Shiro looked over at Lance who picked at his lunch with his spork, today they served chicken breast which was either overcooked or undercooked.

Shiro was lucky enough to have had packed his own lunch he even packed one for Pidge because he did not want her getting sick from food poisoning. "Aren't you hungry Lance?" he asked worriedly, Lance shook his head and pushed his tray toward Hunk who he had met earlier along with his girlfriend Shay who he found to be rather sweet.

He grabbed a sheet of paper and wrote on it before he showed it to the group. "I'm not feeling well, and the food here looks gross!" he stuck out his tongue and held his stomach he was turning a shade of green. "If you're not gonna eat it then why did you get it?" Keith asked with a frown, Lance flinched and looked away ignoring Keith's question.

A pang of guilt shot at Keith's heart he bit his lip and drank his milk silently. "I heard you didn't end up fighting Lotor." Shiro mumbled and grabbed his lunch. "So?" Keith responded sourly. "What do you mean 'so'? I'm very proud of you Keith you didn't commit any violence." Shiro smiled. Lance tapped Shiro's shoulder getting his attention. "Yes?" he asked, Keith glared at Lance wondering what he was going to say, or write down.

Lance happily showed Shiro his paper, 'talk about bipolar.' Keith thought with a roll of his eyes "We both ran away from all of them and after that Keith gave me this cool bandage!" Lance pointed at his cheek, the bandage was peeling off and he was obviously trying to keep it on by repeatedly sticking it back on.  "What happened?" Shiro frowned. "It was Lotor, that guy is such a coward using weaker people to make him look strong." Keith muttered.

Lance's smile dropped he grabbed another paper and angrily scribbled on it. "He's about to tear the paper," Pidge gaped. "He looks pretty pissed."

"Pidge, language." Shiro warned Pidge rolled her eyes. "Sorry 'dad.'" She groaned with heavy sarcasm. Lance slammed the paper in front of Keith the words were scrawled but still easy to read somehow. "I'm not weak! If you wanna see weak look at a mirror mullet head, I wasn't the one that suggested we run away." At that Keith's blood boiled he gritted his teeth and glared at Lance.

Immediately Lance felt intimated by Keith's glare, he felt smaller, and he wanted to disappear. "Oh yeah? Well I'm not the one getting beat up now am I!?" Keith stood from his seat and stormed off. Everyone was quiet for a while sitting in an awkward and uncomfortable silence, Lance mentally cursed at himself, he had let his emotions get the best of him he grabbed the paper and crumbled it into a ball and shoved it in his pocket.  "Ah...you okay Lance?" Hunk asked reluctantly with a look of concern Lance nodded in response.

Shay fidgited in her seat, she was not used to being caught up in such an awkward situation she felt like she needed to do or say something but she was just too timid, Hunk noticed her uneasiness and stood from his seat. "W-well Shay has to go to the library," he stammered. "Go right ahead Hunk." Shiro replied solemnly.

Hunk mouthed a thank you to Shiro and left with Shay following close behind him. "So um..." Pidge cleared her throat and scratched the back of her neck. "I should probably get him before he does something stupid." She mumbled and stood. "Be careful, and thank you." Shiro smiled at her. "Yeah..no prob." She sighed and went the direction Keith stormed off to leaving Shiro and Lance alone.

Shiro looked at Lance. "Keith isn't one to shout like that.." He started, Lance cringed and formed an 'A' with his right hand and then rotated his hand on his chest using a couple of clockwise motions, holding a guilty look. "It's fine really, I'm just surprised." Shiro chuckled and Lance gave him a look of confusion. "Keith is always locking up his emotions inside so it's always hard to tell how he's feeling I was really staring to get worried because holding in all those negative emotions can make you sick." He stated.

Lance looked down at his lap, he knew that feeling, the feeling of getting sick because the only thing in your mind and body is negative emotions and thoughts all locked up in a tight tight cell just begging to be let free. His stomach churned in a painful way it was nearly unbearable, but Lance swallowed his pain and straightened his posture. "I guess what I'm trying to get at is, you're really changing him." Shiro smiled.

Lance tilted his head to the side. "You must be an alien or something, not even I could make him that emotional. You must be someone important to him." At that Lance blushed and shook his head in protest, he couldn't even imagine Keith caring about him. "How do you know he doesn't like you? I already told you, he's really good at hiding his emotions."

Lance's mouth flew open, he was right. If what Shiro was saying was true then maybe, just maybe, Keith actually cared about him. He sighed and smiled at Shiro, a question then popped into his mind how do you all know sign language? he signed curiously. "Well..." Shiro paused and seemed to go in deep thought before continuing. "A long time ago I was in a car accident, messed up my vocal cords. I couldn't speak for two months, but I still had a lot to say back then," he paused one again and nervously scratched the back of his head.

Lance nodded and urged him to go on Shiro laughed and continued. "Pidge suggested that we use sign language to communicate with each other and sure enough we learned how to speak without actually speaking. Sometimes during class we use it when we're bored and we're not allowed to speak." He smiled as he recalled the memories.

Lance was smiling the whole time Shiro spoke, his stories were interesting and informational, he was learning a lot about the others. Shiro returned the smile. "Glad to know our knowledge won't go to waste now." He stated Lance nodded and looked down twiddling his thumbs. "You're still anxious? It's only Keith he just needs some time to cool down." Shiro reassured. "But if you really are worried why not try to look for him?" he suggested.

Lance perked up and gave a hopeful look to him. "Just be careful around Lotor and the others alright? And if they ever do something just tell me and please don't start a fight," Shiro pleaded, as much as he wanted Lotor to get his ass kicked he just couldn't allow his friends to get hurt or in trouble. Lance nodded in agreement and grasped onto his hand mouthing a thank you before running off to where Pidge and Keith were.

And so Shiro was left alone, that was until the student body president arrived, she saw Shiro sitting alone and despite the many requests of people begging and pleading her to sit in their group she sat right in front of her vice president flashing him a beautiful smile. "Good afternoon Takashi." She greeted him.

Shiro flushed red. "You can just call me S-Shiro." He stammered and Allura laughed. "That's an adorable nickname." She said. "Alright Shiro, I've been thinking. There's been an awful lot of bullying in our school and I want that to stop," she stated.  "What can we do to reduce school violence?" she asked curiously, Shiro thought for a while before replying. "I think I got a few things in mind."

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Lance huffed as he turned another corner, the halls were empty and he still found no sign of Pidge or Keith anywhere he inwardly groaned his legs still ached from the running he did.

A chorus of laughter reached his ears he looked around and followed the source which eventually led him to the gym, he walked into the gym and immediately stopped his blood ran cold. "And then the kid ran away crying!" Zethrid laughed. "You're something else." Lotor shook his head as he chuckled.

'Yeah, no.' Lance turned on his heel ready to get as far away from the group as possible, but standing right behind him was Acxa. If he could make a sound he'd be screeching. "Seriously? You again?" she scowled and shoved him catching the attention of the others. Zethrid groaned and Lotor frowned. "The cripple? Come on how many times do we have to beat him until he learns his lesson?" Zethrid questioned in annoyance.

Lance felt something boil within himself he gathered his courage and shoved Acxa, the girl fumbled back giving him time to run away. Shouts were given to him and sure enough he was being chased down he careened the corners and nearly slipped, eventually he found and empty room and hid inside closing the door behind him. He sighed and sucked in a couple of breaths.

"Lance?" he jumped at the voice and turned around, he slumped his shoulders and gave a small smile. Both Pidge and Keith looked at him with concern and worry. "You okay? What happened?" Pidge asked worriedly, Lotor Lance replied tiredly and surprisingly Keith stood from the desk he was sitting on. "What did he do? Did he hurt you? Were they chasing you again?" his questions made Lance's head spin.

"Slow down Keith, one at a time." Pidge chuckled and searched through her backpack taking out sheets of paper and handed them to Lance.  "Explain please." She then handed him a pencil. Lance nodded and wrote down everything that had happened, his wrist ached and the callus on his finger swelled, but he still wrote.

When he finished he handed the paper back to Pidge her eyes scanned the paper, she nodded. "I see so it was them who started it, and wow you actually shoved Acxa? That's so awesome." She grinned. "We don't want to cause anymore trouble though, Lance you need to be more careful." Keith warned.

Lance nodded and leaned against a wall.  "He looks pretty exhausted, why not take him to the nurse Keith?" Pidge asked. Keith glared at the short teen and looked away. "Yeah right." He muttered darkly. "Well since Lance is already here I'll get going, Shiro is like a six-year old when he's alone." Pidge explained and flashed Keith a mischievous smile before leaving.

Now it was only Lance and Keith alone in an empty room Keith flushed red and scratched the back of his neck. "Do..do you need to go to the nurse?" he asked in a low awkward mumble, Lance shook his head and pushed himself off the wall regaining his balance he signed I'm fine and trudged toward Keith are you okay? he gave him a look of concern.

He wearily avoided Keith's gaze and once more balled his right hand into a fist and circled it clockwise on his chest with a guilt stricken look. "Don't be," Keith replied. "It's my fault you got hurt, and I was the one that ran away. I...I'm sorry too." He explained but that's okay! I'm glad you didn't fight! Lance's hands and fingers trembled he was signing so fast he mest up on some words. "Seriously?" Keith frowned.

Lance then frowned too he grabbed a blank sheet of paper that rested on the desk Keith was sitting on earlier and wrote something down, he showed the paper to Keith mimicking his facial expression. "You dropped something." It read. Keith immediately looked at the ground looking around his feet and under the desks he looked back up at Lance.  "What did I drop?" he asked.

Lance grinned and flipped the paper around. "Your smile :)" Keith froze and straightened his posture, he looked at the paper and then back at Lance, and as soon as he stared at Lance a small smile played on his lips.

--------------

The pair walked out of the room as soon as the bell rang Lance hid behind Keith peeking over his shoulder every now and then cautious of the people around him, he did not want to bump into Lotor and his gang again. Eventually they met up with Shiro and Pidge again. "So I told Shiro everything." Pidge stated. "Yes, and I'm pretty sure Lotor and the others will be put to a stop." Shiro said.

"Really? How's that gonna happen?" Keith asked. "More security, better surveillance cameras, detention for misbehaving students, and lots more." Shiro replied. "And how long will it take for all of that to be set and ready?" Keith asked again. "It'll take a couple of weeks." Shiro answered. "Great." Keith muttered.

"Lance just got himself into trouble, and if something is not done he will get severely injured. And when that happens I'll definitely beat the shit out of Lotor and then be expelled." He explained. "That won't happen." Shiro reassured. "How can you be so sure?" Keith looked at Shiro. Pidge and Lance were watching a video on Pidge's phone. "Because I know that Lance wouldn't want you to fight." Shiro smiled. "And I know you'll listen to what he has to say. Even if he can't speak."

Keith grumbled and looked away from Shiro and instead looked at Lance, he bit his lip, because Shiro was right. Even if he had barely met Lance his opinion of him still mattered, and if Lance didn't like Keith fighting then he knew he had to stop. But there was one thing for sure,

The bullies would be put in their place.