His Mom Back Home
Lance was pretty tired of seeing nothing but stars and space ships trying to kill him and his friends. It was really a downer considering he should be out exploring the cosmos for new worlds to brag about back home.
"Oh really? You guys were able to land a ship on Venus? I FOUGHT ALIENS IN SPACE WITH A GIANT BLUE CAT!"
He snickered at the thought and imagined the look on his fellow cadets faces as he would tell them all about his space odyssey. How he met an alien princess named Allura and fought the evil Zarkon with his fellow Paladins.
But then he thought about one person in particular: his mom.
Now he wasn't about to admit it to all his friends, but out of everyone he missed back home on Earth he missed his mom the most. She was the one who fueled his love of space and his curiosity of the unknown. His father gave him his love of flying and encouraged him to be the best he could, while his mother encouraged him to follow his heart and to not let anyone tell him he was worthless.
"She'll probably have a heart attack when I tell her about my space adventure." Lance chuckled softly as he polished his Bayard. "Knowing my luck, I'll probably get grounded until I'm married."
Lance felt a hand rest on his shoulder and he yelped in surprise, he turned his head around to see Pidge staring at him with curiosity.
"What're you mumbling about all by yourself?"
Regaining his composure the best he could, Lance sighed and gave his friend a smile. "Just thinking about everyone back home."
"Oh. Are you thinking about anyone in particular? Because I thought you said something about a woman before I entered the room." Pidge questioned as she sat down beside him with her own Bayard. She must've brought hers down to clean it too.
Lance shrugged his shoulders, "It's nothing really. I guess I'm just being nostalgic and home sick."
"I get that. I miss my family too...I think about my mom and how worried she must be about me. Considering she believes my father and brother are dead: she might think she's lost her daughter too." Pidge stated with a tinge of guilt in her voice. "I should've left her some kinda message but I didn't."
This was the first time Pidge was really interacting with Lance and he didn't know how to process it exactly. It was like she was opening up to him for the first time and he was expected to reciprocate her feelings. But something was holding him back, so he stayed silent until she was finished speaking.
"Do you know how it feels to miss someone so badly that you'd do anything to have one moment of happiness with them Lance?" Pidge finally asked softly after being silent for several minutes.
Lance's eyes widened as the first person that popped in his mind was his mother. With her beautiful soft skin and chocolate brown hair. Her eyes matching his own and her soft smile she gave him as she beckoned him inside after a long day out at the beach. Just the image of his mother made him want to start crying. But the thing that really tugged at his own heartstrings was her warm hugs she gave him before going to bed every night. She would hold him close and tell him that she loved him more than anything else in the world. Even if she was angry at him, she would never deny him their ceremonial hug when bedtime rolled around.
"Lance?"
The Blue Paladin shook himself out of his thoughts and saw Pidge was looking at him with concern, "Huh?"
"Did your brain malfunction or something?" Pidge teased as she gave him a playful punch to the shoulder. "Come on, spill the beans."
Lance didn't want to tell his friends how homesick he was, he thought he would seem totally uncool and lame. But this was Pidge he was talking to and he remembered his words back at the academy before they were thrown into their space adventure: If they were going to bond as a team they couldn't have any secrets.
"OK don't laugh at me, but I really miss my mom right now too. I miss the way she laughed and how she would tell me stories about her hiking trips out in the mountains. Even though we're an ocean family, she preferred to have her feet planted firmly on the ground in the great forest a few miles from where we live. Even though my dad was a huge part of my life, my mom made the groundwork of everything I am." Lance admitted as he gave a sigh of defeat.
Pidge was silent but he could tell that she was intrigued to learn more, so he continued on like he never stopped at all. "She told me that the ocean and space weren't that different from each other. They're both huge bodies of mystery and wonder waiting to be explored with many secrets waiting to be discovered."
"She sounds like a wonderful woman." Pidge complimented as she rested her Bayard on her lap, "she must've really loved exploring."
Lance laughed softly, "Where do you think I get it?"
"Have you talked to anyone else about this? Or am I special."
Her question threw Lance off guard as he looked at her with widen eyes, "What?"
"Do I need to repeat myself you dolt?"
"No. I heard you, I just didn't process what you said." Lance said honestly.
Before Pidge could hit him upside the head with her cloth, Lance caught her wrist in midair and smiled at her. Catching the Green Paladin off her guard.
"Yeah. You're the first one I've told about my mom." Lance answered, lowering her hand down and placing it back on her lap.
Pidge looked at him with confusion, "But why?"
"Despite my flamboyant and charming nature, I'm not really the open book when it comes to my family. I like to keep that part of my life a little more personal if you can understand that." The Blue Paladin shrugged his shoulders. "Also I don't want to make the others worry about me when we're fighting Zarkon."
Pidge gave him a soft grin, "Too late for that. You almost died saving Coran from a exploding crystal."
"Yeah I guess I do like to flirt with doom a little bit too often."
"You flirt all the time whether you realize it or not."
"Oh. Do I flirt with you?"
Pidge blushed slightly, "In your dreams Romeo."
"Pidge do you honestly think I should tell the others about how I'm feeling right now?" Lance asked flatly as his tone shifted from playful to serious.
He could tell his question threw her off guard as she shifted her weight, "I mean...it's up to you when you're ready to tell everyone about this. I'm not really sure why you're asking me."
"Well you're the one who hid the fact you're a woman from the academy and from us. You didn't trust me and Hunk when you arrived in our group that you were a girl. Even though this isn't the same thing, it's still the same type of situation almost."
Pidge went silent from his statement and turned her head away in slight shame. Because even though she trusted this blue dork with her life, she did lie to him and everyone for the longest time about who she really was. Even if half of them figured out she was a woman.
"I think you should do what you think is best." Pidge finally stated after a while. "I don't want you bottling this up any longer, but I can't force you to make a decision either."
Lance looked at her for a while and then looked away back at his Bayard. "Sorry for bringing that up but I guess I'm just really emotional right now. It messes with my head."
"Why don't you tell me more about your mom. I want to learn more about the infamous Blue Paladin's roots." Pidge asked as she surprisingly placed her hand on his that rested on the seat.
Lance smiled at her. He was glad she was there to listen to his rambling and he was glad that they were close enough to actually be physically touching like this. Before it was normally just a slap of irritation or a reassuring gesture on the shoulder. But this time they were holding hands and it felt like he was safe and welcomed to speak his mind.
Behind the wall, Allura and Coran were hiding and listening in the best they could without being caught.
"Princess, should we really be listening in on them? This seems rather intrusive." The advisor whispered to Allura.
Allura closed her eyes and turned away. "You're right Coran. We should be more respectful than this. Pretend you never heard anything and wait till Lance tells us about his feelings on his own terms and out in the open."
So the two walked away as quietly as they could while the Green and Blue Paladins sat hand in hand talking about Lance's mother far away on a distant planet they called home.