"He what?! How bad is it?" Shiro asked, his dad side coming into play.

Keith brushed him off, taking a seat at the counter. "It's not deep or anything, he doesn't need stitches." He explained.

Shiro let out a breath of relief. He knew that Keith had a good handle on what qualified for stitches, after how many times he had gotten them.

A few minutes later, Lance made his way down the stairs and into the kitchen. "You should really get a new book shelf." He mutter while sitting next to Keith at the counter and staring at his gauze covered arm.

"It's on the to do list." Keith said with a shrug.

"Keith, it's been on the 'to do list' for three years." Shiro said, pointing the spatula he was using at him.

Holding his arms up in defense, Keith said, "I never said it was high up on the to do list!" He said, trying to justify it.

Shiro playfully rolled his eyes and went back to cooking dinner. After a few minutes, he decided to speak up. "So Keith tells me that you're fighting with a friend?" He asked, probably not using the most sensitive way to bring it up, but he didn't really care at that point. He could clearly tell that Lance was distressed, he hadn't even noticed his arm was gashed open!

Lance shot a look at Keith, who just held his hands up again. "He's my brother, I kind of tell him everything." He said.

Lance huffed, but didn't say anything.

"If you want to talk about it, I'm always here to listen." Shiro said, turning to face the two boys at the counter.

Lance, once again, stayed quiet and avoided eye contact. He really didn't want to talk about it, let alone with someone he had just met a few days ago.

"Take it from me, Shiro is strangely good at the whole advise giving and fatherly guidance thing. It's a little terrifying sometimes." Keith spoke up, checking his phone and then leaving the kitchen to go up to his room. He figured that Shiro would have better luck with Lance if he wasn't in the room. Even if he was burning with curiosity as to what had caused the fight, he'd respect Lance's boundaries, at least this once.

Once Keith was gone, Shiro decided to gently prod Lance. "You don't have to tell me if you really don't want to, but just talking can help sometimes. It'll at least help you organize your thoughts." He said.

Lance seemed to think about it, before finally caving. He had a pretty good feeling that Shiro wasn't about to back down without a fight. "It was a stupid fight. She just wants to pretend she's my mother, all the time, and it's suffocating. I know she's just trying to help me, but it's not that big of a deal and last time I checked, I can take care of myself." Lance said, letting his annoyance show through in his tone. He had that bottled up for a little while and he really wanted to vent.

Shiro nodded thoughtfully, understanding both sides a little bit. "What is it that she wants to help you with?" He asked, wanting a better feel of the situation.

Lance immediately clammed up. He had only told Allura about his nightmares. Even if he had a strange trust towards Shiro, he wasn't about to spill that secret.

Obviously Shiro noticed. It worried him. What was so bad that he could tell him and shut him down that quickly? "Okay," He said slowly. "You don't need to tell me if you aren't comfortable, but if it's so bad you can't tell me, maybe you should let her help."

Stiffening at what he had just been told, he shot a glare at the older male. "It's not bad! And I really don't need her help. I've handled it before, so why wouldn't I be able to now?" Lance shot back, getting defensive.

Shiro realized that this was going to be more difficult than he had first thought. What ever the younger boy was going through, it was clearly putting a strain on him. "Did you handle it alone last time?" Shiro asked with a raised brow. He had to tread carefully, but also make Lance realize that maybe having his friend there for help would be the best option.

Lance scoffed and crossed his arms. He looked away, not wanting to admit that last time he had his family, Allura, and a therapist.

"Just because you've gone through something once, doesn't mean that the next time you can magically do it yourself. In some cases, yes, but from what it sounds like, that's not gonna work with you. Asking for help doesn't make you weak Lance, it makes you human." Shiro said, hoping to get through to Lance.

Lance definitely didn't want to admit it, but it was working. Between Shiro's fatherly aura, spot on advice, and Lance's lack of sleep, he was close to breaking. He could feel the tears welling up in his eyes as Shiro waited for him to say something.

"Lance, are-" Shiro started to say, but he was cut off.

"I w-was ten." Lance started. Shiro was dead silent. He could hear how close the boy in front of him was to breaking down. And yet he was still going. "We were told that it was faulty wiring that started it. It started in the basement and no one noticed it until the flames were already in the living room." He said, having to take a deep breath before he could keep going.

"I was sound asleep. I didn't have a clue until the fire was at my bedroom door. By then I had no way out. I was stuck. I thought I was going to die." Lance said, staring at his hands.

Shiro's breath had hitched at the beginning of Lance's story. He definitely had not been expecting that. He might of been friends with Lance's parents, but they weren't close friends by any means. More acquaintances that were brought together by their children's mutual destruction.

"But my older brother, he was only next door in his own room. When he noticed the fire, he immediately tried to find me. He was able to get me out, but... but..." He couldn't keep it up. The memory of Marco's face just before the roof had caved in on him, it was just to much for Lance.

Shiro was quick to pull him into a hug. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Lance's older brother hadn't made it out of that fire.

"I had really bad nightmares for a while afterwards. I got over them and they went away, but for some reason they're back and I haven't been able to get more than a few hours of sleep a night for... a really long time." Lance said, feeling fatigue start to set in, but knowing that with sleep came flames.

There wasn't much Shiro could do in that moment. He just held onto Lance, trying to be a substitute for the big brother he missed so much.