(( My sweet boi Lance can't handle this ;-;))

Shiro's pharmaceutical company was massive, and had many establishments across the country, but the headquarters wasn't far from the mansion. That did nothing to ease Lance's nerves on the situation. He wasn't able to procrastinate on the way there, because there was barely a trip there at all. It was fifteen minutes if he was lucky.

Keith drove the jet black Mercedes while Lance stayed in the passenger seat.

" How many people are on the watch list?" Keith asked Lance while turning the vehicle.

" Uhhh-" Lance flipped through the pages of the packet Shiro had given. " Ten."

" Great. That's just peachy." Keith groaned. Maybe rooting out this person wouldn't be as easy as he'd assumed. " I honestly don't know why we're screwing around with this. Why can't we just take Lotor out?"

" Shiro hasn't ever killed anyone. Do you think he'd want to start that now?" Lance told Keith, while at the same time trying to fight off his feeling of impending doom. It ached in his chest, and seemed to suck the vitality from him. Lance rarely felt like that. Sure, he had some degree of anxiety when it came to missions, but it had become way more severe after Shiro had sent he and Keith out.

" I think maybe he should make an exception." Keith huffed. " If anyone deserves it, it's him‍‍."

" Maybe you're right." Lance said, looking down and to the side. He couldn't shake the thoughts away. It didn't matter how much he internally scolded himself, or pretty much swatted the pesky feelings with a rolled up newspaper of reason, they remained.

He was so conflicted that he could barely think about anything else. Lance wondered if telling Keith would only make him more angry, if using that word would cause the smaller boy to feel uncomfortable.

As they pulled into the parking ramp and such, Lance could feel his heart punching his ribcage. Before Keith could get out the driver's side, he reached across and grabbed his hand.

Keith's eyes wandered over to Lance, and he didn't say anything at first.

" Keith... can you promise me something?" Lance asked him. Promises were something Lance didn't make often, because he'd been shown how sudden and brutal life could be. His own family had promised him many things, but that didn't stop them from getting splattered across the kitchen. That didn't stop people from mopping the floor with their blood.

" Depends." Keith spoke. He might've been a little mad at Lance still, but he shook it off. " What is it?"

Lance intertwined their fingers, making sure that they were tightly laced together.

" Promise me that you'll stay safe today. Promise me that you'll stay close to me..." Lance quietly uttered, but his tone was still very serious. His volume was low, but in a way that drove his point even harder.

Keith felt a wave of something roll over his body. He wasn't sure what to call it, but it was powerful and warm. Lance's voice resonated in his chest as he sat there and let his words soak in.

Instead of arguing that he didn't need a bodyguard, Keith could tell that he would've been hurting Lance if he did. It would've been detrimental to his boyfriend's mental state if he refused.

" I will... okay? I promise." Keith said. He leaned across the middle divide and pressed a kiss on Lance's lips. It wasn't just a peck, though. It held a meaning that only Lance could understand.

" Okay." Lance sent him a tiny, somewhat relieved smile. He wanted to believe that Keith would never break his promises, but his anxiety was always on the back burner begging to differ.

...

After getting past security, Lance and Keith were walking into Shiro's office. Funnily enough, nobody took their guns or knives away. They'd snuck in through Shiro's secret back door, and the employees had no clue that they were in there. There was a whole system for watching the cameras that were scattered around the office. They were aimed at certain cubicles, wanting to focus on the people in question.

It was near closing, so it seemed as though people were scurrying to finish up their final paperwork. Lance took a seat in Shiro's squishy desk chair, watching the screens. He and Keith had turned them all on right after arriving there.

Keith stood there, keeping his eyes locked on the monitors. They had to wait for people to start leaving, then see who was left.

" Baby... there's another seat. Why are you standing?" Lance questioned.

Keith looked all around himself, not seeing another chair. They couldn't turn on the lights or anything, but from what he saw, no other seats were available.

" Where?" Keith questioned, wondering if he was just blind.

Lance patted his lap and smirked.

Keith folded his arms, not wanting to do it at first. But once he saw the look on Lance's face, he found himself unable to fight the urge. He sat atop Lance's thighs and found himself actually getting comfy. Lance hugged him in close, peering from behind Keith's shoulder to watch the cameras.

Keith perked up once he saw a couple of the workers, and he was sure he'd seen them somewhere before.

" Lance, do you see that?" Keith asked, moving to adjust the camera, wiggling the knob so that the camera would zoom and point more toward one of the guys.

" Hm?" Lance hummed. He squinted, seeing that there was a brunette guy with big nerdy glasses. They seemed almost theatrical.

" No fucking way." Keith growled. " It's those cunts that kidnapped me." He grit his teeth and snarled a bit.

Lance's eyes widened. He paid closer attention, and then it all came back to him. Oh right. He'd knocked that guy out during Keith's rescue.

Part of Lance was tempted to go out there right that second to spill coffee all over those pricks. But he didn't. They had to wait to follow them.

" I'm calling Shiro." Lance pulled out his phone, deciding they needed some guidance from him. How would Shiro have not recognized them? Was he too focused on Lotor?

" Okay." Keith got up, walking over to the window wall of Shiro's office. The blinds were all drawn at that moment, but he peeked out into the cubicles.

" Hello? Shiro?" Lance talked into his phone. " There are two employees who are in Lotor's gang. How the hell did you not know?" He asked.

" What?!" Shiro exclaimed from the other side. He hadn't noticed anything, but then again, they were under aliases. And they both were in disguises as well to help them blend in and look like nerds. " Follow them the second they leave!"

" What do you want us to do when they reach their destination, though?" Lance asked, not sure what the point of it was.

" Scare them off. Send them back to Lotor beaten up." Shiro spat. Clearly he wasn't fucking around, and was more than just a little pissed.

" Do you want us to take them out?" Lance questioned, letting his voice sink into a dark tone.

" No." Shiro said. " But make it so they're terrified you will."

" Okay...?" Lance raised an eyebrow. He didn't think that it was the best idea, but hey, who was he to question Shiro's leadership?

" Call me when you're done or if anything else happens." Shiro's red hot anger flooded through the phone, and Lance was abundantly thankful that it wasn't directed at him.

" What does he want us to do?" Keith looked over at Lance, and Lance broke his attention from the screen for just long enough to miss something. James and Kinkade had both gone on their phones to text someone, and that was after they made eye contact with the cameras knowingly.

" He wants us to beat them up I guess?" Lance shook his head.

Keith rolled his eyes.

" What the hell kind of good will that do?" He scoffed.

" It's supposed to scare them and send a message to Lotor apparently." Lance said.

They both missed something crucial in the time they spent talking as opposed to watching even though it was only a minute or two.

...

Low and behold, those two employees were the ones who stayed late. Keith and Lance trailed them out to the parking ramp, both of them ready with knives and a gun as a last resort.

They moved silently like shadows in the dark, straying away from any light sources that could blow their cover.

Lance grabbed Keith's wrist and yanked him back once they came to their Mercedes. He ducked the smaller boy behind the body of the car while the two hid.

Apparently they'd managed to park right next to James and Kinkade's shared car.

Lance was clearly protective of Keith while they crouched and waited for the car to start. He was pissed that Keith would be fighting with these people, and he wanted to stay close to him for as long as he could.

Once the car began pulling out, Keith crawled into the car through the passenger side and into the driver's seat. Lance got in the passenger side, and shut the door once he was sure they were far enough.

" Follow them." Lance told Keith when the coast was clear.

" You got it." Keith turned the key and started the car up. He pulled out and began driving in the path Lotor's idiots had taken.

That dark cloud was still there, almost like Lance's chest was a black hole. He didn't want to think about the possibility of Keith getting hurt at the hands of these assholes. Something was telling him that this was all a mistake, and that they should've just went back to the mansion.

That wasn't what happened.

Even though Shiro had just said to beat them up, that didn't mean that they didn't have guns or knives. A serious clash might've been inevitable.

As they tailed the car from a distance, they seemed to be getting more toward the outskirts of the city. It definitely wasn't the direction Lotor's mansion was in.

" I don't like this..." Lance said. " Something's up..."

Keith continued following like Shiro had instructed them to. Lance being worried was definitely striking a nerve with him, but not one that would force him to turn back. He shoved his emotions downward, compressed them into a tiny ball, then locked them up tight. Feelings were what made assignments go wrong.

" Keith, stop, please." Lance begged him from the passenger seat. His face was sinking and his lip was quivering from fear. " Please, we're almost by the docks. This doesn't make sense."

" Lance. We're fine." Keith insisted. He slowed down once he saw that their car was turning inside of a parking lot. It surrounded a warehouse, and Lance could be heard gulping just from the sight of it.

" This is too sketchy." Lance sat stiff from fear. Was he scared of getting taken out? Maybe a little, but the other 99% of his anxiety was focused on Keith.

Keith stopped the car and shut it off, hiding it behind a fence. He took out the key and looked over at Lance.

" Shiro told us to do this." The smaller boy reminded him.

" Since when do you care what Shiro says?" Lance argued. Keith had never seen him acting like such a chicken before. Lance reached across to hold Keith's hand, squeezing it tightly in his own. " Please."

Keith was conflicted as he grit his teeth.

" Let's go." He opened his driver's side door. " Remember what I promised you." Keith stepped out, and Lance's face was drooping from fear as he followed in Keith's actions. He drew his gun just in case, as did the other boy.

Lance still hated it.

Keith snuck behind the fence, crawling atop a dumpster and peeking over top of it. He saw both James and Kinkade disappear inside, then motioned for Lance to follow. Before Lance even knew what was happening, Keith had jumped the fence.

" Keith?!" Lance whisper shouted, climbing atop the dumpster.

" Come on!" Keith told him from the bottom of the other side. Lance flipped himself over and landed, making sure that he surveyed their surroundings.

" We should sneak in through the back." Keith spoke under his breath.

" If there even is one." Lance responded.

They literally had no clue where they were, how the map was laid out, or where people could be coming from. The odds were definitely not in their favor as they swiftly made their way around the side of the gigantic warehouse. There was a narrow strip of pavement between the building and the fence that served as their path.

Both boys made sure to keep their guns aimed downward and tucked near their sides as they jogged. Lance took the lead, going in front of Keith. He wanted to make sure that his boyfriend wouldn't go charging off.

Lance held his arm out, stopping Keith once they reached the back. He cautiously peeked out, seeing that it was mostly deserted. It was beginning to get dark outside, and moths were swirling around the stray lampposts back there. The whole area had a desolate feeling to it, like they weren't supposed to be there.

Against every gut instinct Lance had, he came out from behind and slid along the perimeter of the building. There was a door that was open in the back, almost welcoming them in.

Both boys ducked in, and they used the stacks of lord knows what for cover. The whole building seemed to have mountain-like piles of things that were kept under wraps. Knowing Lotor, it was most likely drugs.

Why the hell would the door have been open then?!

" This is fucked up..." Keith murmured after gazing up at the towers of stuff. Lotor was fucking disgusting.

" Let's go find the guys and get the hell out of here. I hate this." Lance told Keith, pulling him behind the mountains. There was a tiny area they could squeeze through on the side as opposed to cutting right through the center. They would've been giving themselves away if they did something that dumb. Well... this whole thing was sort of dumb. But whatever. Their decisions from there on out were in an attempt to reduce the stupidity.

Keith wanted revenge on those fuckheads for kidnapping him. Lance had gotten to have all the fun last time, but not this time. Keith was going to make sure of that.

Before they could reach the end of it, Lance could hear Lotor's people having a discussion. He couldn't quite tell what the words were from that distance, but it still made his blood boil. Not only were these people fraudulently working for Shiro and fucking up his company, but they'd also hurt Keith in the past. Lance couldn't decide which offense was more punishable.

Lance wanted to do one thing first. Whenever they fought, they were both risking life and limb for the family, and he knew that all too well.

" Keith..." The taller boy whispered in a voice so small, that even a mouse couldn't have been quieter. He didn't want to out their presence until the time was right.

Keith perked up, not saying anything. The look on his face indicated that he was listening, though.

" No matter what happens... I-" Lance stammered, almost deciding to confess.

Keith cut him off by yanking on Lance's royal blue tie and pulling his boyfriend into a kiss. Lance's eyes fluttered shut as he kissed him back for a moment. Their foreheads touched lightly as they stayed like that for a second.

" I'll be fine. So will you." Keith whispered.

Lance ran his hand through Keith's hair, smiling at him a bit before getting back in the zone. They had an assignment to get to.

(( Hhhhh. *John Cena voice* aRe YOu sURe abOuT thAt?))