Freedom, Family. Running around in calming bright green meadows while butterflies flutter and crickets chirp. It was perfect, everything he had ever dreamed of it being. Closing his eyes he inhaled a deep breath and looked up at the sky, using all the imagination he could muster to find the various shapes hiding behind the clouds. His attention was brought back when a soft and kind voice rang out into the air, calling "Keith!" At the mention of his name, the boy turned to glance at his mother. She sat by his father on a very obnoxious looking red and white towel in front of a huge oak tree. He had always had a thing for oak trees, their scent and appearance calmed him greatly. Food littered the picnic blanket and it all looked so appetizing. The young boy quickly ran over as he heard the call of "Keith!" once more.

Sitting down he went to reach for a plate when his name was called once more, this one frantic. He looked up, slowly retracting his hand from where the plates were. He raised one of his eyebrows and suddenly felt worry bubble up in his stomach. "Yeah mom?"

"KEITH!" Suddenly she was on him, shaking the boy violently. Her teeth began to turn yellow and her face contorted into something impossible to describe. This woman was not his mother. Immediately he looked over to his dad to beg for help when he noticed the once happy man was now gone. "KEITH! GET UP!" He pushed the woman off him and ran as far as he could. As he ran he glanced up at the clouds once more before he jolted awake.

"Keith! Oh thank god you're awake. The guards are coming NOW. You need to get up and look presentable." The younger boy that Keith identified as his room mate Matt rushed out in an overly frantic voice. The older teen turned around to respond but flinched as the boring gray, too small and slightly ripped uniform was thrown toward his face. Not having the time to laugh at the moment, though they both really wanted to, got rid of their smirks and began to make Keith look presentable. Matt quickly brushed his knotty hair as Keith threw on the uniform as quickly as possible. Once they were done he glanced in the broken mirror to check.

"Not half bad." He mumbled, he looked as good as he could manage with the same unwashed torn clothes he's had all year. Quickly turning around he gave Matt a tight and grateful hug. "Thanks. I'm still barely healing from the last time I was late," He whispered as he almost physically winced at the memory. He nodded against Keiths shoulder as they quickly let go soon after. Matt looked well groomed and it was obvious that he was up earlier then usual to look good for that day. He was curious but didn't want to question it.

Not too long after the hug ended the door slid open, both Keith and Matt stood to attention and kept their eyes on the floor. Keith tried not to wince as his hair was grabbed and he was basically dragged to his morning job. "Listen up," The guard began as he let go of the younger boys hair. "We got a new prisoner in today. You need to go in to clean it up after we're done which should be in a few minutes. Until then you can just hang in there in the corner. Don't look at the prisoner while cleaning and most importantly don't talk. You think you can do that?" The Galra guard snarled out the last bit, re-saying the rules he had heard the few times he's had this job over his lifetime.

"Yes, sir." Keith mumbled, following the guard into the room. They were immediately met with the sound of screaming. It was obviously a young male and Keith tried not to cringe as he thought of how this boy, probably around the same age as him had ended up in a shithole place like a Galra ship.

"Now tell us, where the hell is your ship?" One guard asked, which was followed by a scream as they electrocuted the boy.

"I told you," The mysterious prisoner said with more resilience and pride then any prisoner he had seen in a long time "The only ship I have is that god damn thing I was flying when you all pulled me into this place."

This answer was only met with another scream as a very loud shocking sound emanated throughout the room. "Okay, we're obviously not getting anything out of it today." One of the guards participating in the torture said, turning to the man who brought Keith in this room. "Hey, you!"

Keith tried to keep voice steady as he stuttered out a barely loud enough "Y-Yes, sir?"

"Clean this thing up before we get back in a half an hour. Be sure to make it as painful as possible. Oh, and clean the room as well."

"Of course sir." He replied as emotionlessly as possible.

As the four guards quickly made their way out of the entrance the teen began to get to work. Of course however, the prisoner just HAD to make this harder on him as he began to whisper, the proud appearance slowly fading as he groaned in pain. "Hey so, looks like we're gonna be friends over the next half an hour."

Keith just kept working, ignoring the fellow teens comment as instructed. It was silent for a long time as the boy made his way throughout the room. Finishing it so it looked completely spotless only took about 10 minutes and then he moved onto the mystery boy. He grabbed a wet cloth and began to dab at the blood, trying as hard as possible to make it the least painful that he could. "Your name?" The boy said, though it was so quiet he barely heard "Mine's Lance McClain." Why he was telling him when he wouldn't tell the guards remained a mystery to Keith, who ignored the boys words and moved the wet cloth to dab the sweat off of the boy he now knew as Lance's forehead. The silence was so loud that it hurt them both, Keith less though of course. The only noises being Keith's steady and Lance's ragged breathing and the sound of the wet towel going into the bucket and onto Lance's body once more.

The more that the mullet haired teen ignored the prisoner, the more the tension began to rise in Lance's body. After just a few more minutes he finally broke and turned to talk to Keith but was met with disappointment as the other boy wouldn't even meet his eyes. He just kept focusing on the area of the body he was washing and it annoyed Lance to no end. "I should've known that a Galra wouldn't bother taking their time to talk to me, I mean after all I'm just a basic prisoner for you all to toy with. Those god damn guards won't even refer to me as a person, I'm called an it. You probably think of me the same way. You're all the same." He snarled out, putting as much anger as he could into his tiny rant without actually raising his voice.

Finally, the servant boy responded with tightly clenched teeth and a deadly look in his eyes that Lance could see even though he still wasn't being looked directly at. "Don't you ever fucking compare me to one of them." With that the boy put down the towel back into the bucket as he checked the time. They both had decided they were done with each other and thankfully the second the bucket was back and he was back at the corner, the four guards re-entered the room.

"Get out." One snarled at him and he quickly nodded and made his way out the door, staring at his own feet as he walked back to his and Faith's quarters as fast as possible, being careful to not crash into anyone of course. He just really wanted to get back and lay down until they got him again for another job or for food.

He headed down one of the corridors and another and another until he had gone down about seven in the maze that was the servant quarters. He recognized his room immediately and opened the door sighed out a happy smile as he noticed that the lower bunk had a familiar figure laying upon it. Matt glanced over from reading his very old book he had stolen from the library when the door opened and returned the smile before looking back up at the bottom of Keith's bunk. "So, you've had an interesting day I assume?" He asked excitedly.

Though the teenager already felt that he knew the answer he still felt the need to ask. "How did you know?" He raised an eyebrow as the younger let out a laugh and looked at him once more. Keith took a seat on Matt's bed end. The brown, almost orange, haired boy sat up, sitting next to the other.

"Because," he said simply "I've known you since you were five. I can read you like a open book. We rarely get any gossip around here anyway." He said, with an overly dramatic serious face as he slammed his fist on the thin sheet lining the almost broken bed and sunken mattress. "Tell me."

"Okay, fine." Keith tried to sound annoyed as he said it but Matt knew him too well and knew he was barely suppressing his smiles and laughter at his antics. "So there's a new prisoner named Lance. Lance McClain to be exact."