The paladins all watched as Lance entered the room and took a seat at the end. "Nice of you to finally join us." Keith teased.

"Oh can it mullet." Lance helped himself to some pancakes. "I slept in a little late is all."

"A little?" Keith rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, did you sleep in to 6 instead of getting up at 5 again." Hunk teased.

"Lance get up at 5? As if." Pidge chuckled.

"What are you guys talking about? Lance gets up at five just about every morning and gets ready." Hunk said as if everyone had known.

"Hunk," Lance tensed.

"Wait, you guys really don't know?" Hunk looked at them befuddled. "Don't tell me you guys have never seen Lance before his morning routine."

They all looked to each other curiously. "Why? What's up with Lance?" Shiro finally prodded.

"Hunk, I really don't think they're interested in-" Lance attempted to kill the conversation.

"Don't be crazy, of course we wanna hear!" Keith smiled suddenly more chipper.

"Lance is like, a huge nerd." Hunk finally let the cat out of the bag.

Lance looked at his pancakes as giggles ensued.

"Hunk, we already knew that." Keith teased, but when he looked, Lance wasn't laughing.

"Maybe this is a topic for another day." Lance stood up from the table and smiled, he acted much like his normal self. "I think I left my phone in my room." He then left quickly.

"Hunk, what makes you say Lance is a nerd?" Allura laughed.

"Well, it would make more sense if I showed you." Hunk pulled out his phone and began to scroll. "Here's Lance's middle school picture."

He held it up for everyone to see.

"Oh. My. Gosh." Allura and everyone else broke into laughter. Keith carefully took Hunks phone and inspected it closer. He wasn't laughing, nor was he frowning per say, but he couldn't help but stare at the photo. Curly hair, short on the sides but long on top, he had braces at the time, and large thick framed box shaped glasses. Freckles covered his cheekbones and spread across the bridge of his nose. There were a couple spots of acne and Lance is smiling a nervous awkward smile that's actually drop dead adorable.

"But... how?" Keith's voice an echo as he was unable to tear his gaze from the phone.

"Every morning, Lance gets up, showers, straightens his hair, puts in contacts, does his skin routine, and puts on makeup. It can take like hours." Hunk explained.

"He does that every morning?!" Pidge nearly choked on her bite of pancake.

"Yeah," Hunk nodded sliding his phone back into his pocket.

"Why?" Keith grimaced.

"Lance would probably hate that I'm saying this, but he was bullied mercilessly for years. School was miserable for him. He had all kinds of self confidence problems. He's convinced that he has to do all that stuff in the morning and look a certain way. I don't blame him for feeling that way, he went through a lot." Hunk shook his head. "So you should probably refrain from teasing him."

Keith felt a surge of guilt rush through him. They were supposed to be teammates, they should be as close as family. Since when was Lance not comfortable talking to them? Not comfortable showing his true colors?

It was then that Lance walked back into the dining area looking like his usual self. But this time Keith really looked at him. He could see the slight difference in texture on his cheeks from the makeup, or the ring around his bright blue irises from the contacts, or even a small wavy strand of hair on the back of his head that he missed.

How had he not noticed before? It made his stomach twist with disappointment in himself. He'd sworn to himself he'd look out for the other paladins, he'd let himself open up more, let himself be closer to them. But then, here Lance was, not even comfortable showing his own face. He had to fix this.

Keith felt a deep seated desire to be closer to Lance. He wanted to be there for him through thick and thin. He wanted to be someone the boy relied on. He has to ditch their playful rivalry. He absolutely has to fix this.

Keith waited until late at night. He sat up in his bed, leaned against the wall, and stared at the time. He watched minutes tick by, hours...

When it reached two in the morning in earth time, he stood up and walked into the hall. He was wearing striped pajama pants, a tighter fitting black tee, and his hair was pulled back in a loose, messy ponytail.

When he reached Lance's door, he hesitated before knocking. It was quiet a moment and he gently knocked again.

He heard a thump and felt electricity jolt through his spine.

The door opened a crack and Keith pursed his lips.

"Keith? What are you doing? It's... two am!" He whisper yelled.

Keith squinted but the room was dark and the sliver of doorway wasn't offering much hope anyway. "Can I come in?"

"What? Why? Can't this wait until morning?" Lance huffed.

"No." Keith responded immediately.

"F-fine, give me a minute..." Lance shut the door and Keith let out a shaky breath. That wasn't so bad. And it didn't take much convincing. He finally gets to see Lance, his true self. Curly hair, bulky glasses, pretty freckles... not that Lance is pretty or anything. Or that he's really that hyped about seeing Lance like this. After all, it's all about being a good teammate. Nothing else.

Keith waited a total of two minutes before the door opened again. The light in Lance's room was on now and Keith winced against it. "Okay, you can come in."

He felt excitement bubbling. This was it! He stepped into Lance's room and...!

"What the hell." Keith frowned.

"What?" Lance knitted his eyebrows together in confusion.

Lance was wearing a beanie over his brown locks, he had no glasses on, and Keith could vaguely see makeup smeared on his cheeks. "Why are you... why did you...?" The words died on his tongue. Sure Lance was cute, after all he always was, but he couldn't help but be disappointed. He still didn't trust him.

"Keith? Were you sleepwalking or something?" Lance asked in confusion. He was squinting like he couldn't see very well and Keith realized it was because he didn't have his contacts in.

"Where are your glasses?" Keith pouted.

"How did you know I wear...? Hunk, he told you didn't he? Is that why you're here? You wanted to see me with glasses?" Lance looked annoyed.

"Yeah..., well no. Sort of?" Keith crossed his arms.

"You woke me up at two in the morning to tease me about my glasses? What the hell Keith?" Lance looked upset now.

"Make fun of you? I'm not here to make fun of you." Keith shook his head. "I just... why won't you let us see you without your routine?"

Lance rolled his eyes, "why do you care?"

"I care because we're a team, we're supposed to be like a family. You don't even trust us to see you without your routine." Keith took a step forward. "Can you please take off the beanie? And your makeup?"

"What do you know? And no, I'm not taking it off." Lance refused like a child refusing veggies.

Keith frowned. He guessed he'll just have to try again.

The next night, he waited again until two in the morning and made the same trip to Lance's room and knocked.

Silence.

He knocked again and the door opened a crack immediately. "Keith, are you kidding me right now."

"Please let me in." Keith mumbled.

"Wait," Lance sighed. He disappeared but the door remained cracked open. He could hear shuffling and then the light turned on. Keith walked into the room to see Lance standing with a blanket over his head.

"Lance. Really?"

"Yes really. You better have a really good excuse for waking me up again." Lance folded his arms, although Keith couldn't really see it.

"Lance, can you please take off the blanket?"

"Absolutely not. Why are you so fixated on this? It's not that deep, really." He heard Lance sigh.

"But it is!" Keith rubbed his face and sighed. "You don't have to show me. Not tonight at least. I know you don't feel ready."

There was a silence and he watched Lance fidget under the blanket.

"If I'm being honest, the reason I'm so set on seeing you is because... I feel like I let you down somehow." Keith saw the blanket shift. "I've never been good with people, especially not with stuff like this. When I became a paladin I told myself I'd be a teammate. A real one. That I'd look out for us, both in battle and as a friend. But I failed." Keith looked down.

It was quiet a moment and Keith turned to leave.

"W-wait. Keith, you didn't fail. I know you struggle opening up to others. Even worse, I know I chastised you for it. I'd always give you hell for being closed off. I guess I'm sort of a big hypocrite, huh? Who am I to expect you to be open when I'm not? I'm sorry." Lance was playing with the bottom of the sheet and much to Keith's surprise, he pulled it off.

The sheet slipped away to reveal Lance with gorgeous speckled cheeks, slightly pink with embarrassment. He still had no glasses and had a beanie over his hair, but at least he could see the pretty freckles peppered under his eyes and across the bridge of his nose.

Keith went speechless. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, struggling to remember how to speak.

"Is it that bad?" Lance flinched.

"What? No. Lance...," Keith muttered dazed.

"Huh? Keith, you're freaking me out." Lance chuckled. "Stop staring,"

Keith blinked and looked away embarrassed. Lance walked closer and smiled.

Keith looked up and his breath caught in his throat. He slowly lifted his hand toward Lance's face but paused. "Uh, can I?"

Lance slowly nodded staring at Keith, all humor gone and now fixated on the boy in front of him.

Keith grazed his fingers barely touching Lance's cheek. They trailed up to his hairline and disappeared under the beanie and into the mess of hair. He slowly slid the beanie off and marveled at the smooth gorgeous brown locks of hair.

Keith was speechless. He stopped and looked around the room finally spotting a pair of rectangular glasses. He picked them up carefully and unfolded them. Lance and his eyes met and Lance gave him the okay.

He slowly slid the glasses on the boy's face.

Lance seemed nervous and a little uncomfortable. Keith immediately felt bad, he needed to reassure Lance. "You're..."

Lance pursed his lips as he stared at Keith expectantly.

Keith wracked his brain to fill in the gap. "Fucking adorable."

Well shit.

"Adorable?" Lance deadpanned.

"Y-yeah." Keith felt his cheeks go warm and looked away.

"Well that's a blow to my masculinity." Lance sighed.

"What? Men can't be adorable?" Keith chuckled. "You don't think I'm adorable?" Keith pushed out his lower lip slightly.

He watched Lance's eyes flick down to the pouty lip and back up.

Keith smirked and kicked his lips. "Okay so what's better than adorable?"

"Oh, I don't know..., handsome? Good looking? Hot? Sexy?" He gave a little eyebrow wiggle at the last one, clearly joking.

"Okay Lance," Keith gave a mischievous smile and looked the boy up and down leaning in slightly. "You're fucking sexy." He said in a lowered voice.

Lance's cheeks turned a bright cherry red and it traveled up his ears and over the bridge of his nose. "What the quiznack Keith..." he mumbled in embarrassment looking away.

Keith tilted his head trying to meet Lance's gaze. "What? You said it yourself you preferred it."

"Not from you!" He squeaked.

"Oh, but I think you liked it all the same." Keith smirked.

"You're a dumbass! What makes you think you ca-" Lance began to rant before he was so rudely cut off.

Keith swooped in and pushed his lips into Lance's roughly. Lance was frozen with wide eyes staring the the emo kid in front of him.

Keith was shooting his shot and he wasn't backing down. He worked his jaw taking in every moment of it.

Lance's eyes fluttered shut and he slowly began to match Keith who was preoccupied trailing his hands up into Lance's wavy hair and pulling at his waist to draw him closer.

Lance ran his hands across Keith's chest and over his shoulders draping his arms around his neck to make sure he wasn't going anywhere. Though, of course, Keith didn't plan on it.

He moved up planting small gentle kisses across Lance's freckles and continued to play with his hair.

When Keith was sure he had managed to make contact with every freckle, he pulled back to look at Lance. "So can I still keep waking you up?"

"Or you can come at a human hour of the night." Lance scowled. "But I'll be less mad if you wake me up for this."