A.N.:// Okay, everyone on the team fucking LOVES Lance, alright?! And someone needed to say it! So everyone does. Bam, there you have it.
Gosh, I hope I won't regret this chapter. ... Well, anyway, the story must move forward. In my book these are 70 pages now. :)

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

The holoscreen reflected in Pidge's glasses, scrolling faster than Keith would have been able to comprehend. "It makes no sense," she said. "The crystal was corrupted when I looked at it. There was a hole in it! The planet just suddenly... reset itself."

Keith had his arms crossed, trying to keep his mouth shut.

The doors slid open to the control room and Hunk walked inside. "Lance is out cold. Are you sure he just fell asleep, Keith? He seems pretty knocked out to me."

Keith quickly nodded, repeating the lie he had told them all back on the planet, as he had to walk through the feast, covered in mud and with a fainted Lance in his arms. "He hasn't been sleeping much lately. I noticed during training yesterday that he was being a bit off. He was nearly falling over during the feast."

Allura sat on one of the community couches and stared at her folded hands almost angrily. "This is my fault," she mumbled to herself.

Keith immediately regressed. "No, it's NOT, Princess! Lance was the one who -"

"It was all of us," Shiro interrupted him but sent him an apologetic glance. "We all walk around every day pretending we're fine and he has to deal with the aftermath at night. Keith told me about it at the feast. He makes sure we're all okay! That's why you were so upset, weren't you?" Giving up, Keith just nodded quietly.

"Not me." Pidge muttered.

Keith's eye twitched. "You faint from exhaustion and Lance carries you to bed."

Pidge opened her mouth, then closed it, and then, finally, looked guilty. "Seriously?" She pulled at her hair. "THAT's why I don't remember how I get there!"

Allura covered her face. "To think we'd push him this far! And then I complain about him sleeping in every day! He's been off during training for a while, I should have NOTICED!"

"No, I'm his best friend, I should have been the one to notice!" Hunk looked even worse of than Allura, who only smiled at him for his courtesy.

Keith kept his arms crossed, his mouth shut, as he watched everyone slowly beginning to blame themselves and slowly spiralling into something close to self loathing. They did so unhindered and Keith was suddenly overly aware of what Lance's presence missing from these discussion meant. Even Coran was turning away, his eyes narrowed with guilt. Keith couldn't take it for much longer. "Well, that only means that we haven't been taking Allura's bonding sessions seriously enough. Instead of crying about it, we should all make more time for our mental heath." After saying that, Keith already felt like a hypocrite.

Thankfully, the others seemed to quietly agree. Except Pidge who was still buried in her laptop. "If we're done talking about Lance... It's not just the crystal that suddenly healed." She said quietly. "People are being released from hospitals in masses. Whatever healed the crystal, healed the entire planet. Change like this would normally take months. And the energy levels for about a varga ago spiked indefinitely. I've never seen anything like this. It's like..." She paused.

Allura turned to her. "Like what?"

"Don't be mad, Allura, but while we were on Ilianiar, I ran a scan on that water goddess."

Keith froze where he stood, but Allura stood up to her full height. "You did? When did you do that?"

"When she was taking Lance with her. I ran the scan from the green lion. I couldn't let her run away with our blue paladin now, could I? I couldn't pinpoint exactly where she was, her powers don't register on the castle systems, but the entire area around her had similar energy levels. And guess what else I found?" Pidge turned her laptop around to show them indecipherable programming code. "The day we left Ilianiar, something registered itself on the medic bay. With the same readings."

Allura gaped at her. "You mean... she is HERE?" She turned around, as if Karak'nirir would suddenly emerge from behind a couch or something..

Keith swallowed. This was NOT supposed to happen right now. His heart beat faster, unsure of what to do. It was his job to keep Lance's secret! And he was failing spectacularly. Frozen, Keith simply bit his lip and let them talk, wondering how much Pidge had already figured out.

"Not quite. There have been many anomalies since we left that planet. It's like she's moving through the castle. In some instances, parts of the castle match with the reading. I don't know how she's moving on the castle ship, but apparently, she's living in the walls."

Allura's eyes were wide. "And she saved the planet! She's helping us! She changed her mind? What on earth made her change her -" She paused. "Lance!" Her face lit up. "He talked to her! He must have convinced her to -" She interrupted herself, frowning. "No, that doesn't sound right. She's a goddess and he was goofing around and flirting with her when they met. Besides, he would have bragged about it if he managed to convince her, wouldn't he?"

Pidge cleared her throat. "Maybe the fact that he's the paladin of water fascinated her and she caught a ride on the blue lion."

Keith felt his left eye twitch. All other thoughts momentarily forgotten. Were they fucking serious right now? He closed his eyes, scowling slightly. As he spoke up, everyone else went instantly silent, as he quoted their own words back to them. ""I think she somehow went 'inside me',"" He began,trying to imitate Lance's voice. ""She turned into liquid-!"" He opened his eyes and gestured wildly. ""Oh no, Lance, please spare us the details! She's our MOM, Lance, urgh, SHUT UP, Lance, we don't want to know what the goddess of creation wanted from you because you're so annoying when you talk about your interests and your achievements, which you don't even HAVE! I mean, why would a goddess even LIKE you? You're the dumb one, no offence, but how could someone like YOU be better at Altean than Pidge?""

"That, what the fuck, Keith, no one said that!" Said Hunk way too loudly and defensive.

"Didn't we?" Keith glared at him. "Or do we just make him FEEL that way?"

Silence followed. Only Pidge resumed to typing. "So, you think she caught a ride on Lance? He somehow convinced her to help us in secret?"

Keith nearly cursed himself. "Maybe. Who knows how her powers work?" He averted his gaze, feeling like shit all of a sudden.

It was quiet again, except for Pidge typing away on her laptop. Finally, however, she stopped and looked up, finally looking as guilty and ashamed as the rest of them. "Do we really talk like that about him? Fuck, do we THINK like that about him?"

"NO!" Hunk immediately said. "No, we don't! Lance always tells me how talking to me makes his day better! And -"

"And then you forget about movie night," Keith couldn't help but comment.

Hunk's eyes dwelled in tears. "NO! We just have so much to DO! And I make cookies almost every night and of course give him some, because he's my best friend and and..." Hunk clapped his own face, probably to calm himself down, before he dived in with a tad bit more vigour. "He's our HEART! That's why he's the blue lion! And he's a great shot and he's the only one on this castle who can somehow keep the morale up! And he's so good at connecting with aliens and making them trust us -"

"And yet, Allura is our diplomatic ambassador." Keith couldn't help it. "Because he's not serious enough, isn't he, Allura?" Allura flinched under his gaze. "And he's a great shot? Seriously, Hunk? Do you even realise how whenever he's on our team during training, we take down DOUBLE the gladiators we normally do? He's not just a sharpshooter, he's our fucking EYES on this team!"

"Keith-" Shiro interrupted him, "Calm down."

Keith turned to him and glared. "Why would I calm down? All of us are thinking it! Lance is the DUMB one, the guy on the side who's cheerleading for us and obsessed with his own image of a flirt and a hero. Why not just say it? We shove it onto him ALL the time! Why not say it out loud now that he's out cold? Why not be fucking HONEST for once? It's not like Lance made it to the GARRISON without any problems! No, he MUST be a charity case, right? That he speaks Altean shouldn't be surprising! It shouldn't be surprising to ANY of us! Because Lance was accepted to the Garrison because he's a GENIUS at languages! But why care when we have a universal translator, right?!" Keith cursed again. He was faintly aware that this was the exact same thing Lance had told him, but he ignored it. Lance may be calm and accepting of the way he was treated, but Keith had had enough.

Pidge's expression turned to a scowl. "Oh yeah? WE should be honest? Because you're so much BETTER, Keith! "CLASSIC Lance, always flirting around with girls, taking nothing seriously!" "Oh, Lance doesn't remember our BONDING moment!" "Lance doesn't have ANY strategic ideas for the next mission because he's LANCE." You're not better than any of us, Keith! Since when do you even care?!"

"ENOUGH!" Allura stood between them now, looking as angry as both of them combined. "Clearly, we ALL need to work on the way we talk to Lance! AND," she glared at them both, "each other!" Only then did Pidge and Keith turn away from each other. "What I gather from this is that we all care about Lance. We ALL do." She caught Keith's glance once more. "But we're not expressing it well." She sighed. "Gosh, you're right, I wish Lance was here to calm you guys down."

"You called?"
Several heads quickly turned to the door that just opened. In it stood Lance in his casual outfit, arms crossed behind his head, expression beyond confused.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lance's PoV:

Lance was knocked out cold. It was a strange feeling. Not negative, just... calm. He had been one with a planet only seconds ago. But he'd held on to something much more important as soon as he had let go. It was someone he knew well, someone who was panicking, frightened and close to death. It was easy to heal Keith. To restore his life, return him to the person he had been. But to do it, he had to be him. Only for a few seconds, but he had been him, and afterwards, he was caught in this equilibrium. Like a drop of water, waiting quietly in its cloud to drop. Stretched beyond himself, and yet condensed into the smallest version of himself.

Keith's mind had left impressions on Lance.
Flickering in and out of his consciousness, in the last moments of his life, Keith had been thinking of his family. His father and the grave. Of Shiro and Keith's fear of losing him. Keith's fear of losing all of them. Pidge, Hunk, Allura, Coran... and Lance.

Lance, Lance learned in that moment, held an important part of Keith's heart. It went beyond the bonding moment. It went far back to the Garrison.

"They call me the Tailor, because of how I threat the needle!" Lance had once said, introducing himself to a faceless blond in Keith's memory. She had rolled her eyes and laughed, as they all had. They always had. The boy'd grin never wavered, right at place there, in the spotlight.

But Keith had been watching, with wide eyes and the burning wish to be able to talk to him. To Tailor. Who loved flying as much as Keith did. Who loved making people smile, even though his own was the most radiant of all. Who had a bad humour. So bad, it had Keith fight his own grin from ruining his stoic reputation. Keith wished he would talk to him. That Tailor would invite him to his table to joke and laugh and become friends. Because Keith didn't have friends and Tailor had so many. The Tailor was open and kind, he'd accept Keith, right?

The scene changed, and Lance watched himself run on the tracking field with the other students.
Tailor had neither been the fastest, nor the slowest, but he made up for it by cheering other people on while he ran. Keith was sitting on the bench and had his foot bandaged from an accident days prior. He was watching them run, then his eyes turned to Tailor's sticker covered phone on the bench. He recognised it, as he recognised all of Tailor's belongings. If Keith took it, the Tailor would have to talk to him. If he gave him the phone back, they could become friends, right?
It didn't make sense, but it also kind of did. Only that when it came to it, 'Tailor' scolded Keith for taking his phone and took it back and stuck his tongue out. Keith was defending himself, but the words faded out as the memory could no longer place them.

The scene changed and showed the Tailor glaring at Keith, rather than talking to him, from afar. Keith... Keith didn't know how to feel. The attention made him giddy and unsure, but also sad. It were confusing feelings to have.

There were more memories to see, more feelings to be had, but Lance slowly lost them. Only one moment seemed important enough for Keith to show him. It was the moment when Keith had decided to save Shiro from the Garrison facility after his pod crashed on earth.
"No, no no! We're saving Shiro!"
Keith turned to him, trying to keep his face stoic as he saw HIM. He didn't remember anyone from the Garrison! He couldn't let him know that he knew him. That he would know him anywhere. "And who are you?"
"Uh... the name is LANCE? We were in the same class at the Garrison? We're like rivals, you know? Lance and Keith, neck in neck."
'Lance.' Keith's mind said, finally, shocked to the core and embarrassed beyond believe. 'His name was Lance.'

The next moment, Lance opened his eyes and focused on the ceiling. He knew, simply because the castle told him so, that he was back on the ship, in his room. The clock beside his bed was ticking a tad bit too slow as a familiar, although annoying focal point. He had far more important things to focus on though. Keith remembered him from the Garrison! And he had thought his name was TAILOR. What the actual FUCK?!

Letting that sink in, Lance sat up slowly, finding a glass of water waiting for him on his nightstand. Good, precisely what he needed right now! He let the liquid fly almost on instinct, without needing to raise the glass. The water floated towards him and melded with his hand. It had the same effect as drinking it. It occurred to Lance only then that he had been asleep. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt tired or required sleep. But now he was tired and had just woken up. Exhaustion was still a thing then.

Lance reached out for a moment, wondering where everyone was. They seemed to have gathered in the control room and felt rather agitated. Lance wouldn't read their mind, but the atmosphere between them was charged. Quickly, Lance stood up, got dressed in his normal jeans, shirt and jacket and slid into his shoes. Then he made his way towards his friends.

As soon as the door slid open before him, voices filtered in, making Lance freeze in the doorway.

Pidge's expression was turned to a scowl which was directed at Keith, while Keith grimaced back just as angrily. Shiro seemed guilty for some reason and Hunk was close to tears. Coran had drawn back into himself while Allura looked annoyed and resigned. "Gosh, you're right, I wish Lance was here to calm you guys down."

"You called?" Lance let his glance stray from one person to the next. Everyone tensed, except Keith who somehow relaxed when he saw him.

Before Lance could make sense of it, however, he was already crushed in a massive hug by Hunk.
"LAAAANCEEEEEEE! I'm so SAWRY!"

Lance could feel his ribs crack from the force of Hunk's arms. "Hey hey, it's all good." Lance awkwardly patted him on the shoulder. "What on earth are you sorry for? What happened?"

"You passed out on the planet of Kianen because you didn't sleep enough lately," Keith filed him in. Ah, nice, cover story. Keith nodded at him and Lance nodded back.

As Hunk finally let go, eyes swimming in tears, Allura approached Lance as well, taking both of his hands for some reason, making Lance blink and Keith avert his eyes again. "Lance, I- We are all so very sorry! We've been keeping you up all night for weeks on end! And then we've been making all these horrible comments. We value you, please know that!"

"Uh..." Lance was honestly at a loss of what to say. His eyes trailed to Keith again, but the boy kept avoiding his gaze. What the fuck was going on?

"For the record, I've never thought Lance was dumb. He's had many great plans for infiltration missions on various Galra cruisers and has good instinct on when to avoid a fight." Pidge readjusted her glasses.

"You say that NOW." Keith muttered to himself.

"I didn't mean to miss movie night!!!! I just stress bake and then pass out! I didn't mean to hurt you!!!!!" Hunk was still wailing.

"And I feel like I've been pushing you way too hard. Lance, without you, I'd probably be dead beat and unable to function on my better days. You're a valuable asset to this team and we really do care about you."

Lance blinked at Shiro, then everyone else. "Okay," he pushed Allura's hands away as gently as he could, stepped backwards and raised his hands to his chest. "As much as I enjoy being complimented left and right... what the hell is going on?" He turned to Keith again, hoping the guy would finally look at him, but he never did. "And what happened to the alliance?"

"The alliance went well... thanks to... well. We don't really know exactly," Allura looked at Pidge.

"We have the suspicion that Karak'nirir followed you onto the castle of lions and then somehow healed the planet of the Kainens. The readings are off the charts and there have been similar readings on the castle for several weeks on end." Pidge quickly stated, hands folded on her lap as she kept sitting on one of the working tables. Her laptop was up and running. "Keith over here was just telling us that we failed to listen to you when you meant to warn us of her catching a ride. We assume that she healed the planet."

Lance blinked. "Oh." A million thoughts ran through Lance's mind in that moment.

Allura nodded. "We're sorry that we didn't listen then, but we're listening now. What happened, Lance?"

Lance considered. Maybe it really was time to tell them. This wasn't something he could simply lie about in a way that was at all believable. They'd figure it out from here and only get mad if he held on to his secret for much longer. The moment had come. He had known it would come, it was just sooner than he had expected. "Well... If it's like that..." He took a deep breath. "Those are not her readings... well, not anymore."

Pidge looked up, brows raised. "So you DO know something. What does that mean?"

Lance swayed back and forth, feelings anxious. "I kind of... inherited her powers?" He paused, letting it sink in. "Surprise?" He made a wide gesture with a wide nervous smile. It didn't even sound confident to himself.

NOW, Keith was staring at him. Lance could imagine what he was thinking. 'I thought you didn't want anyone to know?' And Lance didn't. Because he didn't want to kill with these powers. But he had just learned that there was so much more to his powers than that. He could heal entire planets. He could heal people, he could unarm their enemies. Maybe, if he did this right, he could make sure less people had to die. And whatever this corruption was... it seemed to belong to a much bigger part of the universe. It was the Ying to Lance's Yang, the destruction to his creation. It made sense that it existed and Lance felt ready to face that conversation with the team.

The team however, didn't. Pidge stared at him. "Come again?"

Allura frowned as well. "Lance, this is not a joking matter. Her powers are incomprehensible. No normal person could somehow dream of -" She caught herself, probably realising how that sounded. "I'm sorry, Lance. I'm not meaning to say that I don't believe you-"

"Well, I don't believe you." Said Pidge. "You inherited her powers? How the hell does that even work? Care to provide the evidence?!"

"No, Pidge, let me finish." Allura sounded nervous as she turned back to Lance, walking closer. "If this is true... You're in grave danger. I've heard tales about this. About people being chosen by the goddess. They all DIED. PLEASE tell me this is a joke." She sounded worried now. More worried than disbelieving. Which was honestly somewhat surprising.

Lance watched her for a moment, then shook his head. "I'm not joking. And I'm aware that I could die, too."

"I don't think you fully understand. If this is true, you WILL die! Everyone before you HAS died!" Allura grabbed him by the shoulder, burying her hand into his flesh.

Lance frowned, shaking her off once more. "Allura, I appreciate your concern, but I am VERY aware of the consequences. Probably more than you are!"

"You think you know more than the princess?" Pidge said quietly from where she sat. "What, so now you're the expert on 10 000 year old tales and legends too? What else are you hiding from us? Apart from your language skills and being a god of all things? A PhD?"

"Pidge!"

"No, Keith." Pidge sent him another glare. "I gather intel on my friends like a stalker. Just in case you all ever get like... replaced by robots or something! How come that I don't know any of these things about Lance?" Pidge glowered. "And I'm not saying that to talk him down, THANKS Keith! I had to fight all of you once in battle when you were brainwashed, and I prioritised Lance because I KNEW he'd be the worst pain in the ass out of all of you. I KNOW my friends! Your strengths and your values! And now you come with all of these outlandish THINGS! You think I wouldn't know if my friend turned into a god right next to me? Am I to believe this is just HIM?"
Lance stared at her, noticing how she was slightly trembling. "I refuse to believe you! This is too much! Pranks only go so far, Lance!"
She stared at him, waiting. Waiting for something.

So, Lance let the words sink in, before he walked towards her quietly, not making a sound. A second later he let his molecules spread into the air around them. Bit by bit his body evaporated but he could still hear everyone except Keith gasp at his sudden disappearance. A moment later, Lance manifested again on the table next to Pidge, his legs dangling off the edge. He didn't need to say anything, yet he spoke up, this time gaze directed back at Allura, who's eyes were wide in fear, mouth covered by both her hands. The action should be answer enough to Pidge.
"I can't undo this. Karak'nirir asked for my help and I offered it to her. I appreciate your concern, I really do and I understand that this is hard to believe. But I understand what this power demands of me. I've been slowly figuring it out and I will continue to do so. Panicking about this won't help me. Keith knows this better than anyone, don't you, Keith?"

Keith mumbled something under his breath but finally looked in his direction at least.

"Hold on... you knew?" Shiro's eyes widened. "Wait wait wait... So your fight on Kainen WASN'T about Lance's lack of sleep?"

"I don't need to sleep anymore. I was just... exhausted after I melded with the planet." Lance said this quietly. "But that was because something befell the planet that corrupted it. It wasn't easy to heal either."

"What does that have to do with Keith?" Shiro sounded confused. Then he paused. "YOU healed the planet!"

Keith seemed to have finally reached his breaking point. "It has to do with me, because I didn't want Lance to connect with the planet!" He glared at Lance almost accusingly. "When he connects with water, he tends to lose his sense of self. I figured if he was going to connect with billions of lifeforms at once, that we'd lose him without a chance of getting him back! And then he DID connect with the planet, if only superficially, and then he didn't listen to me either that connecting with a TOXIC planet would be a problem. And then his eyes were glowing purple and I just..." Keith exhaled deeply. "That's why I cornered him and I was RIGHT. Or I thought I was, because everything Lance touched then fell apart! And then he figured out how to heal the corruption, and you fucker remember the BONDING MOMENT!" Keith talked faster and louder towards the end.

Lance's mouth opened and he tried to exchange a glance with Pidge who had somehow shrunken into herself, eyes unblinking as she stared at the ground.
Lance looked back to Hunk who seemed scared, then finally back to Keith. "Well, and YOU remember me from the Garrison and the only reason you never told me is because you were embarrassed that you thought my name was Tailor!" He crossed his arms. "And you really shouldn't be mad at me like that, I figured out how to heal an entire planet to fix the damage I did to you!"

Shiro's eyes widened. "Hold on, YOU'RE Tailor?"

Lance turned to him, as spiteful as before, but... "what?"

He had never seen someone jump as fast as Keith now did towards Shiro as he put a hand on the man's mouth. "SHUT the fuck up!"

"But he obviously knows! How on earth does he know? You'd NEVER tell him!" Shiro managed to force Keith's hand back for a full sentence.

Lance blinked confusedly, ignoring Keith and Shiro and focused back on the confusion in the room. He may be curious what had Keith so embarrassed, but he also knew when to back off. "Part of connecting with people means I share their mind for a moment. I accidentally read his mind and apparently, he mine."

"And that of a whole planet." Keith commented, his hand still pressed to Shiro's mouth. He seemed wary, as if Lance would do the mind connection again, right now. "Wait... you're not denying that you remember the bonding moment anymore?"

Instead of validating that with an answer, Lance let his legs sway back and forth. "Would you rather have died, Keith? Would you? Keith growled. Actually growled, like an overgrown cat. Sometimes Lance forgot that Keith had a real Galra side to him. With his pointy teeth and the yellowing eyes when he got really mad.
Lance turned back to Allura. "The point is... I have this under control. The whole corruption thing only works if you panic about it. And Keith made me panic, that's why it escalated a bit."

"You're blaming ME?" Keith abruptly let go of Shiro, voice suddenly small, his voice breaking. He took that harder than intended.

Lance realised he had gone too far. "Uh... NO, not really. Keith, don't worry about it! Anyone would have panicked! Heck, had I looked in a mirror I would have panicked all on my own. It's good it happened this way. It's easier to save other people than it is to save yourself. So, ..." Lance scratched his neck. "Don't worry about it, okay?"

Keith bit his lip and once again crossed his arms to avert his gaze once more. He seemed to be doing that a lot more lately.

"You're actually a god." Finally, Pidge had found her voice again. "A goddess actually turned you into a god." The attention quickly shifted back to her. Slowly, the realisation seemed to dawn on everyone else in the round too.

Lance opened his mouth, then closed it again. Then, he was the one crossing his arms. "Guys-"

"What do we do now?," asked Hunk nervously. "Do we like... worship you? And pray and stuff?"

"Are you kidding me?" Lance laughed, not believing what he heard. "You guys won't even admit it when I beat you at Smash bros, and now you want to bow to me just because I can make it rain in the castle?"

"I mean..." Allura began, clearing her throat. "I'm not saying we should bow to you... But you ARE a god now, Lance. And you're replacing Karak'nirir herself... The universe would want to know that their goddess is now a paladin." Her eyes lit up slightly. "This could be really good for the coalition! Lance you can heal an entire planet on your own! You could turn this war around! The Galra would absolutely FEAR you! You can destroy entire battleships with this power alone!"

Lance grimaced. "I won't kill people.."

Allura's grin fell. "What?" She caught herself. "I mean, sure... that... you won't have to do that, but when it really comes down to it-"

"I know this war is incredibly important for the universe.., I know," Lance cleared his throat uncomfortably. "I know we can't win unless we have a really good weapon at our disposal and I know that my powers fall right into that category, but I am not going to use these powers to kill." Lance braced himself. "I'm going to use it to defend, to heal and protect, ONLY. Then we have a deal. No advertisements, no oder to destroy entire ships with people on board, none of that! I have the chance to minimise the casualties and I want as little collateral as possible."

Allura stared at him. "Lance... are you sure?"

"Yeah... Think of the parades in your name! You could actually defeat Zarkon!" Hunk said, sounding somewhat confused. "Isn't that what you always wanted?"

"Yeah, I do but..." Lance sighed deeply. "As a team! I like to be a part of this team! I like the part I play here. I don't want to..." He rubbed at his brows. "There is a difference. It doesn't matter. Let's just leave it as is for now. I'll go get some sleep or something."

"I thought you don't sleep anymore?"

Lance startled. "Eh... yeah. I meant like... getting some training in. Gotta figure out the rest of my powers, alright?" With that he walked out of the room, feeling somewhat dejected.

. . .

It wasn't even that he disagreed with his friends... He did love the attention and the praise, but to be the only one who got it? And for what? Suddenly being gifted these powers? It was... Lance hugged himself on his way to the observation deck. Pretty lonely. There was a difference between being judged as who you are, and to be judged for what you do. And when it comes to who you are, to something you can't change- no matter what you do, you'll never feel good about comments like that. Neither bad nor good ones. Because it's nothing you achieved and Lance had learned to only appreciate what he achieved.

Sure, he liked comments about his looks, but Lance put effort into that too! And it's not like many people pointed it out anyway. He hated this kind of judgment. The superficial one. At the same time he felt that he would disappoint if he didn't submit to it himself.

Even when it had been about Kainen... Shiro had said, YOU healed the planet, as if healing an entire planet was nothing, considering who he was now. Had Lance known this was how he'd feel, he wouldn't have told them.

He knew it was contradicting, wanting praise for something he did, and yet not wanting it as a praise to his name, but he couldn't help it. There was a difference and he could feel it in every remark and every comment. And it really sucked because he KNEW they had been positive. Or was he reading too much into this? After all, You are what you do, not ... however that idiom finished.

Lance pulled at his hair. This was ridiculous. Why would any of this get to him so much? He wasn't still corrupted, was he? He couldn't feel it inside him anymore, so he should be fine... but what if he wasn't? Lance stopped as soon as he reached the observation deck and stretched a bit to take a deep breath.

He breathed out and in and gave himself a moment to slow down his thoughts. "I'm upset," He acknowledged. "I'm human, I have feelings, it doesn't have to make sense, it's okay." He sat down and continued to meditate. He was still upset, and he let his mind wander, he let himself be angry, he let himself be sad, he let himself go through all the stages of grief. Because feelings don't make sense, and they aren't always wanted, but they are a part of being human. Feelings are temporary, they pass, yet they are always a part of you, they just need some space to go wild sometimes. So, Lance gave them that space.

Finally, Lance had a whole universe to let his feelings go wild in.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Keith PoV:

The door slid closed behind Lance. Everyone watched him leave.

Hunk eventually broke the silence. "Holy shit, Lance is a god! Did you see that? He just VANISHED into thin air! Am I the only one freaking out about that, because I'm definitely freaking out about that!"

"Does anyone want to point out that Keith was the only one who knew, or -?" Pidge commented shortly after.

Keith immediately drew back into himself. "Excuse you? I found out on accident! It's not like he told me!"

"He didn't?" Allura asked, eyes slightly wide. "I WAS wondering since when you two have been so close. That was very unexpected."

"It was nothing, okay? We came back from Ilaniar and Lance and I went to the pool... separately, before you ask... and when he fell into the pool, he kind of lost his marbles. It was the first time he connected to water, so it was an accident that I saw. I only noticed because he was diving for way too long and I thought he had drowned." Keith explained quickly.

Shiro grinned. "But you HAVE been hanging out more. Training together, no doubt with his powers involved." Shiro looked devious, really. "And he's TAILOR. Say, Keith, could it be -"

Keith growled. "Say one more word and you're dead!"

"Why?" Hunk curiously chimed in. "Why did you think his name was Tailor, why can't Shiro tell us? Is this something embarrassing?"

Keith took it back, everyone here was a demon. "No, it's not -"

"Only that Keith here had a HUGE crush on Lance at the Garrison!"

"SHIRO!" Keith was fuming fire red. "What the HELL?!"

"He did?" Hunk's eyes went wide. He said it at the same time as Pidge, both as surprised about the development and the fact they said it at the same time. They exchanged a glance. Pidge continued. "You, on LANCE? At the Garrison? Since when? You talked to NO one, let alone Lance!"

Keith clapped his hand back on Shiro's mouth as the man wanted to answer for him. "That doesn't matter. I just did, okay? Can you please shut up now?"

Shiro laughingly shook him off. "Oh, come on, Keith. It's not like you still feel like that, it's been three years!" It took him a moment to register that Keith didn't answer and when he looked at him, Keith's face was as red as a tomato. "Wait-"

"WHAT?!" Allura nearly screamed. "Oh my god! The mice were RIGHT!"

"The mice talk about me?" Keith felt weak and defeated. Why on earth had Shiro have to bring it up? "Whatever, can you guys please be quiet about this?"

"You still ARE? But-" Shiro asked, suddenly sounding very confused. "Didn't he mind meld with you? Do you think he knows?"

Keith hadn't thought that far. He went from beat red to frighteningly pale in a matter of seconds. So quickly, in fact, he felt dizzy. He stared at Shiro, then his hands, then groaned into them. "FUCK!"

"Okay, but does he? Lance is pretty oblivious sometimes," Pidge commented.

Keith muffled through his hands. "He really isn't." Lance just knew how to deflect attention. And he probably did it on purpose just now too, knowing why Keith wanted Shiro to shut up. Lance had been considerate, for sure.

"But... what about the reverse? Didn't you feel what Lance may feel for you?" Hunk tried to help but Keith shook his head in response.

"I was too distracted by him remembering the bonding moment and then the entire PLANET in my head. What was I supposed to focus on?"

Finally, Coran stepped out of the shadows, twirling his moustache. "If I may suggest something, No. 3. You could always confess to him. Lance is a considerate young man, he's probably waiting for you to tell him yourself when you're ready, like a proper Yonkosar. He'll let you down gently. That's why he's my favourite!"

"That sounds like a dinosaur." Keith shook his head. "I'm not telling him. Can we please stop talking about this?"

"Hold on, Lance is your favourite?" Hunk sounded scandalised as he turned to Coran. "I make you cookies every night!"

"YES, but he's Lance." And no one could truly argue with that.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Any faves and comments are always welcome!!! Leave Lance some love!!!!! And share if you like :)