Thank You
Prompt: Lance getting thanked by a random alien and he just breaks into happy tears and the team is like "?"
Another planet, another Galra colony to put down. "Lance! Keep up, idiot!" Keith hissed over the comms, causing the Blue Paladin to flinch. "I'm trying, but we can't all be close range fighters, mullet." He grumbled quietly, shooting more androids and ducking to avoid a shot to the head. Vaguely, he wondered if the others would even care if he died. Probably not, they never seemed to want him around lately. Anything he did got a groan or a grumble or a glare, especially from the Princess or Keith.
Pidge seemed to be irritated with him just breathing lately, always growling at him to shut up and let her work or leave her alone whenever he tried to get her to rest from working on whatever code she was cracking or upgrade she was trying out on Green.
Shiro just flat out ignored him, too busy talking attack plans with Allura or training with Keith, or bonding with his Lion. Sure, occasionally he'd be… okay, with Lance nearby, always trying to offer a polite smile or a soft reprimand that some jokes weren't appropriate for the time being, but it wasn't like they were buddies or anything. Never speaking more than the bare minimum to make sure Lance still existed.
Hunk was trying to be there for his friend, but even he was often tired out by everything. All the fighting and repairing and more fighting was just draining for the Yellow Paladin. Hell, Hunk had even snapped at him once, after a terrible pun. He'd apologized right after, but the damage still stained Lance's heart.
Plus, if Keith noticed that Lance didn't respond back to his insults or challenges as much as before, he never said anything about it. He was probably relieved about it. Once, Lance heard him joke with the others about how nice and quiet it was that morning without Lance chattering away like an idiot. Coran had found Lance crying in his room after that day, like a concerned uncle.
Lance shook himself out of his thoughts and blasted through more Galran fleets, bursting into the prisoner camp and ushering everyone out and into Blue, whom he'd landed a few yards away. A young alien child with white skin and blue freckles over her tiny snub nose tripped, landing on the ground with a cry of pain and squeezing her three liquid silver eyes shut as she went sprawling, a tangle of four arms and two legs and a fluffy pale gray tail covered in black dirt. Lance's heart clenched, because the little one was the same size as his 4-year-old sister back on Earth, and he looked up to see an android aiming for the helpless child.
"NO!" Lance yelled, running forward and taking the beam to the shoulder as he fired back a return headshot, scooping up the child and hurrying back towards Blue. The prisoners were all settled in the lower room compartment of Blue's body, the alien child still clutching onto Lance and refusing to let go, whining at the dark red blooming over his suit and dripping onto his armor. He gritted his teeth and flew back to the village, as Shiro shouted orders for the others to obliterate the camp now, and getting confirmation from Pidge that everyone was out. For once, a total win.
The child whimpered, and Lance immediately began to hum softly to soothe the small creature, an automatic response one gained after soothing the nightmares and worries of younger siblings. The effect was nearly immediate; the child relaxed and buried her head into his chest. The comms were silent for once. Nobody yelling at him to shut up or be quiet or some other excuse to make him be silent. So, he kept humming.
When he landed back at the village, he carried the child out and watched the former prisoners reunite with their families, feeling a twinge in his heart at the thought of his own family back on Earth. God, he missed them. "Rina!" Someone called, and the child in his arms pulled her face from his neck and let out a sound between a mew and a chirp of excitement as an older, bigger female alien that looked extremely similar to the smaller alien pushed her way through the crowd, looking hopeful yet frantic, her movements tinged with worry. "Rina! Rina baby are you there?!" The alien called again, a louder mewing chirp responding from the baby in Lance's arms.
The mother pushed forward, her face falling in relief as she saw her baby in the hold of the Blue Paladin. Instead of blue freckles and spots, hers were golden orange. "Rina!" She rushed forward, the Blue Paladin allowing her to scoop up her child and spin her around, purring and chirping happily as her little Rina giggled at seeing her mother again. "Oh my sweet girl I thought you were gone for good- I'm so glad you're safe-" The mother was choked up with tears, ignoring the other Paladins moving closer to the scene in confusion. She whirled around and grabbed for Lance's hands with her other two arms, palms shaking as she smiled at him with such gratitude that he was tearing up too.
"Thank you. Thank you so, so much for saving my baby." The words were what did it. Tears started spilling down Lance's face as he grinned back. "Yeah! N-no problem!" He managed to say through the happy tears soaking his cheeks. The team were confused. Why was Lance crying? "I mean it. Thank you so much, I'm so glad you were there to protect her. If you hadn't- I might have never seen my girl again. So, thank you. I don't know how to repay you." The mother said gratefully, rocking her baby in her first set of arms as she shook Lance's hands with her second set.
Lance smiled, sniffling. "You don't have to, it's- Just being thanked for something like this is enough for me. You have no idea how long it's been since I heard those words. Or any nice words, for that matter." He confessed, forgetting that his team was only a few feet away, not noticing their suddenly tense postures or horrified faces as they absorbed his words. They never showed that they appreciated him. No wonder he hadn't been acting like himself lately.
Hunk, for one, felt like absolute shit as a best friend. What kind of best friend never said thank you when his pal tried to help him out with something? Every cooking attempt and conversation, trying to lighten the heavy mood that came with being in the middle of a war, and Hunk had never gone along with it. God, no wonder Lance had been so quiet lately. He didn't see the point in talking to anyone because they wouldn't respond or would just tell him to be quiet.
Keith also felt terrible. No wonder Lance never reacted to his insults or challenges like before, he didn't see the point in it if he was just going to be put down. He really was trying his best out here, and Keith just had to go on and call him names and derogatory terms and just be an asshole to someone he considered a teammate.
Pidge thought back to every time she'd ever yelled at Lance, or told him to shut up or be quiet, and realized that in most of those instances, Lance had been trying to help her. He'd pried her away from her computer in the dead of night just to get her to eat and sleep and shower and she felt absolutely horrible that she'd never thanked him for any of it. What kind of "little sister" was she, never thanking her older brother figure for taking care of her when she forgot?
Shiro felt as if he'd failed as a team leader. How had he not noticed Lance's feelings? Never showing Lance that he was an important part of the team, or thanking him for doing this even when he probably missed Earth and his family. Nice words? How long had it been since anyone ever said anything even remotely nice to Lance? Shiro couldn't remember and the realization nearly gave him a panic attack. He looked at his team, who all had the same look of awareness on their faces. Shiro nodded to them, before turning and marching over to their Blue Paladin.
"Hey, Lance?" Shiro called, as the Cuban teen turned to him. "Yeah, Shiro? What's up?" He asked, wiping away tear stains and flinching as he absently moved his injured shoulder. "I just wanted to say good job out there." The shock on Lance's face nearly made the Black Paladin flinch. Wow, they really hadn't been nice to Lance if that was the reaction he gave to praise. Well, if he had any say in it, they were going to fix that. "We should go get that shoulder of yours patched up. Can't have our sharpshooter without a working trigger arm, right?" He attempted to give a teasing, soft smile and the relief that flooded him when Lance smiled shakily back almost drowned him, settling all cold and soothing in his chest. They could fix this.
Pidge marched over and started asking about what he'd been humming on his way back from the camp as they walked to the Lions, Lance looking slightly amused as Pidge berated him for never singing sooner as he had a very good voice, Hunk chiming in confirmation from when they were kids. Even Keith joined in with a question about what kind of song it was, grumbling that Lance should sing more often if he was as great as Hunk said. The banter was light for once, and though Shiro didn't believe in God or anything like it, he prayed that everything would be okay from now on.
It would take a while for Lance to open back up a bit, as the team occasionally forgot themselves and nearly snapped at him now and then, but now it was always followed by apologies and a giant cuddle session, like a family. A space family, Lance joked at one point, as was rewarded with laughter and smiles and a happy, warm feeling in his chest. He was praised more, and his rivalry with Keith turned into more of a friendly challenge thing than a heated anger and angst festival, much to everyone else's relief.
And Lance? Well, now home didn't seem so far away. Because while home was still on Earth with his blood related family, he now had a space family to keep the cold homesickness a little more at bay.
"Thank you, Lance!"
/ sweats because what have I done I actually wrote a short fic by accident? SEE WHAT I DO WHEN I GET A GOOD PROMPT AND PUT ROCKABYE BY CLEAN BANDIT ON LOOP FOR NEARLY 2 HOURS- ugh, I need food, bye! And yeah the song Lance hummed was the song I listened to while writing this. It's really good and catchy and I sing it to my lil sis when she cries, which is a lot. So yeah, Lance humming to baby aliens is my fluffy jam okay-