Lance flopped down on his bed with a loud sigh, staring up at the ceiling in an uncomfortable silence. He never liked the quiet, it left him with his thoughts too long. Thoughts of his large family back on Earth and the training from the Garrison always found a way to sneak in when it was quiet, memories of hectic school days and siblings. He wondered a lot about his nieces and nephews and other people at the Garrison, and it seemed to make the quiet even less bareable.

The rooms on the castle ship were all fairly similar, bunks built into a cubby in the wall to sleep on and not much else. The rooms were pretty small, and his jack hung on a hook by the door. An even smaller bathroom in the far corner. Nothing to really focus on or deal with. He thought about going to Pidge's room to play some more of the video game they'd bought, but decided against it. She'd probably gone to sleep already. With a sigh, he grabbed his headphones and got ready for his nightly skincare routine. A buzzing sound coming from his bed stopped him, and he practically dove back into bed, tossing sheets around until he found his communicator glowing bright orange. It dimmed and he grinned widely, staring at the screen. It was Keith, a simple message and only three letters, but it cleared out his thoughts and all the uncomfortable emotions he was feeling.

"Hey."

Lance began typing away almost frantically.

Hey Keith! What's up my man? It's been a while! Where are you? Are you coming back soon? Shiro asks about you all the time

He stopped, thinking about Shiro. He was practically Keith's brother, and got to talk to him way more than Lance did. He held down the delete button and sent a new message.

"Hey what's up my man?"

Keith's answer took a while, and Lance fidgeted with the communicator impatiently. His teeth softly bit down into his bottom lip as time passed, seemingly forever.

"Nothing. Just woke up."

"We're just heading to bed here. Where are you?"Again, a pause that seemed to go on for an age before he got a reply.

"Not sure. I'll let you go back to sleep."

A little bit of panic in Lance's chest started to grow as he typed a few paragraphs worth of replies that he kept deleting and cutting until he sent one he thought would be ok.

"No it's fine I can't sleep anyway"

He waited, frown on his face. Had he taken too long to reply? Did Keith think he fell asleep? He rolled over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. How long had it been since he last talked to Keith? How long had it been since he'd last seen Keith? It was so hard to tell time in space. Before his cell phone had died, he'd used it to tell the time, but he'd killed the battery ages ago, in a fit of trying to find cell service in some distant quadrant. Seeing as he didn't have his charger, and no way to really plug it in, it sat under his bed with his wallet and other things that had been in his pockets that night. He started to wonder if Pidge could do something to charge his phone, like how she'd found a way to get the video game to work. If not, maybe her brother Matt could next time he came by. He came by a lot more than Keith did. He found his hands toying absently with the alien cell phone and sighed, not wanting to think about that, it always led to him thinking of his family. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind, making his way back to the bathroom but not wanting to let go of the small orange communicator just yet.

It wasn't long before his headphones were on, and he found himself toying with the green circles on either side, thinking about how grateful he was that Pidge had essentialy given him the headphones. He wished he had a backpack of his things when they'd left, Pidge seemed to have been the luckiest of the Garrison trio.