disclaimer: I do not own VLD.
a/n: immediate follow up to hollow places.
"It was an honor flying with you boys."
The words haunt him long after they've pulled from Zarkon's claw machine beam, but his anger still boils and boils and boils until it's overflowing by the time he slides from his lion and makes his way for Keith's hangar.
Lance yanked his helmet off of his head and sprinted down the hallway, ignoring Pidge and brushing off Hunk's hand that tried to still him. He wasn't going to let them talk him down - wouldn't risk that chance. He had words for the Garrison dropout and no force on Earth, Altea, or Arusa was going to stop him. Not even the sight of Shiro standing next to Keith, casually talking and nearly vibrating with the excitement of success, detoured him.
"Keith."
His voice sounded hoarse and he hated the way it breaks off, but at least the sound is angry and raw enough to make the other two paladins startle. Lance lifted his helmet and spiked it hard toward Keith's chest.
In an effort to catch it, Keith dropped his own helmet and let it awkwardly bounce against the hard, metal floor.
Shiro stretched his arm out between them. "Lance!"
Keith wavered only for a moment before a light of fury sparked in his eyes. Lance was weirdly proud of it, Keith and the Red Lion had quick and raging tempers, but it took an equal force to shake them up and get them to lash out. With all of the forces they were suddenly acquainted with, it was him that could easily get under Keith's skin and cause such a reaction.
It served him right for forgetting that Lance was his rival at the Garrison.
"What's your deal?" Keith's eyes darkened as he threw Lance's helmet back to him, with a force that would have normally winded Lance if he wasn't bent on knocking Keith on his ass.
He didn't answer, just tossed his helmet to the side and dove forward. Keith met him halfway. His feet slid as he tried to find purchase on the slick floors and pushed his weight back into Keith. Their knees knocked together as they fought for the upper hand. Keith lifted his foot and hooked it around Lance's leg, trying to move fast enough to get the taller one of the two on the ground. His leg somehow managed not to cave like it did every time Shiro had them train together. In one moment, Lance had kept Keith held back with one arm just as he started to curl his hand into a fist when they were suddenly yanked away from each other.
The force rattled him as he crashed backward onto the floor, landing hard - derailed from his white, hot anger to see Shiro glaring down at him as he held Keith back. "We just managed to accomplish something great together for the first time. I don't know what's gotten into you, Lance, but this isn't how a team's supposed to act."
He narrowed his eyes and hissed, "Maybe you should talk to him about how a team's supposed to act."
Keith was breathing hard as he struggled against Shiro. "How I'm supposed to act?! You just tore down here to crack my skull open with your helmet, Lance. It wasn't the other way around."
Lance stood quickly, causing his blood to rush loudly in his ears. It made him a little nauseous after their fight, but he stamped the feeling down. "You were the only that pulled that 'It's been an honor flying with you boys' crap. How's that being a team player? Or do you just make it a habit to never see anything through?"
Shiro's hand came up to Lance's chest, the Galra metal of his arm scraping against his chest plate. "Lance, that's enough."
He looked down, suddenly nose to nose with Keith despite Shiro's effort. Lance felt his anger finally snap, his words coiling deep in his belly before they lashed out in a voice he didn't recognize. "You threw away your progress at the Garrison and you nearly pulled the same stunt here. Perfectly content with throwing your life away like it doesn't matter."
Footsteps coming from behind him echoed in his head in time to his pulse, but he refused look away, didn't even blink because it would mean conceding some sort of defeat and he wasn't about to lose another challenge to Keith. He felt more than saw someone charging forward from the group, the demanding click of Allura's heels giving her away.
"Shiro, what's the meaning of this?! What's going on?"
If sense had come back to him even for a moment, he would have been mildly nervous about the powerhouse princess coming from his blindside.
"No, stay back. I've got this." Shiro shook the two teens, but their eyes never strayed from each other. "You two have five minutes to sort this out and when I come back, nobody had better split anyone's skull."
Lance growled, "Fine."
Keith bit out his words, straining against Shiro's hold. "I'm not making any promises."
"Keith."
"Five minutes." Shiro looked between them, slowly taking away his hands and watching them. Seemingly satisfied that they didn't go for the others' throat right off, the older man stepped away and turned on the rest of the team. "Pidge and Hunk, hit the showers. Now."
Lance's entire body shook, his breaths ragged and thin as he heard Coran try to break the tension with some quip about relaxing. He nearly lunged forward again when Keith broke eye contact to look over Lance's shoulder.
The second the door at the end of the corridor shut behind Shiro and Allura, Keith's eyes were back on him with an intensity he hadn't seen before. "You want to tell me what your problem is? Not that I need a reason to kick your a-"
"You gave up!" Lance shoved Keith back a few steps. "We're teenagers - we're supposed to think we're somehow immortal and that we can cheat death and that we can handle anything. How did you miss that memo?"
"Why does it bother you?! Everyone else was saying something similar, even Shiro. Why was I different?"
"Because it's you! You're one of the best pilots of your age and you act like it's nothing. You shuttle yourself out to the freaking desert living some stupid hermit crab half-life-"
"It's not hermit crab, you idiot, it's just her-"
"That's not the point!"
The point was that Keith's voice had cracked when he said it and the quiet static the followed in Lance's headset had been enough to make him sick. A definitive that Keith wouldn't fight back - that he wasn't going to because it wasn't exactly a secret that Keith was a loner and didn't bother to make any friends at the Garrison. Why he didn't bother to remember Lance or anyone. Didn't bother to really take note that his existence meant more than just being another soldier that took orders and still meant something more when he wouldn't.
Lance's vision swam again as swung his arms out, checking his wrist against Keith's shoulder. "Shiro and everyone else have fought for something before now. You can't just lay down and let stuff like that happen! Imagine someone back home having to get the letter that you weren't coming back!"
"Are you serious right now?" Keith shoved Lance back a few steps and growled into the vaulted ceiling before following after Lance to swipe his legs out from under him. He stood over the other Paladin splayed out on the floor, reaching down after a minute to yank Lance up by the neck of his chest plate. "If you know so much about me or even tried to think about your words before they flew out of your big mouth, you'd get the picture that maybe that's not the case for me. There isn't anyone back on Earth to address that letter to or would feel even the slightest bit sad."
Lance swore and dug his fingers into Keith's hand, prying them off of his suit as he stood back up and pushed Keith back again. "That's a lame excuse and you know it. And you're just going to have to get used to some changes, drop out. You're part of a team and team's lookout for each other and I'm not about to let you act like some angst-ridden teenager that thinks he's too cool for friends or goes around being indifferent to death. Not having anyone back home, isn't on you, that's their fault."
Keith narrowed his eyes and huffed, "I don't need your pity and if that's all this conversation was going to be about, you have 30 seconds before I chuck your helmet into your skull."
"Family isn't just blood, y'know. For some people it's everything but that. You've made your life and now you have to live with it, I don't pity you." Lance took a deep breath, the sound rattling in his chest as his mind tingled unpleasantly. He rested his hands on his knees and closed his eyes for a moment. When he looked back up, Keith shifted his weight, clearly waiting for another attack while Lance was probably dying.
He huffed a laugh and shook his head. "I'm not going to fight you, so you can stand like a normal human being again."
"Why should I trust you?"
Lance sighed as he willed his knees not to give out under him (he probably should have gotten his head checked before coming after Keith, but dealing with a possible concussion was definitely on the back burner when he landed Blue). "Fair point."
Keith rolled his eyes and stepped up, curling his hand under Lance's arm and gruffly pulling him up. "Next time you want to initiate stupid crap like this, make sure you're not bleeding internally or something. If I'm going to kick your butt, it's going to be fair and square."
"Yeah, ri-IGHT."" Lance tripped over his sluggish feet and yelped as he pitched forward.
A hand was curled around the cuff of his armor in the nick of time, lifting him away from the floor, then pushing him further down the hall. "The last thing we need is Shiro walking back in here to find your nose broken and blood all over the floor." Keith sighed and scrubbed his hands over his face. "You're going to drive me insane."
Lance laughed, coughing as his throat hitched. "Yeah, well, if that happens it means you'll just have to face the fact that you've got four team mates and two super old aliens that care whether you're around or not. Your lone wolf days are over."
He saw Keith pause, only long enough for him to swallow thickly and for something else to flash in his eyes. Lance felt his mind lag for the first time in coming after Keith. The quiet that felt like five minutes passed for two second before he was back to being shoved through the doors and nearly into Shiro where he waited leaning against the wall.
"Next time, just say that instead of challenging me when you're injured, genius."
a/n: originally posted to my tumblr: alluran.