidge," she greeted herself with a grin. Lance nodded and shook the 'boy's' hand he then pointed at himself and rose his hands slowly spelling out his name.

He quickly froze, 'does this kid even know sign language?'

He felt even more embarrassed and dropped his hand. "Lan? Is that it?" Pidge questioned catching Lance by surprise, he shook his head and spelled out his name this time finishing. "Oh Lance!" Pidge congratulated herself. "Nice to meet you Lance where's your next class?" She grabbed her bag, Lance rose his left hand flat in front of him with the palm facing his body as if it were a canvas. He then took his pinky finger from his right hand outstretched and scribbled on his left hand as if he were drawing. "Seriously? Awesome we have the same class! Come on I'm pretty sure Keith is already there." She exclaimed happily.

Lance felt sick to his stomach, he wasn't ready to face Keith yet it was going to be so awkward especially after what he did, but he still followed the short teen with his head hung low his hands gripped tightly onto the straps of his backpack. "Have you already met Keith? I heard Lotor talking about him," Pidge peeked over her shoulder.

Lance looked up and nodded with a forced smile. "That's good, he may be a bit scary but he's a good guy. He's caring and kind." Lance rolled his eyes. 'Caring? Yeah right. If he truly cared he wouldn't have gotten upset.' He huffed and got annoyed, he did not want to get his emotions all mixed up.

He cleared his mind and took a short breather counting numbers in his head. "You seem ticked off, is it about Keith?" Pidge asked curiously, Lance pouted and reluctantly nodded. Was it really that obvious? "Don't worry about it Keith is naturally rude and mean," She explained. "But to tell you the truth I'm pretty sure it's a facade, don't tell him I told you-" she paused and laughed

"Not like you could." At that Lance grinned, at least the kid knew how to joke around, Lance was starting to like the short teen. "Sorry, anyways Keith has a best friend who is also my best friend. And he told me that Keith just has some issues with trusting others." Lance's interest peaked. "It's not my place to stick my nose in, but he's my friend and I want to help him so basically I'm helping him in some odd way by telling you?" she questioned Lance nodded.

The pair soon arrived to their class Pidge invited Lance to sit with her and Keith along with Shiro at their table, as much as Lance wanted to stay away from Keith he just couldn't throw away the opportunity to make a couple of new friends. He grabbed a couple of sheets of paper and pulled out a pen from his backpack before sitting down next to a black and white haired male.

Keith's eyes went wide and he quickly looked away. "Who's this?" Shiro asked to Pidge. "His name is Lance." Pidge replied taking out her sketchbook. "Nice to meet you Lance I'm Shiro." Lance was intimidated by the tall male but gathered his courage and took his hand, his eyes bulged out of his sockets when he realized that he was grabbing a robotic prosthetic arm. "Don't be a show off." Keith warned still avoiding eye contact.

"Woah look how pale he got!" Pidge laughed. "Sorry about that." Shiro chuckled and let go of Lance's hand. "Are you new here?" he asked, Lance nodded in response still looking at his arm. "Where did you come from?" at that question Lance's heart ached he grabbed a paper and wrote down a single answer, he gave the paper to Shiro. "It doesn't matter, this is my home now." It read.

Keith took a glance at Lance's paper and then up at him, the smile he held was a fake one. It was obvious, by the little time he spent with Lance he'd taken notice on how Lance's actual smile makes his eyes light up, and when he's sad his eyes go to a dull looking color matching his mood. Just how they are now.

Shiro wasn't oblivious to it either he knew that the boy in front of him was not happy, but he ignored it and patted Lance's shoulder giving him a reassuring smile. "Well then Lance, welcome to your new home."

Lance's chest swelled, he took a breath and smiled, it reached up to his eyes and he looked down.

'Thank you.' He wanted so badly to say. 'Thank you so much for giving me a chance to start over.'