Too much space brings too much quiet. There were cycles of light in the Castle of Lions to mimic days; brighter during the 'day', dimmer during the 'night'. It helped to promote a sleep cycle among the small group of inhabitants. The cycle was set in a 24 hour cycle for its Earth inhabitants. Alteans did not require as much sleep as humans did. Landing on a planet would disrupt that cycle as each planet had their own rotation, moons, and suns. Some were always cast in night and others were always cast in sun. During a planned landing, such a thing occurred.
On the planet Orun, one day was 50 hours rather than Earth's 24. The people of this planet only required a measly 2 hours of sleep. They were active the remaining 48. Allura and Coran had a slightly difficult time of explaining to the Orun diplomats that the paladins could not function on two hours of sleep. They set a schedule to put aside some downtime for them so they could be at their optimal.
After they left, this schedule left a mark on the paladins, but each in their own way. Shiro and Hunk were able to sleep as normal since Shiro was trained to sleep anywhere anytime and Hunk could just sleep whenever he felt like it. Pidge was an insomniac and so never really slept. She kept her time by tinkering in her lion's den. Keith trained hard to wear himself out. And Lance... Well...
The Castle was quiet as it hurtled through space. With the paladins off doing their own thing and Allura and Coran piloting the Castle, the lonely, dim halls only heard the hum of the Castle's core.
Until Lance came sliding down a hallway in socks...
He wore his blue sleep pants and a blue tank top to match. In his hand was a portable music player, which had a wire going to his ears to end in ear buds. The wire swung as he slid to a stop and raised him arms into the air. Step, step, pivot. His arms came down and he stepped again into an arabesque. He gracefully balanced his body as he slowly lowered his arm to touch the ground, his left leg straight up behind him, foot pointed. He swooped back up, his back arcing, both arms rounding above his head. His free foot slid over the ground to point in front of him, toe barely touching the floor. He came back into an upright position, arms floating down to his sides to meet at his abdomen. He stepped onto his pointed foot, step step step, before he burst into a sashay and leaped into the air. His legs split, back straight, and arms out at his sides. As he looked down to make his landing, he saw Keith standing there with a juice pouch.
Lance yelped as he spoiled the landing, tripping over his foot in surprise. He fell face forward into the floor and slide a couple feet before coming to rest at Keith's feet. One of his ear buds popped out in the impact. He heard Keith slurp through the straw of his juice pouch, the only sound in the hallway.
One, two, three...
Launching back to his feet, his free ear bud swinging across his chest, Lance stared at Keith for a long moment. Keith blinked first and pulled the straw away from his lips. He was about to speak before Lance panicked and yelled "I WASN'T DANCING."
Blinking again, Keith said, "I didn't say you were." Lance could hear the smirk in his voice and narrowed his eyes. That sneaky bastard better not tell anyone else...
"Well, I wasn't."
"Care to explain what all," Keith swirled his freed hand in the air, "that was?"
"I was practicing a new fighting technique."
"Is that so?"
"It is so," Lance proclaimed as he set his hands upon his hips.
Keith raised an eyebrow, knowing the lie for what it was. He shrugged. Placing the straw back in his mouth, Keith took another loud slurp as he walked past Lance. Before he got too far away, he removed the straw from his mouth and said, "You forgot to point your left foot during your leap."
Lance whirled around wildly, glaring at Keith's back. A blush formed across his cheeks, "MY LEFT FOOT WAS SO POINTED."
He couldn't see Keith's smirk as he continued to walk away.
