“Hopefully, we’ll be able to ameliorate the castle’s engines with this. Number 1, hand me that wrench over there please.”

Coran had been keeping the paladins cooped up in the basement of the Castle of Lions for what seemed like hours now. At first, Coran had called them to help fix the engine, but now he’d shifted his focus from not just the engine, but to what seemed like improving the whole ship.

Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration. But to Lance, it felt like they’d been down in the basement for an eternity. He’d managed to avoid being called over to help most of the times, instead letting Shiro do most of the work. Did he feel guilty about it? Yes. Did he plan to go over there and help him? Absolutely not.

“Now, this tool is rather antiquated, so make sure you’re careful,” Lance heard Coran say to Shiro. The poor guy looked like he was ready for a nap, or at the very least some quality time to himself to relax. Still, Lance would rather throw himself out of the ship hanger before helping a living antique fix another antique.

Lance had taken refuge in the corner of the engine room. He kind of felt like he was in time out. He glanced at the other paladins, only to observe Shiro helping Coran (Lance still wasn’t going over there to help), Pidge in the adjacent corner making updates on Rover, Hunk standing over Coran and observing (observing being the key word), and Keith in the other corner glancing at his knife.

Lance’s heart hurt a little as he looked at Keith. He felt bad about arguing with him, but at the same time he didn’t want the raven-haired boy to know how jealous of him he was. Their relationship was absolutely amendable, but Lance’s pride wouldn’t allow for something like that.

Oh, and not to mention his enormous crush on Keith. That’s another thing his pride would never allow him to admit. The Cuban boy had almost instantly fallen for Keith at the Garrison, but once he saw how much Iverson favored Keith over him, he promised himself he’d get over him.

‘Yeah, how’s that working out for you?’ Lance though to himself bitterly. It’d been almost a year, and if anything, his feelings had only amplified. Every time Lance looked at Keith, he wished that things were different. He looked at his hair and wanted to card his fingers through them. He looked at his eyes and wondered what shade of gray they were up close. He looked at his lips and wondered how it would feel to touch them with his own.

While Lance was still staring, Keith finally looked up from his knife and caught him. Lance averted his eyes, and felt his face start to heat up.

“What?” Keith asked. There wasn’t so much anger in his voice, just confusion.

“N-nothing,” Lance stammered. He internally cursed himself for the stutter in his voice. “Wouldn’t you like to know, Mullet.”

Keith stormed to his feet. “Lance, what is your problem?! I’ve tried to be nice to you, but every time I try you do nothing but insult me! You know what, I’m done!” He stormed out of the room, his footsteps feeling like mini earthquakes to Lance, who was on the ground feeling the vibrations.

Lance watched with guilt as he started at Keith’s retreating figure. He regretted the comment as soon as it left his mouth. His rational side was saying to chase after him and apologize, but on the other hand, his dumb pride was getting in the way.

The blue paladin flinched when he saw the death glare that Shiro was giving him. Pidge and Hunk had stopped what they were doing to give Lance ‘the look’; the look of antipathy, which basically means ‘Lance you screwed up go fix it’.

“Lance, go apologize,” Shiro said in his dad voice. Now, Lance knew he was screwed. Shiro only used his dad voice when someone had seriously messed up.

“Yeah Lance,” Pidge added, “can’t you throw away your pride for one minute and go be a non-jerk to Keith?”

“What’s your deal with him anyways?” Hunk asked. “I mean, I know we were at the Garrison with him, but did something happen between you two? Can’t’ you just try to be amenable with Keith?”

“Why do you care so much?” Lance retorted.

“You know, come to think of it,” Coran started, stroking his mustache inquisitively, “you are the antithesis of Keith.”

“How so?” Shiro asked.

“Well, Keith is calm, collected, serious, and great with a sword. Meanwhile, Lance is wild, goofy, impulsive, and mediocre with a blaster.”

“Hey!”

“You know, come to think of it, Coran’s right, Lance.” Pidge put down Rover and went over to the Cuban boy, who was still sulking in the corner. “Just please go apologize,” they added exasperatedly.

Lance could feel the pink tint return to his face at the thought of being lectured by Pidge. PIDGE of all people, the one who normally played pranks with him and laughed at his stupid jokes.

“I agree with the small one, Number Three,” Coran said, addressing Lance in his favorite nickname. “You should go apologize to Keith for your amoral behavior.”

“F-fine.”

‘Great, now the antiquity’s lecturing me,’ Lance thought to himself.

As soon as Lance was gone, Coran said with a smile, “Ah, young love. It’s nice to know that even Earth people are susceptible to amorous desire.”

“Say’s Allura’s ancillary.”

“Pidge, no.”

“Oh no it’s the dad voice, you better start running Pidge,” Hunk said.

And so, that’s how Lance ended up wandering the vast rooms of the castle, searching for his longtime crush in the vast sea of never-ending doors and hallways. Lance makes a mental note to probably start writing his last will and testament now, just in case he doesn’t make it back.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he heard what sounded like a small sniffle. He followed the sound down the corridor, the sounds gradually getting louder with every step. The sounds led him to one of the many rooms on the hallway. Once Lance got to the door, he noticed that the sliding doors hadn’t closed all the way. The small aperture in the door was letting a small amount of light come into the room.

That small amount of light was just enough for Lance to stick his head into the doorway and let his eyes land on a shaking figure in the corner. As subtlety as he could possibly be, he made his way into the room. Judging from the number of dusty boxes, Lance guessed that it must have been some sort of storage room.

He made his way to the corner, where Keith was huddled into himself. Lance had never felt more guilty in his entire life. Quietly, Lance made his way to sit down next to the Red Paladin.

They were side by side, on the ground in the corner. If Keith had noticed Lance’s presence, he certainly didn’t show it. Lance knew he needed to apologize, but he had no idea how; so right now, he did the only thing he could think of to make this situation better.

With a shaky hand, Lance gently placed his hand on Keith’s back, rubbing small circles. It’s what he did when his little sibling used to cry. Good thing is, it seemed like it was working.

Slowly, Keith’s sniffling ceased, and he raised his head to look at Lance. His gorgeous eyes were a bit puffy, and his normally pale white face hadn’t gotten rid of all the red yet. Even though Lance was the reason for his sadness, he still looked at him looked at Lance with trust; that itself made Lance want to cry too.

“Why do you hate me?” Keith asked, his voice wavering.

“I don’t hate you.”

“Then what was that back there?”

And Lance told him the truth. He told Keith things that he’s wanted to tell him for months. He told him about Iverson, the jealousy, the self-consciousness, and the crush. By the end of Lance’s confession, they were both in tears. “I’m sorry for being such a jerk.” Lance wiped a tear from his eye.

“It’s okay,” said Keith. He’d sort of calmed down at this point, and he scooted closer to Lance. “I like you too.”

Keith and Lance weren’t really sure how long they stayed in the storage room. All they know is that they were holding each other close, enjoying the moment as long as they could. One thing they were sure of was that they both left that storage room with dry eyes and intertwined hands.

And in all honesty, that’s all they really cared about.