Sorry for any spelling mistakes made because it is almost 1am and I am too tired to check but I hope you enjoy
It wasn't prominent at first. Lance barley paid any attention to it and with the whole "saving the universe" thing, it wasn't like he had the time to address it properly anyways. But, like many things, as the time passed that…unusual feeling only grew, although it wasn't until one night after a taxing mission that it hit him full swing.
Lance had just returned from the showers, exhausted to the point that one look at his bed was all it took for him to go climbing under the blankets and rest his tired body. He was the last of the paladins to have retired to their rooms for the night due to his skin care routine. Which was one he wouldn't dare miss a night of, no matter how he felt. So with the castle already asleep and no further distractions Lance slid under the cool blankets but it hit him a moment later. A strange weight settled in his chest. It was not heavy and crushing like that from anxiety or fear. Yet it was not completely light either. It felt like a large ball of cotton resting in his chest. Pushing against his ribs and heart. It was an odd and uncomfortable feeling yet he knew what it was right away.
No one had to guess that Lance came from a particularly large family. With his loud and enthusiastic yet caring personality, it rarely came as a surprise. Back at home, Lance had always been surrounded by people. Whether that be his parents and siblings or other relatives who visited them frequently he never went a day with a dull moment. He always found himself conversing with an aunt or uncle or outside playing with younger siblings and cousins. Lance was the kind of person who thrived around people and hugs. He had the charm to make even the saddest person grin or the most anxious person calm and it was something he valued greatly about himself. However in space it was different. Sure they had met many different species over their short time so far as paladins but it wasn't the same as it was back home. Lance found that majority of the time the other paladins were too wound up to crack jokes around as all he received were groans or glares. Hugs and simple forms of physical contact that were present in everyday life, vanished at the responsibility of protecting the universe. Many different aliens they met didn't understand the human ways of joking and showing ways of kindness, so the skills Lance once prided himself on became as useless as trying to light a fire underwater. That didn't mean that his team mates were ever rude to him. Not, quite the opposite actually. But the life Lance was so used to and functioned on, was gone. Left on Earth like many other things.
The very thought of his family only strengthened that cottony feeling in his chest. It wasn't homesickness. No. It was the craving for some form of physical contact. A simple hug would be all it would take to quench it. But aside from Hunk, none of the others were touchy-feely people and Hunk had been busy assisting Pidge with some sort of reparse as of late.
Lance sat back up and pulled his knees to his chest. Tears that he had kept trapped for so long threatened to burst from the cell he had held them in. Sometimes he forgot that, aside from Shiro, they were all still just teenagers. Just a few kids who were unprepared to grow up so soon yet had to anyways. Forced to ignore the problems that happen to every teenager and focus on the wellbeing of hundreds of thousands out there in the universe. They couldn't even afford a moment of selfishness in case they ruin all that they are trying to protect. Simple feelings like love and safety thrown to the side. Lance hadn't meant to bottle everything up but the feeling that plagued his body right then reviled to him how much he had stored away. Every tear he held was another thought or emotion he had pushed to the side. And then just as easily as he had stored them up, they all fell apart. Tears treading paths down his cheeks. His body beginning to shake as he let all of the pressure that had been hovering over him fall from his shoulders. It felt good. He wouldn't deny it. Lance didn't move to cover his face nor go to wipe the tears from his skin as if they were a mistake needing to be erased. Because it felt right to cry at that moment. To just steal a fraction of time and use it for himself. To be selfish for a second and let everything he had been unable to acknowledge, fall before him. His worry for his family, his anger at no longer being able to feel the comfort of safety or the guarantee to confess to the one he loved. The sadness over the life he had come to loss and the happiness at the new family he had gained through it all.
It all fell in the shape of multiple salty tears, each one relieving a weight that Lance had not known he had been carrying. He recalled his mama once telling him that crying was not a thing to be ashamed of because sometimes it was the best way to let go of emotions that had stuck themselves tightly around your heart. It was not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength for being able to be brave enough to present some of your most closed off feelings to a world that was quick to judge.
So as Lance cried and sobbed, he did not feel ashamed or embarrassed because as the minutes begun to pass, that lighthearted feeling he had lost back on Earth begun to fill in the holes left by his once trapped emotions and thoughts. Lance felt more like himself than he had in a while. His confidence strengthened, his smile brightened. But that odd pressure in his chest still remained.
A hesitant knock echoed from Lance's door. The boy looked up with wide eyes.
"Come in?" he called uncertainly.
A moment passed when nothing happened before the doors slid open and a short, ghostly figure with a horrifyingly unfashionable mullet filled the gap between the hallway and bedroom. Keith stared down at Lance with owl like eyes. Even from where he stood, the red paladin could see the tear marks shining against Lance's tanned skin. He shuffled from foot to foot for a moment, turning his gaze to the floor.
"I thought I heard noises coming from your room so…I just wanted to make sure you were okay?" he said almost unsure of his own explanation.
Lance stared up at him without a word before a broad grin pulled at his lips and crinkled the skin around his eyes. He sniffed whilst wiping the snot from his nose. "I'm all good mullet, honestly though you were the last person I expected to come knocking on my door," he teased watching as Keith's eye narrowed down at him at the last part of his comment.
"You know I don't actually hate you as much as you think I do right?" Keith scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "Sure you irritate me to no end but that doesn't mean I don't like you."
Lance paused and raised an eyebrow whilst staring up expectedly at the other. Keith frowned even more, Lance's expression sending his heart into a flutter.
"Well look, you were obviously crying so," he hesitated, "so do you want to talk about it? It's all cool if you don't."
The thick feeling in his chest tugged at the question and Lance knew it was now or never. "Well-I-uh…I think all I really need right now is a hug," he felt himself cringe at the answer. "I mean you don't have to! I just-"
Lance didn't have time to finish before Keith had moved forward and wrapped his arms around Lance's torso, pulling him against his chest. Lance's eye went wide and he sat there in surprise in Keith's arm but the other didn't threaten to let go at the other's reaction. A comfortable warm melted away the cottony feeling in the blue paladin's chest as the he felt himself relax into Keith's embrace.
This was he had needed. He had wanted. Just that simple contact from someone he loved. To feel safe and warm in someone else's arms. What luck it had just been Keith to show up at his door at the time he needed him the most. Lance knew about the way he felt for the teenager in front of him, but now of all times was not one to admit it out loud. For now all either of them needed was one another beside each other. Lance laid his head in the crook of Keith's neck, wrapping his arms around his waist as the other removed a hand and ran it gently through the blue paladin's short, brown hair. It was exactly as he imagined it, soft and silky. No surprise there considering the way Lance was when it came to taking care of himself.
The two sat with one another for a while before deciding to lay down on the bed. Lance felt the final of his worries and troubles drain from his body as exhaustion and comfort lulled him into a peaceful slumber. Keith followed not long after. His heart lighter than it had been in months. Sometimes people just need a little help from one another to quell the things that trouble them. And that is one of the bravest things as person can do, to ask for help in a time of need.
Crying doesn't make a person weaker and neither does asking or acception help. Because those are some of the things that can make a person stronger through the toughest times of their life.