"You're like... the most boring person I have ever met, Keith."

"I couldn't care less."

"Well, I just wanted you to know that. You're very boring."

We're in the living room again but this time I'm actually sitting on the couch with everyone else, including Allura and Coran. I don't know what we're doing  - are we even doing anything? It's rare that we don't have something to do. It's always battle, Zarkon, forming Voltron, save aliens and yada yada yada. I wonder why I'm here. Someone might want to talk to me then. Like Lance. I don't know why he can't just leave me alone but I know there is this big reason behind it that I have yet to discover. I'm not stupid. Something in his little head must be going on if he keeps bothering me.
Do I even want to know what?

"Let's play a game", Lance suggest and leans back in the couch and put his arms behind his head. He glances at me and I know he has something up his sleeve. "Or, just get to know each other more. We need to bond, right?" He looks straight at me. "For Voltron, right?"

"What are you planning, Lance?" I whine and cross my arms like always.

"Well, look at that! Why don't I start with asking you a question, Keith?" Something glimmers in his eyes. Mischievousness? "For the sake of Voltron, of course."

"I like the idea!" Allura chirps and clap her hands excitedly. "That's a great way to bond. To just talking to each other."

"I guess", Pidge shrugs and Hunk nods eagerly, sitting beside Lance as always. They already know much about each other, it seems.

"I don't like it", I mutter but nobody seems to pay any attention to what I said.

"So... Keith. First question." He smirks at me and leans forward. "Why did you drop out of the Garrison?"

"You what?!" Shiro shouts.

"I... what... no... wait, I...!" Oh, I'm going to punch Lance so hard half his face will fly back to Earth and I would do him a big favor.

"You dropped out of the Garrison?" Shiro yells and is now standing up, across from me and giving me a look I can't remember much from my dad.

I stand up too. "I didn't do it for nothing!" I shout back. I will punch Lance later. There is no waiting anymore.

"What is a Garrison?" Allura asks and looks over at Coran who's just shrugging.

"Why did you drop out of the Garrison?" Shiro asks like he can't believe that I really did it. I swear, Lance will kill me someday with just his idiocy.

"Yeah, Keith. Why did you?" Lance snickers. "Be honest now because remember, we're bonding."

"I don't think bonding works this way", Hunk says uncomfortably. 

"When has bonding ever turned out right with Lance and Keith?" Pidge says causally but I know she's more tense than before because of what's happening between me and Shiro.

"Keith, answer me now...", Shiro starts, but I cut him off.

"I did it to find you!" I yawp and everyone turns silent. "I did it, because I wanted to spend more time finding you and saving you. Okay? I didn't do it because I felt badass!" My hands are trembling and I try to pretend I'm only imagining my voice quivering.

"Way to bond",  Pidge mumble and it's like everyone is too stiff to answer her.

"Keith..." Shiro suddenly sounds quilty and there's no remaining sign of rage on his face. "You didn't have to..."

"Well, I did it anyways", I snap and turn to Lance again who's looking at me like I might become the devil and break his body in half. "And you." I take four big steps towards him and grab his collar to push him hard against the couch. He yowls. "You little shit-head. Your mouth always has to ruing everything! I will punch you so hard you won't ever be talking again."

Hunk pushes me away just as Lance screams a girl-kind of scream and shouts not my beautiful face! and Shiro is fast to hold be back with my arms behind my back in a painful position. But I have my eyes set on my target, and all is left to do is to attack. My pulse is ringing loudly in my ear and I start to shake again.

"Let go of me!" I roar and try to break free from Shiro's grip on me but no luck. Lance is just looking at me with a terrifying expression as Hunk's rubbing circles on his back. Pidge is moving her shocked eyes from one another. 

"Keith, calm down. Come on, patience yields focus..."

"Cut the bullshit and let me go!" I yell so loudly I'm even scaring myself. Lance continues to back into the couch. I continue to struggle to break free and I'm squirming while kicking at the same time. But suddenly I yelp when I feel something burn my arm. I look down just to see Shiro's metallic arm shining pink and then slowly fading away. He burned me. He freaking burned me!

Shiro takes my surprise to his advantage and push me towards my room.

O O O

"Again, I'm so, so, sorry I had to burn you", Shiro apologizes once again, sitting beside me on my bed and half his body is turned towards me. I just look down at the floor, exhausted after losing my temper. Those past fifteen minutes I have let out my anger by punching my walls again and... even Shiro. He offered himself and I didn't hesitate to start punching his chest and kicking him and he didn't even budge the slightest. "Are you sure you don't want to get into the healing pod?"

I run my thumb over the new little burn mark on my left arm and wince when I feel a sharp pain. 

"I'm fine ", I growl, my voice barely heard because of how much I yelled. My throat burns with every word I speak and I just wish to be quiet.

"Look." Shiro turns to face me completely and wait for me to look at him. He looks to be in some kind of pain. Emotionally. "I'm sorry I yelled at you and got so angry. I didn't know this information and..." Sigh. "I guess I was just shocked." He tries for a smile. "But now I understand why you dropped out. I would have done the same thing for you."

I don't know where the sudden energy comes from but I find myself smiling. This kind of moment with Shiro is what I miss the most. The understandment between us, the feeling of protecting each other. I wonder if this is what it's like to have a big brother. If it is, then I would love it for Shiro to be my brother. 

"How are you feeling?" Shiro asks me and place his human hand on mine, and I feel a strong comfort in his touch. "I feel like we've drifted apart recently. It's so long ago we actually talked to each other. You know you can talk to me, right?"

I nod and look down, hating to feel this small.

"Even about Lance."

I look up at him again, surprised. "Why would I talk about Lance? That guy is nothing but a zounderkite." Shiro looks at me like I just asked him to solve the hardest question ever. "Just... look it up."

"Um... okay? Well, as I said, you can talk to me about Lance, too. Even if it's just about how much you hate him..." He suddenly grins at me and the scar running over the bridge of his nose broadens as his grin turns wider. "Or maybe a different kind of feeling you have towards him, if you know what I mean?"

I questioningly raise my eyebrow. "Um, hatred? Repulsion? Disgust?" What else would I be feeling towards that bastard?

I try to ignore my dream I had about him and focus on Shiro again.

"No, I don't mean that..." He sighs and runs a hand over his face.

I just shrug.

"Well, it's quiet late, don't you think?" Shiro stands up and looks down at me. I have no idea if it's late or not but I feel exhausted regardless. It's probably best if I just go to sleep while I'm tired. I hope I will sleep better tonight. "Promise me we'll talk more tomorrow?" I just nod because I'm too tired to do anything else.

"Sleep well, Keith." Shiro exit my room and I lay down in my bed with a tired sigh. I hear the doors open but not close. Then I hear Shiro say don't upset him and footsteps slowly walking into my room. I lift my head to see a tall, thin figure standing just at the end of my bed. That figure being Lance. Ugh, it's too much Lance nowadays.

"So, I'm a zounderkite, huh? Whatever the hell that means."

"Just get out, Lance."

He sighs and sits down where my feet is, feeling like he's welcome here. Well he's not. 
He looks over at me and it's not often you see him this troubled. "I came to apologize again."

"You apologized before and still you behave like a child." I let my head drop to the pillow again and look up at the ceiling of my bed. I feel trapped in my own bed.

"Well, you didn't take my last apology so well. Maybe I could have stopped behaving like a child if you forgave me." Lance says defensively.

"Maybe I didn't want to forgive you because you're an idiot." I'm sitting up now.

"Well, that's the problem! We can't come anywhere if you won't forgive me."

"What?! We can't come anywhere just because you behave so childishly, always picking fights from anything!" I cough when I overuse my voice.

We sit in silence for some seconds. Or many seconds. I have my blanket over my legs but I'm still freezing while I'm also burning up. It's too dark in the room for me to see Lace face clearly; the only light source is around my now closed doors, making my room drown in a weak blue light. My left arm starts to twinge and I hide it under my blanket.

Lance scoots closer to me and I'm beyond confused. I don't like being this close to him, it makes me nervous and I hate that it does.

"Look, I didn't come here to fight." Lance says quietly. "I came to somehow sort things out between us. We're the only ones ruining for our team and the bond. And that can affect Voltron." He's different when he's serious. Mature, even. It's weird beyond words and makes Lance look very different.

"So, what did you think, then? How are we going to sort things out? Because almost everything you say makes me irritated."

He bites his lips and seems to actually try and come up with an idea. If it'll work? Well, that's another story.

Then he shrugs. "The best thing I can come up with is to just talk to each other. You know, ask each other questions..."

"No." I hurry to say and back in my bed to get as far away as possible from him. "No question. You saw how that turned out and it can happen again."

"No, I mean basic questions. Easy question." It's still weird he's this serious. He would have come with a sly remark by now but there's not even a smile on his face.

"Like what?"

"Hm..." He rub his chin with his thump and index finger before the smile I'm used to by now spread across his face. "What's your favorite color?"

"Red, stupid." I roll my eyes but find myself smiling. Wasn't I exhausted mere seconds ago? Why am I smiling at Lance. And it's not smiling because he messed up or injured himself in some way, no, I'm smiling at something he said. 

"See! We're already bonding!" He exclaims and chuckles lightly. "And I'm not stupid. You could like blue or something, for all I know. Or maybe purple." He wiggle his eyebrows.

"Purple is cool, I guess. But I like red more."

"You're so obvious, Keith, you know that?" Lance shake his head disappointedly.

"In what way? You asked if I like purple and I said that I like red more. How am obvious then?"

Lance breathes out a quiet laugh and shake his head again while smiling down at his hands in his lap. "Just... ask me something."

"Okay..." I think something fast. "Favorite food?"

"Easy! Ropa Vieja." Lance says proudly.

"What the hell is Ropa Veja?" I ask like he is talking gibberish.

"Ropa Vieja is a typical dish in Cuba." He looks past me with a kind of love in his eyes like he's picturing that odd named dish in his head. "And the most delicious."

"You're from Cuba?" That I didn't know. Well, I don't know much about Lance other than that he can be the most annoying person in the world, but then there's this side of him and he's a little less annoying. I never really cared where he came from but suddenly I want to know much more about him. How many sides does he have? How many will I witness? There must be more than this Lance in front of me, the one Lance I can see at night or when he's tired, and the one Lance I see everyday. 

"Of course! Where do you think I got this beauty from? It's Cuban genes."

"What beauty?" I ask with a grin. 

"Ha ha", he mutters but still smile back at me."But, I moved to America when I was about... ten or so." He seems deep in thought as he continues to speak. "It's so long ago I actually talked spanish with someone. Sometimes I'm talking spanish to myself in my room just to not forget or anything. I don't think I will, but it's still comforts me to hear the language."

I see the sad picture of Lance standing in his room and talking spanish to himself, asking himself questions and having an own conversation with himself. It's so sad I can feel my chest tighten but I despise to feel something. I turn my thought inside out and try to erase the pitiful picture in my head.

"Maybe you could... teach me spanish?" I speak before I think. But, maybe that's not a bad idea. I would for sure get something out of it; learning a new language and maybe a new friendship with Lance. 
I'm filled with a new kind of energy and suddenly it's my duty to know more about him. I don't know what happened with me and why I'm taking an interest in the blue paladins life, but he hasn't tried anything needlessly like fights yet. At least for some minutes. Maybe this will work.

"Would you really let me teach you? Do you really want to?" Lance sounds surprised but kind of excited too. He leans in closer to me and I stop breathing for a second.

"Why not?" I sternly look at him. "But don't teach me something weird because I can always ask Pidge to look it up later. And then you'll have to sleep with one eye open."

"Well, I'm actually a very good teacher", Lance says contemptuously and cross his arms. "But then I'll have to get something in return. Where are you from?"

"Um... Texas?" I say dumbfounded.

"Oh, come on. You can't be from Texas only. I would rather not learn how to say yeehaw or howdy in the best Texan accent. Where are you originally from?"

I feel my cheeks burn for some reason and I uncomfortably move on my bed to find a better position. "My dad is Korean."

"Ooh, Korean. That's an interesting language." Lance raise his eyebrows. "You can speak korean, right?"

"A little." Or can I? It was very long ago I heard my dad teach me korean words like 오두막집 or 곧 돌아올거야. The last thing I heard from him was 돌보다 and I was seven at that time. I remember crying then.

"Then it's settled. Tomorrow we will begin our spanish and korean session." Lance gives me an aboveboard smile and nods once. "It was actually fun to bond with you now. And again, I'm sorry for being so annoying."

It's just his vulnerable side. This can't be a side I'm going to see often. This Lance is so wise and nice and truthful that it scares me.  What I'm feeling scares me. All those walls I have built around me starts to quiver slightly and it's harder to hold them in place.

NO. This is just momentarily and when I'm waking up tomorrow I'm going to think clearly. Right now I'm tired and my head is filled with nonsense.

"You won't remember this", I whisper and pull my blanket higher up my legs when Lance stands up and looks down at me again.

"Says who?" Lance smiles a smile that reaches up to his eyes. "You little Kun Fu Panda nerd. Hope your arm gets better soon." He nods to my hidden arm, waves and walks out of the room, leaving me in awe.

So he did remember last night.

O O O

Thank you, Google Translate, for existing.

If you're too lazy to translate the korean words (like me), I have already done it for you:

오두막집 - Shack

곧 돌아올거야 - I'll be back soon

돌보다 - Take care